A sports car was bound to be faster, after all. By the time Chu Wanchen and Chu Jianping reached the apartment, Shao Wenxin was still on her way.
The staff dormitory of Father Chu’s company was not located within the company premises.
The apartment building was situated two kilometers away from the company. It had been funded and built by the company when they first arrived in Shanghai, and more than ten years had passed since its completion.
The apartment complex consisted of three buildings in total, each being a low-rise three-story structure with two units on each floor.
The units inside the apartment were not small, measuring about 80 square meters.
A while ago, Father Chu’s roommate had purchased a house in Shanghai and moved out after renovating it, so he was currently sharing the space with a young man who had recently joined the company.
The living environment itself did not feel cramped. However, because Shanghai was close to the sea, it was naturally more humid than the inland areas, and this effect was much more pronounced since he lived on the first floor.
As soon as the plum rain season arrived, items inside the home would grow moldy.
The apartment building was not classified as residential land. The water and electricity usage was normally billed under industrial rates, making the utility fees almost double those of standard residential water and electricity.
Transportation around the apartment was also inconvenient. Reaching the nearest bus stop required a 10-minute walk, and taking the subway required transferring to a bus first. There were no supermarkets or wet markets nearby either, causing numerous inconveniences in daily life for the residents living there.
Father Chu needed to inform the sub-landlord about his intention to terminate the lease.
Oh, right. Although the company Father Chu worked for was technically a state-owned enterprise, it was actually just an ignored subsidiary under the group’s umbrella, responsible for its own profits and losses.
In recent years, because the company’s financial performance was poor, the boss decided to sublet the apartment building to a sub-landlord, requiring the employees to rent units from the sub-landlord instead.
Originally, the employees didn’t have to spend a single penny to live in the apartment, but now they had to pay rent to the sub-landlord every month according to market rates.
Although the company would issue a rental subsidy of a few hundred yuan each month, this amount of money could only be described as a drop in the bucket compared to rental prices in Shanghai.
The sub-landlord, Young Li, happened to be at the apartment today, so Father Chu dropped by to greet him and deliver the news of his checkout.
Seeing the LaFerrari that Father Chu was driving, Young Li naturally understood that this older brother had struck it rich now and certainly had a better place to live, so he agreed very readily.
“Are you moving today, Brother Chu? Do you need a hand?”
Chu Jianping’s colleagues had spotted a sports car driving into the apartment complex from a distance. Upon hearing the news of Father Chu checking out, they knew they were here to move today, so they asked one after another.
Being alone in Shanghai, Father Chu’s sole hobby during his time off was playing mahjong, and the people in the apartment building were all his poker buddies.
Additionally, regardless of who won when this group of people played mahjong, the winner always had to treat the remaining individuals to a meal.
In this way, although no money could be saved, Chu Jianping had managed to cultivate excellent interpersonal relationships.
Father Chu also knew these people offered to help with the move partly because of his good reputation and partly because they wanted to see his new home.
He had no intention of hiding his family’s situation. After all, everyone had worked together for many years, so it would certainly be impossible to keep it a secret. It was better to satisfy everyone’s curiosity.
These people had no ill intentions either; it was just that everyone’s daily lives were usually too dull, and it was rare to have something novel happen, making it inevitable for them to feel a bit inquisitive.
Father Chu didn’t ask anyone to help with the move. He didn’t plan on bringing many items this time, as Huaguan Mansion was fully equipped with everything from furniture to daily necessities. He only brought a few essentials. As for the items used here previously, if anyone wanted them, they were given away as gifts, and if no one wanted them, they were all thrown away.
By the time Father Chu had nearly finished packing, Shao Wenxin arrived as well.
After throwing away what needed to be discarded, the group prepared to return to Huaguan Mansion, with several of Father Chu’s close friends driving behind to follow them.
Father Chu had invited a few close friends to his new home to “warm the hearth.”
This was a tradition from Father Chu’s hometown, where moving into a new home required inviting a few people over for a meal—the more people and the livelier it was, the better.
Once they arrived at Huaguan Mansion, Father Chu’s colleagues were completely stunned. They had assumed Chu Jianping would at most move into an ordinary elevator apartment building, but they hadn’t expected the man to move straight into a villa. Judging by the size of this villa, housing over a dozen people wouldn’t be an issue at all.
Chu Jianping led several colleagues to tour the villa, “This villa was just bought yesterday. I haven’t had a proper look at it myself either, so today I happen to be getting familiar with it along with you all.”
