Chapter 271 More Expensive Than a House
"Teacher Lin!" Kai-Fu Lee called out to Lin Weimin from a distance.
The motorcycle stopped beside him, and Lin Weimin said with a smile: "Are you anxious waiting?"
"No, no, I just got here too. Shall we walk?"
"Walk!"
Under the guidance of Li Guangfu, Lin Weimin walked only a dozen meters forward and saw the house they were going to see today.
The second courtyard next to the Forbidden City is filled with antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and the back room in the small courtyard where Shichahai lives is also filled with letters from readers.
Space at home is a bit tight, and Teacher Lin was not kidding with Ma Dudu. He really needs to buy a few courtyard houses.
Take advantage of the fact that house prices haven’t risen yet!
Regarding the purchase of the courtyard house, he not only told Ma Dudu, but also Li Guangfu. Li Guangfu was an old resident of Yanjing and had a much wider network of contacts than those of Ma Dudu's father who came to Yanjing.
After waiting for a few days, Lin Weimin finally received news from Li Guangfu.
The courtyard house we are going to see today is located on Xi'anmen Street, belonging to the XC District. It is a three-courtyard courtyard house built in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.
Xi'anmen Street runs east-west, and the courtyard faces north and south. At first glance, the brick-carved gatehouse is extremely exquisite. On the top of the gatehouse is a two-story ice-plate eaves with railings and balustrades. The balustrades are carved with vases, flowers and chevron patterns, with fine workmanship.
Li Guangfu pointed to a stone plaque above the archway and introduced: "Teacher Lin, this is the work of Shen Yinmo."
Lin Weimin looked up at the two words on the archway - Shizhu.
Lin Weimin frowned and asked, "Is there any explanation for this?"
Li Guangfu said: "Where consciousness rests and what consciousness loves is called consciousness residence."
He chuckled and said, "I don't really understand Buddhist terms, but I asked about them when I was looking at the house the other day. I heard that the person who lived here was a scholar who studied Buddhism."
Lin Weimin nodded. Just for the gatehouse and the inscription, the value of the courtyard would be increased by two points.
After entering the gate, there is a gatehouse with a hard-roofed roof and a dragon-ridge roof on the northeast side. In front of the gate there is a pair of exquisite drum-shaped stone doorposts and four door pins on the door.
Just looking at the appearance of it when it first entered the courtyard, Lin Weimin secretly praised it in his heart because it was well preserved.
The second courtyard is very spacious, with three main rooms with a front porch on the north side, and two rooms on each side of the north room.
There are three rooms in the east and west wing rooms respectively. There is a corner corridor in front of the east wing room leading to the backyard. There are five rooms in the north room in the last three courtyards.
"Teacher Lin, what do you think?" Li Guangfu asked.
"Very good!" Lin Weimin nodded and asked, "Does the householder really not want to meet?"
"They said they would sell it to you if you gave them a suitable price."
It’s better not to meet, to save trouble.
"This family is quite interesting. What's the right price? Why don't you let them make an offer?"
Li Guangfu smiled and said, "Teacher Lin, this kind of house with some elegance must be more expensive. I guess that's what they mean."
Lin Weimin nodded, agreeing with what Li Guangfu said, and said, "How about this, you pass on a message and ask how about 10,000 yuan?"
Li Guangfu immediately gave Lin Weimin a thumbs up and said, "You are very generous!"
To buy a three-story house in Yanjing City for ten thousand yuan, this price is out of this world, except for the former residences of famous celebrities.
In Yanjing, courtyard houses with fewer than three courtyards are usually called houses, where ordinary people and wealthy people live. Those above that are for the powerful and wealthy are called mansions. The top level are the mansions of princes and beiles. These two types of houses are not available for purchase easily and are occupied by the government.
Of course, there is another level higher up, called the Forbidden City, where the emperor lived. Now it is closed and ordinary people can buy a ticket and enter freely.
It was not until after 1985 that the price of a three-courtyard house began to approach ten thousand yuan.
He offered Li Guangfu this price purely to save trouble.
It only took one day for Li Guangfu to write back to Lin Weimin, and he agreed to sell it.
The price is not 10,000 yuan, but 9,000 yuan.
Although this price is one thousand lower than what Lin Weimin offered, it is still a good price for a three-courtyard house on the market today.
Li Guangfu helped save a thousand yuan, so Lin Weimin specially invited him to Quanjude for a meal to express his gratitude.
When Li Guangfu heard that Lin Weimin was planning to turn the three courtyards into a place to store his collection, he was surprised and asked, "When did you start collecting?"
"It's not a long time, just half a year."
Li Guangfu thought, how many things can there be in half a year? Is it necessary to build a special yard just to collect them?
However, Lin Weimin was grateful to him for his help, so he patted his chest and took on the decoration task.
His family used to be wealthy, and he had seen people who collected artifacts back then.
If you want to use a yard specifically to store your collections, all you have to do is ensure the temperature, humidity, sealing and safety.
He was familiar with the area and people in Yanjing, and the foreign exchange coupons in Lin Weimin's hands were hard currency, so it was not difficult to carry out this task.
"Forget about the trouble I've caused you by buying a house, but you also took a lot of trouble to help me with the decoration of Shichahai before. This time we are brothers, so let's be clear about the accounts. I'll give you the job of decorating the courtyard house, how about it?" Lin Weimin said.
Li Guangfu quickly refused, "That won't work, Teacher Lin, you have been so kind to me..."
"It doesn't matter what. Feelings are feelings, business is business. Cleaning the house is a hard job, it's both mentally and physically exhausting. If you don't take this job, I'll find someone else."
