At dinner, the Eldest Sister quietly said to the Third Sister, Yi Mingzhu, "You've been following Anguo all this time. When our brother acts so recklessly, why don't you try to keep him in line?"

"And you kept it a secret so well, hiding it from me for years. If I hadn't come, were you planning to hide it from me for the rest of your life?"

Yi Mingzhu, the Third Sister, forced a smile. "Eldest Sister, how could I possibly manage him? Our brother is incredibly capable now. We all depend on him to make a living, so how could I tell him what to do?"

"If you can't manage him, why didn't you at least tell me?" the Eldest Sister said, displeased.

"If I had secretly tattled on him to you, wouldn't he have resented me for it?" the Third Sister said helplessly.

"You're afraid of being resented by Anguo, but you're not afraid of me resenting you?" the Eldest Sister said, a little huffily.

Third Sister Yi Mingzhu gave a little smile and said nothing.

Although I'm also afraid of you resenting me, it's still better than our brother's resentment! After all, you're back in our hometown, while he's someone I could see every single day.

The Eldest Sister was just airing a grievance and wasn't truly angry. Seeing her brother's life going so well—he even had two sons—she was actually quite happy for him deep down. She used to worry that he would never find a wife. Then, he brought a woman home, and soon after, they had a daughter, which finally set her mind at ease.

But who would have thought that after just two years, the woman would run off? As the eldest sister, her worries returned. Now, it seemed there was no need to worry about her brother finding a wife. The problem was that with so many women, he could only marry one. So, who should it be? All of them had borne him children; marrying any one of them would be unfair to the others.

After the meal, they arrived at Fu Huanhuan's three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment, where the Eldest Sister brought up the matter with Yi Anguo.

"Eldest Sister, given my current situation, how could I possibly get married? Just as you said, it would be unfair to the others, no matter who I marry," Yi Anguo said helplessly.

"So you're just going to live like this for the rest of your life and never get married?" the Eldest Sister asked.

"Then what do you suggest I do? Who do you want me to marry, and who should I not marry?" Yi Anguo retorted. "After marrying one, do you expect me to persuade the others to go find other men to marry? To have my children call another man 'Dad'?"

The Eldest Sister was suddenly at a loss for words. How could she possibly say something like that?

"Eldest Sister, you don't need to worry about my marriage. What does it really matter if I'm married or not? It's just a piece of paper," Yi Anguo said. "In the old days, people didn't have marriage certificates, and they got by just fine."

In the following days, the more the Eldest Sister and her husband learned about Yi Anguo, the more astonished they became, often finding themselves speechless. They had imagined he must have made a lot of money in the past two years, but they hadn't dared to think he would be *this* wealthy. Thousands of apartments and several companies? The value was so immense, his sister couldn't even begin to count it all.

Yi Anguo felt that now that everyone's relationships were out in the open, it was inconvenient for them to continue living in separate apartments. It would be much better to buy a large villa where they could all live together. Although the largest units in the third phase of Blue Coast were nearly 300 square meters, with six bedrooms and three living rooms, it still wouldn't be convenient enough for so many people. A large villa was the only solution.

Buying in the current market was a good deal, especially a pre-owned villa that was already luxuriously decorated and either brand new or had been occupied for only a short time. For such a property in the city, the prime choice was naturally the Fragrant Leaf Lake No. 1 Villas.

The Fragrant Leaf Lake No. 1 Villas launched on June 6, 2006, with a staggering starting price of 80,000 yuan per square meter. The development included townhouses, semi-detached villas, high-rises, and multi-story buildings. High-rises started at 20,000 yuan per square meter, multi-story buildings at 30,000, townhouses at 45,000, and semi-detached villas at 50,000.

The semi-detached villas had a construction area of 428 to 446 square meters and a total of five floors—three above ground and two below. The first-floor living room and the master bedroom both featured high, open-vaulted ceilings. With a practical living area of over 1,500 square meters, they came complete with seven bedrooms, three living rooms, six bathrooms, a study, a media room, and a garden.

Once he bought one, everyone could live together. But a headache was already forming for Yi Anguo—seven bedrooms weren't nearly enough. It looked like he would need to buy two villas. Since they were semi-detached, buying the two adjoining ones would be like owning a single, massive detached villa.

