The two locations Shao Guangrong suggested weren’t random choices.

Jingcheng and Shangdu were places he could manage. Jingcheng needed no explanation, and in Shangdu, his uncle Shao Limin was there. Opening a building materials store might not enjoy many privileges, but at least no one would make things difficult, and they could survive the challenging initial period.

What Xia Xiaolan could think of, Liu Yong and the others naturally knew.

Thinking of the Building No. 45 incident, Liu Yong didn’t trust Shao Limin.

Shao Guangrong’s uncle was even more cautious than Tang Hongen. He would avoid suspicion at crucial moments and prioritize self-preservation, which was normal behavior… but Liu Yong found it meaningless – why waste favors?

“I think Jingcheng is more suitable. Xiao Shao already works there, which makes managing the branch more convenient.”

Between the two locations, Liu Yong chose Jingcheng.

Bai Zhenzhu also thought Jingcheng was better: “Pengcheng is developing so quickly, isn’t the capital developing too? Jingcheng’s demand for building materials must be substantial.”

Xia Xiaolan turned her gaze to Kang Wei.

Huaqing University had finished its exam week, and students from almost all majors had started their winter break. Shan Yujun’s teaching application had passed final review, and now she was confirmed to go to the Northwest, where “Eaglet Takes Flight” had chosen pilot sites.

In the 1980s, most of China’s inland cities could be summarized as “poor,” but the Northwest needed the additional label of “desolate.”

In such a poor and desolate place, Shan Yujun had signed up for two years.

Her ideological awareness and initiative impressed Xia Xiaolan. Though she was the initiator of the plan, her initial motives weren’t entirely pure. She could provide money and resources, but it was unlikely she would personally teach for two years.

But Shan Yujun went.

Shan Yujun felt it was worthwhile.

Others admired her.

But Kang Wei was rather miserable – the couple had completely broken up, with no possibility of reconciliation.

Kang Wei had previously followed Xia Xiaolan in leaving Jingcheng, and after arriving here, he became busy with his affairs, his life filled with career pursuits. He seemed too occupied to grieve over his failed first love.

But was he not sad?

Then why had he become so quiet?

In such a short time, Kang Wei had lost so much weight.

“Sister-in-law, why are you staring at me? I also support opening a branch in Jingcheng.”

Jingcheng and Shangdu both had markets.

No matter how they chose, ‘Anjia Building Materials probably wouldn’t expand to the Northwest within ten years… why think of the Northwest again? Kang Wei felt uncomfortable.

“If everyone agrees, then let’s make a preliminary decision. Our goal for ’87 is to enter the Jing-Jin market.”

Besides the capital, there was a neighboring Jin city. Setting a slightly bigger goal gave everyone motivation.

Shao Guangrong was eager about what Xia Xiaolan said. It wasn’t that he needed so much money, but perhaps money could give Yu Li a sense of security.

Ah, if he had known there would be such a need for money, he wouldn’t have voluntarily reduced his shares earlier and would have invested more energy in the building materials store.

Now, holding shares without doing actual work, he would soon feel embarrassed about even the remaining 4% shareholding.

Because this year four stores were generating profits, even 4% of the dividends was too much!

Xia Xiaolan happened to address the dividend issue:

“Store One’s annual turnover was 7.7 million, Store Two 6.4 million, Store Three opened last May and has achieved 2.8 million so far, Store Four opened at the same time as Store Three but in Yangcheng, where it dominates the market, with a turnover of 3.3 million… The four stores together have a gross profit of 6.06 million, with a net profit of 3.98 million.”

See, this was why he felt embarrassed to keep taking shares without working.

Even with just 4% shares, that was almost 160,000 yuan a year!

To continue opening new stores in Jingcheng, this year’s profits couldn’t all be distributed, but even half would be considerable.

Indeed, Xia Xiaolan suggested distributing 2 million yuan, with the remaining 1.98 million reserved for the Jingcheng branch. In just two years, rent had increased significantly. When opening the first store in the small commodities market, they had pooled together 200,000 yuan. Now, to open an identical store would require at least 500-600,000 yuan.

No one objected to Xia Xiaolan setting aside 1.98 million.

All three Pengcheng stores had a good turnover, meaning Pengcheng’s market could sustain three Anjia Building Materials branches, so opening stores in Jingcheng would surely mean more than one location.

Xia Xiaolan decided on 2 million yuan for year-end dividends.

She had 25% shares, so she would get 500,000 yuan.

Bai Zhenzhu had the most shares at 29%, naturally getting the most money at 580,000 yuan.

Liu Yong got 440,000, Kang Wei 400,000, and even Shao Guangrong, with the least, got 80,000 yuan.

After profit distribution came to the dinner – a shareholders’ dinner, plus rewards for outstanding employees and such, keeping them busy for a day.

As soon as they left, Xia Xiaolan asked Liu Yong:

“Uncle, you’ve earned quite a bit this year, haven’t you?”

Liu Yong worked on very stable projects, the kind where collecting payment was relatively easy.

As far as Xia Xiaolan knew, in ’86 alone, ‘Yuanhui’ had done residential decorating for Jinsha Pool, renovations for the golf club, and successive Luna store renovations, not counting occasional small projects… If the ‘Chenrong Plaza decoration project had also been given to Liu Yong, his liquid assets would have exceeded Xia Xiaolan’s.

Decorators got paid faster than real estate developers!

Xia Xiaolan was quite envious.

Liu Yong chuckled and showed Xia Xiaolan a number with his hands.

“Over 4 million?”

Liu Yong nodded.

“Just from decorating, you earned over 4 million this year. Do you still plan to enter real estate?”

Over 4 million was probably Liu Yong’s collected payments.

If he squeezed, Liu Yong could probably come up with at least 5 million.

Xia Xiaolan had started with just that much money and managed to get Jinsha Pool going, with both capability and luck. If Liu Yong wanted to enter this field, he could start with small projects – having 5 million in capital wasn’t little.

But unexpectedly, Liu Yong shook his head: “I’m doing fine with just decorating, how much money can one make anyway? If you have any projects, I’ll invest a bit, but I don’t plan to touch real estate directly.”

Huh, this was different from Uncle’s previous plans.

Initially, Uncle had wanted to get into real estate too.

“Uncle, if you want to buy shares now, you still can in Qihang—”

“No, not company shares, I mean projects. If you think some projects are suitable, take me along, using Qihang and Yuanhui’s names. Qihang is Qihang, Yuanhui is Yuanhui, don’t mix them up!”

Even close relatives should keep clear accounts – this was a principle Xia Xiaolan had always supported.

But when Liu Yong was being so particularly clear with her, Xia Xiaolan felt something was wrong.

“Uncle, did something happen that I don’t know about? Let’s talk about it.”

Liu Yong couldn’t resist Xia Xiaolan’s persistence – even if he didn’t want to talk, he had to.

It turned out that what discouraged Liu Yong from entering real estate was the same reason he had initially refused to invest in Qihang. Since it came up, Liu Yong spoke plainly:

“I think you want to make Qihang big and strong, not just earn some money and stop caring. Isn’t that why you had Qihang fund that education assistance plan?”