Siheyuan: Xu Damao's New Life

Xu Damao rode his bike out of the courtyard again, but he didn't know that Jia Zhang had seen him carrying things home with the bike.

After seeing Xu Damao leave, Jia Zhang put away her shoes and went back to the inner room. "Huai Ru, Xu Damao just brought a cart of things home from outside. There are large and small packages and some cardboard boxes. There must be delicious food inside."

Qin Huairu knew that her lazy mother-in-law was greedy again, but she still advised, "Mom, stop being naughty and don't go to his house to get things. Xu Damao has been promoted again recently, and I have to take over Dongxu's job at the steel mill. What if he makes things difficult for me?"

"Besides, Yi Zhonghai finally persuaded Yan Bugui to hold a meeting tonight to discuss the issue of providing our family with housing provident funds. You better not cause trouble, otherwise this matter will definitely fail."

When Jia Zhang heard that her family was going to receive housing provident fund, her mind suddenly cleared up. "Then I won't go. Let's talk about it in a few days. Our roof hasn't been repaired for a few years. Do you want to repair it this time?"

"Fix it. There was some water leakage in the kitchen last year, and it may be more serious this year." Qin Huairu said while teasing her daughter Xiaodang.

"Then you have to pay for it, I don't have any money!"

"Mom, don't we share Dongxu's money equally? How come we have no money?"

"That's my pension money, no one can touch it!" Jia Zhang was afraid that Qin Huairu would not be able to keep it and remarry halfway, so this money would be her last resort.

"Then I'll do it, but you have to be more careful about the food. If you don't practice, I'm afraid you won't be able to make it this year."

"No, I have a way to fix the roof without spending our own money!"

"Mom, what can we do?"

"Hehe, if I don't tell you, you will know when the time comes."

At this time, Xu Damao had already arrived at his parents' house. After parking the car, he walked in directly with his things. The entire quadrangle with two entrances had not only been renovated, but even the ground had been re-paved, which made people feel comfortable just by looking at it.

"Mom, I'm back."

Xu's mother was feeding the chickens. She came out from the backyard when she heard the noise. "Da Mao, why are you here at this time? Don't you have to go to work today?"

"I took a day off today. Since the government is transferring public property to private property, I bought the courtyard house. I came here today to talk to my dad and ask him to buy the previous house when he has time."

"We already have a house to live in, why do we need to buy one?"

"Mom, I have a friend who works in the district government. He told me that the price of this house will increase in the future. It will be worth thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars by then."

When Xu's mother heard this, she immediately became anxious, "I'll go to the cinema and call your dad!"

"No, mom, there's no rush. The public-to-private transition will take some time. Just ask my dad to go to the neighborhood office tomorrow. This is something I brought for you. I'll eat here at noon. I want to try mom's cooking."

Only then did Xu's mother take the food and said, "Okay, okay, Mom will cook for you right away."

While the mother and son were having dinner, Xu's mother said, "Yingzi, I think it's going to be hard for you to get into college. Some time ago, she was harassed by hooligans when she came home from school, but she was rescued by a policeman. They even got together. Your sister is now thinking about graduating and getting married as soon as possible!"

"Mom, what does her boyfriend do?"

"He's a police officer. He was assigned to our area not long after graduating from the police academy. His name is Chen Guangrong. I met him once and he looked quite energetic."

Xu Damao thought, why did he find a local policeman? Could he be Yu Shui's future lover? Did he get Yu Shui and then sacrifice his sister? If that's the case, I'll kill that guy.

Xu Damao just said that he would go see the young man when he was free, and after dinner he went straight to the tavern to find Niu Ye.

As soon as he entered the tavern, Xu Damao saw Uncle Niu sitting there drinking by himself.

"Master Niu, you look so interested."

"Hey, isn't this getting a bit boring waiting? How about going over to take a look later?"

"No hurry, you drink first. It won't be too late for us to go after you've had enough." Xu Damao also ordered two taels of wine and started drinking with Uncle Niu.

As they drank, Niu Ye introduced the situation of the three courtyards, and Xu Damao nodded from time to time. After they finished drinking, Niu Ye also rode his newly bought bicycle to lead the way. He had earned some money from Xu Damao in the past few months, and also put in part of his previous savings, so he bought this bicycle.

The two of them walked through alleys of various sizes and soon arrived outside a yard.

"This is the house. The three-story courtyard is well maintained. This courtyard was inherited from his family. Now he wants to go abroad to live with his son in his old age." Uncle Niu walked up to knock on the door and said to Xu Damao.

Xu Damao thought to himself, "The family has a three-courtyard house passed down from ancestors. This guy must be a Manchu, and his ancestors must have been very wealthy!"

The gate of the yard creaked open and an old man in his fifties pushed open the door. He lived in the front yard. Uncle Niu had made an appointment in advance to see the yard today, so after dinner he lay in the yard to enjoy the cool air and wait for Uncle Niu to bring the buyer to the door.

"Master Niu, you are here!"

"Old Ma, I've brought the person to you. The buyer's surname is Xu. We have worked together many times and he is absolutely trustworthy."

"Young man, please take a seat."

"No, let's just look around the yard first, and then we can sit down and talk in detail.

"Okay, both of you follow me."

The old man surnamed Ma took the two of them around the yard. Although no one lived in the middle and back yards, they were relatively clean and could be seen to be cleaned regularly. The house did look a bit old, after all, it had been there for so many years.

After seeing this three-story courtyard house, Xu Damao was quite satisfied, so he said, "Uncle Ma, the house is OK. I am also interested in buying it. Let's find a place to sit down and discuss the price."

Uncle Ma was very happy when he heard that the buyer liked his house. "Okay, let's go to the stone table in the front yard."

Uncle Ma brewed a pot of tea from the house and brought it out. He then took out cups and poured tea for the three of them before sitting down.

"This yard has a history of more than a hundred years. I grew up in this yard. I still have a lot of furniture and antiques in my house. There are also some things in the basement in the backyard. My son is not interested in these things. I can't take them away, so I'll give them to you. But you have to raise the price. What do you think, Comrade Xu?"

"Okay, the current market price of a house is eight to ten yuan per square meter. If you want to sell this whole yard together with some antiques, I'll raise the price a little bit. Three thousand five hundred yuan!"

Uncle Niu also nodded, saying that the price was quite fair!

"It's a bit too low. I still have so many antiques, calligraphy and paintings. Even the furniture is made of top-quality wood. Four thousand is the price!"

After some haggling, we finally compromised on the price of $3,750, and agreed to go together to transfer the ownership tomorrow.

Afterwards, Uncle Niu took Xu Damao to see two other courtyards, but this time they were courtyards with two entrances, and they were settled for more than 2,000 yuan. They would go to transfer the ownership together tomorrow as well.