The Li Sisi trio of sisters was three people, the Hu Jing sisters were two, and the Ding Jing mother-daughter pair was another two. Adding Chen Ting made eight women in total. Even if he didn't stay there often, a room had to be reserved for him. That didn't even include Yi Anguo himself. And this was before counting the children. The five kids would eventually grow up and need their own rooms. Plus, there might be more children in the future.

Two villas would be a tight squeeze. However, Li Tingting would eventually get married, freeing up a room. Hu Qiao would too, freeing up another. The children could also share rooms, so two villas should be enough for now. If it wasn't, he could always buy a few more and save them for his sons and daughters to use when they get married and start their own lives. Buying now was a safe bet; he wouldn't lose money.

A wave of clarity washed over him. He had been rather foolish. It's not like I don't have the money, so why was I overthinking it? Just buy a few more, and the problem is solved. Five children, myself, and a few more potential children... buying ten semi-detached villas should be enough, right?

However, the development had launched two years ago, and residents moved in last year. A single semi-detached villa sold for 30 million yuan, and that was for a bare-bones shell. A simple renovation would cost at least several million, if not tens of millions. After all, it was a five-story property with over 1,500 square meters of living space. Anyone buying such a home would demand luxury finishes, not ordinary decor. A wealthy owner could easily spend tens of millions on renovating a house like this.

After spending so much money to buy and renovate, and having lived there for a year at most, who would be willing to sell? This was especially true for the front-row semi-detached villas, which were the crown jewels of the development—symbols of status and identity that were rarely sold.

Finding one or two for sale might be possible with good luck, but buying ten at once was out of the question. Only someone in dire straits would sell such a prized property. Selling a house in the current market was clearly a bad move, a guaranteed loss. Not only would they fail to recoup their initial investment, but they would also lose the money spent on lavish renovations. Anyone who could possibly hold on would avoid selling at this time.

While it was true that luxury properties in Shenzhen hadn't depreciated—some new builds had even gone up in value—those were smaller apartments of two to three hundred square meters, priced around 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per square meter. How could villas the size of those at Fragrant Leaf Lake No. 1, which had sold for as much as 60,000 to 70,000 yuan per square meter at their peak last year, not have dropped in price?

After some thorough investigation, Wang Bing and Chen Hong reported that there were only three semi-detached villas and three townhouses for sale at Fragrant Leaf Lake No. 1.

Yi Anguo looked over the information. They were indeed all luxuriously decorated. And, as luck would have it, two of the semi-detached villas were an adjoining pair, forming a single large unit. The asking price was 50 million yuan each. Yi Anguo called Tao Hong over to get more details.

"Why are these two semi-detached villas priced the same?" Yi Anguo asked.

Tao Hong smiled. "These two villas are identical in size, were bought for the same price, and cost about the same to renovate. Most importantly, they both belong to a pair of brothers from Harbor Island who run a rosewood furniture business in Shenzhen. They stockpiled a huge amount of rosewood, expecting to make a fortune, but then the price of rosewood crashed. A lot of their money was from high-interest loans from banks and private lenders. With debt collectors after them, they have no choice but to sell the houses. The villas were bought with a mortgage, and the monthly payments of several hundred thousand yuan are just too much pressure. If they don't sell the villas, they'll have to sell their factory or the rosewood at a loss. Selling the rosewood would mean an even bigger loss. I heard that wood they bought for 700,000 yuan a ton has now dropped to just over 400,000, and it's not even selling well. That's why they're trying to sell the villas instead."

What a coincidence, Yi Anguo thought. They're in the rosewood business. This year, they're probably going to lose their shirts. The wood that cost six to seven hundred thousand a ton last year must have been Vietnamese Huanghuali. It's now down to just over four hundred thousand a ton, and that's only the beginning. By December, it will probably plunge to just over two hundred thousand a ton. Still, the brothers are pretty smart. If they have a large stock of Vietnamese Huanghuali, holding onto it for two or three years, or even longer, would definitely turn a profit. In just two or three years, the price will soar to two or three million a ton. Even with their cost of six to seven hundred thousand a ton, they could easily make three to four times their investment. A profit of over two million per ton means over twenty million for ten tons and over two hundred million for a hundred tons. The longer you hold it, the more valuable it becomes. In a few years, high-quality Vietnamese Huanghuali will skyrocket to tens of millions per ton. Of course, the price of the Fragrant Leaf Lake villas will also rise to two hundred fifty thousand per square meter or more in a decade, but the appreciation won't be as dramatic as the rosewood, which will increase at least tenfold. The villas, even at that price, will have only appreciated by about five times.

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