“Pearl, if you want to buy a house, we can go to the housing authority and ask Xiaoqian! If we keep wandering around like this, when will we ever find someone selling a house?” Zhou Bingchen said.
"You have connections at the housing management bureau?" Zhao Zhenzhu's eyes lit up.
“Grandpa Qian’s grandson, Qian Rukun, is the deputy director of the Housing Management Bureau. We even ran into little Qian this morning when we went out, and he greeted us,” Zhou Bingchen said.
After thinking for a while, Zhao Zhenzhu finally pictured a tall, thin young man in her mind.
If Zhou Bingchen hadn't mentioned it, Zhao Zhenzhu would have had no idea. Qian Rukun, who seemed so carefree and irresponsible, was actually a low-level cadre in the Housing Management Bureau.
"Great! Let's go, Bingchen, let's hurry and ask Xiaoqian." Zhao Zhenzhu exclaimed, grabbed Zhou Bingchen's hand, and turned around to walk back.
Zhao Zhenzhu was overjoyed. Having acquaintances makes things much easier!
If they weren't outside, Zhao Zhenzhu would definitely have hugged Zhou Bingchen's face and kissed him.
Zhou Bingchen has made great progress.
They truly understood Zhao Zhenzhu's urgent needs and thought what she wanted.
“Wrong. Pearl, the Housing Authority is this way, we should walk forward.” Zhou Bingchen pulled Zhao Pearl and turned her around.
Housing Management Bureau.
After arriving at work, Qian Rukun sat down at his desk and sighed.
On the desk was an application form.
The application was written by Qian Rukun, but unfortunately it was not approved at yesterday's meeting.
"Little money! Little money!" At this moment, an elderly man with gray hair walked in and asked, "Is there any news about your housing management bureau acquiring my property?"
"Uncle Ma, please sit here." Qian Rukun stood up and led Uncle Ma to sit down on the wooden sofa next to him.
"Xiao Qian, just tell me the truth, is your company willing to buy my house? Cai Ling called last night, saying that a hospital has been found and urging me and her mother to go there as soon as possible," Grandpa Ma said with a worried look.
Cai Ling is Grandpa Ma's daughter, who now lives in Hong Kong.
Before liberation, Ma Cailing's husband's family went to Hong Kong, but Ma's father's family couldn't bear to give up their ancestral property and stayed in Beijing.
The Ma family was a wealthy family with four courtyard houses in Beijing. The largest of these, originally the residence of Mr. Qian's family, had five courtyards, a garden, a rockery, and a pond, making it a truly beautiful place.
Unfortunately, during the movement, the Ma family's properties, including their magnificent courtyard house, were all confiscated.
Grandpa Ma and his family were evicted from their large house and moved into what used to be the servants' quarters.
Less than two years later, Grandpa Ma's only son, unable to bear the change in his life, committed suicide.
Mr. Ma and his wife lost contact with their daughter Ma Cailing from Hong Kong, and the couple depended on each other for survival.
Thankfully, the dark days are finally over.
In recent years, the Ma family's properties have gradually returned to Mr. Ma's hands.
Unfortunately, Granny Ma fell ill.
Grandma Ma has a tumor in her brain and needs surgery to get better.
Craniotomy is not yet a mature procedure in China, so doctors in Beijing advised Mr. Ma to take his wife to a developed country for the surgery.
Just when Grandpa Ma was at his wit's end, his daughter Ma Cailing, who was far away in Hong Kong, reconnected with him.
Ma Cailing went to the hospital to ask, and the doctor said that craniotomy is a mature procedure in Hong Kong, with an 80% chance of curing Ma's grandmother.
However, the surgery is very expensive, costing around six thousand.
Ma Cailing suggested that Grandpa Ma and his wife simply move to Hong Kong. Her younger brother had passed away, and her parents were getting old, so she was worried about them not having anyone to take care of them.
After Mr. Ma and his wife went to Hong Kong, they found a place to stay close to Ma Cailing's home so that Ma Cailing could take care of her parents in the future.
After thinking it over, Mr. Ma decided to sell his house and go to Hong Kong to live with his daughter.
As I get older, I just want to enjoy the happiness of family life.
Grandpa Ma asked Qian Rukun for help, hoping he could find a buyer for him. If the housing authority was willing to take the property back, Grandpa Ma could sell it to them at a slightly lower price.
Grandpa Ma had only one condition: "It has to be fast."
Grandma Ma's condition cannot be delayed.
Grandpa Ma didn't want to risk his wife's life just to save an extra thousand or two yuan.
Qian Rukun didn't just brush off Grandpa Ma; he actually asked several people for him.
Unfortunately, they all shook their heads.
In this day and age, very few people are willing to spend money to buy a house.
Everyone was craning their necks and standing on tiptoe, waiting for their work unit to allocate them apartments. The apartments allocated by the work unit wouldn't cost a penny.
Moreover, Grandpa Ma's house is not cheap.
The five-courtyard house where Mr. Ma and his wife currently live is priced at 18,000 yuan. Adding the other three houses, the minimum package price is 35,000 yuan.
In this day and age, if your family can come up with 5,000 yuan, you're definitely a wealthy person.
Thirty-five thousand is no small sum.
The housing authority's decision to take over a property requires a meeting for discussion.
Yesterday, at the meeting, Qian Rukun had just started speaking when Director Wu interrupted him.
The Housing Management Bureau is a low-income department. Except when it comes to paying employees' salaries, it can't even come up with 3,500 yuan in funding, let alone 35,000 yuan.
Qian Rukun was powerless to help.
"Uncle Ma, here's what we'll do. You take your wife to get medical treatment first, and I'll help you sell the houses slowly. I'll give you the money for each house you sell. Is that alright?" Qian Rukun couldn't think of a good solution after thinking it over, so he had no choice but to say this.
“Small change! I want to do that too, but Shufen and I don’t even have enough money for two plane tickets to Hong Kong! I heard from Cailing that everything is expensive in Hong Kong—food, housing, and medical treatment are all expensive. What will we do about Shufen’s illness if we don’t have any money? We’ll starve to death if we can’t afford to eat!” Grandpa Ma said with a worried look on his face.
Grandpa Ma wasn't actually in such dire straits. To put it more pitifully, he just wanted Qian Rukun to help him think of a solution.
If she went to Hong Kong, Ma Cailing would definitely not watch her parents starve to death.
However, Mr. Ma didn't want his daughter to have a difficult time in her husband's family. He had money, so he wasn't worried about anything!
Otherwise, when Ma Cailing's in-laws went to Hong Kong, Grandpa Ma would have gone with them long ago.
Grandpa Ma couldn't bear to part with the several houses passed down from his ancestors. At that time, it was during a period of war, and Grandpa Ma couldn't sell the houses even if he wanted to.
Staying in Beijing at least means having a place to live and a few properties to collect rent, so you won't starve.
I never expected that something like that would happen later.
Thankfully, it's all over now, and the house is back in Grandpa Ma's hands.
However, nowadays, Grandpa Ma and Grandma Ma are like frightened birds, afraid that history will repeat itself and they will be kicked out of their house again.
Grandma Ma's illness became the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Grandpa Ma needs to sell his house to pay for Grandma Ma's medical treatment.
Grandpa Ma finally made up his mind, sold the house, and took the money to live with his daughter.
When Zhao Zhenzhu and Zhou Bingchen arrived at the housing management office, they happened to see Grandpa Ma holding Qian Rukun's hand, tearfully recounting his hardships.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
