Courtyard House: A Start with Black Gold Swallowing 100,000 Silver Dollars

The next day, Li Guojiang approached Sun Qiang and Lü Wei and got straight to the point: "We have the cars. Brand new, three thousand each."

Upon hearing this, the two clicked their tongues. It was significantly more expensive than the regular model in mainland China, almost matching the top-of-the-line "Happiness 250".

But they were never the type to hold back. After a moment's thought, they decided to each order five cars—30,000 yuan per trip. Their fingers tightened and their hearts burned as they pulled out the money.

But in business, how can someone not stand out?

If you don't dare to reach out, you'll forever be selling candied hawthorns on the roadside; only by daring to lunge forward can you stumble upon a gold mine.

Of course, some people do fail and break their legs—but in this world, it's mostly the stall owners who starve to death, while those who are overfed are the ones who risk everything.

This time, Li Guojiang had to personally set up the line to transport the car.

Sun Qiang and Lü Wei made it clear beforehand: "Don't bring anyone else into this business. We all know how things went wrong last time."

Li Guojiang nodded in agreement.

He turned around and went to Hu Jiandong's house.

This brother-in-law is over forty years old and has his roots in the railway industry. He is now the deputy director of the railway bureau. The power he holds is not the petty stuff like his son Hu Yeming's, who runs transportation and manages scheduling. He has real power to stamp documents, allocate railcars, and give the green light.

After listening, Hu Jiandong didn't ask any more questions. He picked up his pen and wrote a note: "Valid anytime within one year, unlimited times."

Li Guojiang acted decisively and ordered thirty vehicles directly.

He was too lazy to go through all that trouble: transporting goods by truckloads would be a hassle and a waste of time, and those two might be urging him to deliver again in a couple of days.

But the thirty motorcycles were all packed in cardboard boxes and wooden frames, taking up a lot of space when stacked up. After thinking it over, Li Guojiang simply bought a courtyard house—a large courtyard with four entrances and four exits—for a flat price of 30,000 yuan.

The property rights are clear, the deed is in black and white, leaving no room for disputes. Those tenement courtyards? He wouldn't even glance at them—the residents are scattered, some want to sell, some want to stop, some sign today and renege tomorrow, the lawsuit could go on until their grandchildren's generation.

On the day the goods arrived, Li Guojiang opened the first box himself.

This car was a copy of the latest model from the notebook, with a streamlined front, chrome mudguards, and dual exhaust pipes. When it was parked on the street in the early 1980s, it looked like it had strolled over from the future.

It's far more respectable than the old-fashioned motorcycles in China that still use the "Changjiang 750" trailer.

"boom--!!!"

The engine roared to life, causing the plaster to flake off the walls.

Li Guojiang got into his car and slowly drove through the streets and alleys, attracting passersby to stop, turn around, and stand on tiptoe to look.

He rode straight to the entrance of the repair shop where Sun Qiang and Lü Wei often squatted, and braked steadily.

"Wow--!!!"

"Kunie! This car...it's so cool!"

The two were truly stunned.

You get what you pay for, and that's certainly true—three thousand yuan is expensive for a reason, and it's expensive enough to justify the price.

It made me itchy to ride it around right away.

It's only three thousand, they have plenty of money, they can really afford it.

So they immediately decided: one bike for each person, and ride them home to have some fun.

The car sales were launched immediately.

The first batch of buyers were the downstream customers they themselves had recruited.

Sun Qiang and Lü Wei knew exactly how much those people had earned—they had made a fortune selling radios and cassette tapes recently, and buying a motorcycle would be a piece of cake for them.

The second group targeted street vendors—their vehicles were light, fuel-efficient, easy to load, fast, and stylish, which suited their tastes perfectly.

As for those children who grew up in those compounds? The two of them had no hope at all—they had no connections and couldn't reach them.

Unexpectedly, several of Li Jiacheng's sons happened to see Li Guojiang riding by on his bicycle, and they took the initiative to chase after him to inquire about him, and then immediately took out their money to place an order.

