Chapter 378: Time to Buy a House!

Beiguan Village, Beijing!

Li Yi was unaware of what had happened in Yong County; at that moment, he was busy with matters at the cotton mill.

Although he had orchestrated the events in Yong County, the distance was simply too great, so he had no choice but to entrust the task to Xiao Zhanwu.

Of course, aside from being out of reach, the more important reason was that he was simply too busy right now.

Tens of thousands of yards of fabric at the cotton mill were waiting for him to handle. If he failed, not only would he lose his entire fortune, but he would also end up owing the mill hundreds of thousands of yuan.

So, Li Yi had devoted all his energy to the cotton mill during this period!

Fortunately, with the full support of Jiang Longcheng—the factory director and his brother-in-law—progress was going smoothly on all fronts.

Just as An Hong and Director Tan were working flat out to ramp up production, Jiang Longcheng had also resolved the issue of securing a location for the specialty store.

It must be said that having connections makes things go much more smoothly.

What had left Li Yi stumped for days, Jiang Longcheng managed to resolve in just two days.

More importantly, the location he picked for the store was absolutely top-notch—it was right in the main lobby on the first floor of the Wangfujing Department Store.

Wow, when Jiang Longcheng brought Li Yi here to take over the space, Li Yi was completely stunned.

Just a few days earlier, when he’d visited the site, it had been a row of counters stocked with all kinds of yarn.

Now, all the counters had been cleared away, leaving behind an open space of over 200 square meters.

This is the Wangfujing Department Store, after all—let alone securing such a large area, even a small counter of just a few square meters would be hard to come by.

But when he thought about the Jiang family’s influence in Beijing, Li Yi felt reassured.

Moreover, in addition to the Wangfujing Department Store, Jiang Longcheng had also secured a sizeable prime storefront for him inside the Dong’an Market.

With these two high-traffic locations serving as flagship stores, Li Yi felt even more confident in his plan.

He immediately called in a renovation team and had them fit out the space according to his plans.

The garment workshop was now working overtime to ramp up production, and the matter of the specialty stores had been settled!

Meanwhile, Sun Feng’s sales team was traveling around with samples to promote the brand. Although the results weren’t spectacular, they had managed to raise awareness of the Xueyi Apparel brand among quite a few people.

In short, with production, sales, and other aspects proceeding smoothly according to the original plan, Li Yi’s venture to snap up the cotton mill’s surplus fabric had finally gotten fully on track.

All that remains now is for the boutique to finish its renovation, and they’ll be ready to officially open for business.

Not only was the garment factory business going smoothly, but Li Yi’s dry goods business was also progressing very well.

On December 28, his brother-in-law delivered the family’s final batch of dried goods to the capital and successfully handed them over to Fat Jin!

This batch was slightly smaller than the last, weighing just over 40,000 jin!

Even so, Li Yi once again pocketed over 85,000 yuan.

With that, Li Yi’s dried goods business—which he had been planning for over half a year—was finally wrapped up.

He had invested nearly 100,000 yuan in the venture and ultimately recouped 230,000 yuan, resulting in a net profit of about 130,000 yuan.

Although that might not sound like much, in 1980—just as China’s reform and opening-up had begun—it was absolutely a fortune.

With the extra money in hand, Li Yi immediately put buying a house on his agenda.

He had no choice—his mother-in-law, Ye Lingyun, had already told him that they planned to be discharged from the hospital by the end of the month and then take Tang Xue to attend her nephew Jianhua’s wedding on New Year’s Day.

At the same time, his father-in-law, Jiang Shiying, had told him that he would also be returning for Ye Jianhua’s wedding, at which time he intended to have Tang Xue formally recognize her ancestral lineage.

Under these circumstances, the matter of buying a house had become somewhat urgent.

To that end, Li Yi brought up the matter with Jiang Longcheng once again.

In fact, Jiang Longcheng had been having people keep an eye out for this all along, and just the day before Ye Lingyun was due to be discharged, there was finally news regarding the house.

………

On the main road leading from Beiguan Village to the city center, an olive-green Jeep was speeding along.

Inside the vehicle, Li Yi looked at Jiang Longcheng, who was holding a cigarette in one hand and steering the wheel with the other, and couldn’t help but say, “Be careful and drive safely—this is the city center, after all!”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been driving for over ten years—nothing will happen!” Jiang Longcheng said confidently.

Seeing that he wasn’t willing to listen, Li Yi didn’t say much more, but asked again, “How much do you know about the house?”

“A friend of mine helped me track it down. It’s right near the Imperial City walls, not too far from the old family home, but it seems a bit run-down,” Jiang Longcheng said.

“I’m not worried about it being run-down; I’m concerned the ownership might not be clear!” Li Yi said.

“I’m not entirely sure about the specifics, but I’ve already asked my friend to wait for us there. We’ll find out once we get there!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“Alright, let’s go check it out first and see what it’s like!”

“Right. If it’s suitable, we’ll buy it; if not, we won’t!”

Then Jiang Longcheng added, “Actually, I think since it’s just the two of you—you and your girlfriend—living in one of those newly built apartment buildings would be great. Not only are they spacious, but they’re convenient too. How can an old house compare?”

Li Yi smiled and said, “Xiao Xue and I are used to living in a single-story house—we really don’t like high-rises!”

“Forget it. Do whatever you want. I’m not going to tell you what to do!”

With that, Jiang Longcheng slammed his foot on the gas pedal and sped toward the city center!

After driving through the city for nearly half an hour, they finally arrived at the agreed-upon location.

When the car pulled up in a relatively wide alley, Li Yi was somewhat taken aback.

He was no stranger to this place; it was no exaggeration to call it “right under the emperor’s feet” or “at the foot of the imperial city”—it was just a street away from the world-famous Forbidden City.

In his previous life, a friend of his had owned a courtyard house nearby; he’d visited it several times. Rumor had it that his friend had shelled out five hundred million for that property!

Li Yi hadn’t expected that the property Jiang Longcheng had found for him would be right here. On the spot, Li Yi made a silent decision: as long as the property rights were in order, he would buy it no matter how run-down it was.

The reason he kept emphasizing the title was mainly because the property rights for these courtyards were rarely clear-cut.

During a specific historical period, the vast majority of Beijing’s courtyard houses were allocated to ordinary workers. It was common for three or four families—or even as many as a dozen—to live in a single courtyard.

While this approach maximized the use of Beijing’s limited housing stock to meet the housing needs of more people, it also resulted in unclear property rights for these homes.

For example, if three or four families live in a single courtyard, to whom exactly should the property rights belong?

It would be impractical to establish separate property rights for each individual house within a single courtyard.

Therefore, buying a property like this is bound to lead to a whole host of complications down the road.

With plenty of other options available, Li Yi naturally wouldn’t buy these trouble-prone properties.

When the car came to a stop, a man in his thirties approached them.

After a brief introduction, Li Yi learned that the man’s name was Wang Liang, a junior manager at the Beijing Steel Plant.

The property he was about to show Li Yi and his group wasn’t just any courtyard—it was the steel mill’s employee housing.

Although he was a bit puzzled—why would the steel mill’s employee housing be located here, and why were they selling it now?

But because of his fondness for siheyuan courtyards, Li Yi, along with Jiang Longcheng, followed Wang Liang into the alley!