Visit Zhou Cheng in Beijing.

Well, if that’s what it takes. Given Zhou Cheng’s special work situation, Xia Xiaolan needed to take the initiative – she was mentally prepared for this.

Liu Yong had initially been hesitant about renovating Kang Wei’s house, but now that Xia Xiaolan mentioned going to Beijing together, he felt more confident. He wanted to bring along the same workers who had worked with him before. Despite the travel and accommodation expenses, he’d already worked with them and, without quite realizing it himself, didn’t want to train new people.

A renovation business needed its regular workers, and Xia Xiaolan supported Liu Yong’s decision.

“Don’t worry about travel and accommodation costs – these are included in the cost calculations. Even if you don’t make much profit from Kang Wei’s project, you shouldn’t lose money helping him renovate.”

Business was business – even with acquaintances, if you couldn’t make a profit, at least you shouldn’t lose money. Liu Yong’s time was also worth something. Xia Xiaolan had learned her lesson from her uncle’s case – Liu Yong had lost nearly two thousand yuan on the “Blue Phoenix” shop renovation. If Xia Xiaolan hadn’t calculated the costs, she wouldn’t have known about his losses.

If Liu Yong was thinking about “repaying kindness,” he might very well lose money renovating Kang Wei’s house. But Kang Wei wasn’t poor – repaying kindness didn’t need to be done this way. Xia Xiaolan remembered Kang Wei’s help, which was why she wanted to partner with him in the construction materials business.

Currently, “Blue Phoenix” was doing well – even before the weather had truly warmed up, daily sales of eight to nine hundred yuan weren’t bad. Xia Xiaolan was thinking about promotions because she’d remembered that by July, she needed not only fifty thousand yuan for the construction materials business but had also promised her mother to build a house in the village.

If they were going to build, they’d need at least twenty to thirty thousand yuan for a small red-brick building.

From an investment perspective, spending twenty to thirty thousand yuan on a house in Qijing Village made little sense. No matter how many years passed, village houses wouldn’t appreciate it. At most, after thirty years of inflation, when materials and labor became more expensive, a house that cost twenty to thirty thousand now would cost two to three hundred thousand to build later.

Did that mean village houses were appreciated?

Only assets that could be liquidated are truly appreciated. If she could spend twenty to thirty thousand now on welfare housing in the city, it could be sold later or receive demolition compensation. No matter how beautiful a house in Qijing Village was, nobody would buy it, and no matter how much the city expanded, demolition would never reach there… So building a house in the village had no appreciation potential.

But Xia Xiaolan had already come to terms with this – did every expenditure need to show returns?

She’d promised to give Liu Fen a good life. Spending twenty to thirty thousand on a village house to make Liu Fen happy was worth it to Xia Xiaolan!

Don’t fear spending money – spending creates motivation to earn more. To save enough by July for both the construction materials business in Pengcheng Special Zone and the new house, while also focusing on the college entrance exam, Xia Xiaolan couldn’t venture into other businesses short-term. She could only think of ways to improve the clothing store’s performance.

Daily sales of eight to nine hundred yuan weren’t small.

Monthly revenue should be over twenty thousand. After deducting inventory costs, they could make over ten thousand, split two ways, giving Xia Xiaolan seven to eight thousand monthly. In 1984, monthly profits of several thousand yuan were unimaginable for ordinary urban workers. However, Xia Xiaolan now had just over twenty thousand yuan – to start the new business and build a house in July, she needed at least seventy to eighty thousand.

In the remaining five months, she needed to ensure she received over ten thousand yuan monthly from “Blue Phoenix.”

So while business wasn’t bad, Xia Xiaolan wanted it even better.

Gong Yang delivered the posters the next noon – bold colors and simple but impactful images that would catch attention when posted. Xia Xiaolan was very satisfied and paid him the remaining amount:

“Student Gong, I might have more work like this for you in the future.”

Xia Xiaolan valued not just Gong Yang’s basic drawing skills – any art student would have decent fundamentals. She appreciated his aesthetic sense, his ability to understand her requirements, his fashion-forward style… If Gong Yang could draw posters, he could surely draw other things, like interior design renderings. Without computers for renderings now, everything had to be hand-drawn.

Art students were the best option – there weren’t even any interior design programs in China yet!

Standing in the clothing store, Gong Yang noticed the gleaming crystalline tiles and the luxurious use of crystal lamps and mirrors – had he found a wealthy client? Since Xia Xiaolan wasn’t short on money, Gong Yang suppressed his desire to ask her to model. While ordinary people found her pretty, to art students like Gong Yang, she inspired creativity – no need for copying, Xia Xiaolan’s beauty gave him plenty of inspiration.

Hearing Xia Xiaolan hint at similar work, Gong Yang couldn’t help but ask more.

Xia Xiaolan pointed at the store, “Like this renovation – could you draw something like this? I can sketch simple layouts and furniture styles, but for coloring and showing others what a room would look like after renovation, I might need your help!”

Gong Yang had never done interior design drawings.

But with layouts and styles provided, he’d just need to add color – it didn’t seem too difficult.

He looked around the store again – the layout and color scheme were quite attractive. While Xia Xiaolan was talking with Gong Yang, nobody interrupted. After he left, Liu Yong spoke up: “Xiaolan, you want him to be some kind of interior designer?”

Xia Xiaolan explained that renovation work needed specialized designers who could create plans for workers to follow.

Currently, she and Liu Yong are doing the design work together, but Xia Xiaolan couldn’t always draw plans – she had her work. She thought about training two “designers” who could draw renderings, but a Shangdu University graduate wouldn’t agree to work for an individual businessman like Liu Yong.

Regardless of their major, the state would assign Gong Yang a job after graduation.

In this era, official employment was paramount. Even if Liu Yong offered several times the salary, he couldn’t recruit a college graduate. Who knew how long private employment would last? People believed state-assigned jobs were reliable. The salary might vary, but state units wouldn’t fail. “Laid off” became a term only in the 90s – in ’84, state-assigned jobs were iron rice bowls!

That’s why even Zhuo Na could dismissively think of Xia Xiaolan as just a vulgar private business owner.

If full-time designers from art programs wouldn’t work, why not part-time?

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “Let’s try working together first, and see if he can do it well.”

If Gong Yang couldn’t manage, it wasn’t a problem – Shangdu University had an art department, and the country had specialized art academies. There would surely be other students like Gong Yang who needed to sell artwork to support their art studies. Xia Xiaolan had many options.

Li Feimei finally read the poster’s content.

She couldn’t appreciate the artistry, but she could read the large characters:

“Spring Customer Appreciation Event: Spend 168 yuan in one purchase, receive a free pair of stockings…”