In Dongmianhua Hutong, Old Man Fu took out a key and opened the door himself.
With a creaking sound, the door opened, but a lot of dust fell from the door frame, indicating that no one had been to this house for a long time.
Old Man Fu led the way into the yard, introducing:
"This house isn't a standard quadrangle courtyard layout. Look, there's no servants' courtyard behind the screen wall. Turning left, you're directly into the courtyard, missing a second courtyard gate, the hanging flower gate.
Lin Sanqi walked into the yard and looked around, feeling quite satisfied. The main house had three rooms, with two side rooms on the left and right, three rooms on the east and west wing rooms, and five rooms in the back house facing the street.
This is actually a complete and ordinary courtyard layout, but it may not be considered sophisticated enough by wealthy families.
The courtyard in the middle is about 200 square meters. Compared with the slums, this courtyard is very spacious. Most importantly, it has a high degree of privacy, so you don’t have to be on guard against thieves when you want to eat something delicious.
It was the dry grass on the roof drifting in the cold wind that told Lin Sanqi that if this house was to be lived in, it would need major renovations.
Old Man Fu took Lin Sanqi on a tour of the rooms, telling stories about his family:
"This house was bought secretly by my father back then. He kept an actor here. Then one day my mother caught him in the act. Only then did she realize that we still had this house. Hehe, she confiscated it immediately.
But don't worry, my mother didn't kill that little actress on the spot. She just gave her to her cousin from her mother's side, putting an end to my father's thoughts. That's why this house is clean and no one has drowned in the well. "
Speaking of the well, Lin Sanqi suddenly became interested. The person in front of him was a member of the royal family, so he should know a lot of secrets in the palace, right?
"Grandpa, was it true that Emperor Guangxu's concubine Zhenfei was thrown into the well by Empress Dowager Cixi's order?"
"Yes, I've been to that well. It's inside the Zhenshun Gate at the north end of the Ningshou Palace in the Forbidden City. That place is eerie even in broad daylight. When we were little, we were always scared to death when we went there to play. Even the people in the palace were reluctant to go there.
It was the chief eunuch, Cui Yugui, who personally did the deed. Concubine Zhen struggled fiercely, so Cui Yugui tied her up, strapped two large rocks to her body, and threw her headfirst into the well, giving her no chance to survive. Poor Concubine Zhen's body wasn't recovered until a year and a half later. It was such a tragedy.
"Wow, after being in the water for a year and a half, the body must have been ruined, right?"
"Strangely enough, when Concubine Zhen's body was recovered, it was intact, with one of her legs still curled up. It was Concubine Zhen's younger brother who straightened her leg and then placed her in the coffin."
"Tsk tsk tsk, this Concubine Zhen is too miserable."
"It's tragic, and there are even more tragic things. In 1938, Zhenfei's tomb was robbed by a group of local bandits. My eldest brother was so angry that he almost vomited blood."
"Then Emperor Guangxu should be your uncle, right?"
"I have to call him uncle, he is my father's brother."
"Then what do you think of the Guangxu Reforms at the time? If the Hundred Days' Reform had succeeded, would we have become a developed country?"
Mr. Fu suddenly snorted:
"Bullshit! Even though the Six Gentlemen of the Wuxu Reform were empty talkers who harmed the country, they were still passionate. That Kang guy was definitely a traitor and a complete villain. Emperor Guangxu was completely deceived by him."
If you really want to reform, it's not like the Empress Dowager doesn't support it. Even if you just try to coax the old lady, it would be fine. But this Kang came up and said he wanted to kill the Empress Dowager. Isn't this trying to sow discord between them, mother and son?
The reform failed, and Kang fled abroad, using fake imperial edicts to swindle money everywhere, marrying six wives alone. However, not a penny of the foreign money was transferred to China for construction, but all went into his own pocket.
This kind of treacherous minister is an absolute disaster for the country and the people. Poor Emperor Guangxu believed the villain's words and ended up being imprisoned until his death. If the foreigners hadn't opposed it, Fu Jun would have almost usurped the throne."
Lin Sanqi was surprised to hear this: "Who is Fu Jun? What does he have to do with this?"
Old Man Fu took Lin Sanqi around the old house and continued to tell him stories:
"Fu Jun is also my cousin. After the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform, Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to depose Emperor Guangxu, so she convened a meeting of princes and ministers in December of the year Ji Hai and officially appointed Pu Jun as the "eldest prince", that is, the crown prince.
The Emperor Guangxu was to hold a ceremony to abdicate in the second month, on New Year's Day of the Gengzi Year. Even the reign title had been chosen, Baoqing. However, there was strong opposition both at home and abroad, and Pu Jun and his son were not up to the task, so he was not able to ascend the throne.
“Oh~~~”
Lin Sanqi understood. It turned out that before the last emperor Puyi came to power, there was another eldest prince who almost ascended the throne. This part of history is really known to few people.
"Grandpa, where is your cousin Fu Jun now?"
"Where is he? He's long gone. This gentleman was a master of eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, and everything in between. He was a complete spendthrift. It's a good thing he didn't ascend to the throne, otherwise our country would have suffered even more."
