Chapter 74: Preparation

In 1992, the Yuncheng Municipal Government leveled a low-lying area called Fengtan in the south of the city for commercial development, and by 1994, they had completed a large residential complex called Fengyue Garden. With prices exceeding 2,000 yuan per square meter, ordinary wage earners could not afford it at all, so people called this place the "rich neighborhood."

On February 23rd, after Di Ye finished trading Treasury Bond Futures, he promised to buy a house together to soothe Huang Ya's emotions. On the morning of the 26th, to fulfill his promise, he accompanied Huang Ya to Fengyue Garden.

Huang Ya had grown up in a cramped Tongzi Building and had an extreme desire to own a large house of her own. She looked at all the various floor plans in the complex, and in the end, she became tangled between a standard 140-square-meter apartment and a detached villa of about 300 square meters.

"You are always running around; a villa is too big for me to live in alone. Let's just choose this four-bedroom apartment..."

"Let me think about it again. The villa has a yard, and in the future, I could grow vegetables and flowers with Mom and Dad..."

Fengyue Garden is located within the Second Ring Road of Yuncheng, with a superior geographical location. It is surrounded by both top-tier hospitals and high-quality primary and middle schools, with complete supporting facilities. Before Di Ye transmigrated, the old, dilapidated small apartments here started at 20,000 yuan. Now they are only 2,000-plus, and they are brand new, which is practically like picking them up for free. He said, "Since you like both, let's buy them both. Live here on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th, and live there on the 2nd, 4th, and 6th. You can live wherever you want on Sundays."

The domestic real estate market wouldn't start to take off until 1998, and in 1995, the vast majority of people had no concept of property speculation. Huang Ya was used to being frugal and complained, "Why are you acting like a nouveau riche, always spending money so recklessly?"

Di Ye had a Golden Finger and didn't need to rely on hoarding houses for value preservation and appreciation, nor did he want to go against Huang Ya's lifestyle habits, so he changed his tune: "Then let's just buy the villa. The yard is big; not only can we plant flowers and grass, but we can also park cars."

"But the villa is too expensive, over 3,000 yuan per square meter. It adds up to nearly 1 million, and the renovation will cost quite a lot of money on top of that."

"If you can't bear to spend the money, just take these floor plan materials home and study them slowly, and we'll come back to buy it tomorrow."

Huang Ya and Di Ye had a great tacit understanding; she heard the hidden meaning in his words, so she took some materials from the sales office, returned to the car, and asked, "Where are you getting the money tomorrow?"

"Do you remember Xu Chaobo?"

"I remember. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, I went to Guangdong Province with Xiao Shan and the others to buy VCD discs."

"He works at a financial company in Pengcheng. On the morning of the 24th, I heard some big news in Pujiang, and then I transferred 3 million to Xiao Shan, telling him to go to Xu Chaobo's financial company tomorrow to short the Nikkei Index. If luck is on our side, he should be able to make one or two million, enough for you to buy the villa."

Huang Ya didn't ask what the big news was, but instead looked at Di Ye and said with an expression that was hard to tell if it was relief or worry, "You transferred 3 million to Xiao Shan? He's only 19 and hasn't even graduated from high school."

Di Ye started the car with a calm face and said, "Age is not an issue; we are only 22 ourselves. I think Xiao Shan should be reliable."

"What if he isn't reliable and runs off with the 3 million?"

"Xiao Shan is your younger brother. If 3 million is enough to see clearly whether he is worth trusting, it's a very good deal."

Huang Ya leaned back in her seat and was dazed for a while, then asked, "What big news did you hear?"

"There is an old bank in the United Kingdom called Barings Bank. On February 23rd, their Singapore branch futures trader Nick Leeson went long on the Nikkei Index, lost over 800 million pounds—which is about 100 billion Japanese Yen—and then fled."

Huang Ya had recently been cramming knowledge about futures, and upon hearing this, she sat up straight and asked, "After he fled on the 23rd, did the Nikkei Index fall on the 24th?"

"It fell more than 300 points. Yesterday and today were the weekend, and the stock market was closed, but news has already come out from the UK that Barings Bank is going bankrupt. Tomorrow, Monday, I estimate the Nikkei Index will plummet, so I arranged for Xiao Shan to short it."

Huang Ya felt that this logic for shorting had no problems, so she became even more worried about Huang Zongshan and immediately took out her Big Brother to call him in Pengcheng, urging him not to mess around.

"Sis, don't worry. I haven't gone anywhere these past two days; I've been staying where I live guarding the Bank Card. I'll go to their company with Manager Xu first thing tomorrow morning."

