Chapter 111 The Reason Behind the Property Purchase

Che Rong sat on the sofa and put the newly processed documents aside.

Li Shi smiled. "It's alright, I just got here too. But... President Che, have you encountered any difficulties lately? Why are you selling your house? We're all friends; if you really need money, you can tell me, and I can lend you some to tide you over. There's no need to sell your house."

Che Rong shook his head. "Oh, it's not that. It's just that Xingniao Fitness is planning to open more branches recently, and I figured that the money tied up in those houses wasn't really doing anything, with no potential for appreciation. So I decided to sell them and invest in Xingniao Fitness instead."

Li Shi nodded slightly; this was completely understandable.

Che Rong hadn't sold before because selling might have resulted in a loss, and also because Xingniao Fitness's situation wasn't optimistic at the time. Investing money in it would have mostly been a waste, not worthwhile.

But now, after Xingniao Fitness switched to a new model, the response was enthusiastic, and profitability was higher than expected. Although there were other investors, for Che Rong, more investment meant more profit, which was better than keeping the money tied up in real estate.

Li Shi casually asked, "Which houses were they?"

Che Rong replied, "Oh, in Jixiang Garden residential area, not far north of the Snack Market."

Li Shi put down his teacup and thought for a moment. "North of the Snack Market? Oh, I remember that place; I went there to inspect it before."

"You selling it isn't a big deal, after all, that place is a bit far from the Snack Market, so it doesn't really benefit much from it. It's better to get rid of it early and invest the money in Xingniao Fitness for greater returns."

"It's not really accurate to say it's a loss or a gain, it's just that the two choices have their own advantages and disadvantages."

Che Rong sipped his tea and casually said, "But speaking of which, an interesting little episode happened when I was selling the house. The person buying it was very young, in his early twenties, and his surname was Pei. When I heard that, I almost had a heart attack, thinking it was President Pei."

"But then I thought, how could it possibly be President Pei? Why would President Pei personally go there to buy a house, haha."

Li Shi didn't take it too seriously and casually asked, "What does he look like?"

Che Rong shook his head. "I don't know; he was wearing a mask the whole time."

"Hmm?" Li Shi put down his teacup.

He hadn't suspected anything at first, after all, there were many young people with the surname Pei in Jingzhou, and the possibility of President Pei buying a house there was very low; it was probably just a coincidence.

But...in the middle of summer, wearing a mask the whole time?

That was very suspicious!

Li Shi remembered that President Pei did like to wear a mask, especially when he was "going on incognito inspections," to avoid being recognized.

Could it be...?

Although Li Shi thought this was unlikely, it was still possible.

Suddenly, his gaze fell on the stack of documents next to Che Rong.

Who exactly was this buyer? Wouldn't he know if he looked at the contract?

"President Che, do you mind if I take a look at the contract?" Li Shi asked.

"Oh, sure. But President Li, why do you want to see the contract?" Che Rong put down his teacup and handed over the contract.

Li Shi flipped through it and then fell silent.

Che Rong noticed the change in Li Shi's expression and asked, "President Li? What's wrong?"

Li Shi looked at the documents repeatedly, clearly finding it difficult to accept the conclusion, but he still calmed himself down and said, "The person who bought your house is really President Pei himself..."

"Ah?" Che Rong was completely stunned, unable to accept it for a moment.

That was President Pei?

When he was selling the house, he was calling him "little brother" the whole time!

Luckily, he hadn't talked about his glorious entrepreneurial history just because the other person looked young, or else he would have been so ashamed that he would have wanted to find a hole to crawl into!

Li Shi handed back the documents. "How could this be fake? I can't mistake President Pei's photo, can I?"

Che Rong asked in confusion, "But...why would President Pei go there to buy a house? And do it himself? Handle the procedures himself?"

"This is completely illogical!"

Li Shi nodded slightly. "Yes... it's completely illogical."

Logically speaking, why would President Pei want to buy a house there? There were so many good residential areas in Jingzhou; if President Pei wanted to buy a house, he probably already had several villas, right? Why would he buy a 170-square-meter house in an ordinary residential area?

What's more, even if he wanted to buy one, couldn't he just have his subordinates do it? Why hide his identity and handle the procedures himself?

Unless...

President Pei didn't want others to know, and had another purpose?

That was probably the only possible explanation!

Li Shi frowned and fell into deep thought.

Che Rong didn't dare to disturb him; clearly, anything involving President Pei was no small matter.

There must be some hidden story behind this!

It was just that he didn't have the ability to analyze it; he could only rely on President Li for this kind of thing.

Li Shi stroked his chin and began to analyze.

"Why exactly did President Pei want to buy this house?"

"Investment? Definitely not. If it were an investment, he definitely wouldn't just buy this one; he would have sent his subordinates to buy the entire building."

"Living there himself? There's a certain possibility, but it's not very likely. A 170-square-meter house is very ordinary for President Pei; even if President Pei wanted to live there, he would probably live in a large flat in the city center or a villa in the suburbs. Not to mention anything else, the large flat in Sloth Apartments is much bigger than this one, and it's also closer to the company."

