Chapter 66: Hesitation

“Confess honestly for leniency; resist strictly for severity!”

“Come on, be honest!”

Chen Jin glanced at her watch. “Hurry up and eat; I still need to go home for a nap later.” After Teacher Shen left, she still had to go back to the college office building to drive. It was scorching hot, and walking even one more step outside felt like torture.

“Then we’ll go home with you for a nap,” Lin Xinran decided, then urged, “You two hurry up and eat; we’ll talk while we walk later.”

“No way…”

“Yes, we will. We also need to come to the college for a meeting in the afternoon, so we’ll come with you in your car.”

Chen Jin thought for a moment. “Okay, I’ll ask later.”

What else was there to ask? She was driving her own car back to her own home; who else did she need to ask?

Yang Qian felt something was off, but Lin Xinran interrupted her train of thought, so she followed along and hurried to finish her meal. It wasn’t until it was time to return the trays that Yang Qian realized her eating pace had quickened.

Lin Xinran and the other two thought they were going to follow Chen Jin to the college office building to drive, but unexpectedly, Chen Jin headed straight for a white car outside the third canteen. After saying a few words to the person in the driver’s seat, she waved to them.

Chen Jin settled into the passenger seat, while Yang Qian and the other two squeezed into the back, sitting stiffly. They subtly glanced at the two people in front and exchanged knowing looks, stifling laughter.

“Teacher Shen, remember to call me this afternoon,” Chen Jin said. She had been hitching rides with Shen Baichuan for lunch and work for a week now, relishing the experience of riding in luxury cars every day. She had already planned that the next time she saw her cousin, she would boast about these cars to make him envious!

As soon as she got back, Chen Jin quickly turned on the air conditioning and then dashed upstairs to change clothes. “If you want to sleep in the guest room, go ahead. The sheets and blankets are freshly washed, and no one has been there recently.”

“Hey, you haven’t told us anything yet, don’t run off!” Lin Xinran chased after her, and when Chen Jin came out after changing, she got straight to the point and asked, “So, how far have you and Teacher Shen next door progressed? Are you two getting to know each other and planning to date?”

From what she could tell, they weren’t already dating. If they were, Chen Jin would have surely mentioned it; she wasn’t the type to keep secrets and be shy about it.

“What are you all thinking?” Chen Jin looked at them as if they were fools.

“Really nothing going on? I think Teacher Shen’s gaze toward you is a bit unusual. Yang Qian, don’t you think so? Your Mr. Zhuo looks at you the same way.”

“… I’m not so sure about that. I don’t really know how Zhuo Jiyu looks at me; I have slight nearsightedness.” Yang Qian added, “But from what I know about Zhuo Jiyu, Shen Baichuan doesn’t seem like someone who would pay special attention to his neighbors.”

“Are you and Teacher Shen considered ordinary friends now?” Chen Jin felt a bit uncertain. They had probably developed from friendly neighbors to ordinary friends, right?

What kind of fortune did she have to be friends with the God of Wealth?

“Isn’t that the situation? Is the next step to start developing into something more?”

“Nonono, absolutely impossible within the next one or two years.” Seeing that they wouldn’t leave without getting a clear answer, Chen Jin decided to lie down on the bed, since it was big enough anyway.

“Why is it absolutely impossible in the next one or two years?”

“Hehe~ I can’t tell you that. Anyway, it’s not possible right now.” She was currently only focused on when the land in Qiaodong Village would be expropriated and when Qiaoxi Village would be demolished. At this time to covet someone, that would be inappropriate, making her seem ulterior in her intentions.

Oh wait, she never intended to covet him anyway!

She couldn’t afford this God of Wealth at all; she didn’t have the money to buy him a car, and she didn’t even have enough to maintain his car. She couldn’t even bear to think about it!

Chen Jin’s mouth was like it had been welded shut; she really didn’t want to say anything, and nothing could be pried out of her. Yang Qian and Lin Xinran noticed this too—Chen Jin truly had no thoughts at all; she just didn’t know if that Teacher Shen had any thoughts.

Yang Qian patted Chen Jin. “Do you remember to keep an eye out for any small western-style houses for sale around here?”

Chen Jin rolled away, dodging her. “I remember, but no one wants to sell.”

She urged them to hurry and rest. “You just started school and are taking it too easy, right? I still have to go see my students this afternoon; I need to sleep.”

“Fine! Go sleep then.”

Yang Qian and Lin Xinran had been here before, so they were somewhat familiar with Chen Jin’s home. They often went shopping together and had traveled together before, so even without Chen Jin accompanying them, they felt comfortable here.

