Celine came home and pushed open the door. She saw Mother Zhou sitting with her back to the door at the big round table in the living room.
In front of her was a large black leather bag that stood out clearly.
The bag was open, and inside, the warm shining lights of gold, silver, and jade sparkled. These were the good things Red had traded before.
Mother Zhou was focused on cleaning a gold bracelet with jewels, using a soft cloth. She didn't notice Celine had come back.
"Mom," Celine said softly, sitting down next to Mother Zhou.
Mother Zhou looked up when she heard her name. Seeing it was Celine, her face relaxed.
"Celine is back! What's wrong with your third brother? He looks lost." She glanced at Eleanor, who was standing dumbly at the door.
Celine didn't look back but stared at the shining jewelry.
"Mom, our old house is too crowded. Let's buy a house in the county."
Mother Zhou stopped moving her hand that was holding the gold bracelet. She looked at Celine with bright surprise in her eyes.
"Okay! Your brothers should also get married soon. Having a decent house is good."
Celine smiled.
"I want to buy each brother a house in the county. Even the little brothers, one each!"
"The new 'Royal View Garden' in the county is supposed to be modern. All the houses have yards, little villas."
"A villa?!"
Mother Zhou's excitement turned to worry.
One each? She had thought about it before, but villas...
"Celine…"
Her voice became much lower, and her brows tightened.
"How much does one of those cost? Aren't villas only for rich people?"
She looked down at the gold, silver, and jewels on the table. They looked bright, but was it enough to buy six villas?
Mother Zhou's heart felt tight like an invisible hand was pulling it.
The joy was real, but her long habit of worrying about money made her scared.
This huge fortune, not even warmed yet, would be spent so freely?
What if… what if it's not enough?
What if more money is needed later?
At that moment, Eleanor, who had been standing at the door, seemed pulled back to reality by Mother Zhou's words about the price.
He shivered suddenly and quickly walked outside to the water tap. He scooped up some cold well water and splashed it on his face.
Water rolled down his dark cheeks, washing away the last bit of dizziness.
With a loud splash, Eleanor, still wearing wet slippers, walked back in. He grabbed half a leftover cold watermelon on the table.
He took a big bite. The cool sweetness went down his throat, finally putting out the fire in his heart.
While chewing loudly, he mumbled to Mother Zhou, "Mom! I know about that 'Royal View Garden'. They just moved in last month."
He swallowed a few bites and wiped his mouth.
"I went in once when I delivered putty powder to Old Wang's renovation team."
"Wow, the place really looks good! The landscaping is like a park, with rows of small buildings and yards."
"I asked about the price too!"
"Our small county relies on farming and some rural tourism, so house prices have never been high."
"That villa is said to be a little over four thousand yuan per square meter. The smallest type, a whole building would be around a hundred thousand or so! Really not expensive!"
He added, "Also, I noticed not many people live inside. I guess they are just waiting and watching. At night, many buildings are dark, very quiet!"
Saying this, Eleanor looked at Celine and Mother Zhou and shared her idea.
"I think, why not buy the biggest one!"
"The one with five or six bedrooms. Our family of seven can live in it. It will be spacious and lively. We can take care of each other, that would be great!"
"No."
Celine interrupted Eleanor's daydream firmly.
She stood up with a determined look.
"Third brother, if we buy, everyone must have their own."
She looked at Mother Zhou and Eleanor.
"The brothers are grown men now. They will get married and start their own families."
"Having their own house means they can stand tall, it really means they have their own 'home'."
"This house is the confidence I prepare for them in advance, also their future wedding house."
Celine spoke confidently. Eleanor and Mother Zhou also thought it made sense.
But...
"I'm not sure if Shenan, Nimuel, and Mateo want to settle in the county."
Mother Zhou snapped back to reality: "That's a problem. Is the villa far from Nimuel's school? And Mateo…"
"So," Celine decided quickly, "Mom, Third brother, tomorrow I will ask Nimuel to come home from school."
"At that time, I will call Shenan in the city and Mateo who is out of town on a video call. We will have a family meeting together, listen to their thoughts."
This suggestion was reasonable. Mother Zhou and Eleanor nodded.
No delay, Celine took out her phone, her fingers moving quickly on the screen, she found the group chat named [Loving Family].
