Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 223, Second Set

On the winter solstice, smoke curled from the chimneys of the courtyard house, where Liu Yimin and Zhu Lin were busy at work.

Zhu Lin was mixing the filling, and Liu Yimin was rolling out dumpling wrappers. Inside the kitchen, the coal stove was burning, and with the fire under the stove, the whole house was warm and cozy.

Both of them took off their coats. Zhu Lin was wearing a beige turtleneck sweater, and her hair was combed up with a slight perm. She looked more capable than before.

After working alongside three teachers as a director for a long time, I gradually developed the qualities of a director.

Liu Yimin was wearing a red sweater, sent by his future sister-in-law, with a yellow five-pointed star embroidered on the chest. The collar of his shirt was turned up, making him look very fashionable.

The two people are making dumplings with pork and scallion filling and pork and cabbage filling. The scallions and cabbage were grown in a small vegetable garden in the yard.

They grow very little; the cabbages are gone after a few meals.

"Teacher Liu, your dumplings are so ugly!" Zhu Lin's slender fingers flew across the paper, quickly wrapping dumplings shaped like flower petals.

Liu Yimin places the dumpling wrapper in his palm and presses it firmly with his left and right thumbs. With a strong press, a dumpling is formed. Unfortunately, his skill is not enough; sometimes he can't press it tightly enough, and the filling always leaks out.

"Then you wrap it, I'll eat it!" Liu Yimin said with a smile.

"Don't try to be lazy. You won't get your ears frozen if you make the dumplings yourself. You often travel from Yenching University to the campus and the Beijing People's Art Theatre. The northwest wind is so strong, be careful of your ears!"

Zhu Lin glared at him threateningly, then began to teach Liu Yimin how to wrap dumplings.

Unfortunately, Liu Yimin only knew his own wrapping method and couldn't learn the others, which made Zhu Lin pout in frustration.

Liu Yimin gently tapped her face a few times with his fingers, and the white flour instantly smeared onto her face.

Zhu Lin wanted to fight back, but Liu Yimin stared at Zhu Lin's face and said seriously, "Wow, my Zhu Lin's face is whiter than flour!"

Seeing his smiling face, Zhu Lin was no longer angry. Instead, she started making dumplings. After a while, Zhu Lin, her face flushed, said, "My face is much whiter than this flour!"

The white flour of the 80s was not actually white; the color varied, some being slightly white while others were yellowish.

“That’s right, he’s all white!” Liu Yimin teased Lu Yao in his Shaanxi dialect.

Zhu Lin raised his chin: "My old Liu from my family, he's become a Shaanxi native now!"

The two of them burst into laughter in the kitchen, which became exceptionally warm and cozy, like a real family.

After a while, the fresh dumplings were almost ready. Zhu Lin used a strainer to scoop out a dumpling, picked it up, and brought it to Liu Yimin's mouth, asking expectantly, "Teacher Liu, do you want to taste if it's cooked?"

Liu Yimin took a bite, and the flavor of the scallions mixed with the meat tasted especially fresh: "It's cooked, it's cooked, you can eat it now!"

They prepared a small dish of soy sauce, vinegar, and chili sauce, and the two of them happily ate it.

"Teacher Liu, eat more, it's not good if your ears get cold!" Zhu Lin put a piece of food in Liu Yimin's bowl.

"Is 'Mountains High and Rivers Long' finalized?" Liu Yimin asked.

"It's already decided. These past few days, while rehearsing, we've been casting for 'Red River Valley.' I think Teacher Lan means that I should also be in this play," Zhu Lin said slowly, taking a small bite of her dumpling.

"That's great. As a director, you come from the play and go back to the play. While acting, you think about how you would portray the character if you were the director!"

"Teacher Liu has so many theories!" Zhu Lin chuckled. As she laughed, her neck, hidden behind her turtleneck sweater, appeared and disappeared.

After lunch, Zhu Lin put on her coat and red scarf, ready to go to work at the Beijing People's Art Theatre.

Seeing that the flour on her face hadn't been wiped off, Liu Yimin said, "Don't move, I'll get a towel."

He dampened the towel with hot water and gently wiped away the flour with the hot towel next to Zhu Lin. Zhu Lin looked at Liu Yimin, who was so close to her, and her eyes darted around.

After wiping her face, Liu Yimin roughly kissed Zhu Lin on the cheek. Seeing her caught off guard, Liu Yimin said smugly, "This is my revenge for your two sneak attacks."

Zhu Lin didn't speak, but rubbed her left cheek; it hurt a little from the bump. After a while, she said, "It seems this 'wu' has a smell!"

"Huh? What does it taste like?"

"Hmph, smells like dumplings!" Zhu Lin snorted, slung his bag over his shoulder, and ran towards the door. Liu Yimin called after him, "Drive carefully!"

On the way to the Beijing People's Art Theatre, Zhu Lin kept touching the spot where he had been kissed. When they arrived at the main gate, he was still chuckling to himself.

"Zhu Lin? What's wrong?" A colleague stopped and asked, "What's the good news? You look so happy."