Chen Jin meant it when she said not to be polite; she was really too lazy to engage in small talk.

However, none of the three went to rest in the guest room at Chen Jin’s house. They all stayed on the living room sofa on the first floor.

Chen Lu was still confused; she had completely been brought along by chance.

After the start of graduate school, Lin Xinran ultimately decided to stay on campus, while Yang Qian originally said she would just stay off campus, but then changed her mind to keep a bed on campus for midday rest. Eventually, the three of them became roommates, and the remaining empty beds in the dormitory were temporarily not assigned to anyone else.

As roommates and classmates, they naturally became partners for commuting to and from school and for lunchtime.

Chen Lu’s relationship with Chen Jin was just okay, so she felt a bit awkward suddenly coming over to Chen Jin’s house. But when she saw Yang Qian and Lin Xinran, they seemed like they had been here before. Moreover, on the display shelf above the dresser, there were several rows of photos, including group photos of the three of them taken at school and during their trips.

The private Chen Jin seemed like a different person from the one Chen Lu had known for four years in college.

After taking a nap, they still hitched a ride with Shen Baichuan to school.

Chen Jin couldn’t help but laugh at how awkward the three of them were when meeting Shen Baichuan, almost like they were meeting professors from their college. But when she thought about it, she used to be the same way… never mind, it was a big brother, not a second brother.

Chen Jin directly ordered drinks for cooling off from the fruit beverage shop outside the west gate for the entire military training period, so she didn’t have to drive out herself to deliver them. The shop owner delivered them directly, and he also talked to other class advisors from different majors to make a few business deals. He could earn quite a bit from a round trip.

However, some classes pooled money among students for the drinks, while others were treated by their advisors. Chen Jin’s extravagant approach of covering everything was truly rare.

Now, the freshmen in the College of Humanities privately called Chen Jin “Rich Sister.”

Today, when Chen Jin came to check on her students, she coincidentally encountered a girl who fainted from heat exhaustion.

While she was discussing the upcoming evening activities with several class advisors, she heard a commotion in front of the military training group. A girl collapsed straight down; fortunately, a nearby classmate caught her. Otherwise, hitting the concrete ground could have caused serious injury.

Chen Jin hurried over to check the situation.

Fortunately, the instructor had experience; he arranged for classmates to take the girl to the shade and had another female student help unbutton her outer jacket. Luckily, the ice in the cooling drinks delivered today had not completely melted, making it just right to cool down this girl.

After a few minutes, the girl regained consciousness, and the class advisor took out a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi water for her to take.

Once she recovered, the instructor said, “Get your advisor to sign a leave request and go to the infirmary.”

During military training, any leave requests also required the instructor’s signature. The class advisor prepared a leave request form; after filling in the student’s information and reason, he handed it to the instructor for a signature, then passed it to Chen Jin. “Teacher Chen.”

After Chen Jin signed, she said to the female class advisor, “You go back to the dormitory with her; I’ll give you a ride.” She then reminded the other class advisors to pay more attention to the other students and said that if there were any special situations, they could come to her later for a leave request.

Since she saw a student faint, Chen Jin went to the training ground every afternoon without special arrangements to check the situation. Even Teacher Chang remarked to her, “You don’t have to treat them like little kids; you don’t need to check on them every day.”

“I can’t help but worry; once we get through this period of military training, it will be fine. The weather has been really hot recently; it wasn’t this hot last September.”

Teacher Chang laughed at her: “You weren’t in military training last September, so of course, you wouldn’t think it was hot.”

Moreover, last September, Chen Jin had just started her senior year. At that time, she wasn’t planning to continue her studies or rush to find a job, so out of all her classmates, she was probably living the easiest life, not caring much about the outside heat.

“That’s true.”

As military training entered its final phase, the next couple of days were spent practicing formations, with the last day for the performance. Chen Jin could feel the instructors growing more irritable; she felt a bit embarrassed just standing by watching them yell at the students.

During lunch, Chen Jin mentioned to Shen Baichuan that she went to see her students’ training results, and she ended up listening to the instructor scold them for half an hour, feeling awkward enough to want to find a hole to hide in.

Her students were being scolded, and as their advisor, she felt embarrassed too.

Shen Baichuan chuckled, thinking that her life as an advisor was overly exciting, with fresh happenings every day. He was a professional course teacher who left right after class unless a student came to ask questions. He rarely joked with students, and some were a bit scared of him. Especially since last semester, the failure rate in his class was higher than in other courses; this semester, he noticed that his students dared not act up in class.

So, when he heard her say that her students openly called her “Sister Chen” and privately called her “Rich Sister,” he couldn’t help but laugh.

