Chapter 11 Renting a House
After walking for more than ten minutes, we arrived at the brigade headquarters. There were a row of large tiled houses. We walked into the middle one, which was about ten square meters. There were people working inside. The brigade leader called a man in his sixties and said, "Secretary Wang, please register us. All the houses we rent are brick and tile houses."
Turning back, he asked Tang Yue and the others, "There is still more than a month or nearly two months before the autumn harvest. Will the food you have received now be deducted from your work points or will you buy it with money when the time comes?"
Tang Yue replied: "I bought it with money, what about you?"
In the end, they all had to pay for it. "Okay, calculate what you want to buy. Rice is 1 cent per pound, white flour is 1.6 cents per pound, sweet potatoes and potatoes are all 1 cent per pound, and coarse grains are 1 cent per pound."
Finally, after some discussion, it was decided that the girls would buy 40 kilograms of rice, 30 kilograms of flour, 30 kilograms of sweet potatoes, and 20 kilograms of potatoes, plus the rent to be paid in advance, for a total of 35 yuan each.
The boy bought 60 kilograms of rice, 60 kilograms of flour, 30 kilograms of sweet potatoes, and 20 kilograms of potatoes, plus the rent, which he had to pay first, for a total of 42.4 yuan each.
The branch secretary wrote us a receipt, proving that the house belonged to us from July 20th to July 19th the following day, and that we had priority in renewing the lease. He kept the receipt and put it in his pocket.
After Tang Yue put the note into her pocket, she directly put it into the space from her pocket. There was no place safer than inside.
The team leader saw that they bought a lot and lent them a wheelbarrow. Tang Yue didn't need it. She couldn't feel the weight when carrying it. It was more troublesome for her to push the wheelbarrow. Xiao Jun felt that he had lost the opportunity to show his courtesy, while others envied Tang Yue for her generosity. The team leader and the branch secretary were even happier to see this. For them, having generosity might make them good farmers.
Back in the dormitory, the male educated youth helped the female educated youth carry the food into the house. Xiao Jun looked at Tang Yue and said, "Yueyue, let me help you carry it in."
Tang Yue quickly refused, "No, I can carry it, it's very light. And please call me Tang Zhiqing, we are not that familiar with each other." After saying that, she quickly carried the food into the house.
Xiao Jun was helpless and angry. He felt that there was no point in going anywhere, so he had to carry his food into the house.
After Tang Yue entered the house, she put the food next to the kang. She had to go buy furniture first so that she could organize the house. After calculating the furniture she needed, she took some money, took a lock from the space and left.
He walked out of the house and locked the door, then went next door to ask Zhao Yingying if she was going. "Yingying, the house is empty. I want to go buy furniture. Are you going?"
"Go, go, wait for me, I'll be right back." Zhao Yingying said as she came out of the house and locked the door, "Yueyue, I'll go call everyone, everyone should buy it."
"Okay, I'll wait for you." Zhao Yingying didn't need to shout much, she just needed to shout in the yard, "Are you going to buy furniture?" Everyone who heard it responded.
Take the cart first. Xiao Jun saw Tang Yue holding the cart and quickly took it over, "Tang Zhiqing, let me take it. I'm not angry." Tang Yue didn't care and took it if she wanted.
When we arrived at the brigade headquarters, we saw the brigade leader had locked the door. He must have been preparing to go back for lunch. When he saw the educated youth coming, he stopped and waited, "I was just about to call you. Come to my house for lunch tomorrow. You probably don't have time to cook now."
When Tang Yue heard what the captain said, he asked, "Captain, where do you live?"
"See that house at the front of the intersection? That's my house. Just follow the road."
Tang Yue and the others looked in the direction the captain pointed. There was a brick house with a row of large rooms, each with a few side rooms, and a large courtyard. There should be a vegetable field at the back. The place was quite large, but it seemed that all courtyards in the countryside were not this big. After finding out the place, they returned the cart to the captain and told him that they would go there later.
On the way back, Zhu Xiaoqin spoke first, "Let's go to the captain's house for dinner. It's not good to go empty-handed. Let's go back and see if we can bring something."
Tang Yue had no objection. Seeing that no one was reluctant, she thought everyone had no objection, so she said, "I have some brown sugar. I'll wrap half a pound in oil paper."
Although there are a lot of things, but don't you still have to work under someone else? Not to mention flattering, at least don't make things difficult for them.
Finally, everyone gave you two pieces of cloth and half a pound of candy, and then discussed what to bring. The men discussed bringing cigarettes and alcohol.
Tang Yue returned to the room and took out a bag of brown sugar from the space. She divided it into two halves, each weighing exactly half a pound. When she came out, she saw that everyone had something in their hands, so she locked the door and went to the captain's house with everyone.
Arriving at the captain's house, Xiao Jun went to knock on the door. After knocking twice, he heard, "I'm coming, I'm coming."
The door opened from the inside, and a 40-year-old woman came in. She said, "Hey, you must be the newly arrived educated youth. I've heard my old man talk about you. You are all good-looking. Come in, come in."
Tang Yue was more of a homebody when she was in modern times, otherwise she wouldn't have stayed at home for so long. She would feel uncomfortable when others were too enthusiastic. At the critical moment, the community leader Zhao Yingying came and said, "Auntie, you are the lover of the captain's family, Auntie, you are so young, Auntie, how old are you..." She was very talkative, and her friends were all shocked. They didn't know there was such a Zhao Yingying.
