Rebirth 1979: Marrying a poor girl at the beginning

"It costs eight or nine thousand yuan. It's a real courtyard house, but it only has one entrance. It was bought from the translator Ye Junjian. It's in Gongjian Hutong." Lin Zhengjun said.

"The location is good, but... eight or nine thousand yuan is not worth it!" Zhou Shoucheng immediately interrupted.

Zhao Xiangrong said, "Siheyuan is not comfortable to live in. When the houses are divided, those who want a Siheyuan will have more space!"

Nowadays, when we mention Siheyuan, we think of it as belonging to the wealthy class, but in those days it was completely the opposite.

Decades ago, a large number of houses were expropriated for public use, and only a few survived.

Ye Junjian's house was one of the houses that escaped the disaster.

He purchased the property before liberation and was a capable and progressive intellectual on our side, so it was absolutely impossible to confiscate it and he retained ownership.

After another special ten years, Ye Junjian was criticized and overthrown, and the house was nationalized. After his reputation and job were restored, the house was returned to him.

There are many such cases. For example, Wang Shixiang, a collector of mahogany furniture, handed over all his collection of Ming and Qing furniture, and later returned part of it.

At present, except for the courtyard houses with clear property rights like Ye Junjian, most of the courtyard houses still retain their independent gates and courtyards.

Most of the courtyard houses that were taken away became dormitories for various units and were reduced to slums.

It is common for four, five, six or seven households to live like this, with three generations living in an area of ​​ten square meters.

There is no heating, no kitchen, and shared faucets. Even the household toilets have been filled in and converted into public toilets in the alley.

There had to be a urinal ready in the house, and people would line up to empty it in the morning. If you were to take a shit and ran over to see that the pot was full, you would be so anxious that you would walk around in circles.

This situation did not improve much in the 1990s.

When Wang Jingwen lived with Dou Daxianer in a slum, she had to get up early in the morning to queue up to empty the urinal, and was even photographed by the Hong Kong media. It was quite bloody.

Lin Zhengjun did not explain the appreciation potential of the courtyard house. He smiled and said, "Grandpa and grandma, I just like the feeling of being close to nature. In the summer nights, I can sit in the yard and watch the stars and listen to the crickets. In the winter, I can admire the plum blossoms and make snowmen in the yard. Oh, I don't like living in a tube building. It's too restrictive!"

"Hahaha, Zhengjun is a scholar, pursuing leisure and elegance!"

"Yes, yes, it's about harmony between man and nature!"

After he said that, Zhou Shoucheng and Zhao Xiangrong, who were both intellectuals after all, understood.

Zhao Xiangrong thought for a moment and said, "Now the transfer of non-local household registration to Beijing is very strict, but I have never heard of household registration restrictions for buying a house. You should go to the real estate agency and ask."

The household registration policy introduced in November 1977 created a natural barrier between urban commercial grain household registration and agricultural household registration.

Compared with other cities, the commercial grain household registration in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin has added several more natural barriers, almost blocking all channels for farmers to convert to non-agricultural jobs except the college entrance examination.

Taking marriage as an example, in the past, the child’s household registration could be transferred along with the mother’s.

However, the new regulations in 77 clearly stated that in any marriage between a rural hukou and an urban resident, all children born would be registered under the rural hukou, unless the child was disabled or born mentally retarded.

However, there are no clear restrictions on outsiders buying houses. The reason is very simple. Outsiders cannot afford to buy houses in Beijing at all. This is a legal loophole.

"Okay, let's go to the Housing Management Office in Gongjian Hutong!" Lin Zhengjun stood up and said goodbye.

Professor Zhou and his wife did not try to persuade them to stay, but just asked them to come to their house for dinner and sit down when they had time.

……

At 11 o'clock in the morning, Dongxinglong Street, Chongwen District, Yenching Publishing House, "October" editorial department.

"Wow! Another big bag!"

