Chapter 29: Old Classmate

While Lin Wei and Du Yue'e were at home packing their luggage, Chen Yang drove alone to the Twin Forest Market at the south gate of Qingshui City.

Before development, this place used to be a run-down mechanical processing factory. Inside, aside from an elderly person long tasked with guarding it, hardly anyone came and went.

However, compared to the desolation inside, the area outside the factory was extraordinarily lively. Because it sits at the intersection of the south gate crossroads of Qingshui City, a night market is organized here every evening from 6-9 p. m. Many laid-off workers and individual vendors who came from the countryside to make a living in the city set up stalls here to sell various small goods and tasty snacks. On weekends, it could even stay bustling all day long.

Chen Yang's memories of this place mainly come from his maternal uncle Zhao Donghai.

Chen Yang's aunt Chen Chunmei, being a rural household registrant, never found stable work in Qingshui City. After marrying Zhao Donghai, she became a full-time housewife.

Zhao Donghai was merely an ordinary worker at the Qingshui Textile Factory; before Chen Yang went to live with them, his monthly wage was only three hundred yuan, barely enough to support his family's livelihood.

To let Chen Yang continue his studies, Zhao Donghai came up with the idea of setting up a stall at the factory's night market to earn extra income.

From then on, whenever he had free time, Chen Yang would accompany Zhao Donghai to set up a stall outside the factory selling small goods. When business was good, Zhao Donghai would buy him and Zhao Qian cotton candy, candied haws, stinky tofu and other Qingshui City specialty snacks to stave off hunger. This too became Chen Yang's most unforgettable memory from middle school through his senior year of high school.

In his sophomore year of college, Chen Yang only learned from a letter from his cousin Zhao Qian that the factory was to be demolished. When he returned for winter break, all he saw was rubble. The night market had also been relocated by the urban management department to the vicinity of Qingshui Health School.

Looking at the brand-new yet desolate Twin Forest Market before him, Chen Yang couldn't quite guess the developer's intentions. The site occupied just over ten thousand square meters, yet it was entirely built out as uniform single-story shop units. What a waste!

Even if they added another floor, built a warehouse or residential units, the investors' enthusiasm would probably be a bit higher.

Of course, for Chen Yang, the small size isn't an issue; what matters is the good location. At the latest within five years, the Twin Forest Market will be redeveloped, and its value will multiply.

Chen Yang walked forward along a row of tightly shut rolling gates, and at the street-side entrance he found the marketing center of the Twin Forest Market.

The marketing center wasn't large, about twenty square meters of space. Looking inside from outside the glass door, Chen Yang saw only a man and a woman gathered around an office desk, chatting while a fan blew. The man was around forty, slightly balding. The woman wore a black uniform; since her back was to Chen Yang, he couldn't tell her age.

On the desk lay some documents and flyers, and beside it sat a white landline telephone. This shabby, desolate scene made it hard to imagine that it was the marketing center of a newly built market.

"Hey, isn't that Chen Yang?" As Chen Yang pushed open the glass door and entered, the woman who had been talking with the middle-aged man instinctively turned around. She recognized Chen Yang at a glance, quickly rose, and warmly greeted him.

"Who are you?" Chen Yang struggled to endure the pervasive unpleasant perfume in the air, racking his memory, but could not figure out who this heavily made-up, plump woman before him was.

"I'm Zhang Linlin!" The woman, a little unhappy, coquettishly said to Chen Yang, "What? Just because you got into a prestigious university you don't recognize your old classmate?"

"You're Zhang Linlin?" Chen Yang widened his eyes and examined her closely. Aside from her figure still retaining a hint of her high school self, her face had completely changed. Her single eyelids had become double, and the round face once covered in acne had not only been smoothed over by makeup but also refined considerably.

Moreover, she used to be just as quiet as Chen Yang in school, but now she's noticeably outgoing.

"How about it? Don't you think I'm prettier than before?" Zhang Linlin thrust out her chest, looking at Chen Yang with a hint of pride.

Chen Yang nodded. Although he couldn't compare her to Lin Wei and Liu Qingqing, the Zhang Linlin before him was indeed a beauty.

"So, are you here to look at the shop, or at me?"

"…Let's look at the shop first!"

"Hey, looks like Scholar Chen's struck it rich, huh?"

Zhang Linlin felt a bit disappointed. In high school she had secretly admired Chen Yang, but due to her inferiority complex she had kept those feelings buried. After graduation she worked various jobs to earn money, all in hopes of making herself more beautiful. She never expected that Chen Yang's attitude toward her would still be the same as before.

"I want to buy a few shop units for my aunt to rent out. Bring me to see if there are any suitable ones, preferably street-facing." Chen Yang got straight to the point, stating his purpose. He still had to go to the textile factory staff quarters later to reunite with his aunt's family, so he couldn't waste too much time.

"You really struck it rich?" Seeing that Chen Yang wasn't joking, Zhang Linlin's mood improved again.

Sales at the Twin Forest Market have been disappointing ever since opening; three months in, half of the shop units remain unsold. All the others who started in sales together have jumped ship to other real estate companies, and only Zhang Linlin stayed because she lives nearby.

Pouring tea, keeping customers company, chatting, and even risking being groped by clients—after a day's work, if luck was good she could sell two or three shop units; if luck was bad, she'd sell nothing. Watching her income drop month after month, Zhang Linlin also began to consider switching jobs.

However, when showing Chen Yang the shop units, Zhang Linlin would often, intentionally or not, remind her old classmate of the investment risk. After all, most of the hundreds of merchants she had dealt with were pessimistic about the Twin Forest Market's prospects. She didn't want to swindle her classmate for a mere commission, especially someone she had once secretly admired.

Chen Yang also found Zhang Linlin's attitude somewhat unexpected. Logically, salespeople love to take advantage of acquaintances, but Zhang Linlin didn't follow the usual route—she pointed out the shortcomings of every shop unit to him.

However, what he valued was the street-front location, not the intrinsic utility of the shop itself. The only regret was that, of the five remaining vacant shop units, only four were adjacent. The remaining unit was not only detached but also the most remote triangular shop.

As for the price, the information his aunt gave him was also wrong—only that skewed triangular unit costs 100,000 each, while the others are still 150,000 each.

Zhang Linlin, however, was straightforward. Upon hearing that Chen Yang wanted five units, she simply knocked 40,000 off the total price.

Chen Yang thought this old classmate was quite decent, and he also picked out five row units inside the market. Each interior unit is thirty square meters, ten square meters larger than the exterior ones, yet the price is the same. If it weren't for his tight cash flow, Chen Yang would have liked to take a few more.

After Chen Yang paid the full amount of 1.41 million yuan by card, Zhang Linlin finally believed he was truly a big spender. She excitedly gave him a big hug. Just as she was thinking of taking things further and planting a passionate kiss on him, a cold, fierce female voice came from outside the marketing center's glass door.

"Where did this temptress come from? Stay away from my man!"