-

"Shen Shanshan, I am a police officer from the branch office. This is my identification."

Standing at the entrance of Peking University, Li Guolei spoke in a flat, businesslike voice, "Someone has reported you for using a marriage contract to coerce someone into registering a marriage with them. Please come with us."

He came specifically at the repeated request of his soon-to-be sister-in-law, Ye Xiuli.

"Wait, comrade!"

Shen Shanshan's face turned pale instantly. Just as she was about to speak, Yao Yuanxu stepped forward and stopped her.

"Regardless of whether there's a misunderstanding or not, let's go back to the station and cooperate with the investigation." Li Guolei didn't even lift his eyelids. "Once the investigation is complete, I'll personally bring her back."

Yao Yuanxu's Adam's apple bobbed. He took a half-step closer and lowered his voice: "My father is Yao Huaiguo, the director of the Construction Bureau's office... Could you perhaps make an exception for me?"

Li Guolei then looked up at him, his gaze cold and deep, like a blade scraping across ice.

He didn't reply, but just nodded to the two colleagues behind him.

Shen Shanshan was taken away; her back was thin, and her steps were unsteady.

Yao Yuanxu stood frozen in place, his face turning pale and then red—in Li Guolei's eyes, the son of a division-level cadre wasn't even worth a greeting.

"Go find Li Guozhui!" Zhang Ruoxuan grabbed Li Yingxia's wrist. "The engagement was arranged by the two of them. As long as he explains things at the police station, Shanshan will be out immediately!"

"Yes, contact him right away!" Li Yingxia nodded and took off.

They didn't stop him because the report was true—Shen Shanshan did indeed use the marriage contract to pressure Li Guozhui into breaking off the engagement before they registered their marriage.

"Zhang Ruoxuan, Li Yingxia—" Yao Yuanxu suddenly called out to the two, his voice somber, "Do you think... it's possible that Li Guozhui reported the case himself?"

Zhang Ruoxuan shook her head: "It doesn't seem like it. If he really wanted to expose this, he would have done it already."

Li Yingxia continued, "I think it was probably the woman who stole Shanshan's fiancé who did it."

The two hurried to the small courtyard at the end of Xiushui Street.

Two young people were standing at the entrance. As they approached, they raised their hands to stop them: "Queue up."

His tone wasn't harsh, but it conveyed an air of uncompromising authority.

Zhang Ruoxuan and Li Yingxia exchanged a glance and obediently stood at the back of the line.

In the courtyard, Xiao Cong was busy with several young men—handing goods to the stall owner, counting money, and keeping accounts.

hiss……

Only when you get closer can you see clearly—there are more than a dozen stacks of banknotes neatly stacked on the table, all bright red, and they are all ten-yuan notes.

Zhang Ruoxuan's vision blurred, and she almost thought she was seeing things.

The largest denomination of banknote she had ever touched in her life was five yuan.

There's over ten thousand yuan in cash on this table.

Not to mention, vendors kept coming in, carrying cloth bags and net bags, paying in stacks and taking away bundles of goods... The money on the table piled up higher and higher, thicker and thicker.

Finally, it was their turn.

Xiao Cong looked up, wiped his sweat, and asked with a smile, "Ladies, what would you like to buy?"

He glanced up and his brow furrowed slightly—the two young women standing in front of the counter were dressed neatly but without any air of merchants. They weren't carrying sample bags or looking through the order slips; they looked more like visitors who had accidentally wandered into a warehouse.

"Oh, we're here to see Li Guozhui," Zhang Ruoxuan quickly said in a clear voice. "He said we can come find him here if we need anything."

Xiao Cong's abacus beads stopped clicking: "You...are looking for Young Master Guo Zhui?"

What?

The young master of the country?

Zhang Ruoxuan and Li Yingxia were startled, their eyes meeting without blinking. In that instant, the air seemed to tense—it wasn't a mishearing, but the address itself, like a stone thrown into their hearts, stirred up a silent storm.

