Literary Master 1983

Chapter 99 Yu Qie Buys a House (Part )

The earliest commercial housing in the mainland appeared in Pengcheng in 81. The community was called Donghu Liyuan and was developed by Pengcheng Real Estate Group, which was affiliated to the Pengcheng government.

But it was different in Yanjing. Large-scale modern commercial housing had to wait until 89 to be put on sale. It was almost one of the last cities to open up in the country.

But this does not mean that it is impossible to buy a house in Yanjing at present.

There are second-hand houses for sale among the people, with an average price of about 40 to 50 yuan per square meter. It is mainly some Siheyuan residents who sell their houses together. The Siheyuan, which later became very famous, is not a good place to live in now. Residents are eager to move to new tube buildings and large-scale buildings. They can no longer stand Siheyuan:

A house was divided into several rooms, and several generations of people with different surnames lived in it. It had not been modernized, so of course there would be no hot water pipes or private toilets. In 83, a movie called Sunset Street took place in the courtyard, where five or six families lived.

In April this year, a reporter from the United States accompanied the president on his visit and wrote down some of his own records: "There is a room of 4 square meters here, with three people squeezed in. In an attic less than 13 meters high, the male owner's daughter has lived there for more than ten years..."

So in the 1980s, the courtyard houses were both fragrant and smelly, but mostly smelly. Unless people were willing to make a series of renovations, people were not willing to do so, and would rather move out to a new place, converting a large house into a small one, where at least one family had one house.

Starting from Yanda, Yu Qie rode his bicycle along the central axis of the city, and whenever he saw an alley, he would go in to take a look.

He found that there were quite a few houses for sale, so he went in to ask the price, and things started to get funny.

Near Jingshan Park, near Jingshan Front Street, there is a courtyard house waiting to be sold. A man came out first and said, "Forty yuan per square meter, but you can't borrow or pay slowly. You have to pay it all at once... My family has been allocated 23 square meters, which is a big place, you have to pay for it all!"

Yu Qie said, "You do live in a big place, but our courtyard looks like it should be about 300 to 400 square meters. What about the rest?"

"Then forget about my business. There are still nine families left. You have to persuade them to accept you."

Yu Qie said: "Then I have to negotiate with them one by one and get them all to agree?"

"You see! That's how it works!"

"I bought them all?"

"Ah? That's about 10,000 or 20,000 yuan! Young man, are you a Chinese who came back to visit relatives? Or a wealthy man from Hong Kong?"

"Don't worry about where I come from."

"——Someone wants to buy our shabby house? Bah! Buy our nice place! This is close to the Forbidden City. It was originally the place where the feudal emperors lived. It is under the feet of the emperor, so it is considered a city anyway!"

Then, another person came out. It was the other owner of the house. They waved their hands and said, "I don't want money, but do you have a big apartment? I'll trade with you. You live here and I live at your place."

Yu Qie said: "I don't have a large building to replace it with. I can only give you money. You have to find someone to buy it yourself."

"That won't work. Siheyuan is easy to sell, but large buildings are hard to buy."

I heard that this courtyard house might be sold, and someone came out and said, "I have a way to buy a house, but I don't have the money. It's 55 yuan per square meter. As long as you buy the house next door, the two houses together, the public balcony will become yours. You can take the initiative and build a large attic, which is equivalent to two floors. This is a villa... You can take this house. Let's go to the housing management office to register it immediately, and I promise not to cause you any trouble."

At that time, there was no concept of "property rights". Strictly speaking, before 85, everyone only had a "leasing" relationship with the house, but did not have ownership of the house. The Housing Management Office would come to collect rent regularly, and the price was cheap, about one or two yuan a month.

Then at the end of 84, real estate reform was finally initiated in the capital. A series of resettlement housing and return housing projects were launched, the renovation of courtyard houses began, and the concept of "ownership" was gradually implemented.

Those who have "ownership" are basically those who originally had the right to "lease".

Some people also questioned Yu Qie's identity, and they had a strong sense of confidentiality: "Where are you from? We have family members of military enterprises here, are you an enemy spy here to check the secrets..."

Someone immediately retorted: "--Don't make trouble. Who lives here? Aren't enemy spies human beings? Young man, do you have money? If you have money, I will sell it to you for 30 yuan per square meter. I have wanted to leave this place for a long time!"

Then, those who originally sold at a high price now think that these stupid neighbors sold at a low price.

The people who offered the lowest price thought that the other stupid neighbors offered too high a price and scared away the buyers, so they started quarreling among themselves. Then, five, nine... a total of twenty people came out of the courtyard.

How the hell am I supposed to negotiate this?

If one of the ten households stabs me in the back, wouldn't I be disgusted to death?

In the 1980s, because there was no such thing as property rights, it was common for people who were not originally from the courtyards to move in and seek the housing management office to change the lease relationship and occupy a room. Then, in the year of housing reform, they got the property rights and turned public and other people's houses into their own.

This is truly life-changing.

It has been less than a year since Yu Qi wrote "A Moment of Romance". The world is dangerous now, and if he wants to live in a big house by himself, he has to find someone with good connections.

Two fists cannot beat four hands, let alone dozens of hands.

Thinking of this, Yu Qie immediately rode his bicycle and ran out of the alley.

"Young man - hey! He's running away, don't let him run away!"

Dozens of people were chasing after the bicycle.

In the following days, Yu Qie stopped attending classes and writing novels, and just rode his bike for a stroll every day. He gradually felt that his abilities were limited and it would be difficult to find a suitable house. It was not a good idea to just ride around on his own, and he had to find a way through other channels.

He tried posting ads.

Yu Minhong, who was in the Spanish Department, tried this method when he was giving cram schools later, and posted advertisements for his cram school everywhere.

Yu Qie took advantage of the night to post advertisements on telephone poles, and also looked at the posters posted by others earlier. If he found a suitable house, he would quickly write down the contact information.

However, the method of posting advertisements is short-lived. When you look at them again after a day or two, the original advertisements have either been covered or torn off. So a new round of pasting, copying, and posting begins all over again.

(End of this chapter)