By the time Liu Bowen returned to Hu Dawei’s home, he had mostly gotten his composure back.
When he got back to Hu Dawei’s home, he was surprised to find that the father and son weren’t there.
"Where is everyone?"
It was already past seven in the evening.
Normally, this was the time Hu Dawei and Hu Zhanyong would be at home watching TV.
It was strange that neither of them was home today.
However, Hu Dawei’s mother, Li Chunfang, was there.
"Auntie, where are Dawei and his dad?"
Liu Bowen asked as he set his things down.
Li Chunfang smiled and brought out the dinner she had saved for Liu Bowen.
"Those two went over to the old alleyway to clean up."
He never would have thought they’d have gone to the old alleyway.
The Hu family owned a house over in the old alleyways.
Compared to the modern apartment buildings, the properties in the old alleyways were mostly single-story houses with courtyards.
Living in an apartment was more convenient.
Therefore, the courtyard house had previously been rented out.
Liu Bowen sat at the dinner table and asked casually, "Why the sudden idea to go clean up the old house?"
Before Li Chunfang could even speak, there was a noise at the door.
Hu Dawei and his father, Hu Zhanyong, returned at that very moment.
Their clothes were covered in dust.
Seeing Liu Bowen was back, Hu Dawei said a quick hello and went to wash up.
Li Chunfang was busy bustling about, so Liu Bowen didn’t feel it was right to ask again.
’Anyway, if I’m still curious later, it’ll be easier to just ask Hu Dawei directly.’
When Hu Dawei came out of the shower, Liu Bowen had just finished his dinner.
In the last couple of days, the Hu family had learned that Liu Bowen had signed a contract with the Cyan Mountain Town leadership team.
From now on, he would be mainly responsible for the town’s tourism photography and promotion.
Hu Dawei said while drying his hair, "How did the photoshoot go today?"
Hu Dawei had only asked casually, as he knew Liu Bowen was very skilled.
In his opinion, taking photos was something Liu Bowen would have no problem with.
But instead, he saw a trace of frustration on Liu Bowen’s face.
"Don’t even ask. It was like I was cursed. I didn’t get a single usable shot today."
Hu Dawei hadn’t expected that.
There was nothing he could do about it, so he just patted his good friend’s shoulder.
"I don’t know much about art, but just relax and take your time."
Liu Bowen nodded.
Suddenly, he remembered his earlier question hadn’t been answered. "Oh, right. Your mom said you guys went to the old house today. Wasn’t that place rented out?"
Hearing Liu Bowen’s question, Hu Dawei immediately perked up. "Our house was previously rented to a neighbor to use as a warehouse."
"It only brought in a few hundred bucks a month."
"But a couple of days ago, that Clerk Wang came to our house and said Cyan Mountain Town is going to develop its tourism industry."
As Hu Dawei said this, Liu Bowen understood.
"So, are you and your dad planning to rent the house out?"
"Like, turn it into a B&B or something?"
Hu Dawei nodded excitedly. "I’m planning to clean up the place in the next couple of days, then call a renovation crew to fix it up."
"I looked up the prices online. If we turn it into a themed B&B, a house like ours could bring in over four hundred a night."
"Two nights of that would be more than a whole month’s rent before!"
Hu Dawei and his family had seriously discussed it.
If that many tourists really came, the income from this would be substantial.
Liu Bowen nodded. "Looking at it that way, it really is a great option!"
At this point, Hu Dawei leaned in closer and said, "Besides, the higher-ups are really pushing for people to set up B&Bs now."
"And they promised that if we can get a B&B running, we won’t have to pay taxes for the first three months."
Liu Bowen nodded in understanding. It seemed this was a way to support the lodging industry.
With an incentive like that, some of Cyan Mountain Town’s long-time residents were bound to be planning to free up their properties.
Originally, Liu Bowen had been slightly worried that if tourists came, a small place like Cyan Mountain Town probably wouldn’t have any decent hotels.
Now that this incentive was announced, it was foreseeable that Cyan Mountain Town would get B&Bs up and running as quickly as possible.
Just as Liu Bowen had thought.
Once the tax exemption incentive was announced,
most of the residents of Cyan Mountain Town started getting busy.
After all, Cyan Mountain Town was a relatively undeveloped place, mostly filled with rustic, old-fashioned buildings.
And because Cyan Mountain Town’s population wasn’t very large,
while there were apartment buildings, they weren’t very tall.
The old alleyways were full of single-story courtyard homes.
This was why Liu Bowen’s photographs gave off such a unique feeling.
Big cities are full of towering skyscrapers.
Where else could you find the kind of rustic scenery seen in his photos?
Before, the residents of Cyan Mountain Town felt that while country life was quaint and had a strong sense of community, it was becoming more and more inconvenient.
So after some new apartment buildings were constructed, some people moved into the new communities.
Now, because of the incentive, everyone started working together to clean up their own courtyard houses.
Those who also owned an apartment would decorate their entire courtyard house as a themed B&B.
Those who didn’t simply started running farmhouse inns or something similar.
Everyone had their own approach.
However, at this point, the first wave of tourists hadn’t arrived yet.
So, not many residents were setting up B&Bs and restaurants.
It was mostly enterprising young people like Hu Dawei who were giving it a try.
Many others were still waiting to see how things would turn out.

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