After returning home and opening the door, he saw the old, tiled house. Long unoccupied, it was now in a state of complete disrepair; the kitchen's main beams had collapsed.

Without inhabitants, this kind of tiled house deteriorates rapidly. A past typhoon had lifted the tiles, allowing rain to leak inside. The water caused the wooden beams to rot, accelerating the house's decline. The kitchen was especially bad, as it had been built with adobe bricks. Once water seeped in, the bricks became soaked and easily crumbled.

A reinforced concrete house is far more solid and durable, Yi Anguo thought. Once you seal the doors and windows, not much dust gets in. Even if you come back after a few years, a little tidying up makes it perfectly habitable again. But a tiled house just doesn't hold up. Without someone to care for it, it becomes uninhabitable within a few years.

To make the place livable again would take a tremendous amount of effort and a complete overhaul.

Yi Anguo glanced around briefly, then locked the door again and headed over to Yi Xiaoman's house, where Yi Xiaolin was also waiting for him.

Upon seeing Yi Anguo, Yi Xiaoman immediately stopped what he was doing and greeted him respectfully, "Uncle."

"Xiaoman! How's it going at home? How much can you earn in a year?" Yi Anguo asked with a nod.

"Not much," Yi Xiaoman replied with an embarrassed laugh. "It just offers a bit more freedom. It's slightly better than working for someone else, but not by much."

"That's already very good. If you were working a migrant job, you could make thirty to fifty thousand a year. If you're doing even better than that at home, that's quite impressive," Yi Anguo praised.

"Oh no, not that much! I meant it's better than what I earned as your apprentice," Yi Xiaoman said, still flustered.

"How can you compare it to when you were an apprentice? Didn't I ask you to take my place at the factory as a contractor? If you take on just a couple of apprentices, can't you earn at least three to five thousand a month?" Yi Anguo asked, a little confused.

Just then, Yi Xiaoman's mother, Xie Mudan, came over. "Anguo, you're back! You must come to our place for dinner later!"

"Sister-in-law Mudan, I already promised to have dinner at Sister-in-law Hongmei's place," Yi Anguo said hurriedly.

"Come eat at my place," Yi Xiaolin chimed in. "I've already asked Xiao Li to start cooking. We've got some beef, and we can slaughter a chicken. We can all have a few drinks together."

Since Yi Anguo had already promised to take him along to seek his fortune, Yi Xiaolin felt that, for both personal and logical reasons, tonight's dinner should be at his house.

"I have to drive back to Jian'an to stay the night, so I can't drink," Yi Anguo explained quickly.

"It's rare for you to come back! Just stay in the village for one night," Sister-in-law Mudan suggested. "Your house isn't livable anymore, is it? I have a spare room."

"It's alright, no need to go to all that trouble. The drive back to Jian'an is very convenient now that the road's fixed. It's only about a ten-minute trip."

Of course, Yi Anguo didn't want to be a burden. It was the hottest time of the year, and staying in the village would be a hassle. Taking a shower would be inconvenient, there was no air conditioning, and the mosquitoes were numerous. He wasn't accustomed to it anymore. Seeing his reluctance, they didn't push the matter. After all, most people dislike staying in others' homes; it feels like an imposition on the host and an inconvenience for the guest.

"Xiaoman! Why didn't you want to stay at the factory? I thought you were earning quite a bit here at home," Yi Anguo said, returning to their previous conversation.

"How could he possibly have your kind of talent?" Sister-in-law Mudan interjected, a hint of frustration with her son in her voice. "He said the factory is full of scheming. After you left, the supervisor only gave him the leftover jobs—scattered pieces that nobody else wanted, with low pay and tight deadlines."

"When it was time to deliver the finished goods, the inspections were incredibly strict. They'd say this was wrong, that was wrong, not letting even the smallest issue slide.

"He said that when he was working with you, deliveries were easy. But when he took over, even when there was nothing wrong with the product, the receivers would claim there were problems. They'd mark it up with chalk, telling him to wipe this spot or scrape that one, ordering him around constantly.

"They claimed the orders were urgent, yet the pay was so low it was barely profitable. Then, delivering the goods would take an entire day! He finally lost his temper and argued with them, asking, 'Why can other people's goods pass inspection, but mine can't?'

"After he argued with the receivers, do you think they were going to treat him well? Of course not. They only inspected his work more harshly, nitpicking every little thing. How could he possibly continue working like that? It became even harder to make any money!"

Yi Anguo was a little speechless. Yi Xiaoman is a good man in every respect, just a bit too honest.

"When you're a contractor at a factory, you have to manage your relationships. I told you this a long time ago," Yi Anguo said with a sigh. "Buy them a drink now and then, treat them to a meal when you make some money. Do you think they'd still give you trouble then?"

