Chapter 422: The 90s Contrast System (25)

"If you ask me, why not just quit school! Go work in the south yourself. I'm not even asking you to send all your wages back, just pay off the debts and that's enough..."

"Bang—"

The door opposite was pushed open with force. Zhu Meijiao rushed out with eyes swollen like walnuts, crying and complaining to the head of the household who was smoking in gloom:

"Dad! Are you just going to watch her scold me like this? Who am I studying for? It's all for this family. I hope knowledge changes fate!

I'm starting my third year of high school! My classmates' parents are all at home taking care of the logistics, terrified that they won't eat or sleep well. What about me? I finally gathered the courage to tell the family when I didn't have enough money, and this is the attitude I get in return.

Fine! Since there's no money, then I'll drop out! I'll go work! I'll pay off the debts! It's all my fault that the family is saddled with so much debt, is that it?"

"I didn't say you couldn't keep studying!"

Seeing his daughter cry like this, Zhu Weiguo felt a pang of heartache. He stubbed out his cigarette and stood up, saying:

"Study! If there isn't enough money, Dad will go borrow it! As long as you can get into an undergraduate program, I'll provide for you no matter how much I have to borrow!"

Zhu Meijiao's act of covering her face and crying paused.

Undergraduate?

She didn't dare to pat her chest and guarantee an undergraduate spot now.

After the Task target changed to Zhou Ru, things hadn't gone as smoothly as she had imagined.

The Comparison Value Energy Progress Bar was rising incredibly slowly, and she was still a long way from redeeming the "Intelligence Bonus" Prop.

In the nine-school joint examination last semester, not only did her grades not improve, they regressed even more severely, and her ranking was at the very bottom of the grade.

Entering her third year of high school, she didn't dare guarantee whether she could catch up.

But she didn't dare say this to her family, and she didn't dare show the report card to her dad either.

Regardless, she had to go to university.

If she couldn't get into an undergraduate program, then a junior college would do; no matter what, she had to leave this poor place, He Wan Village.

The Main System was watching this scene with relish and broadcasting it to Xie Yang.

Xie Yang raised an eyebrow: Without her as the number one contrast group and tool person, the stepmother and daughter, who had always had a harmonious relationship, were actually tearing each other apart? Tsk tsk!

However, tearing each other apart is good!

Hope they keep up the good work!

And while they're at it, lock this family of three together! Don't let them run out and cause trouble for others.

Xie Yang didn't hesitate to allocate a sum of points to the Main System: "Keep watching Zhu Meijiao. Once there are signs of her unbinding from the Sub-system, notify me immediately."

She lived in the city now, and it would take time to rush back.

【Host, rest assured, System is watching every moment!】

"System, you're the best!" Xie Yang buttered it up, "If every Sub-system were as smart and capable as you, without needing me to worry at all, I wouldn't have to go to such great lengths to clean up the mess."

Main System: 【...】

The Host seemed to be praising it, yet also seemed to have scolded the entire System Realm.

Was it a compliment or a scolding?

Hmm... this question is so brain-burning!

Its CPU was overheating again!

Xie Yang turned her head and continued to busy herself with her own affairs.

After her eighteenth birthday, she went to the securities exchange to open an account.

Before the new millennium, computers were still luxury items. Most retail investors traded stocks by gathering in the Trading Hall, staring at the scrolling stock codes and real-time prices on the big screen, and racing against time to hand their filled-out order slips to the counter.

The bustle of the entire Trading Hall was comparable to a noisy wet market.

Xie Yang found this experience quite novel; after all, she used to trade stocks in her own study.

Every day at nine o'clock sharp, she would bring her thermos and come to the Trading Hall, mingling among the diverse crowd of investors, looking every bit like an experienced veteran.

However, the other veteran investors had been suffering during this period.

Affected by the Southeast Asia financial crisis, the stock market performance over the past year had not been good, especially in the second half, which saw quite a bit of turmoil.

Many retail investors were worried about being trapped and were in a hurry to withdraw their funds.

