Chapter 52

"Junran, I..."

Lin Yuqing stepped forward, but before she could speak, Xu Junran waved his hand. "It's okay, Sister Yuqing. I know this guy."

As he spoke, he walked past Lin Yuqing and approached the man with a pained expression, tapping his head. "Wei Ge, is this how you welcome your little brother?"

The man looked miserable. "Junran, I was wrong. Please don't tell my big brother, okay?"

Xu Junran glared at him and asked coolly, "We'll settle this later. Come on, take me to see my big brother."

After saying this, he turned to Lin Yuqing, who was somewhat stunned, and introduced him. "Sister Yuqing, this is the younger brother of our dorm's big brother, Cao Junwei. You can just call him Wei Ge. He's one of us."

Hearing that he was an acquaintance, Lin Yuqing relaxed a bit and followed Xu Junran, her head down.

Xu Junran had Lin Yuqing sit in the back seat of the car, while he sat in the front passenger seat. He said to Cao Junwei, who was grinning at him, "Wei Ge, you really bought a car?"

Cao Junwei laughed heartily. "Little brother, don't you know who your big brother is? With my skills, being a ten-thousand-yuan household is no problem." As he spoke, he happily honked the horn.

Shaking his head helplessly, Xu Junran was speechless at the guy's arrogance.

Cao Junwei was no ordinary person. According to Xu Junran's memory, he was one of the few speculators in Beijing at the time. Relying on his family's background, he made a fortune in the 1980s. However, he fell during the state's crackdown on speculation. Fortunately, his family's background was strong enough to save his life, though he had to spend all his wealth. In the mid-1990s, he started a real estate business and became a well-known property tycoon in Beijing.

The reason Xu Junran knew so much about him was that Cao Junwei's older brother, Cao Junming, was the father-in-law of his previous life and a classmate of his adoptive father.

No one would have expected that among Xu Junran's classmates, besides the high-profile official's son Huang Zixuan, there was another official's son.

Cao Junming's father had been a vice-premier and a provincial-level official. Although he was affected during the turmoil, he managed to survive. Xu Junran knew that a few years later, under the support of this elder, Cao Junming graduated from university and became one of the few scholar-leaders in China's political arena, rising steadily to become a major leader in his time.

He was also one of the initiators in the campaign against the Huang family, where Huang Zixuan came from.

Therefore, the first person Xu Junran thought of visiting in Beijing was Cao Junming.

Cao Junwei was five years older than Xu Junran. He never liked studying and preferred to hang around Beijing. His mother was the sister of a high-ranking official in the Beijing Military Region, and he grew up in the military compound during the turmoil, developing a fearless attitude. He only feared his older brother, Cao Junming, and no one else.

The age gap among the first batch of college students was significant. When Xu Junran entered college at 17, Cao Junming was already 32. The other roommates knew about Xu Junran's background and took good care of him. Cao Junming had specifically warned his brother not to bully Xu Junran, or he would deal with Cao Junwei.

Cao Junwei was smart and admired Xu Junran. He admitted that if he had lost both parents like Xu Junran, he wouldn't have had the ability to get into Jinghua University.

In that era, intellectuals were highly respected.

"Junran, I've heard about what happened to you. Damn it, I'll find someone to teach those Huang family bastards a lesson someday!"

As Cao Junwei drove, he said angrily to Xu Junran.

At first, the roommates didn't know about Xu Junran being tricked by Huang Zixuan. They thought he had requested to return to Quanzhou. Later, Cao Junming accidentally learned about it and spread the news among the classmates, which led to Huang Zixuan's downfall.

Xu Junran smiled slightly and shook his head. "Don't get involved. I have my own plans."

Cao Junwei pouted. "You sound just like my brother. You guys really were roommates for four years."

Pausing, he glanced at Lin Yuqing in the rearview mirror and said with a grin, "Your girlfriend is much prettier than that woman."

Lin Yuqing, sitting in the back, frowned slightly. She had recovered from her initial discomfort and, hearing the conversation between Xu Junran and Cao Junwei, understood a lot. It seemed that Xu Junran's journey in Beijing wasn't as smooth as she thought.

Xu Junran sighed and organized his thoughts. "By the way, Wei Ge, what are you speculating in now?"

He vaguely remembered that before he left Beijing, Cao Junwei had started his "speculator" career. Not only him, but this was also the time when speculators were beginning to emerge in Beijing.

In the 1970s and 1980s, people who bought and sold goods were common in the commodity economy. However, in an underdeveloped market, such activities were considered illegal. In the 1960s, it was called "speculation," and in the 1970s, it was called "second-hand trading." By 1980, these people were known as "speculators," a term with mixed connotations.

Initially, speculators would buy a few hundred eggs from the countryside and sell them in the city for food coupons, or buy electronic watches from the coast and sell them in major cities. Later, they would speculate on whatever was in short supply.

However, Xu Junran knew that after 1979, the state implemented raw material price reforms, raising the prices of many state-allocated goods. For example, the price of coal increased from 14.52 yuan per ton to 32.32 yuan, and the price of cement from 40 yuan per ton to 90 yuan. The state also allowed enterprises to sell products beyond their plans at market prices, creating a dual pricing system (state-allocated prices and market prices). This led to market prices being one to two times higher than state-allocated prices.

Speculators like Cao Junwei relied on their family connections to obtain goods through "backdoor" channels and profited from the price differences.

Sure enough, Cao Junwei chuckled and whispered to Xu Junran, "Of course, it's cement. We can make a profit of one to one. How about it, Junran? Join me, and I'll guarantee you'll become a ten-thousand-yuan household within a year!"

(Well, I have mixed feelings, but I won't say more. Please support me with your favorites, recommendations, and clicks! Let's go!)

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