CHAPTER 51: CHAPTER 51: I’M GOING UP AHEAD TO COLLECT RENT

Driving his own Porsche 911, Chen Yiyang arrived at the development area of Jin City before noon.

Though he was a local of Jin City, Chen Yiyang had never actually been here before.

This was mainly a district of various factories, with a sparse population, and aside from a few streets crowded with factories, the rest of the area was desolate.

He drove to the location mentioned in the information.

This was a factory that seemed to have some history; although it hadn’t been shut down for long, it still gave off a sense of desolation.

There was no security guard at the factory entrance now; Chen Yiyang drove straight into the parking lot and wandered around the factory for a while before finding the place he was looking for in one of the workshop buildings.

"Almost new equipment, fifty thousand, just take it away."

"Workers’ safety clothing, selling cheap."

This workshop was quite a scene, like a street market.

Chen Yiyang chatted with a stall owner for a bit and learned that after the factory went bankrupt, it owed a lot of workers’ wages.

So the factory mortgaged some of the assets to the workers, who were now selling these items at the factory to cash out.

Of course, all the valuable and easy-to-sell industrial equipment had been sold by the boss before the factory went bankrupt.

What’s left now were the unsellable items. However, the workers had nowhere else to go, so they simply came here every day to chat and sell things.

Over time, workers nearby heard about this place and often came over to join in the fun, making it an unusual gathering spot.

Chen Yiyang quickly found what he wanted to buy.

The stall owner was a seventy-year-old man.

"Old man, were you a retired worker from this factory?" Chen Yiyang curiously asked while squatting in front of the stall.

"No," the old man waved his hand and said, "I used to work here as a security guard."

"How old were you when you worked as a security guard here?" Chen Yiyang was a bit surprised.

"Seventy-one," the old man gestured with his hand. "I was a farmer here, and after the land was taken, I had nothing to do, so I worked as a security guard for the factory. I’ll tell you, the factory really liked security guards of our age, no need to pay insurance or sign contracts, and can be fired anytime."

"What about labor laws?"

"We were way past retirement age, and labor laws have nothing to do with us."

"Well," Chen Yiyang understood why an old man of this age could still be a security guard.

In front of the old man’s stall was just an iron box, containing a complete set of Disney pins.

This set of Disney pins should have been made around 2001, commissioned by Disney to a factory on the mainland to commemorate the 100th birthday of Disney’s founder, Walt.

To the people at the time, this thing was only worth the price of its metal.

This set of pins was probably brought here by the owner of the factory that produced these pins back then as a souvenir.

However, even back then, these pins were very popular collectibles.

Because only some of these pins were sold directly in Disney souvenir shops, the rest needed to be traded with other tourists or theme park employees to obtain.

Some rare pins were hard to acquire, let alone complete a whole set.

The most rare pin in this set, the Magician Mickey pin, could fetch over ten thousand US Dollars on overseas second-hand trading websites.

Not to mention that the pins in this iron box make up a complete set of one hundred pins, all of them numbered and not secretly produced by the factory, which was likely a special souvenir given by Disney to the factory.

"Old man, how much do you plan to sell this for?" Chen Yiyang asked.

"I don’t know how much to sell this for," the old man said honestly, "Back then I asked the factory boss for my wages, and he just gave me this."

"I’ll sell it here for a few days to see if anyone buys it, if not, I’ll just give it to my grandson to play with."

"How much wage does the factory owe you?" Chen Yiyang continued to ask.

"Three months," the old man held up three fingers, "one thousand five per month, four thousand five hundred in total for three months."

"I’ll give you an extra five hundred, five thousand for this set, and I’ll take it," Chen Yiyang patted the bag he carried with him.

"Do you want cash or a bank transfer?"

"If there’s cash, I want cash. I don’t understand that mobile transfer stuff."

So Chen Yiyang took out his small bag, counted five thousand, and handed it to the old man.

"Boss, have a look at our stuff too."

Once Chen Yiyang completed the deal, other workers from the factory immediately gathered around.

Although there was a lot of foot traffic here, most people were there just for fun, and few came to buy things.

So quite a crowd gathered around Chen Yiyang.

Knowing that he shouldn’t stay too long, Chen Yiyang quickly left with the iron box.

Getting into his car and driving out of the factory gate, he quickly saw the same elderly man walking out.

"Old man, are you heading home? Can I give you a lift?" Chen Yiyang asked through the car window.

"No need, I’m going ahead to collect rent." The old man pointed to a building in front.

"Collect rent?"

"Yes, when the land was taken, the government gave my family eight apartments, all up there. I rent them out to nearby workers, and I go over each month to collect rent."

Deeply affected, Chen Yiyang drove off immediately.

Back then at twenty, he didn’t even own a building.

Chen Yiyang silently vowed that once he had money, he would buy an entire compound and go around collecting rent every day with a keychain.

Cash only, no bank transfers allowed!

He drove back to his shop on Yangming Street.

The accountant was already at work.

After putting the Disney pins into storage, the accountant handed the business license and other documents to Chen Yiyang.

"The license for our shop has been issued, we can start operating."

"Not easy," Chen Yiyang clapped the various documents in his hands.

He named the shop ’Shabby House Inn’, with the main business being trading in various second-hand collectibles.

In principle, they only sell items, not buy them.

After all, it’s easier to sell things; just the box of Ancient Roman Thousand-Year Glazed Beads that Chen Yiyang got could be sold for a long time.

But acquiring items requires a very high capital.

The reason pawnshops slashed the market price by thirty or forty percent to accept items is that they might sit in the shop for years unsold.

The costs during this time can only be collected from the seller.

"Leave the second floor as is, and find someone to do a simple renovation on the first floor later," Chen Yiyang instructed Zhou Jianjun to handle the soft furnishing of the first floor.

As for the second floor of the shop, he planned to install a security door there, locking it up completely, accessible only to him.

Though the building of the shop he bought was quite old, its classic and elegant style compensated for the depreciation brought by time.

This made the shop look more rustic and charming.

So the first floor just needed a new set of tables, chairs, benches, and display cabinets.