The auction of the haunted houses was reaching its end.
Just as Yuan Guang and Shi Qian were hanging their heads in disappointment, they heard an unbelievable figure: "The starting price for this set of houses is 300,000."
The two of them looked up at the auction stage abruptly, and Bai Liu's group, hearing this price, also looked over with interest.
The auctioneer, while lowering his head to flip through the catalog, recited the introductory text emotionlessly: "—This is a custom-built house of 2.45 square meters, located on the 18th floor on the outskirts of Sunny City. As one of the supporting facilities of Zone E, the physical area after sharing the common area is approximately 2 square meters. There is no bathroom or kitchen, no water, electricity, gas, or internet, and there are no hospitals, supermarkets, or transportation stations nearby. It is suitable for one person to live in."
"The previous occupant died suddenly at their workstation, so it has been reclaimed for auction."
The auctioneer raised his head, his tone indifferent: "300,000 to start—"
Yuan Guang nervously held up a sign for 310,000, looking left and right to see if anyone else was competing with him. But unexpectedly, there were very few people raising their signs for such a cheap house, which was a stark contrast to the scenes where people had fought tooth and nail to bid for houses earlier. Moreover, even among those who did raise their signs, there was a visible look of fear and hesitation on their faces:
"305,000."
"306,000..."
"Thirty... sorry, I'm not bidding. Treat it as if I didn't shout, sorry."
Yuan Guang and Shi Qian exchanged strange looks. After confirming that they would likely be able to bid for this house, they discussed in low voices:
"Why is no one bidding for this one? It's so cheap, only 300,000."
"It's too small, and it's not connected to water, electricity, or gas. Is that really the only reason it can't be lived in?"
"That can't be it. There was a house in Zone B before that was only slightly bigger than this one, 3 square meters, a basement, no electricity, and the starting price was 470,000, and it was fought over like crazy."
"Is the location too bad?"
"Everyone is here to bid on haunted houses; I don't think they look like people who care about the location..."
Shi Qian felt that something was wrong the more she looked: "I feel like they seem to be afraid of this house."
Yuan Guang became more confused: "This group of people are all bidding for haunted houses. What kind of house could possibly make them afraid?"
Yuan Guang and Shi Qian tried to ask the people around them what was wrong with the house, but those people were tight-lipped and refused to elaborate. Only the person who had chatted with them before kindly warned them: "Don't bid. People really die if they live in this house."
"Which house here doesn't have people dying in it?" Shi Qian asked back with genuine confusion.
The person waved his hand, looked left and right, then leaned into Shi Qian's ear and whispered: "It doesn't necessarily mean someone will die if you live in a haunted house, but someone definitely dies if you live in this one! Don't bid!"
But if they didn't bid...
Yuan Guang hesitated for a moment; then they wouldn't have bid on anything today. Just as the two of them were considering this, a low male voice came from behind:
"320,000."
Yuan Guang and Shi Qian turned their heads subconsciously. Seeing that the person holding the sign was the tall and sturdy Tang Erda, they gasped and instantly lowered their heads, ducking quickly into the crowd and covering themselves with sun-protection fabric, not daring to let out a breath.
"Are we still bidding, Shi Qian?" Yuan Guang asked in a low voice.
"Bid my ass! Bai Liu and their team are here; we'll definitely be seen if we bid!" Shi Qian said gloomily. "We have to let this house go to them."
The auctioneer, as if afraid that Tang Erda would go back on his word, slammed the gavel down quickly: "Will this gentleman please come up to claim this house worth 320,000!"
Tang Erda walked up with a tense expression, swiped the recruiter's ID card with a cold face to pay the 320,000, then quickly took the property deed and left with Bai Liu's group. From their backs, there was a fleeting sense of the haste, nervousness, and unnaturalness of someone doing something sneaky for the first time.
Yuan Guang, who was hiding in the crowd, seemed to have a telepathic connection with Shi Qian and asked gloomily: "Tell me, where did their money come from?"
"If I'm not mistaken..." Before Shi Qian could finish speaking, a scream came from the auctioneer's side. He pointed in the direction Tang Erda had left: "Patrol team! Catch the person who just swiped that card! He swiped someone else's card!"
Yuan Guang and Shi Qian: "..."
