After returning to the hospital, Li Chu went straight to his wife's office.

"You didn't just get back now, did you? Xu Damao came looking for you twice today."

When Ding Qiunan saw her husband come in, she put down her pen, stood up, and said...

“I’ve been back for a while now. I bumped into him at the door and we went to the restaurant together.”

"How's the restaurant?" Ding Qiunan handed over the water glass on the table.

"It looks pretty good. They're holding their shareholders' meeting tonight."

What is a shareholders' meeting?

"It was just a meeting between the investors to discuss what to do next."

"Oh! I understand!" Ding Qiunan nodded in sudden realization.

"By the way, Li Chu, Jia Yuan is getting married next month, what should we give her then?"

"What else are you going to give me? Didn't you already give me that set of gold jewelry?"

"Can we really afford to just give her that? She's your only niece."

"What are you saying?" Li Chu looked at his wife with amusement. "It's as if I have many nephews. We're marrying off a daughter, not taking a wife. The dowry can't be too much, otherwise, what will your uncle's family think?"

He paused for a moment and then said, "Actually, the best dowry is already the help my brother-in-law gave me in getting Lin Li into the Finance Bureau."

"Why do you say that?" Ding Qiunan asked, somewhat puzzled.

"The Bureau of Materials has been doing well these past two years, but you'll see in a few years. Once the supply of materials is determined by the market, the Bureau of Materials will be finished. The Bureau of Finance, on the other hand, is a money-making machine! No matter what, we can't do without this unit."

Ding Qiunan listened with a vague understanding; she still couldn't quite figure out what exactly the Finance Bureau did.

Li Chu could tell from his wife's expression that she hadn't understood, so he had to explain it to her in more detail again.

After Jia Yuan was admitted to university, she resigned from her job at the department store. She majored in accounting and finance and was assigned to the Finance Bureau after graduation.

Before the Lunar New Year, Wang Ziwen helped Lin Li transfer over as well. The young couple are now in the same unit, but not in the same department.

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Good heavens! This organization's status will only get more and more impressive in the future.

The couple chatted idly while Ding Qiunan tidied her desk, ready to go home at any moment.

As soon as they got home that evening, Li Qin came over to invite them over for dinner, and to discuss Jia Yuan's upcoming marriage.

"Xiao Chu, I always feel that it's a bit inappropriate for you to give that room over there to Jia Yuan."

"Sis, how come you also have sexist ideas?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? I am a woman, how could I possibly be sexist?"

There were only four of them having dinner tonight. When Jiadong and the others went to eat, they took Xiaoyu with them.

"That's settled then. To put it bluntly, if Jiayuan and Linli ever have a fight in the future, and she doesn't want to go back to her parents' home and make a big fuss, at least she'll have a temporary place to stay, right?"

"The house they live in after their marriage belongs to Lin Li, after all. If our child suffers any hardship, while you and my brother-in-law are still here, this is her home. But when you're gone, this will be Jia Dong and Xiao Juan's home, and she won't even have any roots."

Li Chu's words silenced the other three people present.

They never imagined that the housing issue could be viewed from this perspective.

"So, when you gave the apartment that was allocated to you by the higher authorities to Wenhui, was that also your reasoning?"

Ding Qiunan, having taken a bite of her steamed bun, turned her head to look at her husband and asked.

“That’s right!” Li Chu nodded. “Moreover, as the capital, Beijing’s development will definitely be very rapid; it would be no exaggeration to describe it as changing with each passing day.”

Putting everything else aside, just look at how much the city's population has increased, how many people are homeless, how many three generations are living in tiny rooms of just over ten square meters—it's countless. Take this courtyard you're living in now, for example. Sister, you know how much it cost me when I bought it. Now, how much would it cost to buy the same place? It's more than doubled."

He paused there and started eating.

Wang Ziwen asked thoughtfully, "Xiao Chu, do you mean that housing prices will continue to rise in the future?"

"That's for sure, supply and demand determine market prices."

“But these days, houses are all allocated!” Li Qin couldn’t help but interject.

"Sister, you're right. It's true that many people are now allocated housing, but what if one day they stop allocating housing?"

"This...how is this possible?"

"Why not? There are already people in the south raising funds to build houses."

"What do you mean by pooling funds to build a house?" Wang Ziwen asked hurriedly.

"Let me put it this way, when companies allocate housing, those houses are all paid for by the company, or rather, by the government, right?"

Seeing that the three of them nodded, Li Chu continued, "What if the unit doesn't have the money? The country's finances are tight, and there are too many places that need money. What if they don't allocate funds for building this house?"

Before the other three could say anything, he continued, "If the employees of the unit have nowhere to live, the unit will definitely have to find a solution. The government is not allocating funds, but has only approved a piece of land for you."

If someone wanted to build a house at that time, the work unit would say, "Let's all chip in and build it together. The work unit will contribute a portion, and whoever wants a house will pay for the rest. If you don't have a place to live, will you contribute this money?" This is what collective housing construction is.

"If some organizations in Beijing did this, do you think anyone would foot the bill?"

Is there even a question? Someone will definitely pay for it. There are so many people without a place to live these days. So many people are married with children, yet they're still living in single dormitories.

"So you're certain that house prices will continue to rise?"

Hearing his brother-in-law ask this, Li Chu was stunned for a moment. He thought about twenty or thirty years from now, and it wouldn't just be a price increase, but a price skyrocketing. At the most crazy time, there would be one price in the morning and another in the afternoon, and another every few minutes.

Or they might not even have dug the foundation yet, but they can already make a fortune just by selling pre-sale apartments.

"Prices will definitely rise, but they won't rise too drastically in the next few years. So if there's a suitable opportunity later, I'll buy a few more houses, but I'll buy them in the vicinity of here, not too far away."

Why don't you want an apartment?

"Sister, it's not that I don't want an apartment, but which apartment these days has property rights? They're all company-owned housing; you only have the right to live there, not the right to buy or sell."

"Let's eat first, and chat while we eat. The food will get cold soon," Wang Ziwen said quickly when she saw that everyone had stopped eating.

"You've bought so many houses, aren't you afraid they'll investigate you?"

“What’s there to be afraid of? I report it every year.”