Before Black Monday happened, Zhao Hanyu and Mi Xiaoran were actually living quite well this year.
First in May of this year, Mi Xiaoran successfully obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration from Queens College of the City University of New York, successfully realizing her long-cherished wish to complete college.
With the arrival of summer, Mi Xiaoran successfully gave birth to a healthy boy in the hospital.
Zhao Hanyu’s father named his grandson Zhao Enxia, and the English name was given by Mi Xiaoran, called Tim.
At the same time, Zhao Hanyu has also achieved good results in his career.
As the U.S. stock market has been on a bullish streak in recent years, as a member of a financial services company, Zhao Hanyu's business has grown by leaps and bounds.
Salaries and bonuses have also been nearly doubled.
The boss of the company has already talked with him. In addition to congratulating him on having his own child, the most important thing is to decide to increase his salary to 3,800 US dollars.
And he also said that if his performance can maintain the current growth rate in the second half of the year, and he can also satisfy his old customers and maintain the good reviews of his current customers, his boss will even consider promoting him. , making him the head of the department team.
It can be said that all of this is as beautiful as poetry.
In the more than half a year since they returned from visiting relatives in Beijing, Zhao Hanyu and Mi Xiaoran have spent the most comfortable and beautiful time in their married life, which may even be better than when they first got married.
Because even though Mi Xiaoran gave birth in the United States and had no one to take care of her during the confinement period, she still had to take care of the child and take care of the housework, and she was busy from morning to night.
But the young couple have a good relationship, and with Zhao Hanyu's current income, it is not a problem to support their family of three.
Up to now, they are truly independent in life. Even financially, they do not need financial support from the Zhao family, and Mi Xiaoran no longer has to work odd jobs to make money.
In this way, Mi Xiaoran felt free both mentally and materially.
You know, because the Zhao family is busy with the restaurant business, they don't even need to celebrate American holidays together.
In the past six months, except for the traditional Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and the day after Mi Xiaoran gave birth, she had not met the Zhao family.
Think about it, you don’t have to look at the faces of your parents-in-law and brother-in-law, and you can live your own life in silence.
Furthermore, because she gave birth to a boy for her first child, she became a man of merit for the Zhao family. Her mother-in-law smiled and took the initiative to give her a big red envelope of two thousand dollars.
What else can Mi Xiaoran care about at this time?
After being discharged from the hospital, of course, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to his own small family. He was mainly responsible for the housework and expenses at home every day.
Having already obtained her driver's license, she even used the money given by her mother-in-law and some of her family's savings to buy herself a second-hand Toyota Corolla. Now she can even travel freely without having to Take the bus, take the subway, or wait for your husband’s car.
In this way, she occasionally had time in the afternoon, and she had the mood and time to push the stroller around the streets, such as the bustling Fifth Avenue.
She would slowly admire the shop windows, looking at the things that she had deliberately turned a blind eye out of guilt in the past.
Sometimes I go to a maternity and baby store to buy some daily necessities and small clothes for my baby.
On weekends, their family of three usually goes to New York's Central Park for a stroll or to the New York Aquarium, and then eats together in a restaurant outside.
No matter where they go, there seems to be people around them who would cast friendly eyes on the middle class.
At the end of August, Zhao Hanyu even planned a long-distance trip.
He plans to apply for annual leave and take his wife and children to the beach in Florida for vacation.
But Mi Xiaoran considered that the child was too young and the sun at the beach was too hot, so he refused without hesitation, and ultimately failed to make the trip.
This incident made Zhao Hanyu feel quite guilty, feeling that he had not thought carefully.
For this reason, he repeatedly promised Mi Xiaoran that when the children were older, he would take them on vacation abroad, to Vienna, Munich, Greece... He was just like a child who had done something wrong.
And three days later, Zhao Hanyu came up with a brand new plan to make up for it.
He actually proposed to Mi Xiaoran to buy a house that belonged to them so that she and her children could live a more comfortable life.
Needless to say, this idea completely shocked Mi Xiaoran.
"Buy a house?"
"Yes, buy a house."
"Are you crazy? This is New York. Even in the suburbs, a house costs at least hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where do we have it?" So much money?”
“I’m not crazy. To buy a house in the United States, the down payment for a loan only requires 5%, and we have about 20,000 yuan in savings now. That is to say, we can definitely afford to buy a house worth 400,000 US dollars. I have inquired, the down payment is less than 20%, and we only need to spend a small amount of money to buy loan insurance and pay the mortgage every month.”
"But, if this is the case, we will not have a penny of savings in our hands. How will we live?"
"You don't have to worry about this, you still have a credit card. And if you buy a house, you don't need to pay rent. Besides, bank interest rates are low now, and my income has increased, and I can fully afford the mortgage interest. Don't worry, my income It will get higher and higher. When I get promoted at the end of the year, we can pay back the principal in advance and it won’t affect our lives.”
