The male supporting character was actually myself.

Today, while dealing with household registration issues, Jiang Chen arrived in town early, carrying several kilograms of granulated sugar, a few roast chickens and geese, and several bags of steamed rice cakes, and visited all his close friends.

Following the directions given by his friend, he successfully knocked on the door of the head of the household registration department's office with two bottles of good wine and a few pieces of floral cloth.

"Want to change from agricultural to non-agricultural status?" Section Chief Yang Erxi clicked his tongue upon hearing the young man's request. "That's not going to be easy!"

Now, if you want to buy grain from a government agency, you need to be accepted by a formal unit. The problem of not having a household registration in their original place of residence is easy to solve. At most, it's considered a missing document, and the village committee can issue a certificate and directly process your household registration.

"But agricultural land can be converted to non-agricultural land..."

Jiang Chen smiled slightly, said nothing, placed a bunch of keys on the table, and pushed it forward.

Yang Erxi glanced down at it; the brand-new key was dazzlingly bright, with a line of foreign writing engraved on it that he couldn't understand. But just by looking at the workmanship, he knew it was no ordinary item.

"Young man, what's your relationship with Deputy Chief Li of the police station...?"

"Back when we represented Yanghua Town in the Great Alliance in the north, Deputy Director Li and I were our town's representatives. We were really good friends."

Yang Erxi's face immediately showed a look of sudden realization. "I see, I see. No wonder Deputy Director Li said we were one of our own! If that's the relationship, we won't bother with all that useless official talk."

Changing from agricultural to non-agricultural status isn't impossible, but for those who have lost their household registration information, there are just more procedures involved.

We need to submit a report to our superiors and find a unit to accept them.

Jiang Chen took out another set of keys from his pocket and placed them on the table. "I'll have to ask Section Chief Yang to put in some effort. Do you think you can expedite the process of submitting the report?"

Chapter Thirteen: Packing Up and Going Home

Yang Erxi recognized the keys; they belonged to the newly built welfare housing in town, which was very expensive and hard to find!

Wow! This kid really lives up to his reputation as someone who handled big things back in the day; he has a wide network of connections and is incredibly generous. Giving a house directly to the higher-ups—how could they possibly refuse?

“We don’t need a receiving unit, since no one in her family can actually work in the factory. There’s a collective household registration for non-profit organizations, as long as it can be registered in our town.”

"That kind of household registration is indeed much simpler to obtain, but you won't get any subsidies for various tickets."

Even though you can buy things nowadays without tickets and by paying a little more, it's still money that's being spent.

"You need to find a company to take you in, but you have to come to work first, otherwise they can't pay you a salary without you working, right? Brother Jiang, have you thought it through? Register your household under a non-profit organization's collective household registration; I can submit the report for you right now."

The two had a friendly discussion about the issues raised in the report, and after a cordial conversation with the bureau chief, both were satisfied with the outcome.

"Here you go, your new household registration certificate." Jiang Chen handed a stack of certificates, still smelling of ink, to Song Aiwan, then got on his motorcycle and started it, gesturing for her to get on as well. "Now let's go look at houses. If you like one, we'll buy it soon."

house?

Houses in town?

Song Aiwan's mind went blank for a moment. She hurriedly put the supporting documents into her newly bought stylish handbag, held them tightly in her arms, and carefully got onto the back seat of the motorcycle, hugging his waist and not daring to move.

My first time riding a motorcycle was thrilling, but also a little scary, as the speed and the whooshing sound were exhilarating.

Now, as she rides her motorcycle around town, she gets envious glances from everyone she meets, which makes her a little embarrassed.

"This era is truly barren; even something casually taken out of your spatial storage is so valuable!"

The little white cat hugged his neck with its fluffy short paws and couldn't help but sigh, "No wonder everyone likes to write about returning to this era with a portable space or a piece of land."

It's really satisfying to be able to make others envious just by casually pulling out something!

"I still have some spare money. I'll buy a clean and tidy little house near the school. It will be much more convenient to live in town in the future." Jiang Chen rode his motorcycle all the way to his destination.

This is a small courtyard right next to a school and a park. It has an excellent location and a spacious courtyard. The red brick houses are still very new and are kept clean and tidy.

“You can look around town, there’s definitely no better place than this yard! I wouldn’t sell it if I didn’t need the money urgently.”

