1980 My literary era

Shi Tiesheng has only known Lin Weimin for half a year. During this six months, he published two short stories in magazines and wrote a lot of other bits and pieces of text, but they were not published.

Let’s take a look at Lin Weimin’s past six months, not to mention “Death of Yura” and “Latent”. “Cliff” is a 200,000-word novel, and the scripts he has written for people’s art must be at least 20,000 to 30,000 words. Such efficiency is really enviable and enviable!

Lin Weimin was chatting with Shi Tiesheng inside the house. They used a cast iron stove, and the wooden windows had some air leakage. The temperature in the house was not high. Shi's father came over to fill up some coal, for fear that they would be cold in this house.

"Hey, by the way. Tiesheng, is there a house near your house that sells takeout?"

"You want to buy? Why not buy a building?"

"How can a building be as comfortable as living in a courtyard house?"

Shi Lan interjected: "What's so comfortable about? It's not convenient to go to the toilet. I have to run outside the courtyard. My buttocks are freezing in the winter."

Lin Weimin said: "Isn't it the end of spending money to build a toilet?"

"The yard is not our own." Shi Lan muttered.

"Weimin, do you mean to buy a house with a single family house?"

"yes!"

Brother Shi Tiesheng and his sister immediately cast envious glances at Lin Weimin.

The house they live in next to the Lama Temple was just moved this year. The two houses combined are less than 40 square meters. It took Shi Tiesheng two years of running around in a wheelchair to move down.

Lin Weimin wanted to buy a house with a single family house, which was beyond the brothers and sisters' understanding.

"Brother Lin, buying a yard costs a lot of money!"

"Hey, I just asked first. After all, it's impossible to find the right one so quickly. I can't afford it if it's too expensive."

Lin Weimin's words made the Shi brothers and sisters feel a little better. Shi Tiesheng said: "You said that and I remembered that Aunt Li's relatives' house next door is about to be sold out. It seems to be a separate house."

"Yeah?"

As soon as Lin Weimin became interested, he pushed Shi Tiesheng and knocked on the door next door.

As soon as Aunt Li heard that Lin Weimin was here to ask about the house, she immediately enthusiastically asked him to look at the house.

"Aunt Li, this is twenty miles away from Caishikou. It's better to go there after lunch."

"What Tiesheng said is, look at me, I've lost track of time in this rush."

Back at Shi Tiesheng's house, Shi Lan was as busy as a little bee eating the hot-boiled mutton brought by Lin Weimin for lunch today, but he was willing to do so.

She is now particularly looking forward to Lin Weimin's arrival. Every time Brother Lin comes, their family can have a better meal.

It was very convenient to light the stove in winter and eat hotpot mutton. Everyone gathered around the table and had a delicious lunch.

Lin Weimin originally planned to go see the house with Aunt Li alone, but Shi Tiesheng wanted to go with him uneasily. He knew that Lin Weimin was a foreigner. If there was something wrong with the house, he would be in trouble if he couldn't tell.

After struggling for more than an hour, several people arrived at the yard near Caishikou.

This is a courtyard in the first place. Not counting the huts and coal sheds, it has seven rooms, three in the main room, and two wing rooms on both sides. The yard is less than 200 square meters.

The owner's surname is Zheng, and he is Aunt Li's distant nephew.

He introduced that his grandfather bought this house and spent more than 500 oceans in the 1920s. Then he spent more than 200 oceans to repair the house. In the end, he spent more than 800 oceans including taxes and agency fees.

Lin Weimin calculated it and found that when the great man worked as a librarian at Yanda Library, his monthly salary was eight yuan. If he didn't eat or drink, he could buy it in more than eight years.

The house in the courtyard is relatively shabby, and the interior decoration is also very old. Even if Lin Weimin wants to buy it, he will have to spend a lot of money on decoration in the future. However, the overall courtyard is relatively neat, so he can ask about the price first.

After looking at the house, Lin Weimin took the initiative and asked, "Brother Zheng, how much do you plan to sell this house for?"

"Six thousand dollars!"

Lin Weimin and Shi Tiesheng looked at each other, the price was not ordinary expensive.

"It's too expensive! It's too expensive! Are you here to take advantage of me?" Before the two of them could speak, Aunt Li stopped, "I brought you this person, how can you ask for such a price?"

"Auntie, my price is really not expensive. The two wing rooms next to ours were sold for 1,000 yuan. My seven rooms, as well as the hut and coal shed, plus the yard, cost 6,000 yuan. Money is the price of conscience.”

Lin Weimin didn't know if Aunt Li was singing along with her nephew. The price was much higher than he expected. The main reason was that the price did not match the location of the house.

The area around Caishikou belongs to Nancheng. There is an old saying in Yanjing, "The east city is rich and the west city is noble, and the north city is poor and the south city is cheap." This saying was first seen in the book "Tian Gong Ou Wen" by Zhen Jun, a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty.

"There is a proverb in the capital: 'The east is rich and the west is noble'. Most of the nobles live in the west city, and the warehouses are all in the east city."

At that time, all the princes and aristocrats lived in Xicheng. Princes, princes, Baylor and Beizi Mansion gathered here and had high status, so it was said that "Xicheng is expensive".

The state's warehouses were all located in Dongcheng. At that time, there were thirteen large warehouses in Yanjing, seven of which were located in Dongcheng. And due to the large concentration of warehouses, Dongcheng has also become the financial center of the capital.

The "Four Heng" banks that were famous in the capital at that time, namely Hengxing, Henghe, Hengli and Hengyuan, were all located in Dongcheng. In the late Qing Dynasty, foreigners established many banks here, such as the famous HSBC and Citibank, so it was called "Dongcheng Rich".

In the Qing Dynasty, Beicheng was the area around the Bell and Drum Towers. It was a residential area. At that time, ordinary poor people lived here, so it was called "Beicheng poor".

As for the "Nancheng cheapness", it is because there was an overpass in Nancheng at that time. It was once the most prosperous civilian entertainment place in Yanjing. It was also the gathering place of countless three religions, nine arts, five elements and eight works, and juggling skills. These gathered jugglers and actors were engaged in All are despicable businesses, so naturally, Nancheng was dubbed "cheap".

"Brother Zheng, your price is too expensive!"

Lin Weimin shook his head at the landlord. He didn't even have the desire to bargain, so he was about to push Shi Tiesheng away.

"Hey, don't mention it, you should pay back!"

Lin Weimin didn't plan to stay and went straight out of the yard.

Aunt Li was angry at her nephew, "I finally found someone to buy a house for you, but it would be a good idea for you to just sell him away with a fixed price."

"This person doesn't know how to bargain when buying something?"

"Nonsense! Do you think this is shopping on the street? People are here to buy a house sincerely. Four thousand yuan is too much for your shabby house. If you just ask for six thousand yuan, they think you don't want to sell it! I won't care about you anymore. Family trouble."

After Aunt Li finished speaking, she left angrily. After leaving the yard, Lin Weimin said politely: "Aunt Li, I'm really bothering you today. It was a waste of time."

"It's okay, it's okay. I can't even stand my nephew's wild bidding."

"Haha, it's okay. In business, it's all about mutual consent."