The captain's wife had probably never heard such straightforward praise before, and she smiled from ear to ear as she hurriedly welcomed everyone in. "Auntie, I brought you something. This is a token of our appreciation, you can't refuse it, otherwise we will feel embarrassed to come to your house for dinner."
"It's just a meal, why do you need to bring anything? Don't do this in the future. We still have a long time to spend together. From now on, you can call me Aunt Guihua. Everyone calls me that. Come on, you must be hungry, let's go inside and eat."
"Thank you, Aunt Guihua." Everyone expressed their gratitude.
Tang Yue walked into the house and saw that the captain was the only one in the house. "Captain, your family only has your aunt's family." Tang Yue asked curiously.
The captain didn't mind hearing Tang Yue's curiosity, "My family only has me and your aunt's family. I have two children. The eldest one joined the army and got married in the army. The second one worked as a worker in the city and also got married in the city. The youngest one is still studying! He will come back during the holidays and is in the second grade of junior high school. You can just call me Uncle Li, there is no need to be so particular."
Hearing this, Tang Yue praised him, "Uncle Li, you are really amazing and conscious. You have trained two talents for the country. This is a contribution to the people."
At this time, Aunt Guihua brought in a basin as big as a washbasin, full of pork, sauerkraut and vermicelli stew. "Dinner is ready, dinner is ready, we'll talk after dinner." Behind her, Zhang Mei and Zhao Yingying, each holding a basket of corn tortillas and a basin of corn grits porridge.
When Tang Yue saw such a big basin, she thought it was for feeding pigs. Fortunately, she kept her mouth shut.
It turned out that Aunt Guihua's cooking skills were so good that they ate everything. It was the first time that Tang Yue ate so much, especially the pork and sauerkraut stewed with vermicelli, which was indeed a famous dish in Northeast China. After taking a break and preparing to leave, she remembered that she still needed to buy furniture, so she asked the team leader, "Uncle Li, we want to buy some furniture, where can we buy it?"
"It just so happens that I have time at noon now. Old Li's house hasn't been cleared yet, so let's go and take a look now." The team leader looked at the sky and said.
The captain led everyone for about a minute, and when they arrived at a courtyard, he reached out and knocked on the door a few times, "Lao Li, Lao Li."
"I'm coming, I'm coming, who is it?" An old voice responded from inside the room, and soon the door opened, "Captain, something's up."
"Old Li, this new educated youth wants to buy some furniture from you." After the team leader said this, he turned around and said to everyone, "You go in and discuss it with Old Li. I'm leaving first." After saying this, he left.
Old Li led everyone to the backyard, where a shed was built with a pile of finished furniture inside. "You can choose for yourselves, and come to me when you've made your choice." After saying that, he left.
Everyone went in to choose the furniture they needed. Tang Yue walked into the shed to choose the furniture she needed. Although there was space, it was not easy to carry. The kang at the educated youth site was two meters long and two meters wide, so she just took two kang cabinets that were one meter long and eighty centimeters wide and one meter high, and directly picked them up and put them outside. The girls turned into little fans when they saw this, and the boys were a little embarrassed.
Zhao Yingying saw Tang Yue took two kang cabinets and asked her where she was going to put them. Tang Yue said as she moved them: "The kang is two meters wide, just enough to put two kang cabinets side by side." Zhao Yingying also chose two directly, and finally chose this type of kang cabinet.
After Tang Yue selected the kang cabinet, she picked out a kang table, a wardrobe, a kitchen cabinet, a washstand, a square table, two chairs, two wooden basins, and a bathtub. It is not convenient to take a bath here in winter. She also picked out two buckets, a cutting board, two backpacks, an iron pot cover, a pair of chopsticks, and a steamer. She would select these first and buy more later if they were not enough.
Tang Yue put the things she had chosen in a pile to settle the bill later. Just as she put them away, she saw that her friends had also made their choices.
Old Li also came over from the front yard, and seeing that everyone had made their choices, he started counting the money without saying a word, "The kang cabinet is one dollar, the wardrobe is two dollars, the cabinet is one dollar, the table and chair are two dollars, the wooden basin is 10 cents, the bathtub is 80 cents, the bucket is 10 cents, the chopping board and backpack are 10 cents, the steamer is one dollar, the cover is 20 cents, and the rest are for free, and I will also give you two small stools."
When Tang Yue heard this, she hurriedly thanked him, "Thank you, Uncle Li. The total is 10.80 yuan. Is that right?" As she spoke, she handed the money to Uncle Li.
"That's right. I'll ask some of my sons to send them to you later."
"Thank you so much, Uncle Li." Tang Yue said to Uncle Li.
The things sold by everyone here are similar, and the prices are not much different, just a few dollars. Uncle Li collected the money and went to the front yard to call his sons. After a while, four burly men came over. As expected, the men in the Northeast are burly. It seems that Uncle Li has earned a lot of money as a carpenter, so he can raise his sons so well.
Uncle Li introduced, "Here are my big pillars, two pillars, three pillars, and four pillars," and asked them to help you move them back.
Tang Yue thought the name was really simple, but it was understandable. Few people in the twenties could read. The four sons of Uncle Li each pushed a cart, and it took several trips to move everything. In fact, everyone bought a lot of things.
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