Xiao Sun immediately thought of a reason, "Brother Zhou, no one's home today, the door's locked, we can't check!"

"Brother Zhou, I can see you really want to buy. Give me your price range, and I'll negotiate a lower price for us!"

"You can rest assured about this. You definitely won't suffer any losses from me, Xiao Sun. You'll be buying an expensive house!"

As he spoke, he patted his chest, looking earnest and confident.

Zhou Hongsong didn't speak, but glanced at Li Xiangdong again. Seeing that Li Xiangdong's face was expressionless, he chuckled and said, "Well, raising it by five thousand yuan is a bit too much. Can you talk to me about it some more?"

Xiao Sun's face drooped a little, but he quickly regained his composure, though he seemed reluctant to continue the conversation.

"Okay, Brother Zhou, I'll go talk to you first, and we'll contact each other again later."

As he spoke, he got up to say goodbye.

After seeing Xiao Sun off, Zhou Hongsong asked Li Xiangdong, "Dongzi, do you think Xiao Sun took the five thousand yuan himself?"

Li Xiangdong watched Xiao Sun's figure disappear around the corner of the alley, then slowly said, "I guess they saw that we really wanted that house, so they took the opportunity to raise the price."

Zhou Hongsong said, "This little Sun is really slippery!"

Luo Yonggang also said, "This is outrageous! A price increase of five thousand yuan!"

Bai Yulong: "If we don't make any business for three years, we'll live off our profits for three years!"

Li Xiangdong laughed, "Haha, isn't this the kind of money they make? But I think he'll have to lower it by another one or two thousand in a couple of days."

"That's still a bit expensive!"

Zhou Hongmei added a sentence.

Zhou Hongsong suggested, "Hey, Dongzi, you haven't seen that house yet. Since we have nothing to do now, let's go take a look!"

Li Xiangdong readily agreed, "Sure, maybe we'll even run into Xiao Sun!"

————

If you take the bus, you need to transfer twice to get from Tianshui Hutong to Douzui Hutong, and then walk several kilometers.

At that time, there were no taxis for ordinary people. Occasionally, an imported Crown would pass by on the street, but that was used to pick up experts or foreign guests, and ordinary people had no access to it.

When Li Xiangdong and his group arrived at the house in Douzui Hutong, it was already past five in the afternoon.

The sun was setting low in the west, a deep, bright red, which dyed the surrounding clouds red as well.

The light was insufficient; half the sky was blue, and the other half was red.

A clear pigeon whistle sounded from afar, and a flock of pigeons flew over their heads with a whoosh, quickly disappearing into the horizon.

This was the first time Li Xiangdong had seen his master's old house.

No. 165, Douzui Hutong, Xicheng District, Yanjing City.

The road in front of the gate is paved with bluestone slabs, and there is a ginkgo tree that is hundreds of years old to the west of the gate.

Everything matches up.

However, the house in front of them did not look quite like the one their master had described.

The mottled wooden door, the dilapidated walls, and the roof of the side room overgrown with weeds—it looked utterly run-down at first glance.

Zhou Hongsong had already found out: "There's an old man who looks after the house here. It seems the owner doesn't live here! Let's go in and chat with the old man!"

Stepping up the stairs, I found the gate unlocked. I gently pushed it open and saw a screen wall with a large "福" (good fortune) character on it, next to which stood a rose bush and a canna lily.

Bai Yulong looked around and said, "It's quite clean inside, unlike outside."

Who is it?

"Huh? Someone's here—"

Two voices came from the gatehouse next door at the same time.

"Crunch~"

The red-painted wooden door was pushed open, and two people came out. The one in front was an acquaintance—Xiao Sun, whom I had just met—and the one behind was an old man with gray hair.

"Oh, it's Little Sun!"

"Ha, Brother Zhou, what brings you here?"

Xiao Sun opened his mouth slightly in surprise, but quickly came over with a grin and said, "Brother Zhou, didn't you want to see the house? I came over right away, but I didn't expect Grandpa Wei to come back suddenly. I just made an appointment with him to come and see the house tomorrow or the day after."

Zhou Hongsong, with his hands behind his back, also smiled, "Now we don't need to wait until tomorrow or the day after; we can watch it today."

"Okay, I'll show you."

Grandpa Wei glanced at them and loudly asked Xiao Sun, "Xiao Sun, what do these people do?"

Little Sun leaned close to Grandpa Wei's ear and shouted, "My friend! I'm showing my friend the house!"

"Okay, go ahead!"

The old man wasn't very hard of hearing, so he answered loudly and then added, "Don't touch anything in the house!"

"knew--"

Grandpa Wei waved his hand, indicating that they should go and see for themselves, and then turned and went back to his house.

The house has three main rooms, three rear rooms, two east wing rooms, two west wing rooms, and the kitchen is located in the west wing room, which also has a honeycomb briquette stove.

The main gate is located in the middle of the back building. Grandpa Wei's gatehouse is the room on the right side of the back building, and the room on the left side is said to be a place for visitors to rest temporarily.

The house was spotless, but it was clear that no one had lived there for a long time.

As Xiao Sun led them around, he introduced the house, saying, "Brother Zhou, don't let its small size fool you, its location is fantastic! The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and Chang'an Avenue are just a short walk away!"

"If this were in the past, only a high-ranking official of the first rank could live here!"

"This place is incredibly valuable, with land so scarce it's priceless. If we buy it now, we can expect the value to rise significantly!"

At that time, the concept of commercial housing had just been proposed, and everyone lived in houses allocated by the state. No one realized that housing would one day become a vehicle for finance and the most important wealth for ordinary Chinese families.

Therefore, despite Xiao Sun's silver tongue, no one in the group except Li Xiangdong believed that his words would come true.

A house is just for living in, how can it appreciate in value?

This house is getting older and older, so it's definitely going to be sold at a lower price!

Seeing the skeptical looks on everyone's faces, Xiao Sun persisted, trying to brainwash them, "Think about it, this is a courtyard house! A courtyard house in our capital! Every Chinese person dreams of living in a courtyard house in the capital!"

Nobody believes in its investment value; they're just selling sentimentality again.

Li Xiangdong now admires Xiao Sun immensely. With his abilities, he'll definitely rise to prominence in a few decades!

Despite Sun's efforts to speak until he was almost dry, Zhou Hongsong simply wouldn't spit out a word.

Just then, Bai Yulong ran over and whispered something in Li Xiangdong's ear.

Xiao Sun looked at them suspiciously, feeling a strange sense of unease. How come she hadn't noticed that the man was gone?

After Bai Yulong finished speaking with Li Xiangdong, he repeated it to Zhou Hongsong, who had come over.

Zhou Hongsong was increasingly surprised as he listened. His eyes, which had been smiling just moments before, widened into round, copper bell-like eyes in an instant.

He shouted, "Little Sun! That's not fair of you!"