I Became the Mother of His Child

Xiuxiu originally wanted to have a serious talk with Mr. Song Yuanhuan about the "private stash" of money, but in the end, she was persuaded by him and held the passbook in her hand, thinking to herself, "Well, isn't all this hidden money eventually handed over obediently anyway? As an adult, I won't quibble over this."

Song Yuanhuan seemed indifferent about handing over the money; after giving it to Xiuxiu, he got busy with the Military District. He asked her to take good care of herself, then with a stern face and furrowed brows, he reluctantly returned to the military base.

Xiuxiu lived in a rental in the city and occasionally had spare time to visit Sichuan Pavilion to check on the business turnover. The rest of her time she spent thinking about buying a house.

There weren't many new houses available at the time, but cities like Z city, a second-tier city, had started constructing quite a few residential areas, which began to vary from high to low grades. Xiuxiu didn't plan to buy too fancy of a house, but she also didn't intend to settle. Buying a house was a big deal for the older generation, and knowing the future housing prices, she naturally planned to choose wisely while she still had options.

Xiuxiu contacted Chen Hualong because of her familiarity with him through Sichuan Pavilion.

"I want to buy a house in Z city; do you have any better locations to recommend? Maybe some newly developed residential areas with an ideal geographical position?" Xiuxiu asked Chen Hualong at a meeting in Sichuan Pavilion, sharing her thoughts.

After learning Xiuxiu's true intentions, Chen Hualong happily recommended a few middle-tier residential areas to her. The security facilities in these areas were quite decent. He specifically analyzed the basic situations of a few areas for her. His understanding and information were much better than Xiuxiu's, who was blind as a bat in real estate matters. One of the areas was in the center of Z City and was a newly developed residential area. According to his personal judgment, the housing prices there would only rise and not fall.

Xiuxiu, being from the south, had traveled to many places there in her previous life. She could vaguely guess which areas and cities in the south would have valuable land in the future. However, she was entirely clueless about Z city, luckily, the locations recommended by Chen Hualong were quite good, and after some investigation, she felt they were not bad.

On a cloudless day, Xiuxiu took her son, Song Chengguang, now clad in thinner clothes, planning to take advantage of the good weather to inspect some properties.

Housing in the eighties wasn't like those of later times, Xiuxiu realized after visiting a few that on-site inspections were of little use. The sellers only showed bare skeleton apartments; all decorations had to be handled later. The overall price wasn't high, but the bare appearance of the places was almost an eyesore. The only things that could really be inspected were the overall geographical location of the community and the area of the skeleton apartments.

"Mommy, Chen Guang doesn't want to live here." During the tour, Xiuxiu led little Chen Guang around. Initially, she had explained to Song Chengguang what buying a house meant, saying it would be where they would eat and sleep daily. Song Chengguang had quite a strong sense of cleanliness — as Xiuxiu led him into the skeleton apartment and he saw the uneven gray cement walls and the room devoid of any furnishings, with various messy electric wires and pipes sticking out, the little guy's face immediately turned gloomy, showing a pitiful appearance close to tears.

Xiuxiu was embarrassed, and the young woman leading the tour's expression darkened instantly. These days were unbearable—could the house really be that bad? Even a little kid was disdainful of it, despite the good location and scenery outside featuring flowers, grass, and water. "What more could you ask for?" the young woman, who hadn't scored a sale in a month, was nearly driven to tears.

"Miss, could you introduce the layout of this apartment again?" Xiuxiu, holding Song Chengguang's hand, chuckled and then looked up at the young saleswoman.

"Sure." The young woman was instantly surprised and nodded. Then, with a confident expression, she began enthusiastically explaining, "This apartment is in one of the better-located areas around here. It has a three-bedroom, one-living-room, one-kitchen, and one-bathroom layout. The master bedroom is thirty square meters while the other two bedrooms are twenty-five square meters each. The apartment is on the third floor, conveniently situated for going up and down the stairs. From here," she took Xiuxiu to the window, "you can see that this building is actually in the center of the residential area. The scenery and design are very novel. That small fountain pool over there will be fully operational soon too. It's quite interesting. Plus, the location is close to a train station, but the train's route is on the east side. So, you don't have to worry about the train's arrival and departure affecting you; it won't feel like there's an earthquake. You can rest assured on that. There's also a large shopping mall nearby, making it very convenient when you go out for shopping." The young woman ended her introduction, pointing out directions from the window to Xiuxiu.

Xiuxiu recalled the surrounding areas, and, knowing that there was indeed a large shopping mall nearby, she nodded in agreement.

"Of course, I'm in the business of selling houses and when I put myself in your shoes, I know a house is a warm haven for a family. Having a home naturally means there will be children, the next generation of our country, the future of our country. Our residential area is also closely located to one of Z city's well-known primary and secondary schools. If you buy this apartment, it will be convenient for your child to go to school in the future; it only takes about ten minutes to the city's key primary and secondary schools, and less than twenty minutes to the city high school. The total area of this apartment is one hundred forty-five square meters, very suitable for a family of three or living with an elderly person." The young saleswoman was very articulate and serious in her introduction. She didn't come off as arrogant as the saleswomen of later generations.

Xiuxiu was quite impressed by the young woman's presentation, even though it was a skeleton apartment. She knew the nearby residential areas mostly sold skeleton apartments, perhaps everyone was accustomed to decorating their apartments in styles they liked. This community was also highly recommended by Chen Hualong.

Xiuxiu checked the geographical location, which indeed was quite good, but she still needed to discuss it with Song Yuanhuan. After all, buying the house would use Song Yuanhuan's private money, so it was only proper to get his approval.

"I'm actually quite satisfied. How about this, let me bring my husband here in a few days, could you please introduce it to him then?" Xiuxiu, seeing the young woman's smiling face, also carefully matched Song Chengguang's pace as they climbed the stairs, not showing any signs of impatience, and this alone made Xiuxiu very impressed with the young saleswoman before her.