Financial freedom starts from graduation

Chapter 623 Choi Min-ah's Home

Kowloon Village, one of the largest shantytowns in Korea.

As Choi Man-yee walked through the irregular sloping alleyways, her LV coat, Hermes handbag, and the elaborate hairstyle she had done for HK$6,000 the day before leaving Macau all seemed out of place with the low, old, and uneven bungalows on either side.

The neighbors who occasionally came in and out would glance at her with a hint of surprise and uncertainty.

They felt that this incredibly beautiful girl looked somewhat familiar, but her wealthy heiress demeanor made them hesitant to approach her.

Choi Min-ah noticed the gazes, but pretended not to see them and simply walked over with her head slightly lowered.

If she had a choice, she would probably have Zhou Wang drop her off at the slope in front of her house before getting out of the car, but she knew how narrow the streets were and how difficult it was for a car to drive in...

She was also somewhat afraid that when Zhou Wang saw the dilapidated state of her house, he might show even the slightest hint of disgust.

At this moment, Choi Min-ah wanted to quicken her pace and get home as soon as possible, but the habits she had developed since childhood still made her resist returning to that home earlier.

After turning another corner, a commotion suddenly erupted from the alleyway ahead. Several teenagers were fighting near some trash cans... or rather, three of them were beating up another person.

The boy who was beaten was wearing a somewhat worn-out school uniform. His body was filthy from rolling around in the garbage heap, and he was covered in bruises. However, he didn't utter a sound and would occasionally fight back.

This undoubtedly led to an even more vicious beating from the boys with brightly colored hair.

Choi Min-ah glanced at it, intending to take a detour and leave quickly, but when she heard one of the boys cursing, her expression suddenly froze.

"Chenghuan, Chenghuan!"

Cui Min'er threw down her expensive bag and, no longer caring about carefully holding up her clothes, rushed over. She didn't know where she got the strength, but she pushed the boys aside, revealing a dirty face underneath that vaguely resembled her own.

The boy was stunned for a moment when he saw the beautiful and glamorous Cui Min'er appear in front of him, but he quickly glanced away and grabbed a beer bottle from the side with a fierce look in his eyes, wanting to rush up and fight with the three boys.

The three boys were stunned by Cui Min'er's appearance. Just as they were about to retaliate, several small stones suddenly flew from a distance and hit their heads and faces, causing them to cry out in pain.

Before they could react, more stones mixed with aluminum cans flew over, knocking them back repeatedly. Forget about fighting back, even keeping their footing was a problem.

Realizing something was wrong, the boys staggered to their feet and said a few harsh words in Korean to the boy named Seung-hwan, something like "I'll beat you every time I see you," before running away.

The boy, whose face was covered in scratches and whose nose was bleeding, still wanted to chase after them, but was held back tightly by Cui Min'er.

Cui Min'er glanced at the alleyway she had come from, and seemed to see a tall figure flash by. She knew that it was probably Zhou Wang's arrangement, so she felt relieved and turned to look at the boy in front of her.

"Chenghuan, why did you get into a fight... and at this hour, shouldn't you be in school?"

The boy in front of them, who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old, was named Choi Seung-hwan, and was Choi Min-ah's younger brother.

Faced with Choi Min-ah's question, Choi Seung-hwan remained silent, only glancing at the gold necklace peeking out from Choi Min-ah's fair neck before lowering his head, breaking free from Choi Min-ah's hand, and walking forward.

"Chenghuan, where are you going? Your home is over there..."

Choi Min-ah picked up her bag, brushed off the dust with a hint of heartache, and quickly chased after the dirty boy, trying to stop him.

Choi Seung-hwan completely ignored Choi Min-ah. Later, he noticed that Choi Min-ah was starting to pull on him forcefully. The boy also exerted force, and Choi Min-ah was caught off guard and staggered. She was fine, but a small tear appeared on the cuff of her coat.

Choi Min-ah was stunned for a moment.

