Because they had to catch a plane, the three of them woke up very early the next morning.
The first thing Chu Wanchen did upon opening her eyes was to find the system to check in. “088, I want to check in.” “Check-in successful. Rewarded with Villa No. 8 of Tang Palace Manor, Shanghai.”
“Tang Palace?” Chu Wanchen only knew that many celebrities liked to buy properties at Tomson Riviera in Shanghai, so she naturally assumed Tomson Riviera was the most expensive luxury residence in Shanghai. Now that she suddenly heard an unfamiliar name, she immediately opened her phone to search for it.
Once she saw the introduction about Tang Palace displayed on her phone, Chu Wanchen realized just what kind of gift the system had given her.
Tang Palace was the top-ranked luxury residential estate in Shanghai, with prices reaching as high as 560,000 yuan per square meter. What the system had given her was the “king of buildings” among them, valued at three billion yuan—a property money alone could not buy.
“Ahhh—088, I love you to death!” Chu Wanchen had not expected the system to be this powerful. Just yesterday she had mentioned to her mom that they had no place to stay in Shanghai, and today the system directly rewarded her with a luxury estate.
“Chenchen, why aren’t you up yet? The flight is at ten o’clock today, you won’t make it if you don’t get up now.” Seeing that her daughter remained in bed, Shao Wenxin came over to knock on the door and urge her.
“Coming! I’ll get up right away.” Setting the system reward aside for the moment, Chu Wanchen immediately got up to wash her face and brush her teeth. If she did not hurry, they really would miss the flight.
Since it was their first time flying first class, the family wanted to try the breakfast in the first-class airport lounge, so they purposely skipped breakfast.
After a rush, they finally arrived at the airport two hours early. The three of them went to the counter to check in first. Because they were flying first class, there was no need to queue, and they completed the series of procedures in just 10 minutes.
By the time they reached the first-class lounge, they still had plenty of time. Since it happened to be mealtime, the lounge was serving a buffet. Each of them went to grab the food they were interested in.
Taking advantage of the moment her father went to get more food, Chu Wanchen quietly said to Shao Wenxin, “Mom, the two of us don’t need to worry about there not being enough room at Dad’s place anymore.” Chu Jianping lived in an apartment provided by his company in Shanghai, which he shared with a colleague. To save money, Chu Jianping had originally planned to let the mother and daughter stay in his bedroom while he slept on the living room sofa.
“We don’t need to squeeze in with Dad and his colleague, nor do we need to look for a hotel. Today’s system check-in rewarded me with a luxury mansion in Shanghai.” Saying this, Chu Wanchen pulled up the online encyclopedia description of the luxury estate gifted by the system for her mom to see.
Shao Wenxin looked at the price and area of the manor, instantly clicking her tongue in amazement. “My goodness, just cleaning this house alone will take who knows how long.” Seeing that her mom’s first reaction was not joy but cleaning the rooms, Chu Wanchen was momentarily speechless. “My dear mother, you have so much money now, do you still need to clean the rooms yourself?”
“Oh right, since the house is so big anyway, we can just hire a few more people to clean it when the time comes.”
Shao Wenxin stopped obsessing over it. Just then, Chu’s father returned with his food tray, so the two of them stopped talking about the matter.
It was the first time the family had dined in a VIP lounge, so they naturally found it novel. Each person inevitably took a few different items. However, because the portions of each dish were very small, and since Qian City itself was renowned for its abundance of culinary delights, the flavor of the buffet provided in the lounge certainly could not compare to the delicacies of Qian City. The family merely sampled a taste of each dish and stopped eating, so they did not end up full in the end.
“I’ve never flown first class before, so I was quite curious about what was so special about it. Now it seems this buffet can’t even compete with our Qian City beef rice noodles,” Chu’s father commented after finishing his food.
After eating and resting for a while, the flight they were taking began boarding.
This time, they also boarded directly without queuing. Once the three of them stepped onto the plane, Chu Wanchen discovered that her family of three were the only ones in the entire first-class cabin.
After a moment, a flight attendant brought over pillows, blankets, and slippers.
“You have to admit, first class is expensive for a reason. You don’t have to queue for check-in or boarding, these seats are much wider than economy class, and they can even recline fully. There is also a screen in front to watch movies, and they gave us headphones,” Chu Jianping lamented as soon as he boarded the plane. Chu’s father had flown before, but not many times. Every time he bought plane tickets, he would buy discounted ones; when there were no discounted tickets, he could only take the high-speed rail or the green-skinned slow train to return home.
Hearing her father’s words, Chu Wanchen could not help but feel a bit twinged with heartache. Her father worked hard away from home and had to send living expenses home every month, so his own life was not very affluent. Now that she had the capability, she must bring a better life to her family.
