Good Man Operation Guide

According to the overall outlook of this world, the period of the lowest housing prices in Shanghai did indeed occur at this time. The main reason for this was that the people in the leadership who had wanted to develop Shanghai had actually miscalculated the situation.

But in the end, they had already spent a lot of effort into developing Shanghai. Even without knowing the original plotline, Lin Shiheng could also deduce that the higher-ups definitely won’t let those efforts go to waste.

Within two years, Shanghai will definitely be developed.

And to spur the economy, the housing prices will quickly soar.

He took another bite of the food, put down his chopsticks, then turned his head and asked Zhang Fengjie, “When you’ve sobered up, take me to meet your boss.”

Zhang Fengjie looked up with a red nose and a confused expression, “Ah, why?”

“I want to make some money.”

***

All up until the third day, Zhang Fengjie still felt like he was dreaming.

Lin Shiheng, who he thought was a gang boss, actually acquired some shares in the owner’s company and a sum of cash after speaking just a few words.

While the shares weren’t a lot, there was quite a bit of cash.

The most important thing was… In Zhang Fengjie’s eyes, Lin Shiheng had only said a few words!

Just a few words!

When Lin Shiheng had said he was looking for his boss to make some money, Zhang Fengjie had a lot of ideas floating through his mind.

Maybe Lin Shiheng also wanted to move bricks? Or he also wanted to contract a project. After all, there was no shortage of workers given there were so many people under his control.

But he never could have thought that with a few words, the boss would just offer up both shares and money!

Furthermore, the boss, who had been pulling a long face as if he was going to be bankrupt in the next second, turned jubilant after this conversation! His eyes looked at Lin Shiheng as if he was looking at a god of wealth!

Zhang Fengjie didn’t felt like he was exaggerating at all.

He really couldn’t resist his curiosity. Enduring his fear of Lin Shiheng, he approached the young man and asked, “Shi-ge, in the end, what did you say to our boss?”

“Just told him my prediction.”

“What did you predict?”

Lin Shiheng’s hand that was counting the money stopped, he raised his head and said, “The housing prices in Shanghai will rise.”

“Ah?”

“I advise you to buy a house now. Otherwise, in a few years, you won’t be able to afford it even if you go bankrupt. No, not quite right… It wouldn’t need a few years. Just watch, if you don’t buy it now, a year later, you won’t be able to afford it even if they are able to sell it to you.”

“How is this possible? There are so many houses and so few people who are buying them! How could the housing prices rise? Shi-ge, you couldn’t have just said this sentence alone? Otherwise, how would the boss believe it?”

Lin Shiheng yawned. “I just asked him to check if the companies that had relatives in high positions were building houses.”

“Ah?”

Zhang Fengjie always felt that his mind was quite flexible, but it wasn’t until a year later on his wedding night when Shanghai property prices had soared, did he finally fully understood this sentence with the help of his wife’s reminder.

***

“If those companies with people at the top weren’t sure that housing prices in Shanghai would recover, why would they build at all?”

The beautiful wife wearing red wedding attire laughed as she lightly hit her husband’s arm, “I had thought you bought a house last year when the prices were the lowest because you had an economical mind. But apparently, Shi-ge told you to buy it out of sentiment.”

A group of brothers sitting at the table and eating were amused and so laughed, “Zhang-ge, now you won’t have to worry about being bullied by us anymore. Sister-in-law’s brain is much sharper than yours.”

A year has passed and this group of brothers, who had scared Zhang Fengjie to death at the beginning, had gotten well acquainted with him.

Nowadays, they all worked in the same company registered by Lin Shiheng. They were all colleagues, but also people who had followed Lin Shiheng from having nothing at all to this point when he now had some worth behind him. Although they earned a lot of money, they were always busy, having plenty of things to do every day from the moment they opened their eyes. When they go home, they only had time to bathe, eat, and sleep. In this past year, they didn’t even have time to go back home to visit. When they were homesick, they would go to the telephone booth and line up to call their families. So, of course, their relationship became deeper than average.

“Aye, where’s Shi-ge?”

A brother took a sip of wine and was about to make another joke about Zhang Fengjie, but looked up to find that Lin Shiheng had been missing for a while.

“Went back home. He is catching the bus today, isn’t he?”

“You, don’t just focus on drinking ah. Weren’t you at the wine table earlier when Shi-ge was telling Zhang-ge that he was leaving?”

“Why was he in such a hurry? I had thought Shi-ge wasn’t leaving until tomorrow?”

The group of people grinned cheekily, “Wasn’t it because Auntie called him back, saying our future sister-in-law’s family had arranged a blind date for her? Otherwise? Shi-ge was so anxious. Having originally agreed with everyone that whoever wasn’t drunk can’t go home tonight but as soon as he received the phone call, he flustered and rushed back in a hurry.”

When this was said, this group of people bursts out laughing again.

The newly-wedded wife looked at this group of laughing young men with puzzlement, “What are they laughing at? Isn’t it normal to be anxious?”

“It’s fine. It’s only a day’s drive back to Shi-ge’s hometown and Shi-ge is so smart, he will definitely be able to handle it.”

Not to mention these brothers, even Zhang Fengjie wanted to laugh.

Over the past year, he was used to seeing Lin Shiheng strategize, where no matter what happened, he appeared calm and undisturbed.

With it being so rare to see him almost completely reveal that sort of expression… Of course, they should have a great laugh.

