However, because the team was in a hurry to build rental houses, Wang Chunni and Xu Laidi's houses were not yet completed. Including Yang Xiaohong and the original educated youth, the old house now houses a total of ten people. Although it is summer and everyone is dressed and covered with thin clothes, they still sleep side by side, which looks very cramped.
The brigade leader wasn't in a hurry when he saw this. He waited until everyone had complained enough in the yard before leading them to the backyard to see the newly built house. He then explained, "The conditions at the educated youth settlement are limited. You've all seen the situation in the main house. There are two men who can fit in here, but it's a bit difficult for the female educated youth to squeeze in."
However, the team thought that some of you educated youth might not be used to living in the communal dormitories, so they borrowed money from the commune to build a few small houses in the backyard. If you don't want to live in the big houses, you can stay here.”
"You can decide for yourselves whether you can squeeze into the main house or stay in the small house in the backyard. I'm telling you this before you even say it: the small house in the backyard was built with money borrowed from the commune by the team, and it has to be paid back. So you can't stay in these small houses for free. Each room will have to pay two yuan in rent per month."
This room can accommodate two or three people. It's fine if you rent it alone or with others, but the rent is non-refundable and must be paid in full for at least six months. Please let me know if you've considered this carefully.
After the house was built, Yang Wanqiu rented a room. When she saw the kang (heated brick bed) that could accommodate two or three people, she did consider sharing the room with someone.
However, none of the older educated youth wanted to rent a room, and even if they did, no one would want to share with them. Yang Xiaohong, on the other hand, was reluctant to spend the money and had no intention of renting a room at all.
In her words, why spend money on a free house? Besides, living alone means having to cook, fetch water, and gather firewood, which is too much trouble. She'd rather use that time to do more work, earn more work points, and get more grain at the end of the year so she can send some home.
Another reason is that Yang Wanqiu also had some desire to compete with Chen Shuning, so she gave up the idea of sharing a room with someone and decided to rent a room by herself from the beginning, choosing the one next to Zhong Lingling's room.
After seeing the condition of the old house, most of the new educated youth were interested in renting the new house, since the old house was really too small to accommodate any more people.
So after hearing what the brigade leader said, the other educated youths began to discuss where to live. However, a fair-skinned girl who hadn't spoken since entering the house approached the brigade leader and pointed to Chen Shuning and Yang Wanqiu's brick house, asking, "Brigade leader, are those two brick houses next door also for rent? Could you please take me to see them?"
In fact, as soon as Gu Xinyi arrived at the backyard, she saw the two brick houses that contrasted sharply with the old house. Putting aside everything else, the bright glass windows looked much more pleasing to the eye than the old house and the paper-covered windows of this mud-brick house.
Although Gu Xinyi didn't have much money, she thought that she still had so many things, and it was only a matter of time before she could turn them into money.
So, wanting to make herself more comfortable, she went to the captain and asked about the two houses she had her eye on at first glance.
The brigade leader glanced at the female educated youth who was speaking. She was wearing a white Dacron shirt, which was the most popular style at the time, and brand-new black twill pants. Her women's cloth shoes with zippers were also new. She was carrying a lot of luggage in her hands. In addition, she was fair-skinned and pretty, and looked like she was not short of money.
Thinking that this female educated youth might also be considering building her own house, even though the houses built by the team might not be able to be rented out, in the long run, it seems more worthwhile for the team to have a house for free after the educated youth leave by paying for their own house.
This realization pleased Shen Baogen, who was always shrewd and calculating. He then explained with a smile, "That house was built by Chen and Zhong, the educated youths, with their own money. It has nothing to do with the village."
Upon hearing that they could build their own houses, Gu Xinyi immediately became interested and asked in a soft, sweet voice, "Captain, can we educated youth build our own houses? I wonder how much it would cost to build one of those?"
Gu Xinyi pointed to Chen Shuning's house and asked, "On the way back, all of us educated youth knew that Wang Wenfang, who was temporarily relocated, was going to live with her future sister-in-law, Zhong Lingling."
Moreover, through the glass window, Gu Xinyi could see that the three people in Zhong Lingling's room were tidying up, so she could guess that the larger house probably belonged to Zhong Lingling.
However, she clearly preferred Chen Shuning's little house. After all, she had secrets and naturally wouldn't build such a big house to invite people to live together.
Although the educated youth would no longer rent houses in the village if they built their own houses, the commune leaders said at a meeting in town a few days ago that there would only be more educated youth going to the countryside in the future, and that each brigade should be prepared to receive more educated youth.
He was praised and vigorously promoted by the commune leaders for the village's method of first paying for the construction of houses and then renting them to educated youth. They also encouraged the brigade leaders to encourage the educated youth to build their own houses, so as to reduce the burden on each brigade.
Therefore, when Gu Xinyi inquired about building a house, Shen Baogen patiently explained to her: "If you want to build a house like Chen Zhiqing's, the total cost, including labor and materials, is 109 yuan. However, each of you educated youths receives a resettlement subsidy of 15 yuan, so her house ultimately cost only 94 yuan."
However, I need to make this clear to you first. The village team can give you the resettlement subsidy for building your own house, but you'll have to pay for all the subsequent maintenance and other miscellaneous expenses yourself. The village won't cover that. Also, you can only live in this house; you can't sell it. Once you leave, the house will belong to the village.
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