NOVPUBShe just didn’t have it herself.
Then she started to get bolder, strutting around in front of her aunt, and even went to her elder aunt to happily dance her little booty off.
But by evening, she herself wasn’t feeling well and showed signs of a slight fever.
Er Piya thought she was hit too, but a check revealed it wasn’t the case.
Instead, it turned out to be diarrhea caused by eating an expired fruit.
Although she felt fine after throwing up a little, this really made Yanxi furious. How could expired fruit appear in their house?
A quick investigation revealed it was because one of the maids had become obsessed with reading a novel about a domineering CEO falling for a cleaning lady during work hours.
This caused her to neglect her duties. The fruits in their house, mind you, couldn’t be put in the fridge.
Once outside the fridge, their shelf life was extremely short and needed to be checked and cleaned out daily.
Even though Er Piya only vomited a little, the maid was immediately fired, and the supervisor responsible for the task also had their bonus canceled for the entire year.
It could be called extremely strict.
After Er Piya realized she hadn’t been infected, she didn’t dare strut around in front of her aunt recklessly anymore.
She obediently stayed in her golden nest and avoided contact with anyone.
This is the life after reopening—wanting it to truly pass will undoubtedly still take some time.
...
Another New Year’s Day has come.
Looking again at the calendar—it’s already 2023.
Chen Pingsheng hosted a family dinner at Jinshan Villa. Except for Er Piya who didn’t dare come out, the rest were carefree.
There’s no avoiding this thing. At least over 90% of people will go through it once, so what’s the point in dodging it?
Life at home remained lively, and thinking about it, it had been one or two years since he’d gone back.
His grandfather said his health wasn’t great anymore, and this year, upon going back, he wouldn’t want to come out again. As people get older, they yearn for a sense of "returning to one’s roots."
His father also said they indeed needed to visit once. The village was now past the outbreak, and this year things should be bustling again.
His mother, Peng Ying, also wanted to return. Having gotten used to the flashy lifestyle of Magic City, she still felt a sense of incompleteness not returning home in wealth.
With so many family members wanting to go back, arrangements naturally had to be made.
This year’s New Year came relatively early, landing on January 22.
As soon as New Year’s Day passed, it wouldn’t be long before the holidays arrived.
In previous years, even if he didn’t return to the village, he always sent money to the village elders. Now that he’d become this wealthy, why not build a villa village for them?
Chen Pingsheng voiced this idea, and his father was the first to clap in agreement—after all, the whole village only had about a thousand households.
Even if it was 1 million yuan per household, it would only cost a little over 1 billion.
A million to build a house with a standardized design, partnering with a large construction group via open bidding for both building and interior work, could result in something truly high-quality.
Villa villages already existed as models in some developed regions, but their area had yet to catch up.
Chen Pingsheng had his grandfather and parents return first to arrange this. The village’s residential land now had regulated standards, so random construction was not allowed.
Of course, that only applied to ordinary folks. For someone like him to handle this, he’d go directly to the municipal authorities, have them communicate with the county, and let the county handle the arrangements.
After all, this was a project worth over 1 billion yuan. It could even be used as a key municipal image project, something many leaders would welcome enthusiastically.
It could even receive strong promotional support.
How could they not promote something that brings such economic benefits to the region?
However, building collective housing in the village would involve a complete remapping of the land. The chaotic situation of random houses and uneven floors built east and west would need to be leveled and replanned entirely.
If it weren’t for his investment, no rural area could dare to demolish farmers’ houses.
But now, with him financing it, it was a completely different story. Old houses would be torn down and replaced with million-yuan villas.
Who wouldn’t want that?
The village, along with the county, began large-scale planning for the new Wangcai Village. To make it happen would take at least one to two years.
An immense amount of manpower and resources would be required.
Chen Pingsheng pledged 1.5 billion yuan for the project.
Apart from Chenjiazhuang, which he had already built, over 90% of the houses were slated for demolition and rebuilding.
With this 1.5 billion yuan, Wangcai Village would essentially get a complete makeover.
