Chapter 311: Insatiable Greed

"Knock, knock, knock~"

"Please come in."

"Teacher Mu, I'd like to request a day off. Here is the leave slip."

Li Ye smiled as he placed the leave slip in front of Mu Yunning.

Mu Yunning frowned, looking troubled as she said, "Why are you asking for leave again? The exams are only a few days away. What if you annoy the teachers? What is it this time?"

"If your grades aren't good this year, it will affect your recommendation for the 'Active Youth' program next year."

Li Ye gave a sheepish smile and said, "It's just a small matter, only for one day. It won't affect my exam results."

"You'll have to be responsible for your own affairs."

Mu Yunning stopped trying to dissuade him, took the leave slip, and waved for Li Ye to leave.

She wasn't angry; she was just worried about him.

Li Ye had submitted his application to join the Party before the summer break, and Mu Yunning had helped him navigate the fastest process. He was already an "Active Youth," and if he pushed forward, he could become a probationary member by next year. Every step was linked extremely tightly.

However, many things aren't just about ability or contribution. If you have any flaws, and someone stands up to object during the selection process, wouldn't all your efforts go to waste?

Li Ye knew this, but he really had an urgent matter right now.

After leaving Mu Yunning's office, Li Ye rode his bicycle out of the campus, where his older sister, Li Yue, was already waiting in the car.

The renovation project for Xiushuijie had finally been completed a few days ago, and the rental standards were posted yesterday, with leasing officially opened to the public.

As it turned out, Li Yue said something had gone wrong this morning.

After getting in the car, Li Yue said, "Everything was fine after the rental standards were announced yesterday, but this morning, several of our storefronts were blocked by people. Jin Peng called Wen Guohua, and it turns out people are blocking doors on his end too."

Li Ye asked in return, "Why block the doors? Just because they think the rent is too high?"

Li Yue nodded and said, "Isn't that it? Right now, renting a whole courtyard house in the capital only costs two or three yuan!"

"The rent for a single shop in Xiushuijie starts at fifty or sixty yuan, with some as high as several hundred. It makes sense that the common folk are calling us heartless."

"..."

Li Ye was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but curse, "A bunch of idiots."

Li Yue slammed on the brakes, stopping the Volga by the side of the road, and stared at Li Ye with a sharp, cold question: "Who did you call an idiot?"

Li Ye waved his hand and said, "I must mean those insatiable merchants, of course. Big sister, how would I dare call you that? Have I been beaten by you too little over the years?"

"Hmph~ You haven't been beaten since you were twelve, but this is the capital, and Grandma isn't here to protect you."

Li Yue gave a cold snort before shifting gears and accelerating again.

But as she thought about it, she felt something was wrong—if those merchants thought the rent was high, she thought it was high too!

In fact, the renovation of Xiushuijie had always been under immense pressure because the steps taken were so bold.

A small street that originally accommodated only a few hundred merchants now had commercial buildings built along it, carving out over a thousand storefronts.

Moreover, when determining the rental standards, Wen Guohua had adopted Li Ye's suggestion, raising the rent by another thirty percent over the original base.

This wasn't because Li Ye was heartless; in reality, Li Ye felt this standard was already dirt cheap.

Furthermore, the Pengcheng Seventh Factory was a participant in the renovation and held nearly one-third of the storefronts in Xiushuijie; they had to rent them out if they couldn't use them all themselves.

If the public rate was eighty yuan a month and you were charging one hundred and twenty, the contradictions would be endless. People in the capital aren't exactly polite when they start making a scene, so the contradictions had to be pushed onto the public authorities to resolve.

Of course, if individual merchants really thought it was too expensive, they could set up street stalls in a designated area outside for only ten or eight yuan a month.

But who would have thought there would be so many people who didn't know a good deal when they saw one.

Before the Volga even reached the entrance of Xiushuijie, Li Ye saw the crowd blocking the way—at least two hundred people.

