Qian Wan was driving, Chen Yi was in the passenger seat, and Jiang Fan was lying in the backseat catching up on sleep. It was unclear how long they had been driving. When Jiang Fan woke up, the two of them were sitting in the front, eating hamburgers and drinking cola, and there was an extra umbrella by Jiang Fan's side.
The car was parked at the entrance of an old neighborhood. Jiang Fan sat up, holding his hungry stomach, and said softly,
"Give me some food. I'm hungry too."
Qian Wan mumbled with her hamburger in her mouth,
"I didn't bring any money out. I only had forty yuan. I bought two hamburgers, two colas, and an umbrella for you. Fan, you're capable. You can hold the umbrella and go into the neighborhood to eat with the uncles and aunties, right? There's only one umbrella anyway."
Huh?
Jiang Fan tilted his head and looked at Qian Wan, puzzled.
"What about Yi? Did you spend all your money?"
Chen Yi, who had already finished his hamburger, shook his head and said awkwardly,
"My money is in my jacket, and I didn't dare to go back for it."
"Damn it!"
Jiang Fan snatched the half-cup of cola from Chen Yi's hand, threw away the straw, opened the lid, and gulped it down! He drank a belly full of air and angrily said,
"Coming out with you two is really a curse! If we don't find anything out, when we go back, even if Su Qing doesn't eat us, we'll still be eaten by Jin. This is really unlucky."
After speaking, Jiang Fan got out of the car with the umbrella and walked on the bumpy cement road into the neighborhood. At this time, Chen Yi opened the window and shouted,
"Fan, leave some money for us, please."
"Get lost! I'm a miser. I won't give you a single penny."
Chen Yi grimaced and whispered,
"Help me out with twenty thousand yuan. I didn't even get to eat the hamburger, and you didn't even give me ten yuan. Qian Wan, do you think there might be money in the car, Qian Wan? Qian Wan?"
Chen Yi called Qian Wan's name twice, but there was no response. He turned around and saw the girl staring intently at an internet cafe across the street. Then she took out a crumpled twenty-yuan bill from her pocket, looked at the cafe, and whispered,
"Yi, ten yuan each, no drinks!"
"Let's go!"
It seemed that Qian Wan had already explored the area when she came and left twenty yuan for spending at the internet cafe. If Jiang Fan knew this girl still had money, he would definitely give her the umbrella and ask her to get out of the car.
Inside the neighborhood, Jiang Fan walked under the umbrella, cursing as he went. He regretted his earlier decision. He should have just taken the four hundred thousand yuan and left. Why did he have to help the General Affairs Department? This was just being a jerk. The two guys here were really not very loyal. Not giving him food was one thing, but they also asked him to visit the neighborhood.
Is this something humans do?
While Jiang Fan was about what to say when knocking on the door, a commotion came from the distance. Walking past the cars parked in the neighborhood, he found a group of old men gathered in a pavilion playing chess. Jiang Fan walked into the pavilion with his umbrella. The old men just glanced at the young man and continued to focus on the chessboard.
Two people were playing chess, and six people were giving advice. Everyone was talking, and no one was acting like a gentleman.
Jiang Fan stood behind the old man and looked at the chessboard. After about twelve or thirteen moves, the old man with the red chess pieces picked up his rook and was about to exchange it with the opponent's. Jiang Fan suddenly spoke up.
"Don't move. If you move, his cannon will push to the bottom, and the other rook can cross the river and capture your piece. It's better to delay moving the pawn."
"That makes sense."
"Indeed, I saw this move. Old Zhao, you shouldn't continue this game."
"What a terrible player."
The old man playing the red pieces felt somewhat annoyed and ashamed by their words and threw down his pieces, saying angrily,
"I'm not playing anymore! I'm playing against four or five of you, and you're giving me a headache with all your noise."
"Exactly, since you're not playing, I'll take your place."
Eventually, the red pieces didn't last long and were defeated. Jiang Fan sighed helplessly. At this moment, the old man playing the black pieces chuckled at Jiang Fan and said,
"Come on, want to play a game?"
Jiang Fan shook his head.
"No, I can't beat you five."
"We won't say anything, absolutely not a word. You just need to deflate this old man's arrogance."
"Alright then."
Jiang Fan also had a craving for chess. When he wasn't divorced from Tang Wan, he would find people online to play chess with during the day at home when he got bored of looking at the teaching materials sent by Old Tang. He didn't play Go because he couldn't understand it! He only played Chinese chess.
Jiang Fan, playing the red pieces, made the first move. The old man playing the black pieces, who was initially relaxed, didn't think much of Jiang Fan. However, when both sides had lost most of their pieces, he became serious. The old men watching also stopped giving foolish advice. It was Old Zhao who spoke up and said,
"Young man, you play fiercely. You never retreat when you can make an exchange. It's more enjoyable to watch young people play chess. Old Shi's playstyle is too soft."