An editor picked up another large sack and put it in the corridor outside the editorial office. He wiped the sweat off his head and said, "I'm so tired!"

There were already a dozen sacks of letters piled up in the corridor, forming a mountain of mail, leaving only a narrow passage wide enough for one person to pass through.

"Is it for Lin Zhengjun again?" Liu Xinwu took two sips of a cup of tea.

"Not at all, all they discuss is the article written by Zheng Jun!"

"Look at you, you're so tired and sweaty. Why bother with this? Just throw it in the message room. It will be convenient for Lin Zhengjun to take it away later!" Liu Xinwu commented.

The editor complained: "The communication room is not happy. Today, the People's Daily sent two packages, which filled up the communication room. There is no place to step."

Liu Xinwu smiled and said, "Young people today are so enthusiastic. It's been almost two weeks since The Road of Life was published, and the letters are still pouring in!"

Editor-in-Chief Su Yu said regretfully, "What a pity, we are a quarterly magazine and Zhengjun is in a hurry to publish it. Otherwise, if this article were to be kept in our October, how much more circulation would it have increased!"

“That’s right, maybe it can challenge People’s Literature, or at least step on Yenching Literature and Art.” Liu Xinwu said happily.

"October" is sponsored by Yenching Publishing House, and "Yenching Literature and Art" is sponsored by Yenching Writers Association. They are of the same level and are located in the same place, so the two magazines often compete with each other.

While they were chatting, Lin Zhengjun and Tang Xiaofu strolled in carrying a small cloth bag: "Brother Xinwu!"

"Haha, speak of the devil and he will appear!"

Liu Xinwu came up and gave Lin Zhengjun a bear hug.

Su Yu and other editors had not met Lin Zhengjun before. After Liu Xinwu introduced him, the other party greeted them warmly and served them tea and water.

Liu Xinwu pointed outside the door and said with a smile, "Hurry up and move your letters away. They are flooding everywhere!"

"Please help me throw it away, or sell the waste paper!" Lin Zhengjun was not interested. He came to Liu Xinwu mainly to see the courtyard house.

"What a heartless profiteer!" Liu Xinwu laughed, "Do you really want to throw it away and sell it as waste paper?"

"What are you keeping it for? To wipe your butt?"

Lin Zhengjun is a typical pragmatist.

But he is not as leisurely as Zheng Yuanjie, who bought ten houses in Beijing specifically to store readers' letters.

"You are an idiot!" Liu Xinwu glared at Lin Zhengjun.

"Why are you an idiot?" Lin Zhengjun asked in surprise.

Liu Xinwu lowered his voice and said mysteriously: "In the letters from readers, they will send national food coupons and cloth coupons, and even cash!"

"Is this true?" Lin Zhengjun couldn't believe it.

Are readers really that enthusiastic these days?

"You're ignorant, aren't you? Of course it's true!"

Liu Xinwu took out three letters from the sack and tore open the seals of all of them. There was nothing in the first two letters, but there was a national food coupon for ten kilograms in the last letter.

Lin Zhengjun and Tang Xiaofu were both shocked and surprised!

After all, I’ve only been a writer for a few months, and I had no idea this kind of situation existed!

"My grass!"

Lin Zhengjun suddenly swore, "Then I should have received letters from readers for the articles I wrote for People's Literature and for you, right?"

"I'm telling you, buddy is very good to you."

Liu Xinwu smiled and said, "I have sorted out not only the letters received by the People's Daily, but also those received by our magazine and People's Literature, and I have brought them all here!"

"Hey, you're my brother. It's a good thing you did. It saves me from running from house to house." Lin Zhengjun looked at the pile of sacks and felt that they seemed to be emitting golden light!

He was short of cloth coupons and grain coupons. He would need coupons whether he wanted to open a restaurant or engage in clothing production in the future.

"That is required!"

Liu Xinwu smiled and said, "But, do you really intend to accept it and not return it to the readers?"