Chapter 57: Admission

The villagers have all heard that the piece of land in the west of Qiaodong Village that hasn’t been requisitioned has now been planted with a large number of fruit trees. The village chief’s eldest son came to the village looking for Liu Guangman and mentioned that the area in the west of Qiaodong Village would be requisitioned sooner or later; otherwise, Chen Wenqiang wouldn’t have reminded people to plant the trees.

Chen Wenzhen came this time specifically to find village chief Liu Guangman, hoping to transfer his household registration over and get a piece of land allocated to him. If anyone wanted to transfer their land, he was also interested in buying some. If that didn’t work out, he could at least contract the forest land behind the western end of the village.

But they weren’t fools; everyone knew that the land in the west of Qiaodong Village was going to be requisitioned. Who would want to transfer their land now? Liu Guangman was even less likely to agree to Chen Wenzhen’s request to transfer his household registration or to contract the forest land at this time. If he did, then every family would have relatives wanting to follow suit, and that would be chaos in Qiaoxi Village.

However, Chen Wenzhen wasn’t stupid. He had thought about not being able to accomplish anything before coming here. Now he was thinking about building a good relationship with Liu Guangman. His father was waiting to compete for land in the suburbs after those factories relocated. As the clan leader, his father always thought about others and wanted to help everyone make money together.

But he had to think about himself too. He didn’t want to be bound by his father’s expectations; he needed to find a helper for himself.

He had wanted to team up with Chen Wenqiang before, but Chen Wenqiang was too slippery; he was more interested in teaming up with Chen Wenzhen’s father, so that plan was out of the question.

Once the news spread in the village, Old man Liu immediately recalled what Chen Jin had said the other day. Could it be that she came to Qiaodong Village and then transferred to Qiaoxi Village? No wonder! He thought there was nothing going on, but why did this girl run to Qiaoxi Village? It turned out to be such a big deal!

She really talked nonsense, not telling him a single truth!

Old man Liu was so angry that his mouth was bubbling; he wanted to call Chen Jin immediately to question her, but he held back. It wouldn’t make any sense to call her; if she didn’t want to talk, she could just hang up.

So, Old man Liu went out to find the village chief. After confirming the news, he slapped his thigh and set off with his two sons and the twin brothers Liu Yinan and Liu Yibei straight to the small western-style building at the south side of the university.

However, he didn’t expect that when they were at the entrance of the community, people saw them arguing on the phone and suspected they were there to cause trouble, not allowing them to enter, insisting that someone inside come out to escort them in.

Liu Yibei gritted his teeth and stepped forward, smiling obediently. “We’re here to find my sister; she lives in the small building inside. We have important matters to discuss with her, which we couldn’t explain clearly on the phone. Could you please let us in first? We can register our information as required.”

It would have been fine if he hadn’t given a name, but after Liu Yibei mentioned Chen Jin’s name, the security guard became even more suspicious. “I know Teacher Chen Jin, and I’ve seen her younger sister. Other relatives have always been brought in by her; you guys are just making up relationships to get in, right?”

“No, we really are…”

“You can talk all you want, but if you’re really relatives, have Teacher Chen come out to meet you or have her call us to explain the situation; otherwise, you can’t just enter.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Xingyi and Bai Ling, who were carrying gift boxes, tried to walk in as they usually did, but this time the security guard stopped them too, insisting they find someone to come out to meet them or have someone inside call the guard.

Bai Ling frowned, “Why is there still this rule now? When we came in before, we only needed to register. We were looking for Professor Song. Also, we live right across in the faculty housing.”

The security guard showed a hint of embarrassment but thought it wouldn’t be good to stop those other people while letting these two pass, so he spoke in a friendly manner, “Just call the people inside. As long as the host confirms, we can let you through. You come here often, so it’s difficult for us to manage if you don’t make that call.”

As he spoke, the guard glanced at the people from Old man Liu’s family, clearly recognizing they were just temporary visitors. It seemed that Teacher Chen probably didn’t want to see them.

In the end, the people from Old man Liu’s family didn’t get in, and Li Xingyi and Bai Ling couldn’t get in either.

Aunt He, the housekeeper at Professor Song’s, said both professors were out and that it wasn’t convenient to receive guests at the moment. They had no choice but to turn back.

On the way back, Liu Yibei was feeling gloomy. Just thinking about how they had come all the way from Qiaoxi Village to find Chen Jin, but hadn’t even gotten through the main gate of the community, made it hard for him to calm down.

He poked his older brother beside him and muttered, “If the village gets demolished too, wouldn’t Chen Jin be even prouder?”

