Chapter 1418 American Dream

Before Black Monday, Zhao Hanyu and Mi Xiaoran had a pretty good life this year.

First, in May this year, Mi Xiaoran successfully obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration from Queens College of the City University of New York, fulfilling her long-cherished wish to complete her university studies.

With the arrival of summer, Mi Xiaoran successfully gave birth to a healthy boy in the hospital.

Zhao Hanyu's father named this little grandson Zhao Enxia, ​​and the English name was given by Mi Xiaoran, called Tim.

At the same time, Zhao Hanyu also achieved good results in his career.

As the US stock market has been bullish in recent years, as a member of a financial services company, Zhao Hanyu's business has grown by leaps and bounds.

Salary and bonuses have also been nearly doubled.

The boss of the company has talked to him. In addition to congratulating him on having his own child, the more important thing is to decide to increase his salary to $3,800.

He also said that if his performance can maintain the current growth rate in the second half of the year, and he can still satisfy old customers and maintain the current good reviews from customers, the boss will even consider promoting him and making him the head of the department group.

It can be said that all this is as beautiful as poetry.

In the past six months since returning 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 although Mi Xiaoran had no one to take care of her after giving birth in the United States, she still had to take care of the child and do housework, busy from morning to night.

But the couple has a good relationship, and with Zhao Hanyu's current income, it is not a problem to support their family of three.

So far, they are really independent in life, and even the Zhao family does not need financial support, and Mi Xiaoran does not have to work odd jobs to make money.

In this way, Mi Xiaoran feels free in both spirit and material aspects.

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, she doesn't have to look at the faces of her parents-in-law and brother and sister-in-law, and can live her own life.

And because she gave birth to a boy as her first child, she became a meritorious minister for the expansion 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 did Mi Xiaoran have to worry about?

After being discharged from the hospital, of course, she devoted herself to her small family, and was mainly responsible for the housework and expenses at home every day.

She even bought herself a second-hand Toyota Corolla with the money given by her mother-in-law and a little savings from the family. Now she has freedom in transportation and no longer needs to take the bus, take the subway, or wait for her husband's special car.

In this way, she occasionally has time in the afternoon, and she also has the mood and time to push the stroller to stroll around the street, such as the bustling Fifth Avenue.

She would slowly admire the shop windows, looking at the things that she had deliberately ignored in the past out of guilt.

Sometimes she would go to the maternity and baby store to buy some daily necessities and small clothes for her baby.

On weekends, the three of them would usually go to Central Park in New York, or go to the New York Aquarium, and then eat together in a restaurant outside.

Wherever they went, it seemed that there would be people around who would look at them with the friendly eyes of the middle class.

At the end of August, Zhao Hanyu even planned a long trip.

He planned to apply for annual leave and take his wife and children to the beach in Florida for a vacation.

But Mi Xiaoran refused without hesitation, considering that the child was too young and the sun on the beach was too hot, and ultimately failed to go.

This incident made Zhao Hanyu feel guilty, thinking that he had not considered it 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 new plan to make up for it.

He actually proposed to Mi Xiaoran that he would buy a house for 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 can we get so much money?"

"I'm not crazy. In the United States, the down payment for a loan is only 5%. We have 20,000 yuan in savings now. In other words, we can definitely afford a house worth one million dollars. I've inquired about it. The down payment is less than 20%. We just need to spend a small amount of money to buy some loan insurance, and then pay the mortgage every month."

"But if that happens, we won't have any savings. How can we live?"

"Don't worry about that. There are still credit cards. And you don't need to pay rent after buying a house. What's more, bank interest rates are low now, and my income has increased. I can fully afford the mortgage interest. Don't worry, my income 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 saying that at least half of people under the age of 35 don't have their own house. I'm used to living here now. Isn't it good here?"

"NONONO, let me tell you, others are others, we are us. This place is not good, it's really not good at all. Our current small apartment only has two rooms, and the air in the city is too bad. If we don't have children, we can just make do with it. You didn't know how to drive before, and I rented an apartment in the city center just for convenience. But now it's different, you have your own car, and we have children. Do you really want our children to grow up breathing such air? Or should we move to a quiet and spacious place? There is a building with a lawn, a yard and a basement. We can not only put a swing for our children there, but also raise a dog. What do you think? Can you imagine the scene of our family of three playing with our children in the yard on weekends? That's what life is all about..."

