The key slid into the lock, and the door opened.
A gust of warm air, fragrant with the smell of cooking food, washed over them.
Chen Jianguo and Liu Xiuying stood at the entrance, feeling a bit awkward.
They looked down at their shoes, worried they might dirty the gleaming, polished floor tiles.
"Come in, come in! No need to change your shoes. We mop the floors three times a day, so it’s spotless."
Zhang Zhicheng rummaged through the shoe cabinet, pulled out two brand-new pairs of cotton slippers, and tossed them on the floor.
"Or you can change into these. They’re more comfortable."
The old couple changed into the slippers and took a few steps inside.
The room was bright. A large, south-facing balcony let in all the midday sun, which shone on a leather sofa and a wooden coffee table. The midday news was playing on the TV, its volume low.
What struck Liu Xiuying the most wasn’t the spacious furniture, but the constant stream of warmth rising from the soles of her feet.
She was only wearing a thin pair of socks inside the slippers, yet she could feel the warmth seeping up through her feet, chasing away the chill from being outside all morning.
The sliding door to the kitchen opened.
Zhang Zhicheng’s wife, Wang Li, walked out carrying a plate of freshly stir-fried green peppers and shredded pork.
She had an apron tied around her waist. Looking up, she saw the two people standing in the living room and froze for a moment before instantly realizing who they were.
"Oh! Isn’t this Brother Chen and Sister-in-law!"
Wang Li quickly placed the plate on the dining table, wiped her hands on her apron, and came over with a smile.
"I heard the door from the kitchen and thought that good-for-nothing Old Zhang had come back alone. Sit down, sit down! It’s warm in here, take your coats off."
Zhang Zhicheng chimed in with a laugh.
"Honey, go make a couple more substantial dishes. I need to break out a good bottle of liquor today. Brother Chen just bought the apartment across the hall. We’re going to be neighbors!"
When Wang Li heard this, her eyes lit up, and her voice jumped an octave.
"They bought the one across the hall? Oh, my! That’s wonderful news! No wonder Qiangzi said his left eye was twitching all morning when he left. It’s because you’re moving in!"
Wang Li stepped forward, warmly took Liu Xiuying by the arm, and guided her toward the sofa.
"Sister-in-law, have a seat. Don’t be a stranger. You definitely made the right choice buying this place. The property management in this complex is very responsible, with patrols 24/7. Grocery shopping is convenient, too. There’s a big farmers’ market just two streets away from the south gate."
Liu Xiuying sat on the soft leather sofa, listening to Wang Li’s cheerful, incessant chatter about daily life.
She secretly stroked the leather surface of the sofa and glanced around the toasty room, which was warm even without the air conditioning on.
Back in the bare shell of 601, she hadn’t really been able to form a concrete picture in her mind. She only knew the apartment was large and got good light.
But now, sitting in Zhang Zhicheng’s home, looking at the bright, finished decor and feeling the palpable warmth, a crystal-clear image suddenly formed in her mind.
’Once the apartment across the hall is renovated, when Xiaozhuo comes home for winter break, he won’t have to sit huddled in clothes in that damp, cold little room with a space heater to read. He’ll be able to walk around in a bright living room like this one, wearing just a single layer of clothing in the toasty warmth.’
Liu Xiuying suddenly felt that the 385,000 was worth every penny.
Even the unease that came with spending such a huge sum of money was baked away by the comforting warmth.
The lunch table was lively.
Wang Li went back to the kitchen and added a braised fish and a pot of pork rib soup to the spread. Zhang Zhicheng opened a bottle of baijiu and filled Chen Jianguo’s glass to the brim.
The two men clinked their glasses and chatted idly about the factory and their businesses.
Meanwhile, the two women huddled together to talk about renovations.
"Sister-in-law, how are you planning to decorate the apartment across the hall?"
Wang Li eagerly offered advice.
"When it’s time to lay the floor tiles, let me know. I know the owner of a building materials market and can get you the wholesale price. You’ll also want to install sturdy security bars on the windows..."
Liu Xiuying sipped her soup and nodded along, feeling an immense sense of security.
As they chatted casually, the time quickly passed, and soon it was one-thirty in the afternoon.
Zhang Zhicheng set down his glass and glanced at the wall clock.
"Brother Chen, it’s about time. The bank transfer should have been processed by now."
He stood up.
"Let’s go. We’ll head downstairs and go straight to the municipal ICBC branch. It’s just a stone’s throw away. We’ll check the account and then come back to handle the paperwork."