"Look at you, aren't you treating me as an outsider?"
"I feel bad asking you to help me for nothing all the time. Besides, once you finish my yard, you can set up a decoration team and do some side business!" Lin Weimin joked.
These days, actors are just an ordinary profession and they don’t earn more than ordinary people.
In later life, Li Guangfu did go into business to make money and even opened a travel agency.
Li Guangfu thought that the words "working in the decoration team" were just a joke, but seeing that Lin Weimin's attitude was serious and could not be refused, he had no choice but to agree.
Lin Weimin originally planned to give the one thousand yuan he saved from negotiating the house price to Li Guangfu as a reward, but he was hurriedly rejected by Li Guangfu with a wave of his hand.
"It's too much! Too much!" Li Guangfu's expression was a little frightened. One thousand yuan was enough for his salary for more than a year.
After discussing for a long time, they only asked for 200 yuan as wages.
The decoration standard of Lin Weimin's courtyard on Xi'anmen Street must have taken longer time and cost more money than the other two courtyards. For two hundred yuan, he bought peace of mind. Lin Weimin joked that Li Guangfu was too conscientious in this deal.
Li Guangfu said with a smile: "I can't even take these two hundred yuan with me, so how can I take your money?"
"Stop saying that. Why can't you get paid for your work? You need to change your mindset!"
After deciding on the decoration, Li Guangfu discussed the specific plan for the yard decoration with Lin Weimin.
Since this yard is used to store antiques, calligraphy and paintings, the requirements must be higher than those of ordinary yards, such as energy conservation and insulation of the house, air tightness of doors and windows, anti-theft measures, etc. These are directly related to the long-term preservation effect of antiques, calligraphy and paintings.
Lin Weimin felt a little headache after chatting with him for a few sentences. He was really not good at this.
"Well, I'll take you to see someone tomorrow."
The next evening, Dong Lai Shun.
"This is Li Guangfu, an actor from the People's Art Theatre."
"This Ma Dudu, the editor of Youth Literature."
Lin Weimin gave a brief introduction to Li Guangfu and Ma Dudu, and the two greeted each other politely.
When the copper hot pot started to boil, the mutton slices were put into the pot. Several people ate a plate of mutton quickly before talking about business.
I heard that Lin Weimin has already bought a house, and it is a three-courtyard house on Xi'anmen Street.
Ma Dudu couldn't help but sigh in his heart, Teacher Lin is so efficient!
"I've handed the renovation of the yard over to Guangfu. I called you here today, Dudu, so that we can discuss the matter together."
Ma Dudu admired Teacher Lin's generosity more and more as he bought a yard specifically for storing antique calligraphy and paintings and even took the trouble to decorate it.
He and Li Guangfu both had some experience in antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and they could talk quite smoothly about the storage and preservation of these things.
After chatting for a while, Ma Dudu said, "I heard that foreign collectors all build basements for safety reasons. Teacher Lin, why don't you build one?"
Digging a basement?
This is possible. It is more secure and concealed. You can put some worthless antique calligraphy and paintings in the open, and lock the truly valuable ones in the basement.
"Oh, that's a huge project!" Li Guangfu said in embarrassment.
"Can it be solved by spending money?" Teacher Lin asked quietly.
Li Guangfu remained silent. Is there anything in this world that cannot be solved with money?
In the past, I only knew that Teacher Lin was rich and he would buy a yard for thousands or tens of thousands without blinking an eye. Now it seems that he is not only rich, but also generous.
The final plan was to renovate the yard and build a basement. Li Guangfu and Ma Dudu were responsible for the implementation of the details.
Ma Dudu offered to help out of sheer curiosity and the desire to broaden his horizons.
While eating, Li Guangfu made a rough calculation and concluded that if Teacher Lin's yard was fully furnished, it might be more expensive than buying two more yards of the same size.
Can you imagine that a renovation costs more than the house itself?
Ma Dudu felt that he might not be able to see such a Western scene again in his lifetime, and he absolutely could not miss it.
After working for more than a week, the affairs of the yard were handed over to Li Guangfu and Ma Dudu, and Lin Weimin finally felt relieved.
The renovation of this Shizhu Courtyard on Xi'anmen Street is a huge project, which may not be completed in a year. There is no place to put the antiques and calligraphy and paintings, and I can't buy things so lavishly anymore. I'll have to take my time.
On Thursday afternoon, Lin Weimin was writing a letter to Cheng Zhongshi.
After the writing conference ended, Cheng Zhongshi returned to his hometown and first revised the completed novella "The Mr. Blue Robe" and then sent it to the editorial department.
In the letter accompanying the manuscript, Cheng Zhongshi mentioned the "Brick for Headrest" that he was inspired to write by Lin Weimin. This was Cheng Zhongshi's first foray into the writing of a novel, and he was extremely cautious.
It has been almost a year since I had this idea. I have thought about this story over and over in my mind countless times, but I always feel that it is not good enough. He also talked about this issue at a writing meeting before.
After finishing writing "The Mr. Blue Robe", Cheng Zhongshi planned to devote all his energy to the creation of this novel. He planned to travel to all the counties and cities around Xi'an, one to collect folk songs, and the other to check information.
Lin Weimin admires Cheng Zhongshi's cautious, serious and even somewhat demanding creative attitude very much. Authors like him do not need editors to worry about them.
The only thing Lin Weimin could do was to remind him in the letter to take more care of his health and not to ruin his body by being obsessed with writing.
He was concentrating on writing a letter when there was a knock on the office door. Lin Weimin looked up.
(End of this chapter)
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