Chapter 431

Pei Yong, who had come back from another place, now had half of his hair turned white.

No one cared who Pei Shuangshuang had married, and Pei Yong never took the initiative to mention it either.

He still went to work every day as before, greeted others enthusiastically, and except for his white hair, his mental state was still quite good.

In the summer of 1987, the construction of Hulan Elegant Garden was completed.

There were a total of 16 buildings in the community, each with its own independent entrance, and whether it was landscaping or facilities, only the best materials were used.

That night, Su Ying came over specially.

"Zhi Xia, save one building in your Hulan Elegant Garden for me. I discussed with your fourth brother and we plan to move."

"You are well informed. Since it has just been announced that the construction is completed, it happens that I reserved a building for myself too. Why don't you just live next to me and we can still be neighbors."

Zhi Xia originally wanted to build a comfortable environment for herself, which was why she established Hulan Elegant Garden.

There was a large shopping mall and central street nearby, and in the second half of the year, the hospital where her third brother worked would also relocate there, so life would be more convenient.

"Of course I've been keeping an eye on it." Su Ying said with a smile: "You don't know, the houses in Hulan Elegant Garden are being watched by more than just me. Many wealthy people are also eyeing them. I bet they will be sold out as soon as they are listed for sale. If you ask me, you built too few houses. There are so many rich people in Jin City in recent years, how can just these few buildings be enough?"

"Well, there's no other way. This is the only land available, and we have to comply with the city's plans. It already took a lot of brain power just to build this Hulan Elegant Garden. But if sales go well this time, we can focus on this in the next construction."

If nothing unexpected happens, this will become the downtown of Jin City in the future, and it is also a region under rapid development currently.

She just didn't know whether she could obtain the land quota again for the next phase of construction.

The first phase was built to test the waters. Back then, others needed her, while the second phase was an exploratory move where she cooperated well, and because the first phase sold well, she was given more quotas. But favors like these will be used up eventually, and people will still make decisions based on benefits.

With the success of the first two phases, there will definitely be more people wanting to get in on it later, and the competition will only get fiercer.

"I don't understand this stuff. I only have talent for fashion design, so it's only right that you make the big money." Su Ying said, "The kids are still waiting at home, I won't chat with you too long. Are you free tomorrow? Let's go take a look at the houses together. I can't wait to get started on the renovation and move over as soon as possible."

It wasn't bad living in this house, but she could feel that Liu Ling had never been too friendly to her, just because she lived here.

Having grown up always looking at others' faces, now that Su Ying finally had some ability, she also wanted to be more free, and didn't want to always feel like she owed someone.

It wasn't like she had no money. She could fully support a better life for herself.

She didn't think about moving before, because An ZhiAng was rarely home for years, and she didn't dare to live alone with the children. Here there were Zhi Xia and Pei Yong, and the neighbors who had lived here for many years, so at least safety could be ensured.

Now that even Zhi Xia was moving, Hulan Elegant Garden was a gated community, surrounded by walls, with security guards and property managers, so it goes without saying that those who could afford to buy there must be people with status and position. Safety wouldn't be a concern living there.

As for the house she lived in now, she never intended to claim ownership anyway.

It was the elders' asset, and they could give it to whoever they wanted. She didn't covet it and it wasn't worth her plotting for.

Su Ying was confident that although her business was not as big as Zhi Xia's, her clothing factory had been doing well with its novel styles, and adding the family assets left by the Su family ancestors and the wealth divided from An ZhiAng, she had enough to squander for life without doing any work.

"Alright, let's go take a look tomorrow, and we can discuss renovation together."

Zhi Xia saw her out, and when she turned around she saw her four sons who were now taller than her looking at her intently.

"Mom, are we moving?" Xiao Liu had suddenly entered puberty in the last two months, and was now literally a croaky-voiced teenager, which was why he had not been very talkative recently. He was so excited this time that he ignored his voice.

The triplets also looked very excited. Chen Ze raised his eyebrows and said, "Mom, will I finally get my own room after we move?"

The house they lived in now was not small, but with so many children in the family, one room per person was still not enough.

