With Aunt Zhao Yun’s help, she changed her na from Hua Yan to Hua Yan. Although it doesn’t bear the surnas Hua or Yan, it’s a reminder to herself of her mother’s death and the inextricable relationship with her lousy father.
The insurance money was only four million, which Aunt Zhao Yun painstakingly retrieved for her. Adding to it the one million her mother had saved for her, plus the interest accumulated over the years, totals up to five million and fifty thousand.
In 2010, property prices in the better areas of Chaoyang District, Beijing, had risen to 28,000 per square ter. Hua Yan bought three 50-square-ter one-bedroom apartnts in the sa neighborhood because she paid in full, with additional help from her mother’s friends. In the end, she purchased three apartnts for four million, leaving the remaining one million for renovations.
Although she wanted to buy four units, she only had one million and fifty thousand. Even with an annual expense of three hundred thousand, it still only amounted to one million three hundred fifty thousand.
If she bought the fourth apartnt, she might not have funds for renovations plus daily expenses. She was only ten years old and couldn’t be too rash; in the end, she painfully gave up.
Originally, Aunt Zhao wanted to transfer her to another school. After all, such a big thing happened at ho, and she changed her na—anyone would probably speculate upon seeing her, right?
Especially since the incident in their family was covered in the social news.
However, Hua Yan refused: "Auntie, it’s okay. It’s just one or two years until school graduation. In September, I’ll be a fifth-grade student. I will study well, so you don’t need to worry about . I can cook and do well. I’ll let you taste my cooking in the next few days. You don’t need to watch over too much because you have your own family to take care of. My unreasonable request—that you and Uncle Ning agreed to—even used connections to get guardianship—really, I’ll definitely repay you like a daughter in the future."
This ten-year-old child is so sensible that Aunt Zhao Yun cried with heartache. She and Yan Yue were once roommates with bunk beds in the dorm. After Yan Yue graduated, they worked in the sa company. Given Yan Yue’s capability, if she hadn’t beco a full-ti housewife, she might have been a leader in the industry, but it was a pity.
Although Yan Yue beca a full-ti housewife, Zhao Yun always rembered the help and care. That’s why she fought to gain guardianship of Hua Yan—it wasn’t for the two thousand yuan originally given for the child. It was supposed to be ten thousand, but she and her husband felt embarrassed; however, not accepting even one cent wouldn’t work, so they finally settled on two thousand yuan per month.
Hua Yan was originally lively, actively learning, a vigorous three-good student—was the study commissioner and class leader—Mrs. Yan’s pride. But after this incident, she beca calm, indifferent, and increasingly withdrawn.
Last sester, from when her mother had an accident until the end of sumr vacation, Hua Yan missed the final exams plus over two months of study.
Unexpectedly, the new sester began with a class shuffle. It was partly her fault for forgetting to check the class group ssages.
The phone number was her mother’s number, which she transferred to her na. She didn’t use her mother’s phone because it stored old photos and voice ssages with her mother. She worried about breaking it, so she bought a new phone, occasionally taking out the old one to browse and charge.
The two-bedroom apartnt, her mother’s room, turned into a storage room, packed with all of her mother’s belongings, moved from the original villa.
The small house has two pianos, one in the villa and one here. She stayed here from Monday to Friday, and weekends at the villa. It encapsulated all the mories she had with her mother in this eighty-square-ter two-bedroom apartnt.
The apartnt had large rooms and two bathrooms, as the father would occasionally co to stay. Looking back, he always treated the mother-daughter’s place as a hotel.
Her apartnt remains ssy because she hasn’t had ti to organize it. Aunt Zhao once offered help but was politely declined. She can manage these on her own.
Mom had decorated the house warmly. Originally under her mom’s na, the house was transferred to hers, so now, even though she’s only ten, she owns four apartnts in Beijing.
Although she doesn’t have emotional ties to the mother of the original owner, the naturally revealed emotions of the original owner are beyond her control.
In the new sester, she was assigned to a new class, a new school because the school established a branch campus, transitioning all upper grades to the new campus, which is about three bus stops away from the original campus. She could walk to school every day.
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