50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 576 Breaking Up One Couple Is One Way

While Aunt Wang was struggling with how to introduce a potential partner to Sun Hongying, Sun Zhiwei had already inspected the two renovated courtyards.

After paying the final payment to Master Lu, Sun Zhiwei took a satisfied stroll around the two courtyards.

The basic structure of the houses in the courtyard has not been changed; only many modern facilities have been added to make living more convenient.

The room's lighting, insulation, and soundproofing have all been enhanced, and both cooling and heating have been considered. A garage has also been reserved at the main entrance.

As for sanitary facilities, these are already present in large courtyard houses.

Later generations always say that there were no toilets in the courtyard houses. That's because in the early days of the People's Republic of China, there was too much population and housing was in short supply, so most of the toilets in the courtyard houses were filled in and used as houses.

Later, in order to solve the problem of difficulty in finding toilets, many public toilets were built in areas with a lot of courtyard houses in various streets.

Both courtyards that Sun Zhiwei bought originally had toilets, so he simply modernized them on the original site, converting the dry toilets into squat toilets and septic tanks.

The house is renovated, but so many rooms require a lot of furniture. With Sun Hongying and Sun Aiguo's savings, they can't afford to furnish and install so many rooms.

Sun Zhiwei had naturally considered this issue as well. He figured he might as well go all the way, especially since it was his own son. He had already furnished most of the house with basic furniture.

He knew perfectly well that young people nowadays didn't like those old-fashioned, purplish-red furniture styles, so he naturally wouldn't want to embarrass himself.

Therefore, he asked Master Lu to furnish the house with modern furniture, the kind that people now often refer to as having 72 legs.

A double bed, wardrobe, coffee table, and sofa should be matched; a chest of drawers and a writing desk are luxurious and impressive; the more cabinets and bedside tables there are, the more opulent the furniture.

Sun Zhiwei didn't find these modern pieces of furniture particularly attractive, but because they were new, they were much more expensive than the older pieces.

If we wait another few decades, we'll have to look back, and by then the prices of Ming and Qing dynasty furniture will have skyrocketed to frightening levels.

Most of these pieces of furniture were purchased from outside sources. Only when there were no suitable pieces of furniture to fill the gaps would Master Lu's apprentices make a set of furniture to fit on the spot.

Finally, there are electrical appliances. There are so many of these that you can't buy them all outside; you can only buy them at the Friendship Store.

This year, Friendship Store opened a night market, specifically for Beijing residents to shop.

To avoid attracting attention, Sun Zhiwei gave Master Lu a batch of foreign exchange certificates and night market invitations, instructing him to have his son and apprentices go separately to the Friendship Store night market to purchase them.

We were busy like this until the end of the month before we finally finished all the arrangements.

On the weekend, he took Tong Jiajia and Sun Hongying by bicycle to the new courtyard house.

When they arrived at their destination, the two were stunned to see the two large courtyard houses. After entering the house and seeing the modern renovations, even Tong Jiajia felt a little envious.

"Dad, is this for me?" Sun Hongying stammered.

"Yes, you and your brother will each have a courtyard house. The one next to it is for your brother. The styles of the two houses are basically the same."

“A girl should have her own house to feel secure. If she is mistreated by her husband’s family in the future, she will have somewhere to go even if her parents are not at home.”

Sun Zhiwei felt a little sad as he spoke. His children were growing up and would have their own lives. He wouldn't be able to see them every day like he did when they were little. They would get married and have their own families, and maybe when they came back each week, they would still be thinking of taking some money from their parents' house to bring back to their own little home.

Thinking about this, he no longer had time to be sad; he just felt a little angry, wondering which brat would end up benefiting from his little cabbage.

In the days that followed, the mother and daughter focused their attention on the two new courtyards.

Sun Zhiwei has already bought all the major items for the yard, but when it's actually going to be occupied, he'll need to buy a lot of smaller things like pots, pans, and dishes.

Because the purchase and renovation of the yard did not use any of the family's money, Tong Jiajia still had tens of thousands of yuan in savings, so she didn't have to worry about money when furnishing her children's new homes.

During this time, Sun Hongying mainly took care of her own courtyard house, and every day she was like a little hamster, constantly bringing all sorts of small items from outside into her little home.

Since Sun Aiguo wasn't home, Tong Jiajia took over the more detailed arrangement of his courtyard.

The main task is to add some bedding and other items. More detailed work will have to wait for Sun Aiguo to come back and do it himself, or until he has a girlfriend and his future daughter-in-law can do it.

Sun Zhiwei then booked tickets to Hong Kong Island for March 5th. They needed to transfer in Hong Kong Island to fly to the United States, which was necessary for their disguised identities.

Since Hong Kong Island is Jiajiali Austin's hometown, it's normal for her and her husband to come here for Chinese New Year. They can only come to Beijing a few times for tourism purposes.

He planned to use James Robert's identity to invest in some projects in Beijing in a few years, so that he could travel directly between mainland China and the United States without having to hide his travel itinerary.

On the morning of the 7th, Sun Zhiwei took Tong Jiajia back to their home in Washington.

After that, the two spent more than half a month focusing on dealing with the various public and private matters that had accumulated over the past two months.

When they finally had some free time, it was already April, and the two set off together back to New York.

In the past few months, Magnificent Jewels has opened a branch in Los Angeles and a branch in San Francisco.

Because Theodore Ellis was becoming increasingly busy, he had to relinquish control of the flagship store in the Tribeca district.

After discussing it with Tong Jiajia for a long time, Sun Zhiwei finally invited Belinda McKinney from the appraisal shop to be the manager of the flagship store.

After all, Belinda had been with Sun Zhiwei for so long, and he knew him well; she was a trustworthy subordinate.

However, the appraisal shop doesn't have much of a future. By transferring her to New York as the store manager, she can learn about the jewelry industry while accumulating work experience, which will give her a chance to move into the company's senior management in the future.

Belinda McKinney eventually accepted Sun Zhiwei's invitation, and her mother, in order to support Belinda's career, also resigned and came to New York with her.

Naturally, her boyfriend of six months broke up with her. For the next few days after receiving the news, Sun Zhiwei was in a good mood.

Although he no longer had a chance, the feeling of having the woman beside him taken away still made him very unhappy. Now that he had vented his anger, he naturally felt much better.

Tong Jiajia saw this but didn't say much, letting him be.

Men are all the repressed type; who doesn't have fantasies? As long as he doesn't act on them, Tong Jiajia can let him indulge in his fantasies. She's not going to get jealous over that.

(End of this chapter)