The new year arrived, and both Ge'er and Tiantian turned twenty-six.
Their two older brothers were already married with children, and the two girls were no longer little kids. Zhan Bei Jue and Jiang Nan Fang had no more excuses to keep them by their side and could only agree to let them move out.
The two girls were quite happy.
This was because they had never been away from their parents' side since they were young.
Although the family atmosphere was good, and their parents doted on them immensely.
Their overprotectiveness, always fearing they would fall into reckless relationships or get hurt, had led them to insist on keeping them close, which was something they disliked.
The two had protested many times. Zhan Bei Jue had promised them freedom after their two older brothers got married, and now, they finally had it!
Tiantian, like a bird released from its cage, did the first thing that night: she invited her best friend Zhu Wushuang over for drinks.
Wu Shuang was her high school classmate, refined in appearance, with a quiet demeanor and excellent academic performance.
Her family background wasn't well-off, yet she had managed to get into the top affiliated high school of Nanda University solely on her own merit.
By chance, she became Tiantian's deskmate in their second year of high school, and they had been close friends ever since.
The two girls had applied to the same university, chosen the same major, and had maintained their friendship harmoniously until now.
Both girls were very excited. Having never been to a bar before, they bought two bottles of baijiu from the supermarket, ordered a pile of barbecue they rarely ate, and chatted while eating, envisioning their wonderful future lives.
Tiantian, of course, with her status as Miss Zhan, would never have to worry about food and drink for a lifetime, even without working hard.
But Wu Shuang had a much tougher time.
After graduation, she couldn't find a job in her field and was now working as a copywriter at an advertising company from home.
After three years of hard work, she had saved over a hundred thousand yuan. Her parents added another hundred thousand, and she bought a small apartment of over 70 square meters outside the Fourth Ring Road, which she was paying off with a mortgage.
The apartment had been hers for over five months, but the renovation had been progressing slowly.
As they chatted, they touched upon the topic of renovation.
Tiantian said, "I heard you were renovating last year. I thought you'd be able to move in by the end of the year, but now you're telling me the plumbing and electrical work aren't even done? What's going on?"
"You didn't find some unreliable renovation team just to save money, working on and off?"
Speaking of this, Wu Shuang also felt a headache.
After paying the down payment, she only had over three thousand yuan left. She also had rent, living expenses, and commuting costs, leaving her with no money for renovations.
But she wanted to move in sooner, so she had found a small renovation company to save money.
Although it was slightly more formal than the renovation teams by the roadside, the progress was truly dismal.
One moment they'd say there was a problem here, the next moment a problem there, and then they'd mention the holiday break at the end of the year.
Passing the buck, when she checked before the year-end holiday, it was still stuck at the plumbing and electrical stage.
As a single woman with a soft personality, she had no other recourse but to verbally urge them on and could only pour out her troubles to Tiantian.
Tiantian listened, feeling indignant, and told her she would go with her tomorrow to take a look.
"You! You're just too easy to talk to! In this day and age, who wouldn't want to take advantage of a soft target? If you don't want to be bullied, you have to be strong first!"
"You refused to join our real estate company when I asked you to, and you refused to buy a house from our company. You insisted on talking about integrity, and now look, you've been swindled!"
Wu Shuang felt a bit embarrassed. "Your family's real estate developments are all for high-end clients. Even if I worked until I was a hundred, I wouldn't be able to pay off the mortgage. It's not that I don't want to buy, but even with a fifty percent discount, I still couldn't afford it."
"Besides, we're best friends, we shouldn't always talk about money, it hurts our feelings. I don't want to take advantage of you all the time."
Tiantian understood her. She had the integrity of a scholar, very proud.
Usually, if she gave her a birthday gift that was a bit expensive, Wu Shuang would find a way to return it. Let alone giving her a house.
That would be the death of her.
"Alright, alright, you don't want to take advantage of me, you have your integrity. Then I'll go take a look tomorrow and use my professional identity to speak a few words for you, is that okay?"
Wu Shuang smiled. "That's exactly why I came today. Hehe, thank you, Tiantian."
That night, the two girls were slightly tipsy, and Wu Shuang stayed at her place. The two girls chatted for half the night, and the next day they slept until they woke up naturally and drove to the neighborhood where she had bought the apartment.
The renovation company had just resumed work yesterday, and they were already there at this hour.
As the two got out of the car and reached the bottom of the building, they ran into a familiar property management staff member.
Wu Shuang spoke a few words with the person. Unexpectedly, a piece of wall plaster suddenly fell from upstairs, grazing her shoulder before hitting the ground and shattering into pieces, nearly scaring her to death.
The property management staff member quickly pulled Wu Shuang to the side and looked up at the building.
A head poked out from a room upstairs, also looking out.
The property manager yelled up at the building, "How are you working? Don't you know to be careful? At such a high floor, if you let wall plaster fall and hit someone, can you afford the responsibility? Let me tell you..."
The head then retracted.
Wu Shuang looked closely. Wasn't that window her own apartment's?
"What a lousy renovation company, this is too unreliable!"
Tiantian, who had a bad impression of the renovation company from the start, pulled Wu Shuang and went upstairs with determination.
Upon reaching the floor, the door was not closed. Inside, loud music was playing from a phone, accompanied by the crashing sound of wall demolition, making it extremely noisy.
The two entered and searched half the room before finding two men working in the master bedroom.
One man was thin and small, wearing a mask and busy on the ground.
One man was quite tall, also wearing a mask, and was facing away from them, swinging a hammer.
It seemed the recent incident was caused by him.
Tiantian walked in without a word, "Turn off the music! Stop, stop, stop! You two, come here!"
Her voice was loud and commanding.
Hearing this, the two men exchanged glances. The shorter one walked over and turned off the music, then returned to the taller man's side.
The room fell silent, and both men looked at her.
Tiantian said, "Are you two from the renovation company? What are you doing here?"
The shorter man didn't speak, glancing at the taller man again.
The taller man was covered in dust, his original hair color almost indistinguishable.
He wore a deep gray coverall, a mask, and his features couldn't be seen.
He looked Tiantian up and down. "You ask me what I'm doing."
His voice was very young, but his tone was unfriendly.
Tiantian's anger flared up even more. "If I knew what you were doing, would I need to ask you?"
"I am the owner of this apartment. What's wrong with asking you a few questions about the work progress? What kind of attitude is that?"
Hearing this, the taller man leaned his hammer against the wall, took off his gloves, lowered his head, and patted the dust off his hair.
With an extremely casual posture, he gestured with his chin towards Wu Shuang.
"Miss Zhu, you sold the apartment right after getting it? Why the change of ownership?"
Wu Shuang had dealt with them a few times before, so they knew each other's names.
Seeing him say this, she introduced them to each other.