It was winter break, and Su Qingmeng and Lin Xiuyao were preparing to move into their courtyard house. The renovations had been completed in October, but they were both in school at the time, and since their new home was quite far from school, they hadn't moved. It was a good opportunity to keep the house for a while to air out the odor.
The courtyard faces south and covers an area of 630 square meters. It includes three main rooms, two side rooms, four east and west wing rooms, one side room each, five back rooms, and a private school room east of the main gate, for a total of 16 rooms. A toilet was built in the southwest corner upon entering the courtyard. The master craftsman has restored the house to its original appearance as much as possible, with white walls, blue bricks, gray tiles and nanmu wood, giving it an antique charm.
There were only two of them, so they didn't need a huge yard. A second courtyard would be enough. Without part-time housekeepers and robot vacuums, cleaning a large space would be a hassle. They'd likely be living here for at least the next decade or so when they were in Beijing.
The two took out the key to open the door. Today they went to a furniture store and bought a set of Ming and Qing style rosewood furniture to put in the study.
The courtyard has a vermilion gate located in the southeast corner. There is a screen wall at the entrance and two pots of welcoming pines on the left and right. Entering the courtyard from the moon gate on the west side, there are two pomegranate trees planted in the yard. They were there before, and Su Qingmeng asked the master to keep them.
There are five back rooms in the first courtyard. Su Qingmeng doesn't like living with others, so the two of them set up two guest rooms and a bathroom. In the future, relatives and friends will stay here when they come over, and the second courtyard will be occupied by the two of them.
Open the hanging flower gate and enter the second courtyard. There is a corridor right at the entrance. The corridor is in the shape of a "mouth" and connects all the houses in the second courtyard. On rainy days, you can walk under the corridor without getting wet.
A cross-shaped blue brick road cuts through the courtyard, dividing the land into a "田" (field) pattern. Bare, unplanted, nothing grows. In the middle of the road sits a large water tank, housing carp and lotus flowers—an old Beijing tradition.
Su Qingmeng asked the construction team to build a canopy in the yard and plant some vines so that people could cool off underneath in the summer.
The east wing is temporarily vacant and will be used by the children in the future. The room to the north of the west wing is the living room, the south room is the dining room, and the adjacent side room is the kitchen.
The room on the west side of the main house is used as a bedroom, the middle is the audio-visual entertainment area, where a TV and radio are placed, and the room on the east side is a study.
The west wing is a laundry room with running water. It can be used as a bathroom in the future. Since electric water heaters are not available now, they can still shower in the space to save energy and protect the environment. The east wing is a utility room.
The furniture was delivered to their door. They bought two large bookcases, two antique display cases, four chairs, and a square wooden table. They took the deliveryman to the second courtyard and arranged the furniture in the study.
Su Qingmeng went to the bedroom. The main room was quite large, so she divided it into two rooms. The inner room was the bedroom, and the outer room was the dressing room, separated by a screen. The screen was the Four Seasons Screen drawn from "Chuangwu". The probability of winning this screen was quite high, and she had several in her space.
The bed has been made. It is a large bed of three meters by two meters. She bought a Simmons mattress because she had been sleeping on a kang before, which was too hard.
The dressing room had a row of large wardrobes, a dressing table, and a full-length mirror. She took out all the clothes in the space and put them away. They would move in tomorrow.
The next day, the two of them found two tricycles and loaded all the luggage onto them. The electrical appliances had already been delivered, and the furniture was all made of ordinary wood, so they just left it there and didn't move it away.
Aunt Wu knew they were moving away and was reluctant to let them go. "Come back when you have time!"
"Auntie Wu, we will be back when school starts." The two of them said goodbye to the neighbors who were watching them and set off for their new home.
There is a public security bureau and a kindergarten near the new home, and it is also close to Xinjiekou Department Store, making shopping convenient. Su Qingmeng is quite satisfied with the supporting facilities.
Their living standards improved after moving. The new house's toilet features a flushable ceramic squat toilet. The kitchen has a gas stove and an exhaust fan, eliminating the dusty mess of burning wood. They heat their homes with a coal stove and no longer have a kang (kang), a traditional Chinese kang (a traditional kang), effectively saying goodbye to the stove.
The antique display cabinet in the study was still empty, so the two of them went to the Liulichang flea market to "shop".
Neither of them knew much about antiques; they bought whatever they liked at a reasonable price. Finding an antique was a pleasant surprise, and even if it wasn't, they could just use it as a decorative ornament. They went to the flea market hoping to find a bargain.
Su Qingmeng picked up a pen holder with fine carving and asked the stall owner, "How much is it?" She seemed to smell a faint fragrance.
The stall owner said, "This is handed down from my ancestors. It's said to be from the Tang Dynasty. It's a good thing. 80."
Su Qingmeng ignored his exaggerated words and said, "10 yuan, will you sell it or not? If not, I'll leave."
The stall owner said, "Well, since you're a connoisseur, and we just opened, I'll give you 60."
Su Qingmeng: "Oh, I don't know the value of it, I just think it looks good, so I won't sell it for 10 yuan." She stood up and pretended to leave.
Seeing that she was about to leave, the stall owner quickly said, "You take it." He had bought it for one dollar anyway.
After paying, Su Qingmeng showed the pen holder to Lin Xiuyao, who said, "It's made of agarwood." Lin Xiuyao knew more about wood than she did.
Su Qingmeng said, "Why don't we go collect junk too? Maybe we'll be millionaires in the future." Antiques are worthless nowadays, and ordinary people sell them for a few cents or dollars.
If you don't have the space, collecting junk is really more profitable. You can earn about 1,800 yuan a month and also pick up antiques.
They picked out a vase and a galloping horse sculpture. They cleaned them up and placed them on the antique shelf. "It's finally full," Su Qingmeng said.
Lin Xiuyao said, "Then I'll go to Xidan to set up a stall and sell clothes tomorrow." Da Gong and his group gathered together and headed south, changing trains in Beijing. As they passed by, Lin Xiuyao gave them 3,000 yuan to buy winter clothes.
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