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

In just seven days, ten appliance stores have sprung up in Tianjing. Tianjing is a big city after all; it can expand its operations and resources are not strained. Ten stores are actually just right.

It was the same old routine—uniform decoration, uniform signage, uniform promotions, even the loudspeakers at the entrance were tuned to the same melody. Only this time, with ten stores opening simultaneously, the scale was even larger than the one in Beijing. On the first day, the revenue soared to over 1.7 million yuan, and the net profit was around 500,000 yuan.

Xu Damao grinned from ear to ear, his teeth almost showing.

Li Jiazhen secretly clicked his tongue: He originally thought selling home appliances was a losing proposition, but who would have thought it would be so lucrative? But when he thought of his uncle Li Guobiao standing behind him, he immediately suppressed the thought that had just popped into his mind—if it were anyone else, they would probably have sent someone to "discuss cooperation" long ago.

A month passed in the blink of an eye, and Xu Damao had accumulated another million in his account. In addition to giving the Li family a share of the profits as usual, the scales in his mind began to sway again: he wanted to expand further.

Li Guobiao wasn't short of money at all; putting the profit-sharing aside made him quite financially secure. He never believed that money sitting idle in an account could grow on its own; a businessman had to make money work for him. His gaze shifted, and he set his sights on Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province. It was a bustling market town, making opening ten more electronics stores a logical next step.

This time, he was determined not to ask for favors or use connections. He carried his own bag and went to find a shop, sign contracts, hire workers, and get the licenses done, relying entirely on his own skills. After two practice sessions, he knew the process like the back of his hand, and even got the business license done in just seven days.

The only difficulty is in recruiting people.

Being unfamiliar with the area and the people, and given that people still have some reservations about "self-employed individuals" these days—whether it's low wages, fear of not staying long, or simply asking, "Can your shop even stay open until next year?"—they're often met with questions like, "Will your shop survive until next year?"

Xu Damao wasn't in a hurry. He patiently waited, even if it took two months—it was better than giving away 15% for nothing.

Sure enough, after sixty days of preparation, all ten stores opened on the same day. The old trick worked as well as ever, with customers lining up to enter and the cash registers ringing non-stop. The turnover was comparable to that of the batch in Tianjing, steadily and surely.

What Xu Damao didn't know was that success attracts attention, and a thriving business attracts unwanted attention. Several established local powers had long been eyeing this lucrative opportunity. Upon investigation, they discovered he was from out of town, had no connections, no backing, and didn't even have local residency. That very night, someone called the police station, and the next day, officials from the Industry and Commerce Bureau arrived at the shop with their case files…

That night, Sha Zhu carried pork belly wrapped in oil paper, green peppers, and two bunches of scallions, turned into the office building in Wangfujing, and went straight to his sister He Yushui's house.

"Brother-in-law, please come in! Haven't eaten yet? I'll order two more hearty dishes for Yushui!"

Li Guotao took the basket from him with a smile and ushered him inside.

"Brother, what brings you here?"

He Yushui, wearing an apron, peeked out from the kitchen, clutching a bunch of wet cilantro in her hand.

"We have important business to discuss. Rain, you rest. I brought the groceries, and I'll reserve the stove."

Sha Zhu rolled up his sleeves and went straight into the kitchen, moving as swiftly as if he were going home.

In less than fifteen minutes, four dishes were served: stir-fried pork kidneys with soy sauce, glistening and fragrant; stir-fried shrimp, each piece springy and chewy; stir-fried shredded potatoes with vinegar, so crisp you could hear them crackling; and finally, a bowl of seaweed and egg drop soup with golden egg flowers floating on top, the steam carrying the fresh aroma straight to your nose.

Compared to He Yushui's four dishes, the difference was immediately apparent—one was like a seasoned chef with twenty years of experience in a restaurant, while the other was like a novice tasting freshly cooked food.

Several children quickly gathered around, their chopsticks never stopping.

"My uncle's cooking is ten times tastier than my mom's!"

"My mom can never cook this kind of pork kidney that tastes right!"

The two older children—twelve-year-old Li Xiaolei and ten-year-old Li Xiaomeng—had bulging cheeks and were chewing and shouting, their eyes shining brightly, hoping that their uncle would come and cook more often in the future.

"Eat slowly, don't choke." Sha Zhu smiled with his eyes narrowed, gently tapping the two children's foreheads with the tip of his chopsticks. "Like it? From now on, your uncle will show you how to cook every now and then."

He truly doted on his five nephews, treating them like precious treasures.

After dinner, He Yushui coaxed the children to go to the study to do their homework. Then, she turned around and pulled Li Guotao to sit opposite Sha Zhu, made him a strong cup of tea, and asked softly, "Brother, what's up? Tell me."

"Cough..." Sha Zhu put down his teacup and rubbed his hands. "The wind has changed now. The country has loosened its grip and allowed individual businesses. A lot of people in the compound have started to get involved—that guy Xu Damao opened ten appliance stores in one go, and I heard he made hundreds of thousands last month! I'm thinking, let's try it out and earn more money so we can support our children's education, medical care, and future marriages."

He didn't say it explicitly, but everyone could hear the envy, the resentment, and the eager anticipation in his words.

Xu Damao certainly loves to show off. He wouldn't dare post his pay slips, but photos of him buying new motorcycles, upgrading to mobile phones, and shopping at the Friendship Store with his wife and kids were plastered all over the back of every door in the courtyard house. Who wouldn't call him "Boss Xu" when they saw him? Who wouldn't be astonished?

