Chapter 64, Part One

The next day was the weekend. Lin Xuexia did not go to the shop, and the couple slept in until eight o'clock, preparing to take the family to Bay Park. Just before they were about to set off, Fu Wei received a phone call.

After hanging up, Fu Wei rubbed the space between his brows and told Lin Xuexia about the matter. "Xuexia, the approval for building our houses will come through around March or April after the New Year, but the government has suddenly issued new guidelines stating we cannot build the twelve-story buildings you wanted."

Lin Xuexia said, "It's fine if they're a bit shorter. Seven or eight stories will do."

Twelve stories was not actually an optimal height, and upon careful calculation, it was a bit of a loss. Current regulations mandated that any building over ten floors must be installed with elevators. To reduce elevator costs, many people capped their buildings at eight or nine floors.

However, Lin Xuexia did not intend to skimp on the elevator expenses. Having returned from a decade into the future, she knew elevators would soon be ubiquitous, and old-style high-rises without them were too agonizing.

She planned to build elevator apartments, even if it meant paying extra for the elevators. Yet, once she decided to install an elevator, a twelve-story building would feel too short. Still, it was the compromise they could currently afford in terms of cost. The higher the building, the more the construction costs and engineering qualification requirements multiplied exponentially.

If they could not build twelve stories, Lin Xuexia decided to build eight, incorporate two stairwells, and reserve a space for an elevator so they could install it later when they had more money.

"The authorities are instructing us to build sixteen stories," Fu Wei shattered Lin Xuexia's illusion. "At the very least, the two buildings facing the street must be sixteen stories. No less."

In this era, you could buy land and build properties for real estate development, but the specific number of stories had to comply with government guidance.

Construction was booming everywhere, and many buildings were being built taller. Skyscrapers projected grandeur and presence, while shorter buildings lacked prestige.

The plot of land Lin Xuexia had chosen was slightly remote, and coupled with the fact that they were building four blocks in a row, the authorities assumed they had the capital, so the buildings had to rise high to avoid disrupting the city's appearance in the future.

Sixteen stories was a reasonable number. Naturally, no one would choose to build eighteen, and going over twenty was inconvenient... so sixteen was settled upon.

"Sixteen stories..." Lin Xuexia murmured the number. Initially, she had indeed wanted to build sixteen stories, but doing so would exponentially increase construction costs and heighten financial pressure.

A sixteen-story building required at least two elevators.

Originally, she had thought that by March or April, the couple would have saved another hundred thousand or two hundred thousand yuan in their hands, allowing them to start laying foundations and build two blocks first... But now, it didn't seem entirely secure, especially since the two blocks facing the street would have stricter requirements for exterior walls and construction materials.

Much like in a residential estate where the buildings along the main street used solid materials while those inside might have corners cut, building along the street demanded higher standards.

"Does our little vault feel a bit too much pressure? Do you regret it?" Fu Wei curled the corner of his lips into a smile. Though he was joking, he was actually in a very good mood. The authorities' requirement for height indicated that their land was in a crucial location. Once this area was developed in the future, it would likely turn out to be a prime spot, and the apartments would have no trouble selling.

If worse came to worst, the couple could set up a sales office and sell the properties themselves.

They might not look easy to sell before construction, but perhaps once completed, the properties would appreciate significantly.

Lin Xuexia laughed in amusement. "Your little vault is out of money."

"Should I hand over the vault to you?"

Lin Xuexia said with disdain, "Pervert, you're all talk. You can't even find where the vault door is."

"I saw it and touched it yesterday," Fu Wei said with a wicked grin. He hugged Lin Xuexia from behind. Lin Xuexia was busy boiling wontons in the kitchen. Since they had woken up late, they hadn't bothered the nanny to come up. They were eating the small wontons Lin Xuexia had wrapped by hand the night before and stored in the refrigerator; boiling them the next morning was just right.

