Mixed in 1980

Chapter 16 Something Good Happens
How tight is the housing situation in Beijing?
The slum was already compact enough, and in order to squeeze in more people, the yard was filled with illegally built earthquake shelters and small kitchens.

Some courtyards have been so crowded that only small alleys are left for one person to pass through.

It has become even more crowded in the past two years. A large number of educated youth have returned to the city. Those who cannot find jobs or houses have to live together with their families, and there is no place to go if they want to do anything at night.

This is the case with Xu Jinqiu's family.

Her family has three houses in the yard. It was quite spacious when she was a child, but not so now. Her two brothers are married and each occupies a room.

The remaining room is occupied by her parents and four grandchildren, and she has no place to squeeze in.

After returning to the city, Xu Jinqiu stayed at Zhao Yuanyuan's house until she started working in the dance troupe, when she moved into the staff dormitory and only went back for dinner on weekends.

It’s not that Xu Jinqiu has a bad relationship with her family. On the contrary, her parents dote on her very much. It’s just that this situation is very common. Many educated youth live in other people’s homes after returning to the city.

The top leaders also saw this, and in order to ease the housing shortage, they launched the first batch of commercial housing at the beginning of the year, right in the Tuanjie Lake area, at 400 yuan per square meter, and yuan per unit.

However, it was of no use.

In this era when every family with a monthly income of 10,000 yuan has to receive a red flower, how many families can afford 30,000 yuan?
Only 1% of the people in Beijing have an annual income of yuan.

The first batch of commercial housing only consisted of 160 units, and they have not been sold out even after several months on the market.

After all, it's all because of poverty.

Compared with today's housing conditions, it is easy to imagine how much Li Hongbing, an old bachelor occupying two large houses in the backyard, is hated.

People in the yard cursed him many times, hoping that he would fall and die on the road.

This way everyone can be wiped out.

But unfortunately, Li Hongbing stopped riding his tricycle and planned to become a self-employed person. He bought a lot of tools and materials and started making pickles in the yard.

"Brother Bingzi, are you planning to do something big?" Chen Fan looked at him in surprise.

Li Hongbing is really reckless. He dared to spend money when he started a business for the first time. He bought more than a dozen pickle jars. This scale is enough to open a store.

"Making pickles takes time and you need to have enough stock, otherwise you won't be able to do it for long."

"I'm an outsider."

Seeing Li Hongbing start to fetch water to clean the vats, Chen Fan stepped forward to lend a hand. The two of them worked for half a day before they cleaned all the dozen vats and turned them upside down to dry the water.

The next day, Li Hongbing started processing.

Chen Fan also got down to work, organizing the manuscript he had written recently. There were a total of twenty chapters, almost two hundred thousand words, and today was the perfect time to submit the manuscript.

When I went out, I saw Guan Yuemei chatting with a group of old ladies. They were holding newspapers in their hands. They were all bought by Chen Fan and contained positive reviews about "The Most Beautiful Youth".

A few days ago, there was gossip in the yard that "The Most Beautiful Youth" was going to be taken off the shelves, which made her very angry. Today she finally got back at him.

"Master, do you still remember me?"

At No. 52, Dongsi th Street, at the gate of People's Literature Magazine, Chen Fan took out a cigarette and handed it to the security guard. The security guard had helped him submit his manuscript successfully last time.

"It's you. Are you submitting again today?"

The security guard took the cigarette and lit it quickly: "Your novel is famous. Editor-in-Chief Wang and others have been talking about you a lot recently."

"Really? I have to go and hear what they say."

Chen Fan took out a bag of Peony and put it in the old man's pocket before walking in. He went to the office of the novel group with ease and familiarity: "Brother Wang, I'm busy."

"Finally you're here. If you hadn't come, I would have gone to your house."

Wang Wei looked overjoyed. He pulled Chen Fan to the northeast corner of the office, pointed at the four snakeskin bags in the corner and said, "Hurry up and take your things away."

"My stuff? What is that?" Chen Fan was stunned.

"Reader letters. You may not know this yet, but The Most Beautiful Youth has become a huge hit. We receive a large number of reader letters every day."

"Aren't the readers too enthusiastic?" Chen Fan was surprised. It's only been a few days since the publication and there are so many readers?

There must be about one or two thousand envelopes in four snakeskin bags, right?

"This is just the beginning. Letters from faraway places may take a week to arrive. I'm sure many letters are still on the way."

"If I move back here, I won't have anywhere to put it."

"That's none of my business. The magazine has no place to put them. How about you buy a courtyard house to store readers' letters?" Wang Wei joked.

"No problem, give me a raise."

Chen Fan laughed, what a joke, he only earned a little money, how could he afford a courtyard house?