"Oh, Hanyu, don't tempt me anymore. The scene you describe is indeed beautiful, but we have to face the fact that it is too much for our current financial situation. You want to buy your own house with only more than 20,000 cash in your hand? You are crazy! Don't always be so idealistic, thinking ten times and never being satisfied. We are still young, let's stabilize for a while first."

In the end, although Mi Xiaoran admired Zhao Hanyu's romance, she didn't dare to ask too much for life because she came from a poor family.

So even though she thought the picture Zhao Hanyu described to her was beautiful, she thought about it and finally decided to be safe.

But Zhao Hanyu didn't give up so easily. After all, he was an American and had long been accustomed to the life of consuming first and paying later, not to mention that he had his own reasons.

"Dear, this is America, everyone lives like this. People here are ahead of the times and full of adventurous spirit. Everyone spends tomorrow's money today, so this country can develop so fast. Otherwise, if it's like your country, we have to save enough money before we can spend money to buy everything, and we will never have our own house in our lifetime. Don't be like those old overseas Chinese, so old-fashioned, okay?"

"Also, we really need to buy a house. You may not know that there are many good universities in the United States. Universities do not have the regulations for nearby enrollment, and parents must respect their children's ideas after independence, so which university to go to is usually the child's own choice. But elementary and middle schools are different, they are all nearby enrollment. So in order for our children to get a better education, we have to buy a house near these schools as soon as possible for our children, otherwise when the children really go to school, we can't find a suitable house temporarily, and then we will be Wait and get anxious."

"Also, don't be too picky about money. You see, rent in the city center is so expensive. Such a small apartment costs 1,200 dollars a month. We bought our own house, and this money can be saved. We can use it to pay the mortgage. And I have investigated that the housing prices in New York have been rising in recent years. We can not only live in the house, but also invest in it, and it will appreciate in value. The house can't run away, and the land can't slip away. It will always be something that is firmly placed there. It is more cost-effective than saving money. Put money in the bank to earn that little interest? Only fools do that. Invest in stocks? It's not very safe, and buying the wrong stock is not a joke. It's better to have a house. If we need money one day, we can just resell it and lose less. If things go well, we can still make money. "

Zhao Hanyu's analysis is well-reasoned. Not only did he explain the cultural differences, but he also dispelled Mi Xiaoran's anxiety about economic pressure.

Anyway, Zhao Hanyu's job is related to finance. In Mi Xiaoran's heart, her husband is also a semi-professional, and his opinions are still worth referring to.

The key is that he also talked about the education of his children.

Which parent in the world does not consider their children?

Mi Xiaoran, who has never attended a key school since she was a child, certainly does not want her children to go to an ordinary primary school like she did when she was a child.

To be honest, the reason of looking for a house in the optical district is enough to impress her.

So she agreed to Zhao Hanyu's idea without saying anything else.

Next, they started the process of selecting and viewing houses, which should be said to be quite pleasant.

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

Especially in communities where the middle class lives, the police station, supermarket, gas station, hospital, restaurant and other infrastructure are relatively convenient, and it only takes about ten minutes to drive.

Moreover, new houses in the United States are all ready-made houses, with carpets laid indoors, painted walls, and equipped with a full set of equipment such as refrigerators, ovens, and water heaters.

Except for being a little far from the city, these houses have no flaws.

For Mi Xiaoran, driving to see the houses with her husband and her child was like a journey to inspect the future beautiful life.

In the mouths of those real estate agents, there is only better, not the best, about their future family life.

In this way, they couldn't help but be tempted, and soon they chose a two-story building called Bili Community.

The location of this house is good, just a little further away from Hoboken, and it is well built. It only takes 45 minutes to drive to Manhattan, which is closer to Midtown than other communities that usually take an hour to drive.

And the composition of residents here is also reassuring. 80% of the owners are white, 15% are Asian, and there are almost no black people.

The elementary school is a well-known good school with a particularly good reputation in this area.

After calculation, Zhao Hanyu told Mi Xiaoran that the actual house price was only equivalent to 180 months of rent, and the price was relatively cost-effective.

In particular, he used a calculator to roughly calculate several times, and there was no problem with breaking even.