The Pengcheng Seventh Factory originally had a storefront in Xiushuijie, and after the renovation, it still occupied the original spot at the street entrance, so the leasing was being conducted there.

But now it was blocked so tightly that one couldn't even get in. If it weren't for the dozen or so demobilized soldiers standing at the door, something bad might have already happened.

Li Yue had never experienced this kind of scene, so she had to ask her brother, "Xiao Ye, what should we do?"

Li Ye said, "Easy. Find a place up ahead to make a phone call."

At this moment, Li Ye missed the mobile phones of his past life immensely; communicating information was truly difficult.

Li Ye found a public phone, dialed the Pengcheng Seventh Factory's Xiushuijie storefront, and asked for Jin Peng.

"Hello, Brother Peng, what do you plan to do now?"

"What do I plan to do? I'm so pissed I want to raise the prices. A bunch of ungrateful things."

Hearing Jin Peng's laughing curse, Li Ye laughed too.

In two years, Jin Peng had been tempered; he wasn't afraid of pressure at all and could even see the correct direction.

Li Ye instructed, "Brother Peng, don't worry about raising prices yet. Notify all the business outlets and the banks you're familiar with to send money to the management office immediately. The faster, the better; the more, the better."

Jin Peng was stunned for a moment, then immediately laughed on the phone, "Xiao Ye, are you trying to buy out all of Xiushuijie? Won't that make people hate us?"

"Hate us, my foot," Li Ye laughed. "Once they come to their senses, they'll only envy you for having the foresight to grab more hens that lay golden eggs. Then they'll pull strings and say nice things to you just to rent a better storefront. How would they have time to hate you?"

"Hehe, Xiao Ye, you're still as cunning as ever. I'll do as you say."

Li Ye returned to the car and had his sister, Li Yue, drive in from the northern entrance and park in front of the management office.

There were many people gathered in front of the management office, but they were much more restrained and hadn't blocked the entrance. It seemed the deterrent power of the public authorities wasn't a lie.

After more than half an hour, Jin Peng's Crown car and the Pengcheng Seventh Factory's 130 truck drove over. Seven or eight demobilized soldiers surrounded Jin Peng, Ma Qianshan, and several female accountants as they got out of the car.

The female accountants were all carrying large bags, heavy with cash.

Li Ye said to Li Yue, "Watch, big sister! In less than an hour, these people won't be able to sit still."

Li Yue and Li Ye followed Jin Peng and the others into the management office, and many hesitant individual merchants followed behind them.

"That guy in front is Jin Peng from the Pengcheng Seventh Factory. Why is he here instead of staying in his own nest?"

"I don't know, but this guy is more heartless than the evil capitalists. Back when we were setting up stalls in Xiushuijie, nobody cared. Now it's great—we have to pay several dozen yuan a month just to get a legal identity..."

"Actually, a ten-yuan stall is fine too. At least we won't be accused of speculation. If it really doesn't work out..."

After the renovation of Xiushuijie, it was under unified management, so the merchants inside had a legal and compliant identity. This was one of the things everyone was struggling with; otherwise, many would have been angered away the moment they heard the price.

"Are you stupid? Would you sell the same thing for eight yuan at a stall and eight yuan inside a storefront? If everything is sold for eight yuan, who would still buy from the stalls outside?"

"Then what do we do? The smallest storefront is seventy or eighty yuan! That's higher than my mom and dad's wages combined."

"So we have to demand they lower the prices. They must lower the prices, or we'll report them to the relevant departments."

"Right, they must lower the prices, or we'll write letters."

Listening to the "threats" from the crowd behind her, Li Yue looked at Li Ye beside her and Jin Peng and Ma Qianshan in front with some worry.

But seeing the way Jin Peng and the others held their heads high, Li Yue suddenly realized that if she wanted to become a manager, there was still a lot she needed to learn.

