The pressure was too much. Things would have been fine the year before, when both of them had jobs. But Xuanxuan's mother had suddenly fallen ill—uterine cancer. Xuanxuan had quit her job to care for her mother. Now the two of them were living off his salary alone.
Gu Chen quietly listened to Zhai Xingguo talk. He himself was a man of few words, so he simply led Zhai Xingguo around the apartment, looking over every corner and repeatedly asking for his opinions. He had Zhai Xingguo imagine how they would decorate the place after moving in and how they would live there. This got Zhai Xingguo talking enthusiastically, even starting to fantasize about their daily life after moving in.
Gu Chen then asked where Zhai Xingguo worked. After Zhai Xingguo gave him the address, Gu Chen said calmly, "That's quite good. If you buy a place here, your commute will only be two stops. You'll save a lot of time."
Zhai Xingguo nodded. "It is quite good."
As he spoke, he unconsciously touched his briefcase again. Everything was great, except there was too little money in his pocket.
Seeing that the time was ripe, Gu Chen began calculating the mortgage for Zhai Xingguo. Zhai Xingguo had a housing provident fund, and with a thirty-year loan, his monthly payment would be a little over thirty-two thousand yuan. Zhai Xingguo's annual salary was five hundred thousand yuan. Including his year-end bonus, he made only around five hundred and fifty to six hundred thousand a year. That also depended on how well the company performed. In other words, if Zhai Xingguo bought this apartment, then after paying the mortgage and deducting the annual property and management fees, he would have less than ten thousand yuan a month left for living expenses.
Even