Chapter 535 - 565: Buying a House
After Qin Jiao and the others returned to North City, they began preparing for the grand opening of Youjia Noodle House. Before that, however, Qin Jiao and Shen Yi went with Sun Jianhua to check out a few residential complexes in the area.
Sun Jianhua was planning to buy a house and, while the process was still relatively easy, transfer the household registration for his family of three. Meanwhile, on Qin Jiao’s side, her father Qin Zhonghui’s registration was still in their hometown because of a previous property. Now that they were no longer buying that house, his registration could finally be transferred back.
So, Qin Jiao was also thinking of buying a house for her parents and Xiao Shi.
Compared to the housing prices of a dozen years in the future, the current prices were still quite reasonable. Moreover, the new apartment buildings in this area had elevators. Since Mr. Du had trouble with his legs, this would make it much more convenient for him to get around.
In the end, they found a three-bedroom apartment they liked near Rose District. It was over 120 square meters with a great layout and was very close to the complex Sun Jianhua had picked out. After discussing it, Qin Jiao and Shen Yi made their decision.
When Su Yun found out, she was stunned. "Xiao Jiao, you and Shen Yi should be saving your money! You need a lot for your business, you’re both still in school, and when you have children in the future, you’ll need money for that too..."
"Mom, this is an investment, too. The transportation links in this area are excellent, and they might even build a new subway line in the future. It’s surrounded by schools, so the location is bound to be good. When property values rise, we’ll have made a profit."
Su Yun understood the logic, but she still resisted. "But in that case, you should put it in your names. Why put it in ours?"
"We both already have properties under our names. Besides, we’re family. What’s yours is ours. Mom, Dad, please don’t split hairs with me on this."
Qin Zhonghui sighed emotionally. "Of course we don’t draw such clear lines with you, but this involves your husband, too. We shouldn’t even have accepted the money from the clothing factory, to be honest."
Qin Zhonghui still didn’t know that the young couple was truly together, so he was feeling guilty. He couldn’t shake the feeling that their marriage was fake and that they shouldn’t be taking advantage of Shen Yi.
Qin Jiao glanced up at her mother, Su Yun. Su Yun cleared her throat twice before finally saying, "Alright, how about this? We’ll live in the house for now. Whatever value it gains in the future will all go to you. And once we’ve earned enough money, we’ll buy a separate place for Xiao Shi."
Qin Jiao didn’t want to haggle over the details with her parents, but she knew they were very principled people, so she decided not to press the issue.
The apartment was settled. Since it was in a building with an elevator, had three bedrooms, and was already nicely renovated, they made a point of reserving one of the rooms for Mr. Du.
The traditional courtyard house was too cold in winter, and it was a rather long walk to get anywhere, so Mr. Du hadn’t been out in quite some time.
The apartment was already renovated; they just needed to buy a few appliances, and it would be ready to live in soon.
When Shen Yi mentioned the plan to move in together, Mr. Du felt conflicted.
His health was much better now, and he spent his days in leisurely comfort, occasionally playing chess or admiring birds with the other old gentlemen in the neighborhood.
Shen Yi asked, "Grandpa, you don’t want to move in with us?"
"It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just... I’d hate to leave my old friends in the neighborhood."
As it turned out, Mr. Du didn’t have to agonize over the decision for more than a few days. Two of the old men he usually spent time with moved away. One of them even relocated to the area around North City University, which happened to be right near the apartment Qin Jiao and her family had bought.
Another one of the old men was taken in by his children, who decided he was too old to keep living alone in his courtyard house.
After that, Mr. Du dropped his insistence and readily agreed to move in with them when the time came.