A foreign city, dear you

In the evening, Cao Xueqin had to go home late because of something.

Ye Lian walked around Anbao Middle School alone.

After Cao Lanshan finishes the college entrance examination, they will move back to Jinjinghuayuan, where they have lived for three years.

The trees on Linbao Road, the brightly lit teaching building of Anbao Middle School every night, every door of Anbao Middle School, and the Shahong Park where she goes to run every morning, Ye Lian feels that they are so familiar and unforgettable.

So before leaving, she would always come here for a walk and a look.

Come today, come tomorrow, and maybe the day after tomorrow.

After walking around Anbao Middle School, Ye Lian returned home and began to write her novel again. In the novel, there is another world for her.

Ye Lian’s novel has not been signed yet, she is now writing it for herself.

Performing without an audience is lonely, and writing without readers is lonely, but no matter what, Ye Lian will persevere.

As Ye Lian was writing, she felt a little stuck. She felt that there was a paragraph that she could not express accurately, so she went to the balcony to relax and look for inspiration.

It was already ten o'clock in the evening, and Cao Xueqin and Cao Lanshan had not returned yet.

Standing on the 12th floor and looking into the distance, the city of Yancheng is still a city that never sleeps. Many office buildings still have lights on, and there must be many people busy in every office.

Yancheng is a young city and also a hard-working city.

Some people say that the air along the city smells of money, but do they know that the air along the city also smells of sweat?

People along the city walk in a hurry, their daily chats are about work, they get up early and go to bed late, they all have ideals and goals, and they are enterprising and hardworking in their bones!

Ye Lian liked Yancheng more and more, and she was unknowingly infected with the Yancheng spirit. She was fearless and persevering to the end, just like many people like Cao Xueqin, who worked hard for their careers; and like many students like Cao Lanshan, who devoted all their efforts to their studies.

It is countless ordinary people like this who support the beauty and prosperity of the city and keep the city youthful and vibrant!

……

Two days later, Cao Lanshan finished the college entrance examination. The family bid farewell to Anbao Middle School and moved back to Xiangyang Town, back to Jinjinghua Garden - their home surrounded by green trees.

How did Cao Lanshan do in the exam? Will he be admitted to his target school? We will have to wait for the scores to come out to find out.

************************

After the college entrance examination, Ye Lian's family continued their daily life while waiting for the scores.

On this day, Ye Lian and Cao Xueqin came out of a hotel and walked towards a commercial bank not far away.

In front is an old man and a middleman.

Ye Lian was holding a file bag containing two contracts.

These are two house transfer contracts. Both the buyer and the seller have signed their names, and they have been notarized by the notary office.

Ye Lian is the seller and the old man in front is the buyer.

Ye Lian and Cao Xueqin caught up with the old man and the middleman as they walked.

"You two are young and promising. You are the same age as my son, but you are selling your house, but my son wants me to buy one for him." The old man said to Ye Lian and Cao Xueqin with emotion. His temples were already gray.

"Uncle, thank you for the compliment. How old is your son?" Ye Lian asked.

"He's over 30 years old and can't even afford a house, and he wants me to buy one for him." The old man sighed.

After hearing this, Ye Lian and Cao Xueqin were naturally humble and also praised the uncle.

Ye Lian was secretly happy in her heart. The old man thought that she and Cao Xueqin were the same age as his son. Doesn't that mean that she and Cao Xueqin still looked very young?

Women will not miss any words that speak of their youth, whether overtly or covertly, or intentionally or unintentionally.

*

The housing prices along the city have gone through the roof.

Through her own observations, Ye Lian feels that now is an era where almost everyone is speculating in real estate. Even elderly people and college graduates know how to get rich quickly by buying houses that appreciate in value.

Ye Lian felt that this was a very dangerous phenomenon.

As the saying goes, if you want to destroy a person, you must first make him crazy.

The current housing speculation has become crazy, so behind this madness, is there a destruction that will come sooner or later?

Ye Lian has no professional investment knowledge. She has only bought some funds and traded stocks for a while.

But she feels that the principles of investment make sense.

Ye Lian still remembers the stock market in 2015 vividly. How crazy it was when the market was good, and how desperate it was when the market was bad.

From the stock market to the housing market, isn't the same principle true?

Stocks cannot rise forever, so can house prices rise forever?

When everyone buys houses, who can sell so many houses to? When no one takes over, won’t the housing prices collapse?

Ye Lian thought all this over clearly, and then she set a principle for herself: from now on, no matter how the housing prices rise, no matter whether she can afford it or not, she will never buy a house again.

Not only that, Ye Lian also wanted to sell all the houses he owned to cash in.

What is being sold today is the three-bedroom apartment in Yuntao Building.

Because it is a private house, it is sold in full and the transaction is completed in one go. Today, Ye Lian asked Cao Xueqin to take half a day to handle the transfer of ownership and payment of the house.

Now, all the formalities have been completed. When they go to the bank, the uncle who wants to buy the house will deposit the money into Ye Lian's bank card. Then Ye Lian will give the contract to the uncle. The house will belong to the uncle and the transaction will be completed.

*

There is no suspense at all when transferring money to a bank.

It’s just that there were a lot of people in the bank, so it took a while to queue.

When Ye Lian saw the money had arrived in the account, she gave the contract to the uncle, and in this way, the house was sold.

The price increase of residential houses along the city is not as great as that of commercial houses. After buying them for three or four years, the price has only doubled. However, Ye Lian thinks that is acceptable, after all, she has collected rent for several years.

Not long after that, Ye Lian sold all the other three houses and only kept one house in Jinjinghuayuan for her own use. From then on, the rise and fall of house prices had nothing to do with her.

Whether it was buying the house in the beginning or selling the house now, it was Ye Lian who made the decision, but Cao Xueqin has always been her most steadfast and powerful supporter.

After selling the house, Ye Lian and Cao Xueqin had a seven-digit cash sum in their hands.

In a place like Yancheng, such a sum of cash is nothing, but for Ye Lian and Cao Xueqin, it is also a welcome thing.

Sometimes, Ye Lian and Cao Xueqin look back with emotion. If she had not come to Yancheng, but stayed in Pingcheng, then her diploma would not have been stolen, and she would still be in Pingcheng Middle School, earning a few thousand yuan a month. They would most likely not buy a house in Yancheng, but in Pingcheng... Then, the situation would be completely different, and what they would have would be very different.

So, sometimes, an unintentional choice can lead to completely different results.

Thanks to Yancheng.

What they have now is half the result of their own efforts and half the achievement of this city.

……

From then on, Cao Xueqin was busy with his Meni Company, while Ye Lian continued to take care of the household and write her novels in her spare time.

Of course, the whole family is waiting for Cao Lanshan’s college entrance examination results. I wonder what score he will get?