What was going on?

How could Grandmother Yu be the other property rights holder?

Xia Xiaolan was confused. She remembered that during this time, all properties belonged to the state – where people lived and how large their homes were all determined by the government. Grandmother Yu living alone in a five-room house was already mystifying, and now she held half the property rights to a building at Erqi Square.

She wasn’t clear about the policies of this time. After the turmoil ended, the state began returning some people’s “ancestral properties,” which perhaps included real estate.

“Grandmother Yu.”

Xia Xiaolan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Had she known Grandmother Yu owned half the building at Erqi Square, wouldn’t it have been better to discuss the rental directly with her?

“You know each other?”

Yuan Honggang couldn’t hide his surprise.

No wonder Grandmother Yu had agreed to rent the property. Why had this building sat vacant? Because of the property rights dispute with Grandmother Yu. She was strong-willed, and National Cotton Factory Three couldn’t bully a lonely old woman. Until the state clarified ownership, Grandmother Yu, though not using it herself, had the right to prevent factory workers from living there.

This time, Grandmother Yu had compromised.

2000 yuan per year was certainly considered a lot at this time – an imported 14-inch color TV cost around 1000 yuan. Electronics were the most expensive consumer goods then. Since housing wasn’t part of the market, Chinese people hadn’t developed the concept of buying houses. Transportation mainly consisted of bicycles, with occasional motorcycles turning heads on the streets. An annual rent of 2000 yuan wasn’t something ordinary people could afford.

Cars were unthinkable – imported luxury vehicles cost astronomical sums beyond ordinary people’s imagination. Every four-wheeled vehicle on the road costs tens of thousands. The Dongfeng truck Zhou Cheng and Kang Wei used for transport cost over 40,000 yuan including taxes, while the military green Jeep 212 was slightly cheaper at nearly 40,000.

What could be more expensive than cars? No one could imagine. As they said in the future, poverty will limit people’s imagination!

“Whether we know each other or not doesn’t affect my collecting rent.”

Grandmother Yu spoke with her usual coldness, but Xia Xiaolan knew her personality and didn’t mind. As long as she could rent the property, she didn’t want to take advantage of an old woman – whatever the price, she’d pay it.

The three parties sat down to negotiate, and Xia Xiaolan wanted a 10-year lease.

Yuan Honggang glanced at Grandmother Yu and hesitated, “With unchanged rent?”

Even pork prices had risen, and various prices were increasing. Reform and opening up had revitalized the economy, so prices naturally couldn’t be fully controlled by the state anymore. Yuan Honggang was quite upright – though Liu Yong had helped his family, he was considering Grandmother Yu’s interests. The 2000 yuan annual rent all went to Grandmother Yu, while National Cotton Factory Three’s benefit was the use rights of other rooms in the building. In 1983, the factory could create twenty to thirty million yuan in benefits for the state – 2000 yuan wasn’t even worth the factory leaders’ attention.

Rather than take this money, they’d rather allocate more housing to workers – the factory had over ten thousand workers whose housing needed improvement.

2000 yuan was still valuable now, but prices would soar after ’85. Xia Xiaolan wasn’t completely heartless, but she wasn’t a fool either. Feel sorry for a lonely old woman?

Don’t joke – Grandmother Yu was quite wealthy, just unable to sell the property now.

“Then let’s increase rent by 10% annually. First year 2000 yuan, second year 2200 yuan, third year 2420 yuan… By the final year of the lease, I’ll pay over 4700 yuan.”

A 10% annual increase meant more than doubling in ten years.

Yuan Honggang thought this was acceptable.

Whether an individual business could last 10 years was uncertain – affording rent this year didn’t guarantee next year’s situation. However, Yuan Honggang hoped Xia Xiaolan would maintain the long-term lease so factory workers assigned to live there wouldn’t need to move repeatedly.

“Alright, agreed.”

The total over 10 years would be about 32,000 yuan. From 1983 to 1993, into the early nineties, 32,000 yuan was still valuable. Just this money alone would ensure Grandmother Yu’s basic needs in her later years.

