An extraordinary life journey through old Beijing courtyard houses

However, Jiang Baobin still politely said, "Alright then, Boss Gao, let's talk inside."

"Okay, thank you."

After entering the house, Lao Gao first scanned the room.

After roughly assessing Jiang Baobin's net worth, he got straight to the point:

"To be honest, I've come here to ask you to kindly sublet this room to me."

"Because we need to use this yard for some business, we were worried it might disturb your rest..."

After Lao Gao went on and on, Jiang Baobin was furious when he heard that he wanted to rent his house.

Who the hell do you think you are?

I finally found this auspicious place with a yard and a cellar.

You think you can just touch your upper lip to your lower lip and expect to rent it out? Do you think you're my son, expecting to be served up right away?

Old Gao talked for a long time, but Jiang Baobin remained silent.

He knew it was time to put real money in, so he gritted his teeth and said:

"Mr. Jiang, I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused."

"For this, we are willing to offer eight silver dollars as compensation. What do you think, Mr. Jiang?"

Jiang Baobin was taken aback; he had only spent 4 silver dollars, including the deposit.

This person is very generous; they made the same amount of money for free with just one transaction.

Unfortunately, it would have been fine if the secret room hadn't been discovered, but now it's not about money anymore.

Jiang Baobin made up a reason and said, "I'm really sorry, Boss Gao."

"If you had given me three days' notice, I definitely would have helped you. What businessperson wouldn't pass up money?"

"But now this is a problem, because I've already given this address to my business partner."

"They need to mail things and send telegrams here, so we really can't give it to you."

Old Gao was quite decisive, seeing that Jiang Baobin disagreed.

He then stood up and said, "Since that's the case, I won't force you."

"Please forgive me if this causes any disturbance in the future."

Jiang Baobin acted very magnanimously: "It's alright, a close neighbor is worse than a distant relative."

"Now that we're neighbors, our two families should be tolerant and helpful to each other."

Old Gao clasped his hands in a fist and bowed politely, saying, "Then thank you in advance, Mr. Jiang. I'll take my leave now, please stay."

Jiang Baobin naturally wanted to see her off, and took the opportunity to go to the backyard to find the deaf old lady.

On the way, he felt something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was...

"Municipal Beiping Hospital", "Inpatient Department".

"Doctor, why is the patient still unconscious? It's been almost 24 hours! Could there be a problem with the anesthesia?"

"Don't worry," the doctor said calmly, "this is a normal reaction."

"You might not know this, but falling into a coma is actually a subconscious behavior that humans use to protect themselves..."

The doctor rattled off a bunch of technical terms, thinking he had intimidated Jiang Baobin.

Little did he know that after being exposed to the internet in later generations, his little tricks were simply no match for him.

Jiang Baobin, too lazy to beat around the bush, asked the question that interested him most:

"Just tell me, when will he wake up?"

Of course, this was his biggest concern, because he could only complete his mission if the person woke up.

The doctor gave a cryptic smile: "It's really hard to say."

"You might wake up in the next minute, or you might wake up tomorrow, or even later, or you might never wake up again."

"You don't know, the brain is incredibly sophisticated and complex..."

Jiang Baobin ignored him. "Why don't you go and perform crosstalk if you're such a chatterbox?"

Seeing that he was about to leave, the doctor immediately stopped rambling and solemnly told him to go pay the bill.

Jiang Baobin sighed; he knew he couldn't escape this ordeal.

This time, I'm truly on a pirate ship; there's no chance to give up halfway.

I've already invested far too much; there's simply no way to stop the losses.

What is money? Blood! My blood! That's the most precious thing!

If the system doesn't give me a big reward this time, I'm going to delete my account and quit playing!

Every time Jiang Baobin thinks of that large glass tube and that huge steel needle, his heart aches!

That's outrageously extravagant!

Since yesterday, he's been "greeting" the system's ancestors every now and then! But it's no use, the system doesn't care about him at all.

After suffering a major financial loss (the silver dollars I had saved up for many days were wiped out, and the ones I exchanged early in the morning were even less),

Feeling down, Jiang Baobin went to the tailor shop.

I looked in the mirror and looked at myself, and finally gave myself a very fair assessment—a face of unparalleled beauty!

It must be said that the clothes were a bit too avant-garde and looked rather strange.

It doesn't look like clothes, but more like a performance costume.

After careful preparation, Jiang Baobin brought himself to his best condition.

Often, clothes are important, but who wears them is what truly matters.

Jiang Baobin is 1.70 meters tall and weighs 50 kilograms, which is the standard body proportion for a model.

Add to that a "pretty boy" face, and that's what it was like in the Republic of China era. If it were in later generations...

On the street, this young lady gets a head-turning rate of over 90%!

The "International Club," also known as the "Western Gentlemen's Club," is located at No. 8, Taijichang Street.

But the old Beijingers were used to calling it the "International Club".

It is a two-story brick and wood building facing west.

It was burned down by the Boxers in 1900 and began to be rebuilt the following year.

It is a place where foreigners residing in Beiping tend to congregate.

It has activity rooms of different sizes: large, medium, and small.

Tom's farewell party was held in the central hall.

Since the event was primarily attended by Americans, the guests dressed relatively casually.

If it's a party hosted by "John Bull" or "French Rooster," it's much more formal, and guests are required to dress up.

Jiang Baobin's appearance immediately attracted everyone's attention.

Because he is not only Chinese, but also because of his distinctive clothing—which makes him stand out from the crowd.

Among a sea of ​​men in suits, he naturally attracted a lot of attention.

and also--

Duke of Windsor!

It can be seen that the suit he is wearing is almost identical to that of the model in the middle of the picture above.

That's right, this is how gentlemen dress these days—soothing and sophisticated!

But Jiang Baobin's image is like this:

The more fitted shirt and white trousers perfectly showcased the body's lines.

The only difference was that he redesigned the vest, still focusing on body shaping, and he didn't wear a tie or bow tie.

The watch was a problem; he really couldn't bear to buy one right now, so he ended up renting one from a pawn shop.

Tom came over to greet him: "Wow! Jiang, you've really surprised me!"

"Your appearance... is hard to describe! But you're very handsome, really great!"

"Thank you," Jiang Baobin said, taking the wine glass that Tom handed him.

"You're great too, Tom. The party was wonderful, I'm sure I'll have a fantastic evening."

Jiang Baobin praised it lavishly, using the way Americans speak.

Afterwards, he presented the gift he had brought—a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tom said happily, "Oh, Jiang, you're too kind, thank you. Please make yourself at home. I'm a little busy, you understand, right?"