Hearing the two old ladies bustling about in the yard, Song Jingzhou quickly stood up and went out to help chop the cured chicken.
Su Qingci chatted with Su Changzhi in the living room.
"Uncle, you look much better. Which school are Sigui and the others attending? Are they settling in well?"
“The Red Tea School is just over there on the street. Your aunt used to take her child there. It’s not far. She doesn’t even need to bring lunch. It only takes about ten minutes to run back for lunch.”
"Habits are different, and it will take some time to adapt. The written language here is quite different from that on the island, and their accents are also different from ours. However, the students and teachers here are very welcoming, and they have made new friends. I believe they will be able to integrate into the community soon."
When talking about their three children, Su Changzhi and Liao Fengmei were both beaming with joy. Their biggest gain from this trip back was the changes in their children.
The children prefer life here to that on the island.
Here, not only was he well-fed and clothed, but he also didn't have to walk twelve miles to study like he did on an island. Longing to return home, he sat down again in his favorite classroom.
All three children worked very hard, studying late into the night. After all, everything was new, and they were eager to catch up with their classmates. Seeing their enthusiasm, the parents were genuinely happy.
After having lunch with his family, Song Jingzhou took Su Qingci to the west end of the street.
Yesterday, I made plans with Flathead Meat to look at houses today. I wonder how many properties they've looked at.
"You've finally arrived. I thought..."
Song Jingzhou chuckled, "We've already paid the deposit, are we going to run away?"
"How many sets did you look at?"
"Seven sets: one set at the West Street entrance, one set in Zhangjia Hutong, two sets in Jiaxi Alley, and sets in Maozi Hutong and Liuhuai Alley."
Su Qingci's eyes lit up, "There's also one from Liu Huai Lane?"
"Yes, there is one, but it's a bit small."
"Let's go, let's check out the one at the West Street intersection first."
As they walked, Pingtourou explained to Su Qingci, "This courtyard house at the entrance of West Street has three main rooms with a hall, as well as a coal shed, outhouse, and courtyard. Two of the three main rooms have side rooms, so there are about six or seven rooms that can be lived in. The owner used to be a wealthy family in West Street, but all his property was confiscated after the founding of the People's Republic of China. This house was returned to him ten years ago, and now only the grandfather and grandson are left in the family."
"As I told you before, there are two other families living in the house. They are relatives of the same family. I took pity on them and the neighborhood committee persuaded us to make use of the spare rooms, so we let them live there. But it's easy to invite a god in but hard to send him away. They made a mess of the house and forced the real owners of the house to live in the outbuildings for five years."
"Now that old man's grandson is all grown up and works in a machinery factory. Last year, he spent a lot of money to pull strings and got a single room in the factory. The grandfather and grandson couldn't win against their family, so they thought of selling the house to avoid seeing it again."
“I have checked the property rights. The house deed and land deed are there, and the note in the subdistrict office is indeed the old man’s name. There is no problem.”
Su Qingci nodded, "Let's take a look first."
After walking for about ten minutes, they arrived at the courtyard that Pingtourou had mentioned. Su Qingci listened to the hawking sounds coming from not far away and asked, "Isn't the intersection of West Street and Street ahead?"
Flat-headed Meat nodded, "Yes, go forward fifty meters, there's an alley, and the entrance to West Street is right there."
Su Qingci asked in confusion, "Such a good location shouldn't have been left unused until now, right?"
Dachang chimed in, "Sister, you have no idea how badly those two families living inside have caused trouble. There are nearly twenty people in those two families combined. One of them, who came to look at the house, was beaten and sent to the hospital. Another family was thrown out with excrement. The whole alley knows about it, and everyone is afraid to get involved."
Song Jingzhou raised an eyebrow. "So, what's our opinion?"
Flat-headed Meat smiled and stepped forward to push open the door. "Don't worry, they're either at work or at school. As for the few who are just guarding the house, I had them lured out."
"Old Ge~"
"Uncle Ge~"
"Oh, you're here?" A hunchbacked old man in his sixties greeted him nervously.
"So you're the ones who want to buy a house, right?"
"Come, come in quickly. Comrade Chang has already told you about my family situation, right? If you happen to run into him later, just say you're an old acquaintance who came to visit me."
Su Qingci and Song Jingzhou nodded and followed them into the courtyard. The fact that the gate was wider than that of an ordinary house made it clear that the house inside was extraordinary.
Sure enough, upon entering, there was a fairly large courtyard on the right. There were spaces for flowers and plants in the corners of the courtyard walls, and the waist-high walls were decorated with many holes in an ancient style.
On the left are rows of rooms, with the outermost eaves built by pillars, below which is a corridor. There are three large rooms side by side on the side, and at the end of the courtyard there is a toilet and a utility room. The coal shed is on the right side of the main entrance.
The green bricks and blue tiles are very well maintained and basically don't need to be redone. A quick cleaning is all it takes to move in. Just looking at the toilet, Su Qingci was extremely satisfied.
Grandpa Ge nervously explained, “Those three large rooms are all quite big. Two of them have side rooms and a main hall. The other one is a bit smaller. Although it doesn’t have side rooms, the main hall is still quite big. If you include the courtyard, the total area is more than three-tenths of an acre.”
"I don't have a key, but they treat it like their own home, and it's kept very clean inside."
Su Qingci did the math in her head: one fen (a unit of land measurement) is 66 square meters, and three fen (another unit of land measurement) is more than 200 square meters, which is indeed quite large.
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