Fu Wei had also wrapped a few, except the ones he made turned out to be giant dumplings. Lin Xuexia picked his "giant dumplings" out separately and tossed them into his noodle bowl.

"What of it? You still couldn't get in." Lin Xuexia turned back and bit his chin, remembering how this guy had pinned her down yesterday while talking about wanting to look at the vault door. Not only did he look, but he bit too, though she only had herself to blame for being soft-hearted.

You simply couldn't be soft-hearted with a brazen big dog like him.

Fu Wei touched the tooth mark on his face, his smile growing even brighter. He carried the two bowls of wontons to the dining table, hugged his wife, ushered her to her seat, and unfastened her apron.

"Let me look again tonight," Fu Wei rubbed his cheek against hers.

Lin Xuexia said fiercely, "No way!"

Deep down, Lin Xuexia felt a little vexed. She thought to herself that being teased by him like this, stuck in limbo, was almost worse than just letting him in.

"Don't be angry, I won't tease you anymore." Fu Wei wrapped his arms around her waist, quickly slurping down his wontons one by one. Lin Xuexia warned him to be careful of the heat, and Fu Wei replied with a tender smile.

Ever since they got married, the two would sit together for breakfast whenever they had time—whether it was making pancakes, boiling porridge, cooking noodles, or having dumplings and wontons... Both husband and wife thoroughly enjoyed these quiet morning moments.

Lin Xuexia only ate half a bowl of wontons, leaving the rest for Fu Wei to finish. She drank half a small cup of warm milk. Fu Wei wasn't particularly fond of milk, so Lin Xuexia deliberately drank only half of hers, leaving the rest for him and forcing him to drink it.

The fresh milk, completely unwatered, had a rich milky flavor. Once heated, the milky smell became even more pungent. While Lin Xuexia couldn't stand the smell of other gamey or raw foods, she rather liked this milky aroma.

Whenever Fu Wei finished his warm milk, he would inevitably pin her down for a milk-flavored kiss.

A milk-flavored kiss could be considered sweet. In winter, the couple would eat mini hot pots, and Fu Wei always added garlic to his dipping sauce. Afterward, not even breath-freshening mints could get rid of that lingering smell.

That made for a bizarre kiss mixed with mints and garlic—the taste was both sweet and strange, not sickening, just weird.

Fu Wei, however, thought the garlic-flavored one was fine; he found the milk-flavored kiss much stranger.

After having the nanny come up to clean things up, Fu Wei went downstairs to get the car. Lin Xuexia sat in the back, holding a plastic bag. She wasn't normally prone to motion sickness, but now that she was pregnant, she couldn't quite predict it—sometimes she would vomit in the car, and sometimes she wouldn't, entirely depending on the baby's mood.

Fu Wei drove very gently now, never slamming on the brakes and always slowing down around turns, keeping the ride steady. Earlier, another driver had told him that driving like this wasn't manly at all; a real man should slam on the gas pedal and coast to save fuel.

Fu Wei had simply replied with a blissful expression, "My wife is pregnant."

The driver: "..."

Driving the car to the foot of the rental building, Fu Wei called out a few times. Zhang Yuqin, her two daughters, and Gao Chunyan and her daughter came down. Together with Chen Miaorong and Zhao Heiru, Fu Wei loaded a van full of women and headed to Bay Park. His van was an extended model, and without removing the seats, it could seat exactly nine people.

Liu Xigui wanted to hitch a ride for free, but unfortunately, there was no room for him.

Sitting in the driver's seat and listening to the voices of the women filling the car, Fu Wei felt a slight pang of sorrow.

He was the only man in the entire vehicle—what kind of miraculous experience was this? Back when he was a soldier in the army, it was hard to even catch sight of a woman; now, after marrying a wife, he had transformed into the chauffeur for a whole flock of women, and today he was even carrying a camera.

Along the way, they stopped at Shanhai Time to say hello to the shop staff, and then drove around to the land Lin Xuexia and her husband had bought. The group chatted enthusiastically.