Only the fairy tale kings of later generations have bought courtyard houses to collect readers' letters, but that was not the case these days.

How much money do I earn? How can I compare with the future fairy tale king? In the 1980s, housing prices were not high, and people still liked to live in buildings. The price of a courtyard house was very cheap, but no matter how cheap it was, it was still a "yard" and was measured in "ten thousand yuan".

For example, Sun Guitian, the actor who played the role of "Grandma" in "A Family with Children", bought a small courtyard house next to the Forbidden City in 1980 for yuan.

If it were a three-story courtyard, it would cost at least 100,000 yuan.

How much does Chen Fan get for his writings?

If Chen Fan really had money, he would definitely buy it. Not to mention that the price of a courtyard house will increase to a sky-high level in the future, even if he bought it and renovated it, it would be comfortable for him to live in it.

The slum where I live now is not a good place to live. Not only are there too many people and too many noises, but there isn't even a decent bathroom. I have to get up every day to empty the urinal.

"I'll definitely give you a higher price for the next one."

Wang Wei smiled and took out another stack of envelopes from the cabinet: "Did you offend someone? These are letters of complaint. They were the first ones we received. They all came from the same address."

Chen Fan took the envelope and looked at the addresses, all of which were from the Cultural Palace. He immediately guessed that it was Zhang Jianjun who did it, as he was the only one who had this motive.

After opening a few letters, I found the one from Zhang Jianjun.

"I'm from the same yard as you, and you want to mess with me."

Chen Fan collected Zhang Jianjun's letter and returned the others to Wang Wei: "Brother Wang, can you do me a favor? Find someone to send these letters and the newspaper reports back together?"

"You are such a cunning boy!"

The reports in major newspapers represent the official attitude, which is exactly the opposite of the views in the complaint letter.

Although you are free to complain, it also depends on who you are complaining to.

People's Literature is also a media. If they really don't give it any face, the leaders of the Cultural Palace will worry about whether they will be remembered and appear in the magazine one day.

When intellectuals act like hooligans, they are more terrifying than hooligans themselves.

But the complaint is not a big deal. The Cultural Palace will definitely not punish you. At most they will just make a few criticisms and everyone will just get away with it.

The clever thing about Chen Fan's doing this is that he left a letter, probably from the leader.

Everyone was criticized, but the leader was not punished. The consequences can be imagined: "I'll have someone run over this afternoon and I guarantee it will be done for you."

"Please."

Chen Fan took a sip of water and asked, "One more thing. Why did those big newspapers suddenly go out of business? Was it arranged by the newspaper company, or was there some other reason?"

"You do not know?"

"Should I know?" Chen Fan rolled his eyes. I'm just a small fry.

"When writers insult each other, the magazine will definitely not participate. There are many scarred writers who submit their works to our magazine, and we cannot take a stand on it."

"I asked someone and found out that it was the Saihanba Forest Farm that took the lead. All the forest farms in the Three North Shelterbelt Forest Areas are trying to find connections. I heard that things are very busy at the top."

"I see!"

Chen Fan understood that this was one of his own.

There is nothing wrong with those people criticizing "The Best Youth", but to say that "The Best Youth" eulogizes others' achievements is undoubtedly an insult to the people in the Saihanba Forest Farm and the foresters of the Three North Shelterbelt Project.

I am eating sand, and planting trees is not a fact?

Given the foresters' fighting spirit, they can even transform a desert into an oasis. It would be a miracle if they could tolerate such smearing on them.

Saihanba Forest Farm is a bureau-level unit. There are many forest farms of the same level in the entire Three North Shelterbelt Forest Area. If these people are put together, they can poke a hole in the sky.

"Let's stop talking about public opinion here. No one will come out to criticize us anymore. Let's talk about business first. Have you brought the rest of the manuscript?"

"Do I dare to come without a manuscript?"

Chen Fan took out the manuscript, a thick stack: "There are twenty chapters here, plus the previous seven chapters, there are twenty-seven chapters, and nine more chapters will make it complete."

"You're quite efficient."

Wang Wei was very surprised. It had been less than a month since Chen Fan last submitted his manuscript, and he had written 200,000 words. He was definitely a quick writer.

These 200,000 words can be serialized for several issues.

"I'm just short of money. I've been thinking about the royalties so much that my hands are almost broken from writing." Chen Fan joked.

“Lack of money is also a motivation.”

Wang Wei took out a cigarette, handed one to Chen Fan, and lit one for himself: "It just so happens that there is a good thing that can solve your problem of lack of money."

　I was wearing short-sleeved shirt and shorts the day before yesterday. Today I have to wear two pieces. This weather is terrible. I am shivering. Please vote.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)