This coat was bought in Australia a few days ago. It's LV's latest autumn/winter collection. Ordinary people need VIP status to buy it, but with Zhou Wang's LV rating, there was no such restriction. He just made a phone call, and the manager of the LV flagship store directly packed up this new model, which was originally just a sample for display, for Cui Min'er...

This coat is made of rare, seasonal leather and costs 22 RMB, making it Choi Min-ah's most expensive piece of clothing to date.

Those who have used such luxury clothing know that the texture is not bad, but the quality...

Domestic products costing a few hundred yuan can easily outperform it.

After all, luxury brands want to generate a continuous desire to buy from you. If a piece of clothing can be worn forever, then who will buy the hundreds of new styles they release every year?

Therefore, seeing that her new clothes, which she had only worn for one day, had been torn to shreds by Choi Seung-hwan, Choi Min-ah was both angry and anxious, and couldn't help but raise her hand and slap her younger brother on the head.

Although Choi Min-ah regretted it immediately after hitting him, the atmosphere became tense. Choi Seung-hwan paused for a moment, but didn't retaliate. He just growled at Choi Min-ah:
"I don't need your help!"

After saying that, Choi Seung-hwan pushed Choi Min-ah and ran away without looking back.

Cui Min'er had no strength left to chase after him. She could only open her mouth and stand still. After a long while, she adjusted her sleeves and turned to walk home in a daze.

While passing by a garbage dump, Choi Min-ah saw a backpack covered in stickers, lying alone next to a trash can.

Choi Min-ah recognized it as her old schoolbag, which she gave to Choi Seung-hwan after he started school. The sticker originally had a Sailor Moon design underneath, but Choi Seung-hwan was obviously embarrassed to carry such a schoolbag to school, so he bought a lot of stickers to cover up the design.

Although annoyed that her younger brother wouldn't listen to her, Choi Min-ah still went over and picked up the schoolbag. But when she picked it up, she noticed that the stickers were covered with messy writing.

The handwriting clearly wasn't done by one person, but the words put together were so shocking:

Your sister is a prostitute!

"A parasite that eats free lunchboxes every day!"

"Dumb!"

"That brat who gets punished to stand in the corner every day..."

Choi Min-ah was stunned.

She looked at the extremely insulting words, some of which seemed to have been scraped by a knife and become blurred, but the writing was layered and obviously not written in a single day.

Suddenly, Choi Min-ah felt a sharp pain in her heart and couldn't breathe. She roughly understood why her younger brother had fought with those teenagers. Overwhelmed by immense regret, tears streamed down her face. But when she turned around, Choi Seung-hwan was nowhere to be seen. After catching her breath against the wall, Choi Min-ah straightened up, clutching her dirty schoolbag tightly, and began to walk home.

……

The place where Choi Min-ah lived for more than ten years was at the very top of a slope.

All the shantytowns here are built against the mountain, but even in such a dense shantytown, the location of Cui Min'er's home is one of the worst.

The houses in the shantytown were not built under any planning, but were spontaneously constructed by the residents themselves on the available hillsides.

Choi Min-ah's parents moved in relatively late, so they didn't have many options and could only build their house on this deserted hilltop... This also meant that it would take them more time to walk in and out.

Many Korean dramas are filmed in shantytowns to depict real life, and many of the male and female leads come from such impoverished areas.

In those Korean dramas, the most direct way to show poverty seems to be that the male and female protagonists eat instant noodles every day... But their lives are still colorful, and even the main theme of Korean dramas is filled with a kind of color called romance.

But only Choi Min-ah, who has lived in such a place for many years, knows that the so-called romance has absolutely nothing to do with life here.

Here, there are all sorts of tangible and intangible comparisons among neighbors, boasting about whose daughter got married, and feeling jealous of whose son found a good job in Gangnam District. There's a cautiousness in not flaunting wealth, and a calculating wariness of one another...

But it lacked the warmth and romance found in TV dramas.

Of course, there may still be good people, but Choi Min-ah felt that everyone's life was already so difficult, who would bother to distinguish who was good and who was bad?
Choi Min-ah didn't have that kind of strength, so she dreamed of escaping from here since she was a child. Right next door, in Gangnam District, there was everything she longed for.

