"It's at 528 Changdong Avenue. The development is called Changxiang Garden. You'll see it the moment you arrive," Fatty Lai said.

"All right, you get on with your work. I'll head over in a bit, and once we've picked out a floor plan, I'll give you a call," Wei Zhao said.

After hanging up, Wei Zhao said to Mother Tang, "Auntie, we'll go pick one out first. Once we've settled on a floor plan, I'll find someone to knock a little more off the price."

"You can get it even cheaper? That's wonderful!" Mother Tang loved a bargain. The moment she heard Wei Zhao say so, she was delighted. She had already heard that the development was running a promotion for its grand opening — and if the price could come down even further on top of that, how could Mother Tang not be overjoyed?

The more she looked at Wei Zhao, the better she thought of him. If her daughter ended up with him, she would never have to worry about anything again.

The three of them rode in Wei Zhao's minivan toward Changdong Avenue. His car was nothing to write home about, but in Mother Tang's eyes, having a car at all was already quite good. Among the people living in the shantytown, how many had a car?

"Tang Yun, did you take leave from school?" Wei Zhao had long since made a habit of skipping class, but Tang Yun was a good student — the number of times she had skipped could be counted on one hand.

"There was a poisoning incident at school yesterday, so there are no regular classes today. I heard the chairman of the Gu Group is going to hold a press conference, and a lot of students and parents have gone to attend, so for now the school is just holding study hall..." When Tang Yun mentioned the chairman of the Gu Group, she thought of Gu Mengyao. The impression Gu Mengyao had left on her yesterday was that she had none of the bad habits of those rich kids — a little proud, perhaps, but still fairly easy to get along with.

Changxiang Garden occupied a good location. Changdong Avenue was one of the Third Ring Roads newly built this year, so on the very first day of sales, Changxiang Garden drew a crowd of homebuyers. The parking lot outside the sales office was already packed with cars.

Wei Zhao finally managed to find a parking space and pulled in, only for a burst of urgent honking to sound from behind, along with a man's furious cursing: "Where'd this piece-of-shit van come from? I spotted that space first — how the hell did you snatch it? God damn it, back it out!"

Wei Zhao frowned and got out of the car, only to see a balding man leaning his head out of a BMW parked behind him, cursing up a storm.

"Watch your mouth. Don't bring trouble down on yourself," Wei Zhao said, giving him a flat look.

"Holy shit, driving a crappy van and you think you're somebody?" The balding man had not expected Wei Zhao to talk back, much less threaten him, and flew into a rage at once: "You believe I'll run you over?"

With that, the balding man started his engine and lurched the car toward Wei Zhao. Of course, he was only trying to scare him — when it came to actually hitting him, he wouldn't dare. After all, running someone down in front of so many witnesses would do him no good either.

He would probably end up in prison for it. Rich as he was, that sort of thing was not easy to smooth over.

Wei Zhao smiled faintly. Just as the BMW was about to lunge into him, he suddenly lashed out with his foot, kicking the hood of the car. The BMW jerked to a dead stop.

The balding man was startled out of his wits. Someone could actually stomp a car to a halt? What kind of person was this? A wave of unease washed over him. He often went around throwing his weight about, but when he ran into a ruthless character like this, he still did not dare put on airs — put on the wrong airs and you get a beating.

So although the balding man was grinding his teeth with rage, he did not dare do anything to Wei Zhao. He stopped the car and hurried out to take a look, only to find a dent kicked into his hood. His heart grew even more fearful, but he refused to show weakness. He gave a cold snort and said, "Kid, you've got nerve. We'll see about this!"

He did not dare make Wei Zhao pay for the repairs, nor did he care about the cost of fixing the car. His harsh words were only meant to salvage some face.

He was the boss of Xincun Taxi Company, with a fair amount of money on hand. Today he had brought his newly acquired mistress to buy a house, and naturally he did not want to be looked down upon.

"Heh..." Wei Zhao smiled faintly and said nothing more.

People like this were everywhere, so there was no need for Wei Zhao to get angry over one of them.

The balding man glared at Wei Zhao, then got back in the car and said to the woman in the passenger seat, "What a piece of work. Driving a crappy car and acting like he's somebody. A bumpkin, that's all. Just wait and see how I deal with him."

"President Wu, don't lower yourself to argue with that sort of person. Getting angry at him is beneath you!" How could the woman fail to see that her man did not dare go head-to-head with Wei Zhao? But she would never say so aloud — if she did, President Wu would fly into a rage, and then what would become of the house-buying?

"Right. Looks like they're here to buy a house too. When the time comes, we'll see what they're after and trip them up a bit!" President Wu nodded, started the car, and went off to look for another parking space.

Tang Yun and Mother Tang got out of the car. They had seen the scene earlier as well, but they did not know exactly what had happened. Since Wei Zhao had already handled it, there was no need to ask.

The three of them walked into the sales center, and a saleswoman immediately came up to greet them and began introducing Mother Tang to the particulars of Changxiang Garden.

It had to be said that Fatty Lai's management was quite thorough. Mother Tang did not look like a wealthy woman at first glance, but the sales staff here did not slight her for it.

"If I buy a house here, is there a discount?" What Mother Tang cared about most was the discount, so before the saleswoman had even finished her introduction, she asked.

As for whether there were schools or shopping districts nearby, none of that concerned her. What concerned her was the price. If it was cheap, it did not matter if there was nothing around it. Her daughter would soon be taking the college entrance exams — what did schools nearby have to do with her?

As for shopping districts, needless to say, everything her family ate and used came from the wholesale market or the night market street. They could not afford those high-end malls anyway.

"Yes, today is the grand-opening promotion. All floor plans are five percent off, and if you pay in full, you get another ten percent off on top of that, plus a chance to win a grand prize of a fully furnished unit!" the saleswoman said.

"Can't it be a little cheaper?" Mother Tang asked.

"This is the price set by the boss. We don't have the authority to change it," the saleswoman said with a smile.

"All right, then let's take a look at the location and the floor plans first!" Mother Tang nodded.

The saleswoman took Wei Zhao and the two women to look at the scale model. Mother Tang chose a building that, relatively speaking, had better lighting and a better location, and then said, "I'll take this building. Do you have the floor plans?"

"Yes, one moment please!" The saleswoman found the floor plans for that building and handed them to Mother Tang.

Mother Tang took the floor plans. She had just opened them when the balding man who had clashed with Wei Zhao earlier came sidling over in their direction...

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