Old Shi?
This...
Jiang Fan didn't dare to address the old man in front of him. How could he also be named Shi? In the end, Jiang Fan still lost, and Old Shi wasn't much better off. Jiang Fan had a cannon and a general left, while Old Shi had a chariot and an advisor. Jiang Fan conceded by tipping over his pieces. As he was about to rise, Old Shi suddenly spoke.
"Let's play another game. Be more serious this time."
"Okay, then I won't go easy on you."
This time, Jiang Fan played with the black pieces and didn't rush to attack. Instead, he constantly defended and restrained, which made Old Shi somewhat uncomfortable. He held the pieces and considered for a long time, deciding to exchange pieces with Jiang Fan. However, he realized that he had made a mistake and lost some pieces due to his carelessness, which made him unhappy, and he exclaimed angrily,
"Young man, do you know how to respect the old and care for the young!"
Jiang Fan scratched his head and grinned.
"You're old, and I'm young. There's no respect or not respecting. I can't go easy. I can't escape the sharp eyes of these old men."
"Hmm! Young man, you know how to talk."
"I didn't expect that even though I hid it so deeply, you still discovered it. My eyes have seen through too much."
"You have a future, you have a future."
Perhaps one's face grows with age? When the game was halfway through, Old Zhao began to create opportunities for his old friend and patted Jiang Fan's shoulder, saying softly,
"Young man, instead of working properly, you came here to play chess with us old folks? Are you very free?"
Jiang Fan turned around and smiled.
"I am working. Today's job is to come here and see how much resettlement allowance the residents need. The new community won't be available for two to three years, so our company is thinking about providing rental subsidies to the residents here."
"This matter? Is it from Glory Group? Didn't you already send someone here? They promised a rental subsidy of ten thousand yuan per family. What happened? Did you change your mind?"
Old Shi seemed to be the most influential among these old men, but this sentence didn't sound right to Jiang Fan's ears. Did someone from Glory come here? Why didn't Su Qing mention it? Jiang Fan thought for a moment and smiled softly.
"Hmm? That shouldn't be the case. I, the manager, don't even know someone came. Old folks! You didn't sign any contracts with those people, right? Oh no, you might have been deceived. You didn't give out any phone numbers or bank card information, right? Scammers these days are very skilled."
Old Shi waved his hand.
"Checkmate!"
Jiang Fan moved the old general out one step, tilted his head, and looked at Old Shi. Old Shi raised his head and smiled slightly at Jiang Fan.
"We're not foolish. The government unit gave us some resettlement allowance, five hundred yuan per family. The location of the new community is also good. We're not at a loss. A resettlement allowance of ten thousand yuan per year? Do you think we're senile and would fall for such a pie in the sky? I want to ask you, this manager, how much can you give us?"
As Jiang Fan was pondering, the old man made a move with his knight, checkmating Jiang Fan. Seeing this, Jiang Fan smiled helplessly.
"Well, doing business is not like being a robber. Old Shi, I see that you have some influence in this community. Why don't you ask everyone how much they want? Ten thousand yuan per year exceeds the budget."
"There's no need for that trouble. I can't control others, and don't try to flatter me. I have two houses here. A resettlement allowance of three thousand yuan per year, plus the one thousand yuan from the government unit, would be enough for four thousand yuan. It's just for living here for two years anyway. But! There's the cost of moving."
"One thousand five hundred yuan per household? How about two thousand yuan? Just make a call to my superior about the moving arrangements."
"No need. One shouldn't rely on being old to sell oneself. Why take so much money and bring it into the coffin? We've had enough of living in this community. With airplanes roaring past overhead in the middle of the night, it's already not easy to survive. All the young people who could move away have already moved. There are only four buildings in total. I'll take one thousand five hundred yuan. You from Glory should provide the transportation for moving. Otherwise, I'll die in this house and won't move."
The old man was very shrewd. The cost of moving nowadays is not low. Two houses would cost more than one thousand yuan, and they are all old people with many belongings. Jiang Fan really stood up and walked aside to make a call to Su Qing, explaining the situation roughly. Su Qing was silent for a few seconds and then said,
"Let's discuss it back at the company. Don't just ask one person. Find out from everyone and ask if two thousand yuan is acceptable without helping with the moving."
Jiang Fan said softly,
"Okay, I'll ask around."
After chatting with the old men in the pavilion for about half an hour, their wives called out that the wine was warmed up and it was time to eat. The old men left the pavilion with umbrellas, leaving Jiang Fan alone. Now he wanted to scold Chen Yi and Qian Wan again.