"Besides Manager Xu, don't tell anyone else that you have money on that card, especially Bi Wanxi. That man has a very loose tongue."

"I know. Is Brother Di Ye there? I have a few things to tell him."

Di Ye pulled the car over to the side of the road, took the Big Brother, and asked, "Xiao Shan, is the house I wanted rented?"

"It's rented, right in the complex where I'm living now. Three units in total, each about 130 square meters. They are all four-bedroom apartments, simply renovated, and Manager Xu has bought all the furniture and appliances these past two days."

"What about the internet?"

"That guy surnamed Ma just helped get it set up yesterday. It's just really expensive; even after a discount, it's still over 80,000 yuan a month, starting from March. Brother Di Ye, when do you plan on coming over?"

"I'll probably head over around next Friday."

Seeing that Huang Zongshan answered everything clearly under Di Ye's questioning, Huang Ya felt much more at ease. After the call ended, she said, "I don't think it's good to hide the house purchase from Mom and Dad. If we make money tomorrow, I'll say it was earned using the 1.5 million Dad gave us, and then have them come see the house together. What do you think?"

Di Yongchang trusted Huang Ya implicitly and had given her 1.5 million of the 1.9 million profit earned from modifying CD Players to keep. Di Ye felt this arrangement was indeed more appropriate and said, "That's fine. You decide on family matters; I'm at ease."

"You're clearly just trying to be lazy, calling it 'being at ease' as a nice excuse."

"Who told you to be so virtuous..."

The two had just chatted for a few moments when the Big Brother suddenly rang. After answering, Huang Ya covered the mouthpiece and whispered, "It's your Dean."

Di Ye had no choice but to pull the car over to the side of the road again, take the Big Brother, and ask, "Dean, what can I do for you?"

Dean used his very recognizable raspy voice and shouted excitedly, "Di Ye, the postgraduate entrance exam results are out. Guess how many points you got?"

"500?"

"Only 7 points shy of 500—493! Math and professional courses were both perfect scores, 2 points deducted from English, 5 points deducted from Politics. If the postgraduate exam had rankings like the college entrance exam, you would definitely be this year's national top scorer. Hahaha... Jinling University is going to be dumbfounded now."

Because English had an essay section, having 2 points deducted was understandable, but Politics was copied word-for-word from the standard answers, yet he was still deducted 5 points. Di Ye was very annoyed and complained, "The Politics grader must have a problem with their eyes."

The Dean was overjoyed and said, "You have already signed a guarantee to stay at the school for further studies with University President Song. No matter how Jinling University tries to persuade you, you must stand firm and not go back on your word, otherwise..."

That guarantee was only a moral commitment and had almost zero binding power on Di Ye. Seeing that the Dean also realized this and had choked on his words halfway through, he laughed and pressed, "Otherwise what?"

"Otherwise I'll follow you 24 hours a day!"

The Dean held back for a long time before coming out with that threat, then reminded him, "At 2:00 PM, accept an interview with *China Education Daily* in University President Song's office. Don't be late."

"I know."

The interview with *China Education Daily* was arranged by the school's propaganda department—purely official boilerplate. Di Ye knew the protagonist was University President Song and he was just a mascot, so he said whatever he was told to say and did whatever he was told to do, appearing very low-key.

Besides the on-site interview with *China Education Daily*, Di Ye also accepted a phone interview with *Computer News* in the Dean's office, mainly to promote DY-ZIP and the Open Source philosophy. This time he was the protagonist, and he spoke eloquently and talked freely for a full half-hour.

After the interview ended, the Dean took out a slip of paper recording the students' names and classes and said, "Professor Liu held an exam last week based on the questions you set. There are over 20 people who passed. You do another screening in the next few days; the department can only give your R&D team 10 spots at most."

"10 is enough. Besides Director Fu, are there any other accompanying teachers?"

"Yes, your department's counselor, Qi Yinghong."

Di Ye was a bit surprised and said, "There are very few girls in the Computer Science Department. The members of the R&D team going to Pengcheng this time will likely all be boys. It wouldn't be very convenient for Teacher Qi to accompany us, would it?"

"Men and women working together makes the work less tiring. Besides, your girlfriend is going too, so what's inconvenient about it?"

"That works too. By the way, Dean, what reason did you use to convince Dean Lin of the Foreign Languages Institute?"

The Dean looked pained and said irritably, "I said your R&D team needed a translator, and then I gave Old Lin two computers."

"It wouldn't be those two 386s you phased out of your office, would it?"

"What's wrong with 386s? They're fine for daily office work!"