It was quite fitting for her to be called “Rich Sister.”

On the day of the military training performance, Chen Jin even brought a camera to take photos. The excitement continued until the evening’s cultural performance ended.

It felt strangely like she was filling in for her own college regrets.

“Perhaps it’s interesting to watch others struggle, but when it comes to doing military training and participating in a cultural performance myself, it’s not so delightful.

After the military training ends and until the first official class starts next Monday, there are three days off. However, Chen Jin only has two days of leave.

As soon as the holiday starts, he quickly calls his third uncle, ‘Last time, we confirmed the land acquisition, but why hasn’t there been any further information?’

‘They say the relevant documents haven’t been fully processed yet, so we have to wait a bit longer. No need to rush; the trees have already been transplanted, so it doesn’t matter if it’s done early or late. Once they really finalize the acquisition over there, we’ll have to relocate the graves. I’m thinking it might be easier to just buy a cemetery outright, as I have no idea where we could move the graves to otherwise.’

That’s true; all the land in Qiaodong Village has been acquired, so they no longer have any land to relocate the graves to. This isn’t just their family’s issue; it also involves the graves of other families in the village and the village’s ancestral hall.”

“The village head is also discussing things with others; there’s no problem with the land acquisition, but the ancestral hall needs to be kept intact. It can’t be demolished for that reason, and they’re still negotiating because of this,” said the third uncle. “The ancestral hall really can’t be torn down. Let’s just wait and see; we’re not in a hurry.”

Chen Jin sighed, “That’s true; it’s not like I need the money urgently right now, so it doesn’t matter if it happens sooner or later.”

The third uncle was puzzled. “Didn’t you say last time that you wanted to wait for this money to come in so you could buy a house in Shenzhen?”

“That was my plan, but I’ve been researching the real estate situation in the country recently and I feel like now isn’t a good time to jump in. It’s better to keep the money for now and see if there are any other good investment opportunities. Uh, I haven’t really made up my mind yet.”

“Wow, your thoughts change daily. Last week you said you wanted to buy a house in Shenzhen, and this week you’re saying you want to invest in something else instead.” The third uncle didn’t comment on whether it was good or bad, but said, “Anyway, I don’t understand these business matters. Your big uncle knows more; you can ask him when you have time.”

Chen Jin thought for a moment and said, “I’ve been preoccupied with school matters lately. I’ll go to my big uncle’s company tomorrow to chat with him.”

After talking with the third uncle, Chen Jin called her big uncle to arrange a meeting at his company for tomorrow.

Chen Wenqiang poured a cup of tea for Chen Jin and asked, “Is work going smoothly?”

“At the moment, yes.” However, based on the experiences of Teacher Chang and Teacher He, this was just the beginning, and there would be plenty of tests ahead.

Knowing that her big uncle was very busy, as he had a tea meeting with business partners at the national forest park in the afternoon, Chen Jin didn’t want to waste his time and directly mentioned that she was considering whether to purchase some real estate in Shenzhen.

“Purchasing some? How many are we talking about?” He thought that if it was just one or two houses, Chen Jin wouldn’t have come specifically to consult him.

“It depends on how much money I have. I’ll buy as much as I can afford. If it’s still not enough, I can go to the bank for a loan. I’ve consulted with the bank president; since I own multiple properties, getting a mortgage approved shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Chen Jin looked at her big uncle, “Do you think my approach is a bit reckless?”

Chen Wenqiang snorted lightly, “If I say it’s reckless, would you stop?”

Chen Jin chuckled, “I’m just hesitating, wanting to hear your opinion.”

“If you’ve already made up your mind, does it matter what I think? You’re old enough to have your own thoughts. Young people should try more things. However,” Chen Wenqiang shifted the topic, “from what I know, the average house price in Shenzhen has gone above six thousand now. If you enter the market to buy a house now, you won’t be able to buy much with cash. If you really want to buy, I wouldn’t recommend buying too many. See if you can get a mortgage for one or two houses. Once you’ve bought the property, after the winter and summer breaks, you can find someone to do some simple renovations and rent it out, earning some rental income.”

“I’m just not quite sure right now.”

Chen Jin analyzed the various real estate policies she had collected, saying, “In the past two years, the government has imposed strict controls on the real estate market. High-end residential areas like Hanlin Garden have faced severe restrictions, and even mid-range developments like Xiuli (beautiful) Community have numerous limitations. Look at Hainan; it’s become a disaster zone. Now, while affordable housing hasn’t kept up with demand, the government hasn’t announced any cancellations… I just can’t determine if investing in a property in Shenzhen with this amount of money is a good idea.”

