Ji Xia and Rong Ruoshi exchanged a glance.
Both of them knew that Liu Yujuan was having a hard time. They had originally planned to take her out for some noodles with soybean paste and a couple of stir-fried dishes, which would only cost a few yuan.
Now that Lin Chen is here, it's a bit embarrassing to serve him noodles with soybean paste.
"How about this, let's find a nice restaurant and eat roast duck. The three of us will split the bill today, and Yujuan can treat us next time."
“Okay, I know a new roast duck restaurant that just opened in Xicheng, it’s called Four Seasons Roast Duck, shall we go and try it?” Rong Ruoshi chimed in.
Upon hearing their conversation, Liu Yujuan's eyes reddened slightly: "I promised to treat you."
"You'll have plenty of opportunities to treat me, do you think you can escape? Next time I make a lot of money, I'll rip you off. Today, let's split the bill, nothing else."
Ji Xia made the final decision. Although Liu Yujuan had a huge sum of 150 yuan, she also knew that a roast duck would cost at least 10 yuan, and if they cooked a few more dishes and ordered two bottles of wine, it would cost at least 20 or 30 yuan for five people.
Twenty or thirty yuan was her food expenses for a whole semester; how could Liu Yujuan afford it?
However, the four of them could have eaten quite well for four or five yuan, but because Jiang Qingci's cousin was spending so much, she was reluctant to part with it. When Ji Xia suggested splitting the bill, she reluctantly agreed.
The four of them walked up to Lin Chen's car, and Jiang Qingci naturally opened the passenger door and got in.
Liu Yujuan followed Ji Xia, and Rong Ruoshi consciously sat in the back. Once inside the car, she carefully stroked the car.
Ji Xia also noticed that the car seemed different from the previous one: "This car is different from the one before, isn't it? Mr. Lin got a new car?"
"Yes, it's a different one. Ji, you have a good eye; you noticed my car was different at a glance."
Lin Chen's eyebrows creased with a hint of smugness: "The last one was a domestically produced sedan made in Shanghai, costing only a little over 60,000 yuan. This Corolla has better performance and cost 100,000 yuan after all the fees."
The girls' faces changed, and Liu Yujuan asked in a trembling voice, "One hundred thousand? In RMB?"
"Of course it's RMB, not USD or GBP, right? Those are more expensive. A Crown costs 300,000 RMB. I want to get a Crown next time I need a new car..."
Lin Chen's smug smile was tinged with a hint of ulterior motive as he subtly glanced at Ji Xia's expression through the rearview mirror.
One hundred thousand, three hundred thousand—this amount is practically astronomical for her boyfriend, isn't it?
That man can only go out by bicycle, what is there for her to miss?
However, Rong Ruoshi and Liu Yujuan both looked shocked and envious, while Ji Xia was deep in thought, and it was impossible to understand what she was thinking.
Ji Xia mentally calculated that an ordinary sedan cost 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, while an imported car, no matter how ordinary, would start at 100,000 yuan, and a Crown would cost 300,000 yuan.
Thirty years from now, you can buy a Crown for around 200,000 yuan, and its performance and fuel consumption will be much better than current cars.
But how many courtyard houses can you buy with 300,000? Like her two-courtyard house, you could buy at least ten. What would a two-courtyard house be worth in thirty years? At least tens of millions.
Therefore, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a car that depreciates as soon as it's purchased is simply stupid.
She knew that men were born to love cars. No, in the first few years after the opening up, cars were too expensive. She had to control Chen Jing and prevent him from buying a car. She should try to buy more houses or build more buildings. If he wanted to buy a car, he would need at least tens of millions of yuan in assets!
Lin Chen wanted to show off his abilities, but in Ji Xia's eyes, he was already the epitome of a fool with too much money.
With a car for transportation, the group of five quickly arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel in the western part of the city.
There weren't many customers in the restaurant, so Lin Chen asked someone to get a private room and two menus.
He pushed the menu in front of Ji Xia, who said modestly, "Mr. Lin is very knowledgeable, please order!"
"Okay, I just checked their shrimp, they look beautiful and fresh, let's have some shrimp!"
He casually ordered a plate of boiled prawns, stir-fried squid, a roast duck, chicken slices with egg white filling, freshly ground bok choy, mushroom and bamboo shoot slices, and also made a soup from the duck carcass.
Seeing his pen constantly marking the menu, Liu Yujuan's eyes twitched. Afraid of being laughed at, she quickly lowered her head to pour tea.
Fortunately, Ji Xia discussed splitting the bill with them; otherwise, these dishes were all expensive, costing more than thirty yuan in total. She would have cried her eyes out if she had to treat them to a meal like that.
However, Liu Yujuan's expression turned sour when she thought about how splitting the bill would cost several dollars.
Jiang Qingci repeatedly stopped him, saying, "Cousin, that's enough. How much can we eat? It'll be a waste if we can't finish it."
"It won't be wasted, don't worry."
Lin Chen smiled faintly, put down the menu, and suddenly asked Ji Xia with feigned concern, "By the way, doesn't your boyfriend pick you up from school every day? Did you leave a message for us when we went out to eat today? Please don't let us quarrel."
"No, don't worry. I already told him before I left today that Yujuan is treating us to dinner this afternoon, so I'll be back a little late."
"He still trusts you to go out?"
"What's there to worry about? He's not the type to be suspicious."
"Hehe, then I'm relieved."
When Lin Chen's attempts to sow discord failed, he turned to Liu Yujuan with a smile and said, "You guys are really amazing. You've only just started college, and you've already learned how to make money."
Jiang Qingci waved his hand: "The two of them are the real deal. Ruoshi and I are just here to gossip."
Liu Yujuan smiled shyly: "Actually, it's all thanks to Ji Xia's excellent guidance."
"No, it's Yujuan who has talent. If she didn't have talent, I couldn't guide her."
"You're being too modest."
Lin Chen showered the two with praise, then suddenly feigned confusion and asked, "What's Liu's family like? I don't know much about them. But Ji, isn't your boyfriend from a good family? Does he still need you to earn money now?"
"Yes, that's what I think too."
Rong Ruoshi nodded approvingly. She had always disapproved of Ji Xia's eagerness to make money: "Actually, making money is something for after graduation. Right now, the most important thing for you is to learn knowledge well and lay a solid foundation."
Ji Xia shook her head disapprovingly: "But my major is fashion design. Market validation is a way to gain experience. Just talking theory and working in isolation isn't useful for actual design."
Liu Yujuan also strongly agreed with her point of view: "That's right, actually we who study design are different from you who specialize in fine arts."
“You all think it’s too rushed, but design students love having opportunities like this!”
Students of architecture and interior design, in particular, are eager for the opportunity to lead their own designs during their time at school.
Like the senior student in interior design who Ji Xiaxun asked last time, he charged fifty yuan for design and spent every weekend watching the renovation of the store in Wangfujing. If anything was wrong, he would immediately discuss improvements and adjustments with Master Lin, for fear that even the slightest difference would affect the final result.
For them, this is real work experience after graduation, which is a very impressive thing for their resume.
Even Chen Jing felt that the fifty yuan was well spent. He planned to wait until Wangfujing and another courtyard house were completed, and then renovate the other shops one by one. He would then hand them over to that senior student to take charge of.
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