Xia Xiaolan hung up the phone with Zhu Suizhou just as Sun Chunsheng finished discussing clothing matters with Grandmother Yu.

The fabrics Grandmother Yu mentioned were ones Sun Chunsheng had never had the fortune to see before, leaving him quite wistful.

“Let me make you two outfits first, and I’ll deliver them to you within two days at most.”

The old lady needed them for receiving guests, and Sun Chunsheng felt honored – such an old customer wanting to wear his handiwork to meet guests was a recognition of his craftsmanship.

Grandmother Yu pointed at Xia Xiaolan, “Make several sets for her too, just keep the style elegant and proper, put it on my account.”

Sun Chunsheng took Xia Xiaolan’s measurements again. He remembered her measurements from when he made a qipao for her while making clothes for Liu Fen, but he wanted to check if there were any changes.

“You’re showing favoritism here, shouldn’t you be making clothes for Tina?” Xia Xiaolan joked.

Grandmother Yu gave her a sideways glance, “Does she lack clothes? She can wear custom fashion in America, she wouldn’t appreciate the craftsmanship of Chinese tailors.”

She worried that even if she eagerly had clothes made, Tina might find the styles too provincial – that would be a thankless effort.

Grandmother Yu wanted to win Tina over, but she had no intention of humbling herself to please her. She had her calculations about this matter and didn’t need to explain the details to Xia Xiaolan.

“I heard your phone call, is there trouble again at the Asia Department Store? Last time I heard Zhong Yi mention that the Du family’s second son bought out Mr. Zhu’s company, are they now joining forces to bully you?”

The Du family, while financially qualifying as upper class, was a mess inside. The original wife had died many years ago, but he neither remarried nor elevated his concubine to proper wife status – was this due to deep feelings for his first wife?

Nonsense!

If his feelings were truly that deep, his original wife wouldn’t have died so early.

He had only learned the philandering ways of old society men, without following old society’s rules. A house full of women and children, without any discipline or constraints, fighting like chickens with pecked eyes – how could such an environment nurture excellent heirs?

Grandmother Yu hadn’t interacted with Du Zhaohui and made no judgment about him. But regarding this second young master Du, she had formed a very poor impression of him ever since he pretended not to know about Building No. 45’s ownership with Chaoyang Real Estate:

“Unsuccessful men are all like this, unwilling to admit defeat, always trying to recoup their losses after losing. But who does he target to recover his losses? Like picking the softest persimmon to squeeze, instead of going after his father or brother, he gives you trouble instead. With such a person, even if he doesn’t want to force you out, you shouldn’t remain partners with him long-term.”

When choosing partners, one could choose clever people. But such cleverness shouldn’t be without principles.

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “We’ll see what Du Zhaoqi has to say tonight.”

“What if we let your Uncle Xu—” Grandmother Yu probed.

Xia Xiaolan linked arms with her, “You want to suggest Uncle Xu lend me money? Aren’t they building a museum? That’s no small sum… But borrowing money won’t be necessary. When Uncle Xu returns from America, I’ll discuss it with him.”

This was someone who wouldn’t even accept money when offered.

Grandmother Yu sighed. Xia Xiaolan might appear slick, but she had integrity. There was no reason not to trust such a person.

“Speaking of the museum, your Uncle Xu has already selected a plot of land in Shangdu, also near Erqi Square. He left for America in such a hurry he didn’t get to tell you, but we all hope you can design the museum.”

Oh?

So her Qihang Architectural Firm would get a big project through connections?

Xia Xiaolan perked up: “How much land did Uncle Xu buy?”

“156 mu.”

“…!”

That was quite extensive, especially in such a prime location as Erqi Square. Although not as expensive as Pengcheng’s land prices, it couldn’t be cheap.

“Is all 156 mu designated for cultural use? This area exceeds the standard for a provincial-level museum.”

Xia Xiaolan muttered. Building to provincial museum standards would require an enormous investment.

Grandmother Yu shook her head, “How could it be? I don’t understand all this cultural land use business now, but you can’t focus solely on culture without considering money – how would a private museum sustain itself? I had your Uncle Xu request more land, part for building the museum, and the rest we’ll see about later. In a big place like Shangdu, now that the nation allows business, I don’t think development will lag far behind.”

Xia Xiaolan immediately felt deep respect. The old lady was truly insightful. Her ending up as a street sweeper wasn’t due to a lack of intelligence – it was because the Yu family had been too prominent before, and Grandmother Yu had been established as a negative example and pushed to the extreme. What else could she do besides sweep streets?

Even after the Reform and Opening Up, Grandmother Yu was already elderly and had lost interest in business. For a lone elderly woman, earning money would only attract unwanted attention – continuing to sweep streets was safer.

But if the old lady were to think about it, current business methods were just old wine in new bottles, not much different from pre-liberation times.

Buying 156 mu of land under the banner of building a private museum was similar to Harold’s investment in a golf course in Pengcheng. Only the Wilson family was wealthy, and Harold’s initial investment was over 1,000 mu of land.

The golf course also had mixed usage – sports land for the course itself, some residential land, plus some commercial land.

There was a saying in later years that dedicating prime real estate to museums and parks instead of development showed a city’s emphasis on culture and humanistic care – like New York’s Central Park, such a vast public recreational space right in the middle of Manhattan’s skyscrapers! Imagine its commercial value if developed.

But precisely because New York’s Central Park couldn’t be developed, the properties around it became hard currency symbols of status. New York’s wealthy all lived nearby!

Harold’s golf course followed the same principle. Setting aside such a large plot in China’s Special Economic Zone, as the city developed, the verdant golf course became a place people instinctively wanted to be near.

And how valuable would Harold’s developments around the golf course become?

The golf course might not earn much money, but through it, the other projects would earn big!

Xia Xiaolan gave a thumbs up, “You’re right, running a museum doesn’t prevent making some money on the side, and if we run out of money, we couldn’t maintain the museum anyway.”

Currently in Shangdu, residential development wouldn’t work – the common people’s purchasing power wasn’t there. Forget about building homes at 2,000 yuan/㎡, even at 1,000 yuan/㎡ nobody could afford them.

What could sell in Shangdu were probably only welfare housing units at two to three hundred per square meter, and even then people complained about the price, not buying their allotments but selling their quotas to others.

Besides housing, there were other development possibilities.

Living near a museum was very cultural and high-end.

Well, having offices near a museum made sense too.

While Xia Xiaolan was thinking about the 156 mu of land bought by Xu Zhongyi, she became somewhat distracted during dinner with Du Zhaoqi and Zhu Suizhou. Du Zhaoqi broke the silence: “Miss Xia seems preoccupied?”

Xia Xiaolan took a sip of water, “Of course I’m preoccupied. Ever since becoming partners with Second Young Master, I’ve been worried, afraid I can’t keep up with your pace and will be eliminated midway.”