Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 174

Jiang Hehua was anxiously waiting for the winter vacation to come, but He Xiaofang was afraid of the winter vacation. As soon as the winter vacation came, she had to go home. She asked the teacher and the dormitory aunt if she could live on campus instead of going back during the winter vacation.

“That’s definitely not possible. You have to go home too,” said the dormitory aunt.

During the winter vacation, only the senior high school students were in class, and the first and second grade students were on vacation. In this new dormitory, only the first and second grade students lived. The senior students lived in the old dormitory building.

Even if He Xiaofang didn’t want to, the final exam still came as scheduled.

On the day after the exam, only Jiang Ning and He Xiaofang were left in the dormitory. He Xiaofang saw that Jiang Ning hadn’t left either, so she asked her curiously, “Why don’t you go home?”

When Jiang Ning heard the word home, she was stunned for a moment.

For a long time, home to her was a house where she was alone, and it was her safe house. But it was not home either because there was no family.

Thinking of home, Jiang Ning thought of the two houses she bought in the Shanghai market. She had given them to Manager Qian to help her renovate them before. She didn’t know their status. She also needed to get the real estate certificates. It was winter vacation, so she could go and get them.

She said to He Xiaofang, “I will stay to look after the store.”

He Xiaofang was a little envious.

“My eldest and second sisters are at home during the Chinese New Year. We three sisters, my niece and nephew share the same bed.” Their bed was 1.5 meters long, so they could only sleep sideways at night.

But He Xiaofang was almost 1.7 meters tall, and she didn’t dare to stretch her legs out at night when sleeping. It was cold in winter, and she sometimes fell asleep and stretched her feet out of the quilt, waking up from the cold all night.

Her eldest sister was driven back by her husband’s family, and he didn’t want her two children, so they came with her. Her mother was so worried that she sighed at home all day long, crying about her daughter’s misfortune. He Xiaofang didn’t want to go back at all, but she still had to go back as she had no place to stay during the holidays. 

Wasn’t Jiang Ning the same? Grandpa Jiang’s house was the ranger’s house. It was the uncle and his wife who moved there. The store was only big enough for the small bed that Grandpa Jiang slept on. Without the dormitory, Jiang Ning either had to rent a house near the school gate or live in a guest house.

That made her want to go to Shanghai as soon as possible, get the real estate certificate for her house, renovate it quickly, and then transfer her household registration there so that she could stay far away from here.

After Jiang Ning finished her exam, Grandpa Jiang thought he could go home. Unexpectedly, his granddaughter did not plan to go back but said, “Grandpa, if you miss home, go back first. I am going to Shanghai to participate in the finals of the essay competition.”

Grandpa Jiang had almost forgotten about his granddaughter and the essay contest and asked in confusion, “You haven’t finished the essay contest yet?”

“It’s not over yet. Last time I went to the semi-finals; this time it’s the finals. The final prize money is one thousand and fifty. It’s winter vacation now. I have nothing to do. You can stay here for a few more days. Grandpa, when I finish the competition, I will accompany you shopping in Shanghai.” Jiang Ning knew that Grandpa Jiang liked to see the scenery of big cities.

Even though he helped Jiang Ning look after the store during this period, he earned more than ten or twenty yuan every day. When Grandpa Jiang heard the prize money, he immediately stood up and said, “I will accompany you for the competition.”

—

Seeing his granddaughter taking him to the hospital again, Grandpa Jiang was very puzzled, “Your final reward is still a free physical examination?”

He just didn’t understand why the organizer liked to do physical examinations so much.

With plenty of time, Jiang Ning admitted Grandpa Jiang to the hospital. She wanted to give him a good treatment for some of his old age diseases and then said she would go to the competition.

Grandpa Jiang had lived there last time and was already familiar with that place. He said nonchalantly, “You go and compete in your competition. Don’t worry about it.”

As he said this, he said to himself, “I’m in very good health, but I only need you to take care of me when I’m lying in bed unable to move.”

The old man had always been very independent. His granddaughter admitted him to the hospital to take care of him, but he felt uncomfortable being in bed. Therefore, he started walking around the hospital alone with his hands behind his back.

Jiang Ning took advantage of Grandpa Jiang’s hospitalization and went directly to Manager Qian.

Manager Qian had already prepared all Jiang Ning’s things and gave them to her, saying, “Our decoration team has arrived. Do you want to go to our model house to see the designs of foreign designers specially invited by our boss?”

Many customers were originally not interested in their houses. When they saw that the model house was designed by a foreign designer, they were curious to take a look at the model house. After viewing the model house, someone finally bought the house that was originally unsaleable.

Jiang Ning quickly signed the contract and took the contract and other materials. “I’ll go to the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau to apply for the real estate certificate first. I’ll come back after I finish the certificate. By the way, Manager Qian, I want to buy a house that comes with a blue-printed household registration. Do you have any suitable recommendations?”

Manager Qian already knew that this little girl was the author of Catcher in the Song Dynasty. Catcher in the Song Dynasty was not only serialized in Wuxia, but its two published books were also selling very well. He even bought two copies and put them in the sales office. He didn’t expect that after buying two houses, she would want to buy a third one so soon, and he couldn’t help but feel envious for a moment.

The housing market at that time was still in its infancy, and many laws and regulations were not perfect. Ten or twenty years later, minors who wanted to buy a house must be accompanied by a guardian and must pay the full price. However, that was not required then. Jiang Ning’s bank statements and deposits would do.

After paying a large amount of tax, Jiang Ning finally got her long-awaited real estate certificate. After that, she returned to Hudong and followed Manager Qian to see the model house he had renovated.

After half a year of construction, the area in the east of Shanghai was still very desolate, but there were more construction sites around it, and there was smoke, dust, and noise everywhere. Some people who couldn’t afford a house in the west of Shanghai would come to the east of Shanghai to take a look. Hudong was in such chaos that everyone had backed down. Most of the people who came to Hudong to buy houses were outsiders.

They came for the blue seal of residence.

The same was true for their community, which was still under construction.