“Brother Chu, that small house of mine bought at the beginning of the year is only sixty-something square meters, yet it cost over 2 million yuan. The price of your villa must not be low, right?” The one asking was Chu Jianping’s former roommate, Zhang Yuping, who was also a close friend who had come from Qian City to Shanghai with him to work.
At the beginning of the year, Zhang Yuping had bought a small apartment next to a subway station. When he moved a while ago, he had also invited Father Chu over to “warm the hearth.”
Zhang Yuping was a loudmouth who bragged to everyone at the company about buying a house in Shanghai.
But this was indeed something worth flaunting. Buying a house in Shanghai was not easy; a second-hand “shabby, old, small” apartment in Shanghai often drained the savings of multiple generations in a family.
To buy this apartment, Zhang Yuping had even sold his property in Qian City and borrowed from every single relative just to scrape together the down payment.
After paying the down payment, he still had to repay over ten thousand yuan in mortgage payments every month.
And that was merely the housing prices in the suburbs of Shanghai; houses in downtown Shanghai were currently in high demand but low supply.
When Chu Jianping called Shao Wenxin to talk about Zhang Yuping buying a house, he both disliked how Zhang Yuping flaunted it everywhere and envied that the man could buy a house in Shanghai.
Now that he had bought a house himself, he was going to flaunt it a bit today too.
“It’s alright. It only cost 80 million yuan when buying this villa. The furniture inside is all fully equipped, supposedly some international luxury brands. We don’t understand these things anyway, it’s fine as long as it looks good.”
“Only 80 million yuan? Brother Chu, you are truly rich now, not even taking 80 million yuan seriously.”
Chu Jianping smiled and deflected the topic, and the group continued touring the villa.
Chu Jianping was not lying. They had gone straight to shopping yesterday after buying the house, leaving absolutely no time to take a proper look at his new home.
Touring the house with everyone today could be considered his first time examining the property seriously.
An audiovisual room, a card room, a gym… Huaguan Mansion was fully equipped with all these functional rooms.
What satisfied Chu Jianping the most was that an automatic mahjong machine was placed inside the card room.
By the time the group finished touring the villa, it was almost mealtime.
According to the tradition of “warming the hearth,” the host family should cook the meal themselves to entertain the guests.
However, Father Chu decided to treat all his colleagues from the apartment building to a meal, so they could only go to an outside restaurant.
Chu Wanchen had already booked the restaurant for Father Chu last night, which was a three-starred Michelin Japanese restaurant.
This Japanese restaurant required a minimum of half a year to reserve a table under normal circumstances, but Chu Wanchen held the black card given by the system (the black card rewarded together with the 100 billion yuan mentioned previously).
The globally limited black card possessed numerous privileges, making booking out a three-starred Michelin restaurant a simple matter.
After sending the restaurant’s location in the apartment’s group chat, Father Chu and the others drove to the restaurant separately.
The entire restaurant had been cleared out today, catering solely to Father Chu’s party.
After waiting for a brief moment, basically everyone who was free in the apartment building arrived. Each person brought a housewarming red envelope. They knew Father Chu was rich now, but they still expressed their well-wishes, filling the red envelopes with auspicious numbers like 666.
Father Chu knew this represented everyone’s goodwill, so he accepted them.
Once all twenty-something people were seated, the chef officially began his “performance.”
The seating in this Japanese restaurant all surrounded the chef’s counter, allowing guests to enjoy the gourmet food while watching the chef prepare it.
The perfect combination of vinegared rice and seafood allowed the sourness in the rice to perfectly neutralize the sweet and fishy flavor of the seafood. Even those who disliked raw seafood could not refuse such a pairing.
The chef subsequently served premium Kobe beef and distinctive creative desserts.
It could be said that everyone ate and drank to their heart’s content, satisfying both hosts and guests.
After the meal, the crowd took their leave one after another.
Father Chu’s urge to play mahjong was triggered, so he dragged a few friends back to the card room in Huaguan Mansion to play the “national quintessence.”
Seeing how happy he was, Shao Wenxin didn’t restrain him.
The mother and daughter didn’t stay at Huaguan Mansion but returned to Tang Palace instead. Their belongings were all at Tang Palace, and since Shao Wenxin didn’t know how to play mahjong, there was no point in staying there; it was better to return to Tang Palace.
With only the mother and daughter present, they had no reservations when speaking to each other.