Damn it, I drank too much. I clearly remember pretending.
Baozi's true colors were revealed; she secretly pinched me and said, "You're not just teasing me, are you?"
Then I finally found the key, opened the door, and threw the steamed bun inside.
Baozi covered her mouth in surprise. Across from us was our wedding photo, and next to it was the property certificate—I know this would absolutely ruin the aesthetic in a movie, but to put Baozi at ease, I thought it was a kind of romance in itself.
Sure enough, Baozi rushed straight for the property certificate. When she saw the name on it, she cheered and jumped into my arms. I spun her around twice, then put her down and said, "Come on, I'll show you around. I'm sure you'll love our home theater and the little balcony."
"Huh?" Baozi exclaimed in surprise as she looked at the small children's playground in a corner.
I specifically asked Li Yun to buy that. I remember once when we were out shopping, Baozi (a type of steamed bun) became very interested in this, so I bought it; it doesn't take up much space anyway.
Baozi slowly walked over, looking a bit dumbfounded. I put my hand on her shoulder and said, "Hey, you weren't just saying that, were you? You don't actually like it? They won't take it back."
Baozi suddenly hugged me tightly again, and I quickly felt my chest get wet; she was crying.
Giving a woman a big house might win her favor, but remembering every word she says and putting it into action goes beyond mere liking. Baozi snuggled up to me, staring at the bunch of small dry swimming pools and slides for quite a while.
I said, "You can play now, and when we have children in the future, you can play with them..." As I spoke, I whispered in Baozi's ear, "Speaking of children, shouldn't we start working on it? Let me show you our bed..."
Baozi pinched the flesh on my waist hard.
So she leaned on my shoulder and I showed her around all the rooms. This villa had once hosted the injured Zhang Shun, Qin Hui, and Lord Su, so after they left, I not only had it thoroughly cleaned but also replaced some of the furniture. Now it's not only brand new but also feels lively. The first floor consists of three bedrooms, a storage room, and a dining room. The second floor has four bedrooms, which can be used as a study, gym, or game room. The small rooftop balcony is about the size of a basketball court. As Bai Lianhua said, when my son grows up, I can play basketball with him here, but I haven't decided what to use it for yet.
Baozi watched with great excitement, but she remained completely silent, a behavior she only exhibited when she was exceptionally happy.
Finally, we returned to our bedroom, and I told her with ulterior motives, "This one has the best soundproofing!"
Baozi sat cross-legged on the bed, wiggled his bottom, and said, "Now tell me, how did all this happen—how many years do we have to pay off the loan?"
I chuckled and said, "Haven't you realized yet? Your man is a rich man now." I sat down next to her and said, "This is all a surprise for you. The biggest surprise is: your husband is not only not in debt, but it seems he's also a multi-millionaire."
Baozi opened his eyes and asked, "How did you do that?"
What are you talking about? What do you mean by "how did you do it?"
I put my arm around her and said, "The story has to start from the beginning..." But where to begin? I wasn't planning on telling her about entertaining clients, so putting that aside, how did I make my first fortune? The Wind Listening Bottle? The bar? I organized my thoughts and told her this: Someone had a Wind Listening Bottle worth 2 million, which broke and was thrown away as trash. I happened to recognize its value and picked it up. I also happened to have a friend who knew how to repair porcelain, so I fixed it, sold it, and used the money to open a bar. Then another friend of mine happened to know a brewing method, so I introduced his wine to the bar to sell—it was the hottest-selling Five-Star Gin. Finally, I put the Five-Star Gin on the production line, and thus, a brand new millionaire was born...
Only after doing the math did I realize that, in reality, I hadn't contributed anything at all. Of course, the real start-up capital was the 5 million yuan to save Jin Shaoyan, but the Listening Wind Bottle and Five-Star Gin also really helped a lot. Saving Jin Shaoyan didn't require much skill, to say the least. Li Shishi was the one who looked after the bottle for me, which is how it escaped Boss Hao's sight. After it broke, Jin Dajian helped repair it. As for the wine, needless to say, I did get a helping hand from He Tiandou because of the duel with the Four Heavenly Kings. I stumbled around like a headless fly and carved out my own path to where I am today. Was it easy for me? Well—actually, it was quite easy. I'm just saying.
