The new year had arrived again, and both Ge'er and Tiantian had turned twenty-six.
Their two older brothers were already married with children. The two girls were certainly no longer children themselves. Zhan Bei Jue and Jiang Nan Fang had no more excuses to keep them by their side and could only agree to let them move out.
The two girls were quite happy.
This was because they had never been away from their parents since childhood.
Although the family atmosphere was very good, and their Daddy and Mommy doted on them excessively, their overprotectiveness, always fearing they would get into a casual relationship or get hurt, had led them to insist on keeping the girls close. This was something they disliked immensely.
The two had protested many times. Zhan Bei Jue had said that once their two older brothers were married, he would grant them freedom. Now, they were finally free!
Tiantian, like a bird released from its cage, the first thing she did that evening was invite her best friend, Zhu Wushuang, over for drinks.
Wushuang was her high school classmate, with a refined appearance, a quiet temperament, and excellent academic performance.
Her family background was not well-off, but she had managed to get into the first affiliated high school of Nanda solely based on her merit.
By chance, she became Tiantian's deskmate in their second year of high school, and they had been close best friends ever since.
The two girls had applied to the same university, chosen the same major, and had gotten along amicably until now.
Both girls were very excited. As they had never been to a bar before, they bought two bottles of baijiu from the supermarket, ordered a pile of barbecue they rarely ate, and chatted as they ate, envisioning their wonderful future lives.
Tiantian, needless to say, with the status of Miss Zhan, would never have to worry about food or drink for life, even if she didn't work hard.
However, Wushuang's situation was much more difficult.
After graduation, she couldn't find a job in her field and was currently working as a copywriter at an advertising company.
After working diligently for three years, she had saved over one hundred thousand yuan. Her parents had also scraped together another hundred thousand for her, and she had bought a small apartment of over 70 square meters outside the Fourth Ring Road, for which she was making monthly mortgage payments.
The apartment had been in her possession for over five months, but the renovation progress had been slow.
As they chatted, the conversation turned to the renovation.
Tiantian said, "I heard last year that you were renovating. I thought you'd be able to move in by the end of the year, but now you're telling me the plumbing and electrical work aren't even done yet? What's going on?"
"You didn't find some unreliable renovation team just to save money, do half-hearted work, and then slack off, did you?"
Speaking of this, Wushuang was also frustrated.
After paying the down payment, she only had over three thousand yuan left in her pocket. She also had rent to pay, as well as living expenses and commuting costs, so she didn't have money for renovations.
But she wanted to move in sooner, so she had found a small renovation company to save money.
Although it was a bit more formal than the renovation teams on the street, the progress was truly abysmal.
One moment they would say there was a problem here, the next moment they would say there was a problem there, and then they would mention holiday closures.
Pushing back and forth, when she went to check before the year-end holiday, it was still stuck at the plumbing and electrical stage.
As a single woman with a mild disposition, she had no other recourse but to verbally urge them, and could only pour out her woes to Tiantian.
Tiantian listened, angered, and told her she would go with her tomorrow to take a look.
"You, you're just too agreeable! Nowadays, who wouldn't want to take advantage of a pushover? If you don't want to be bullied, you have to stand your ground first!"
"When I asked you to join our real estate company, you refused. When I asked you to buy a house from us, you refused. You insisted on talking about integrity, and now look, you've been scammed!"
Wushuang looked a little embarrassed. "Your family's properties are all developed for high-end clients. Even if I worked my whole life, I wouldn't be able to repay the mortgage. It's not that I don't want to buy, but even if you gave me a fifty percent discount, I still couldn't afford it."
"Besides, we're best friends; we shouldn't always talk about money; it strains the relationship. I don't want to always take advantage of you."
Tiantian understood her. She had the integrity of a scholar, proud and aloof.
Normally, if she gave Wushuang a slightly more expensive birthday gift, Wushuang would find a way to return it. Let alone gifting her a house.
That would be asking for her life.
"Alright, alright, you don't want to take advantage of me; you have integrity. Then I'll go take a look tomorrow and offer a few words from a professional standpoint, will that do?"
Wushuang smiled, "That's exactly why I came today. Hehe, thank you, Tiantian."
That night, the two drank until they were slightly tipsy, and Wushuang stayed at her place. The two girls chatted for half the night. The next day, they slept until they woke up naturally and drove to the neighborhood where she had bought the apartment.
The renovation company had just resumed work yesterday, and they were already there at this hour.
As the two got out of the car and reached the entrance of the building, they ran into a familiar property management staff member.
Wushuang said a few words to the person. Unexpectedly, a patch of plaster suddenly fell from the upper floor, brushing past her shoulder and hitting the ground, shattering into pieces. It almost scared her to death.
The property management staff member quickly pulled Wushuang to the side and looked up at the building.
From a room on an upper floor, a head poked out, also looking outside.
The property management staff member started yelling up at the building, "What kind of work are you doing? Don't you know to be careful? At such a high floor, if you let plaster fall and hit someone, can you afford the responsibility? I'm telling you..."
The head retracted back inside.
Wushuang looked closely and realized that the window was exactly her own!
"What a lousy renovation company, this is just too unreliable!"
Tiantian, who had a bad impression of the renovation company from the start, pulled Wushuang and went upstairs resolutely.
When they reached the upper floor, the door was not closed. Inside, loud, dynamic music was playing, accompanied by the clanging sound of walls being smashed, making it extremely noisy.
The two entered, circled the room for a while, and found two men working in the master bedroom.
One man was thin and small, wearing a mask, and busy on the ground.
One man was quite tall, also wearing a mask, and facing away from them, swinging a sledgehammer.
It seemed he was the cause of the recent incident.
Tiantian walked in without a word. "Turn off the music! Stop, stop, stop! You two, come here!"
Her voice was loud and commanding.
The two men exchanged a glance upon hearing her. The shorter one walked over and turned off the music, then returned to the side of the taller man.
The room became quiet, and both men looked at her.
Tiantian said, "Are you two from the renovation company? What are you doing?"
The shorter man didn't speak and glanced at the taller man again.
The taller man was covered in dust, his original hair color almost indistinguishable.
He wore a dark gray overalls and a mask, obscuring his features.
He sized up Tiantian and said, "You're asking me what I'm doing."
His voice was very young, but his tone was unfriendly.
Tiantian's temper flared even more. "If I knew what you were doing, would I need to ask you?"
"I am the owner of this house. What's wrong with asking you about your work progress? What's with the attitude?"
Hearing this, the taller man leaned his sledgehammer against the wall, took off his gloves, lowered his head, and patted the dust off his hair twice.
With an extremely nonchalant demeanor, he tilted his chin towards Wushuang.
"Miss Zhu, you just got the house and already transferred it? Why is there a new owner?"
Wushuang had dealt with them a few times before, so they knew each other's names.
Seeing him say this, she proceeded to introduce them to each other.