Pei Qian walked and looked around while considering his options.

Several stores in this area were undergoing renovation, which meant that if he placed his high-end restaurant nearby, the risk of exposure would greatly increase.

So all the locations he had identified over the past few days were now useless.

As Pei Qian continued walking, he unconsciously arrived near the Mingyun Villa residential area.

Looking at the faintly visible villas halfway up the mountain in the distance, Pei Qian fell into deep thought.

The Mingyun Villa residential area was originally built at the foot of a nameless small mountain (or more accurately, a small mound) on the outskirts of Jinzhou City. Most villas were at the foot of the mountain, but some were built halfway up the slope, the so-called “hilltop villas.”

However, as Pei Qian understood it, the Mingyun Villa properties weren’t selling well, especially those built halfway up the mountain—they were selling particularly poorly.

As for why they weren’t selling well, there were mainly two reasons.

First, villas had almost no investment value because the total price was too high, and there were too few people with the capacity to buy them.

Mingyun Villa was a suburban villa complex. To buy here, the buyer would need to at least own a city property of equivalent value, and most people weren’t willing to live in the suburbs permanently.

If they bought it just for vacations, to stay occasionally, then the cost-effectiveness was too low.

So after buying, it was easy to get stuck with the property, unless one was a super-rich person with too much money who treated this as a pure consumer product. Generally, wealthy people wouldn’t tend to buy here.

Second, the hilltop villas at Mingyun Villa were modeled after foreign mountain villas, all specially designed by designers, and came fully furnished, so the average price was much higher than the villas at the foot of the mountain.

They even built infinity pools halfway up the mountain, emphasizing flashiness.

However, after they went on sale, most people weren’t buying into it.

On one hand, the average price was too high; on the other hand, wealthy people who bought villas generally had special requirements for decoration. Some people simply didn’t approve of the designer’s proposals and insisted on being innovative.

Many wealthy people created layouts that were difficult to describe, like putting Eight Immortals tables in Baroque buildings, red wooden furniture in French villas, stone lions at the entrance of Mediterranean villas, artificial mountains and koi ponds in courtyards, European neoclassical elements in Chinese villas…

These were all basic operations.

For many wealthy people, after buying a villa, the first thing they did was knock down walls and yards to change the appearance, directly turning the designer’s nicely crafted villa into a self-built house, and even adding a bunch of illegal structures.

After all, not all wealthy people had good taste, but all wealthy people had special customization requirements for villas.

So the few hilltop villas at Mingyun Villa were in a very awkward position.

With included decoration and unique design, the price was already much higher, and crucially, many wealthy people didn’t like it.

The wealthy would think: after buying this villa, I’d still have to strip all the decoration and spend at least one or two million on redecoration myself. I might as well just buy an unfurnished house.

With this back and forth, there was no cost-effectiveness at all.

Therefore, the few hilltop villas at Mingyun Villa were selling the worst—a failure among failures.

What was even more frustrating was that a portion of land in the villa area was for mixed commercial and residential use, so a small portion of villas were designated as mixed commercial and residential properties. In terms of layout, these mixed commercial and residential villas were closer to the northwest gate and were isolated from other purely residential areas, making them even more neglected.

But Pei Qian thought, Isn’t this place great?

If he could open a restaurant here, wouldn’t it be even less likely to be discovered?

Compared to the locations of the previous commercial spaces, this was even more hidden!

In terms of feasibility, mixed commercial and residential villas could be used for commercial purposes as long as they met the relevant department requirements for fire safety, sanitation, etc.

Pei Qian was opening a high-end restaurant, which would meet all relevant standards.

Next, he also needed to consider the impact on surrounding residents.

A restaurant might cause noise, disturbances, vehicle management issues, and affect the normal lives of surrounding residents.

This shouldn’t be a major problem either.

Because the mixed commercial and residential villas were separated from the purely residential area, and the hilltop villas were isolated, with no other buildings around.