But what about after ten years?

Xia Xiaolan smiled: “I have an additional condition.”

She wanted the right of first refusal to purchase the building.

In a few years, the property rights should be clarified, and she could buy the building, demolish it, and build new. Neither Grandmother Yu nor Yuan Honggang opposed this idea.

Done!

All three parties signed the contract, and Xia Xiaolan paid the first year’s 2000 yuan rent on the spot. Money was handed over, and she received the keys.

Yuan Honggang was quite pleased. The three-story building, besides the ground floor shops, had two floors of rooms and a backyard, enough to house at least 10 worker families.

As he saw them out, Ding Aizhen from the factory came looking for him and caught sight of the three figures leaving.

One silhouette looked familiar, but Ding Aizhen didn’t dwell on it.

“Director Yuan, regarding this round of housing allocation, surely our department deserves two spots?”

Yuan Honggang felt a headache coming on.

No housing was troublesome, but having housing wasn’t easy either.

As deputy director in charge of housing allocation, did he have authority? He dared not abuse his power – it was all heavy responsibility weighing on his shoulders.

“Grandmother Yu, thank you.”

Xia Xiaolan was in high spirits, but Grandmother Yu maintained her sour face: “You must have realized the 2000 yuan annual rent all goes to me – what are you thanking me for?”

She knew there was no such thing as kindness without reason. Xia Xiaolan and company must have somehow learned about the property rights of No. 45 Erqi Road, then came to rent her property, gradually getting closer – wasn’t it all for those three shops at No. 45 Erqi Road?

Grandmother Yu felt emotionally deceived and showed no mercy when demanding rent.

Xia Xiaolan thought it was a coincidence, but Grandmother Yu didn’t believe in such coincidences.

Unable to communicate on the same wavelength, they parted ways unhappily. Grandmother Yu went home with the rent money, while Xia Xiaolan excitedly took the keys with Liu Yong to view the property.

National Cotton Factory Three wasn’t far from Erqi Road. Both aunt and nephew felt excited – securing this property hadn’t been easy.

But it was worth it!

The factory’s previous leadership had used these storefronts for textile exhibitions just two or three years ago. Though not luxuriously decorated, the floor was at least level, walls were whitewashed, with green paint up to one meter from the ground. While street-facing storefronts typically had low ceilings then, these three shops had ceiling heights over 4 meters. What did this mean? Future commercial spaces required 3.9 meters – ceiling heights over 4 meters allowed for grand, high-end decoration without feeling oppressive.

The wooden counters from previous exhibitions remained. Xia Xiaolan knocked on them – though she couldn’t identify the wood type, with some modifications, they could still be useful. Deputy Director Yuan had promised that everything in the shops was for Xia Xiaolan to handle as she wished.

“Xiaolan, what are you looking at?”

“Uncle, please help me hold the measuring tape. I need to measure the dimensions to plan the renovation.”

Liu Yong looked around – wasn’t it quite new already? With some cleaning, they could prepare for opening. Of course, they still needed a business license.

Xia Xiaolan wrote and drew in her notebook, recording all dimensions.

Then she visited building material markets with Liu Yong… In ’83, the concept of decoration materials didn’t exist. Searching through Shangdu, only a few stores sold basic materials. Tiles were small squares, but there was wooden flooring, which delighted Xia Xiaolan. While painted furniture was considered premium, with bright red that hurt her eyes, wooden flooring maintained natural wood colors.

There was also new vinyl flooring that was laid directly on cement.

And very cheap red carpeting, used only in better guesthouses. Xia Xiaolan couldn’t accept her shop being all red – people tracking in mud would make the carpet hard to clean.

The options were cement floor, tiled floor, or wooden flooring.

Xia Xiaolan spent an evening drawing several sketches based on the shop’s dimensions and layout, showing them to Liu Yong the next day:

“Uncle, do you think we can build it according to these?”