Liu Yinan shot her a glare, stopping her from continuing, and felt relieved that they were sitting in the back of the bus, far from their grandfather, uncle, and second uncle. If any of the elders heard her, they would definitely get scolded.

“Don’t worry about her; whether she’s doing well or not has nothing to do with us. But if the village is demolished, that’s a big deal for us.”

Only if the village really got demolished would their family have money to send the two of them abroad. Otherwise, they could only afford to send one person.

“I just can’t stand her. Look at how smug she was a few days ago!” Liu Yinan said angrily. “Because of her, our parents have been arguing a lot. With all her houses and savings, why can’t she treat her siblings, who don’t have the same parents, a little better? Why can’t she share a bit with us?”

The last sentence Liu Yibei said lacked confidence.

If it were before, she would definitely have thought that whether Chen Jin was doing well or poorly had nothing to do with their family; at most, she would just feel envious. But now, she and her brother were about to enter their third year, studying English and Western medicine, and both wanted to take advantage of the trend to study abroad. In the faculty housing of the Normal University, several professors’ children went abroad to study as soon as they graduated. They heard that the income abroad was dozens of times that in the country, and the conditions were much better than at home…

When the summer vacation started, they had consulted about the expenses required for studying abroad, which were even more expensive than they had imagined. Relying on their grandfather for money was impossible; their family could only afford to send one person abroad.

Their parents hadn’t formally stated it, but she knew that if only one person could study abroad, it would definitely be her brother.

With all the houses and savings Chen Jin had, even if she just gave them a small amount, it would be enough for her to study abroad. But Chen Jin…

Liu Yinan didn’t respond.

These words could be said by others, but they couldn’t say them themselves; if it spread, they would be criticized behind their backs. Chen Jin’s money was never going to be spent on them; she had already notarized her assets, leaving them no opportunity to benefit. Only the younger sister thought about it more.

If it were them, Liu Yinan scoffed, they would be like the current Chen Jin. So, they couldn’t blame her. What goes around comes around; he didn’t believe that this wouldn’t come around to his family someday.

Back in Qiaoxi Village, when the villagers saw Old man Liu and his family return, they swarmed around, all asking, “What did Chen Jin say? Is our village also going to be demolished?”

“Yeah, the land on the west side of Qiaodong Village is very close to our village. If it gets expropriated, it will definitely include our area, right?”

“Liu Laogen, hurry up and say something. We’re all brothers with the same surname. Keeping this a secret isn’t fair!”

Old man Liu angrily swatted away the fingers pointing at him, “If I knew something, would I not say it?! I didn’t find out anything!”

“How could you not find out? Isn’t your granddaughter Chen Wenqiang’s niece? I’ve heard that your granddaughter has a good relationship with Chen Wenqiang; she can’t possibly not know anything!”

“If she knows, she wouldn’t tell me!” Old man Liu cursed, “I said I don’t know means I don’t know. Believe it or not.”

“Hey! Why is Liu Laogen so angry?”

When Old man Liu returned home, his two sons were surrounded by people, and they directly said they had gone to find Chen Jin but hadn’t seen her at all, and she hadn’t answered their calls either.

“That’s too much! The village gave her a household registration and granted her a residential land; let her build houses in the village. She doesn’t say anything when she has a problem! If that’s the case, then why don’t we just kick her out of Qiaoxi Village? Why should she get those few buildings?”

“Exactly! Taking advantage of us and acting innocent! I’ve seen her show off in the village several times; she’s really heartless, using our village’s land without saying a word!”

“No way! I’m going to demand an explanation! If I can’t find Chen Jin, doesn’t she have a cousin here? I’m going right now!”

After taking a few angry steps, he noticed there was no sound beside him. Turning around, he saw that everyone else was still standing there, and he was the only one really planning to go find someone for an explanation.

He got even angrier, “What do you mean?”

“You go if you want; we’re not getting involved.”

“Yeah, we’re not getting involved either.”

Are you kidding me? If they really dared to rush over, they would definitely get reported by that cousin of Chen Jin’s; the new deputy director of the police station was from Qiaodong Village and had come to the village to make trouble last time. They would be asking for trouble if they boldly went to question her. What if she just insisted they were causing trouble?

Besides, even Liu Laogen, her own grandfather, hadn’t gotten any news from Chen Jin; how could they find anything out from her cousin? Just thinking about it made it clear it was impossible; they didn’t have that kind of face.

“What’s the rush? Didn’t the village head and the village secretary go to find Chen Wenqiang? We’ll know once they come back.”

On the other side, at the Integrity Construction Company.