Ah, as expected.
"It's a good thing we forced those recruiters to give us checks..." Yuan Guang patted his chest in lingering fear. "That was a close one; otherwise, we would have been caught, too."
Shi Qian looked in the direction Bai Liu had left, slowly frowning: "What exactly is going on with that 320,000 house in Zone E?"
Zone E.
Bai Liu and the others took a few turns to cleanly shake off the patrol team that had followed them, heading straight for the address written on the property deed of the Zone E house.
"...No. 444 Road, 18th Street..." Mu Shicheng read the address on the property deed while complaining, "Isn't this house number a bit too unlucky? No wonder it's so cheap."
Liu Jiayi glanced at Mu Shicheng: "I don't think whether the house number is lucky or not affects housing prices in Sunny City."
"The people here probably don't care about those things anymore." Tang Erda looked around with a solemn expression. "As long as they can survive, they should be willing to live anywhere."
Mu Ke frowned and asked, "But they would rather live in haunted houses than live here. Such a cheap house, and the number of people who raised their signs just now was no more than five. Why?"
Bai Liu remained unhurried: "We'll know when we get there."
Compared to the city center, built of steel and concrete, Zone E was located in a remote area on the outskirts of the city. The road was full of potholes and filled with mud from the rain. The entertainment facilities in the residential area, such as walkers and slides, were all rusted or collapsed, and, like the roads, they were unmaintained.
Although the buildings in the residential area were also high-rises, a single glance showed that the walls were very old, and the paint, putty, and tiles were all peeling to varying degrees. Some were even covered in green vines. It was obvious that these were old houses that had seen many years.
The entire Zone E was filled with an atmosphere of decay and ruin.
Most of the people living in these old houses were quite old. The old grandfathers and grandmothers who poked their heads out from the windows to hang clothes were all gray-haired, showing extreme signs of aging, with visible signs of illness on their faces. Most of the clothes they hung out were work uniforms that had been washed to a faded, pale white, and the uniforms were more or less covered with several patches.
The apartment buildings were mostly the same, with no landmark buildings, and even the style of each house and the clothes hung on the balconies were almost identical. Very quickly, Mu Shicheng became dizzy: "How does this place look the same everywhere? How do you get to 444 Road?"
"Let's ask for directions." Tang Erda held the property deed and looked around. He saw a pair of old people slowly helping each other down from a walker. "Excuse me, could you please tell me how to get to 444 Road in Zone E?"
The old couple, upon hearing Tang Erda's request for directions, looked up at him. When he saw the faces of these two old people, Tang Erda's gaze paused for a moment.
The old man and woman had cloudy, ashen eyes. Their faces, from the corners of their mouths to the soft, collapsed bridges of their noses, were covered in dense age spots like small bugs. Every breath they took carried a stench of rotting internal organs, and yellow-green, blood-tinged pus flowed from their ears and nasal cavities, dripping onto the ground and being absorbed by the earth before disappearing.
The two old people were so old they had reached the limit of the adjective [old] that a normal person could imagine, to the point where they seemed like… two moving corpses.
"Are you…" Tang Erda glanced at the walker.
The old grandfather answered tremblingly: "We are sick, just exercising our bodies with my wife."
"If you are sick, you should rest well, elders." Tang Erda reached out to steadily support the couple, frowning as he asked, "Where are your children?"
The old grandmother next to him shook her head: "We can't rest, we still have to go to work."
"Work?!" Mu Shicheng helped support the old grandmother, asking in disbelief, "Grandma, you are at such an old age, and you still have to work?"
The old grandmother looked at Mu Shicheng strangely: "Yes, you don't get money if you don't work."
The old grandfather next to her nodded in agreement: "Our old couple still has a mortgage to pay off."
For a moment, everyone fell silent. Only Bai Liu stepped forward leisurely and took over from Tang Erda to support the old grandfather: "How many years did you take the loan for?"
The old grandfather shook his hand and held up a seven: "My wife and I took it out together, a seventy-year loan. I started working at fifteen, and now there are only ten years left to pay it off."
"You have to exercise your body well to continue working and continue paying off the loan." The old grandfather patted the hand Bai Liu was using to support him, as if educating a young person. "Don't avoid work just because you are sick. That's not right. Look, I have worked hard for sixty years, and finally, I'm about to have my own house."