“Wow, I didn’t expect you to have researched so much.” Chen Wenqiang was surprised. It seemed she wasn’t just acting on a whim; she had done quite a bit of homework quietly behind the scenes.

Chen Jin naturally replied, “If I’m going to spend so much money, I have to think it through, right? Although this money could be seen as windfall, I can’t just throw it around carelessly. I wouldn’t dare to invest without understanding the ins and outs.”

Last year, she had bought a house purely on impulse; her big uncle had said it was good, so she followed along. But she couldn’t do that every time; she needed to have her own judgment, right?

During this time, whenever she had free moments, she sought out a lot of the country’s relevant policies, analyzing them word for word. When she couldn’t figure something out, she even went to her neighbors, one of whom taught economics. The professor had deeper insights, and she shamelessly approached Professor Song for help. Fortunately, her neighbors, whether kind or serious, were patient in answering her questions whenever she earnestly sought advice.

Chen Jin had benefited greatly during this period.

“So, why did you choose Shenzhen?”

“Because it’s a new area. I saw that the price increases there in recent years were the largest, so I thought it had more investment value. However, now the housing prices in Shenzhen are also affected by policies. This year, there hasn’t been much increase compared to last year. I don’t know how things will play out in the future.”

Chen Wenqiang took a sip of tea. “It’s not just Shenzhen. Housing prices across the country are influenced by regulatory policies. However, the government is now promoting mortgage buying and housing fund policies, which is a big opportunity for the real estate industry. If the government continues to boost the economy, with so many state-owned enterprises closing down, there are many laid-off workers who won’t receive housing benefits. I see that welfare housing will eventually be phased out; there will be a big market for commercial housing in the future.”

“You have the money to invest in real estate in Shenzhen. It’s hard to say whether housing prices will rise or fall in the next few years, but in the long run, I believe there won’t be any problems. After all, once you buy the property, you don’t have to rush to sell it; you can just hold onto it like a stock. If you’re hesitating and can’t think of other investment projects, just keep the money; the land in the outskirts of West District is only one-third developed, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to invest later.”

“Or are you saying you want to keep this money to invest elsewhere?”

Chen Jin nodded, “You have to consider the risks. You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

Previously, she had agreed with her uncle that the 230 she invested would be left untouched until the dividends came in. She hadn’t thought there would be further land acquisitions in Qiaodong Village; now that she had this extra money, she was thinking of doing something else with it.

“You’re thinking correctly,” Chen Wenqiang said with satisfaction. “You’ve analyzed what needs to be analyzed. Like I said, young people should try more things; it’s not a bad idea, but you have to control it a bit. You can take smaller steps.”

“In the future, come by the company more often and talk to your uncle about your recent thoughts on economic development.”

“What I’m thinking is all just talk. I’m just a beginner, so my ideas are quite shallow,” Chen Jin waved her hand, not wanting to show off in front of her uncle. Her approach was more about having some understanding and relying on intuition for the rest.

“No worries. We’ll find some time to go to Xichan Temple.”

Chen Jin: “……”

Her uncle was really something, trying to juggle business and seeking divine help at the same time.

“By the way, Minmin sent the wedding invitation. We can drive to Quanshi ourselves; make sure to clear your schedule. Your school’s counselor should be on holiday during the National Day, right?”

“Yes,” Chen Jin replied. “Uncle, what are you planning to give as a gift? Are you just going to give money or something else? If it’s a gift, I’ll go buy a gold bracelet.”

Chen Yongxin returned from outside, and as soon as he entered his dad’s office, he heard Chen Jin talking about buying a gold bracelet as a gift. He casually said, “When I get married, don’t send a gold bracelet. Cash is the most practical.”

His uncle agreed, “As elders, we just give cash. We don’t really understand what you young people like. It’s better if Minmin has more money.”

“…… Let’s talk about your wedding when the time comes,” Chen Jin glanced at her second cousin, chuckling. With how busy he is with work, he doesn’t even call Sister Zhuang Yao often; he seems to be daydreaming about getting married.

But Chen Jin still kindly reminded him, “Second Brother, you need to prepare your wedding outfit ahead of time since you’re getting married at the end of the year. It takes one or two months to customize a set of wedding attire. Shouldn’t you start getting ready?”

Chen Yongxin asked, “I heard you went to the wedding shop to customize a wedding dress?”

Her uncle’s eyes widened, “Why are you buying a wedding dress?”

One after another, they talk about dating and getting married without any hesitation.

“You’re not suddenly going to send me a wedding invitation, are you?”