HLnovel Chapter 85 Reunion
Chapter 85 Reunion
Soon, the sales manager arrived.
After discussing it with Zhang Liangjun, I reluctantly offered some discounts. Then we signed the purchase contract. Zhang Liangjun was paying in full, so the process was very quick.
"The handover of the apartment will take about six months. Congratulations in advance on your move, Mr. Zhang!" The sales manager was about to leave after the contract was signed. The game interface on the office computer was still open!
"Thank you." Zhang Liangjun was also preparing to leave. He didn't intend to stay here anyway. The reason he bought these three apartments was to sever the five women's romantic ties. Zhang Liangjun wanted to know if, without the three apartments on the 22nd floor of Building 19 as a medium, they would still get together and become good friends! Hehehe!
After leaving the Joyful Song residential complex, Zhang Liangjun returned to the vicinity of the school. He found the nearest villa area on the map, named Qingjinxuan. There was no longer a sales office there; it was an older complex, having been completed seven or eight years ago. Coincidentally, there was a nationwide chain real estate agency nearby. Zhang Liangjun went in, and someone immediately came out to greet him warmly.
If it's a new home sales office, you might just go in and browse casually, but if it's a second-hand home agency, you're more likely to have a genuine need to buy a house! The agents are very enthusiastic, serving tea and water, asking about your well-being, almost to the point of giving you a shoulder massage.
After looking at the villa listings for secondhand homes, Zhang Liangjun chose one in a good location and had a real estate agent show it to him. The house itself was alright, but Zhang Liangjun really disliked the decorating style.
The agent hesitated for a moment, then said, "Mr. Zhang, there's a house that's currently for sale. The decor should match your description. However, the owner told me beforehand that the transfer of ownership is possible, but the house won't be ready until June next year!"
"Oh why?"
"The homeowner is still in school. I heard that her family is having financial problems, which is why she wants to sell the house. She said she wants to leave Shanghai after graduation, around June next year."
"Oh? Let's look at the houses first. If the houses are suitable, I can give him money to rent a house elsewhere." Zhang Liangjun gestured for the agent to lead the way.
Only when I got closer did I realize that it wasn't a detached villa. Didn't I make that clear to the agent?
"Beep! Beep! Beep!"
The doorbell is set to sound like knocking! What's the difference between ringing the doorbell and knocking?
The door opened, revealing a face I had seen just yesterday!
What are you doing here?
What are you doing here?
The two spoke in unison!
The real estate agent was even more surprised; was this deal going to fall through?
Zhang Liangjun explained first, "I was looking at houses with the real estate agent, and he said your house was for sale. I didn't expect to see you here."
Ji Xiaotong nodded. "You do want to sell, please come in!" After letting Zhang Liangjun and the other man in and sitting on the sofa, Ji Xiaotong continued, "I do want to sell the house, but I want to wait until next June to move out. Did he tell you that?"
"You've already told me. Can I ask why?"
Ji Xiaotong hesitated for a moment, but still said, "That's a long story. My family is from a rural area in Zhejiang Province. When I was a child, my dad started working in real estate. He was basically a contractor, taking on small projects. Originally, my family couldn't afford this house, but a real estate developer had a cash flow problem and had no choice but to give this house to my dad to offset the construction costs. To be honest, my family got a great deal when we did it. Although house prices weren't this high back then, my dad said that the debt he received was only enough to cover 70-80% of the house price."
Ji Xiaotong paused, her eyes gazing out the window. In this tranquil and beautiful courtyard stood a tall and majestic crape myrtle tree. Its thick trunk, a witness to the passage of time, silently bore witness to the stories of this place. Its canopy, like a giant umbrella, brought coolness and shade to the entire courtyard.
It was the season when crape myrtle flowers were in full bloom. The trees were ablaze with delicate, vibrant blossoms, some clustered together, others standing proudly alone on the branches, as dazzling as twinkling stars in the night sky. The petals of these crape myrtle flowers were a pale, elegant pink, as if gently tinged by the sunset. The edges of the petals were slightly ruffled, like the delicate pleats of a princess's magnificent skirt, exquisite and refined, inspiring endless imagination and beauty. When a gentle breeze blew, the flowers swayed gracefully, yet there was also a sense of impending doom.