「2:10 PM.」
The downtown branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
The lobby was crowded, but Zhang Zhicheng led Chen Jianguo directly to the VIP counter on the side.
Chen Jianguo passed his passbook through the semicircular slot.
"Excuse me, could you check if a transfer came in for me this morning?"
The female teller behind the counter took the passbook and typed a few numbers on her keyboard.
"Chen Jianguo, is that right? Please wait a moment."
She opened the passbook and inserted it into the dot matrix printer beside her.
The printer immediately began to whir with a ZZZZZT sound.
Chen Jianguo was all too familiar with that sound.
In the past, every payday, a deposit of a few hundred yuan would be printed in his passbook. But today, the sound seemed to last a little longer than usual.
The teller pulled the passbook out and handed it back through the window.
"Sir, a cross-province, inter-bank transfer of 500,000 yuan arrived this morning. Your current account balance is 502,400 yuan."
Chen Jianguo took the passbook.
He opened it and glanced inside.
After the date, a string of numbers was neatly printed: +500,000.00.
Chen Jianguo stared at the zeros without a word, simply closing the passbook, slipping it back into its clear plastic sleeve, and putting it in his pocket.
He turned to Zhang Zhicheng and gave a slight nod.
"The money’s here."
「3:00 PM.」
The lobby of the Brocade Garden sales office.
The coffee table was covered with thick stacks of purchase contracts and payment forms.
The saleswoman placed two cups of hot water on the table, holding a black rollerball pen in her hand.
Chen Jianguo took a pair of reading glasses from his jacket pocket, put them on, and accepted the pen. Following the saleswoman’s instructions, he carefully wrote out his and Liu Xiuying’s names in every spot that required a signature.
He wrote slowly and deliberately.
After signing the last contract.
Chen Jianguo stood up, payment form in hand, and walked to the finance counter.
Zhang Zhicheng stood right beside him.
Chen Jianguo passed the passbook and the form through the slot.
"Paid in full. Three hundred eighty-five thousand."
The finance staff took the passbook and began the transaction on the computer.
Zhang Zhicheng’s gaze wasn’t on the computer screen, but on Chen Jianguo’s hands.
’Those were the hands of a standard, old-school skilled laborer.’
’The knuckles were thick, the skin on the back of his hands coarse, stained with a darkness that couldn’t be washed away.’
’Hands just like these had spent half a lifetime tightening screws in front of a machine lathe.’
’And now, they had casually handed over a passbook, paying for a top-of-the-line luxury flat in the city center.’
’Three hundred and eighty-five thousand.’
The finance department’s printer spat out a long transaction receipt.
Standing to the side, Zhang Zhicheng watched the receipt print. A string that had been pulled taut in his mind for over a decade suddenly went slack.
He thought back on his own life’s work.
He’d gone into business over a decade ago, sleeping in the aisle of a green-skinned train with a striped nylon bag for a pillow. To secure a supply channel, he had forced smiles at dinner tables, toasting with glasses of baijiu until he ended up in the hospital on an IV drip.
He had always believed that this was how wealth was made in the world: through blood and sweat, through alcohol, through groveling and scraping by.
But today, the Chen Family’s thirteen-year-old son was sitting in a university classroom hundreds of kilometers away.
He hadn’t wined and dined anyone, hadn’t begged or pleaded with every person he could find.
Just by using the knowledge in his head, by using his ability to write and calculate on paper.
The state had paid the money directly, delivering it neatly into his parents’ hands.
’The highest level of knowledge is a form of wealth that defies all logic.’
Zhang Zhicheng watched Chen Jianguo put away the passbook and receipt, and a sense of calm slowly settled over him.
He suddenly felt that all his old experience from hustling in the real world seemed crude in the face of such absolute brainpower.
’The world has changed.’
’From now on, it’s an era where you get by on real ability.’
’He, Zhang Zhicheng, had probably reached his peak in this life, but his son, Qiangzi, was lucky.’
’To be neighbors with someone who possessed true knowledge, to be best friends with him since childhood—that connection was more solid than any network he, Zhang Zhicheng, had built through schmoozing and entertaining.’
"Mr. Chen, all your paperwork is complete."
The finance staff handed over a manila envelope. Inside were the contract, the receipts, and a set of keys with the fresh gleam of brass.
"Congratulations on becoming a homeowner in Brocade Garden."
