"I’m hungry too," Qin Xiangyang’s stomach grumbled with hunger.
"Shall we go to a restaurant to eat?"
Qin Xiangyang’s mouth watered at the thought; there were several state-owned restaurants here, with the smell of food wafting out now and then, making both siblings drool.
"Sure," Qin Xiangnuan picked one and followed her older brother inside.
Nowadays, the dishes at state-owned restaurants are very cheap. However, Qin Xiangnuan didn’t know which one was tasty. In her past life, how could she have afforded to eat out? By the time she had a little money, these restaurants were gone, replaced by more and more privately-owned ones, until not a trace of state-owned restaurants could be found.
They ordered a serving of fried meatballs, a portion of braised pork ribs, an egg drop soup, and two bowls of rice. The fried meatballs cost nine cents a bowl, the braised pork ribs one yuan and fifty cents a portion, the egg drop soup only ten cents, and the rice five cents a bowl.
Sometimes, when Qin Xiangnuan thought about the tens of thousands saved in her passbook, she couldn’t imagine how that amount could be equivalent to hundreds of thousands, even tens of millions in the future.
Keeping money in the bank would result in the most severe depreciation. Therefore, she needed to find a way to convert it into something that could appreciate in value. What could appreciate and what did she want most for the future?
She bit on her chopsticks and began to seriously consider for the first time how she would live her future days. As for the factory manager’s side, she wasn’t worried. The introduction of foreign capital would benefit his factory the most, as the building originally had many shops, so it wasn’t impossible to allocate three shops to her.
After a full meal, the siblings had some ribs left over, which they packed to take home for Granny Lu to eat. Seeing there was some egg drop soup left in the bowl, Qin Xiangnuan picked it up and drank it down with a few gulps, then wiped her mouth.
A few days passed, and the factory manager personally came to their door.
"Here’s the contract, take a look."
The factory manager was in a hurry, wishing he could get the contract signed immediately. The foreign party was getting impatient, and if they waited any longer, he feared an opportunity might slip through his fingers. Hence, he came personally today, determined to get the contract signed on the spot.
Qin Xiangnuan took the contract and read through it one by one. It clearly stated the ownership issue of their market, transferring the remaining fifteen years of the lease to three shops in the new building. Ownership of the shops would be theirs, equivalent to a purchase.
After reading through the contract again and finding nothing amiss, she handed it to Qin Xiangyang, who then wrote his name on it.
The factory manager took the signed contract and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Qin Xiangnuan folded the other copy of the contract and placed it in the cabinet. She was not particularly elated at the moment; she was thinking about how to invest that money.
"Brother, shall we go to the Capital City in a few days?"
Qin Xiangnuan turned her head and said to Qin Xiangyang.
"Yeah, okay," Qin Xiangyang nodded, not asking for the reason. If his sister said they should go, then they would go.
Granny Lu knew they were going to Beijing and didn’t ask much, just helped them prepare their clothes. Right before they boarded the train, she cooked them lots of eggs to eat on the way.
At that time, train tickets were not issued under a real-name system, and the trains were the oldest kind of green-colored trains. The siblings bought sleeper tickets; after all, Wen City was far from Beijing, and it usually took nearly a day to travel. Considering how slow the green-colored trains were, it might take two days and nights to reach the Capital City.