"You treat the receivers, the dispatch supervisor, and others to a drink or a meal. It might cost you a few hundred yuan a month, but you could easily be earning three to five thousand. If you're unwilling to spend a single cent to build good relationships, who else are they going to target but you?

"Besides, they can always claim they're just 'following procedures.' Complaining to the boss would be useless. You'd just keep getting the unprofitable jobs, and deliveries would be a nightmare, wasting all your time. You could have been easily earning three to five thousand a month. But because of all this trouble, you end up making maybe two thousand, and with much more effort. Which do you think is a better deal?"

"Well, it's no use talking about it now," Yi Anguo said, changing the subject. "So, do you want to stay here making and selling furniture, or are you willing to go out and try your luck again?"

"What do you have planned for our Xiaoman and Xiaolin to do with you?" Sister-in-law Mudan asked, even more concerned than her son. To her, earning two thousand yuan a month making furniture at home was a decent living. In 2006, in a rural village, an income of two thousand yuan a month was quite good—better, in fact, than what many who went to work in the south were making.

"I'm planning to take Xiaoman and Xiaolin to Shenzhen to open a mahogany furniture factory," Yi Anguo said. "What do you think? Are you interested?"

Originally, I planned to have them go to Hainan Province with me to acquire Hainan Huanghuali wood, including old furniture and even house beams made from it. But after thinking it over, the price of Hainan Huanghuali has already been driven sky-high. This year alone, the price has tripled compared to last year. More importantly, the wood is now extremely rare and difficult to acquire. So, I'd better just drop that idea.

It would be better to buy a plot of land and invest in a mahogany furniture factory for them. When 2008 comes, they can sweep the market, buying up precious woods like Laotian Rosewood and Indian Red Sandalwood at low prices. After the financial crisis passes and the economy recovers, the prices of these woods will soar. In 2008, large slabs of Laotian Rosewood were as cheap as 8,000 yuan per ton. In 2009, the price rose to 30,000 or 40,000 yuan per ton. By 2010, even small pieces cost 40,000 yuan a ton, while large slabs went for 50,000 to 80,000, and sometimes over 100,000 yuan per ton. A few years after that, top-quality large slabs of Laotian Rosewood shot up to 800,000 yuan per ton. A few years more, and you couldn't find genuine, long, straight, thick slabs of Laotian Rosewood on the market at all. They were effectively extinct. Any that remained were in the hands of private collectors, sold by the piece, not by weight. If you were to calculate a price per ton, it would be at least several million yuan.

However, not all wood prices plummeted in '08. The price of Indian Red Sandalwood, for example, skyrocketed to 750,000 yuan per ton. Right now, it's only 2006, and Indian Red Sandalwood costs just 150,000 yuan per ton. That's a fivefold increase in two years. But that wasn't even its peak. By 2013, the market price for Indian Red Sandalwood had soared to over two million yuan per ton. Its price didn't just rise, though; after peaking, it began to fall, dropping as low as 600,000 yuan per ton at one point.

If we start buying up Indian Red Sandalwood now, we can make a huge profit later. Even without making furniture, just reselling the timber would be a fortune. But for something like wood, banks won't issue a mortgage. Even if they did, the loan amount would be very low. In this business, cash is king. Without capital, you can't make money, even if you know for a fact that the price will go up.

Fortunately, Yi Anguo had recently made a substantial amount of money on the international crude oil futures market, so funding was not a concern.

Going to Shenzhen to open a furniture factory with Yi Anguo was an offer that Yi Xiaolin and Yi Xiaoman couldn't refuse. They both immediately expressed their keen interest.

Sister-in-law Mudan, however, hesitated for a moment before asking the most important question. "If they go with you to Shenzhen to open a factory, how much can they earn in a month?"

Yi Anguo thought for a moment. "I can't give you an exact figure right now, but I can offer a guaranteed minimum. I'll cover room and board, and they'll each earn at least three to five thousand yuan a month, with no upper limit."

In this day and age, three to five thousand yuan a month was a considerable sum. Sister-in-law Mudan had no objections, and both Yi Xiaolin and Yi Xiaoman were very pleased.

As for whether Yi Anguo could deliver on his promise, none of them had the slightest doubt. The man had returned driving a luxury car worth several hundred thousand yuan. Was it really conceivable that he couldn't afford to pay them a few thousand a month? There was no need to worry. They were all family, after all. If they fretted over every little thing, they might as well not go at all.

Just as they finished their discussion, Sister-in-law Hongmei's dinner was ready, so Yi Anguo headed over to her house to eat. He had come prepared, bringing some gifts for her. Even though her family lacked nothing, it felt inappropriate to show up empty-handed every time he came for a meal. Besides, he wasn't alone today; his daughter and Li Shanshan were with him.

It was summer vacation, so Sister-in-law Hongmei's house was quite full. Present were her son, two daughters, her daughter-in-law, and several grandchildren.

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