Selling the House?

Chapter 67 Selling the House?

"Ancestors—I, your unfilial son Han Xueheng, have truly failed your trust—the Northwest Weapons Research Institute, that is my lifeline—I—I have truly reached a dead end—"

He pressed his forehead against the brick floor, nodding his head repeatedly with a dull thud.

Han Xueheng recalled that the merchant was only willing to offer 5000 yuan to buy his jade plate. He knew in his heart that the other party had taken advantage of his urgent need for money.

Even so, he still wanted to give it one more try for the Northwest Weaponry Research Institute.

If the technology can be successfully handed over before the research institute is shut down, there might still be a glimmer of hope.

Now, although a buyer has been found who offered a higher price, it seems that selling the house is the only option left.

Han Xueheng rushed into the bedroom in a daze, rummaged through the closet, and finally found a faded blue cloth bag. When he opened it, he found two dark red hardcover booklets inside.

These two booklets are quite remarkable. One is the property deed for the family compound allocated by his work unit in the city, and the other is the land deed for this ancestral home. This is all he owns.

At this moment, Han Xueheng's fingers trembled involuntarily. He gently stroked the two deeds one last time, then pushed open the creaking old wooden door and rushed out.

"Old Zhang! Wait a minute!"

The buyer, who was about to get into the car, heard the shouts behind him, a sly smile appeared on his lips, and he slowly turned around.

"Old Han, have you figured it out?"

Han Xueheng slammed the two red booklets onto the roof of the car, his voice hoarse and resolute.

"A house! A house in the city! And this jade plate, the total is—100,000! Cash only! Cash on delivery, contract signed at the same time!"

The other party took the booklet, looked at it carefully, and after confirming that there were no problems, suddenly laughed.

"Old Han, the market isn't doing too well right now."

"The bricks of your old house are almost crumbling; it will cost a lot of money to repair them."

"Besides, I know that apartment in the city is a tenement building without an elevator, so it's hard to resell!"

Seeing the other party blatantly trying to lower the price, Han Xueheng clenched his fists in anger.

"What do you mean by that?"

What I mean is, we've been neighbors for a long time, so I have no reason to cheat you.

"How about this, I'll take a loss and offer a flat price of 50,000. If you agree, we can sign the contract right away, okay?"

"fifty thousand?"

Han Xueheng was so angry that his body was trembling.

He knew in his heart that this was taking advantage of his urgent need for money and deliberately trying to drive down the price to the bone.

But for the sake of the Northwest Weaponry Research Institute, he gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words with great difficulty.

"Fifty thousand it is, deal."

Upon hearing this, the other party beamed with joy and quickly opened the trunk of the car, taking out five thick stacks of cash.

"Okay, shall we go in and sign the papers?"

At that moment, Han Xueheng felt as if all the strength in his body had been drained away.

Meanwhile, on the highway leading from the provincial capital to the northwest, a military jeep was driving.

Sitting in the back seat, Wu Zu was holding a brown paper bag containing half a roast duck that had been eaten. He was dozing off with his head resting on Liu Xuelan's shoulder.

Wu Guodong's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down.

"Um!"

Looking at the night view outside the car window, he recalled what Zhen Yingquan had said on the phone and couldn't help but hum a little tune.

Just then, he suddenly saw a bright light ahead. Upon closer inspection, he could clearly see the words "Public Telephone" on it.

Wu Guodong's eyes lit up, and he immediately stepped on the brakes, bringing the car to a slow stop.

The sound of the car made Wu Zu open his eyes.

"Oh no, I actually fell asleep!"

Liu Xuelan frowned and said to Wu Guodong with a hint of resentment.

"Why did you stop again?"

Wu Guodong turned his head, smiled, and pointed to the telephone booth in the distance.

"I couldn't hold back any longer and wanted to share this good news with them, so I'm going to make a call."

Upon hearing this, Liu Xuelan rolled her eyes.

"You really can't keep secrets. Go and come back quickly!"

"hey-hey!"

Wu Guodong pushed open the car door and ran quickly toward the phone booth.

A short while later, he dialed the duty room of the Northwest Weapon Research Institute.

"Hey? Is this Xiao Zhao from the duty room? This is Wu Guodong! Has Dean Han returned yet?"

"Engineer Wu? Dean Han received a phone call early this morning and then rushed out. It seems he said he went back to his hometown."

""

My hometown? Hanjiazhai!

Wu Guodong's heart skipped a beat, and a strong sense of unease welled up inside him.

Why would Lao Han go back to his hometown for no reason?

His heart tightened, and he immediately dialed the phone again.

In the ancestral home of Hanjiazhai, the lamp on the table in the side room flickered on and off.

The buyer, Lao Zhang, had already written the sales contract, which was laid out on the table, with the stamp, stained with red ink, placed to the side.

He was smugly picking up the gold fountain pen, preparing to hand it to the dazed Han Xueheng for his signature.

Suddenly, a sharp telephone ring broke the silence.

As if electrocuted, Han Xueheng reflexively got up and stumbled toward the old-fashioned black crank telephone in the corner of the main room, grabbing the heavy receiver.

"Feed? Who?!"

"Old Han! It's me! Wu Guodong!"

A familiar voice came through the receiver, and even through the microphone, one could feel the barely suppressed excitement.

"Guodong?"

Han Xueheng was momentarily dazed. "Why did you call me?"

"I'm calling to tell you good news!"

Wu Guodong's voice trembled with excitement on the other end of the phone, and he didn't bother with polite small talk.

Han Xueheng couldn't help but sigh, "What good news could there be now? Unless the research institute gets reapproved."

"Haha, Lao Han, I didn't expect you to actually guess right!"

"What?"

Han Xueheng's eyes widened as he looked at the microphone in disbelief. "What did you just say?"

"Ahem!"

Wu Guodong cleared his throat on the other end of the phone: "The research institute is saved! Listen carefully! Dean Zhen personally signed a special approval document, and the higher-ups have agreed to give us a special budget, giving us another chance!"

"It's saved?!"

Han Xueheng stood there, holding the receiver, stunned, as if struck by a thunderbolt!

His wrinkled eye twitched, and his voice trembled slightly, "You—you're not kidding me, are you?"

"It's absolutely true! I swear to you!"

Immediately afterwards, Wu Guodong recounted everything that had happened at the Provincial Research Institute that afternoon, pouring out his story like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.

At that moment, Han Xueheng was completely stunned, and then he suddenly burst into laughter.

The buyers nearby frowned when they saw Han Xueheng's happy expression.

"Old Han? Are you going to sign the contract or not? Have you finished your calls? I'm in a hurry to get back to the city for a late-night snack!"

"Sign my ass!!!"

Han Xueheng slammed down the phone and roared at the other party, "Get the hell out of my house right now! I never want to see you again! Get out!"

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