The old grandmother seemed to sigh: "It's a pity that there is nothing in Zone E now. When Zone E was full of young people in the early years, it was just as prosperous and expensive as Zone A. It's a pity that now only we old things live here."
"We are old, our energy isn't what it used to be when we could work seven or eight jobs a day, so we can't make much money. High-consumption places like hospitals and schools can't stay open, and they all moved away a few years ago. In these past few years, there aren't even a few restaurants left nearby." The old grandfather shook his head.
"Even hospitals and schools will move away?" Mu Shicheng was surprised. "You can't rent houses here; they should have bought storefronts to run hospitals and schools, right? How can they move?"
The old grandfather nodded: "Of course, they have to move if they can't keep the business going. Those people who run hospitals and schools, although they charge very high fees, we aren't unable to understand. The mortgage for buying a storefront to do business is very high. The people in the hospitals and schools are also living very bitterly. For every fifty dollars they earn, thirty-eight dollars have to be used to pay off the mortgage."
"The restaurants are the same. A dish is seventy dollars, and sixty-five dollars have to be used to pay off the mortgage. Business is hard to do, so hard." The old grandmother nodded in agreement. "Everyone is just making a little hard-earned money. If they really can't keep going and can't pay the mortgage, they can only die. Once they die, the property is reclaimed. Isn't that the same as moving away?"
Mu Shicheng opened his mouth to say something, but in the end, he couldn't say anything.
Very quickly, the old grandfather cheered up again: "However, although the supporting facilities in Zone E are not very good now, the houses in Zone E still have one good point."
A look of fortune also appeared on the old grandmother's face: "It's a good thing we bought early, otherwise we would have to be 'gnawing on the young' (a play on 啃老 'gnawing on the old'/being a NEET) now."
The old grandfather also nodded solemnly and evaluated with disdain, his whiskers shaking on both sides: "Yes, this batch of young people now, they don't do anything, but they want to live well and want a good house. They don't strive or fight; they only know how to 'gnaw on the young'. It's really detestable!"
"What is 'gnawing on the young'?" Mu Shicheng was a bit confused. "What next generation?"
The old grandfather glanced at this group of young people who didn't know anything and explained good-naturedly: "It refers to the property rights period."
"The houses in Zone E were bought early, so the property rights period was a hundred years, which means you can live in that house for nearly a hundred years, so we were able to take out a seventy-year loan. But now the real estate developers are unwilling to give such a long property rights period."
"Yes." The old grandmother nodded. "I remember it seems to be only a twenty-year property rights period. After twenty years, the real estate developer will reclaim it, so the loan must be paid off within twenty years. The monthly mortgage payment is very high, and many young people can't afford it without 'gnawing on the young'."
Tang Erda, next to them, frowned: "What is 'gnawing on the young'?"
He had only heard of 啃老 (gnawing on the old) and had never heard of 啃小 (gnawing on the young).
The old grandfather looked at this group of young people who didn't know anything, hesitated, and then spoke: "It means pre-advancing the future, letting your future children help you pay off the loan. It's a new mortgage model developed by real estate developers five years ago."
"If you are interested, a new real estate project just opened in Zone C today. You can go there and ask."
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Zone C New Real Estate Project.
The magnificent Real Estate Sales Center landed three days ago, and countless people had gone to inquire about it. Now that it had finally opened, a group of people rushed in like hungry people who had smelled a feast after starving for ten days.
Standing on both sides of the entrance were patrol teams with fierce expressions, holding firearms, high-voltage electric batons, and steel forks to maintain order.
Yuan Guang and Shi Qian were completely swept into the sales center by the surging crowd. After entering, the two of them were stunned for a few seconds from the crushing pressure. It took a while before they regained their senses.
There were simply too many people coming to the new real estate project, far exceeding the expectations of Yuan Guang and Shi Qian. They had only come here after hearing the news to take a look; after all, the price of the new real estate project was terrifyingly high, and it was simply not something they could afford with only sixty million in their hands.
However, compared to auctioning haunted houses one by one, where it wasn't certain that every house could be auctioned off, buying a new real estate project should be the most stable, accurate, and ruthless way to clear the game.
