"How much is it? I'll cover it for you. You can pay me back with your monthly salary. It's good to buy a house sooner rather than later."
Chen Jing smiled faintly: "Now that you have a house and a girlfriend, your parents can rest assured. You can discuss with your family about choosing a date to get your marriage certificate and hold a wedding banquet."
Liu Xiaogang couldn't help but smile, his face beaming: "I wrote home and told my parents to choose an auspicious date. It'll probably be around Chinese New Year when we go home to have the banquet."
"As for the house?"
Liu Xiaogang thought that Hou Fang had also bought a house in Beijing, while he didn't even have a home of his own in Huacheng. Wasn't that embarrassing?
He Xiuli's family is in Xiguan, so she bought a house there so that it would be convenient for her to visit her family after she gets married.
He grinned: "I'll ask around with Xiuli these next couple of days, see if she wants to buy this house, and how much she needs. I'll borrow from you again."
"Alright, we're brothers, and I hope you all make something of yourselves out there. If you owe me anything, just let me know. Also, remember to let me know when you get married and have your wedding banquet, and I'll give you a big red envelope."
Liu Xiaogang happily agreed, grinning, "Brother Jing, back then, Ah Hu, Hou Fang, and I came out with you. Hou Fang bought a house in Beijing, I settled down in Huacheng, and only Ah Hu is left. Are you planning to let him stay in the commune for the rest of his life?"
Chen Jing shook his head: "Of course not. Not only Ah Hu, but also Ah Song, I plan to bring them out. Let's take it one step at a time. Since we've brought them out, we should let them achieve something."
"That's true. I wonder if they want to go to Beijing or Guangzhou? I quite like Guangzhou; it would be great to buy a house here."
Huacheng is, after all, the capital of a southern province, and its food, customs, and traditions are quite similar to those at home. For a country person like me, buying a house in Huacheng is already a great achievement.
As Chen Jing spoke, he began to talk about the development of his hometown over the past few months.
Since Chen Jing set up a wholesale clothing store in Baima, he no longer worries about selling the goods in the workshop.
However, he was doing wholesale in Baima, and it was fine since customers would buy dozens of items at a time.
When some large customers order hundreds or thousands of items at a time, we run out of stock.
When this was mentioned, Chen Jing thought for a moment and said, "Let's see how it goes. If we run out of stock, we'll ask Brother Feng and the others if they need help setting it up. We can wait until the workshop's production capacity expands."
Speaking of recent events, Chen Jing's expression darkened slightly: "Be careful lately. I'm worried that the Lin family's interest in this cooperation may be ill-intentioned."
"Honest intentions?"
Liu Xiaogang looked at his boss with a puzzled expression, "Brother Jing, I think the people from Hailin Trading are pretty good. They're always very straightforward when they come to buy goods, and they're not as ruthless when it comes to negotiating prices as others. They always pay on delivery and have never delayed payment. What's wrong with them?"
"That's just to mislead you. Lin Chen from the Lin family has a grudge against me, and he's always been looking for trouble with us."
Chen Jing pursed his lips, and after a long while, he snorted coldly: "Look, this time you sent a telegram asking me to come back, and as soon as I got on the train and left, they immediately sent people to investigate the workshops in the capital and cause them trouble."
Upon hearing this, Liu Xiaogang was puzzled: "But how did he know that Baima Wholesale is owned by you? Did you tell them?"
Chen Jing was taken aback: "They don't know that this White Horse Shop and Workshop are mine?"
Liu Xiaogang pondered for a moment with a solemn expression: "Brother Jing, I guarantee that I have never mentioned the boss's problem to any customer. After all, we are an unlicensed workshop, how could I mention this to others?"
"Did you spread the word from your side?"
"Impossible. Apart from Hou Fang and his sister and Qiu Yu, none of the other employees in Beijing have mentioned it. They don't know anything about it."
Chen Jing had mentioned to others that he had connections in several garment factories in the south and could get supplies from them at any time, but he never mentioned that the factory belonged to him.
Chen Jing had spent two or three years in the black market around the commune, so he was more wary of this kind of thing than anyone else.
The situation is still unclear, so how could he possibly let people know all his cards?
Even Liu Xiaogang, Hou Fang, and others couldn't possibly know all of this.
Even in his small workshop in the capital, he separated the front and back yards, a fact that most people were unaware of.
However, with so many female workers leaving early and returning late every day, it's no surprise that even the neighbors would be suspicious, let alone others. It's normal that it couldn't be kept from Lin Chen for long.
But if neither he nor Xiao Gang had leaked the news, Lin Chen shouldn't have found out the truth so quickly in the small workshops in Beijing and the countryside of southern Guangdong.
Thinking of this, he suddenly stood up: "I'm going to take a shower and then go have a chat with Boss Song Wu later."
"Jing-ge, aren't you eating at home? I asked Xiuli to buy some good food; we were just planning to have a nice drink together!"
"No rush, there's plenty of time for drinking."
Chen Jing waved his hand, took a set of clothes from the guest room, and went to the bathroom to take a shower with hot water.
When He Xiuli returned from her shower, she excitedly brought back two or three food boxes and some beer.
Back in the courtyard, she took a deep breath and smelled the delicious aroma wafting from the kitchen. She couldn't help but smile at Liu Xiaogang: "The soup is almost done. I'll prepare it right away. Dinner can be served soon."
When Chen Jing came out after changing his clothes, a three-dish-and-soup meal was laid out on the table: radish and pork bone stew, a nourishing dish for autumn and winter; roast goose with a reddish-brown and glossy skin; braised pork belly that was fatty but not greasy; a plate of refreshing and tender green bean sprouts in broth; and several cans of Pearl River beer on the side.
Liu Xiaogang handed Chen Jing a bowl and chopsticks: "Brother Jing, eat something first, and I'll go with you to find Boss Song later. Xiuli stewed this soup for three or four hours, it's very sweet and delicious."
"You're a lucky guy."
Upon hearing this, Chen Jing generously sat down opposite Liu Xiaogang, looked at the three dishes and soup on the table that looked and smelled delicious, and said: "Not bad, a good combination of meat and vegetables, and a good combination of color, aroma and taste. Your parents must be very happy to have found such a good daughter-in-law."
Liu Xiaogang chuckled and modestly replied, "When it comes to good fortune, how can I compare to Brother Jing?"
He turned around and whispered to He Xiuli, “Jing’s wife is a college student. She just started college in Beijing this year. Last year, they held a grand and lively banquet in their hometown. Everyone in the village said that Jing is the luckiest.”
"A college student? Sister-in-law, you're really amazing."
He Xiuli flattered them with a surprised expression, then looked at the two of them suspiciously: "However, I heard that married college students aren't being recruited these days?"
One of her cousins also wanted to go to university, but because she was married, she couldn't even register.
Chen Jing nodded: "That's right, married people don't enroll students, so your sister-in-law and I are in a common-law marriage, but we haven't registered our marriage."
Liu Xiaogang joked, "Brother Jing, you'd better keep a close eye on her. Your wife is beautiful, has a great figure, is educated, and knows how to make money. Don't let any man from Beijing snatch her away."
Upon hearing this, Chen Jing's face immediately darkened: "That's right, that guy surnamed Lin is always going against me. He has his eye on Xia and wants to take over my shop, which is why we have this feud."
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