"So...the only explanation is that this is, at most, one of President Pei's many properties, bought to be able to observe the Snack Market and Sloth Apartments up close!"

Che Rong nodded slightly; clearly, President Li's analysis was very reasonable.

"But...if he wanted to observe the Snack Market and Sloth Apartments up close, he should have bought a house closer, right?" Che Rong asked in confusion.

There were many houses near the Snack Market, and those closer to the Snack Market had been speculated to over ten thousand. But even at over ten thousand, President Pei wouldn't be unable to afford it, and he certainly wouldn't consider it too expensive.

For President Pei, was there any difference between the average price of eight thousand and ten thousand?

Then why buy this house that was a bit further away from the Snack Market?

Li Shi took the map. "The only explanation is...there are factors in this location that we can't see."

"Look, here's Jixiang Garden residential area. To its southwest is the Snack Market, and to its southeast is Thrill Amusement Park, roughly forming an isosceles triangle."

"If it were just for these two projects, the house should have been bought on the edge of Snack Street. But now there's inexplicably more distance."

"Doesn't this mean...there will also be some projects to the north of Jixiang Garden residential area in the future?"

"If new projects also open to the north of Jixiang Garden residential area, then it makes sense. This house can simultaneously monitor multiple projects, and the distance to each project is within an acceptable range!"

"As for why President Pei wore a mask and handled the procedures himself...clearly, he didn't want to let the secret out and attract too much attention!"

Che Rong was stunned for a moment, and then said, "Then President Li, do you mean that the houses in this area are going to appreciate in value? Then I sold at a loss!"

Li Shi glanced at him. "Fool! Can you lose out selling to President Pei?"

"President Pei will definitely make it up to you in other ways!"

"Think carefully, did President Pei say anything to you?"

Che Rong tried hard to recall. "Uh... when we were chatting before, President Pei did ask about the name of the gym. But it was just a casual question; he didn't say anything else."

Li Shi nodded slightly. "That's right! President Pei is definitely planning to privately invest a sum of money in Xingniao Fitness, otherwise he wouldn't have deliberately asked about it."

Che Rong couldn't help but get excited.

President Pei personally investing money?

Wouldn't that mean Xingniao Fitness was going to take off on the spot?

In fact, now that Xingniao Fitness had received investment from President Li and others, it was already gaining momentum, but it was still separated from Tengda by a layer.

For example, the procurement of smart fitness clothes racks was through President Li's contact with Chang You, which was ultimately separated by several layers.

If the cooperation between the two parties could be affirmed by President Pei, then before, he had only grabbed a leg hair of the golden thigh, but now it was equivalent to grabbing the golden thigh itself!

Che Rong asked, "Then... what are you planning to do, President Li? Pretend not to know? Or buy up a large number of properties in this residential area?"

Clearly, President Pei had already bought a house here, which clearly indicated that the house prices here were definitely going to skyrocket!

Buying in now wouldn't that be the best opportunity?

Li Shi nodded, and then shook his head. "We do need to buy houses here, but... not for speculation to make money."

Che Rong was stunned for a moment. "Why is that?"

Li Shi explained, "Didn't you see that President Pei has always been very opposed to the behavior of 'speculating on real estate'?"

Che Rong carefully recalled. "Well... indeed, when I told President Pei about my experience, especially when I said that I was going to take the money from the house and invest it in the gym, his eyes were quite approving."

"Moreover, if President Pei wanted to speculate on real estate, he would definitely buy a large number of properties here, but as far as I know, he only bought this one."

Li Shi nodded. "Yes, although Tengda Group has also bought some houses so far, it's not much compared to the size of the entire company, and they've all been used to build Sloth Apartments, renting them out at very low prices."

"From this, it can be seen that President Pei is very opposed to the behavior of speculating on real estate."

"So, if we massively buy houses under President Pei's nose and drive up prices, although we can make money, we'll lose President Pei's goodwill. That's completely not worth it!"

Che Rong thought for a moment. "Then... we pretend not to know?"

Li Shi shook his head again. "That won't work either!"

"The reason why President Pei chose to buy a house here must be because of some special reason, knowing that the price here is going to rise."

"Then after a while, these reasons will definitely come to the surface, and others will still come over to speculate on real estate!"

"When that happens, house prices will still be driven up, and we'll be powerless to stop it."

Che Rong asked in confusion, "Then what should we do?"

Li Shi said, "In order to prevent others from speculating, we must buy as many houses here as possible. We'll leave the ones for self-occupation alone; we'll take all the houses in the hands of those real estate speculators while we still can!"

"After buying them, we can learn from the Sloth Apartments model and rent them out relatively cheaply in the form of long-term rentals."

"This way, real estate speculators won't be able to get too high profits from here, and those who really want to live here can live in good houses. Moreover, this behavior should also be recognized by President Pei!"