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 this grandson Zhao Enxia, ​​and his 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, more importantly, he has decided to increase his salary to $3,800.

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 old customers and maintain the favorable comments from current customers, the boss will even consider promoting him and letting him become a member of the department team.

person in charge.

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 was busy from morning to night.

But they have a good relationship, and with Zhao Hanyu's current income, it is no 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 brothers-in-law, and you can live your own life in silence.

Moreover, because she gave birth to a boy as her first child, she became a minister who made great contributions to the development of the Zhao family. Her mother-in-law smiled and took the initiative to give her a big red envelope of two thousand dollars.

At this time, what else does Mi Xiaoran have to care about?

After being discharged from the hospital, of course, I devoted myself wholeheartedly to my own small family. I was mainly responsible for the household chores and expenses 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, no longer taking buses or subways.

, or waiting for her 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 look along the shop windows, looking at things that she had deliberately turned a blind eye to in the past out of a guilty conscience.

Sometimes I also 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 she refused without hesitation, and ultimately failed to make the trip.

This incident actually 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 that he would 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 so much money?"

"I'm not crazy. To buy a house in the United States, the down payment for a loan only requires 5%. We have about 20,000 yuan in savings now. In other words, we can definitely afford a house worth one million US dollars. I have inquired,

The down payment is less than 20%, so I just need to spend a small amount of money to buy some loan insurance, and then pay the mortgage every month.”

"But if this happens, we won't have a penny of savings in our hands. How will we live?"

"You don't have to worry about this. I 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. 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. It won't affect our lives."

"But, but, I still think it's too early, right? There's a news program on TV that says that at least half of people under the age of thirty-five don't have their own house yet. I'm used to living here now.

Now. Isn’t it nice here?”

"NONONO, let me tell you, others are others, we are us. It's not good here, it's really not good at all. Our small apartment now only has two rooms, and the air in the city is too bad. If we didn't

My child, just make do. Originally, you couldn’t drive, so I rented an apartment in the city center just for convenience. But it’s different now, you have your own car, and we also have one.

Child. Do you really want our children to grow up breathing such air? Or, let us move to a quiet and spacious place with a building with a lawn, a yard and a basement, where we can not only provide

How about placing a swing for our children, or even raising a dog? Can you imagine our family of three playing with our children in the yard on weekends? That’s called life..."

"Oh, Hanyu, please stop tempting me. The scene you described is indeed beautiful, but we also have to face it. It is too strenuous for our current economic situation. You have talents.

With more than 20,000 yuan in cash, you just want to buy your own house? You are confused, you! Don’t always be so idealistic. If you think about ten things, you will never be satisfied. We are still young, let’s stabilize for a while first.”

To put it bluntly, although Mi Xiaoran appreciates Zhao Hanyu's romance, she does not dare to have too high demands on life as she comes from a poor family.

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. What's more, he still has his own reasons.

"Dear, this is the United States. This is how everyone lives. People here are ahead of the times and full of adventurous spirit. Everyone spends money today and tomorrow, so this country can develop so fast. Otherwise

If it were like your country, where you have to save enough money to buy anything, we would never have our own house in our lives. Don't be so old-fashioned like those old overseas Chinese, okay?"

"Also, it is indeed necessary for us to buy a house. You may not know that there are many good universities in the United States. There are no regulations on nearby universities for admission, and parents must respect their children's ideas after they become independent. Therefore, it is usually a matter of which university to go to.

It is the child’s own choice. However, primary schools and middle schools are different. They are all enrolled nearby. So in order to let our children get a better education, we have to buy a house near these schools as early as possible for our children. Otherwise, we will have to wait for our children to go to school.

If you can’t find a suitable house at the moment, just wait and worry about it when the time comes.”

"Also, don't be too pushy when it comes to 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 with this money

The savings can be used to pay off the loan. Moreover, I have investigated and found that housing prices in New York have been rising in recent years. Not only can we live in the house we buy, but it is also an investment and will appreciate in value.

The house can't run away, and the land can't slip away. It will always be something that is put there solidly. It is more cost-effective than saving money. How much interest can you earn by depositing money in the bank? Only fools do that. Invest in stocks? Again

It’s not very insurance, and buying the wrong stock is no joke. The house is better. If we need money that day, we can just resell it and we won’t lose much. If not, we can still make money.”

Zhao Hanyu's analysis was well-founded and 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 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.

Almost all self-owned houses in the United States are detached houses or townhouses, and most of them are scattered in small towns and suburbs outside big cities, with beautiful scenery.

Especially in communities where the middle class is concentrated, infrastructure such as police stations, supermarkets, gas stations, hospitals, and restaurants are all relatively convenient and only take about ten minutes by car.

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 children and driving with her husband to view houses is like a journey to inspect a beautiful life in the future.

According to 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 Community.

The house is in a good location, just a little farther than Hoboken, and it's well built. It only takes forty-five minutes to drive to Manhattan, which is closer to Midtown than other communities that usually take 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 good school that is well-known far and wide, and has 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.

In particular, he used a calculator to calculate it several times and found that 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, and soon paid off the rent, and the family moved into their new home.

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 Beijing and sent them back.

At this moment, only words like "happiness and satisfaction" can describe the mood of this young couple.
To be continued...