Chapter 57: Viewing Properties

She felt that her older brother was completely lacking in responsibility. He neither cared about the family nor did he ever do any honest work, spending his days freeloading off others.

A person like this needed to be pushed into action.

Zhao Hui stood nearby looking sullen and visibly displeased.

If he hadn't been trying to coax Zhao Xiangjun into going to check out Wang Hao's house, he probably would have just flicked his sleeves and stormed off!

Dinner was at "Qianxun" Seafood Buffet. Chen Xiao had gone to see Li Guoqiang the other day, and Li Guoqiang had given him ten vouchers, which were complementary passes normally handed out to clients by Zhongjian Equipment Co., Ltd.

Since Chen Xiao didn't particularly care for seafood, he had left them for Zhao Xiangjun, thinking she could bring her friends over to eat whenever she wanted since there was a branch right there at Wansheng Plaza!

He had kept a few for himself and even gave one to Ma Jing today.

Having likely never eaten at such a "high-end" buffet before, Zhao Hui gorged himself with gusto, while Zhao's father and mother felt a pang of heartache with every bite, repeatedly asking Zhao Xiangjun how much this meal cost.

It wasn't until Zhao Xiangjun told them they were using complimentary vouchers that they finally set their minds at ease and began focusing wholeheartedly on the delicacies.

However, while picking up food, he inadvertently overheard someone at a neighboring table mention that the per capita cost here was 598 yuan, leading him to sigh upon returning: "The taste is good alright, but it's just a single meal, and for the four of us it's over 2,000 yuan. If we spent that on meat, it would be enough to feed our whole family for two months!"

Zhao Hui chimed in from the side: "These are complimentary consumption vouchers given by someone else, and you can't exchange them for cash anyway. It would be a waste not to eat!"

Actually, it wasn't entirely impossible to exchange them for cash; selling them to consumers at the entrance was still a viable transaction, but Zhao Xiangjun couldn't be bothered to explain all that!

In the middle of the meal, Zhao Hui said, "Xiangjun, your brother is going to take you somewhere in a bit!"

"Where to?" Zhao Hui's unusual behavior today aroused Zhao Xiangjun's vigilance.

"A residential complex. I'll take you to see how the houses are!"

Zhao Xiangjun knitted her brows and said, "Take me to see a house? What for? Are you planning to buy a house? Then why bring me along? I'm not going."

Zhao Hui froze. Zhao Xiangjun's words served as a timely reminder: if he told her straight out about Wang Hao's matter, she definitely wouldn't go; but if he claimed he was getting ready to buy a house and wanted her to take a look, and if she liked it, then afterwards...

Thinking of this, he said, "Mom and Dad are both coming along, you should join too!"

Zhao Xiangjun thought about it and agreed. Although she was reluctant to help Zhao Hui look at houses, she still wanted to accompany her parents.

At the same time, she found it very strange. Where on earth did Zhao Hui get the money to buy a house? Surely he hadn't cleaned out the meager retirement savings their parents had managed to scrape together yet again.

Thinking of this, she let out a sigh. Her parents usually lived frugally, and her father worked himself to the bone earning money away from home. Coupled with what she had given them over the years, practically all of it had been funneled to her brother!

No matter what, the son was always favored—this old-generation mindset was simply impossible to change!

While eating, she chatted with Mrs. Zhao about family matters, focusing mainly on her young nephew and niece. At the thought of the little ones, her face beamed with doting affection.

She didn't notice that Zhao Hui had been messaging constantly.

He had simply explained the situation briefly to Wang Hao: he would take his younger sister to look at the house first, and once she was struck with awe by this "luxury mansion," he would opportunistically tell her it belonged to Wang Hao and was intended as their future marital home.

He believed this approach might yield miraculous results. Wang Hao didn't suspect a thing and also felt the scenario was reasonably well-designed, so he left the key in the utility room by the entrance and went off to stroll around the neighborhood by himself.

Once Zhao Xiangjun and the others arrived and finished looking around, he would reappear to give them a surprise.

