Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 906 Romance Throughout the City

"Here," Chen Hui pointed with his pen, "there are single-story shops lining the outer perimeter, and the residential staircases start in the middle of the shops."

Xiao Wei tilted his head, staring at Chen Hui's sketch for a long time without saying a word. Chen Hui looked up at Xiao Wei and asked, "Are you stupid?"

Xiao Wei said, "That's the countryside, all land, and there are only so many people. What are you going to do with building such a large residential area and two kilometers of shops? I'm thinking about it."

Chen Hui paused for a moment, looked at the blueprints, threw down his pen, and said, "Damn, I forgot. I was only thinking about how the residences and shops could provide the funds."

Xiao Wei was still staring at the blueprints when he said, "This model works. I reckon once these houses and shops are sold, the entire construction cost will be recouped, and we'll get a warehouse for free. What do you think? Should we make it bigger and rent out the unused parts?"

Xiao Wei looked up at Chen Hui: "Warehouse for rent. Cold storage and factory buildings are available for rent, but what about warehouses?"

Chen Hui said, "Maybe? I don't know."

Xiao Wei said, "This matter can't be left to Li Guan. We've never dealt with Yu Hong before. No one came to the opening today. Logically speaking, they should know that we have a pig farm, a furniture factory, a garage, and so on over there. The invitation was sent, but there was no response at all. We bought all our land in the village in Li Guan, so they pretend they don't know."

"So, how did the negotiations with the peace side go? They raised the bar, saying we want to build a large warehouse, covering no less than 0.5 square kilometers, requiring it to be cheap, easily accessible, and close to the railway. Let's see what the peace side says."

Chen Hui said, "Where can peace be found?"

Xiao Wei said, "Yes, the only place without land is Shenhe, it's covered by these districts. The other districts all have land, look at the map. What are you talking about now if there's no land?"

Chen Hui got up, walked to the map on the wall, looked at it for a while, and said, "Okay, I'll go again tomorrow and ask the district head directly."

Xiao Wei said, "They can't be right next to each other. The residential area and the warehouse can't be right next to each other; they have to be separated. The big trucks are too noisy at night."

Chen Hui said, "Then we should build a gas station next to it, right?"

There was a few knocks on the office door, and Shan Hongmei poked her head in holding a folder: "Xiao Wei, are you busy?"

Xiao Wei waved: "Come in, where are you afraid to come in?"

Shan Hongmei smiled and walked in, saying, "Now that you're the chairman, it's not right for you to just come and go as you please."

Chen Hui turned around in front of the map and exclaimed, "Holy crap, Hongmei, are you pregnant?"

Xiao Wei was taken aback and subconsciously looked towards Shan Hongmei's stomach.

Shan Hongmei's face flushed red, and she nodded, saying, "Yes, it's been about three months."

Chen Hui walked over: "Whose is it? Yu Qiu's? Is he back?"

Shan Hongmei said, "No, something came up at home. I went there briefly, didn't I ask you for leave?"

Xiao Wei asked, "Does your family know? Does Yu Qiu know? What are you planning to do?"

Shan Hongmei said, "I know, I've already told you. There's nothing I can do about Yu Qiu's situation; his mother is sick, and he's been taking care of her at home."

Chen Hui said, "There has to be a procedure. Are we just going to wait like this? What happens after the baby is born? Will we register the birth?"

Shan Hongmei said, "Yu Qiu said he'll come over sometime soon and we'll get our marriage certificate. What else can we do? There's not much we can do."

Xiao Wei said, "Weren't we going back to move? Let's move here for treatment. Is it because Fengtian doesn't have a hospital, or is the medical condition worse than Jiaohe? That's a county-level city, right? I remember."

Shan Hongmei said, "Yes, it's a county-level city, not very big."

Chen Hui said, "Besides the provincial capital, Jibei and Longjiang are mostly small cities, with Jibei being the only major city. Jiaohe is under the jurisdiction of Jibei City. The entire Jibei region relies on the garrison; it lacks other resources. Jiaohe has a tank regiment, and there's also an artillery brigade nearby. They have a lot of troops there."

Shan Hongmei said, "Yes, there are many troops. The city is full of soldiers, you can see them everywhere."

Xiao Wei asked, "What's the situation at his home?"

Shan Hongmei said, "He has two older sisters and one younger sister. He's a boy. His father has passed away, and his mother's health isn't very good. Both of his older sisters are married, and his younger sister is twenty this year. She stays at home, can't go to school, and doesn't have a job. Their place is too small; it's not even half the size of Longcheng."

Chen Hui asked, "What's wrong with his mother?"

Shan Hongmei said, "I can't really explain it, but I'm not in good health."

Xiao Wei said, "You don't want to move, do you? You want me to marry you?"

Shan Hongmei said, "I've thought about that too, but I didn't ask Yu Qiu. Whatever, I'm not going anyway. At worst, I'll raise the child myself. My parents can help me. There are no boys in my family, just me and my sister. My parents will definitely be with me, which is convenient."

Chen Hui said, "It's understandable for someone to marry into the city from the countryside, but to suggest that someone from the city marry into the countryside is just crazy! Is it a golden nest?"

Xiao Wei glanced at Chen Hui and said to Shan Hongmei, "What do you want?"

Shan Hongmei then remembered something, stuck out her tongue, opened the folder in her hand and handed it to Xiao Wei: "This is about all the information we have on the old students' intention to open shops, but we expect there will be more next year."

Xiao Wei took a look and saw that there were people from all three provinces, with more from Liaodong. Basically, all the cities were represented, totaling more than forty people.

After looking at it, Xiaowei said, "It's not like you can open a shop just anywhere. Some places have to be postponed. Like this one in Yichun, it might be okay if it were in the city, but in Tangwanghe, who would buy cakes and bread there?"

Shan Hongmei asked, "What's wrong over there? Aren't a city district and a district different? Aren't districts all within the city?"

Xiao Wei said, "Who said that? In Benxi, Nanfen District is dozens of kilometers away from the city and is independent. Yichun is even cooler. After leaving the city, each district is independent. It stretches all the way into the Xing'an Mountains along the railway line. It takes more than ten hours to get from Wuyiling District, the innermost district, to the city by train. It's called a district, but it's all rural areas."

Chen Hui asked, "How did you know?"

Xiao Wei said, "My brother told me about it. He went there when he was a recruit. There are day and night cycles there, so you can read and write in the middle of the night. People there mainly make a living from the forest farm, and the temperature drops to minus forty or fifty degrees Celsius in winter."

Shan Hongmei asked, "Then what should we do?"

Xiao Wei said, "Let's prioritize them and make a plan. We'll call it the 'Romantic City Plan,' and open Romantic Bakery stores all over the city. For those more remote areas, let's ask if they can follow the company's lead. Let's help them find locations. We've found that some people are really hopeless; they don't understand the market at all."

Chen Hui said, "Are we supposed to help find places all by ourselves? Wouldn't that be exhausting? We'd have to organize people to look at places city by city, wouldn't we?"

Xiao Wei said, "No, we'll choose the city ourselves, find the location, and then we'll send someone over to check it out. We'll help get the shop up and running, taking half the shares, and after three years it'll be entirely his. We'll try to make sure every shop we open is a success."

(End of this chapter)