Chapter 25 Renting a House
"Hello, Party Secretary Tong. I am Su Xiangwan, a newly arrived educated youth. This is my husband, Gu Yanxiao."
After Su Xiangwan knocked on the door, she began to speak with a cheerful smile.
Then he looked at Cai Shuhua beside him and said, "This must be my aunt! Here's a small gift for you, please accept it as a token of my appreciation."
As she spoke, she stuffed two cans of malted milk powder into Cai Shuhua's hands.
Cai Shuhua, who had been looking downcast, beamed with joy when she saw the two cans of high-quality malted milk powder in her hand: "Oh, Little Su, you're too kind. Come on in and have a seat."
Unexpectedly, this new educated youth is really sensible and generous in his generosity.
Thinking it over, she quickly led the person inside and closed the door behind her, cutting off any outside attention.
After entering, Su Xiangwan exchanged a few polite words and then explained her purpose for coming.
“Secretary Tong, it’s like this, our whole family came to the countryside, and I’m pregnant now. It’s really inconvenient for us to live with the other educated youth. I wonder if there’s any empty courtyard in the village where our family can settle down.”
"An empty courtyard?" Tong Liqun frowned. "It's really not good for unity for you to live separately like this!"
Just because it's two bottles of malted milk powder, you want to live in a separate house?
Su Xiangwan smiled faintly, then took out the peony and wine from her bosom and said, "Our whole family came to the countryside for the construction of our country. I'm just worried that after the child is born, it will be inconvenient to live with everyone. The child's crying at night will also affect everyone's sleep and make it difficult to work during the day, right?"
Cai Shuhua, who happened to be carrying a thermos, lit up when she saw the cigarettes and alcohol. She quickly winked at Tong Liqun and said, "Old Tong, isn't Old Xu's house next to the educated youth settlement vacant? Although the house is a bit dilapidated, it would be perfect for Little Su and the other educated youth to fix it up and live in it."
Su Xiangwan was overjoyed: "Auntie, are you talking about that small courtyard next to the educated youth settlement?"
Cai Shuhua nodded: "That's right. Old Xu used to live in that house, but he passed away a month ago, and the house has been empty ever since."
"This..." Tong Liqun looked somewhat troubled, "There are quite a few people eyeing that house, are we really going to just give it to them like this..."
Su Xiangwan immediately said, "Uncle, we can pay for it."
“Buying is out of the question.” Tong Liqun immediately shook his head. “There’s no rule in the village about selling houses to outsiders.”
"Then let's rent it. How much would you like to pay me for a year?"
A smile flashed in Su Xiangwan's eyes. Renting it would be perfect, since they hadn't planned to stay in this Eight Trees Village for long anyway.
In just over a year, the college entrance examination will be reinstated, and then they will be able to return to the city through the exam.
The reason for saying "buy" was simply to deliberately give Tong Liqun another option.
After all, he accepted my gift and refused to buy me a house, so he can't refuse my request to rent a house as well.
Sure enough, Tong Liqun hesitated for only a moment before saying, "How about this? You pay the village fourteen yuan a year for rent, and we'll rent this house to you."
Su Xiangwan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thank you, Uncle. Let's write a written agreement now!"
Tong Liqun nodded and immediately took out paper and pen to write a document.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, Su Xiangwan spoke up again: "Uncle, it's too troublesome to write down fourteen yuan. Why don't you just write down ten yuan to save trouble?"
Tong Liqun frowned, thinking Su Xiangwan was haggling, but considering the cigarettes and alcohol she had brought, he was about to agree.
Then Su Xiangwan took out fourteen yuan and placed it on the table.
This is……
Tong Liqun was taken aback, but then he understood what Su Xiangwan meant. He immediately gave her a deep look and wrote "rent ten yuan a year" on the document.
After seeing Su Xiangwan and the others off, Cai Shuhua looked at the fourteen yuan on the table with a beaming smile and said, "Old Tong, do you think this little Su educated youth is stupid? He clearly paid fourteen yuan in rent, but only asked me to write ten yuan down. Hehe, what about the four yuan that wasn't written down..."
As she spoke, she nudged Tong Liqun with her shoulder.
Tong Liqun glanced at her indifferently, casually opened a pack of cigarettes that Su Xiangwan had given him, and said, "Stupid woman, I think you're the fool. Su Xiangwan is very clever!"
After obtaining the written agreement and keys from Tong Liqun, the Gu family discussed the matter and decided to go directly to the rented courtyard.
They opened the courtyard gate and began tidying up.
The house had only been empty for a little over a month, so there was no overgrown weeds in the yard.
However, the house was in serious disrepair.
If the whole family wants to live there, it needs to be properly renovated.
Since it was getting late, everyone just quickly tidied up the two houses and made do for one night.
Seeing everyone busy with their tasks, Su Xiangwan took over the task of preparing dinner.
Gu's parents assumed that Su Xiangwan's request to prepare dinner was simply to reheat the leftover buns or something, and that it wasn't a big deal, so they didn't refuse her.
Su Xiangwan went to the kitchen, where the pot was nowhere to be found on the dusty earthen stove.
Indeed, in this era of scarcity, iron pots were valuable items.
Fortunately, they had a cast iron pot among their luggage this time.
Although it's a bit bigger than a stove, it doesn't affect its use.
Su Xiangwan asked Gu Yanxiao to find the iron pot and install it.
He compared the stovetop, picked up the kitchen knife he had brought, scraped around the burner hole, and then put it in; it fit perfectly.
"Yan Xiao, you're amazing!"
Su Xiangwan didn't hold back her praise; after all, in a marriage, emotional support is essential.
When Su Xiangwan praised Gu Yanxiao, his originally calm and deep eyes sparkled with a bright light.
He turned around and went behind the stove to start a fire, then picked up a bucket and went to the well at the educated youth settlement next door to fetch water.
Su Xiangwan found dried bamboo shoots, cured meat, some pickled cowpeas, dried eggplant, and preserved eggs among the dried vegetables they brought.
After thinking for a moment, I boiled some water to wash the cured pork, cut it into small pieces, stir-fried it with dried bamboo shoots until fragrant, and then started stewing it.
Then comes rinsing the rice and steaming it. Steaming the rice is done in a stainless steel pot on a small stove on the side.
All you need to do is transfer the glowing charcoal from the stove to the small stove, then place the stainless steel pot on top and let it simmer slowly.
Rice cooked this way tastes better than rice cooked in an electric rice cooker, with a charcoal aroma infused into it.
While stewing dried bamboo shoots and cured pork and soaking dried eggplant, she diced pickled cowpeas and cut preserved eggs into pieces and plated them.
After she finished all that, the stewed bamboo shoots and cured pork was ready and served in a stainless steel bowl.
She started by stir-frying pickled green beans and dried eggplant. Since the Gu family can all handle spicy food, Su Xiangwan added a little chili to both dishes to enhance their flavor.
As she busied herself, the aroma of the food gradually wafted through the air...
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