Siheyuan: Banggeng and I are classmates

As soon as we walked out of the courtyard, Yang Liu joked, "You're great. You have a courtyard under your name but you didn't tell me about it. Now you can use it to please your father-in-law."

"What's a courtyard?" Li Muhua said cheerfully, "I have 18 courtyards in my name, and even my parents don't know about them."

"I now have someone dedicated to collecting rent for me, finding tenants, and handling tenant issues!"

"I earned 1224 yuan last month. In two months, I can buy another yard."

Li Muhua said this with great pride.

He earns 1224 yuan a month, which is two years' income for most people. However, he was able to make a fortune because he caught this wave of opportunities.

You have to know that hundreds of thousands of educated youth suddenly returned to the city, and the units began to not distribute housing, so housing in the city was so scarce that it was even more scarce than job vacancies.

This results in abnormally high rents. A house of more than ten square meters usually costs more than ten yuan, but the house price is not that high, only more than thirty yuan per square meter.

This is not surprising. After all, the average salary is only 30 or 40 yuan now. Raising the rent can help tenants save money, but house prices cannot go up to the sky.

If it costs over ten thousand, no one can afford it.

But even if housing prices are cheap, after experiencing the events of recent years, some people dare not buy houses even if they have money in their hands. Instead, they are eager to sell their houses at low prices and use all kinds of connections to go abroad.

As a result of all these factors, Li Muhua was able to get such a huge bargain.

"18 courtyards—" Yang Liu's eyes, which were originally full of smiles, could not help but freeze. She stopped and asked in shock: "Where did you get the money to buy so many courtyards?"

"You can't do anything speculative. Getting caught is no joke." Yang Liu hurriedly grabbed Li Muhua, panic in his eyes.

Li Muhua smiled and said: "I didn't engage in speculation, I just bought and rented a house, which was all legal and compliant. I didn't hoard goods, buy short and sell short, or buy and resell."

"Don't worry!"

Yang Liu didn't believe it at all. She looked straight at Li Muhua and said, "Don't try to fool me. Even one yard would cost at least five or six thousand yuan, let alone eighteen yards."

"You have never worked in these years. You have either been in school or in the production team. You have not written books to earn royalties. You can't even afford a courtyard, let alone 18 courtyards!"

Li Muhua couldn't refute her words, so she could only say: "This money is indeed not earned by me. I once saved a family's life, and he gave it to me to express his gratitude."

"Is he Lou Xiao'e's father?"

Yang Liu immediately thought of this person. After all, Lou Xiao'e had just come to the Li family a few years ago to thank them for saving her life. Her family was a big capitalist and they always wanted to send her abroad and give her a house and a car.

It was normal to take out a large sum of money to thank Li Muhua back then.

Seeing that Yang Liu guessed correctly, Li Muhua was not prepared to keep it a secret any longer, so he nodded and said, "It was him. I saved his family's life back then, and we got along very well, so I accepted some gold bars. This way, I can save a lot of trouble when doing business in the future!"

"But it seems that he didn't tell Lou Xiao'e, otherwise Lou Xiao'e wouldn't have mentioned my business, and she wouldn't have been surprised that I was still living in the old courtyard!"

Seeing that Li Muhua had no intention of admitting his mistake and was instead very proud of it, Yang Liu became furious.

He said seriously, "You are also breaking the law. You helped someone escape. Not to mention that the gold he gave was stolen goods, private individuals are not allowed to possess and sell gold. The amount of gold that can buy 18 houses is a huge amount. These charges are enough to get you shot."

"Doing business is just speculation."

Yang Liu spoke very seriously, with visible panic in her eyes. She had never thought that Li Muhua would commit a capital crime behind her back.

Li Muhua quickly explained: "She didn't abscond. Now Lou Xiao'e is a Hong Kong businessman who is welcomed by the country to invest in the mainland. Her family's situation was considered as going abroad, and the government even returned her old house."

"As for gold, I only bought these houses last year. You can think that the gold was brought back to China by her. It is increasing the amount of gold in China, which is good for the country."

"I didn't sell them. I just bartered with the owners. These landlords basically sold their houses because they wanted to go abroad. They didn't interfere with the domestic market at all. You can also think that they completed the transaction with Lou Xiao'e's father in a foreign country. These houses are gifts in China."

This sophistry makes so much sense that even Yang Liu cannot refute it.

So I asked directly: "I can listen to your explanation, but if someone investigates you, will they listen to your sophistry?"

"My father is a senior general in the army, and you were praised by the instructor as an advanced youth. Suddenly, you have nearly 20 properties under your name, and the funds used to purchase them are all unknown. Your explanation doesn't make sense."

After saying this, Yang Liu began to persuade softly again.

"Muhua, we only live in one of the 18 courtyards, and you only sleep in one room. Why did you buy so many courtyards to cause trouble?"

"Are you after the thousand-plus yuan you earn every month?" Yang Liu asked.

"Our family is already well off, and your food, clothing, and daily expenses have long exceeded those of ordinary people. It won't be much better than it is now. When we graduate from Hua University, our future will be bright. Do you really want these houses to cause you to go to jail or get shot?"

Seeing Yang Liu was so worried about him, Li Muhua said seriously: "I'm not after this little money. I can earn this much money by writing two books. I'm not after these houses either. Just like you said, I know I can only sleep in a three-foot space."

"I can foresee that reform and opening up is a mighty torrent that everyone will be part of. The market economy is the future direction of development, and the system will undergo earth-shaking changes in a few years."

"I have a clear vision and know what my future path should be. It is not to go into politics, join the army, write books, or find a job at a random unit. Instead, I want to do business and practice the saying that science and technology are the primary productive force. I want to be one step ahead of others when they are still confused."

"Not only do I want to stand at the forefront of this torrent, I also want to bring the tide higher."

"It is far less clear to see the future than to see the past." Li Muhua said seriously, "I know you don't understand my behavior, and you may even be confused."

"But don't worry, even if I speculate, I know what I am doing. I won't do things like speculation, buying low and selling high, or being a profiteer, or causing gossip."

Li Muhua spoke passionately, with light in his eyes.

Everyone knows that choice is more important than hard work. He knows all the right choices and naturally cannot miss them.

Seeing Li Muhua so confident and heroic, with an attitude that he looked down on everyone in the world, Yang Liu's eyes softened.

She was also moved that Li Muhua had such ambition.