In the end, they ruled out all the houses except the ones in the earlier stages of construction, where the workers were still building the foundation, and the first floor had not been built yet. All the sales manager could provide was a drawing of the structure of the houses.
Qin Guan was still thrilled. He knew this residential block would be the best block in the neighborhood. First, it was at a good location, right between the Capital University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) and Xizhimen, and the same distance from the subway and the University. Secondly, the houses there were affordable. Houses under construction were usually less popular than existing ones, and since it was off season, the sales manager promised that they could get a five percent discount off the original price if they paid the deposit on site. Third, with a stroke of luck, Qin Guan knew that this residential block would prove to be the most cost-effective one in the neighborhood, and would be assigned as school district housing.
Houses there cost 1,800 yuan per square meter. Qin Guan picked a two-bedroom apartment facing south, which would allow more sunlight and fresh air in. The building was in the center of the block, away from the street, providing a quiet environment. The seventy-square-meter apartment cost little more than a hundred thousand yuan. Qin Guan felt powerless as his mom spent all their savings on it.
“It’s incredibly cheap! We should buy more! This is really worth it, even if I have to make monthly loan payments.” Whatever he said though, his parents would not agree to him taking out a loan.
“This boy is too naughty! What is he going to do with so many apartments? It’s not like apartments can multiply.” Having hardly ever been in debt, Qin Guan’s parents would never agree to getting a bank loan to buy more apartments.
They felt quite uncomfortable just at the thought of Qin Guan having to borrow money from the government.
With a big smile, the sales manager prepared the house-purchasing contract for them and informed them that they would not get the property deed until the construction was completed.
Undoubtedly, Qin Guan’s name would be on the deed as the owner of the apartment. After all, he was the one who was going to live in Beijing. His parents did not want to come all that way just to help keep the apartment clean for him.
Qin Guan felt a little relieved after signing the contract. Perhaps he would not be the world’s richest man, but he had to at least buy an apartment, otherwise he would be too embarrassed to say that he had been reborn.
Qin Guan’s next plan was to help his parents realize their dream in visiting to Beijing: to visit Tiananmen Square and to go to the busiest shopping street. Qin Guan had inherited his foodie attitude from his parents. After paying tribute to Chairman Mao with them, he took a cab to Hepingmen where Quanjude, the most famous roast duck restaurant, had its headquarters. At the time, Quanjude was such a household name that even little boys from small towns like Qin Guan’s yearned to eat there.
Qin Guan and his parents went to Quanjude and had a duck feast.
The duck there was carefully selected and smoked using special fruitwood. The senior chef skillfully handled the duck and put it in order.
There were pancakes, cucumbers, white onions and roast duck sauce. Qin Guan dipped the duck with the skin into the sauce and held it with a pancake. Adding some sliced onions and cucumbers, he wrapped the pancake up and ate it. He tasted the crisp duck skin, the tender meat and the sweet sauce. What a delicacy it was...
After having a full meal, Qin Guan and his parents moved on to their next stop, Wangfujing.
Wangfujing was home to several old, famous shops, but the goods there were not cost-effective. The shops aimed mainly at tourists.
Qin Guan tried to persuade his mom not to shop there, but he failed, so all he could do was join her in bargaining. Sales assistants in shopping malls were too difficult to deal with, unless one was a self-employed businessman, but Qin Guan decided to give it a shot anyway.
Wangfujing was like a zoo and Qin Guan’s bargaining made the owners gnash their teeth. In the end, his mom bought a lot of quality goods at low prices.
She could not stop buying things, and she did even more shopping later in the company of her husband and son.
When Qin Guan saw off his parents at the train station, he realized that they had bought a whole suitcase of souvenirs. Qin Guan’s parents felt both worried and relieved. They left Beijing by train as Qin Guan waved them goodbye.
The military training began on September 1st. After a running exercise in the sports stadium, Qin Guan woke up his five roommates, and together they went down to the dining hall to have breakfast.
His roommates were puzzled. They did not know why Qin Guan had woken them up so early to eat. Qin Guan pretended to be wise as he said, “You’ll thank me later.”
His roommates all gave him the finger and shrugged off his uprightness. After breakfast, they all went to their respective classrooms.
Together, Wang Lei and Qin Guan arrived at the classroom for Class 1 of the Accounting Major. As they walked, Wang Lei suddenly told Qin Guan, “Does that mean that we can’t eat during military training?” Qin Guan was impressed by Wang Lei’s IQ. He should not have underestimated the boy with the golden glasses.
Qin Wang nodded and replied, “No. But I guess it depends on whether we still have the strength or mood to satisfy our appetite by then.” Upon hearing that, Wang Lei pushed his glasses up and said, “I’ve got a lot of high-calorie food in my luggage.”
Once again, Qin Guan was impressed by Wang Lei. Feeling deep admiration, Qin Guan walked into the classroom with him.
Their classmates were already there. There were twenty three girls and seven boys in the class.
When the two boys sat down, Qin Guan found himself feeling like a giant among dwarfs. It made sense that the girls would outnumber the boys in an accounting class, but why did all the other boys look so thin and short?
Since the new school term had begun, Qin Guan had grown two centimeters and was now 183 centimeters tall. After exercising for half a term, his muscles had also started to get toned. He was no longer as skinny as he had used to be.