Chen Jianguo took the envelope and keys, turned to Zhang Zhicheng, and finally broke into a smile of complete relief.
"Old Zhang, I really can’t thank you enough for running around and helping with all this today. When the apartment is renovated and we move in, I’ll have Xiuying cook up some nice dishes, and we two old brothers can have a good drink together."
Zhang Zhicheng laughed heartily and clapped Chen Jianguo on the arm.
"Brother Chen, now you’re being a stranger! From now on, we’re real neighbors who’ll see each other all the time!"
「Early evening.」
The sky had already darkened, and the streetlights in the complex were flickering on one by one.
Brocade Garden, Building 3, Unit 2, Apartment 602.
The clear sound of a key turning in a lock echoed.
Zhang Qiang pushed open the security door, pulling off his backpack as he changed his shoes and casually hanging it on a hook in the entryway.
He had been playing half-court basketball on the school playground this afternoon. His school uniform jacket was slung over his shoulder, and a thin layer of sweat still beaded his forehead.
"Mom! What’s for dinner? I’m starving!"
Zhang Qiang shuffled into the apartment in his slippers.
He walked into the living room and stopped short.
Two tea sets were placed on the coffee table. Zhang Zhicheng was leaning back on the sofa, smoking, with the TV off.
"Dad? You’re home so early?"
Zhang Qiang walked over, grabbed an orange from the fruit bowl, and started peeling it.
Zhang Zhicheng flicked his cigarette ash into the ashtray and looked at his son.
"Qiangzi, come sit down."
Peeling his orange, Zhang Qiang sat down on the armchair.
"What’s up? I haven’t caused any trouble recently. I even passed my physics test."
"This isn’t about your test."
Zhang Zhicheng pointed toward the front door.
"Today, your Uncle Chen and Aunt Liu came over."
Zhang Qiang popped an orange slice into his mouth.
"Uncle Chen? To borrow the car?"
"To buy a house."
Zhang Qiang’s chewing slowed.
"Right outside."
Zhang Zhicheng looked at him, his voice low but clear.
"Across the hall from us. Apartment 601."
The living room was silent for two seconds.
Zhang Qiang swallowed the orange in his mouth and stared at his dad.
"Buying a house? The one across the hall?"
"That’s right. They just signed the contract this afternoon. Paid in full. They already have the keys."
Zhang Zhicheng smiled.
"From now on, when Xiaozhuo comes home from school on break, he’ll be living right across from you."
Sitting on the sofa, Zhang Qiang’s eyes gradually widened.
An extremely simple image flashed through his mind:
On a weekend morning, he would shuffle out his door in his slippers, walk two steps, and knock on the door opposite. The gentle Brother Zhuo would open it, and the two of them would sit in a spacious living room playing on the Famicom, or maybe tinker with the motor of his four-wheel-drive toy car.
He wouldn’t even have to leave the complex.
He wouldn’t even have to ride his bike.
"Holy shit!"
Zhang Qiang shot up from the sofa, the orange peel in his hand falling onto the coffee table.
"For real?! Dad, you’re not messing with me, are you? Uncle Chen really bought the apartment across the hall?!"
"Would I joke about something like this?"
Zhang Zhicheng leaned back.
"So you’d better behave yourself at home from now on. Your Brother Zhuo will be living right across the hall, keeping an eye on you every day."
Zhang Qiang didn’t hear the last part of the sentence at all.
He paced back and forth in the living room excitedly, rubbing his hands together.
"That’s awesome!! This is great!!"
Zhang Qiang shouted as he turned and headed for his bedroom.
"Dad, when are they starting the renovations? When you go to the building materials market to help Uncle Chen pick up supplies, take me with you! I’ll help Uncle Chen move stuff on the weekend! I might not be good for much else, but I can definitely carry a few boxes of tiles, no problem!"
Sitting on the sofa, Zhang Zhicheng watched his son’s retreating back. The boy looked like a carefree idiot, giddy with excitement.
The sound of Wang Li chopping vegetables and the faint roar of the range hood drifted from the kitchen.
Zhang Zhicheng didn’t scold his son for being so dramatic.
He gazed at the healthy Clivia plant on the coffee table, feeling an unprecedented sense of peace.
’This was the purest form of friendship between kids.’
’Just based on that burst of joy when Zhang Qiang jumped up, based on their bond as brothers who grew up together.’
Zhang Zhicheng felt that the Chen Family buying the apartment across the hall was truly a great thing for his own family as well.

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