Chapter 297 Is this little villa a house or a way to invite an ancestor into the house? ...
When you're poor, no one cares even in the bustling city; when you're rich, even distant relatives come to visit.
Qin Xiangxiang had barely brought the 100,000 yuan home, and before she could even enjoy it, several groups of people had already arrived. Her aunt, Qin Wenxian, was indispensable among them. "Xiangxiang," she said, "you're a daughter of the Qin family. You have to look after the Qin family. We share the same surname. You need to take care of your cousins; they are your true brothers..."
“You can buy an apartment in the city now, it only costs tens of thousands of yuan. Buy one for your cousin.”
Qin Xiangxiang was speechless: "Auntie, are you a New Year's firework? Do you want to ascend to heaven?"
“I have four children in my family. How about you, Auntie, contribute a few hundred thousand yuan to buy a few houses for my children?”
After Qin Wenxian left, Zhou Wenbin, her uncle who had once been so scared in front of her that he wet his pants, also jumped out. At this moment, he seemed to have completely forgotten what happened ten years ago. "Think about it, your little cousin has made something of himself. Now he's dating an overseas Chinese who has returned from abroad. He's well-off, and we can't fall behind. Now, when people get married, they need to buy appliances, like refrigerators, TVs, and washing machines... Could you help out with a thousand or so yuan? Just a thousand yuan. I don't need any other money."
“You’re the factory manager now, and you’ve made so much money. Help out your relatives.”
Qin Xiangxiang said, "I have a headache, foot pain, and pain all over my body. I need to go back to my room and lie down. People who come to visit me should bring gifts."
As she spoke, Qin Xiangxiang went back to her room and lay down on the bed, motionless and peaceful as a "corpse".
She ignored everything others said.
Just lie down.
When Li Jianzhi returned home, he heard that Qin Xiangxiang's uncle had come over, another one who wanted to "borrow money." He was even thinking of fighting against this "extreme relative." But as soon as he got home, he saw his uncle Zhou Wenbin sitting in the living room, while Qin Xiangxiang was lying asleep in the bedroom.
“Xiao Li, you’re back? Try to persuade her to think it over… I’m her uncle, would I harm her? We’re relatives, we should help each other.”
Li Jianzhi: "Those who come directly to our door asking for alms are not relatives, they are beggars."
You're saying I've come to beg for alms?
Li Jianzhi raised an eyebrow: "Isn't that right? Even a thousand or so dollars have to be paid by someone else. Uncle, you should hold up a sign, kneel down at the train station, and say that your son wants to marry an overseas Chinese woman, but he doesn't have money to buy appliances. He hopes that someone with the right connections will support him, and he will be very grateful after the matter is settled."
"Pfft—" Qin Xiangxiang laughed out loud at the door of the room. She had just fallen asleep, but when she heard Li Jianzhi's voice, she woke up from her dream and was amused again.
Zhou Wenbin: "We are blood relatives! You are my own niece."
"When you tried to send letters from overseas to my house, did you ever think about me being your niece? Did you ever think about what I would do if something happened to my mother?"
"Uncle, you haven't forgotten what you looked like ten years ago, have you? Do you need me to grab a flashlight and help you remember?"
Zhou Wenbin's face turned pale and then red. He never expected that Qin Xiangxiang would shout about what happened back then in the building, without caring about his reputation at all.
"Get lost."
After sending away wave after wave of beggars, the house finally returned to peace. Qin Xiangxiang felt a sense of satisfaction seeing Zhou Wenbin flee in such a panic.
And there was a bit of an unexpected surprise!
You see, in her dream, she was always bothered by the fact that her uncle's family had contact with overseas people and even slipped letters into their house. Later, after the reform and opening up, that aunt who she had never met bought a house for her uncle's family.
And now, both my great-aunt and the house are gone?
She guessed that it was probably in a dream that the letter caused her mother, Zhou Aodong, to die unexpectedly. Her great-aunt felt guilty and, out of a sense of compensation, and also because her uncle's family was playing the victim, she bought a house for her uncle's family.
Now that her mother is safe, her uncle still wants to harm her family. Even if she wants to play the victim, she has no grounds for complaint and naturally won't get the house.
Serves you right!
Many years ago, Qin Xiangxiang had thought about having her aunt overseas help her buy a house, but now she's given up on that idea; she's going to buy her own! If she buys her own house, she can choose whatever she wants without having to worry about anyone else's opinion.
"Li Jianzhi, let's buy a house."
"Um."
"You don't object at all? We have enough room in our house now..."
Li Jianzhi smiled slightly and said, "Wife, buying a house is definitely the best thing you'll ever do in the next few decades."
At the beginning of the 1980s, Shanghai did not have commercial housing in the standard sense, but that did not mean there were no real estate transactions; it just meant there were no commercial housing developments specifically for domestic sale.
The buying, selling, and renting of houses has always existed. In the 1960s, some houses were confiscated, and later those with ownership were returned to their original owners. There are also many historical legacies, such as overseas Chinese houses and apartment buildings in the city center. In 1989, when Shanghai first started developing commercial housing, the price of housing in Shanghai had already reached more than 2,000 yuan per square meter.
In the early 1980s, the price was around 500 to 1,000 yuan per square meter.
"The villas and mansions in the Overseas Chinese Village, or the apartments in the city center? Which one do you think is better to buy?"