Chen Yongxin had just sent off the village chief and the party secretary of Qiaoxi Village and turned back to his father’s office.

“Are you not worried that they’ll realize everyone is keeping an eye on the land over in Qiaoxi Village if you let them find out about a few real estate companies’ recent developments?”

Chen Wenqiang glanced at him and snorted softly, “If they notice, they notice. That’s someone else’s fortune. Whether they get rich or not has nothing to do with us.”

“Are you saying that Liu Shisheng’s family will get rich too?”

Chen Yongxin tacitly agreed; they didn’t want to watch that family thrive, as it would be quite bothersome.

“If there’s demolition, it wouldn’t be bad if they’re included too. The more things Third sister has in her hands, the more they’ll just watch and be envious, and who knows what they might do out of desperation. Let them get demolished too; as for Liu Laogen, ha! His sons won’t gain much from this, so let them fight among themselves to avoid causing trouble for Third sister.”

“That’s true, it’s better this way.” Chen Yongxin thought about it and figured that Third sister might think the same.

“What’s up with Chen Wenzhen lately? Has he lost his mind?”

“Don’t worry about whether he’s lost his mind or not; we just need to know about his troubles. Just don’t let the village chief know. His wife already knows, and if she’s not making a fuss, we outsiders don’t need to meddle. He’s enjoying his success right now, so let him enjoy it.”

This person was only clear-headed at the beginning; he didn’t know if it was because he’d been hanging out with Chen Wensong for too long, but his mind was starting to muddle.

Speaking of which, the land on the west side of the village also belonged to Chen Wensong’s family, but it was under the name of the old party secretary. It was said that this time, the old party secretary didn’t plan to give Chen Wensong a share but wanted to leave it for his younger son.

It seemed the old party secretary no longer considered Chen Wensong’s eldest son reliable, not even planning to share the money with him.

Every day, Chen Jin’s first task upon waking was to cross off the days on the calendar. She circled August 14 with watercolor pens, marking the day she would return to work.

On August 8, she received a congratulatory call from Chen Yongan.

“Third Sister! I got in! Ah, I really got in! It’s an undergraduate program! I barely made it in; my teacher said I was lucky!”

Chen Jin happily jumped a few times. “Which school did you get into?”

“Agricultural University!”

That was pretty good, as it was also a local school in Rong City! This year, it had just changed its name from Agricultural College to Agricultural University.

Chen Yongan really hit the jackpot; his grades fluctuated unpredictably, and he thought it would be great to get into a vocational college. He never expected to actually enter an undergraduate program! He had taken a bit of a risk when filling out his application; thankfully, luck was on his side!

After her excitement faded, Chen Jin casually asked, “What’s your major?”

The excitement on the other end abruptly stopped. Just as she thought Chen Yongan might have accidentally hung up, she heard his quiet voice: “Animal husbandry…”

Chen Jin fell silent and said, “That’s an interesting major.”

It sounded more interesting than a major in Chinese.

“By the way, which school did Chen Yue get into?”

Chen Yongan sighed. “Fudan! She can go study in Shanghai!” How enviable! He was worried that applying to schools in Beijing and Shanghai might not work out, so he ultimately settled for a school in the province. Looking back, he felt a bit regretful; he never even tried!

But one has to apply before taking the exams. When everyone filled out their applications, they were still very conservative. They didn’t dare to take chances on things they weren’t sure about; otherwise, one misstep could lead to failure.

“That’s impressive!” The resources and teaching quality at No. 11 Middle School couldn’t compare to those at No. 3 Middle School. It was quite impressive for Chen Yue to achieve this result there.

It was good; her parents’ divorce didn’t interfere with her studies.

“But Aunt Kexin said they’re planning a graduation party and setting a date. Chen Yue said after the graduation party, she and Aunt Kexin are going to Shanghai to buy a house near the school.”

“Oh, my parents also said they want to hold a graduation party. Third Sister, just give the red envelope directly to me; don’t give it to my parents!”

“Alright, got it.”

That evening, Chen Jin received a call from her third uncle, setting the graduation party for the 12th. The next day, she got another call from Aunt Kexin confirming that Chen Yue’s graduation party would be on the 11th.

Good things kept coming one after another.

Shen Baichuan specially came to knock on the door, asking whether the fruit trees had been planted in their fields yet.

Chen Jin knew she was getting closer to her goal of becoming a super rich woman.

Her mood was brighter than the sun that day, and seeing that the luxury car in front of Shen Baichuan’s house was gone, replaced by a black motorcycle, she genuinely complimented, “Mr. Shen, your car looks really nice!”