His parents, as well as his grandparents, still preferred living back in the rural hometown.
Out there, you’d meet acquaintances just a couple of steps out the door, unlike in Magic City, where everyone outside was a stranger.
Once New Year’s Day ended, Magic City gradually started to buzz with activity again.
As many tourists arrived from abroad, there were even instances of late-night "street explosions" in Magic City.
What does that mean?
It’s when some social media influencers, bored out of their minds, rented luxury cars to try and shock foreign tourists.
In the short-video world, there even emerged a hashtag about nationwide support for Magic City.
This hashtag unbelievably got tied up with patriotism.
Chen Pingsheng overheard his employees chatting about it at the group and learned about it that way.
It was utterly laughable.
Magic City needing a bunch of influencers to flaunt wealth for outsiders—what could be more preposterous?
Do people even know this place?
If your monthly salary is less than thirty thousand, you’d feel inferior even walking along The Bund. Anyone who’s lived in Magic City for a few years, whether working as a waiter or a low-level employee, would start looking down on their old friends, thinking they’re just a bunch of ignorant bumpkins.
Magic City’s wealth is an elegance that runs bone-deep. How could it possibly need outsiders to flaunt wealth on its behalf?
It’s no exaggeration to say that the people here inherently look down on outsiders.
When influencers online flaunted their so-called millions-worth luxury cars under the guise of supporting this place, it only made Magic City’s genuinely rich feel ashamed and insulted.
How insecure must one be to think Magic City needs others to show off its wealth?
If you’d just take a walk down Nanjing Street or The Bund, you’d understand what kind of city this is.
To the truly wealthy of Magic City, influencers are nothing more than a group of vulgar, unrefined people.
Does Magic City need them to set the stage?
Attaching street explosions to patriotism? To be fair, many wealthy people in Magic City find this outright offensive.
Of course, most simply laugh it off.
Take Chen Pingsheng, for instance. He clearly knew that those loudly urging other regions to bring luxury cars to Magic City on the internet were mostly people who had never even been to Magic City.
Without stepping foot in this city, they couldn’t grasp the meaning of true Ten Li Foreign Market.
Er Piya’s short-video account, surprisingly, even saw a flood of comments urging her to take action.
After glancing at it, Er Piya scoffed and didn’t bother to respond.
She had never flaunted wealth—her life was simply the way it was.
The wealth of Magic City could never be truly captured in short videos. Let alone by cruising around in so-called luxury cars.
Here, getting a luxury car is easy, but steel and cement are the hardest things to afford.
A casual purchase costs tens of millions—even for the most basic small unit.
If you want something slightly bigger, with two bathrooms, you’d better not even dream about it unless you have twenty million.
If you want to live spaciously, three or five million is only the starting price.
Most of these headlines online are just influencers chasing clicks.
Little do they know, such antics only make people who truly live here sneer even more.
It further deepens their disdain for those pseudo-glamorous individuals.
Because the wealth of Magic City is already at the pinnacle of Huaxia—trying to flaunt wealth in its face? You’re all small fry.
Chen Pingsheng had long noticed a phenomenon—whatever gets tied to patriotism usually receives enormous traffic.
Many influencers, and even some films, were exploiting this kind of wave. Truly a time where amateurs watch the spectacle, while insiders profit from the opportunity.
Chen Pingsheng instructed Tang Jing to make arrangements—he needed to visit Xiangjiang before the year’s end.
The reason was to host the Tengying Group’s global shareholder meeting and also discuss the global investment plan for 2023.
Beyond the 20 billion he’d already heavily invested in Singapore, he planned to continue increasing overseas investments next year, focusing primarily on the tech sector.
Additionally, his company, Tengfei New Energy Cars, was set to file for IPO in 2023.
The projected market value was 400 billion yuan, with equity dilution upon listing estimated at around 40%.
Such a major cash-out would be impossible without the strong backing of several super-capitals.
Chen Pingsheng had been waiting for this day for a full eight years.
