"Why? Are you really planning to never get married?" Chen Ting asked.

"So what if I don't? It's not forbidden!" Yi Anguo retorted.

"Then I'll just wait until you decide you want to get married," Chen Ting said, completely undeterred.

"Why are you so hung up on me? There are plenty of men out there who are better than me. You could easily find someone better!" Yi Anguo said, completely exasperated.

"But I only like you. I just want to marry you and be your wife," Chen Ting said stubbornly.

"What is it that you like about me? Tell me, and I'll change it, how about that?" Yi Anguo pleaded.

"I've fallen for you, the person. How can you change that? No matter how you change, I'll still like you," Chen Ting said with a giggle.

Yi Anguo had dinner and went shopping with Chen Ting in downtown Long City. Not only did he return the bank card with 500,000 yuan to her, but he also bought her quite a few things.

There was no helping it. Chen Ting had gifted him an expensive set of clothes, shoes, and a designer watch. He couldn't return them, but it didn't feel right to simply accept them without reciprocating.

Chen Ting, however, didn't blink an eye when spending money. She immediately turned around and bought Yi Anguo several more sets of clothes and shoes, and then another watch. She insisted that he not only needed changes of clothes, but he also needed another watch to wear in rotation so he wouldn't always be wearing the same one.

She didn't stop until the 500,000 yuan on the card was completely maxed out.

The amount Chen Ting had spent on clothes, a watch, and shoes for him today was more than what Yi Anguo had spent on such things in both of his lives combined. In fact, his total spending in two lifetimes didn't even come close; he was absolutely certain of it.

Afterward, the two of them returned to Phase Two of Blue Coast, and Chen Ting didn't pester him any further.

Although Yi Anguo had also spent a substantial amount of money buying Chen Ting some clothes, cosmetics, and—at her insistence—even a necklace, his expenses paled in comparison to what she had spent on him.

Yi Anguo had originally intended to buy things for Chen Ting to balance out her expensive gifts, but it seemed he was only getting deeper into her debt.

At this rate, he could probably forget about ever collecting rent from Chen Ting for the rest of his life.

The days passed, and the summer vacation quickly came to an end. Hu Qian returned to university to continue her studies.

Chuan Yu Restaurant had its grand opening, and business was booming. After all, it was surrounded by high-end communities, so the residents' purchasing power was beyond question.

Li Xiao was full of regret for renting such a small space—only 200 square meters. Had he known business would be this good, he would have gotten a 500-square-meter space, or at least 300!

Li Sisi's younger sister, Li Shanshan, was successfully admitted to Shenzhen University as a freshman. Li Tingting also went back to university.

After two months of renovations and preparations, Guohui Fresh Supermarket finally had its smooth opening.

Thanks to pre-opening promotional campaigns, which included distributing a large number of flyers and advertising major sales events, business was extremely brisk on opening day, drawing a massive crowd.

The store became so packed several times that they had to limit entry. They allowed people to exit but not enter, only letting new customers in after the crowd inside had thinned out.

Although online shopping existed in this era, only a very small fraction of people used it, and the variety of goods available was limited. Items like fruits, vegetables, and fresh produce were not yet available for purchase online.

People a decade later would find it hard to imagine how bustling the supermarkets of this era were. The opening of any large supermarket would attract a massive flow of people, immediately forming a new commercial district around it.

Because of this, many large supermarkets didn't need to be built in so-called city centers or prime locations. Once a supermarket opened, it would become a new city center, a prime location in its own right.

At over 1,300 square meters, the fresh supermarket wasn't considered large, but its location was ideal. The surrounding residential areas were home to a population of 50,000, all with strong economic standing and astonishing consumption potential.

Moreover, a large transient population passed through the area every day.

The popularity of the supermarket exceeded Yi Anguo's expectations. Had he known, he wouldn't have made the promotions so aggressive.

Customers swarmed in like a plague of locusts. The shelves, once full of various goods, were stripped bare in no time.

Various fruits didn't even make it to the shelves; as soon as they were brought out, they were picked clean by customers right from the boxes.

The loose eggs, on sale for 3.98 yuan per jin, were quickly snapped up. Despite a limit of two jin per person, the entire stock of over a thousand jin was gone within four hours of the store opening.

They had to urgently restock and restore the original price to stabilize the situation, though many people still continued to buy them.

After all, even at the original price, the eggs were still slightly cheaper than at the smaller shops outside.

The special Crystal Fuji apples, priced at 2 yuan per jin for size 70#, were also snatched up by frantic shoppers, along with various vegetables. All the employees were incredibly busy, unable to restock the shelves fast enough.

The vegetables in the fresh supermarket were different from those at the farmers' market. They had to be cleaned, sorted, and bundled before being shelved. This made them look cleaner and fresher, and thus slightly more expensive.

But since they were pre-cleaned produce without any mud or dirt, they were still very popular. Customers were willing to accept the higher price, especially since the supermarket's shopping environment was far superior to that of a dirty, disorganized market.

With all seven cashiers working, every checkout lane still had a long queue. The cashiers were so busy they didn't even have time to take a sip of water.

A final tally showed that the revenue on opening day surpassed 120,000 yuan, totaling 157,365 yuan.

The store was open for sixteen hours, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., with a customer flow of over 5,000 people and an average spending of over thirty-one yuan per person.

Even at a 25% gross profit margin, the profit exceeded thirty to forty thousand yuan. This was mainly because many items on the first day were sold as special promotions without making a profit. For instance, the eggs at 3.98 yuan per jin actually lost more than 0.3 yuan per jin.

The daily rent was 5,000 yuan. With utilities and labor, daily expenses were over 10,000 yuan. Then there were taxes; with a daily revenue of over 120,000 yuan, taxes alone amounted to almost 4,000 yuan. A gross profit of 30,000 yuan a day wasn't that much after all.

Under normal circumstances, the gross profit should be higher, with a margin of at least 30%. Fresh products, especially prepared foods like cooked dishes, bread, pastries, and marinated items, had very high profits.

After a week, the business began to settle into a routine. Once things were on track, without as many promotions or discounts and less advertising, the daily revenue stabilized at around 100,000 yuan.

While the customer traffic wasn't as insane as the first day, the store was still packed daily.

One shouldn't think that 100,000 yuan wasn't much. Prices in this era were nowhere near as high as they would be a decade later, so a daily revenue of 100,000 yuan was truly impressive.

Blue Coast's Phase Four had a total of 2,460 households, mostly consisting of smaller units. A three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment was just over ninety square meters, and there were even three-bedroom, one-living-room apartments at 73 square meters. Only a few three-bedroom, two-living-room units were larger, at over 110 square meters.

One-bedroom, one-living-room units ranged from 47 to 53 square meters, which was considered quite spacious for that layout. For instance, some two-bedroom, one-living-room apartments were only 53 square meters, and some three-bedroom, one-living-room units were even smaller, at less than 60 square meters.

Two-bedroom, one-living-room units were in the sixty-plus square meter range, with a few in the seventy-plus and eighty-plus square meter range.

Calculated at 6,000 yuan per square meter, the average price per unit was under 400,000 yuan, making the total value of the development around one billion yuan.

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