"This tree was a gift from my dad. We had just moved here, and I had just left a familiar place. My father moved this tree because he knew I loved crape myrtle the most! Later, my dad stopped contracting and started doing business with some friends. He seemed to have tried many industries, selling steel, selling tiles, and even running a decoration company, but none of them were very profitable. Then, they partnered up to take on a large order for steel bars, but this order went wrong. His friend cheated them, and my dad's business suffered a fatal blow. To participate in that last order, my dad borrowed a lot of money, and soon the debt collectors came knocking. My dad had no choice but to sell the company to pay off the debts."
Zhang Liangjun pushed the water glass in front of Ji Xiaotong towards her. After talking for so long, Zhang Liangjun was thirsty. Ji Xiaotong smiled, and indeed she was a little thirsty, so she picked up the glass and took a sip.
After finishing her water, Ji Xiaotong continued, "It seems my dad hasn't paid off all the loans. Some of the creditors are not ordinary people. He said he can't stay in China anymore and needs to go abroad to see if there are any opportunities. However, this house was originally registered in my name, and the remaining creditors haven't demanded the house to settle their debts, so I've been living here ever since. Before my dad left, he gave me a card, saying that the money in the card would be enough for me until I'm twenty-five, at which point I could support myself."
"Then why did you suddenly sell the house?" After listening for so long, Zhang Liangjun suddenly realized he hadn't heard the key point! I'm asking you why you sold the house, and you're telling me a story?
“Qu Lianjie’s situation has given me a wake-up call! My dad is abroad, and he must be having a very hard time without money. I want to go find him. I want to use the money from selling the house to help him! I want him to come back to China! I’m a little worried about him abroad. It’s been nine months since he last called me!” Ji Xiaotong said with a complicated expression. “His number hasn’t been dialed in a long time!”
“I understand. You want to bring your father back so you'll have a place to live, so you plan to move out next year! But there's another question. You just said you've been trying to contact him for so long, but you've lost touch? More than half a year has passed, how did you find him?”
“He told me an address before, a street in Houston, USA. He said he was temporarily living at 397 Holmes Road, which should be a residential area. I can even have someone check his address via email. He often emails me to tell me about his situation there. But when I email him back asking for his address and phone number, he doesn't answer. He just says he's not sure yet and will let me know when he finds out.” Ji Xiaotong said, turning the notebook on the table. Before the two knocked on the door, she was still browsing emails, comforting her longing for her father.
Zhang Liangjun initially intended to just glance at the emails, as they were, after all, someone else's privacy. However, after scanning the email interface, he discovered a problem: the numbers! The email receipt dates, which were also the email sending dates, were patterned! And extremely patterned at that!
"May I turn the page and take a look?" Zhang Liangjun didn't want to touch other people's things without their permission first.
"Sure, the emails my dad sends me are just random gossip, there's nothing wrong with reading them!"
After flipping through a few pages, Zhang Liangjun looked up at Ji Xiaotong and said, "Seventeen times, the emails your father sent you, a cycle of seventeen times!"
"A cycle? What cycle? The timing is different too. Sometimes it's in the morning, sometimes it's in the afternoon."
Seeing that Ji Xiaotong didn't understand, Zhang Liangjun created a table that clearly showed the meaning of the seventeen cycles. That is, the interval between each of these seventeen cycles was the same. For example, after the first cycle, the next email would be sent approximately 27 hours and 36 minutes later, and after the eighteenth email, the next email would also be sent after a 27-hour and 36-minute interval!
Without a keen eye for numbers, Zhang Liangjun would never have been able to uncover such a hidden connection, and Ji Xiaotong would never have discovered it either. After reading so many emails, they never imagined that the emails had a cyclical pattern over time.