Entertainment Era: Starting with Teaching Sister Meng to Sing

"Xiao Zhou, what are you saying? Even if we don't sell houses in the city, our family's savings aren't enough to buy one."

Upon hearing this, the aunt-in-law stopped arguing with her brother-in-law and spoke up directly at the dinner table.

Wang Xiaozhou looked like he didn't understand: "Didn't it sell? It was for 50,000 yuan. Even in the city, your tenement building wouldn't sell for 50,000 yuan, right?"

"No, no," the uncle quickly interrupted, "Your aunt means that we need to sell the apartment building we're living in now, and even with the money we have, we'll still be 150,000 short of buying a house."

"That's not right."

Wang Xiaozhou counted on his fingers and did the math for everyone: "A tenement building can be sold for 50,000 yuan. If we lend you another 150,000 yuan, that's 200,000 yuan. Uncle, you guys need at least 200,000 yuan on hand before you dare to buy a house. That adds up to 400,000 yuan."

My goodness, I've never seen so much money in my life! Uncle, why did you buy such an expensive house? Why not just buy a two-bedroom apartment like my other uncle's?

Upon hearing this, the eldest uncle nodded and said, "There are only three people in your family. Why borrow money to buy such an expensive house? You don't have to pay it back after borrowing it. Just do what you can afford and buy one around 200,000 yuan."

He wasn't saying anything fair, nor was he speaking for his uncle's family; he was just worried that his relatives' houses were all bigger than his, making him lose face.

The younger uncle retorted almost without hesitation, "Why buy an expensive house? We originally wanted to buy a house worth around 200,000 yuan."

Upon hearing this, Wang Xiaozhou chuckled disdainfully. With an IQ like that, he still wants to cheat people? What a useless coward who bullies his own kind.

"Uncle, you don't actually have a single penny in your pocket and you're thinking of buying a house? So, if your family buys a 200,000 yuan house, my family will have to pay for most of it?"

Wang Xiaozhou asked a question, while observing his mother's expression. When he saw her pupils suddenly contract when she heard that the two of them dared to borrow 150,000 yuan to buy a house when they had no money, Wang Xiaozhou knew that he had passed his mother's test.

"That's not entirely true."

After glaring at her brother-in-law, the aunt-in-law spoke up, saying, "We've invested all the money we've earned in the past few years in gold, but it hasn't appreciated much. If we take it out, we'll lose money on transaction fees. So we were thinking of borrowing some money to buy a house."

"Yes, yes, yes."

My uncle immediately nodded in agreement: "That's exactly what I meant."

"I see." Wang Xiaozhou nodded and looked at his father, asking, "Dad, how much money do we have left? Let's lend it to my uncle."

Wang Jianguo looked troubled: "Our family can't scrape together 150,000 yuan. Your mother and I have less than 50,000 yuan in our savings accounts combined."

"fine."

Wang Xiaozhou waved his hand dismissively: "Let's go to the bank tomorrow and ask how much we can borrow for this house. We're all relatives. It wasn't easy for my uncle to ask for 150,000 yuan. We should at least chip in. Dad, you won't be reluctant, will you?"

The eldest uncle and youngest aunt listened from the side and nodded repeatedly, praising Xiaozhou for his kindness and righteousness in recognizing his relatives!

Wang Jianguo felt uncomfortable, but men are always concerned about their image, especially middle-aged men, so he could only nod and say, "Okay, I'll ask about it tomorrow."

Upon hearing this, Ma Xiaoping objected, glaring fiercely at Wang Jianguo: "What do you mean, 'okay'? How are you going to pay it back? The little money you earn from farming in a year isn't enough to support me and our son, is it? You think you're so capable?!"

Wang Jianguo looked aggrieved. "It wasn't me who wanted to take out a bank loan!"

After scolding Wang Jianguo, Ma Xiaoping put on a smiling face and said to her younger brother and sister-in-law, "Xiaocui, I'm really sorry, we're short on money right now. We bought a car and a house this year, and Xiaozhou has already spent all the money he earned. He has to take the college entrance exam next year, and we still need to save the tens of thousands of yuan we have for him. Why don't you ask someone else for more money?"

The uncle didn't speak, but the aunt said, "Sigh, these days, who can lend us more than 100,000 yuan except relatives? We really had no other choice but to ask you."

Wang Xiaozhou waved his hand generously: "Borrow! Loan! It's okay, Mom. I'll work myself to death next year to pay off the loan!"

Ma Xiaoping glared at him fiercely: "What are you going to say?! Shut your mouth!"

Wang Xiaozhou didn't shut up, but he also stopped mentioning the bank loan. Instead, he turned his attention to his uncle: "Hey, how about we do what you said and have my uncle borrow from someone else? Hey, my uncle has been doing pretty well these past few years. One of his coats costs over ten thousand yuan. It would be no problem for him to lend my uncle some money."

Given his previous behavior, no one thought Wang Xiaozhou was being sarcastic; they simply assumed he was genuinely trying to find a solution for his uncle without thinking.

Upon hearing this, the younger uncle looked at his older brother with hope in his eyes: "Will it work, brother?"

Ma Xiaoguang's expression froze. He was torn between agreeing and disagreeing. If he agreed, he would have to pay money; if he didn't, he would lose all face as the head of the family.

Fortunately, he had a quick wit and, in a seemingly old-fashioned manner, lectured his younger brother: "Do what you can. What kind of talk is it to borrow money to buy a house? Don't you and Xiaocui have savings? Sell them when the gold price is about right, and buy the house with your own money."

"If you don't have money, just say so. Don't pretend to be a big shot."

Ma Xiaoli muttered something, and Ma Xiaoguang immediately exploded upon hearing it: "What did you say? You useless piece of trash, how many years have you been living in the city, and you're still living in a dilapidated tenement building? Who are you saying is poor?"

"I'm talking to you!"

The younger uncle chimed in again, and just as the two uncles were about to start arguing, Wang Xiaozhou got involved once more.

"Uncles, stop arguing. It's just buying a house, what's the big deal? Like my aunt just said, only relatives can lend such a large sum of money. Let my aunt go back to her parents' house to borrow some, it's not like she won't pay it back."

"That definitely won't work!"

My aunt refused decisively.

The younger uncle, no longer bothering to argue with the older uncle, immediately questioned, "Why not? You can borrow money from my family, but not from yours? Do you even want to live a normal life?"

Auntie scoffed, "Borrow money from your family? Did you manage to borrow any?"

"It's understandable that the second sister's family is short of money after buying a car and a house, but what about your eldest brother? He acts like an elder, but in the end, he doesn't take a single penny. All he's good for is showing off."

"Who the hell are you talking about?!"

The eldest uncle was furious: "Xiao Cui, I've tolerated you all day! What are you doing, acting like a spoiled brat in front of us as our sister-in-law? How many times have you cursed at us today? Who spoiled you with this bad habit?!"

The younger brother immediately retorted, "Who are you calling a jerk? My wife has no right to speak, who do you think you are!"

Okay, things got really lively now. The two groups were arguing heatedly, and it looked like they were about to come to blows. Wang Xiaozhou quickly pulled his parents into the room and then asked his mother in front of his father.

"My uncle came here just to rip us off, Mom, you can see that now, right?"

Ma Xiaoping hesitated for a moment, then nodded sadly.

So Wang Xiaozhou put his index finger to his lips and, under his father's mischievous gaze, said, "Then let's just hide inside. I bet we'll have to go to the hospital later."