Exciting 1979!

Chapter 187: Home Owners (1 more chapter)
On the motorcycle, Wei Ming sat in the driver's seat, Uncle Ping'an sat at the back, and there was Lele in the middle. As for Xizi, he could only sit on the fuel tank.

On the way, Uncle Ping'an told Wei Ming that the correspondence exam would be held in October.

"But after school starts, you should go to work in the library. The environment there is better and it will be more convenient for you to learn writing."

Wei Ming nodded, and finally managed to get a promising career as a librarian at Peking University.

They arrived at the Overseas Chinese Apartment with familiarity. The security guard still remembered Wei Ming. Anyone who could ride a motorcycle must be rich or noble. Maybe he would be their owner in the future.

Afterwards, the four of them walked in. This time it was another building, and on the third floor. This floor was good as it was not the highest floor and privacy was guaranteed.

They first knocked on Mr. Wu Zuoren's door in Room 301. The person who opened the door was his second wife, Xiao Shufang. The old lady is nearly 70 years old this year. She is also a famous painter who integrates Chinese and Western styles. She is particularly good at flowers. Moreover, she and Wu Zuoren are from the same teacher, both are disciples of Xu Beihong.

Both of them had been married before. Mr. Wu Zuoren's Belgian wife passed away, and Ms. Xiao Shufang was cheated on by her ex-husband.

Now, the two have been together for more than 30 years. They are not only husband and wife, but also confidants. When they have nothing to do, they exchange painting skills with each other. Sometimes they are invited by their foreign colleagues to give lectures and sketch abroad. How happy they are.

Because it is the home of two great painters, the walls are covered with paintings as soon as you enter the door, including their own paintings, those of their friends in the painting world, and those of their teachers such as Xu Beihong and Qi Baishi.

The value of this room full of paintings is definitely more than ten times that of this house.

Xizi, who came to the Overseas Chinese Apartment for the first time, just thought it was colorful and beautiful. As for the house, he was not too shocked because it was not as big as his grandfather's house anyway.

When Wei Ming introduced himself, Xiao Shufang smiled and let them in. Then Mr. Wu Zuoren came out of his study with ink marks still visible on his hands.

"Wei Ming, right?"

"Mr. Wu, it's me."

At this moment, Wei Ming happened to be standing next to a picture of a panda, which was recently painted by Wu Zuoren.

Looking at his own work, Wu Zuoren came to talk about sex: "I have read your article, the one about pandas. What do you think of my painting?"

Wei Ming smiled and said, "I was attracted by this painting as soon as I came in. It was as if I saw the steel egg I met at the beginning. It was so vivid."

Wu Zuoren said regretfully, "I made this painting after observing the giant pandas in the Yanjing Zoo. Unfortunately, I have never touched a giant panda in person, so I don't know what it feels like. Maybe your father is amazing and a capable man."

A great painter like him must have privileges. Not allowing him to touch the pandas was probably for safety reasons. Adult giant pandas are still quite dangerous.

At this time, Wei Pingan interrupted and said, "My eldest brother does have some good skills in getting along with animals. When we were young, we poked a beehive together, but the bees stung me but not him."

"You must be Director Wei Ping'an."

"Hello, Master Wu." Wei Ping'an then introduced his two children.

Old Mrs. Xiao immediately gave the two of them some candy and melon seeds, which were very rare.

Their children were not around, so they liked this cute and clean child. Wei Ming thought that if Xizi and Lele were a little sweet-talker, maybe they could take a painting with them when they left.

After chatting for a while, Wu Zuoren talked about the situation of the apartment next door.

"The layout is the same as ours, with an area of 150 square meters, four rooms, and two bathrooms. If you have no objection to the area and layout, I can take you over to talk to the owner right now."

This is the smallest room in the Overseas Chinese Apartment, and it is also what Wei Ming wanted. It is useless for a bachelor like him to have such a big room. Four rooms, one for himself, one for Xiaohong, one for his parents, and a study. That’s it!

Seeing that Wei Ming had no objection, Wu Zuoren talked about the situation of the neighboring landlord, and then took Wei Ming and Wei Ping'an to knock on the door next door.

A young man with messy hair opened the door, rubbing his eyes, as if he had just sobered up. Let's call him Xiao Wang.

Xiao Wang's parents abandoned him and ran away from the country during a special period. Now that the situation has stabilized, they have decided to take him abroad.

The price was that he had to give up his girlfriend whom he had been in love with for many years, and his parents were only able to take him away alone.

Xiao Wang was very reluctant to leave. His girlfriend was extremely kind to him and her parents treated him like their own child. However, he had suffered a lot over the past decade and even this house was just returned to him. He really wanted to live a good life.

So he decided to sell the house and leave the money to his girlfriend. He hoped that the money would allow his girlfriend to remain a virgin for him. If one day he succeeded abroad and had the ability, he would definitely take her out.

"Old Wu."

"Xiao Wang, this is Xiao Wei. He wants to see your house." Wu Zuoren told Xiao Wang about this after receiving a call from Wu Zuxiang yesterday.

"Hello, please come in." Xiao Wang opened the curtains. There was a lot of beer and white wine on the table. The room smelled bad, so he was drinking to drown his sorrows.

