Yi Feifei said, "My daughter works at a shopping mall in the provincial capital. Can I have her come and live with me?"

Fang Lin said, "You're only registered as single at the factory. The house allocated to you is your home. What's wrong with letting your daughter live with you? You can bring your daughter to live with you today."

Yi Feifei said thank you, got out of the car with her luggage, said goodbye to Fang Lin, and Fang Lin started the car and drove out of the residential area.

After Fang Lin left, Yi Feifei carried her luggage into the housing management office in the family quarters.

The office manager was a woman in her forties. She handed the house permit to the manager.

After reviewing the building permit, the building manager handed her three keys, saying, "Building 3, Unit 3, Third Floor, Room 3."

Every house has the number three in it, which makes Yi Feifei feel uneasy. Is she destined to be a mistress all her life? Even the houses she's given have so many "three" characters in them, as if the number three is cursed upon her.

People tend to think about whatever illness they have, and she felt a sense of self-mockery at her own ridiculous thoughts, wondering what kind of logic she was using.

She took the apartment key from the housing manager, said thank you, and turned to leave the office. The apartment buildings in the residential area were all six stories high, all walk-up buildings; getting a three-story apartment was really great.

There was a saying back then: "The first floor is dirty, the second floor is messy, the third and fourth floors are for high-ranking officials, and the fifth and sixth floors are for idiots."

Therefore, the third and fourth floors were the golden floors in those days. Yi Feifei was a deputy section chief, so it was normal for her to be allocated a third-floor apartment. She was not an ordinary worker. If she were an ordinary worker, she would be allocated a first or second floor, or even a fifth or sixth floor.

The signs above the entrances to each apartment building were very clear, and Yifeifei quickly found her own unit's entrance, which had the words "Building 3, Unit 3" written above it.

She carried her luggage up the stairs and stopped on the third floor.

The building here has four units per floor. She walked down the corridor to the door of room number three, took out her key, opened the door, and went inside, only to be disappointed.

It was only then that she realized that all the staff and family housing was like this: empty houses. After the previous household moved out, they left the houses completely empty, with only dust, garbage, and some useless underwear inside. All the useful things were taken away.

It's not bad. There's a broken broom and an old mop in the room, things the previous family didn't want when they left.

Yi Feifei put her luggage on the ground and looked around the room. It was a three-bedroom, two-living room, one-bathroom apartment, and each bedroom was very spacious, with a bathroom and toilet, and two balconies to the north and south.

The bathroom wasn't as small as the houses in the old machinery factory's residential area, and it had a ceramic bathtub inside. The bathtub was made of cement bricks and was decorated with ceramic tiles around and on top, making it very beautiful.

When the previous family moved out, they could take everything with them, but the fish basin, which was made of cement bricks and located in the bathroom, was something they couldn't really move. Otherwise, they wouldn't have left it at home.

The car manufacturing plant was indeed a large organization; the room had heating. Yi Feifei opened the two valves above the bathtub, which turned out to be hot and cold water valves, and hot water flowed out in a short while.

She went to the kitchen and turned on the valve, and there was hot water again. Without a doubt, the factory must have a large boiler room, otherwise there wouldn't be such good living conditions.

I need to clean the house first, and then go out to buy furniture. I must get my home settled this afternoon.

After the previous family moved out, the house was too messy. Yifeifei had to run downstairs several times to take the old clothes in the bedroom to the trash can.

Back home, she took out a broom and swept the floor. After sweeping, she took the trash downstairs and dumped it in the trash can. Then she mopped the entire apartment. The apartment was heated, and she was exhausted and sweating profusely.

It was noon before Yifei finished cleaning the house, and by then her clothes were all dirty.

She took out a set of underwear from her luggage, went into the bathroom, cleaned the bathtub with hot water, and then plugged the drain to let the water run.

Perhaps because fewer people shower in the residential area during the day, the hot water pressure is very high, and the bathtub is filled in no time.

However, the water temperature was too high for her to jump in for a bath, so she added some cold water, then took off her clothes and jumped into the tub for a soak.

Yifei lay in the bathtub for a long time, and when the water got cold, she turned on the valve to let in hot water.

In winter, you have to soak in the bath until you sweat to feel comfortable. Soak until you're covered in sweat, then start scrubbing your body.

After taking a shower and getting dressed, I felt hungry, so I picked up my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and went out the door.

After finishing her meal, Yifeifei went to a nearby furniture market to buy furniture.

Just as I reached the entrance of the furniture market, a woman of about thirty years old approached me. She was quite attractive, her beautiful figure giving her an air of elegance, and she was dressed very fashionably. Smiling, she said, "Ma'am, buying furniture?"

Yifeifei assumed she was a furniture salesperson at a shopping mall and simply replied, "Yes!"

The woman asked, "Do you want secondhand furniture?"

Since the house isn't hers, Yifeifei doesn't really care whether she buys secondhand or new furniture, as long as it works. She said, "Secondhand furniture is fine too. Can you take me to see some? Is it old furniture you collected?"

The woman said, "Don't worry, I'm not a middleman. I've been transferred to a job in Beijing soon. I live in an apartment in my former employer's staff quarters, and I have to give it to them before I leave. If you're willing to take it, I'll sell you the entire set of furniture and appliances."

It's hard to say the price of secondhand furniture without seeing it in person, so Yifeifei said, "Okay, take me to your house to see it. If the furniture and the price are right, I'll take it all."

The woman said, "Come with me," and Yifeifei followed her to the side of the road.

The woman stopped in front of a red car, took out her keys, opened the car door, and Yifeifei got in with her. The woman started the car, turned around, and drove towards the western district.

Forty minutes later, they drove to a residential area, where the woman got out of the car with her and led her home.

The woman also lived on the third floor. She took out her key, opened the door, and walked into the living room with Yifeifei.

She said, "Look, all this furniture was bought before I got married."

Yi Feifei looked around the entire house. There was a genuine leather sofa in the living room, a TV cabinet with a 24-inch color TV on it, a three-door refrigerator in the living room, and a washing machine in the bathroom.

She looked through each bedroom; each had a sofa bed and a wardrobe, and the master bedroom even had a nice dressing table.

Finally, they went into the kitchen. The kitchen had cabinets and was fully equipped with pots, pans, and dishes. Yifeifei was very satisfied and asked, "Are you selling everything?"

The woman said, "The capital is so far away, I can't take it all with me. I've taken what I should take, and I'm selling everything in the room, leaving nothing behind. Take what you need, and leave the rest in the room."

That's how it is when people move to the family quarters; otherwise, Yifeifei wouldn't have packed so many old clothes out of her house this morning.