Chapter 354 - 230: His ’Support’ Toppled the Skyscraper (Part 3)

Shen Meng was so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open. Feeling the warmth of a large hand kneading her bottom, she let out a soft sound and dazedly drifted off to sleep.

Jiang’an City was also a national chain, but a small one—there were fewer than ten of its malls in the entire country. This particular one, however, was the best of them all. To be assigned here as general manager showed that his connections at headquarters were quite strong; otherwise, such a golden opportunity would never have fallen into his lap.

Since arriving in Qingzhou, nearly every one of his tenants had come to pay their respects. This was a completely different world from his previous, smaller projects. Back then, leasing was a struggle. He had to treat tenants to dinner day after day, begging them to support the mall with just one or two of their brands. Even then, they would haggle over every detail—store location, commercial terms, and the contract itself. He may have been a general manager, but he had to swallow a lot of frustration.

Now, things were completely different. Every tenant’s boss or regional manager who came to see him had to be unfailingly polite, showering him with flattery. Take President Li of Futong Commerce, sitting right in front of him. Jiang Ming had learned from his leasing director that while Futong Commerce was just a private local enterprise from Qingjiang, it was the agent for nearly ten different sports, leisure, and fashion brands. With annual sales exceeding one billion yuan, it was among the absolute top retailers in Qingjiang—a veritable industry leader.

Back at his old project, Jiang Ming wouldn’t have even been guaranteed a meeting if he’d shown up at this man’s doorstep. But now? The man had to come all the way to Jiang’an City to treat him to a meal. For a moment, Jiang Ming felt his own status had been elevated several tiers.

Li Yang studied Jiang Ming across the table. In his forties, the man was in his prime, and he was in charge of a prime project like Jiang’an City. He was worth getting to know. All of Futong Commerce’s brands, except for NLB, already had stores here, generating nearly 50 million yuan in annual sales and over 5 million in profit. For the money’s sake alone, he had to be polite to Jiang Ming.

"President Jiang, you’ve been in Qingzhou for a while now. I heard you’ve been busy, so I didn’t want to disturb you earlier."

"You’re too kind, President Li. I’ve long heard that you’re a leading figure among the tenants here. I’ll be counting on your support for my work."

Li Yang was pleased by his courteous tone. "But of course. Just say the word if you need anything. If you need support from the other tenants, I can rally the troops."

Jiang Ming clinked glasses with him. "Then I thank you. The Jiang’an City project has recently secured a new development in Qingzhou. When the time comes, I might need the support of President Li and the other bosses to help a brother out."

Hearing that Jiang’an City was opening a new location, Li Yang’s interest was piqued. He asked about the project’s location and learned that it was in a decent area. However, the competition in Qingzhou was incredibly fierce right now. In particular, the three Xinyue Square malls, situated in different corners of the city, had basically soaked up all the premium customer traffic. The current Jiang’an City was only able to maintain its high standard because its location was good and far enough away from the Xinyue Square malls that they didn’t really affect each other.

Still, Li Yang’s style was to secure a foothold first. He figured the new Jiang’an City project might require an incubation period, but he doubted it would be a total failure. He immediately declared, "No problem. As for the specific brands and store locations for our collaboration, let’s have our business development and leasing teams connect on the details later."

The two bosses discussed the general direction; the specific details would naturally be handled by their subordinates. If any disputes arose, the bosses would step in again, do each other a favor, and finalize the matter.

Jiang Ming was overjoyed. With Li Yang’s support, he could fill a lot of retail spaces in one fell swoop. It wasn’t just about Li Yang’s own brands; many merchants had a herd mentality. They would watch to see if the anchor tenants were moving in. Once the big names committed, many smaller merchants would follow suit.

This was why anchor tenants were so highly valued by malls. A mall might even offer them extremely favorable commercial terms to get them in the door, then shift the sacrificed profits onto the smaller merchants who followed.

At that moment, Li Yang opportunely stated the reason for his visit. "President Jiang, I recently acquired an excellent brand. I was wondering if there might be an opportunity to partner with Jiang’an City for it."

Oh? Jiang Ming smiled, knowing this was the quid pro quo. "A brand brought forth by President Li is sure to be a good one. Which brand is it, specifically?"

"NLB."

Jiang Ming certainly knew the brand. It was a popular trendy brand, one he had worked with back in Shanghai, and its sales performance was always solid. Hearing the name, he agreed at once. "No problem. I’ll have my leasing team draw up a location proposal as soon as possible."

Li Yang was ecstatic. He hadn’t expected it to be so simple. He had worried that if Jiang Ming knew about Yanghe Commerce’s sales performance, it would create resistance to his own partnership with Jiang’an City. He never thought the man would agree so readily.

Although no contract had been signed, for people at their level, failing to honor their word would be a huge loss of face—an embarrassment neither could afford.

His thoughts turned to Yang Hui, who had only gotten ahead by relying on his connection to Zhang Chun. ’Once that connection is gone, everything he’s built will vanish like a bubble. Here at Jiang’an City, what do you have to compete with me? And as for Xinyue Group, once I meet their regional general manager and they learn the true strength of Futong Commerce, they’ll most likely choose to side with me, just like Jiang Ming did.’

With this in mind, a thought struck him, and he asked, "President Jiang, the regional general manager for Xinyue Group was also brought in from another region, right? Since you’re both in the landlord’s circle, I was wondering if you know anything about her."

Jiang Ming shook his head. "The landlord circle has been buzzing about her for the past two days, but no one is familiar with her. If the opportunity arises, we can introduce each other in the future."