Return to Singapore 1995

Singapore Pools Bedok North branch is located at 5rth Ave 3, #01-129.

The Bedok Reservoir next to it is the most famous reservoir in eastern Singapore. The pool is surrounded by greenery and has a quiet environment. Singapore is a place with extremely scarce water resources. After Singapore was forced to establish its independence in the 1960s, the entire country relied almost entirely on imported drinking water from Johor, Malaysia, so they took good care of these reservoirs like precious treasures.

Westwood Electronics Group holds an annual jogging race around the reservoir here at Bedok Reservoir. Westwood Electronics has another factory in Bedok that makes PCBA. PCB is called printed circuit board, and PCBA is the abbreviation of English Printed Circuit Board Assembly. The entire process of PCB blank board passing through SMT upper part or DIP plug-in is called PCBA for short. When used as a noun, it is called a printed circuit board on which electronic components are assembled. In his previous life, Li Xiaofan later worked as a more complex PCBA test engineer.

The beautiful staff of Bedok North Gaming Company warmly received Li Xiaofan's visit and invited the lucky man into the reception room to drink coffee.

After checking Li Xiaofan's identity certificate and 10,000-word ticket, and confirming that they were correct, the supervisor asked:

"Mr. Li, do you want a cash check or cash?"

"I want cash."

"What denomination do you want? Our maximum denomination of new coins here is 10,000 yuan..."

"Then I want twenty-nine denominations of 10,000, and ten more denominations of 1,000..."

The blue New Zealand dollar notes with a face value of 50 yuan are the most commonly circulated in Singapore. Those with a face value of 1,000 yuan are very rare, let alone those with a face value of 10,000 yuan.

"Okay, just wait a moment!"

Five minutes later, the beautiful staff member took out a brand new stack of new currency notes and handed them to Li Xiaofan in front of the supervisor.

"Mr. Li, please count and see if the amount is correct."

There are a total of twenty-nine golden ten thousand dollar bills in this stack of new coins, and ten plum pink thousand dollar bills.

Each banknote is printed with a handsome middle-aged man with a mustache. His name is Yusof Ishak, the first president of Singapore after Singapore gained independence from Malaysia in August 1965.

When Li Xiaofan was counting the money, he was in a good mood. It felt as if the president was smiling to himself: Young man, congratulations on getting rich!

After leaving the gaming company, Li Xiaofan boarded the MRT heading to Chinatown. Singapore's subway is called MRT in English, which means Mass Rapid Transit.

The MRT on the East-West Line is very convenient from EW5 Bedok MRT Station to Chinatown MRT Station, which can be reached in about half an hour.

Sitting on the subway, he tightly protected the small fanny pack around his waist with both hands.

Thirty-nine thin new currency notes were very light after being put into the envelope.

Li Xiaofan sat in a daze on the subway, thinking: Many people must not have thought that my small pocket has a huge sum of money worth 1.7 million yuan.

Soon, Chinatown MRT Station arrived. This station is called "Chinatown" in Chinese and literally means Chinatown in English.

The name Chinatown comes from the fact that there was no running water at that time, and the sight of oxcarts transporting water was very common in the Chinatown area, so Chinatown was called Chinatown. Chinatown is the place where the Chinese in Singapore gather the most. It has snacks and department stores from all over the mainland. It is a very popular place for Chinese in Singapore. The Chinatown night market is brightly lit, a bit like a domestic temple fair.

There are a lot of travel agencies in several shopping mall buildings such as Pearl Tower in Chinatown. Several pages of the daily Lianhe Zaobao are bombarded with advertisements for these travel agencies. The most famous ones are Transit Travel, Tsang Brothers Travel, Sino-American Travel, and Kangtai. Travel agencies... wait, there are all kinds of them.

Air tickets in the past few days after the Spring Festival are relatively cheap because it is the off-season. Li Xiaofan chose the China Eastern Airlines flight, which cost 1,100 Singapore dollars for a round trip. Usually a single trip costs more than S$800.

After buying the ticket and returning to Orchid Flower Village, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon. Li Xiaofan saw that he still had some time, so he simply went to the Changi Esplanade terrace house.

When she arrived at the townhouse, Guo Hanyue had already gotten up and was cooking noodles in the kitchen in her pajamas. She was on the night shift today and had to rush to work later. Liu Mengchen is still sleeping, she is working late night shift today.

"Classmate Hanyue, this is 2,500 yuan in Singapore dollars. Count it and add the 200 yuan I gave you before. The total is 2,700 yuan, right?"

After Guo Hanyue took the money, she said happily: "Wow, Xiaofan, you moved so quickly. The money was in place so quickly even before people moved in!"

"Sooner or later, this money will be given to you, and you also borrowed money from your colleagues. I gave it to you earlier, so you can pay it back earlier!"

Like Li Xiaofan, Guo Hanyue and Liu Mengchen fell in love with this townhouse at first sight, so they dared to borrow money to rent it before the Chinese New Year. Later, they could not find suitable tenants to share the house. In fact, they were very happy. Anxious.

"Well, thank you very much! Here, here are a bunch of keys to the townhouse. I have prepared them for you! This one is the key to the iron gate outside. This is the key to the living room door on the first floor. This is The key to your room on the third floor is already given. We welcome you to move in at any time!”

After communicating with Guo Hanyue and Liu Mengchen earlier, Li Xiaofan learned that the owner of this townhouse was an old lady who lived alone. Her husband passed away relatively early and she had an only son.

The old lady doted on her son very much. Before her son was about to reach the age of military service, she helped him immigrate to Australia to study. Singapore is a small place with a small population. According to the law, boys must serve in the army. After serving as a full-time soldier for two years, there is also a war reserve military service that lasts until the age of 40.

In Singapore, military service is generally before entering university or working. You register for military service at the age of 16 and a half, and officially join the army after you turn 18. If you reach the age of enlistment and are still studying in a government-approved school such as a regular secondary school, junior college, polytechnic, etc., you can apply for a deferral of military service and join the army after finishing school. If you have received an admission letter from a regular university in Singapore or abroad before the age of 16 and a half, and have already started school, you can also apply for a deferral of military service.

Many spoiled Singaporeans have "military service phobia" because being a soldier is not only hard, but also "trapped" in the military camp during their prime youth. Their studies are delayed and their relationships are hindered. Military training is risky and the punishment for evading military service is severe. There have been many "suicide" incidents in the military camp before...

So many young Singaporeans with "military service phobia" try to immigrate to neighboring countries as soon as possible when they are in middle school.

The old lady's son belongs to this category. After graduating from university in Australia, he settled in Perth. Several relatives of her family also live in that area. In addition, the old lady is old and frail, so at the beginning of the year, she moved to Perth to live with her son.

Before moving to Perth, she rented this townhouse to Guo Hanyue and Liu Mengchen, two Chinese girls who had just come to Singapore to work.

It is said that the old lady is very picky about tenants. Guo Hanyue and Liu Mengchen are the only ones she likes. The two girls love cleanliness, work as nurses in hospital clinics, and are beautiful. In the end, she rented it to them for 800 Singapore dollars.

To be honest, this beautiful townhouse is really not expensive at S$800 per month.