"Really? No, don't guess!" Zhu Lin said with a shrug.

"See, you still say you didn't? Who would believe you!"

"Then consider this a treasure I've found." Zhu Lin ran upstairs.

Zhu Lin's colleagues watched him run up to the second floor, muttered a few words, and wondered what was going on.

In front of the courtyard house, Liu Yimin was about to close the gate and go inside when Aunt Liang came over and asked him in her thick Shandong accent if he was free that afternoon. She suggested that if he wasn't, he could come with her to look at houses.

"Aunt Liang, if you have time, what's the situation with this family?" Once inside the courtyard, Liu Yimin inquired about the situation.

"This family were the original owners, but their parents had just passed away, and they only had one child. The wife was insisting on moving to a larger house closer to her parents' home. Now that the government is encouraging people to buy houses, and their workplace happens to have some available, they're planning to buy it!"

Liu Yimin immediately became interested. With only one son, it meant there would be no disputes, and he could make the decision on his own.

In addition, the fact that my wife keeps making a fuss indicates that she's anxious, so the house price won't be too outrageous.

"When can we go see the house?" Liu Yimin asked.

Aunt Liang said briskly, "If you think it's okay, you can do it now!"

"Okay, let's go now!"

When Liu Yimin arrived at the first house, he saw the scallions and two remaining cabbages in the vegetable garden. He generously picked the two cabbages, then peeled back the corn stalks covering the scallions for warmth and picked a bundle of scallions, which he handed to Aunt Liang.

"Yimin, how can this be? In the dead of winter, no family is short of vegetables, let alone scallions!"

Green onions are much more expensive than cabbage. Liu Yimin's yard is big enough to grow them, but other people's yards are too crowded. Plus, the property rights are shared by several people, and if neighbors don't get along, they can start arguing over planting vegetables. So very few people use their empty spaces to grow anything.

"Aunt Liang, you've helped me so much, it's all my duty. You've been asking around for me every day, and you've gone to so much trouble. I can't eat all this by myself!"

Hearing this, Aunt Liang's face beamed with joy.

In winter, women wrap their heads with headscarves to keep warm. With a green headscarf wrapped around her head and then smiling like this, her whole face looks like a mouth when she smiles.

Aunt Liang was wearing a gray cotton-padded jacket and tightly holding scallions and cabbage in her arms. She kept praising Liu Yimin, this young man, as he was good!
Just as Liu Yimin was about to help her, fearing she might fall, Aunt Liang kept saying no, and swayed her hip as she jogged back to her own courtyard house.

Someone asked Aunt Liang where she came from, and she said she bought the vegetables at the Qianmenlouzi vegetable market. After putting the vegetables at home, she happily led Liu Yimin towards the alley next door. After walking around for a while, they arrived at a place not far from "Qi Baishi's" house. After walking for a while longer, they could see the Drum Tower.

Aunt Liang knocked on the door of the courtyard house next door: "Xiao Wang, are you home?"

After a while, a woman poked her head out first. She was wearing a fashionable cotton plaid coat and looked quite young. She had a red headscarf covering her head, an oval face, and eyes that seemed to never move.

He glanced at the two of them sideways and asked in a loose, old Beijing accent, "What's up?"

Aunt Liang said unhappily, "Isn't your family selling houses? Isn't this a house that people are coming to look at?"

The woman sized up Liu Yimin with her unwavering eyes: "Buying a house? Come in!"

Seeing her like this, Liu Yimin felt much better. He wouldn't feel any pressure if he really had to bargain!
Liu Yimin patted Aunt Liang's arm, signaling her not to rush.

Stepping into the courtyard, you'll find a two-section siheyuan (traditional courtyard house), which isn't quite standard because the first section is rather long, while the second section is normal.

A man's voice came from the second courtyard: "Father, Mother, there's nothing on the roof beams, damn it, it's all dust!"

The woman leaned against the wall and said, "Wang Jianjun, get down here. Someone's here to buy the house. How much are you planning to offer?"

Before Liu Yimin could speak, Aunt Liang asked, "How much are you asking for, Xiao Wang?"

The man came out and looked at Aunt Liang, saying with a hint of unfamiliarity, "Aunt Liang, please don't call me Xiao Wang anymore. I'm over thirty now, and I'm already a deputy section chief at my workplace!"

Aunt Liang paused for a moment, ignoring the matter of the deputy section chief, and pointed at Liu Yimin unhappily: "This is the comrade who wants to buy a house!"

How much are you selling this house for?

"Out-of-towner?" Deputy Section Chief Wang glanced at Liu Yimin.
"What, isn't money from out-of-towners valuable?"

Deputy Section Chief Wang spoke through his prominent cheekbones: "No, second entry, eight thousand yuan!"

"Impossible! I only paid 7,500 yuan for the three-piece set!"

Aunt Liang chimed in from the side, “Look at these roof beams, how old are they? The tiles on them should all be replaced. There’s a huge chip in that pillar over there. Who would buy a few dilapidated courtyard houses for eight thousand yuan!”

