Chapter 617: A New Home in Silicon Valley (Part 1)
Chapter 617: A New Home in Silicon Valley (Part 1)
'Do you feel like you've travelled through time?' Feng Yiping asked Huang Jingping, who was holding onto his arm tightly.
They had departed from the capital airport on the afternoon of the 20th of July, and after a flight of more than ten hours, they had arrived at San Francisco airport, which meant they had returned to the morning of the 20th.
Huang Jingping did not answer his question. This was her first time stepping foot on foreign soil, and she was a little nervous.
Just like a child on their first day at kindergarten, she held onto Feng Yiping's arm tightly.
Her eyes were really a little overwhelmed. She had only indirectly learned about the United States through books, newspapers, magazines, the internet, movies and TV dramas, and now that she had finally set foot in the country, she was eager to experience it for herself.
However, this legendary American airport doesn't seem to be very impressive.
Then she sniffed, 'The smell,' the smell is not very good either.
Now that she is in a foreign country, surrounded by foreigners with strong body odours, even if they wear perfume, the lingering smell in this hot summer still makes her feel a little uncomfortable.
'After living here for a while and eating this food all the time, I guess you will be the same,' Feng Yiping scares her.
'Ah, I don't want to,' she seemed to really believe this.
This child, so simple.
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'Hello Feng, hello Miss Huang,' Comrade Mike waved happily, 'welcome to the United States,'
he wasn't alone this time either, he had brought his family with him as well, it was a blonde woman dressed in a formal manner, 'this is my wife, Lisa,'
'Hello, welcome,'
Huang Jingping greeted them in a slightly awkward manner in fairly fluent English, but at least she let go of Feng Yiping's arm.
'Feng, your girlfriend is really pretty,' Mrs. Mike praised.
'Thank you, Lisa, you have a great figure,' Huang Jingping said sincerely.
From our oriental aesthetic point of view, Lisa is at best of average appearance, but her figure is well-proportioned and well-maintained.
What is particularly outstanding is the size of her family's child, which is quite large.
Her clothes are obviously high-end, and she is wearing a necklace, earrings, brooch and rings. However, overall, she is still no match for the years that have taken their toll on her, and there is really no way to compare her to Huang Jingping, who is wearing only a necklace and a very Chinese-style floral dress.
As the hosts, Mike and his wife were catering to their boss and his girlfriend, so they were very accommodating. As they chatted, Huang Jingping warmed up to them and her English became more and more fluent.
In fact, she had been studying it for several years, and her level was actually quite good. Although she would get confused in grammar again and again, what did it matter?
This time, Mike had learned from his mistakes and had not rented a car. He drove a large car with a child safety seat in the back seat, which Lisa must have driven a lot.
'Are we going to stay at a hotel tonight or at home?' Mike asked.
'Didn't you say that everything is in place at home? Why stay at a hotel?' Feng Yiping asked. They were looking forward to staying in their first home in the United States.
'Although we have prepared quite a lot, we will definitely need to buy a lot of things. We don't know if you like the bedding we bought, so Mike and I think you should spend today at the hotel to get over the jet lag, and then go shopping tomorrow to buy more things before moving in,' said Lisa.
This seemed to be a bit of a brag, 'It's okay, it's just for sleeping anyway, so it's better to be at home and feel at ease,'
'Feng, you've caught a good time,' Mike said. "It's a rare buyer's market, and you were able to buy such a suitable house at such a good price.'
'I've always been lucky," Feng Yiping said, holding Huang Jingping's hand.
Before March last year, due to the boom in the internet industry, houses around Silicon Valley were also being speculated on by those nouveau riches. Then the bubble burst, and a lot of people, a month ago, were worried about having too much money and not knowing how to spend it, and a month later, they were completely bankrupt.
The house Feng Yiping bought was, to be precise, a half-finished building.
A friend of Feng's, 25 years old and fresh out of university, had founded a company that was valued at over 300 million yuan during the boom, even before it went public. Investors from all walks of life were queuing up to send money his way.
As is the practice in China, the money came too quickly and too easily, and of course he didn't want to rent a room anymore.
So he bought a plot of land on top of a hill with a nice view and prepared to build a luxury house himself. Little did he know that before the house was even finished, the market suddenly changed. His company, like those other .com companies, simply went bankrupt and wound up within two months as investors withdrew their capital.
What's even more tragic is that most of the Silicon Valley upstarts, like him, had lost everything at this point, and no one wanted to be the one to take over. That's when Feng Yiping, a comrade from across the ocean, picked up the bargain in the name of helping others.
After all, the design plan and construction team were readily available, so as long as he continued to pour money into the project, he would be fine.
The house is located on top of a hill between Redwood City, the county seat of San Mateo County, and Palo Alto, where Stanford is located. It is said to have an open view and excellent scenery. To the west, you can see most of Silicon Valley, and to the east, the San Francisco Bay Area. It meets Feng Yiping's requirements of facing the sea from the mountain very well.
It wasn't just that the house was a perfect fit and a great bargain, but also that he had to renovate a house in Atherton, a Silicon Valley hotspot, where the elite gathered. He would be able to hear the voices of the big shots from all walks of life, see them when he looked up or when he looked down, and happily be neighbours in the hope of future cooperation.
The trees along the mountain road are very tall, and the mountains are unusually cool. As they winded up the wide driveway along the mountains, Huang Jingping looked at the mansions on both sides, hidden among the trees, and although they didn't say a word, they grabbed Feng Yiping's hand tighter and tighter. Feng Yiping was the same, very much looking forward to it. How could the feeling be the same when looking at a picture and the real thing?
'We're here,' Mike said, pointing to the top of the hill in front of them. As the large car climbed the last stretch of the mountain road, a large, stylish and avant-garde house with an overall grey-green colour scheme and a lot of glass on the exterior walls came into view.
'Not bad, huh?' Mike said with a smile.
'Very nice,' Feng Yiping nodded with satisfaction. This could be said to be his dream home, and of course, it would be even better if the whole thing could be moved to Fengjiachong.
In front of the house was a large lawn, to the left of the house was a tennis court, and in the backyard was a large swimming pool. The total area was 13,000 square feet, the building area was 7,120 square feet, there were six bedrooms, six bathrooms, as well as a gym and sauna. Back home, this would definitely be considered a manor.
Don't be fooled by the big numbers, it's measured in square feet, and 10 square feet is only close to one square metre, which means it only covers nearly two mu. There are still houses like this in China.
But there is one thing that you cannot buy with money in China, and that is privacy.
In Feng Yiping's villa in the capital, his neighbours can see everything he does in the courtyard or on the second-floor balcony. Here, even if the two of them 'fight' on the lawn in front of the house, no one can see.
According to Feng Yiping, the interior decoration is dominated by beige and white, simple, atmospheric and warm, and the furniture is also dominated by these two colours, simple and avant-garde.
Sitting in the open-plan ground floor hall of his new home, Feng Yiping really feels quite carefree and happy.
Michael pointed to a huge painting on the wall – Feng Yiping couldn't understand what it was trying to express. In his opinion, it was just two big blobs of black ink on white paper with constantly changing colours. 'This is our gift to you,'
'Thank you very much, I love it,'
'Oh, I forgot something. Let's go and show you the car you ordered,'
'Right, how could I have forgotten that?'