After a 4-hour flight, the plane finally landed at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.
It happened to be noon when they arrived in Shanghai, but because they had eaten some in-flight meals on the plane, the family did not feel hungry at the moment.
Once they returned to Chu’s father’s apartment in Shanghai, Chu’s father was called back to his company by a phone call.
Chu’s father was the only equipment maintenance technician in the company and was usually very busy. Being able to squeeze out a few days to go home and accompany Chu Wanchen through her high school entrance exam had already been very difficult. Now that the company knew Chu’s father was back, they immediately called to have him return to work.
The three of them had originally wanted to stroll around a nearby shopping mall in the afternoon, but now all those plans fell through.
“Go ahead to the company. The two of us can wander around outside on our own. The internet is so advanced now; if we want to visit any scenic spots, we can just search for them online and find them. Besides, it’s boring for a big man like you to go shopping with the two of us, so you’d better hurry back to the company to move bricks,” Shao Wenxin said, seeing Chu’s father’s dilemma, and let him go to the company first. At the same time, she also told him that the two of them were going to wander around downtown today and would probably stay directly in a hotel tonight instead of coming back.
Because the company matter was indeed very urgent, Chu’s father did not say anything more. He gave the apartment keys to Shao Wenxin and told them they could come back anytime, adding that he had already cleared it with his roommate. After saying this, he rushed to the company.
The mother and daughter could finally go see their luxury estate now. The two called a ride-hailing car and headed straight for Tang Palace. Chu’s father’s apartment and Tang Palace were separated by two districts, taking a full hour and a half to arrive.
While on the way, Chu Wanchen had already contacted the property management staff at Tang Palace. This person’s contact information had also appeared on her phone along with the delivery of the reward this morning. When they reached the location, someone immediately came out to greet them.
“Hello, ladies, I am from the property management of Tang Palace. You can just call me Xiao Zhang. The credentials for the property you purchased have been kept with our management office, and I have brought them all over for you.” Shao Wenxin took the property ownership certificate and looked at it; the name on it was indeed Chu Wanchen.
Xiao Zhang drove a sightseeing golf cart to take Chu Wanchen and her mother to Manor No. 8, introducing it to them along the way. “Manor No. 8 is the king of buildings in Tang Palace, covering a total area of 9 mu, with a building area of 6,000 square meters, spanning 5 floors in total from top to bottom.” Hearing this, the mother and daughter were instantly struck with astonishment. Good heavens, was this house really that big?
When they arrived at Manor No. 8 and saw the house with their own eyes, the mother and daughter were even more awed by the Chinese-style luxury estate before them. Once they entered the main entrance, Xiao Zhang continued to introduce, “The overall style of the manor is New Chinese style. This path on the left leads straight to the entrance of your private underground garage, which can park 13 cars in total. On the right-hand side is the second entrance gate, inside of which is your family’s first courtyard.” The courtyard floor was entirely paved with cobblestones, with a blue flagstone path down the middle, and pines and cypresses planted on both sides. Among them, a welcoming pine was pruned with a great sense of artistry.
“The landscape in the courtyard was designed by a landscape architect, and you can modify it at any time in the future if you need to. Walking inward along the corridor, this side is the second courtyard. The glass used on the corridor is water-ripple glass imported from Switzerland. While safety is guaranteed, the natural lighting of your house will not be affected in any way.”
“Going further inside is the main body of the house. In front of the house is a swimming pool, and behind it is likewise another courtyard. Behind that courtyard is a servant quarters building, which you can tour on your own later. In addition, if you do not have a butler or other personnel around to serve you, you can download our property management APP. We have professional butlers and other service staff available for you to choose from.” After finishing these words, Xiao Zhang departed.
The mother and daughter also began to tour their luxury estate. Aside from the places Xiao Zhang had just introduced to them, the courtyard behind the house was even larger, planted with various ornamental trees such as magnolias, crabapples, and sweet osmanthus. There was even a greenhouse conservatory inside, which was filled with several rare and exotic flowers.
After touring the exterior of the house, the two entered the interior. The house was divided into 5 floors: three floors above ground and two floors underground. There were 6 bedrooms alone, and a game room, an audio-visual room, a chess and card room, and a butler’s room were all fully provided.
“Mom, this is the first time I’ve gotten so tired from walking inside my own house. It’s truly a case of painful yet blissful.” “Who says it isn’t? Hurry up and download their APP to hire more aunties. With a house this big, it can’t be kept clean if there are too few people.”
Chu Wanchen hurriedly agreed, opening the APP to start browsing through it.
In the end, she hired a total of one butler, one chef, three gardeners, and five maids.
After finishing all this, the mother and daughter were also exhausted. They planned to rest at home for a while first, and then go out for dinner and shopping in the evening.