In the planning, this mixed commercial and residential villa area had a dedicated side entrance, facilitating vehicle access.

This restaurant wouldn’t attract many people; at most, Pei Qian would bring employees over for a meal. They would only eat, without activities like singing, and would disperse before 8 PM, causing no disturbance.

Compared to the previous commercial spaces, this place was more hidden and less likely to be discovered!

Who would expect a restaurant to be hidden in a villa complex?

Pei Qian was pleased. See, this was a blessing in disguise.

The identified commercial spaces had been abandoned, but in the blink of an eye, he had found an even better location!

The only question was whether these villas could be rented, how much the rent would be, and if they couldn’t be rented, whether they could be purchased.

The system stipulated that Pei Qian couldn’t engage in large-scale property acquisition or property speculation.

But using system funds to buy a mixed commercial and residential property for a restaurant, under the company’s name, without large-scale acquisition or intention to speculate—that shouldn’t be a problem, right?

With this thought, Pei Qian led Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan directly toward Mingyun Villa.

Zhang Yuan was even more confused.

What was Mr. Pei thinking?

Having just happened to stroll to Mingyun Villa, he suddenly had the impulse to buy a villa for himself.

Well, with Mr. Pei’s income, buying a villa here certainly wouldn’t be difficult.

Zhang Yuan didn’t think too much about it, just following behind Pei Qian.

…

Upon arriving at the sales office and explaining their purpose, the front desk staff made a phone call. The three of them drank some tea and waited about half an hour before a manager surnamed Cui rushed over.

Manager Cui was puzzled on the way, wondering how a customer had actively come to the sales office today. This was truly rare.

It was like someone actively going to an insurance company front desk to buy insurance—an unusual occurrence.

These Mingyun Villa properties had been on sale since the launch, and with handovers occurring nearly a year ago, wealthy people who were interested had bought long ago. Who would still be waiting until now?

But regardless, having a customer visit was always a good thing. Even if they weren’t serious buyers and just came to look around, they still deserved to be received.

After greeting Manager Cui, Pei Qian got straight to the point.

“Manager Cui, can your hilltop villas be rented?”

Manager Cui had just sat down and was about to take a sip of tea, but almost spat it out.

The young man before him was wearing a custom-tailored suit and didn’t look short on money. How was he here not to buy a house but to rent one??

According to relevant regulations, developers could rent out properties as long as they had ownership rights.

But who could afford to rent these villas?

If rented at market price, one of these houses would cost at least twenty to thirty thousand yuan a month. Who would be so bored as to rent a villa in such a remote place? This wasn’t suitable for permanent residence!

Moreover, even if someone wanted to rent, the developer wouldn’t be willing to rent it out.

These villas were all fully decorated, with exterior swimming pools and various furniture requiring regular maintenance. Cleaning needed to be done periodically, and there was always the possibility that a wealthy person might be interested and buy it.

Renting to tenants aside from maintenance concerns, the developer simply wasn’t interested in the twenty to thirty thousand yuan monthly rent.

Manager Cui looked apologetic: “I’m very sorry, sir, our villas are only for sale, not for rent.”

Pei Qian nodded, having anticipated this: “Is that so? That’s too bad.”

“Then I can only buy it.”

These words were meant for the system to hear: Look, it’s not that I’m unwilling to save costs for the company. I just set my heart on this house for a restaurant, but they only sell, not rent!

Manager Cui, across from him, was a bit bewildered.

What did he mean by “too bad” and “can only buy it”??

He seemed so reluctant!

Pei Qian took a sip of tea and casually asked about the price.

Manager Cui quickly replied: “For our hilltop villas, the usable area is about 600 square meters, with private elevators, swimming pools, gardens, and decoration. The price is around 12,000 yuan per square meter, with a total price of about 6.3 million.”

Pei Qian was silent for a moment: “It seems… not that expensive?”