"Is all this land ours?"

"Even that side is included. This area is so barren, it's still farmland."

"It'll get lively once the houses are built later."

...

Gao Chunyan stared unblinkingly at the open space ahead, listening to the discussion around her. Her lips parted, but she held back and said nothing.

At that moment, she envied Lin Xuexia to the core. She had the courage to think and the nerve to act. How long had it been, and she was really buying land to build houses? And this wasn't just any housing! When people in the village built houses, they lived in them for a lifetime, but Lin Xuexia wasn't just building a house—she was building a multi-story building! And not those small three- or four-story ones either.

"Xuexia, are you guys building twelve stories? Why not build six or seven? They said anything over ten floors requires an elevator..." At the mention of elevators, Gao Chunyan felt a tremor of fear. After coming to the city, she had ridden elevators in skyscrapers a few times, and she deeply feared that terrifying split-second feeling of weightlessness in an elevator.

Gao Chunyan thought six or seven stories was already very high; a residential building of more than ten stories was something she had never even imagined.

Lin Xuexia said, "We're building sixteen stories. The bottom three floors will be commercial storefronts."

Fu Wei glanced at her with some surprise before continuing to drive.

Lin Xuexia had just been forming her plan in her mind. Originally, she had only intended to casually build four apartment blocks to collect rent, but now that they were expanding to sixteen stories, she realized that indeed, two of the blocks would face the future planned street. Even if pedestrian traffic wasn't massive, it certainly wouldn't be small.

She might as well build those two exterior blocks better, with three floors of commercial shops at the bottom, and partner with someone to open a large self-selection department store. Supermarkets didn't really exist in the country yet; large-scale supermarkets would only gradually become popular after the 1990s.

"R-Really? Three floors of shops?" Gao Chunyan was stunned. With so many shops, how lively would that place become?

Meanwhile, Zhang Yuqin, Lin Yuxia, and the others were excitedly focused on another detail. "Elder sister, are you really building sixteen stories?"

"What a tall building!" Lin Yuexia, who worked in an office building, was thrilled. Among all the women in the car, she was the least afraid of riding elevators. Having gotten used to taking elevators in office buildings every day, she found them very convenient!

And her older sister and brother-in-law were actually going to build a high-rise!

Lin Yuexia and her colleagues all worked in fairly glamorous office buildings, yet when they got off work and returned to their living quarters, it felt as though they were stepping out of a modern era and back into low-rise rural settlements, creating a stark sense of disparity.

Would they too be able to live in high-rises in the future?

Lin Yuexia's heart was filled with anticipation.

*

When the group arrived at Bay Park, Fu Wei rented a few bicycles, and they rode around to enjoy the scenery. Fu Wei took quite a few photos for them, and every woman held a colorful silk scarf in her hand—even Liu Yangqun was no exception—except for him, the man acting as the photographer.

"Stand properly, wifey, move a bit closer."

"One, two, three—smile."

...

Lin Yuexia ran over to take the camera from her brother-in-law and urged, "Brother-in-law, stand with my sister and take a few shots. I'll take them for you."

Fu Wei smiled as he walked over and put his arm around Lin Xuexia's shoulders. Behind them was the vast sea, migratory birds circled in the sky, and the sea breeze blew softly—it was a deeply fresh and romantic scene.

They had a picnic in the park at noon. Afterward, Fu Wei drove most of them back, keeping only Zhang Yuqin and her daughters, as they had a family gathering and singing session planned for the evening.

Lin Xuexia grew sleepy in the car and dozed off with her eyes closed. Fu Wei drove the car to the medical college, where Lin Yuxia and Lin Yuexia woke her up, flanking her on either side as she got out of the car.

Fu Wei didn't particularly want to come here, but he had no choice. This was one of the registration sites and examination halls for the self-study examinations. Lin Xuexia was registering for the self-study exams, and over the next two years, she would need to successively pass a dozen exams to earn a college diploma through self-study.