I See through Everything

Chapter 259: Chapter 140: Hope

"What about my dad?"

"Old Liu asked another coworker to help with the grocery shopping."

"I wonder if he can handle it all by himself." Liu Xiaoman was a little worried about her father’s work. For the past few years, the two of them had been following a contractor from project to project, primarily responsible for the meals on the construction sites.

"Don’t worry, I can help Old Liu out too."

Liu Xiaoman shook her head. "Brother Qiang, you’re busy with your own work and have a family to take care of. My dad should be fine. You don’t have to go."

"It’s okay, I don’t have much to do," Lin Yongqiang said, waving his hand dismissively.

The two chatted for a while before he saw that it was getting late. He hurriedly rode his electric scooter to the construction site. He was a rebar tier for the Xinxiang Dongtian employee housing project, which was also where he had met Liu Xiaoman.

He felt that although Liu Xiaoman wasn’t highly educated, she was a simple and sincere person, a good match for him.

In the past, Lin Yongqiang would never have opened his heart to pursue a girl. The reason was his deep-seated insecurity; he felt his family background was too poor and saw no hope for his own life, so he didn’t want to hold anyone else back.

It wasn’t until last year, as his family’s financial situation steadily improved, that Lin Yongqiang’s feelings of inferiority began to fade. At the same time, his confidence in the future grew.

It was at this time that he met Liu Xiaoman—the girl who was always busy bustling about in the simple construction site kitchen.

It was the first time his heart had ever been truly moved. She wasn’t beautiful, but the smile on her face was captivating.

Unfortunately, he never managed to summon the courage to act.

It wasn’t until he saw Liu Xiaoman fall off her scooter that he felt an involuntary pang in his heart. He started checking in on her, and Liu Xiaoman sensed his feelings. The two of them slowly grew closer, yet neither said a word.

’Maybe, this is what love is!’

’Maybe, this is what life is!’

’Maybe, this is just instinct!’

In this materialistic age, pure love is like a poplar tree in the Taklamakan Desert—far too rare, and far too fragile.

It’s not that we don’t want to love each other.

It’s that the price of love is too high.

So high that it’s daunting, so high that it leaves one helpless, so high that it forces people to suppress their instincts.

Lin Yongqiang was just one of the vast majority of ordinary men.

But girls like Liu Xiaoman were becoming rarer and rarer.

「Xinxiang Dongtian Construction Site.」

He parked his electric scooter at the entrance of a shipping container office on the site, pulled out a power strip, and plugged the scooter in to charge.

After checking in with his team leader, he put on a reflective vest, a hard hat, and slung his tool bag over his shoulder.

Lin Yongqiang went to the third floor of one of the buildings under construction and began tying the rebar for the floor slab.

The winter sun rose as usual.

Sunlight fell on his face, its light and heat bringing a trace of warmth to his body, making his fingers, stiff from the cold wind, less tense and slow.

"HUFF... Finally warming up," his coworker, Jiang Dazhong, said, his breath turning white in the air.

"Brother Dazhong, didn’t your family’s land get expropriated? Why are you still working on the site?" Lin Yongqiang asked curiously as he deftly twisted a tie wire tight.

"Don’t get me started. My old man didn’t give me a single cent. Just thinking about it makes my blood boil," Jiang Dazhong grumbled, looking frustrated.

Lin Yongqiang pulled out another tie wire and continued tying the rebar. "I heard these apartments are being built for Hailufeng Company employees. Any idea how much they cost per square meter?"

"What else could it be? It’ll be based on the market price! Probably around six thousand yuan per square meter," Jiang Dazhong muttered under his breath. "But, Hailufeng Company employees get an internal discount and subsidies, plus there’s the housing fund. It’s actually a pretty good deal. And these apartments don’t have any common shared area fees."

"Really?"

"Of course it’s true. My family is related to Jiang Miao’s, you know. Besides, once this project is done, I’ll be an employee of Hailufeng Company too." As he said this, Jiang Dazhong’s resentment toward his stingy father lessened slightly.

After all, getting a job at Hailufeng Company was considered a great opportunity locally, even if he would only be a security guard.

"I wish I could get into Hailufeng Company too," Lin Yongqiang said with envy.

Jiang Dazhong stopped and took a sip of water. "Why don’t you apply? You’re from Salt Town, so it should be easy for you to get in!"

"I have to take care of my dad. He’s deaf and mute, and we also have the fish ponds at home."

"So you’re a landowner, huh! How much land you got?"

"Two mu. I make over a hundred thousand a year from it."

"That’s not bad. In the past, you’d have to count your lucky stars to make even ten thousand a year. My old man cultivates three mu of duckweed and only makes sixty thousand yuan a year."

After thinking it over, Lin Yongqiang felt that if he wanted to marry Liu Xiaoman, he needed a stable and respectable job. Otherwise, getting past her father would be tough. "I still want to get into Hailufeng Company. Brother Dazhong, do you have any advice?"

"Advice? Go for something close by, of course! Your home is in Salt Town, so pick the feed mill, the breeding farm, the fish ball factory, or even Nanhu Farm."

"Okay, I’ll go ask around when I get back," Lin Yongqiang nodded.

Jiang Dazhong finished tying a section of rebar and lowered his voice to remind him, "You’d better be quick about it then, kid. Don’t drag your feet. After all, the first phase only has 2,700 apartments. With more and more local employees now, there might not be enough to go around."

"I know." It was indeed the prospect of an apartment that made Lin Yongqiang consider joining Hailufeng Company.

After all, there were no new apartments left in Magong Town. The only nearby place with new housing was over at Jinting Bay, but unfortunately, the prices there were too high, and you had to pay for the common shared area too. He felt that with the little money he had, he shouldn’t even dream of buying an apartment in Jinting Bay.

The residential complex being developed by Hailufeng Company, at least, gave Lin Yongqiang a glimmer of hope.

The most frightening thing for a person is to look ahead and see no possibility of changing their reality.

But the emergence of Hailufeng Company brought an economic miracle to the region, giving many people hope for their lives and motivating countless others like Lin Yongqiang to change their circumstances.

’Maybe, this is the significance of Hailufeng Company’s existence!’

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