“But, I still think it’s too early. Right? There is a news program on TV that says that everyone under the age of thirty-five, at least Half of the people don’t have their own houses yet. I’m used to living here. Isn’t it nice here?”
“NONONO, let me tell you, others are others, we are not here. Well, it's really not good at all. Our current small apartment only has two rooms, and the air in the city is terrible. If we don't have children, we can just make do with it. Originally, you didn't know how to drive, so I rented the city. Apartments in the center were just for convenience but not anymore, you. We have our own car, and we have children. Do you really want our children to grow up breathing this kind of air? Or, let us move to a quiet and spacious place with a lawn, a yard and a basement. In a building where we can not only place a swing for our children, but also keep a dog, how about it? Can you imagine the scene of our family of three playing with our children in the yard on weekends? That is called life... ..."
"Oh, Hanyu, you Don't tempt me anymore. The scene you described is indeed beautiful, but we have to face it. It's too strenuous for our current economic situation. You only have more than 20,000 yuan in cash. Buying your own house? Are you confused? So idealistic, no matter how you think about it, you won’t be satisfied. We are still young, let’s settle down for a while.”
After all, although Mi Xiaoran appreciates Zhao Hanyu’s romance, he comes from a poor family. She doesn't dare to have too high demands on life.
So even she thought the scene Zhao Hanyu described to her was beautiful, but after thinking about it, she finally decided to play it safe.
However, Zhao Hanyu does not give up so easily. After all, he is an American and has long been accustomed to a life of consuming first and paying later, not to mention that he has his own reasons.
“Dear, this is America, and this is how everyone lives. People here are ahead of the times and full of adventurous spirit. Everyone spends money today, so this country can develop. So fast. Otherwise, if we are like your country, we have to save enough money to buy anything, and we will never have our own house in our lifetime, okay? ”
< br>"Also, we have a real need to buy a house. You may not know that there are many good universities in the United States. There is no requirement for nearby universities to enroll, and parents must respect their children's ideas after they become independent. So which university to attend is usually a matter of It’s the child’s own choice. But primary school and middle school are different. They all enroll nearby. So in order for our children to get a better education, we have to buy a house near these schools as soon as possible, otherwise we will really have to wait for our children. My son is going to school, and we can’t find a suitable house at the moment, so we’ll just have to worry about it when the time comes.”
“Besides, don’t be too fussy about money. You see, the rent in the city center is so expensive. The monthly rent for such a small apartment is 1,200 yuan. We bought our own house, and the money saved can be used to pay the mortgage. And I have researched that in New York in recent years. Housing prices have been rising, so why don’t we buy a house? But it can be lived in, and it is also an investment, and it will appreciate in value. The house cannot escape, and the land cannot escape. It will always be a stable thing, which is more cost-effective than depositing money in the bank to earn interest. ? Only fools do that. Investing in stocks is not a joke. Buying the wrong stock is not a joke. If we need money that day, we can just resell it and we won’t lose much. It’s good and you can make money.”
Zhao Hanyu's analysis was reasonable and well-founded. It not only explained the cultural differences, but also dispelled Mi Xiaoran's anxiety about economic pressure.
In any case, Zhao Hanyu's work is related to finance. In Mi Xiaoran's heart, her husband is considered a semi-professional, and his opinions are still worthy of reference.
The key is that he also talks about the education of his children.
Is there any parent in the world who doesn’t think about their children?
Mi Xiaoran, who has never been to a key school since he was a child, certainly does not want his children to go to an ordinary elementary school like he did when he was a child.
To be honest, the reason for the optical zone room was enough to impress her.
So she agreed to Zhao Hanyu's idea without saying a word.
Next, they started the process of house selection and viewing. It should be said that this process was quite enjoyable.
Nearly all self-owned houses in the United States are detached houses or townhouses. Most of them are scattered in small towns and suburbs outside of big cities, with beautiful scenery.
Especially in communities where the middle class lives together, infrastructure such as police stations, supermarkets, gas stations, hospitals, and restaurants are relatively convenient and only take about ten minutes to drive.
Moreover, new houses in the United States are all ready-made houses with carpets inside, painted walls, and complete equipment such as refrigerators, ovens, and water heaters. Apart from being a little far from the city, these houses have almost no flaws.
For Mi Xiaoran, holding her child and driving together with her husband to view houses is like a journey to inspect the beautiful life in the future.
In the words of those real estate agents, their future family life can only be better, not the best.
In this way, they couldn't help but fall in love, and soon fell in love with a two-story building called Bili Town.
The house was in a good location, just a little further than Hoboken, and it was well built. It only took forty-five minutes to drive to Manhattan, which was closer to Midtown than other communities that usually took an hour away.
