Xia Xiaolan nodded:

“To be precise, this land doesn’t belong to me personally – it belongs to Qihang Real Estate, which has a 50-year land use right. Of course, I am Qihang’s sole shareholder.”

Was she riding high on success?

For Xia Xiaolan, she truly was.

She had resisted the temptation of quick money countless times.

Wasn’t smuggling profitable? She wouldn’t even need to smuggle personally – just helping sell goods could earn her plenty with her abilities.

Electronics and cars – whatever made money, she could sell it, and Xia Xiaolan truly had that courage.

But these were gray or black market industries, so she resisted the urge for quick profits. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have gotten Tang Hongen’s help, wouldn’t have progressed from the municipal guesthouse to Nanhai Hotel, and wouldn’t have acquired the Jinsha Pool land!

Tang Hongen hadn’t approved the land out of personal favor, but because Xia Xiaolan’s conduct had earned his trust.

Trust wasn’t built overnight – Xia Xiaolan had spent almost two years reaching this point.

She’d done it – how could she not be happy?

Before Mao Kangshan, she had to maintain composure.

Before other company staff, she had to maintain composure.

Back at school, she couldn’t brag to her classmates.

Only before Zhou Cheng could she express her joy freely. She believed Zhou Cheng would understand this joy – not just about the land’s value or how much money she could make, but about her efforts in the process… planning, executing, and completing the deal. This was a game of strategy, and Xia Xiaolan was the winner.

Xia Xiaolan’s eyes sparkled, making Zhou Cheng’s throat tighten – he loved seeing her so confident and radiant.

How could someone be so clever?

How could someone be so adorable?

“Xiaolan, you deserve this. You spent the whole summer working on this, thinking about getting this land, didn’t you?”

Zhou Cheng held her shoulders: “I remember in Shanghai, you went to look at suburban land and were very happy then. Were you planning to speculate on land there too?”

Though they had only seen farmland then, Zhou Cheng believed his wife wouldn’t act without purpose.

The current Jinsha Pool had been a sewage and garbage dump when Xiaolan bought it, yet in her hands, it transformed from decay to a miracle. Shanghai’s suburbs might be farmland now, but who knew what development might come in the future?

Xia Xiaolan was amazed.

Zhou Cheng didn’t just understand her – he was incredibly perceptive!

After all, hadn’t Zhou Cheng come up with the cigarette business himself? Without anyone’s guidance, he’d found his path to profit. While other second-generation wealthy might have economic awareness, they only thought about trading permits. Zhou Cheng had quietly earned nearly a million – without the advantage of rebirth knowledge, which was truly impressive.

Xia Xiaolan felt that her 20-year-old self in her previous life wasn’t worthy of polishing Zhou Cheng’s shoes.

“I don’t know yet. Land speculation is for profit, but I enjoy the process. If it was just for money, we could sell the land to Hong Kong merchants now – we couldn’t spend all that money anyway.”

Zhou Cheng thought and agreed:

“My monthly salary is over 100 yuan, and I don’t worry about food and drink. If it was just for survival, you could make over ten million in one transaction – we wouldn’t know how to spend that money.”

Zhou Cheng liked watches and was willing to buy them.

But even smuggled Rolexes in China topped out at four digits.

Watches costing tens of thousands of yuan weren’t even being smuggled in – who would buy them? There was no consumer market.

In 1985, ten million yuan had terrifying purchasing power in China.

They could buy many imported cars at official prices – even if she gave one to everyone close to her, she couldn’t give them all away.

She could buy enough Beijing siheyuan courtyards to own an entire alley. With an alley in Beijing, what would she worry about? She could rent them now, and wait for future demolition compensation – wouldn’t that yield hundreds of apartments?

Hundreds of apartments seemed unbelievable to ordinary people, but in her previous life, Xia Xiaolan had seen the news about Hong Kong offering tax breaks to individuals with multiple properties – someone was exposed as owning over 15,000 properties… That was truly a massive wealth gap.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t know who owned those 15,000+ properties, or whether they had other businesses besides real estate.

If one was limited to just real estate investment, life would be too boring.

She was only 20 – too young to retire.

What social value did someone who merely owned multiple properties create? Without creation, there was no voice – she was still far from her goal of making Ji Ya kneel on Chang’an Street.

“Ten million is a lot, but not enough for the blueprint in my mind. I’m happy today not just because of Jinsha Pool’s success. Besides making money, I’ve figured out how to spend it. Zhou Cheng, I’ve benefited from the Reform and Opening policy – earning this money isn’t just about my efforts and luck, but also the broader environment… I want to use some of it to do good – what do you think about supporting education?”

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t donate all her wealth.

She wasn’t that selfless, nor could anyone morally pressure her into “forced donations.” Even if Tian Xiaoyan wore her knees out kneeling, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t give a penny.

But there were many like Yang Yonghong – self-respecting, hardworking people trying to escape poverty. While Xia Xiaolan couldn’t help everyone, she could help one at a time.

Zhou Cheng tucked her loose hair behind her ear, “You got this idea after visiting the Yang family, right? It’s a good deed – I’ll support however much you want to spend. I won’t say much more, but you previously criticized how I handled the Shi family matter. I realized my mistake. Now it’s your turn to do something similar – just make sure good intentions don’t lead to bad results.”

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “I won’t just give money away. I earned it through hard work. My education support model aims to benefit many students, not just individuals. Qihang Real Estate doesn’t have enough influence yet, but in a couple of years, what if Qihang led a paid teaching support program in universities? Rural areas have poor teaching quality, which leads to poor student performance. It’s hard for rural students to get into university – what good does it do if only one or two succeed? My paid teaching support idea involves university students working in basic education positions for a while, with Qihang subsidizing part of their salary. This might be for one or two years, after which they’d return to normal job assignments. Those who perform excellently during their teaching service could receive some encouragement from schools… Surely some people would bring positive influence?”

Zhou Cheng had thought she meant donating money, building libraries, or setting up scholarships.

At most, he’d imagined his wife donating a million to build teaching buildings.

But he was wrong – his wife had come up with something much bigger.

“This plan can’t be led by just one real estate company. Even if you’re willing to pay, you’d need universities to cooperate, even the Ministry of Education’s cooperation. It involves university graduate job assignments – let me think about this!”

Having money?

Money couldn’t solve everything.

Even those who could donate to build universities needed the right status and background, let alone attempt something as ambitious as what Xia Xiaolan proposed.