In late November, Mi Gong called, saying he had assembled the framework of a renovation company and could now lead his renovation team to help everyone with their property handover.
Upon hearing this news, Liu Chen glanced at the lottery tickets in his system. There were one thousand one hundred and sixty tickets. Based on past experience, this batch would yield at least over a million yuan in cash.
Time slipped away amidst countless practice tests. When he looked up, the leaves of the plane trees lining the road had all fallen. At night, their bare branches stood by the roadside like a guard of honor with outstretched arms.
Busy with his studies, Liu Chen would occasionally glance up on his commute to and from school, then lower his head to catch up on sleep.
Mi Zhuzhu, having lost her deskmate, would sometimes turn her head to share the latest gossip with Lai Jielun, only to pause in realization that no one was there. She would then turn back, while Ren Mo occasionally poked at the empty seat in front of him with the cap of his pen, only to look up in confusion when he missed.
Liu Chen received a QQ message from Guo Da, stating that he had landed a big deal. Liu Chen's commission had already accumulated to eighty thousand yuan, and with another deal coming this month, he estimated another sixty thousand yuan in commission.
Guo Da also messaged to say he had secured a 92% discount on new properties from Dadi Group. He suggested to Liu Chen that it would be more cost-effective than buying a second-hand property and that Liu Chen could consider buying a new one while he had this discount.
Liu Chen thought about it and said he would fly to Beijing after his final exams to sign the contract.
If all went as planned, he would be admitted to Shuimu University in Beijing next year. She had too many secrets, and living in a dormitory wouldn't be safe. With over a million yuan in cash on hand, she had also set aside a hundred thousand yuan to buy some Bitcoin for her friends when it became available next year.
After drawing the lottery tickets, she should have over two million yuan in cash. Coupled with the discounted price of thirteen thousand yuan per square meter that Guo Da had quoted, with a little more, she could afford a 200-square-meter spacious apartment.
Buying a 200-square-meter spacious apartment in Beijing, the mere thought made her a little excited. Fewer and fewer Hupu netizens were checking in at "Sister Liu's Frozen Goods" now. Fortunately, the sales of their sausages were slowly picking up, with a combined daily shipment that could barely reach five hundred pieces.
The daily increase in lottery tickets also remained at fifty per day. Liu Chen planned to save them up and draw a batch before the final exams.
As she saved them up, one day on her way to school, she suddenly noticed that the shops along the road had started hanging colorful lights, and red and green "Merry Christmas" lettering was pasted on their glass doors.
The taxi driver, seeing Liu Chen's gaze out the window in the rearview mirror, chuckled and said, "They say Christmas is coming. You kids really like celebrating these Western festivals."
"Christmas?" Liu Chen looked at the colorful lights outside the window and then vaguely realized that Lai Jielun had been away for training for over a month.
On Christmas Day, Liu Chen sat in her classroom chair, yawning. She had stayed up late studying the previous night, and the sleepiness was quite evident this morning.
Mi Zhuzhu, on the other hand, seemed unusually excited today. As soon as Liu Chen sat down, she turned around, took two small red and green wrapped boxes from her schoolbag, and placed them on Liu Chen's and Ren Mo's desks.
Looking at the gifts on her desk, Liu Chen finally remembered that it was Christmas!
"Chenchen, open it quickly and see if you like the gift I gave you!"
Urged by Zhuzhu, Liu Chen guiltily started unwrapping the packaging.
After the wrapping paper was removed, a box was revealed inside. It was a crystal ball music box.
"Open it quickly, I specifically asked the shop owner to get it for me."
Carefully unwrapping the box, a crystal ball was revealed. Liu Chen froze when she saw the four children inside.
They looked so much like the four of them: herself, tall and slender with long black hair, and Mi Zhuzhu with curly hair, sitting around two boys warming themselves by a fire.
Liu Chen carefully placed the crystal ball back into its packaging and then into her desk drawer as the class bell rang.
At the same moment, a familiar voice came from the front of the classroom—
"Comrades! Merry Christmas~~~~ Old Sun is back~~~"
Hearing this, Liu Chen's head shot up towards the front door. She blinked, and there was Lai Jielun, appearing at the doorway of Class 3-6 just as the class bell rang.
Seeing Lai Jielun, the entire Class 3-6 erupted in excitement. They swarmed around him, bombarding him with questions about the art exam and his training.
"Class, class. I'll tell you all about it after class."
After finally breaking free from the crowd and returning to his seat, Lai Jielun's face turned green when he saw the neatly stacked pile of blank test papers on his desk.
When the teacher began reviewing the papers, Lai Jielun and Mi Zhuzhu shared one. At first, Lai Jielun could contain himself, but halfway through the review, as they started on the fill-in-the-blanks, he couldn't help but grumble.
"Mi Zhuzhu, you got this question wrong too? This is a freebie! How did you get such a high score on the last joint exam? You even got the first part of this application question wrong!"
Finally, Mi Zhuzhu couldn't stand it anymore and said, "If you say one more word, I'm moving this paper back to my own desk."
"No, no, don't! If you move it back, I'll have nothing to look at, won't that be awkward?"
The familiar bickering was back. Listening to the teacher's explanation, Liu Chen couldn't help but smile.
After class, as soon as the teacher walked out the door, students rushed to the second-to-last row to ask Lai Jielun about his recent life.
"Training was really tough, extremely tough. Because I didn't know anything, I had to learn a lot of basic stuff from scratch. Plus, time was very tight. The unified exam? Well, I did my best. If I don't pass, there's nothing I can do. Today is Christmas, I brought a tub of Dove chocolates, help yourselves."
After distributing the chocolates and the classmates left, satisfied with their gossip, Lai Jielun finally took out three boxes from his bag.
"I saw them at a gift shop downstairs from my training place. They seemed quite interesting."
Before he could finish speaking, Mi Zhuzhu had already violently ripped open a box and then burst out laughing.
"Hahaha!! Lai Jielun, you rascal! Were you following me!"
Lai Jielun was confused by her laughter. "Following you? What did I follow you for, Mi Zhuzhu?"
Seeing the familiar crystal ball in Mi Zhuzhu's hands, Liu Chen also fell silent. She quietly took out the gift box she had just put away from her drawer.
She opened it in front of Lai Jielun, revealing an identical crystal ball.
"Here, I just put away the gift Zhuzhu gave me before you came in."
Lai Jielun's eyes widened as he looked at the crystal ball in Liu Chen's hand, then at the one he had chosen in Mi Zhuzhu's hands.
"I have another one at home for you. I was planning to give it to you when you came back to class."
Upon hearing this, the four of them looked at each other, at the two identical crystal balls placed on the table, and couldn't help but burst into laughter.