Wang Xiaoliang failed to react for a moment.
Us?
Supermarkets?
Take over a few?
He simply could not connect the grand vision Huang Xueli had just described with this proposal that sounded almost like dividing up a cake.
Wasn't an open tender supposed to be fair and aboveboard, with the highest bidder winning?
How had it become, in Huang Xueli's mouth, like shopping at a market, discussing "taking over a few"?
Wang Xiaoliang looked at Huang Xueli, then at Zhou Qiang, his face full of questions, but he could not get a single word out. His brain felt like a mass of paste, unable to turn.
Zhou Qiang, however, seemed perfectly calm. He even picked up his teacup and took an unhurried sip before setting it back on the coffee table with a soft clink.
"Finish what you were saying. How do we get them, and how many?"
Huang Xueli seemed to have been waiting for those very words. He nodded approvingly, his meaning plain: once again, you've asked the right question.
He did not answer immediately. Instead, he pulled a neatly folded sheet of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket.
He unfolded it and spread it on the coffee table.
Wang Xiaoliang leaned over to look and discovered that it was a hand-drawn map of Jiangcheng University. The drawing was not particularly refined, but the outlines of the buildings and roads were clearly recognizable. Most conspicuous were the dozen or so little squares circled in red, each with a number marked beside it.
"Our university has eighteen supermarkets and convenience stores of a decent size, not counting the little shops inside the dining halls." Huang Xueli pointed at the map like a general surveying his territory.
"There are also vending machines scattered around the academic buildings and