She quickly typed her idea and sent the message.
In the quiet night, the phone's notification sound was very clear.
"Ding dong!"
"Ding dong!"
Almost at the same time, two messages came back.
They were from Shenan and Mateo.
Shenan: [Little Celine, I trust you.]
Mateo: [Little sister, arrange as you like. I have no objections.]
The words showed complete trust and reliance.
After a while, probably after school evening self-study ended, Nimuel's message finally came, short and clear:
[Got it. I'll come back tomorrow morning.]
Looking at the brothers' simple but powerful replies on the screen, Celine couldn't help but smile slightly.
A new, belonging-to-the-Yu family "home" blueprint was in her hands.
Along with the numbers in the account moving constantly, bit by bit, it became clearer and stronger.
While Celine was carefully planning her family's future, things at the old Yu family house were getting strange because of another kind of dream. A dream about suddenly getting rich.
In the dim main hall, smoke filled the air.
Uncle Yu had just finished talking excitedly about what he saw and heard. After that, the room became silent. The kind of silence that made people feel uncomfortable.
Grandpa Yu sat in the main chair, slowly smoking his dry tobacco. The fire in the pipe glowed faintly, lighting up the deep lines on his old face. His cloudy eyes were filled with greedy thoughts and calculations.
His mind was busy.
Rich? Forty or fifty million?
Hmph. No matter how much money she had, she was still from the Yu family.
That money should be half his.
Once he got the money, this old house had to go. He would build something new. A five-story house with carved decorations.
Yes, a five-story Western-style house. That would show that he was now a rich man.
Grandma Wang, sitting on a low stool beside him, looked around with her sharp, triangle-shaped eyes. She had clearly forgotten her past scoldings.
Money?
Money was good.
She heard that Celine wore a bright, heavy gold bracelet on her wrist.
Young people didn't look good wearing gold. It looked too mature and didn't match.
But someone her age? It would look just right.
Uncle Yu's two sons, Peng and Ang, were sitting on the bench nearby. They were full of ideas.
Peng rubbed his greasy fingers, feeling excited.
He was working as an apprentice at a small auto repair shop in the city. It was hard work, and he had to listen to the boss's orders. He made very little each month.
But with money...
He could go back to the county.
Open his own repair shop. Be the boss. The biggest kind.
His younger brother Ang had even bigger dreams.
He had a stable job at the city's power bureau.
A job that no one could take away.
The only problem was they didn't have a house. It was hard to find a place.
If he had money, he would buy a house in the city.
A big apartment, starting at 300 square meters.
Do it all at once, and then no one would dare look down on him.
In the silence, someone swallowed.
That kind of huge fortune felt like it was right in front of them, just waiting to be grabbed.
And it seemed like all they had to do was ask Celine for a little.
She was just a girl. What did she need so much money for?
"Ten million!" Ang suddenly looked up, eyes full of crazy light. "Let's ask her for ten million first. She's so rich. Even the money that slips through her fingers would be enough for our family to live on for a lifetime."
Ten million?
That number was like a giant rock thrown into a calm lake. Waves spread everywhere.
Grandpa Yu and Grandma Wang's eyes went wide.
Peng rubbed his hands in excitement. "Yes. Ten million. That's not too much. She can definitely give it."
"But… will she give it? We treated her so badly before…"
"Why wouldn't she? She has to give it."
Peng interrupted his dad, annoyed.
"Besides, no matter what, we're her real grandpa, grandma, second uncle, and cousin. Blood is thicker than water. She can't still hold a grudge, can she?"
Ang nodded again and again. "Exactly. Tomorrow we'll buy some nice gifts and go visit her. Time to reconnect and build feelings."
Grandpa Yu put out his pipe. His cloudy old eyes narrowed, and he said one word. "Go."
At the old house, the Yu family was getting ready for their sudden good luck, dreaming of rising to a better life.
But Celine knew nothing about it.
Even though she guessed Grandpa Yu's family would come for money, she never thought they were planning to take half of everything she had.
If she knew about the ugly plans and greedy faces of these so-called blood relatives, she might throw up everything she ate last night.
But right now, she didn't care about any of that.
Inside the space, Hogan had arrived.
So Celine had to put on her clothes again and enter the space.