He dared to be so high-profile because Li Guobiao was standing behind him—with power there, even if the whistleblower's letter was submitted, it wouldn't cause a ripple.

Lin Meili, with her sharp ears, had already gleaned the details from Uncle Yi Zhonghai: He Yushui had married into the Li family, a family with real power. That very night, she whispered in Sha Zhu's ear, "Your brother-in-law is a member of the Li family, and your brother-in-law is Li Guobiao's nephew. What are you afraid of? If Xu Damao can do it, why can't you? You can even do it more respectably than him!"

He Yushui didn't respond, continuing to peel the orange; the flesh was plump, and juice was seeping out slightly. She hesitated for a moment before looking up and asking, "Brother, what kind of job do you want to do?"

She didn't stop them. The factory's orders had recently plummeted, and the leaders slammed their fists on the table during a meeting, saying, "If we don't find a way, we won't be able to pay wages by the end of the year." Her husband, Li Guotao, often came home and kept repeating his father, Li Wenguo's words: "An iron rice bowl? Now the bottom of the bowl is cracked." She knew perfectly well that while they were still alive, she had to leave a way for the whole family to survive.

"Me?" Sha Zhu pointed to his nose and patted his stomach. "With this skill, I've been tossing the wok for thirty years and I've never burned a single pot of rice. I want to open a restaurant."

He said with certainty, "These past few days I've wandered around the streets, restaurant after restaurant, every single one packed. I've tried more than a dozen, and not a single one of them could cook up even 70% of my usual skill. So—" He grinned, the wrinkles around his eyes smoothing out, "I opened this restaurant not for anything else, but just for peace of mind."

He Yushui nodded, broke the peeled orange in half, handed one half to Shazhu, and put the other half into her own mouth, the sweet and sour juice spreading on her tongue.

"So...brother-in-law, what do you want to do?"

Li Guotao, who was standing next to him, picked up where he left off.

"Hehe, to open a restaurant, you need a shop first. I'm short on money and can't afford to rent a shop, so I thought I'd come here to borrow some money from you guys to rent a place, set up a stove, and get started."

Sha Zhu scratched the back of his head, a hint of embarrassment on his face: "Oh? Brother-in-law, how much are you planning to take?"

Borrowing money was not a difficult thing for him; his tone was cheerful and reassuring.

"Uh... five thousand yuan should be enough."

He had already done the math several times: the storefront deposit, monthly rent, the eight-immortal table, the long bench, the iron pot, the steamer, the freezer, the gas cylinder—including the kitchen partition and the signboard wood, all added up to just over five thousand…

He didn't aspire to instant success; he just wanted a stable, home-style restaurant that the neighborhood frequented.

Li Guotao nodded: "Okay, no problem." He then got up to get the money.

He Yushui reached out to stop her: "Wait a minute."

The two turned their heads at the same time, their eyes filled with questions.

"Guotao, I've been thinking, our factory's profits have been declining these past two years, and I heard that the higher-ups are discussing 'closing down, merging, or restructuring.' We might not be able to pay wages any day now. Why don't you take a leave of absence without pay and team up with my brother to run a decent restaurant?"

Li Guotao was taken aback and blurted out, "Huh? But I can even burn scrambled eggs!"

Sha Zhu nodded eagerly, "Exactly! Starting from scratch now? It'll probably take five or six years to become a master—and I'll have to teach them while I'm still alive!"

"Who said you were in charge of cooking?" He Yushui laughed. "I don't want you to chop vegetables and toss the wok. I want the two of you to open a proper restaurant together—like that state-run restaurant next to the old department store, with one hall on each floor, all five floors open together, an open kitchen, and waiters in white coats and tall hats walking around!"

"Huh? Really going to that scale?"

Sha Zhu and Li Guotao exchanged a glance, their Adam's apples bobbing.

Who doesn't know? That state-run hotel can fit forty round tables in the lobby alone. The five floors together cover nearly 3,000 square meters. The decoration alone would cost seventy or eighty thousand yuan, not to mention the licenses, fire safety permits, grain and oil permits, refrigeration units... You can't even get in the door without spending one hundred or eighty thousand yuan.

"But... with such a large operation, how much money do we need to cover the initial costs? Even if we all pooled our resources and sold our houses and land, it probably wouldn't be enough, would it?"

Sha Zhu knew that the Li family was of high social standing, but he didn't know that behind it was a snowballing torrent of capital. He thought it was just an ordinary family trying to climb the social ladder, and he looked embarrassed.

He Yushui chuckled lightly: "Brother, you really don't need to worry about the money."

She turned to Li Guotao and asked, "Guotao, if we really go by the standards of a state-run hotel, are you capable of handling this responsibility?"

Li Guotao glanced at his brother-in-law—the man was rubbing the corner of his apron, his cuffs still speckled with flour, his eyes gleaming. He nodded: "It'll do."

In the past, he would never have touched the catering industry; but for Sha Zhu to be able to eat with his head held high and sleep soundly in the future, and to buy He Yushui a new set of furniture, he was willing to take on this task.

Money? It's just numbers jumping around in the ledger. I can make a phone call back to Hong Kong, and my brother can transfer the funds to my account that same day—I'm not bragging, it's real confidence.

Sha Zhu froze, his lips slightly parted, unable to close for a long time.

The next morning, after He Yushui had gone over his thoughts three times, Li Guotao sat upright in front of his father, Li Wenguo: "Dad, I want to take a leave of absence without pay and open a restaurant with my brother-in-law."