Originally, Yuan Guang and Shi Qian thought that such an expensive new real estate project wouldn't attract many people to come and see it because they simply couldn't afford it. As a result, when they arrived, there was already a long line at the entrance of the Real Estate Sales Center before it even opened.
The people in the queue were a mixed bag, with all kinds of people. Yuan Guang and Shi Qian saw well-dressed upper-class people who looked like first-class citizens. There were also mortgage slave clans with sallow complexions who were teetering on the edge, and some temporary residents who still had resumes hanging on their chests and were barely dressed.
This extremely mixed crowd structure made Yuan Guang and the others even more confused.
Why would first-class citizens buy a house if they already had one? Why would mortgage slaves who were currently paying off their loans come to the new real estate project, and could they even afford it? Temporary residents didn't have the ability to pay off loans at all, let alone save up for a down payment. Why would they come to take a look?
By the time they were swept into the crowd, before they could even regain their senses, an enthusiastic sales agent helped them up, smiling and asking politely: "Hello, are you here to buy a house?"
Yuan Guang was a bit flattered when he was helped up: "Yes, yes."
The real estate-related NPCs here were all incredibly arrogant and high-and-mighty. Once they saw that your clothes meant you couldn't afford the cost of buying a house, they couldn't wait to look down their noses at you and wave their hands impatiently like they were driving away flies. Yuan Guang had thought the sales NPCs at the sales office would be even more judgmental, but he didn't expect their attitude to be so good.
"Is this your first time coming to the real estate market? Would you like to look at the location and position first? I am a sales agent No. 1534 in Zone C, Xiaodong. If you have any questions, you can ask me." Xiaodong smiled like a flower, her hands moving quickly to help Shi Qian and Yuan Guang sit down. "Is there any drink or tea you would like to have?"
Yuan Guang said vigilantly: "Cola, do you have it?"
Shi Qian: "Chrysanthemum tea is fine, thank you."
Xiaodong nodded with a smile and tapped the microphone on her ear: "Please prepare a cola and a chrysanthemum tea for me. Alright, I'll go get them for you. Please wait a moment."
Watching Xiaodong's departing back, Shi Qian and Yuan Guang quickly observed the situation around them and found that the sales agents were very enthusiastic toward house owners, mortgage slaves, and temporary residents alike, as if they were all potential customers and everyone could afford to buy a house.
Shi Qian said calmly, "So enthusiastic, there must be something wrong when things are so contrary to the norm. Let's ask in detail later."
Yuan Guang nodded heavily.
Xiaodong came over quickly with a tray. She handed the cola and chrysanthemum tea to Shi Qian and Yuan Guang, respectively, and opened the real estate project map to introduce it to them: "What style of house are you looking for this time?"
"We have small-sized units here, 12–16 square meters, very suitable for a family of three to live in. After removing the common area, there is still more than 11 square meters left, which is the choice of many families of three."
"Of course, if you have a need to raise more children, the 20–25 square meter unit type is also highly recommended. After removing the common area, you can still have 20+ square meters, which is enough to accommodate three to four brothers and sisters."
"For example, this unit type—when renovating, you can design two folding beds and one invisible bed, plus a large bookshelf to block the parents' and children's beds. You can only see each other's feet and not each other's heads, so there is privacy between you."
Xiaodong showed a slightly teasing smile here: "And this won't affect your husband-and-wife life."
Yuan Guang and Shi Qian looked blankly at that little house of over 20 square meters. A large bookshelf was squeezed between the parents and the children, and they could see each other's feet. Under such circumstances, they still had to engage in husband-and-wife life...
Moreover, there was a man and a woman next to Yuan Guang and Shi Qian who were also looking at that unit type. They nodded in agreement after hearing this: "Yes, there is more privacy this way. Our previous one was 12 square meters, and all three children could only sit on the floor and watch us crawl under the covers. Both my wife and I couldn't stand it."
Shi Qian, who was drinking water next to them, almost sprayed it out upon hearing this.
Big brother, your three children are watching you, and you can still perform with your wife. Is there something wrong with you?!
However, the sales agent's eyes lit up when she heard this: "You have three children?"