Of course, the "surprise" was purely in his own mind. Had he truly understood Zhao Xiangjun, he would never have pulled such a stunt; it was somewhat childish and would only end up startling her!

After finishing their meal, Zhao Xiangjun led them down the elevator directly to the second basement parking lot.

Zhao Hui quickly blurted out, "Wrong way, wrong way!"

Zhao Xiangjun knew what he meant—he wanted to go up to the ground floor to hail a cab, and her parents thought the same. As it happened, though, Zhao Xiangjun had driven here today.

She had tested out the Zhijie R7's autonomous driving that morning, and its proficiency was already approaching that of an experienced veteran driver, performing even better than when she drove herself.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have dared let her parents ride in a car driven by her. In Chen Xiao's words, she'd better rely more on self-driving and stop going out to terrorize other people!

Upon reaching the second basement level, she said, "I drove here today!"

Driven? What car? The few of them were utterly bewildered, having never heard of her buying a car.

Without offering superfluous explanations, Zhao Xiangjun walked straight ahead until she reached her Zhijie R7 and gently tapped the front trunk lid with her finger.

The hood popped open automatically, leaving Zhao Hui and his parents staring in utter amazement!

This feature of the Zhijie R7 was extremely convenient, and closing it even featured power-suction assistance, unlike many cars where you had to pull a lever beneath the dashboard just to open it, only to struggle with great effort to slam it shut!

Once inside the vehicle, they were even more astounded. One had to admit that domestic Chinese cars were advancing by leaps and bounds nowadays, with materials and craftsmanship already far surpassing joint-venture cars!

"Goodness gracious, Xiangjun, your car is even prettier than the Mercedes that Wang Hao's family has. Look at this space, these seats, this interior!"

Zhao Xiangjun's parents liked the car very much as well, though her mother couldn't help asking, "How much does a car like this cost? It looks like a brand-new car, did you just buy it?"

"Not much money, it's an electric car!" She didn't elaborate further.

When she engaged the autonomous driving feature, Zhao Hui, sitting in the front passenger seat, grew even more excited: "Holy cow, this car—this car can drive itself!"

She asked Zhao Hui for the address of the house they were going to view and directly activated the self-driving mode via voice command. The car's noise cancellation and sound insulation were exceptional, and its ride quality felt even superior to Chen Xiao's CLS.

"Hey, there's no place to charge it at home, otherwise you should let me drive this car and you can drive mine!"

He was rather self-centered; in his mind and the mindset of his family members, whatever belonged to his younger sister naturally belonged to him.

Zhao Xiangjun ignored him. Putting aside the fact that she wasn't willing, even if she were, she wouldn't even know how to drive that old Accord properly!

The security guards at Huzhai Manor were evidently not as strict as those at Bihuang Shuangxi; when it came to external vehicles, Zhao Hui simply had to step out and register at the guard booth to be granted entry!

Along the way inside, Zhao Hui was still boasting, "Look how conscientious and responsible the security guards in this complex are! They won't let anyone through without registering!"

Zhao Xiangjun suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, wondering what on earth there was to boast about here—wasn't this just the bare minimum? At the same time, she could understand why he considered this "good," seeing as his point of comparison was the resettlement housing estate where he lived.

"Just look at the parking garage in this complex, look at this epoxy floor coating, how clean the ground is!"

Zhao Xiangjun gazed at the underground parking garage under the dim lighting and was utterly speechless at Zhao Hui, who was still rambling endlessly.

However, seeing that her parents were both nodding in agreement, she refrained from talking back to him. As long as he was satisfied, after all, he was the one who would be living there!

After descending into the parking garage, since the exact location was unknown, the autonomous driving disengaged.

Zhao Hui took the lead, and right away the occupants in the car clearly sensed the clumsiness of Zhao Xiangjun's manual driving, which lagged several orders of magnitude behind the autonomous vehicle.

She broke out in a nervous sweat, but finally managed to arrive at the destination. Parking is the headache of headaches for many female drivers, but this car featured automatic parking.

After everyone stepped out, she clicked the one-touch parking button, and right before their eyes—with jaws dropped wide and eyes wide open—the car steered itself smoothly into the parking space and parked!