Chapter 271: The Approval Document Is Released
November 4, early morning!
Early in the morning, Jiang Longcheng, whose injuries had improved, drove once again to the entrance of Courtyard No. 6, where Li Yi was renting.
After resting at home for a few days, the doctor told him his condition was stable and that going out for a walk would aid his recovery.
Once he got the go-ahead, he couldn’t wait to come see Li Yi.
On one hand, he wanted to treat Li Yi to a meal to express his gratitude—after all, Li Yi had saved his life.
On the other hand, the one-week deadline for their bet was almost up, and he wanted to see how Li Yi would react.
To be honest, he was still quite invested in the bet—not because he was desperate to beat Li Yi, but because he was after the prize.
He still found it hard to fully believe in Li Yi’s uncanny ability to make such precise predictions, but the events that had unfolded earlier left him with no choice but to accept it.
So, at that moment, all he could think about was having Li Yi cast another divination for him—he just wanted to see if his predictions were actually accurate.
In fact, it wasn’t just Jiang Longcheng—Ye Jianhua was thinking exactly the same thing!
However, when Jiang Longcheng saw Li Yi appear before him in a set of dirty clothes, he was momentarily taken aback.
And it wasn’t just Li Yi—the few young men with him looked the same way, a far cry from their dapper appearance just a few days ago.
“Brother Li Yi, what’s going on here?”
Li Yi was just about to take his crew out for breakfast before continuing the renovation of his restaurant, but he hadn’t expected to see Jiang Longcheng standing right outside the door the moment he stepped out.
“Nothing much. We’ve been renovating the place these past few days, so it’s only natural we’re a bit dirty!”
Then Li Yi asked again, “What brings you here?”
“The doctor said I could go out. I thought I hadn’t seen you in a few days, so I came by to check on you and treat you guys to breakfast!” Jiang Longcheng said.
“That sounds great!” Li Yi said with a smile.
Jiang Longcheng then turned to the driver and said, “You go back to the factory first. I’ll make my own way back later!”
The driver acknowledged the request and drove off.
The group then headed together to the nearby state-run restaurant!
Once they arrived at the state-run restaurant, everyone ordered a bowl of millet porridge and four large meat buns.
Jiang Longcheng wanted to get some meat for everyone, but Li Yi turned him down so early in the morning.
Soon, they finished breakfast and headed together to the large warehouse Li Yi had rented.
However, when Jiang Longcheng saw how drastically the building had changed, he was completely stunned.
Although it was still the same building after the renovation, its appearance was completely different.
From the outside, the freshly painted building not only looked much nicer but had also shed its previous dilapidated appearance.
The paved open area made the place look much more spacious, significantly elevating its overall quality.
Inside, construction workers were already hard at work.
Although the interior was still unfinished and hadn’t been cleaned up yet, making it look rather messy, the basic functional layout was already largely in place.
After a quick tour, Jiang Longcheng could tell that Li Yi’s renovation had truly transformed this warehouse.
After observing for a moment, Jiang Longcheng asked curiously, “Brother Li Yi, why do I get the feeling you’re setting up a restaurant here?”
“You’re just now noticing?”
“No, actually, I wanted to ask when you placed that order with the foundry the other day, but I wasn’t feeling well at the time, so I didn’t press the issue,” Jiang Longcheng said.
“That’s right, I do have plans to open a restaurant!” Li Yi said.
“Is that even possible? If you want to run a small business, you should do it quietly so no one bothers you, but making such a big fuss about it doesn’t seem quite right,” Jiang Longcheng said, frowning.
Since he wasn’t interested in politics, he didn’t pay much attention to policy changes. As far as he could recall, restaurants were currently state-owned, and private individuals were absolutely forbidden from opening them.
However, Li Yi smiled and said, “Are you worried about the policy side of things?”
“Exactly. If I get arrested for this, it won’t be a minor matter—I might even end up in prison!” Jiang Longcheng said.
“Don’t worry about that. I know exactly how serious this is!”
“Why are you so stubborn…”
Before he could finish, Li Yi suddenly cut him off and said, “Do you remember that bet we made a few days ago?”
“I remember. I was just about to ask you about it. I haven’t seen any changes in housing prices—you’re definitely going to lose!”
Li Yi smiled and said, “That’s not necessarily true!”
“Huh, do you really have the power to double these housing prices in a day or two?” Jiang Longcheng asked curiously.
“Heh, whether they’ll double or not—we’ll just have to check the newspaper to find out!” Li Yi said teasingly.
“The newspaper?”
“Yep!”
Then Li Yi called out to the person next to him, “Dongzi, go buy a few copies of today’s newspaper—get a variety of different papers!”
“Got it!”
Watching Dongzi dash off in a flash, Jiang Longcheng asked in confusion, “Brother Li Yi, what exactly are you up to?”
“Heh, no rush. Let’s wait and see!”
Li Yi didn’t offer much explanation; instead, he directed the workers to continue renovating the interior.
A short while later, Dongzi ran back with several newspapers and handed them to Li Yi.
Li Yi took the papers and began reading them immediately, quickly finding what he was looking for.
After a quick glance, he handed the papers to Jiang Longcheng: “Take a look yourself!”
With a hint of curiosity, Jiang Longcheng took the newspaper from Li Yi. The first thing that caught his eye was a striking headline: “The Beijing Municipal Government Officially Approves the Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce’s ‘Request Regarding Permitting Individual Business Owners to Engage in Food and Snack Sales and Small Commodity Operations’…”
The article was lengthy; in addition to the proposal itself, it included an interpretation of the policy and its implications.
Jiang Longcheng didn’t read the entire article; with his insight, he only needed to read the policy itself to grasp the magnitude of its impact.
It could be said that, from this day forward, ordinary citizens could also engage in business activities such as food service and small commodity trade.
One could imagine that the hundreds of thousands of educated youth returning to the capital now had something to do; whereas before they had to set up stalls on the sly, they could now do so completely openly and above board.
More importantly, with so many people flocking to the food service and small commodity trade sectors, rents for urban storefronts were bound to skyrocket rapidly.
Given that urban shop rents were already relatively low to begin with, doubling or even tripling them in a short period of time would be no challenge at all.
If this news is true, then as far as their bet goes, I’ll most likely have lost.
Of course, if it’s false, that’s a different story!
Jiang Longcheng immediately looked at the top of the newspaper. When he saw the large characters “Workers’ Daily,” he knew he was a sure loser.
Just then, Li Yi handed him a few more newspapers and said with a smile, “If you don’t trust the *Workers’ Daily*, there’s also…”
“No need to look—I believe it!”
Then, Jiang Longcheng looked into Li Yi’s eyes and asked in confusion, “Even my old man wouldn’t necessarily get wind of policy matters like this in advance. How did you find out?”
“I guessed!”
Jiang Longcheng was about to retort, “Do I look like an idiot to you?” but then he thought of Li Yi’s mysterious and unpredictable ways—it was entirely possible he really had just guessed.
For a moment, Jiang Longcheng felt completely dumbfounded, at a loss for words!