The landlord, a stylishly dressed middle-aged man, showed them around the house with a big smile and said, "This courtyard is perfect for you two young people."

There are plenty of rooms, so there's enough room for the elderly to stay; there's an elementary school next door, so it'll be convenient for children to go to school in the future; and there's a middle school just two streets away. Although there aren't many students now, things are more stable now, and education will definitely be strengthened in the future.

There's a park to your left when you go out. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could take a walk together after work?

"So, are you two satisfied?"

Song Aiwan's face was already flushed red to the roots of her neck, and she kept her head down without saying a word. Jiang Chen, however, was quite satisfied. "Brother, name your price, and I'll agree."

"We're all straightforward people, one price at a time!" The uncle held up three fingers.

"Three...three hundred?" Song Aiwan was stunned. The courtyard was indeed very nice, but this was too expensive!

You know, a farmer who works hard in the fields every day can only earn five or six yuan a month at most. In a bad year, he might only earn one or two yuan.

Three hundred yuan—even the strongest laborer would have to save it for several years without eating or drinking.

The middle-aged man twitched his lips. "Girl, are you kidding me? You think you can buy such a nice house and yard for only three hundred?"

Three thousand!

Not a single penny less!

Jiang Chen suppressed a laugh and took his wallet out of his pocket. "My wife was just joking. I'll give you the rest of the money when we go to complete the transfer of ownership after you pay the deposit."

"I love straightforward guys like you, bro!" The uncle breathed a sigh of relief and laughed, "If you're not busy, we can go and process the transfer right now."

I'm really in a hurry for money, otherwise I wouldn't be willing to sell the house. It was just built a couple of years ago, designed according to the new style in the provincial capital, and it cost a lot of money..."

Song Aiwan didn't hear what he said. She stared blankly as Jiang Chen counted the banknotes one by one, all of them hundred-yuan bills!

Only one thought remained in her mind—where did Jiang Chen get so much money?

Even if you sold the entire Lijiazhuang village, you wouldn't get that much money, right?

It was already close to noon, and in order to submit the application for transfer of ownership documents in time, the three of them rushed to the relevant department to complete the procedures as soon as possible.

In those days, procedures weren't so complicated, and resources were scarce. Jiang Chen would casually slip a few packs of cigarettes into the other person's pocket while chatting, and the big red stamp would be affixed directly to their pocket.

After paying the final payment, the other party carefully handed over a large bunch of keys. Jiang Chen jokingly stuffed the still-warm printed property certificate into Song Aiwan's handbag, saying, "Hold on tight! This handbag isn't worth much, but the things inside are precious. Losing it would be a huge problem!"

"I...I know." She clutched her handbag tightly to her chest, assuring everyone, "Don't worry, I'd rather die than lose this handbag. These few pieces of paper are worth so much money!"

She had originally intended to say that she had never seen so much money in her life, but then she felt a little ashamed of being ignorant and naive, so she quickly swallowed the rest of her sentence.

Jiang Chen couldn't help but laugh at her nervous appearance; this girl was indeed too cute.

"Just kidding, nothing is more precious than you! Even if these things are lost, there are records to replace them, so don't be so nervous. What do you want to eat? Let's go to the cafeteria and have a nice lunch to celebrate!"

Private businesses are not allowed to operate these facilities yet; even in bustling towns, people have to go to designated public canteens to eat.

Fortunately, Yanghua Town is large and populous, no less so than the county seat. The large canteen offers a wide variety of dishes, so many of them that Song Aiwan was completely overwhelmed.

Even after returning to Lijiazhuang in the evening, she was still immersed in the shock of the day and couldn't come back to her senses for a long time.

Jiang Chen's actions in the town opened up a whole new world for him.

Let Song Aiwan know that there are so many rich people in this world who can spend money like water without batting an eye!

She was filled with questions, but she didn't dare to ask Jiang Chen where he got so much money.

There are some things that he tells you on his own initiative, and there are other things that you ask him about. Anyway, she had already made up her mind to follow him. In any case, she would be a member of the Jiang family in life and death, so doing her duty as a good wife was the right thing to do.

Having a household registration naturally gives you more confidence to not be falsely accused of being an unregistered spies.

For the first time, Song Aiwan felt so proud and smug walking through the village. Ignoring the whispers of the villagers, she got off the motorcycle and rushed to the dilapidated shack next to the wild jujube grove to pack her things. "Dad, Aiguo, let's pack our things and go home!"