Certainly, all jokes aside, they would still like to wish Shi-ge success on bringing back the beauty.

But Shi-ge was such a smart guy, where’s the difficulty in overcoming such a small problem?

They were sure it would all be resolved very soon.

***

While this group of people laughed at their Shi-ge, who wouldn’t show any expression even if the sky fell, the atmosphere of Ke family was extremely solemn.

As mentioned before, the Ke parents were considered very good-natured, but Grandmother Ke had more of a money-loving character.

It wasn’t to say that she only looked at the money and not the person. It’s just that when she was young, she was a young lady of a good household. At that time, she lived a prestigious life, but when the sudden change occurred, the pampered young lady had two choices: the rich family, who she had an engagement with beforehand, or Grandpa Ke, who she had an emotional connection to.

Between love and bread, she chose ‘love.’

Unfortunately, what Grandpa Ke actually chose was ‘bread.’

After marrying Grandma Ke, whose family had fallen into poverty, Grandpa Ke, with his good looks, hooked up with a beautiful, rich widow. And when Grandma Ke had given birth to Father Ke and needed someone to take care of her while she was in confinement, Grandpa Ke was already planning on divorcing her to marry the widow.

[E/N: “confinement” is a period of about a month after childbirth where the new mother is supposed to stay at home to rest and recover, discouraged from doing anything too manual.]

If he hadn’t accidentally fallen into a hole in the ice while returning to the countryside from the city, Grandma Ke, who had nothing to her name and was still in her confinement at the time, would have probably been kicked out of the house.

She didn’t project her hatred towards her husband onto her son and even though her temperament became strange, she still raised him well. She also particularly loved Ke Jialing, her only granddaughter.

However, Grandmother Ke’s way of loving her granddaughter was to help her find a rich husband.

She had experienced great emotional changes and her mentality had also adjusted for a long time. Naturally, she didn’t want her beloved granddaughter to end up like her. Therefore, she has always believed that if Ke Jialing were to marry, she should marry a rich man. In this way, even if the relationship between husband and wife had problems in the future and need to divorce, her granddaughter would still be able to get a sum of money.

This time, Ke Jialing’s blind date was the son of a coal mine boss, carefully hand-selected by Grandma Ke.

Although he was a bit fat and a bit short, his facial features weren’t ugly and his family was rich. Simply, a perfect grandson-in-law candidate!

Grandma Ke excitedly told her granddaughter the news, but of course, she was strongly opposed by Ke Jialing.

The grandmother-grandaughter pair, who had always been close to each other, parted on bad terms.

Mother Ke asked her husband to go persuade the daughter, while she went to persuade Grandma Ke.

***

“Jialing is young and is still in school, it is a little early for a blind date. There are many people of the right age in the university. We don’t need to push her. Maybe she’ll find someone she likes.”

Grandma Ke was so upset that she was hugging a quilt in her arms as she sat towards the inside of the bed. “What I am afraid of most is that she would look for it herself. What college student? Their heads are full of only reading and studying. Precisely because she is young that we, elders, need to keep a careful watch over her. What if her vision is bad, choosing a philanderer with no skills? She can still get divorced and live on her own if there wasn’t a child, but if there was, she’s going to suffer for the rest of her life.”

Mother Ke didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. This old child, the older she gets, the bigger her temper. “Mom, how is it like what you have said? Doesn’t our Jialing have a good vision? And even if she had bad vision, she can still get a divorce after giving birth to a child just the same.”

“Folly! A mother and child are connected through the heart. Could she bear to be separated?”

“How great was the family I found for her, and the conditions at home are also very good. She’ll be a young mistress once she marries into the family. She’ll eat hot delicious food every day and will be pampered the next half of her life. But if it’s as you say and she liked a penniless student, the two of them can still live decently at first, but after some time, they themselves won’t be able to stand it even if they didn’t have to worry about us.”

Grandma Ke was still hugging the quilt, perhaps thinking of her past, and her voice became hoarse. “Impoverish couples have hundreds of sorrows. This isn’t something just for fun. If she finds a poor man who can’t make money, she’ll regret it for the rest of her life.”

Mother Ke felt her headache. “Mom, aren’t Old Ke and I quite poor as well? Our life is still quite good. Where is it as scary as you make it seem?”

“That’s because you two are willing to earn money. Furthermore, look at you, you’ve had too much exposure to cold water, you’re in pain every time your monthly comes, and the family can’t even afford to buy supplements when you were pregnant. I’m just afraid that Jialing will find someone who is incapable, likes to lie and unreliable, then live this kind of life like you two. I’ve lived this kind of life myself, and I’ve let my son and daughter-in-law live this kind of life, Jialing must never be like us.”

The old lady insisted, saying that she wouldn’t eat as long as Ke Jialing didn’t go on that blind date. Mother Ke spent half the night and still wasn’t able to persuade her, so she could only go back and tell her daughter exactly what she said.

Ke Jialing stubbornly bit her lip and refused to bow her head. “Mom, I don’t want to go.”

Mother Ke was unable to do anything about the old lady and she also didn’t know how to persuade her daughter, so she could only say: “Your Grandmother is already old, starving isn’t good for her health. Besides, it’s just a blind date. Why don’t you just go see him tomorrow, then come back if you’re not satisfied?”

Ke Jialing loved her Grandmother dearly, but she really didn’t want to go.