The Grand Finale

Xu Xiaoyan ran down from the terrace and checked the first-floor bathroom, including the toilet, sink, and shower, and found that everything was installed properly.

He then ran to the kitchen and turned on the stove. The blue flames shot up quickly, steadily and evenly.

It wasn't until a commotion of voices outside the yard pulled her back to reality. When she went outside, she saw several people standing in the yard of the neighboring villa.

A middle-aged woman was seen squatting on the ground, covering her face and crying loudly.

"I... I was thinking that I would renovate the house myself and needed to set aside money for renovation, so I chose a townhouse in the South Second District, thinking that the price difference saved on the area would be enough for renovation."

Who knew...who knew this place was fully furnished and ready to move in! All the plumbing, electrical work, and kitchen cabinets were already done!

She slapped her thigh hard, her voice trembling with sobs:

"If we had known it would be like this, we should have chosen a bigger one, even if it meant paying more for construction! Now, we can live in the terraced house, but it makes us feel so suffocated!"

She cried her heart out, while the people around her tried to comfort her.

In everyone's past experience, after acquiring a piece of vacant land or a bare house, the renovation process is a long and expensive one.

Who would have thought that the government would take such a comprehensive approach this time, completing all the interior decorations and handing it over completely?

This completely overturned everyone's expectations and caused those who made careful choices to suffer heavy losses.

At this moment, several neighbors gathered around and started discussing it amongst themselves.

An elderly woman wearing a gray cardigan next to me said:

"If you think it's too small, then just pay more to exchange it for a bigger one."

As soon as she said this, the young man in the baseball cap sighed:

"The government's policy states that if you change the property within two years of the original purchase, you will need to pay a transaction tax of 8% of the total property value, which is a lot of money."

As soon as he finished speaking, several people around him nodded in agreement.

Another young woman with a low ponytail chimed in:

"My cousin's family was in the same situation. The couple discussed it over and over and decided that they should save the money they had for renovations, so they chose an 80-square-meter apartment in the South Third District."

My cousin was furious when she found out that we could move in with just our bags. She kept cursing the government for being inhumane, saying that her family of four would have to live in cramped conditions for at least two years.

As she spoke, she sighed, her expression complex, a mixture of sympathy for others and a hint of relief, clearly indicating that she had made the right choice.

Xu Xiaoyan stood on the periphery of the crowd, listening silently, her heart filled with mixed feelings.

Ultimately, it was because she had saved up five thousand yuan for construction, and she was inherently greedy, always feeling that every inch more land meant a greater possibility.

But now she truly realizes how many calculations she hadn't fully grasped at the time were hidden behind this seemingly simple decision.

Just as she was lost in thought, she felt a short vibration in her pocket. She took out her phone and saw a text message notification pop up on the screen.

"Welcome to Sky City. Starting today, the 'Sky City app' is now open. All users must register with their real names to log in. Users with the same name will have numbers added sequentially based on their registration information. The app will display the user's real name and ID photo."

Xu Xiaoyan stared at those few lines of text and read them over and over again, confirming that she had not misunderstood them, and her heart inexplicably skipped a few beats.

She quickly opened the app store, found the app, and clicked download. The progress bar scrolled rapidly at the top of the screen.

After installation, she clicked on "Personal Center" and the system immediately popped up the real-name authentication page.

The instructions on the page are very clear: Please enter your personal chip code. The system will perform facial recognition. Once the recognition is successful, real-name authentication will be completed.

After successful authentication, a complete electronic card was immediately generated on her personal information page.

At the top is her photo, the one captured during facial recognition, and below is her real name: Xu Xiaoyan.

What caught her attention most was the small gray-blue text next to the name: "No duplicate name".

In other words, there is only one Xu Xiaoyan in the entire Sky City registration system, and she does not need to add a number suffix to her name like other people with the same name.

She exited her personal information page, returned to the homepage, and clicked on the search icon that looked like a magnifying glass.

She first typed out the three characters "Wang Yuming" with her fingertips, and then clicked the search button.

A spinning loading circle popped up in the middle of the screen. The circle spun two and a half times and then stopped. A gray message appeared below: "No relevant users found".

She sighed and entered "Weng Beiyan", "Weng Nanque", "Xie Yingtang", "Wang Xiao", and "Lan Yue" into the search box. Without exception, all of them returned "no relevant users found".

Xu Xiaoyan stared at the line of text for a while, then suddenly realized that the app had only just been launched today, and they might not have even received the text message yet.

I was able to log in right now because I went to complete the replacement procedures as soon as possible.

Most people probably haven't even stepped into their new home yet, so why would they bother downloading an app and getting their real names verified?

Although the search results were all blank today, she felt a strange sense of certainty that one day, those names would appear in the search results one by one.

She put her phone back in her pocket. The golden sunlight in the yard had moved a little further forward and was now shining on the middle section of the bluestone path.

In the distance, the sound of firecrackers being set off by the newly moved-in residents could be heard, crackling and popping, mixed with the cheers and laughter of children.

A month later, Xu Xiaoyan's phone suddenly vibrated. She took it out and saw that it was a community announcement pushed by the "Sky City app" reminding residents to travel safely in the winter.

She swiped away the notification, and her fingertip clicked into the search box as if by magic. She habitually typed "Wang Yuming," and this time, an ID photo popped up on the screen.

Xu Xiaoyan froze in front of the window, staring at those three words for a long time, so long that the screen automatically dimmed, and she had to touch the screen to turn it back on.

After agreeing on a meeting time, she continued searching for other potential partners. Now that she had found the first one, wouldn't the second and third be far behind?

Xu Xiaoyan suddenly realized that this Sky City was home to countless people just like her, each carrying their own sense of loss and searching.

And now, those names will appear one after another, slowly, but they will definitely come!

(End of the article)