Fortunately, the story I made up to fool Baozi was very well-structured, and I described the details vividly enough to convince a woman of Baozi's intelligence that she was rich.
Baozi listened with a startled expression. At times, her face lit up with excitement, but finally she discovered a fatal flaw: "Wait a minute, you're so rich now, why haven't any of those friends who helped you shown up?"
How kind! This is true kindness! "Don't forget your roots if you become rich and powerful"—do most women have this kind of mindset? But Baozi's suspicion is right; she's naive, but not stupid. Modern people rack their brains to scheme against others for money; who would willingly do all the work for someone else's benefit? Take that 2 million yuan bottle repaired, for example—at least half should be given to the person who did the repair, right? And the wine—the other party provided the formula, I provided the equipment; at least a share of the dry wine should be given, right? But these most basic business principles don't apply to my clients. What do you think Jin Dajian and Du Xing need the money for?
I could only reply perfunctorily, "They all have money now, and they even came today. I just didn't have time to introduce them to you."
Baozi looked at me with a skeptical expression. Just then, the wedding party people arrived. They had given Baozi and me some time, and now they were finally coming after us.
When the doorbell rang, Baozi just stared at me blankly. I patted her bottom and said, "What are you looking at? Go open the door! You're the lady of the house now."
As soon as we got downstairs, we heard Fang Zhenjiang shouting, "Open the door quickly! What are you dawdling about?" Tong Yuan whispered, "Are they making out?"
Baozi opened the door, her face flushed, and everyone stared at us with smiles. Among those who came were some of the heroes, Jin Shaoyan and Tiger, as well as Erpang and his group.
As soon as Tong Yuan entered, she exclaimed, "Wow, what a beautiful house!" Then she pulled Fang Zhenjiang aside and said, "When are we going to buy one too? It doesn't have to be a villa, just a one-story house like this will do."
I laughed and said, "It'll be soon. They're building staff duplexes outside the school, not much smaller than this. Everyone will get one."
Tong Yuan and Xiu Xiu exclaimed in surprise, "Really?"
"Of course it's true."
Anyway, we have plenty of land now, and the money to build a few small two-story buildings is just a drop in the ocean compared to the construction of Yucai. Although the heroes don't need it, the four Heavenly Kings who stayed behind and Fang Zhenjiang and Hua Rong are national treasures, so it's only right to give them some benefits.
I pulled Xiuxiu aside and asked, "Where's Mao Sui?"
Hua Rong interjected, "Don't even mention it. That guy is such a chatterbox. Even though he's new here and doesn't know anything, he still manages to leave people speechless. I don't know who dragged him off to drink, but he's definitely not going to get away with this."
Wu Yong waved his hand and said, "That's not just idle talk; every word he said hit the nail on the head. Back then, he persuaded the King of Chu to send troops to rescue Zhao with just a few words. Was that just ordinary boasting?" As he spoke, Wu Yong had someone bring over two large boxes. "These are the gifts we received today, and the names are all in them."
When I saw Jiang Menshen arrive, I waved to him and said, "Brother, come here."
"What's up?"
I said, "I'm definitely going to reimburse you for the meal this time. I didn't expect so many people to come, I didn't mean to make you feel like you're back in the 70s."
Jiang Menshen laughed and said, "Brother Qiang, you're being too polite. How much does a meal cost?"
I said, "Stop arguing. I know it's not just about a few dollars. More than 2,000 people are eating and drinking to their hearts' content, and every table is set up for the highest standard. This meal must have cost at least several hundred thousand dollars."
Wu Sangui said, "Let's not talk about money among ourselves. I see there's still half of the wine left. Why don't we just keep it and sell it to Xiao Jiang?"
I asked Wu Yong, "How much wine did we drink today?"
Wu Yong said, "Ten tons were taken away, and more than five tons were consumed."
I:"……"
Du Xing's original suggestion was completely unfeasible. He dug up a few dozen jars of fine wine from the ground, but that amount was just enough for each of the Liangshan men to drink until their faces turned red. So in the end, they just brought 10 tons of Five-Star Juniper directly from the distillery's production line, which cost several hundred thousand.
Jiang Menshen said, "Then let's leave it at that. I'll keep the wine, but don't mention the money."
I pointed to the two large suitcases and said, "What I mean is, take a few more stacks with you."
Everyone laughed: "Xiao Qiang is really rich and powerful now."