Compared with Wu Zuoren's house next door, this house seems much more empty. There is not even any decent furniture, but it still looks quite new.

In fact, there is nothing to look at in terms of the layout of the house. Nowadays, just having a house is enough. There is not much choice. The key is the price. So after a quick look, Wei Ming talked to Xiao Wang about the price.

Xiao Wang was also straightforward: "The house is 160 square meters, you pay yuan per square meter, and the house is yours."

In other words, it costs twenty-four thousand.

This price is still quite reasonable. In a building without an elevator, the third floor is better than the first floor, unless the first floor has a small courtyard. Therefore, the price of 160 per square meter is more acceptable than the large flat on the first floor that I looked at before.

Wei Ming really wanted to get this house, but he really didn't have that much money, so he started bargaining, and finally got it down to 150 per square meter, and then the other party became unyielding.

Wei Ming couldn't speak anymore, Uncle Ping An shook his clothes and said, "Let me do it!"
Knowing Xiao Wang's situation, he knew that he had to sell his house. However, there were very few people who could come up with so much money at once. Wei Ping'an seized this opportunity and attacked the young Xiao Wang harshly.

Finally, he agreed to the price of 20,000 and refused to back down. Mr. Wu couldn't get a word in and couldn't keep up, so he simply went back home to chat with the two children.

But deep down he must have hoped to be neighbors with a new literary talent like Wei Ming. As for Xiao Wang, all he did was drink heavily all day long.

Xiao Wang: "If you can't even come up with 20,000, forget it. I'll look for someone else. 20,000 is definitely a bargain for such a nice house."

Wei Ming thought for a moment and asked, "Can you accept foreign exchange certificates?"

"Do you have foreign exchange coupons?" Upon hearing this, Xiao Wang's expression changed.

In fact, he had foreign exchange coupons, which were exchanged for US dollars his parents sent him recently. He used the coupons to buy a famous Swiss watch for his girlfriend. Now the coupons are all used up. His parents are worried that he is attached to his country, so they no longer send him money except for the money for the plane ticket.

If I could give my girlfriend some more foreign exchange coupons, her family could buy some home appliances that other families don't have, and it would also make her family feel proud.

Thinking of this, Xiao Wang asked, "How many foreign exchange certificates do you have?"

Wei Ming: "Two thousand, how about six thousand, and I'll pay another fourteen thousand RMB."

Uncle Ping An was very shocked that this kid still had so many foreign exchange coupons!

Yes, it must be Melinda. This British girl is very kind and loyal. She even left him a lot of foreign currency.

Xiao Wang naturally refused: "This is a foreign exchange certificate, not real foreign exchange."

"What's wrong with the foreign exchange certificates? I can exchange them for foreign currency when you go abroad. 2000 foreign exchange certificates can be exchanged for about 1300 US dollars, which is equivalent to yuan. My price is quite generous. You can ask how much so many US dollars are worth on the black market."

"I didn't intend to take the foreign currency with me. I wanted to keep it for domestic use. In China, it's just a foreign exchange voucher. Six thousand yuan is too much if you calculate it as RMB 4,000 is too much for me." Xiao Wang shook his head.

Then he asked, "Do you still have foreign exchange certificates?"

"What do you mean?"

Xiao Wang proposed a plan: "If you only have 2000 foreign exchange certificates, I can only charge you 4000 yuan. If you have 3000 foreign exchange certificates, I can charge you 7000 yuan."

He wanted to leave more foreign exchange coupons for his girlfriend. If she wanted to go to the United States to find him in the future, the foreign exchange coupons would be more useful than RMB.

Wei Ming only had 3000 foreign exchange certificates on him, but he still had 4000 Hong Kong dollars that he could exchange.

Once foreign exchange is converted into foreign exchange coupons, its value will decrease. Moreover, if Wei Ming does not go abroad, his foreign exchange coupons cannot be exchanged for real foreign exchange, and the price of transactions on the black market will not go up.

Wei Ming felt that this plan was acceptable, so he decided on a transaction plan of 3000 foreign exchange certificates and 13000 RMB.

This way he would still have more than 1000 yuan and 4000 Hong Kong dollars to buy furniture and appliances, which was almost enough to redecorate the house.

Wei Ming: "That's it, it's getting late now, I'll come over tomorrow to go through the procedures with you."

Xiao Wang took a look at the house where he lived as a child and said, "Okay, I'll wait for you here tomorrow."

The deal was settled, and Wei Ming and Uncle Ping'an left with Xile and a small scroll. The small scroll was a picture of orchids drawn by Grandma Xiao, and was a gift for the two children. It was only worth a few dollars.

On the way back, Uncle Ping An asked, "Can you afford so much money? How about I give you some?"

Wei Ming smiled and said, "I have enough here. Uncle, you have helped me a lot by using your eloquence to bargain the price down to 20,000 yuan. Auntie should be getting off work and going home now. Let's have a meal together!"

Wei Ming, who is about to have a home in Yanjing, can't hide his excitement.

Wei Pingan said with a smile: "Okay, but let me pay for this meal. You will need money in many other places later~"

(End of this chapter)