But Xie Yang knew that this sluggish Market Trend would end in May of this year, followed by a bull market lasting two years.

The month she turned eighteen was exactly the most depressed stage of the global stock market.

After opening the account, she set aside enough for living expenses and split the 780,000 in demolition compensation into two parts: 500,000 to buy Yian Technology, and the rest to buy Haihong Holdings.

These two stocks were bull stocks that would be written into textbooks in later generations.

Of course, there were other bull stocks, but her memory of the others was a bit fuzzy; these two were the ones that left the deepest impression.

During the two-year long bull period starting from the 5·19 Market Trend, the former's stock price climbed all the way from over ten yuan to over one hundred.

The latter saw eighteen consecutive daily limit-ups, with the stock price rising from twenty-something yuan to eighty or ninety yuan.

It could be said that for the next few years, she wouldn't need to do anything else; relying solely on these two stocks was enough to support her comfortably.

And that was indeed the case.

Xie Yang entered the stock market with less than 800,000 in starting capital and made a profit of 5 million in just two years.

With money, the renovation of the river-view apartment she had purchased was also upgraded several notches; from design to soft furnishings, everything was done according to her most satisfying layout.

Additionally, a new villa project had opened near the Forest Park in the city center. Such detached villas with scarce locations, convenient transportation, and a plot ratio of less than 0.3 would become priceless in the future.

Xie Yang decisively bought one.

Over the past two years, the Zhou family had also followed her to buy a house and settle down in the city.

Even the elderly couple, Zhou Tiehan and his wife, bought a three-bedroom, two-living-room river-view apartment in the river-view residential complex.

However, they still returned to live in Zhou Family Village for half the year; after all, that was their root.

It's just that now, Zhou Family Village is no longer called Zhou Family Village; it's called Huirong Industrial Park.

Several emerging enterprises have moved in there.

There are the most popular internet companies of the moment, foreign trade companies, as well as manufacturers related to clothing, socks, and medical facilities and equipment.

High-rise residential buildings have sprung up outside the industrial park, and the Relocation Housing for Zhou Family Village is among them.

The Zhou family has already sold several units to buy school district housing and river-view retirement homes in the city, but they had so many compensation units that they kept one for themselves and rented the rest out to companies within the park as employee dormitories.

Zhou Tiehan and his wife come back to stay for a few days every month to gather and chat with their old neighbors, and incidentally, to collect a round of rent.

After staying for ten days or half a month, when they return, they bring back a few authentic free-range chickens—which are seen everywhere in the countryside but impossible to buy in the city—or weigh out a few catties of fresh local Pork and farm eggs, calling their granddaughter over to eat and properly nourish her.

In short, it is quite a hassle, but the old couple has gradually grown to like this lifestyle of short-term migration, finding it extremely fulfilling!

With money, leisure, and a lifestyle they enjoy, who wouldn't be envious?

Even Zhou Ru, their own daughter, is jealous of her parents' carefree spirit.

Her current life can be described as being in deep water and scorching fire.

Her stepdaughter did not get into her ideal university in the College Entrance Examination, only reaching the cutoff for a vocational college in the city with the lowest admission threshold.

Her husband actually blamed her, saying it was all her fault, and that if she hadn't constantly argued with Meijiao during her senior year, causing Meijiao to be in a bad mood, she wouldn't have scored so low.

"Since you are part of the reason, you must also bear a portion of Meijiao's vocational college tuition; I cannot be the only one working to earn money."

The family's fields were leased to a large-scale farmer last year, and they collect some rice and rent every year, but it is nowhere near enough to pay Zhu Meijiao's tuition.

Therefore, for the past two years, she has had to follow her husband to work at construction sites.

Not to mention that the villagers of He Wan Village cannot understand it—given that her maiden family received many houses from the demolition and her brothers are living a leisurely life without needing to work, why does she still have to follow her husband to construction sites to move bricks and make a living?

Even she herself cannot understand it.

Why do her parents and brothers dislike her so much?

What did she do wrong?