And the composition of the residents here is also reassuring. 80% of the owners are white, 15% are Asian, and there are almost no black people.
The primary school is a well-known school with a particularly good reputation here.
After calculation, Zhao Hanyu told Mi Xiaoran that the actual house price was only equivalent to one hundred and eighty months' rent, and the price was relatively cost-effective.
Especially when he used a calculator to calculate it several times, there was no problem in balancing the income and expenses.
So in September, they bought the house for a total price of almost 220,000 yuan. They quickly paid off the rent and moved into a new home as a family.
For this reason, before the house was tidied up, Mi Xiaoran couldn't help but take a lot of photos of the house with his camera, and wrote letters to his relatives in the capital and sent them back.
At this moment, only words like "happiness and satisfaction" can describe the mood of this young couple.
For Mi Xiaoran, who left her motherland to marry in a foreign country, her American dream has undoubtedly come true and has been completely realized.
House, car, loving husband, lovely children...
Now she has it all.
What else does a woman need?
This is the perfect life for her.
She no longer misses her home at all. The small bungalow in Shan'er Hutong, where the two sisters used to sleep in the same bed, can be compared with such a western-style villa with its own garden?
The hesitations and regrets she had had have all disappeared at this time, and she undoubtedly made the most correct choice.
For Zhao Hanyu, a successful career and a happy family are his greatest rewards.
Except for having more children and raising a dog, he has no more hopes for his life.
In their eyes, life in the United States is so beautiful, just like heaven, and it will always be so beautiful.
But can life really be that simple?
Will you really care about them like this forever and let them go smoothly?
The answer is no.
Mi Xiaoran would never have imagined that his ancestors' lifestyle of being thrifty and fond of saving would seem rustic, rigid and out of place in the United States, a country with rampant consumerism and advanced finance.
However, this lifestyle can prevent problems before they occur, and it can ensure the safety and stability of life to the greatest extent.
How could she have imagined that when she voluntarily gave up the Chinese way of thinking, tried to learn from the American way of thinking, and increased the leverage of her consumption, what was waiting for her would be a game that would drenched her. The perfect storm.
Black Monday is here suddenly.
Immediately afterwards, news of the stock plummeting came one after another from newspapers and television.
Not long after, there was news of the closure of small and large businesses.
The transfer of Rockefeller, the transfer of Blumedeo, and the bankruptcy of real estate tycoon Trump are all on the news.
It seems that in just a few days, the United States has become a country that is on the verge of collapse and has no hope.
There is no good news on TV or in newspapers.
Business Auction.
The commercial building was sealed.
The factory was taken away by the government.
Even the arrogant big car companies and big airlines have closed down one after another.
Thousands of unsold cars are lined up on the huge pier of Elizabeth Port, as far as the eye can see.
Household appliances are piled high and on sale everywhere.
A variety of food and daily necessities on the market are also discounted.
The faces of the bosses all lost expression, and all the pedestrians on the street stopped smiling.
As a result, more and more people began to think of the Great Depression that occurred in 1929, and no American could deal with it indifferently.
Although the young couple inside was panicking at this time, they were also a little lucky. After all, Zhao Hanyu himself had never bought a stock, and the Zhao family preferred to use their money to open a store instead of investing in the stock market. , they did not feel the painful pain of their property being wiped out overnight.
It can even be said that at this time, they more or less believed that they could escape unscathed from this disaster and would not be affected much.
It wasn’t until November 12th that Zhao Hanyu came to work at his company, only to receive the news that the company had been sold by his boss. He realized that he was too naive.
His boss went bankrupt due to the stock market crash and could only repay the debt by transferring the company.
Not to mention, as soon as the new boss showed up, he announced an order to lay off half of the employees.
So Zhao Hanyu, who originally thought he would get a promotion and salary increase at the end of the year, lost his job.
When he packed up his things and left the company with a check for $11,000, he was filled with a sense of discouragement and frustration and hesitation about the future.
He didn't know how to explain to Mi Xiaoran when he went back, and he didn't know how to face the current situation.
He has a child, and this check is not enough to support his family's expenses for two months.
For this reason, he sat in the car in a daze and never started the car.
As a result, something even more unfortunate happened.
Because at this moment, on the rooftop, a man jumped from the twenty-story building because of financial debts that were difficult to repay.
Not only did he die on the spot, but the place where he fell happened to be on the roof of Zhao Hanyu's car.
Half an hour later, when the police and ambulance arrived, in front of many onlookers, two bodies were taken away from a smashed car.
At this time, Mi Xiaoran, who was completely unaware, was still at home, guarding her sleeping child, looking at the travel flyers longingly, dreaming of traveling around the world in the future, and waiting for her husband to return.
How could she have imagined that her American dream was as fragile as a colorful bubble, only scratched by a stock market crash, and then suddenly shattered. (End of chapter)