Since Qiu Sangu's house was some distance from the county town, going there on foot was definitely not feasible. After parting with Gu's mother, Gu Nuan accompanied Qiu Sangu in hailing a taxi in the county town and took a ride to Qiu Sangu's rural home.
The journey took over half an hour, and there was no traffic jam in between, showing it was quite a distance away.
Given its distance from the county town, the houses in the county itself were hard to sell. When it came to rural land development in the surrounding areas, it naturally fell behind other places. It's fair to say that the economic development of this county town was not very good.
Gu Nuan knew that in the county town, most people ran small businesses. There were no major companies setting up there, let alone giants like state-owned enterprises that could directly drive local economic growth and become a leading economic force. Such a place, looking to develop its economy on its own, faced significant challenges.
Unless, that is, the locals could create a renowned enterprise themselves. Was that possible?
Born and raised in this area, Gu Nuan had never seen a major company or a famous entrepreneur emerge locally. It was precisely for this reason that Wa Zicong, when he left this place years ago, had told her, "I'd rather die than come back here."
Economic stagnation to this extent in a place definitely suggested many deep-rooted issues, involving complex factors that couldn't be resolved by a single entrepreneur. Wa Zicong, after studying at university, understood this very well. His words made sense to Gu Nuan.
Therefore, for Qiu Sangu's family to be considered among the wealthier ones locally, by Gu Family's standards, was significant. However, it bears mentioning that Qiu Sangu's husband's factory was just a food processing plant, dealing with some local preserved food products. Thanks to decent sales, he qualified as a small business owner.
What's the definition of a small business owner in the countryside?
Having made a few million. Owning a self-built house looking quite luxurious from the outside, with rather lavish furniture. But the land was actually cheap, after all it was their own. The cost of building the house was probably at most several hundred thousand.
Those with some spare cash would invest. A few years ago, with money to spare, Qiu Sangu followed the trend and invested in real estate. Yet, she wasn't among the earliest to do so. The era when anyone in the property market could make a profit by buying any property had passed. Nowadays, buying a house required an investor with a keen eye for value; otherwise, the chosen property might depreciate instead of appreciate.
For instance, houses bought in 2007 compared to those bought in 2009 or 2010, those who bought in 2007 saw any property they bought appreciate. For houses bought in 2009 or 2010, it was no longer a sure thing.
Qiu Sangu was relatively lucky, having listened to a friend, she bought an apartment in the city nearest to the county town.
That city could only be considered a medium-sized one, with a population only slightly larger than the county town's. The potential for increase in property value was limited. The apartment Qiu Sangu bought went from around four to five thousand per square meter, to around six thousand after five years.
Qiu Sangu felt that her property appreciating a thousand per square meter was proof of her excellent investment acumen, which is why she looked down on the Gu Family's property purchases.
What kind of property did the Gu Family buy? Not only did they not have the money, requiring a bank loan to make the purchase, but it was also said that the area they bought in consisted of the properties others didn't want.
Most people domestically prefer to buy on the rise rather than on the decline. Qiu Sangu was a typical example of this mindset. In her eyes, those who bought on the decline were mostly fools.
Setting aside the fact that Qiu Sangu now knew that the property the Gu Family bought actually showed a keen investment insight, to speak the truth, the apartment Qiu Sangu had that appreciated one thousand per square meter, in Gu Nuan's view, that was an absolute investment failure.