The man nodded slightly with restraint: "Yes, we came here this time also because of the children…"
The sales agent smiled even more amicably: "Since you have three children, you can consider this 28-square-meter large unit type…"
The two sides exchanged words and walked farther and farther away. Shi Qian looked around with a hint of doubt. She finally discovered what was wrong—
—Most of the people who came to buy houses were a man and a woman, and many were carrying several children, with a few having only one or two children. Moreover, the focus of most sales agents when introducing unit types was also on being able to accommodate children.
A little... strange.
In Sunny City, Shi Qian asked herself, she would definitely not want to get married or have children, but the people here had a high willingness to reproduce. It could be seen from the most popular unit types that most people asked about the 25-square-meter unit type that could accommodate three children as soon as they arrived.
Xiaodong introduced all the unit types, and her gaze swept back and forth between Yuan Guang and Shi Qian: "Do you two have no plans to get married and have children yet?"
Yuan Guang and Shi Qian were both stunned. Having been colleagues for many years, in reality, as corporate slaves who had encountered unfinished buildings and game events, they had long since seen through everything and had no such worldly desires for the opposite sex.
No matter how good their relationship was, any change in feelings would only be from friends to family. Since they had never considered this issue, being suddenly asked this, they were a bit at a loss.
Yuan Guang was about to say no, but was stopped by Shi Qian, who quickly covered his mouth. She had already discovered that the problem lay with the children. So, she raised her eyes to face the sales agent, pretending to be shy: "...Yes, I am preparing to have three children for him."
Yuan Guang, who had just finished a whole can of cola, opened his eyes wide and burped in terror.
Xiaodong understood: "Since the two of you have plans to have children, then I will introduce a brand-new loan service that our Sunny City Real Estate has developed to make it easier for everyone to buy a house—Sunny Seedling Loan."
Shi Qian took back her hand and asked intently: "What kind of loan is this?"
"Many people living in Sunny City will never be able to afford the down payment for a house in their lifetime. For example, this 25-square-meter unit, at the current average price of 320,000 per square meter, is 8 million. Sunny Seedling Loan requires a minimum 50% down payment, which is 4 million. The remaining amount needs to be paid off over twenty years. Not counting interest, it's 16,000 per month. Most families can afford this, and then they can buy a house."
Shi Qian couldn't help but refute: "How can a loan have no interest?"
Xiaodong smiled: "The Sunny Seedling Loan pushed by our company does not require interest."
Yuan Guang shook his head: "It won't work even without interest. A 4 million down payment is too high. How many people can afford it?"
"That is the ingenuity of the Sunny Loan." The enthusiastic smile on Xiaodong's face deepened. "Sunny Seedling Loan provides a service that accepts children for advance mortgage loans."
Yuan Guang didn't react for a moment: "What mortgage loan?"
"Children," Xiaodong repeated it again word for word. She took out a contract and introduced it with a smile, "It's like this: suppose you can only afford a down payment of 1 million, then you can let your children sign a labor contract with our real estate company for the remaining 3 million, letting them use their future labor to offset it. For example, with three children, each of them only needs to offset 1 million in wages."
Yuan Guang looked down at the labor contract Xiaodong handed him:
[...Party A promises that when their offspring are sixteen years old and have labor capacity, they will enter Party B's company to work twelve hours a day. Party B promises to provide a monthly wage of 3,500 (average wage level), while simultaneously deducting 80% of Party A's offspring's monthly wage to repay the mortgage until Party A's offspring have paid off the mortgage debt collateralized by Party A.]
Yuan Guang felt a chill run down his spine. He slowly raised his head, his brain feeling dizzy for a moment: "Eighty percent of their wages are deducted to repay the loan, and they still have to work twelve hours a day without any rest time. How are the children supposed to live then?"
"That is not a problem for you to worry about," Xiaodong said with an indifferent smile. "Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. As parents, didn't you give birth to them just to let them raise the house for you, so you can enjoy your own blessings?"
"Besides, if you are worried that your children will live tiredly, they themselves can also have children in the future to enjoy blessings."
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Author's Note:
This chapter's content references the Japanese real estate market.
The average age for paying off a home mortgage in Japan has already risen to 73, and banks have increased the maximum mortgage term to 85. Many people have already shouted slogans about mortgage terms being too high, leaving the next generation to pay off the mortgage.