Now he had the proper body fat percentage and sufficient muscles that didn’t make him look too strong or too weak. Combined with his broad shoulders and slim waist, his figure formed a perfect inverted triangle, his narrow hips and long legs making him look like a star.
As he sat in the middle of the classroom, he was like a big lightbulb attracting everyone’s attention. It was not just the girls. The boys also had their eyes focused on him.
They were all gnashing their teeth. They had heard that many girls majored in Accounting, and that was why they had chosen the major themselves. Now that Qin Guan had showed up though, they felt like wolves approaching a flock of sheep, only to find a dragon among them. How could they get along with it? They’d have to set up a trap for it.
Qin Guan was feeling quite uncomfortable with everyone staring at him. Finally, their counselor walked into the classroom and did a roll call. Seeing that everyone in his class was present, he led them to the bus stop near the sports stadium.
The bus moved slowly out of the main entrance, heading for the military training area in the suburbs.
After arriving at the garrison military camp near the border, the counselor handed the troops over to the instructors in charge of the military training. The students were divided into girls and boys and taken away separately.
There were less than ten boys in the Department of Accounting, so the boys from two classes had to be grouped into one team.
The boys and girls were led to their dormitories by their instructors. The moment they put down their luggage, they were forced to go to the sports stadium. Before they could even take a break, their first-day training had begun. They had to remain standing.
Although it was September, there was still a spell of hot weather in Beijing at the beginning of autumn. As they were exposed to the scorching sun, everyone felt dizzy and sleepy.
When lunchtime came around, Wang Lei understood why Qin Guan had asked them to eat as much as possible in the morning. Being dizzy had made them thirsty and caused them to lose all appetite for food.
Qin Guan bought some food and stuffed it into his mouth desperately. He knew that if he ate nothing, he would be starving in the afternoon.
After a whole day’s training, the boys threw themselves onto their beds and started snoring loudly. The first day of their military training was over.
On the second day, their task was to learn how to make their beds. They had to make them as square as tofu. Anyone who failed to do so would be punished. They would get penalty points, but most importantly, they would have to do the cleaning while everyone else was taking a break. No one wanted to have to do that.
The third day’s task was official standing training. As the saying goes, the body is the capital of revolution. This was especially true for Qin Guan. While all the boys stood there awkwardly, he was standing straight like a tree. The instructor praised him and nominated him as the acting leader of the team.
By now, Qin Guan’s classmates had been convinced that there was more to him than just his good looks. He was standing there firmly under the scorching sun, a true role model for everyone.
Yet meanwhile, Qin Guan was thinking, “Will the lunch in the canteen still taste as bad? I haven’t washed my underwear in two days.” His mind was wandering aimlessly.
Almost all the instructors got used to inviting this muscular, handsome boy to demonstrate the standard military standing posture for their teams. Qin Guan was like a giant panda on an international show. He was asked by all the instructors to demonstrate the whole day.
Their next training was fierce military boxing. Once again, the instructor was surprised to find that Qin Guan had learned it quickly and could do it perfectly, given only a few instructions.
By a stroke of luck, Qin Guan’s extraordinary memory had helped him do military boxing as perfectly as he had remembered the exam answers. He found that with his amazing memory, he could replay his instructor’s boxing moves in his mind over and over again, so he was able to adjust his body and muscles accordingly. In the end, he could perfectly imitate the instructor’s every move. That was why Qin Guan had done so well in boxing without any difficulty.
The firearms training was the last task for the freshmen, suggesting that the military training was about to end. The army instructor went up to Qin Guan and had a friendly, in-depth conversation with him.
The instructor fully believed that Qin Guan could not achieve his full potential if he studied accounting, and he told him that he was welcome to join the army.
Hearing the man’s unreasonable suggestion, Qin Guan’s counselor replied calmly, “Only in the entertainment industry could Qin Guan achieve his real potential.”
The instructor was suddenly at a loss for words. He had been thoroughly discredited and felt deeply sorry for Qin Guan.
At the end of September, the students returned to the CUFE campus like a group of African refugees.
Qin Guan’s skin had not changed too much, except for a slight redness. All the girls were jealous of his fair skin, but they had finally accepted that there were some people that were just born beautiful.
Qin Guan had believed bronze to be the right skin color for a rough man, but the tanning results had proved him wrong. Where was his masculine appearance? His fair skin only made him look like a toy boy.
Qin Guan and his roommates went back to their dorm room. Their new textbooks and meal cards had been handed out, and they were now waiting for the National Day Holiday, knowing that their college life had officially begun.
Everyone got seven days off during the National Day Holiday. Being a Beijinger, Liu Xiaoyang was dragged back home by his mom after he failed to protest.
The hometowns of the other five boys were all too far away from Beijing. Seven days off was not enough time for them to enjoy a good holiday at home since they would have to spend half the holiday travelling.
Qin Guan had bought a used variable speed bicycle before the holiday. He rode the long way to Tsinghua University, hoping to surprise Cong Nianwei, only to find that she was still in the middle of her military training. Disappointed, he rode back to his own campus and got laughed at by his roommates.
Smart as Qin Guan was, when it came to his relationship, he acted like just as big of an idiot as everyone else.
However, depression seldom brought down Qin Guan, who was very careless and insensitive. The National Day Holiday was coming and he had a lot to do. He was not one to remain idle, so he began to put into action his moneymaking plan.