Jiang Chen has already helped us get our household registration sorted out. Now let's see who dares to say our family is unregistered.

"It's all done? So fast?" Song Qingshan excitedly put down the hemp rope he was twisting and asked, "Did the household registration department give you any trouble? Our family's class background isn't good, so we don't have the confidence to speak without having to read people's faces. Did Jiang Chen cause any trouble? Did he give them gifts?"

Chapter Fourteen: What did you say?

Song Aiwan wasn't present when Jiang Chen was re-registering his household registration, but she saw him carrying a lot of things around, so she nodded and said, "He gave gifts, quite a lot."

Sugar, printed fabrics, cigarettes and alcohol—these are all high-end goods!

I went to the supply and marketing cooperative, and those things were selling for incredibly high prices!

"Sigh... Now we owe them even more." Song Qingshan sighed, and seeing Jiang Chen coming over, he didn't say anything more. He got up and helped his daughter pack her things to move back.

Song Aiguo was still so engrossed in his studies that he couldn't tear himself away.

He loved this kind of life so much. When he was hungry, he had food to eat; when he was thirsty, he had hot water from a new thermos to drink; and he didn't have to worry about anything, so he could sit and read books all day long!

"I have to go to work again tomorrow. I need to hurry up and finish this course and do some practice problems..." Song Aiguo stretched and reluctantly put down his books to help pack up.

"After we move it back, we'll light candles and look at it slowly. I brought back a lot of delicious food from town. We'll heat it up tonight and celebrate!" Song Aiwan quickly tied the bedding up and put it on the back of the motorcycle. She then followed Jiang Chen, chatting and laughing, towards the village.

As she passed by Jiang Chen's house, she was helping to unload the bedding and put it on the kang (a heated brick bed), when she saw him piling his own belongings into the next room.

"Hey, what are you doing..." Song Aiwan blushed to the roots of her neck and said coquettishly, "Stop fooling around, we need to hurry home and get ready."

“This will be your home from now on.” Jiang Chen didn’t even look up as he tidied up the things and then made arrangements: “I have three main rooms here. Xiao Wan and Uncle Song will each have one, and Aiguo will live in the east wing.”

This place is much better than those two drafty mud-brick houses outside the village. You won't have to worry about leaks or drafts anymore when it rains or the wind blows.

Song Qingshan's hand trembled. "This...this won't do! It's against the rules!"

Although her family is now entirely dependent on Jiang Chen, they haven't officially started living together yet, so how could she let her daughter live in his house in such a way?

At the very least, a betrothal gift must be given, a matchmaker must be hired, and a banquet must be held before anything can proceed.

Besides, even if you're married, how can your father-in-law and brother-in-law all move in?

“I just finished work and heard that you’ve moved back.”

They had barely arrived home when Li Zhenxing, his face bruised and swollen, stormed into the yard with a group of farmers armed with weapons. "What? You unregistered residents dare to be so bold?"

Just as Song Aiwan was blushing with embarrassment and was about to take her package back to her residence, she retorted righteously, "Who dares to say that our family is unregistered? You lost our household registration information, but the comrade in charge of household registration in the town personally helped us get it sorted out!"

We haven't even held you accountable as the village chief yet, and you still have the nerve to come knocking on our door and yell at us?

“Yes, that’s more like my wife.” Jiang Chen was very satisfied with her performance. He looked Li Zhenxing up and down, whose face was swollen like a pig’s head after a day of recovery, and sneered, “Who is this?”

Li Zhenxing?

Oh, it looks like a pig's head, I didn't even recognize it.

Didn't I tell you last night that I would give up the village chief position to Li Changgeng?

They even led the members to cause trouble!

Do they know you embezzled the retained funds? Let me do the math, last year alone you probably pocketed about two hundred yuan, and I haven't even calculated the change for you..."

"You, you're spouting nonsense!" Li Zhenxing was surprised that Jiang Chen knew about this, and panicked. He grabbed a shovel and waved it around to stop him from continuing. "I'm telling you, stop showing off! Even if you get a new household registration certificate and aren't unregistered, you'll still have to wait for housing allocation after you return to Lijiazhuang. Go back to your shacks and wait!"

Having just learned his lesson last night, he only dared to make empty boasts and didn't actually dare to move forward.