Before long, Xiao Cong had run out quickly. When he returned, Li Guozhui was coming from the backyard by taking a shortcut with his sleeves rolled up. His trouser legs were a little dusty, but his expression was calm.

The two immediately recounted the report about Shen Shanshan: the marriage certificate, threats, being forbidden from registering the marriage, and the threat to send someone to the police station… Before they could finish speaking, Li Guozhui lowered his eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing. He immediately thought of Ye Xiuli—she had mentioned it lightly during their last meal, and he had dismissed it as mere anger, shaking his head to stop her. He hadn't expected her to actually do it.

He felt a tightness in his chest. It wasn't that he wasn't angry, but that anger was also wrapped in a heavy layer of guilt: he was the one who crossed the line first, pushing Shen Shanshan into this situation; now, dragging her along would only harm her. He didn't say much, turned around and strode quickly towards the police station.

On the way back to Peking University, the shadows of plane tree leaves swayed on the concrete. Li Yingxia suddenly turned her head and lowered her voice, "Ruoxuan, tell me... how much does Li Guozhui actually earn in a day?"

Zhang Ruoxuan counted on her fingers: "If they take a 10% cut, those orders on the table add up to almost 200,000... at least 15,000 to 20,000, right?"

As soon as she said it, she shrank her shoulders—a tingling sensation ran through the back of her neck.

Twenty thousand? 365 days a year... more than seven million?

More than seven million! In Beijing at the end of the 1980s, this number was even more coveted than the "ten-thousand-yuan households" red list posted at the entrance of the alley.

"Oh my god!!!"

Li Yingxia blurted out, then immediately covered her mouth tightly, her knuckles turning white, her eyes wide and round, as if she had seen a freshly steamed white steamed bun—not out of greed, but out of shock. The scales in her mind had long since crumbled: a million? She even counted her savings three times when it exceeded a thousand in her bankbook, how could she imagine how thick a stack of money a million would be?

"This Li Guozhui... just who is he? A sole proprietor? What kind of sole proprietor can monopolize an entire wholesale line and even supply goods to other sole proprietors?"

Zhang Ruoxuan muttered to herself, her throat a little dry.

When they first heard that he had quit his secure factory job to go into business, the two of them laughed privately, saying, "He's just looking for freedom. How much of a stir can he cause?"

But right now, instead of a wave, it's like being doused with a bucket of ice water – sobering up, but also feeling half-shrunken.

When money piles up to a certain height, it can really bend a person's back and twist their mind.

The two of them were like two sparrows, sitting on the threshold, completely stunned.

On the other side, the Dongcheng District Branch.

"Do you acknowledge it or not? You're using a marriage certificate as a weapon to force Li Guozhui and Ye Xiuli not to marry, or you'll sue him and send him to jail?"

Li Guolei sat behind his desk, his uniform buttoned up to the top, his chin slightly raised, his eyes fixed on Shen Shanshan's face like a searchlight.

He and his younger brother, Li Guozhui, lived in the same old building, on the fifth floor. Three days ago, Ye Xiuli, heavily pregnant, knocked on his door. She didn't shed tears, but her words grew heavier with each sentence: "Sister-in-law, this child in my belly... Guozhui won't acknowledge it, and Shen Shanshan is even using the marriage certificate to pressure me, saying that if I dare to get the marriage certificate, he'll go to jail."

Li Guolei didn't say anything at the time, but silently brewed a strong cup of tea. After she left, he poured the tea leaves into the spittoon with a "splashing" sound.

The next day, he retrieved Shen Shanshan's police report; this morning, he brought her directly into the interrogation room.

Shen Shanshan's lips were pale, her fingers twisting the hem of her clothes, her voice trembling: "I...I was wronged! I was originally engaged to Guozhui, but he got together with Ye Xiuli first...I was so angry that I said those things..."

She wasn't lying.

But what Li Guolei wanted was never the truth, but the result.