Li Cuihua's home is about 500 meters away from where Fu Wan and the others got off the bus.
It was a cluster of low, mud-brick houses. Two chickens were pecking at the door, and a small plot of land surrounded it, where some wilted vegetable seedlings were growing.
Seeing Fu Wan's gaze linger on her own vegetable garden, Li Cuihua smiled shyly.
"Oh dear, the heavy rains in the first half of the month caused the river to rise and flood my vegetables."
There was no resentment in her tone, clearly indicating that she was already used to this kind of thing.
Hearing Li Cuihua's voice, an old man came out of the house.
"Cuihua, is that you back?"
Li Cuihua responded, "Yes, I'll bring the two comrades over to the riverbank for a look."
After saying that, she introduced him to Fu Wan and the other woman, "This is my father. He was injured in an accident many years ago and can't see anymore."
Fu Wan also noticed the old man's white cane. At that moment, a woman's voice came from inside the house.
"Mother, why are you back so early today?"
Li Cuihua repeated what she had just said to her father. Through the open door, Fu Wan saw a girl with braided pigtails sitting on the bed.
“This is my daughter. She got sick when she was little and couldn’t walk afterward.”
Li Cuihua wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, then pointed to the nearby houses.
“I know everyone in this area. There are fifteen households in total, and they are all extremely poor.”
Those who made money have all moved away, leaving only those of us without money.
“Look at that house on the far east side. Only the old man is left at home. Everyone else has gone out to find work.”
The family on the left used to raise three chickens, but they all drowned during the recent rains. My chickens probably wouldn't have survived either if my dad hadn't caught them beforehand.
“Every year when it rains here, the river rises easily, and we can’t grow vegetables or raise chickens. It’s hard to survive.”
Fu Wan and Fang Min listened to what Li Cuihua was saying and didn't know what to say for a while.
At that moment, she began to understand why Qiao Zhenguo wanted to vigorously develop Pudong's economy.
The people are suffering. This place is nothing like the skyscrapers they lived in yesterday!
"You, has no one ever come here to develop this place before?"
It took Fu Wan a long time to find her voice.
Li Cuihua shook her head. "No, the developed areas are all the good ones. This place is all mud. When it rains, the river rushes up and washes everything away. Who would dare to develop it?"
After saying that, she looked at Fu Wan.
“Young comrades, I can tell you’re all good people. Take my advice, this place isn’t suitable for your development.”
At this moment, Grandpa Li, who was sitting on the threshold, also spoke up to advise: "Young man, this place is not suitable. Buying land here is just foolish!"
"If you throw a silver dollar into the Huangpu River, at least you'll make a splash. But throwing it here is just a waste of money!"
Grandpa Li's withered hands trembled incessantly, and his white cane shook along with them.
This old man was so thin that even Grandpa Fu from Fujia Village was twice as fat as him.
He was hunched over, his face bearing the marks of time.
Fu Wan knew he meant well, so she could only nod reassuringly.
"Grandpa, Auntie, I understand. Don't worry. Things will get better and better."
Grandpa Li remained silent, and Li Cuihua also kept quiet.
They've heard these words a thousand times, and now they're numb to them.
After looking around, Fu Wan took out another five yuan and asked Li Cuihua to take them back to where they had come from.
This time, Li Cuihua refused to accept it no matter what. Only after Fu Wan left and Li Cuihua tidied up the back seat of the tricycle did she discover that there were five ten-yuan bills under the seat.
Meanwhile, Fu Wan returned to the hotel, retrieved the information Xiao Yufeng and Qiao Zhenguo had given her the day before, and dialed a number on it using her mobile phone.
"Hello, I'm Fu Wan. Yes, I want to buy land in Pudong."
Soon, a car pulled up in front of the hotel, and Xiao Yufeng sat in the back.
As soon as Fu Wan got into the car, Xiao Yufeng couldn't wait to ask, "Comrade Fu, which piece of land have you taken a fancy to?"
Fu Wan smiled mysteriously, "You'll find out when we get to the Land Development Bureau."
They became acquainted during just one meal last night.
Fu Wan chatted with Xiao Yufeng the whole way, while Fang Min sat in the passenger seat, holding Fu Wan's bankbook and mobile phone.
The car arrived at the Land Bureau quickly. It was a car that Qiao Zhenguo had lent to Xiao Yufeng. Because of the booming sales fair, after dismissing Luo Jianwen, Qiao Zhenguo not only appointed Xiao Yufeng as the president of the sales fair, but also specifically assigned her to be in charge of connecting with companies developing in Pudong.
To buy land, you need to fill out a letter of intent. Xiao Yufeng gave this to Fu Wan yesterday, and Fu Wan just filled it out at the hotel.
Fu Wan handed the letter of intent to the section chief in charge of receiving them. Xiao Yufeng also looked at it, and when they saw the contents, they were both shocked.
"Comrade Xiao Fu, are you going to buy that piece of land by the river?"
"Comrade, you bought so much land?"
The two were shocked by different things, and Fu Wan nodded repeatedly.
"Yes, please take a look at the total cost."
Upon hearing this, Section Chief Liu, who was in charge of collecting letters of intent, was dumbfounded. He had just glanced at them and found that Fu Wan had selected dozens of plots of land, totaling over a hundred acres.
This is no small sum of money. Does this person really have that much money?
Xiao Yufeng pulled Fu Wan aside to confirm again and again.
“Developing land along the river is quite difficult. Before building any buildings, we have to do a good job of waterproofing the dam.”
Comrade Xiao Fu, the higher-ups might not be able to allocate that much money in the short term.
Fu Wan waved her hand dismissively, "It's alright, there's no rush. I want all of these lands. Could you please take a look and tell me how much it will cost in total?"
Upon hearing this, Section Chief Liu immediately picked up his abacus and started working on it. After about fifteen minutes, he hesitantly announced a number.
"These lands total 930 mu. If one mu is converted to 666 square meters, that's about 620,000 square meters."
He flipped through the documents in his hand again, then pushed them in front of Fu Wan.
“The current land transfer price for normal residential land in Pudong is 20 yuan per square meter. The area designated by this comrade is mostly wasteland along the river.”
According to recent regulations, the transfer price for riverside wasteland and tidal flats is three yuan per square meter, so the total is over two million two hundred thousand yuan.
When this price was announced, not only was Section Chief Liu, who was doing the accounting, stunned, but even Xiao Yufeng was speechless.
Two million! What does that even mean? She'd never seen so much money in her life.
However, seeing that Fu Wan remained calm, she understood why Qiao Zhenguo valued Fu Wan so much.
This isn't an entrepreneur, he's practically a god of wealth!
Which entrepreneur would think of spending millions to buy a bunch of wasteland?
It's not like I'm stupid and have too much money!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com