When she left Qingshui County, Li Yue had come with the mindset of "I'm not as good as Jin Peng," but after a few months of contact, she had instead calmed down and started learning with humility.

After Jin Peng and the others entered the management office, the somewhat oppressive atmosphere quickly did a 180-degree turn.

It had been over an hour since this morning, and only twenty-something storefronts had been rented out, some of which were to vendors familiar with the staff. It could be said that the opening was a cold flop.

Everyone's future bonuses and benefits were closely tied to the rent on this street. If they couldn't rent them out, forget about eating meat every day—they wouldn't even be able to drink the northwest wind.

So much money had been spent on renovating this street, and it had to be paid back.

But when Jin Peng threw the six large bags onto the floor of the finance room and said, "I'll buy out everything that isn't rented," everyone calmed down.

If one person bought it all out, it saved them the trouble!

"Is it okay for us to just wait here? If he buys out all the shops, we won't be able to rent any..."

"How could we not be able to rent any? No matter how much money he has, how much can he have? With so many storefronts, the monthly rent is hundreds of thousands. That's hundreds of thousands every month! How many clothes does Manager Jin have to sell to earn hundreds of thousands?"

"It's hard to say! The Pengcheng Seventh Factory is doing very well in both the East and West cities right now..."

"Then what are you still talking about? Why aren't you rushing to rent? Why are you still grinding your teeth here with us?"

Li Ye and Li Yue stood to the side, watching as those merchants who were testing the waters clearly couldn't sit still anymore.

At this moment, Li Ye saw Wen Guohua appear at the end of the corridor, waving at him.

Li Ye walked over himself and said with a smile, "Big brother, are you sitting firmly on the fishing platform?"

Wen Guohua laughed and said, "I don't want to be Jiang Taigong. If I really couldn't catch a fish in three days, that would truly become a joke."

Li Ye laughed and said, "How could that be? If you can guarantee that the Seventh Factory won't be labeled with speculation, do you believe the rent could rise another 50% tomorrow?"

Wen Guohua said unhappily, "You're mocking your brother! If you're really willing to buy it all out, I'll go talk and lower the price."

Li Ye shook his head and said, "Let's wait and see! I don't like eating alone, but if a big piece of fat really comes to my mouth, no one would complain about being too full, right?"

As the two were talking, suddenly they saw five or six people carrying sacks walk in, speaking with a southern accent.

"Excuse me, where is the place to pay? We want to rent a shop."

"That's over there. Have you seen the rental standards?"

"Seen them, seen them. No problem."

The five or six people entered the finance room, opened their sacks, and poured the money onto the floor, which even startled Jin Peng inside.

【There's actually someone more fierce than me, Jin Millionaire?】

Jin Peng waved his hand, gathered his breath in his dantian, and shouted, "Don't move! I was here first."

"..."

Li Ye quietly said to Wen Guohua, "Big brother, you need to go out and post a new notice, otherwise those people will make a scene again in a moment..."

Five minutes later, a large red paper written with a calligraphy brush was posted at the entrance of the management office, informing the small merchants outside that of the original thousand-plus vacant storefronts, only four hundred remained.

"Rent quickly? Fourth brother, what does this mean?"

"..."

"Stop asking, hurry up and grab one!"

The several hundred people who had been squatting outside smoking a moment ago suddenly moved, swarming into the management office like a hive.

"I want to rent 106 in Zone 7..."

"Zone 7 is gone."

"How is it gone? It was still there this morning..."

"It's almost noon now. Are you renting or not? If not, next person."

"..."

Some clever individual merchants in the back couldn't squeeze in, so they turned and ran toward the other end of Xiushuijie.

That was the Pengcheng Seventh Factory's leasing office, and there were storefronts for rent there too.

As it turned out, when these people ran to the Pengcheng Seventh Factory side, they found that the line there was even longer and more crowded.

"Oh my, I told you not to wait! Now it's great—we're being chased all over the street in the wind and rain. What a sin!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 312 =====