So in September, they bought the house for a total price of nearly 220,000, and soon returned the rent, and the family moved into the new house.

For this reason, before the house was cleaned up, Mi Xiaoran couldn't help taking a lot of photos of the house with a camera, and wrote a letter to his relatives far away in Beijing and sent it back.

At this moment, only the word "happy and satisfied" can describe the mood of the young couple.

For Mi Xiaoran, who left her motherland and married in a foreign country, her American dream has undoubtedly come true and has been fully realized.

House, car, loving husband, lovely children...

Now she has all of these.

What else does a woman need?

This is a perfect life for her.

She is no longer nostalgic for her home. The small bungalow in Faner Hutong, where the two sisters used to sleep in the same bed, how can it be compared with this villa with a garden?

The hesitation and regrets of the past have disappeared at this time. She has undoubtedly made the right choice.

For Zhao Hanyu, a successful career and a happy family are the biggest rewards for him.

He has no more hopes for his life except to have more children and a dog.

In their eyes, life in the United States is so beautiful, just like heaven, and it will always be so beautiful.

But is life really that simple?

Will it really always favor them and let them go smoothly?

The answer is no.

Mi Xiaoran would never have thought that her ancestors' frugal and thrifty lifestyle seemed rustic, rigid, and out of place in the United States, a country with rampant consumerism and developed finance.

However, this lifestyle can prevent problems before they happen and can guarantee the safety and stability of life to the greatest extent.

She never thought that when she took the initiative to give up the Chinese way of thinking and tried to learn the American way of thinking, and leveraged her consumption, what was waiting for her was a storm that soaked her thoroughly.

Black Monday came suddenly.

Then, newspapers and televisions reported the stock market crash one after another.

Not long after, there was news of the collapse of large and small businesses.

The transfer of Rockefeller, the transfer of Brumideo, and the bankruptcy of real estate tycoon Trump were all in the news.

It seemed that in just a few days, the United States had become a country with no hope and a building on the verge of collapse.

There was no good news on TV and newspapers.

Enterprises were auctioned.

Commercial buildings were sealed.

Factories were taken away by the government.

Even those big car companies and airlines that were once so arrogant have closed down one after another.

Thousands of unsold cars are lined up on the huge dock of Elizabeth Port, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Household appliances piled up like mountains are on sale everywhere.

Various foods and daily necessities on the market are also on sale.

The faces of the bosses are expressionless, and the pedestrians on the street have all put away their smiles.

As a result, more and more people began to think of the Great Depression that occurred in 1929, and no American could remain calm.

Although the young couple in the middle of it were also panicked at this time, they were also somewhat fortunate. After all, Zhao Hanyu himself had never bought a stock, and the Zhao family preferred to use the money to open a store rather than invest in the stock market. They did not feel the pain of their property being wiped out overnight.

It can even be said that at this time, they still believed that they could get out of this disaster unscathed and were not greatly affected.

It was not until November 12 that Zhao Hanyu came to work in his company, only to learn that the company had been sold by his boss. He realized that he was too naive.

His boss went bankrupt because of the stock market crash and could only repay the debt by transferring the company.

That was not all. As soon as the new boss showed up, he announced an order to lay off half of the employees.

So Zhao Hanyu, who had thought he would be promoted and get a raise at the end of the year, was unemployed.

When he packed up his things and left the company with a check for 11,000 US dollars, his heart was full of frustration and hesitation about the future.

He didn't know how to explain to Mi Xiaoran when he went back, and he didn't know how to face the current situation.

He was a man with a child, and this check was not enough to support his family's expenses for two months.

For this reason, he sat in the car in a daze and never started the car.

As a result, something even more unfortunate happened.

Because at this moment, on the rooftop, a man jumped from the 20th floor because of a financial debt that was difficult to repay.

Not only did he die on the spot, but he also fell right on the roof of Zhao Hanyu's car.

Half an hour later, when the police and ambulance arrived, two bodies were carried away from a smashed car in front of many onlookers.

At this time, Mi Xiaoran, who was completely unaware of the situation, was still at home, watching over her sleeping child, looking at those travel flyers with longing, dreaming of traveling around the world in the future, waiting for her husband to return.

How could she have imagined that her American dream was as fragile as a colorful bubble, and was shattered by a stock market crash at the slightest touch.