She was the daughter of Jiang Nan Fang and Zhan Bei Jue.
With both parents working so hard, how could she be a good-for-nothing?
In the end, she chose the Loess Plateau. Chen Dongyang promised to arrange everything, notify her of her departure date, and left with his laptop.
Chen Dongyang had arranged everything for Tiantian, but only remotely.
He wasn't sure how harsh and difficult the place truly was, and worried that Tiantian wouldn't be able to handle it. He planned to go scout the way ahead of time.
The project he was currently working on had just begun, with a mountain of complex tasks to fill in and untangle.
Logically, he shouldn't leave at this critical juncture, but he still went to discuss it with Lu Huaijin, proposing to work from home for a period.
Lu Huaijin was a resourceful person.
From childhood, he knew he wasn't good enough for the Zhan family, and he didn't want to appear like a sycophant.
With his background and looks, if he didn't aim higher, he still had many choices by looking down.
Rather than painstakingly begging someone every day, it was better to have others revolve around him.
Therefore, Chen Dongyang and Tiantian's situation didn't affect him.
On the contrary, maintaining the friendship of the three of them, coupled with their slight guilt towards him, would only be more beneficial to his career.
He was a very smart businessman.
When Chen Dongyang proposed working from home, Lu Huaijin's first reaction was that he was head over heels in love and didn't want to be separated from Tiantian for even a second.
While feeling a slight displeasure, he was more inclined to tease.
"You two are showing off your love so much that I'm speechless. Wouldn't it seem rather unfeeling if I disagreed?"
"Regardless, you're heading the project, and I'm just in sales. I know my place and won't delay the progress. I have no other opinions."
Chen Dongyang liked this about him – being carefree, able to take things up and let them go.
"Don't worry, with so many brothers relying on me for a living, I won't let everyone go hungry. I won't fall behind on work progress."
"Then it's settled. We'll work online from tomorrow. Call me if there's any urgent business."
After arranging work matters, he immediately booked a flight to Shancheng.
The place Tiantian chose was a very underdeveloped town called Qingshui Town, located at the border of Shancheng and Gansu Province.
It was called Qingshui Town because the area was severely lacking in water.
How severely lacking?
A village would pool their resources to dig a well. After digging more than ten meters, they could only extract muddy water mixed with yellow soil.
To express their strong desire for water, they named it Qingshui Town.
Chen Dongyang landed, transferred to a bus, and then to a motorcycle. After more than ten hours of bumpy travel, he finally reached the town.
The town was desolate, no more than five kilometers in diameter from north to south.
There was very little green vegetation in the town. At a glance, it was all dusty and drab.
The two rows of shops facing the street were only two stories high, with very simple signs.
All of them had red backgrounds with white lettering, directly stating the shop's name.
For example: Old Zhang's Fast Food, Ruyi Inn, Life Supermarket.
It was almost dark when Chen Dongyang arrived.
There were no neon lights in the town. Streetlights were spaced a few meters apart, making it quiet and serene.
He pushed his luggage to Ruyi Inn and rented a room for 50 yuan a night.
The room was simply furnished: a bed, two bedside tables, and a quilt.
The bathroom had no showerhead but had a toilet, though it was more of a fixture.
Next to the toilet was a bucket, and inside the bucket was a red ladle filled with some murky liquid, presumably for flushing the toilet.
Chen Dongyang was a man and didn't need to be so particular; not showering for a night was fine. But Tiantian might not be able to handle it.
After putting down his luggage and surveying the room, he went downstairs to ask the owner how to take a bath.
The owner pointed him to the street diagonally ahead and said, "There's a bathhouse there. You can wash as much as you want for five yuan."
It was good that there was a bathhouse. Chen Dongyang felt relieved, nodded, and went out to eat.
Old Zhang's Fast Food offered local staple foods. A large bowl cost six yuan, and one bowl was enough to fill you up.
There was nothing else to see, so he went back to sleep.
The next day, he went to visit the school.
Jiang Nan Fang had asked someone to contact the school in advance. Knowing that a teacher was coming to take up a position, the principal was already eagerly awaiting.
Upon seeing such a young and handsome young man, fair-skinned and dressed in trendy attire, clearly from the city, he expressed a warm welcome.
He enthusiastically introduced Chen Dongyang to the number of students and teachers in the school.
Chen Dongyang toured the school with the principal and felt the conditions were quite good. He then asked where the staff dormitory was.
The principal led him to a room next to the cafeteria and opened the door.
"This is it. It has bunk beds and can accommodate six people. Female teachers stay in this room. Male teachers stay in the room opposite."
The principal pointed to a room across the campus.
"We only have three teachers here, all female. The male dormitory is not in use for now and is used for storing miscellaneous items."
The bunk beds were iron frames, with three beds in total.
The three female teachers all slept on the lower bunks, with the upper bunks used for placing cups, washbasins, and toiletries. Although simple, the overall appearance was clean and tidy.
Chen Dongyang was also satisfied.
He inspected everything for Tiantian and found it all to be quite good. He left the school with peace of mind.
Planning to stay for a longer period, he returned to the inn and asked the owner where he could rent a house nearby.
"Rent a house?"
Seeing his city attire, the owner couldn't understand why he would want to rent a house in such a place.
"Young man, are you planning to stay here? What are you here to do?"
Chen Dongyang said he hadn't decided yet, "But I quite like it here, I find it very quiet. I want to rest here for a while."
The owner was very friendly and recommended a house of his own.
"It was left by my in-laws. The old couple passed away a few years ago, and the house has been empty ever since."
"It's a bit simple, but the house is large. You'll be comfortable living alone. I'll take you to see it."
Chen Dongyang went with him. It was at the other end of the town, a single-story house with three rooms.
It was almost bare.
There was no furniture, and the walls were covered in cobwebs and dust.
But fortunately, it was not far from where Tiantian would be, and the space was large enough; it could be renovated with some work.
Chen Dongyang immediately decided to rent it.
In a place like this, houses were not valuable. Having someone rent it was like a windfall from heaven. The owner didn't ask for much, 1500 yuan a year.
Chen Dongyang paid on the spot and planned to go to the county town the next day to buy cement and paint to renovate the house.
The town was more than ten kilometers away from the county town. The passengers on the bus were mostly elderly people. Although it wasn't crowded, the driver drove slowly, and the jolting ride was quite time-consuming.
Thinking that it would be convenient to take Tiantian out on holidays when she arrived,
After buying the renovation materials, he went to a second-hand car market.
He immediately took a liking to a Beijing Hyundai car that was five years old and half-new. The owner asked for 20,000 yuan, and it could be transferred immediately.
Chen Dongyang negotiated the price down by 2,000 yuan and bought it on the spot.
After completing a series of procedures, he returned to the inn with the cement and paint and sent a message to Tiantian.
"Here's the address. You can set off tomorrow and report the day after tomorrow morning."