When I first received 100,000 yuan, I thought it was a lot. However, when I went to buy a house, I found that the money was not much anymore. An apartment on Huaihai Road costs between 30,000 and 80,000 yuan. As for houses in Overseas Chinese Village... they are slightly more expensive and require foreign exchange to purchase.
Li Jianzhi: "Let's go see the houses in person as a family. We can buy whichever one we like."
The couple, along with their four children, embarked on a house-hunting journey.
They decided to look at the overseas Chinese remittance apartments first. Qin Xiangxiang specifically inquired about the small villas with gardens and received a disheartening answer: "We still don't have the money. Li Jianzhi, a set costs two or three hundred thousand, we can't afford it."
Buying a one-bedroom apartment would only cost a little over ten thousand yuan, but for their large family, the current apartment was too small and not suitable for the six of them. Qin Xiangxiang then thought of a small villa, and when she thought of a villa, she wanted a three-story villa with a garden... This desire kept rising.
"You really want it? Then let's pool our money and we can afford it."
Qin Xiangxiang closed her eyes briefly: "Forget it, it's just a matter of luck. You can't expect to get so much good fortune from the sky. Anyway... one bed is enough for me."
"The house is so expensive, the pressure is too much, I just want to lie down and not move."
That's what they said, but timing was everything. The couple found a special villa—an old-style villa with three floors and a south-facing garden of about 60 square meters. It was currently priced at 100,000 yuan. The original owner was abroad, and a 60-year-old woman, a distant relative of the original owner, lived in the house.
The special condition for selling this house is that the old lady has an emotional attachment to it and wants to stay and live there to continue taking care of the garden until she falls ill and passes away.
The original owner of the house probably just wanted to sell it as the situation allowed, leaving the old lady to continue living there.
"The price is quite reasonable, but I heard that the old lady has a bad temper. Others have come to see the house before and were willing to buy it, but the old lady did not agree. You have to get the old lady's approval before you can buy this villa."
Qin Xiangxiang was very tempted by the price, but after hearing the details, she immediately rejected it: "Is this buying a house or hiring an ancestor for myself? What a hassle."
Li Jianzhi: "Since you're already here, come and see. I brought a camera to take pictures of you and your daughters."
"These old-fashioned villas, aside from anything else, have beautiful scenery, it's just that the season isn't the best. When spring comes, the gardens will be beautiful."
Their timing for looking at apartments was unfortunate; it was winter. In Shanghai, the air is permeated with a uniquely southern, hazy, damp chill, as if you were soaking in fog, with the sticky, damp feeling described in Eileen Chang's novels.
The sunlight was a pale gold, barely covering the bare sycamore trees.
The couple, with their four children, were led by a middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit to a dark green iron gate with a brass door knocker that had lost its paint.
Li Jianzhi was wearing a military overcoat, his posture as straight as a pine tree. Qin Xiangxiang wore a camel-colored overcoat with a down vest underneath. Li Qingfeng wore a navy blue short overcoat. The three daughters wore matching cotton-padded jackets, all handmade by Qin Xiangxiang.
Qin Xiangxiang breathed on her palm: "Going out in this weather is such a hassle."
"This is the house." The man unlocked the slightly heavy lock, and the creaking iron gate was pushed open.
The 60-square-meter garden, with its withered yellow grass in winter, still showed signs of meticulous trimming, neatly cut like a thick old blanket. In the corner stood an osmanthus tree, like the sycamore, its leaves all gone, leaving only simple branches. Beneath the tree was a carved round table and chair, with a few dried sycamore leaves lying on the table.
The wind blows, the fallen leaves creak, countless bare rose branches sway in the wind, and withered vines still entwine around the white fence. The pale yellow three-story building appears desolate in winter, yet one can still imagine the profusion of flowers in spring from its simple scenery.
"This must be so beautiful in spring..." Qin Xiangxiang looked at the scene before her, her heart shamefully fluttering with desire once again.
But if I buy a house, I'll still have to take care of this troublesome old lady in her old age. It's like hiring a patriarch. Maybe I should just forget about it.
"A price of 100,000 is indeed very cheap." Li Jianzhi nodded. This little villa in front of him would cost at least 100 million in the future.
Qin Xiangxiang: "??? Cheap? Don't even try!"
The house in front of her is too exciting. Qin Xiangxiang has lived in the workers' new village since she was a child. Her family had two rooms, which were only about 20 square meters in total. Later, they had three rooms, which were only 30 or 40 square meters. Even now, with two more floors built up, the three floors together barely make up a little over 100 square meters.
The house in front of me is at least 100 square meters per floor, not to mention three floors, plus a 60-square-meter garden... It's truly opulent!
After they entered the courtyard, the heavy oak door of the main house was opened, and an old lady wearing a dark cotton robe and with her hair neatly combed stood inside. The old lady was not young, but it was clear that she had been an outstanding beauty in her youth. Her face was thin, and her eyes were like jade that had been soaked in water, warm and sharp.
"This is Aunt Rong."
Aunt Rong didn't speak, but nodded and looked at the family who had come to see the house.
Aunt Rong's family was once a well-known silk merchant in Shanghai. After the 1940s and 50s, most of the family members moved overseas, but she stayed behind for some reason. Aunt Rong knows all kinds of silk fabrics like the back of her hand and has mastered a nearly lost ancient cheongsam tailoring technique.
Her gaze swept over the young couple, finally landing on the clothes of the little girls, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes.
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