At this point, Old Man Fu said softly: "My brother also came out this year."
"Your brother? Which brother?"
"Who else? The last one."
Lin Sanqi was very curious and wanted Old Man Fu to take him to see the last emperor with his own eyes, and then find out how much of the book "My First Half of Life" had been deleted?
But if you think about it more carefully, this guy is a sensitive person, and the suspicion of being a spy has not been cleared yet, so you can't get close to him and seek death.
The two chatted as they walked towards the backyard.
"Brother Lin, this is the backyard. The last row of houses used to be where the servants lived. There are five rooms in total."
The backyard is much smaller than the front yard, but it is quieter. Lin Sanqi is very satisfied with this yard.
From now on, just sitting at the doorstep, you can see the beauties from the Central Academy of Drama walking past you. How convenient.
When Mr. Fu saw Lin Sanqi's expression, he felt relieved.
"How is it? Are you satisfied with this house?"
Lin Sanqi nodded repeatedly:
"Satisfied, satisfied. My family is still living in the dilapidated courtyard of the Gege Mansion. My brothers and parents can only live in one room. In the end, I could only live in a house converted from a waterside pavilion in the back garden. It's hard."
"Okay, as long as you're satisfied. This house hasn't been occupied for over 10 years. It'll be yours from now on. Here, here are the keys. We'll go to the street office and change our household registration when we get out."
In history, Fu Zuo lived until 2001 and did not suffer much in that era. All this was because he listened to advice and gave away his family wealth early on.
Just like now, he listened to Lin Sanqi's words and prepared to donate or give away all the houses and company shares under his name.
He had even decided that if there was any disturbance, he would abandon the prince's mansion where he lived and move his entire family to a small house.
So now he didn't feel bad at all about giving Lin Sanqi a courtyard house, not to mention that he had also received Lin Sanqi's promise for the future.
It was already afternoon when the two arrived at the Jiaodaokou Sub-district Office.
"I'm sorry, comrades, the state does not allow private housing transactions, and our street office cannot handle transfer procedures."
A middle-aged male staff member pushed the house deed and the land deed back to Old Man Fu, who became anxious:
"Comrade, this is my private property. You see, I have all the necessary documents and certificates. Why are you not allowing me to transfer the ownership?"
The staff member was a little impatient: "Why can't the transfer be made? Who should I ask? It's impossible."
Old Man Fu wanted to argue a few more times, but Lin Sanqi stopped him and took out his work ID:
"Hello, comrade. I'm the head of the purchasing department at Capital Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. We're all family, haha."
The staff initially thought that Lin Sanqi was also a social idler, but now that they saw that he was also within the system, their attitude became much better.
"Comrade Lin, right? According to state policy, private transactions of houses are indeed prohibited. In principle, all houses belong to the state and must be uniformly allocated by the state."
Lin Sanqi thought, why should I hand over my own house for unified distribution?
But he was not prepared to resist. Aren't principles meant to be broken?
Lin Sanqi looked around to see if there was anyone around, and closed the office door directly. Under the staff's surprised eyes, he opened the other person's drawer as if he was familiar with them, stuffed two paper bags from his backpack into it, and whispered:
"We're all family, so please be kind. Here's a pound of Longjing tea leaves and a pound of brown sugar..."
The street staff was a little anxious: What do you mean?
Lin Sanqi: It’s nothing special, just for the sake of appreciating it.
Street staff: That’s not very nice of you.
Lin Sanqi: No big deal, no big deal.
The street staff laughed and said: You are a really interesting person.
Lin Sanqi also chuckled: Actually, I don’t mean anything else.
Street staff: I’m sorry.
Lin Sanqi: I’m sorry.
The idea was clear to everyone, and the street staff gave instructions:
"Comrade Fu, immediately write a house transfer agreement on a blank piece of paper, stating that you are voluntarily transferring the house to Lin Sanqi."
Old Man Fu nodded, lowered his head and began to write.
The staff member took out two blank property ownership certificates from the cabinet and filled in Lin Sanqi's name in the owner column.
Then he took out a blank "Private Property Certificate" registration book and filled in all the information about the courtyard house in Dongmianhua Hutong.
"Come on, both of you sign and then put your fingerprints on it."
Then the staff took all the documents and went out. When they came back, they had the official seal on them.
"Okay, this is considered the transfer. Comrade Fu's old house and land deeds will be kept here, along with this voluntary transfer agreement. This proves that the transfer of ownership was voluntarily agreed upon by both parties, with me as a witness.
Comrade Lin, please take this house ownership certificate and private property certificate. With these two certificates, this house belongs to you personally. Don't worry, our street office will not arrange for anyone to live in your house."
After saying that, the staff member blinked.
Lin Sanqi also blinked to show that he received it, and the two of them understood each other tacitly.
In an era without computer networking, everything was filled out manually, and the transfer and archiving work was completed in less than half an hour.
From then on, Lin Sanqi had a real home of his own in the old city.
Although the waterside pavilion is quiet, it is a public property after all. Although it is generally not taken away, who can predict what will happen in the future... (End of this chapter)
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