National Tide 1980.

Before Black Monday, Zhao Hanyu and Mi Xiaoran had actually been living 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 his grandson Zhao Enxia, ​​and his English name was given by Mi Xiaoran, Tim.

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

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

Salaries and bonuses also nearly doubled.

The boss of the company had already talked to him. In addition to congratulating him on having his own child, he also decided 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 can satisfy old customers and maintain his current good reviews from customers, the boss will even consider promoting him and making him the head of the department team.

It can be said that all of 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 happiest time in their married life, perhaps even happier than when they first got married.

Because even though Mi Xiaoran had no one to take care of her during the confinement period after giving birth in the United States, she still had to take care of the child and do the housework, and was 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.

Up to now, they have become truly independent in their lives, and they no longer need financial support from the Zhao family. Mi Xiaoran no longer needs to do odd jobs to earn money.

In this way, Mi Xiaoran felt free both spiritually and materially.

You know, the Zhao family is so busy with their restaurant business that they don’t even have 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 has not met the Zhao family.

Just think about it, you don’t have to worry about the faces of your parents-in-law and brother and sister-in-law, and you can just live your own life.

Moreover, because the first child was a boy, she became a meritorious person who helped the Zhao family to expand. Her mother-in-law smiled and took the initiative to give her a big red envelope of two thousand dollars.

What else does Mi Xiaoran have to care about at this time?

After being discharged from the hospital, of course I devoted myself wholeheartedly to my small family, and my main responsibility every day was to take care of the housework and expenses.

She had already passed the driving test and even used the money given by her mother-in-law, plus a little family savings, to buy herself a second-hand Toyota Corolla. Now she had freedom in transportation and no longer had to take the bus, subway, or wait for her husband's special car.

This way, when she occasionally has some free time in the afternoon, she will have the mood and time to push the stroller around the streets, such as the bustling Fifth Avenue.

She would walk along the shop windows, looking at things that she had ignored out of guilt.

Sometimes I go to the maternity and baby store to buy some daily necessities and small clothes for my baby.

On weekends, the family of three usually goes to New York's Central Park or the New York Aquarium, and then eats out at a restaurant together.

Wherever they go, it seems that there are people around them who look at them with friendly eyes that are viewed by the middle class.

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

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

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

This incident made Zhao Hanyu feel quite guilty, and he felt that he had not considered it carefully enough.

For this reason, he repeatedly promised Mi Xiaoran that when the children grew up, he would take them on vacation abroad, to Vienna, Munich, to 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 should buy a house of their own so that she and her children could live a more comfortable life.

Needless to say, this idea completely shocked Mi Xiaoran.

"buy 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 that much money?"

"I'm not crazy. To buy a house in the United States, the down payment is only 5%. We have about 20,000 dollars in savings now. That means we can definitely afford a house worth 400,000 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 left. How are we going to make ends meet?"

"Don't worry about that. I still have a credit card. And you don't need to pay rent if you buy a house. Besides, bank interest rates are low now, and my income has increased, so I can fully afford the mortgage interest. Don't worry, my income will get higher and higher. When I get a promotion at the end of the year, we can pay off the principal in advance. It won't affect our lives."

"But, but, I still think it's too early, right? Didn't a news program on TV say that at least half of people under the age of 35 don't have their own house? I've gotten used to living here. Isn't it nice here?"

"NONONO, let me tell you, others are others, and 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. Originally, you didn't know how to drive, 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, let's move to a quiet and spacious place, with a building with a lawn, a yard and a basement, where we can not only put a swing for our children, but even raise a dog, how about it? Can you imagine the scene of our family of three playing with our children in the yard on weekends? That's life..."

"Oh, Hanyu, please stop tempting me. The scene you described is indeed beautiful, but we have to face the fact that this is too much for our current financial situation. You only have more than 20,000 yuan in cash, and you want to buy your own house? You are crazy! Don't always be so idealistic. You will never be satisfied. We are still young, let's stabilize for a while before we talk about it."

All in all, although Mi Xiaoran admired Zhao Hanyu's romance, she did not dare to demand too much from life because she came from a poor family.

So even though she thought the picture Zhao Hanyu described to her was beautiful, after thinking about it, she 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. What's more, he had his own reasons.

"My dear, this is America, and 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 were like your country, where you have to save enough money before you can buy anything, we would never have our own house in our lifetime. Don't be so old-fashioned like those old overseas Chinese, 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 a rule for nearby enrollment, and parents must respect their children's ideas after they become independent, so it is usually the children's own choice of which university to go to. But elementary and middle schools are different. They are all nearby. 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 waiting anxiously."