What's more, although Pei Lao had passed away, his room was still kept as it was, and his memorial tablet was always on the cabinet to be worshipped during festivals and holidays. There was also a room with a leaky roof that was used as a storage room.

So over the years, Chenye and Wanqing both had their own rooms, while the triplets had been sharing a room since birth. It was only in the last few years when they outgrew that room that Chen Yi moved in with Little Sixth, and Chen Ze and Chen An shared a room.

Chen An looked at Chen Ze disdainfully, "Bro, I haven't complained about your smelly farts at night yet, and I let you stay with me. Are you not satisfied?"

Chen Ze quickly explained, "That's not what I meant. I just wanted my own room to be more comfortable. And you toss and turn in your sleep, don't you know? You've almost kicked me onto the floor several times."

"No I haven't, don't make things up." Chen An denied it.

Chen Yi and Little Sixth didn't have much opinion. They didn't have high requirements for their living environment, but were still curious about the new home.

"Yes, we're moving. As for how big the house is and whether it's enough, you'll find out when you go take a look tomorrow."

Zhi Xia deliberately teased them by keeping it a mystery, then casually went back into the room, leaving the four brothers chattering endlessly.

Early next morning, Zhi Xia and Su Ying set off, followed by several children. They could all ride bikes themselves now, so there were several bikes in the family.

Fortunately it was no longer the last few years when bikes were still rare. Almost every household had them now, though families with six or seven bikes at once were still not many.

At the entrance of Hulan Elegant Garden, some people were still dealing with the leftover construction trash. As soon as Zhi Xia arrived, someone immediately came over to receive her.

She told the others to get busy with their own work, while she took them on a tour herself.

Having planned to live here from the start, she had already come countless times during the construction process.

Zhi Xia took them directly to a building and opened the door to enter. At first glance, a very large swimming pool could be clearly seen in the yard.

But it hadn't been completed yet and there was no water in the pool.

Little Sixth had already excitedly jumped in, "Mom, when can we move over? I can't wait!"

"Just wait. The interior hasn't even been renovated yet. If you want to move here to swim, I estimate it'll have to be around this time next year."

"That long?" The obvious disappointed tone came from Chen An. He would take the college entrance exam next year and had wanted to go to the capital to find his big brother. It seemed now that he wouldn't get to live in the new house for more than a few days.

Zhi Xia was not joking with him, but stating the reality.

Renovation wouldn't take too long, but the house would have to be left empty for a period after renovation before moving in.

She had also heard Little Fifth talk about his plans. But Chenye had already graduated and was currently studying further while working at the Academy of Sciences. The children were grown up now and also needed their own space. After the college entrance exam next year, she would also have to think about starting to prepare assets for the children.

With a total of 6 children in the family and small age gaps between them, it would be better to prepare early instead of all at once later when things would get busy and chaotic.

The house had a total of 4 floors and occupied a large area. The first floor had the living room, kitchen, dining room and bar counter, and two bedrooms, which of course would be left for sister-in-law Zhang to rest when needed.

The second and third floors had mostly rooms. Zhi Xia would definitely live on the second floor. When she got older and climbing up and down became tiring, she would have the convenience of being on a lower floor.

The third floor was fully bedrooms. When the time came, her daughter could live with them on the second floor, while the boys could have the third floor.

As for the fourth floor, Zhi Xia planned to make it a gym and home theater, and they could also enjoy the view from the rooftop during leisure time.

Oh, right, there is also a wine cellar in the basement. She doesn't drink much, but the men in her family quite like to drink a bit during the holidays.

The few rascals didn't have the patience to listen to them talk, and had already run upstairs out of sight. Su Ying's children had also gone with them. Zhi Xia reminded the triplets to keep an eye on them.

After listening to Zhi Xia's arrangements, Su Ying was extremely satisfied and praised Zhi Xia for knowing how to enjoy life.

"Right, you said you'd leave the house next door for me. Let's go over to the house next door and take a look." Su Ying was already impatient and pulled her along to go outside.

Seeing other people's houses is never as exciting as seeing your own. The second building wasn't much different from the first one, just that there was no swimming pool in the yard. If you really wanted one, you could dig one yourself.