"Let's go, Aunt Liang!" Liu Yimin pulled Aunt Liang away.

Seeing that the house hadn't sold, his wife cursed, "Wang Jianjun, let me tell you, I've had enough of this lousy courtyard house. If you don't sell it soon, we're getting a divorce, and I'm going to live with my mother."

Deputy Section Chief Wang hurriedly caught up and asked if seven thousand would be okay. Liu Yimin shook his head again: "If you're sincere about selling and the price is right, you can pay today!"

The woman pulled Deputy Section Chief Wang aside and said, "Let's discuss this!" The two of them went to the kitchen and started discussing it. If they bought a public housing unit, since they were both long-time employees of the unit, the cost would be less than four thousand yuan.

After coming out, he gritted his teeth and said, "Six thousand!"

"four thousand!"

"Five thousand nine!"

"Four thousand five hundred, no more!"

Liu Yimin wanted to leave again, but Aunt Liang pulled him back and said, "How about this, I'll give you a middle ground, five thousand! Anyone who doesn't think it's right can leave now!"

Liu Yimin hesitated for a moment: "Aunt Liang, I'll grit my teeth and sell it for five thousand. If you're willing to sell it, I'll agree!"

While Deputy Section Chief Wang was still hesitating, the woman couldn't wait any longer: "Agreed, agreed." She nudged Deputy Section Chief Wang's arm and whispered, "We can buy a house, and we can even buy a color TV!"

"we agree!"

Liu Yimin said calmly, "Alright, you can move now. Find someone to accompany me to the housing management department. We should be able to finish moving this afternoon!"

They were practically saying, "Put your hands off my courtyard house, you can leave now."

Deputy Section Chief Wang thought it was difficult, but the woman thought it was doable. Her brothers from her family came to help, and it was very quick.

Liu Yimin quickly withdrew five thousand yuan from the bank. Outside the housing management department, Deputy Section Chief Wang had been waiting for a long time. He was relieved to see Liu Yimin. The two exchanged money and signed documents, successfully purchasing the second courtyard house.

I'll give you three thousand first, and another two thousand when you move out.

Aunt Liang was watching them move, like a supervisor. Liu Yimin said calmly, "Dr. Wang, how much longer until we finish moving?"

Deputy Section Chief Wang's face stiffened for a moment: "Soon!" Then, as if to save face, he said, "You're quite wealthy, being from out of town. How are you going to buy a courtyard house for your wedding? Keep up the good work and try to find a girl from Yanjing. But girls from Yanjing do have high standards."

Liu Yimin took off the white mask Zhu Lin had given him, without saying a word. Aunt Liang, standing nearby, said disdainfully, "His girlfriend is gorgeous, like an angel!"

Deputy Section Chief Wang chuckled and went to help.

Aunt Liang muttered under her breath, "The older brother and sister are such good people, but they gave birth to this thing. Deputy Section Chief Wang, oh my, the deputy section chief of the security department, what's so great about him? He was just replacing his father back then! His mother died, and he abandoned the old house to run off to his wife's house. Isn't he just asking to become a live-in son-in-law?"

Liu Yimin offered a few words of comfort, and then Aunt Liang asked him why he still wanted to buy a courtyard house. Liu Yimin replied, "If my parents and older brother come to Yanjing, they will also need a courtyard house to stay in."

"What a filial child! Look at the relationship between you brothers, it's truly enviable!"

"Aunt Liang, could you ask her for me sometime?"

"If you still want it, who will live there?"

"My father-in-law and mother-in-law might need it too."

Aunt Liang didn't speak, but stretched her hands further into her sleeves. After a while, she asked, "Yimin, my eldest daughter is quite pretty too."

The two chatted idly in the courtyard. Liu Yimin checked the time; it was time for Zhu Lin to get off work. He told Aunt Liang and rode his bicycle home.

Aunt Liang didn't even go home to cook; she just watched them move into the new house, urging them on every now and then, saying it made her feel better!

"Hey, why are you taking so long? I need to go home for dinner. Deputy Section Chief Wang, hurry up!"

The men were furious, their faces turning ashen. But knowing they still had two thousand left to collect, they could only grit their teeth and bear it.

After a while, Liu Yimin and Zhu Lin came in. Zhu Lin looked around the courtyard house and said, "Teacher Liu, why did you buy another one?"

The people working in the yard turned their attention to Zhu Lin. Although she was wearing a mask and they couldn't see what she looked like, she had a very beautiful demeanor.

Wang Jianjun's wife straightened her clothes, pulled off her unfashionable headscarf, turned around and ran back into the room, yelling, "Wang Jianjun, you're not moving anything, you're just lying there like a corpse!"

A group of people immediately got to work in a flurry of activity. After the move was finished, Liu Yimin replaced the lock with the one he had just bought.

Aunt Liang looked at the courtyard house with a touch of sadness. This woman, who possessed a strong sense of justice, was also worldly-wise and warm-hearted. She silently thought of her deceased older brothers and sisters.

(End of this chapter)