"Also, don't get too hung up on money. Look at how expensive the rent is downtown. Such a small apartment costs $1,200 a month. If we buy our own house, we can save this money, which can be used to pay off the mortgage. And I've done some research. In recent years, housing prices in New York have been rising. Buying a house is not only for living, but also for investment, and it will appreciate in value. The house and the land can't be moved away. It's always something that's there. It's more cost-effective than saving money. Putting money in the bank to earn that little bit of interest? Only a fool would do that. Investing in stocks? It's not very safe, and buying the wrong stock is no joke. Houses are better. If we need money one day, we can just resell it. We won't lose much. We might even make some money."

Zhao Hanyu's analysis was well-reasoned and not only explained the cultural differences, but also dispelled Mi Xiaoran's anxiety about economic pressure.

In any case, 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 point is that he also brought up the children's education as an issue.

What parent in the world doesn’t consider their children?
Mi Xiaoran, who has never attended a key school since childhood, 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 the optical zone room was enough to impress her.

So she agreed to Zhao Hanyu's idea without further ado.

Next, they began the process of selecting and viewing houses, which should be said to be a very pleasant process.

Almost all owner-occupied houses in the United States are detached 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, basic infrastructure such as police stations, supermarkets, gas stations, hospitals, and restaurants are relatively convenient and only take about ten minutes to drive away.

Moreover, new houses in the United States are all ready-made, with carpets laid inside, painted walls, and equipped with a full set of equipment such as refrigerators, ovens, water heaters, etc. Except for being a little far from the city, these houses have no defects.

For Mi Xiaoran, driving with her husband and her children to look at houses was like a journey to inspect her beautiful future life.

According to those real estate agents, there is only better, not best, when it comes to their future family life.

So they couldn't help but be tempted, and soon they chose a two-story building called Bili Town.

The house was in a good location, just a little further from Hoboken, and was well built. It only took forty-five minutes to drive to Manhattan, which was closer to Midtown than other communities that usually took an hour to get there.

Moreover, 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 well-known good school with 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 of rent, which was quite cost-effective.

In particular, he used a calculator to roughly calculate several times and found that there was no problem in balancing the income and expenditure.

So in September, they bought the house for a total price of nearly $220,000, and soon gave up the lease and moved into their new home.

For this reason, before the house was cleaned up, Mi Xiaoran couldn't help but take a lot of photos of the house with her camera, and wrote letters to send them back to her relatives far away in Beijing.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

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

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

A house, a car, a loving husband, lovely children...

Now she has it all.

What more does a woman need?

This was the perfect life for her.

She no longer misses her home at all. The small bungalow in Shaner Hutong, where the two sisters used to sleep in the same bed, cannot be compared with this Western-style villa with its own garden.
All the hesitation and regret she had felt before had now vanished, and she had undoubtedly made the right choice.

For Zhao Hanyu, a successful career and a happy family are his greatest rewards.

He had no further hopes for his life other than to have a few more children and a dog.

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

But is life really that simple?

Will God really always favor them and let everything go smoothly for them?

The answer is no.

Mi Xiaoran would never have imagined that her ancestors' frugal and thrifty lifestyle seemed so 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 occur and can ensure the safety and stability of life to the greatest extent.

She never imagined that when she voluntarily gave up the Chinese way of thinking, 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.

Immediately afterwards, news of the stock market crash came one after another in newspapers and on television.

Not long after, news came out about businesses of all sizes going bankrupt.

Rockefeller's transfer, Brumideo's change of ownership, and the bankruptcy of real estate tycoon Trump filled the news programs.

It seems that in just a few days, the United States has become a country on the verge of collapse and without hope.

There was no good news on TV or in the newspapers.

Corporate auction.

The commercial building was sealed.

The factory was taken away by the government.

Even those once-powerful big automobile companies and airlines have gone bankrupt and closed down one after another.

Thousands of unsold cars were lined up on the huge dock at Port Elizabeth, stretching as far as the eye could see.

There are mountains of home appliances and big discounts everywhere.

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

The bosses' faces were expressionless and the pedestrians on the street all stopped smiling.

As a result, more and more people began to recall the Great Depression of 1929, and no American could remain indifferent.

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

It can even be said that at this time, they still believed that they could escape unscathed from this disaster and would not be greatly affected.

It was not until November 11, when Zhao Hanyu came to his company to work and received the news that the company had been sold by the boss, that he realized how naive he was.

His boss went bankrupt due to the stock market crash and could only repay his debts by transferring the company.

That’s 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 get a promotion and a raise at the end of the year, became unemployed.

When he packed up his things and left the company with a check for $11,000, his heart was filled with frustration and confusion about the future.

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

He is a father of a child, and this check is not enough to support his family for two months.

For this reason, he sat in the car in a daze and didn't start the car.

As a result, something even worse happened.

Because at this moment, on the rooftop, a man jumped from the 20th floor because of an unpayable financial debt.

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 a large crowd of onlookers.

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

How could she have imagined that her American dream was as fragile as a colorful bubble, which was shattered by a stock market crash. (End of this chapter)