After looking at the house, Su Ying's mood was similar to the children's, already impatient to move in.

But unfortunately, just as Zhi Xia said, the house was not yet renovated, so there was no way to hurry things along.

On the way back, Su Ying kept talking to Zhi Xia about the renovations. Zhi Xia had already thought about how she wanted to decorate the house when she was having it built, so she simply gave the renovation blueprints to Su Ying.

After looking through them, Su Ying decided to follow Zhi Xia's plans exactly, rather than make a mess of things as a layperson.

Although Su Ying had made quite a bit of money in recent years, buying this house still used up a considerable amount of savings. Zhi Xia was building the houses to sell, and the real estate side was mainly Hu Zhou's responsibility. She could only give Su Ying a family discount because they were relatives, at the same price as her own house.

That's right, Zhi Xia had to pay for her own house too. But at the end of the year when they divvied up the profits, she still got the lion's share.

What she could be certain of was that a house costing over 500,000 now, in this location, couldn't be bought for even 10 million 10 years later, or even tens of millions 20-30 years later.

Ideally, she wanted to hoard the houses here, but clearly that wasn't viable.

No matter how valuable the houses became, that was still decades away. They still owed the bank loans, and the construction bureau wanted to see a sellout, not her hoarding all the houses.

They wanted occupancy rates, talent inflows, sellouts as soon as sales started, scrambles and unmet demand. They had to make this place prosperous, which would benefit future construction. Unoccupied places were just empty shells, and could even hurt future property sales.

Wanqing returned with Chen Ze picking her up, because Jin City's airport was still under construction. She could only fly to other cities with airports, and her family didn't want her taking the train home alone as a young girl. Luckily the triplets had grown up, and had gone together to An ZhiXian's county over the new year. Now they could go out alone without worry, and any one of them could beat up several grown men, much safer than Wanqing alone.

They hadn't even gotten home yet when Zhou Nan sent someone to hurry them, telling them to go to the An's for dinner that night.

The two of them had returned quite late, so after dropping off their luggage at home, they hurried over to the An's.

On the way, Chen Ze asked Zhi Xia, "Mom, shouldn't we buy a car? It'd be more convenient when going out, and you know how to drive. Wouldn't it be nice to drive to work every day?"

"Third brother, you're not trying to get her to buy one because you want to drive it yourself, right?" Little Sixth didn't care one way or the other about buying a car, since he couldn't drive anyway.

Chen Ze did have that intention, but didn't dare admit it, hurriedly rebutting, "What nonsense are you talking? You want to see your third brother's legs get broken from driving at this age?"

Although he felt he could drive just fine, sadly he was underage, so could only wait a few years.

Kids get harder to control as they grow up, Zhi Xia now understood that deeply.

So as they bickered, she didn't get involved, chatting up front with Wanqing about her daughter's life and school over the past half year.

As for the brothers, fights were commonplace, let alone just some verbal sparring.

Luckily once they finished they got back to business as usual, still able to keep arguing and scuffling.

They had just arrived at the An's when Wanqing jumped out of the car, dressed all in white like a little elf running inside, calling out "Granny, grandpa, I'm here!" before even seeing anyone.

Zhi Xia helplessly shook her head. By the time she went in, Zhou Nan was already asking Wanqing this and that.

"Where's Mother-in-Law?" Not seeing the old lady, Zhi Xia asked.

"She's inside, just said she was tired and went to lie down," Zhou Nan casually replied.

"Then I'll go check on her." Zhi Xia went inside, opened the door a crack, and saw the old lady lying on her side in bed, a thin blanket covering her.

She closed the door again before coming out.

Wanqing had already been pulled into the living room by them, the house full of laughter and chatter.

Everyone was there today except An ZhiXian, who hadn't returned yet.

Just as she was thinking that, he wheeled his bike in the door.

Since he was back, Zhou Nan hurriedly had people start serving the prepared dishes.

When Liu Ling came out, Zhi Xia called her sister-in-law, but seeing she wasn't enthusiastic, didn't say anything more.

Zhi Xia's thinking was simple. Liu Ling could ignore her, but as long as she didn't make a scene, Zhi Xia was willing to maintain a superficial civility.