So when she met Park Woo-bin, she accepted his proposal almost without hesitation, and it took less than three months from when they got together to when they got engaged.

Her only intelligence, and the sense of defensiveness and shrewdness she developed from growing up in such an environment, allowed her to hold fast to her principles and not be swayed by Park Woo-bin's usual "small favors." Instead, she insisted on waiting until after marriage to give herself away completely.

Girls who come from such places with almost nothing have only "chastity" as their only bargaining chip.

Soon, Cui Min'er arrived at the tin-clad door. She rummaged through her bag for a while before remembering her old, worn-out key, which she had thrown away long ago when she left home, out of fear of embarrassment...

Cui Min'er remembered something, quickly rummaged through the crack in the door, found the spare key her parents had left there, and then opened the door and went inside.

There is no courtyard; once you open the door, you are greeted by a layout of "one living room and two bedrooms".

It's described as "one living room and two bedrooms," but the spaces are actually separated by simple sliding wooden boards. In the very center is a slightly larger "multifunctional master room," about 20 to 30 square meters.

During the day, this space serves as the family's living room and kitchen, as well as the main living area for the whole family. At night, it transforms into a bedroom for Cui Min'er's grandmother to rest in.

The other two smaller "bedrooms" were used by Choi Min-ah's parents in one room and by Choi Min-ah and Choi Seung-hwan for a long time in the other.

Later, when Choi Min-ah went to high school, after several protests, her parents finally paid extra to let her board at the high school, allowing her to temporarily escape that environment. When she had the opportunity to be an exchange student in her freshman year of college, she signed the application form without hesitation...

"A talented person?"

Perhaps hearing the noise at the door, an old voice came from inside.

"Juncai" is the name of Choi Min-ah's father. Choi Min-ah wasn't surprised to hear the voice, and simply responded loudly:
"Grandma, it's me!"

Soon, an old man came out from the inner room. He was clearly surprised to see Cui Min'er.

"Min'er, weren't you still in China? Why did you suddenly come back?"

Cui Min'er's grandmother came over, looked her over, quickly pulled her to sit down, and asked her if she was hungry and if she wanted her to cook her a bowl of instant noodles.

A warmth finally appeared in Cui Min'er's heart. Her parents were the most normal kind of parents in this kind of environment. They were somewhat snobbish and usually stingy. It was not that they did not love her, but Cui Min'er really found it difficult to feel much affection for such parents.

In this family, only her kind and gentle grandmother can make her feel the warmth of family affection.

However, after exchanging pleasantries for a while, Grandma suddenly remembered something, and she quickly got up and walked towards the old landline telephone next to her.

"I need to call your parents right away..."

"why?"

"They haven't been able to contact you lately, and they seem very anxious... Min'er, did you and your fiancé have a fight?"

Grandma picked up the phone and turned around to ask a few questions.

Cui Min'er uses a different phone card in China because long-distance calls cost much more, so her parents usually don't call her; at most, they leave her messages on chat apps.

To avoid Park Woo-bin and to avoid arguments, Choi Min-ah hasn't logged into her chat account for a long time, so she wasn't surprised to hear that her parents couldn't reach her.

But she clearly hadn't told her parents about her conflict with Park Woo-bin, so how did they find out?

Cui Min'er didn't stop her grandmother from making the phone call, but asked in confusion:

"Why would you ask that, Grandma?"

Choi Min-ah's grandmother hesitated for a moment, then said:

“Your parents have been in a bad mood lately, especially your father. He… seems to be about to lose his job.”

"unemployment?"

Choi Min-ah was startled. She wanted to say, "How is this possible?" but then she remembered that the factory where her father worked belonged to the Park Woo-bin family business, so she shut her mouth.

Choi Min-ah hasn't spoken to Park Woo-bin for a month now, and it's clear that Park Woo-bin has probably sensed something...

(End of this chapter)