Granny Lu had long stitched together a set of bedding for her, all made from new cotton. Carrying her luggage on her back, she went to the dormitory, and it was quite nice - since she arrived early, she got a lower bunk. In both her lives, she was the same, disliking the upper bunk. It was inconvenient to climb up and down. True, the lower bunk could sometimes be a bit of a hassle, with others sitting when you’re sitting, and some people just lack awareness. But it was still better than staying in the upper bunk. At the very least, it was convenient for her.
With the bedding made, she neatly placed all her belongings, one by one. The new dormitory was actually quite spartan. A fan on the ceiling whirred intermittently, and there was no air conditioning in winter. The dormitory itself had no telephone; only a small shop in the school had a telephone to use.
Qin Xiangnuan had always admired those who managed to do business in the school. There was only this one small store for the entire school, and when the school closed its gates at night, with nowhere to go and nowhere to play, the business of the entire student body was taken up by this one family.
It was a pity that she had no connections and knew nobody in the school, or else she would have opened a shop as well. But then she thought, perhaps it would have provoked fights.
The food in the school cafeteria really wasn’t very good, but fortunately, her home was close by. She would go home for lunch every day. Granny Lu would make a lot of delicious food to bring back to school for her.
She had been living well enough in the dorm, but a phone call abruptly summoned her back home. She ran home in fright, only to find Mr. Li basking in the sun and Granny Lu doing laundry, with peace and tranquility at home and no sign of distress.
Jian Zhiqing was flipping through some documents on the table, looking serious, but it only seemed like he was troubled by something, not in any sort of panic.
"What’s going on?" she sat down, hastily poured a glass of water for herself, and gulped it down. On such a hot day, she felt nearly overheated from the rush. She was still in herunbind, which she didn’t care for at home but still used in school, since the delicate thoughts of teenagers were somewhat embarrassing. Jian Zhiqing seemed to understand what she meant, so he didn’t bother her about it. However, at home, whenever she wore the unbind, his gaze became strange. It was better not to wear it as it was weird in some way when she did, and since summer clothes were loose-fitting, it wasn’t noticeable. She was used to it.
After another glass of water, she reached out and took the documents from Jian Zhiqing’s hands to see what they were.
Jian Zhiqing deliberately placed all the documents in front of Qin Xiangnuan and then propped his hands on the table.
"That alley is going to be demolished to make way for roads, to build Capital City’s first overpass. They want us to sign now, early signers get extra. What do you think?"
This issue? Qin Xiangnuan felt like knocking on her own head; she had been so busy she’d forgotten all about it. The road construction, in her previous life, indeed happened around this time, and the compensation was quite generous. She had two properties, Jian Zhiqing had one, and Teacher Wang had also bought one. Teacher Wang should have been the first to know since his family lived right there. She didn’t actually know how much she’d get, whether it would be money or property, but what she wanted was the land, which seemed possible to get allocated nearby. Selling that land in the future would net more profits than just a house or two. Of course, Qin Xiangnuan was thinking the same, but as to whether she’d get her hands on it, she dared not say now.
"Do you want to sign?" Jian Zhiqing asked Qin Xiangnuan.
"What does Brother Jian think?" Qin Xiangnuan did not answer but instead asked him back.
"That house was purchased from you by Brother Jian, so Brother Jian will listen to you."
Jian Zhiqing, as usual, ruffled Qin Xiangnuan’s hair and then brushed aside her fringe, as if it had grown a bit longer. The scars were fading, too, looking like they might disappear eventually.
"Alright, Brother Jian will listen to me," Qin Xiangnuan carefully placed each document back in order, and set them on the table.
"We won’t sell. We’ll be the last holdouts."
"Okay, I’ll listen to you."
Jian Zhiqing smiled, casually tossing the documents into the trash, intending to forget about it.
But Qin Xiangnuan picked them up and put them away again.
"What, you want to keep them?" Jian Zhiqing raised an eyebrow. "Since we’re not selling, these documents are useless."
"What a waste to throw them away," Qin Xiangnuan kicked the trash bin lightly, "It’s not right to keep throwing everything away. We could use these papers for Granny’s fire."
"Fine," Jian Zhiqing understood, "Tomorrow I’ll bring you all the waste paper from my office."
"That’s not good," Qin Xiangnuan frowned prettily, "Brother Jian, we’re law-abiding citizens, we can’t do things that undermine socialism."
"Alright, I get it, you’re the one with all the words," Jian Zhiqing flicked Qin Xiangnuan’s forehead, "Just make sure you’ve thought it through about those houses. Selling now, you can benefit from the government’s policies, but if you delay, don’t blame Brother Jian for not warning you; you might just miss out on the opportunity."
"Then Brother Jian can sell first; I won’t," Qin Xiangnuan was determined not to be a pacesetter nor a fair-weather friend. She had her reasons.
"How could that be?" Jian Zhiqing laughed. "You’ve already roped me onto your ’treasure ship.’ I’ve been through this not just once or twice; I’ll leave it up to you."
Qin Xiangnuan silently vowed, what does he mean by ’treasure ship?’ Joining her ship, one would be set for life without even trying to get rich. Even without any skills, she could recall winning a few million here or there in the lottery last life. How could she be like now, slowly scraping together a little money from history? Sadly, her past life was too wretched to even think about these things; she was just earning a bit of hard-earned cash.
However, Jian Zhiqing did have good insight. That Siheyuan, as well as the house bought in the alley, would be enough to secure his lifetime of food and drink. The same went for following her; there would always be meat to eat.
Jian Zhiqing had come over, and of course, so had Teacher Wang.
Teacher Wang was clearly nervous, even his words seemed jumbled. Qin Xiangnuan could understand; they were among the oldest generation of Beijing Drifters. To be able to buy their own house here was once unthinkable, but if not bought now, it would become an impossible dream.