The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 529: Chapter 529: Auspicious Grand Opening

Hearing this, Wu Yao was a bit stunned. ”You really want to do this? Do you have the capital? If you don’t have enough money, I’ve saved up quite a bit myself!”

Liu Xiangnan was extremely touched to hear Wu Yao’s words. They weren’t even married yet, and his girlfriend was already willing to give him her money.

”I have some savings, so I don’t need your money for now! Besides, if I’m starting a decoration company, I can look for investors!”

Wu Yao’s eyes lit up when she heard this. ”You want to ask Sister Xiao Rui to invest?”

Liu Xiangnan nodded. ”Everyone knows Sister Xiao Rui has a sharp eye and makes money in everything she does! If she’s willing to invest in me, it proves this venture is feasible!”

”If she isn’t willing to invest, it means she isn’t optimistic about this industry, and then I won’t have to go it alone! I can just continue being a junior manager at the ornamental fish farm!”

Wu Yao thought for a moment and decided Liu Xiangnan’s plan was quite good.

”Okay! Tomorrow is Sunday, and Sister Xiao Rui will be back from the city in the afternoon. You should bring some fruit over then and have a proper talk with her.”

”If Sister Xiao Rui supports you going solo and even invests in you, then this business can’t go wrong. It’s bound to be profitable!”

And so, the two of them came to an agreement.

The next afternoon, Liu Xiangnan arrived early at Han Xiaorui’s house.

As soon as Han Xiaorui returned with her children, she saw the exceptionally attentive Liu Xiangnan.

”What’s up? Is something on your mind?” Han Xiaorui asked with a smile. Wu Yao and Liu Xiangnan were open books.

Liu Xiangnan smiled. ”Sister Xiao Rui, Wu Yao and I were talking. After giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided I want to open a decoration company. What do you think?”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”I think that’s a good idea, a very good one. However, the initial trial-and-error phase will be very tough. Are you prepared for that?”

Liu Xiangnan nodded. ”Hard work is nothing. Everyone’s starting businesses these days, and I want to build a career for myself, too. Sister Xiao Rui, how about you invest a little?”

Han Xiaorui was slightly taken aback. ”Asking me to invest, are you? The decoration industry is a budding one, so it’s worth investing in. Do you have a concrete plan?”

Liu Xiangnan gave a sheepish grin and pulled a plan he’d written overnight from his bag. ”Sister Xiao Rui, please take a look. If it looks good, we can follow this model.”

Han Xiaorui read through it carefully, quite surprised. ”Xiangnan, not bad! You’ve found partners for everything from design to building materials, furniture, lighting, and bathroom fixtures.”

Liu Xiangnan smiled. ”Honestly, I’m just figuring it out as I go. I’ve looked through a lot of foreign furniture magazines, and my uncle is a veteran worker at a furniture factory. He knows many skilled craftsmen, so making this kind of furniture is actually pretty easy.”

”It seems we don’t have any wood flooring factories around here, but the neighboring Zhejiang Province does, so we can buy from there. We do have tile factories here. They just don’t look as good as the foreign ones, but that won’t be a big problem if we put some research into it.”

”As for those foreign toilets, there isn’t much advanced technology involved. We can definitely make them. As long as we find reliable partners, we should be able to produce them.”

Hearing Liu Xiangnan’s words, Han Xiaorui nodded. ”Alright. If you open a design company, I have a three-story storefront on the commercial street. The first and second floors can be turned into showrooms, and the third floor can be your office.”

”According to your calculations, I only need to put in fifty thousand yuan to get a thirty percent stake. I agree. In addition, I’ll provide the shop for you to use rent-free as a show of support for your startup.”

Liu Xiangnan was overjoyed to hear this. ”Sister Xiao Rui, thank you for giving me so much support! I’ll definitely work hard.”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”Of course. I’m very optimistic about this industry. But I have one condition. A house is where people spend most of their time. It’s their home. So when you’re making furniture or renovating, you must guarantee safety.”

”As far as I know, some low-quality coatings and paints contain excessive formaldehyde, which can be life-threatening. Xiangnan, when we do business, we must never have a guilty conscience.”

Liu Xiangnan sat up straight, his expression serious. ”Sister Xiao Rui, of course I know that. The furniture and building materials I make will all be up to the standards I’d use for my own home. Safety and health come first. We can’t sacrifice health for aesthetics.”

Wu Yao was excited. ”I think there are lots of different kinds of curtains, too! We could do something special with them. Oh, and bedsheets and comforters! I’ve seen many varieties from abroad. We could try offering home goods like that too.”

Greatly inspired, Liu Xiangnan asked Han Xiaorui to help him buy many books on interior decoration.

Figuring things out as he went, Liu Xiangnan spent two months renovating the three-story shop.

The first and second floors had large, floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing people to see the displays inside.

The beautiful curtains and furniture instantly caught the eyes of many people, all wanting to come in for a look.

At the same time, the Jinshan Bay Decoration Company was officially established, with its office on the third floor.

On the very first day, they received six renovation jobs. Four of them, surprisingly, were for houses in White Crane Immortal Residence.

Those were new houses with excellent layouts, and this style of decoration was especially well-suited for them.

The other two jobs were for villas in Jinshan Bay.

Even more people didn’t book renovations but bought home goods and furniture from the store.

They sold twenty Simmons-style mattresses.

For the grand opening, they came with two free nightstands.

The curtains were even more incredible. No one had ever seen such beautiful curtains before—they were multicolored and came in various styles, with different voiles and embroidery.

There were all sorts of tables, chairs, sofas, and coffee tables in different styles and designs.

They didn’t have nearly enough renovation workers, but this didn’t stump Liu Xiangnan.

With the economy opening up, many workers at struggling state-owned enterprises were no longer receiving their salaries.

So, they began to take unpaid leave from their positions to try and find work elsewhere.

Liu Xiangnan personally recruited fifty people. Some of them had never done this kind of work before.

But that didn’t matter; they could be trained.

There were workers for tiling, flooring, painting, wall scraping, plumbing and electrical, and so on.

This way, they could work in an assembly-line fashion.

Following the home renovation process, they would first handle the plumbing, electrical, and wall scraping, followed by carpentry, tiling, and flooring.

Some apartment buildings got suspended ceilings, while others got a layer of plaster molding.

These were all designs that Liu Xiangnan and his designers had copied from foreign magazines.

Basically, they would imitate the designs and then find relevant factories to produce the items.

Liu Xiangnan’s uncle’s furniture factory, which had originally been unable to sell its products, was completely revitalized after Liu Xiangnan opened his decoration company, shipping out large quantities every day.

Liu Xiangnan worked around the clock and finally made a name for his decoration company.

He was so busy that when he and Wu Yao got married, they didn’t even have time to go on a honeymoon trip.

To make it up to Wu Yao, Liu Xiangnan bought her a set of gold jewelry.

Wu Yao was absolutely thrilled!

As autumn arrived, the second phase of the White Crane Immortal Residence project was completed.

Just as they were preparing to start sales, Ye Feng came to find Han Xiaorui.

”Don’t sell these properties. Sell them all to me!”

Han Xiaorui was stunned. ”What do you want so many properties for?”