Siheyuan starts from a better life

Chapter 846 Win-win
Actually! This high-class family does not hang lanterns like this. Except for the "Shangyuan Festival", "Hungry Ghost Festival" and "Xiayuan Festival", they only hang lanterns during festive celebrations, birthdays, or when relatives and friends come home. There are so many lanterns hung in this second courtyard when entertaining guests.

And one thing that needs to be mentioned in particular is that the hanging lanterns are not ordinary lanterns. It's actually an anagram lantern.

"Charades." These words sounded fresh.

You know, although today, guessing entertainment is not common anymore. But in the past, especially in the Qing Dynasty, guessing riddles was an activity used by the upper class to meet friends, and it was quite active.

In the early years of the Republic of China, this form of entertainment spread from top to bottom to the private sector. Lantern riddle guessing activities also flourished among ordinary people in the capital, and seasonal riddle guessing activities began to appear.

The so-called seasonal activities refer to the summer period from long summer to cool autumn. When the intellectuals among the residents light up the lights every day or in the evening on regular days, they will choose suitable locations in nearby streets and alleys to hang "wall lamps".

Wall lamps are usually made of translucent paper pasted on the surface of a horizontal rectangular wooden frame, with medium-burning candles or small kerosene lamps. The prepared riddle strips must be affixed to them in advance.

In this way, people nearby and those who have liked it in the past can watch and guess, so as to forget the summer heat. It disappears late at night, which is called "Lighting Tiger".

At that time, many people, if they met a wall lamp they were interested in, would often travel afar to meet up with them. There are so many puzzle pieces, and those who are in embarrassment are unable to cope with them, so they can have fun. Hence the nickname "Tiger Fighting Team".

As the visit progressed, it must be said that the people responsible for the renovation were quite talented. The "concierge" was transformed into the "communication room" of the street factory without any change.

The two wing rooms on the north and south sides were used as warehouses, and the remaining rooms in the row of "inverted sitting rooms" facing east and west became the "shipping areas" for the street factory to accumulate finished goods and package them.

In order to facilitate the workers at the front and the leaders at the back to eat, the street factory used the west wing as a paper cutting workshop and the east wing as a factory cafeteria.

The house in front is basically the same as an ordinary courtyard house, but the owner of this house does not live in the main house here. He lives in the small western-style building at the back.

According to what Tian Zao knew, this building was built by the officer who spent a lot of money to ask foreigners who were in Sijiucheng at that time. It is said that it cost tens of thousands of oceans. It's also extremely luxurious here.

This building is perfect in both design and construction. There is a platform outside the window, a fountain at the door, and a green golden grass lawn in the courtyard.

All rooms use European-style long glass windows, and chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The interior not only has floors, wainscoting, heating, and a bathroom with running water, but also has power generation equipment and a boiler room in the southeast corner of the yard. There is also a pantry adjacent to the kitchen.

Even in order to pass the new carriages and cars, the door was opened on the north wall and a new large iron door was installed to facilitate the entry and exit of carriages and horses.

To be honest, if the equipment in the house could be kept intact. Even now, it can be called a modern life that is not outdated at all.

"This small foreign-style building eventually became the office space for the leaders of the factory in this street. However, it has been so many years and no one has maintained it. I don't know what is going on inside now." Tian Zao said.

Entering inside, this was much more serious than they thought. Not to mention the floor creaked, the tiles were cracked in many places, which looked like they were caused by transporting heavy objects, and there were cracks in many places on the surrounding walls. Not only was it dilapidated, but the paint on the pillars had also peeled off, exposing the hemp inside. The sewer hole is completely blocked. I don’t know how long it has been blocked. The toilet was full of water, and there were many bricks on the ground for walking.

This small building has a total of two floors, and there are a dozen rooms in total. The furniture in each room is almost gone, and only the walls are left. The ceiling of almost every house is like a map, with a circle. A circle of water stains.

Judging from this level, once it rains, it will probably be heavy rain outside, light rain in some places, and heavy rain in some places. As it is, it probably has to be rebuilt.

The other courtyards are basically used by people, but the east courtyard of this courtyard is in disrepair.

This place was used as a storage for sundries by the street factory. As broken tables and rotten chairs filled up one side of the wing, most of the rooms were empty for a long time and were not used. Over time, the window frames were broken and the doors were crooked. The yard was covered with creepers and half-human-high weeds. However, the peach trees and a large banana tree that were originally planted under the wall had died.

This made the whole yard look dark and gloomy, giving it a sense of death.

Not long after everyone stepped in, a rat ran over from the bushes. The rat was more than one meter long, which was rare in the entire city.

Jiang Yan and Tian Zao just looked at each other and then retreated.

After visiting these rooms, we came to the highlight, the garden. This house was renovated with a garden, so the garden is the top priority. It can be said that the entire garden occupies almost half of the space.

The garden is very large, with stone rockeries, ruined flower beds, and a half-collapsed pavilion. But more of them are the walnut trees, persimmon trees, pomegranate trees, quince trees, and wolfberry trees scattered next to a zigzag road. These flowers, fruits and trees are all of high quality. However, in a hundred years, no one seems to have paid attention to their growth in such a hurry.

However, if there are fruit trees, there will naturally be fruits. When the street factory takes over, more people can share it.

Because even though the garden is barren, there are not many remaining fruits or fruit cores except for the dense grass on the ground. It can be inferred from this that these fruits are picked every year.

And it can be seen that this garden was once used as a vegetable garden. There are scattered tomato trees and some scattered supports still standing there stubbornly.

However, looking at the flowers and fruit trees here are so precious, it is not difficult to imagine that there were many precious flowers and trees in this garden at that time. Unfortunately, people here are not knowledgeable and probably either took advantage of them or disappeared.

There is a large patio in the courtyard of the garden, and a large area of ​​rocks, flowers and trees is arranged in the front corner. Although the Taihu stones are not jagged and strange, they are exquisite and clear. There are three tall stone peaks, of different sizes and well-proportioned.

What's unique is that there is soil in the recess on the stone surface that is more than a foot high, and a mountain peach tree grows from it. Its main trunk is slanted and is as thick as the mouth of a bowl.

It is just in the flowering season now, and the white flowers are already blooming, so gorgeous.

Just looking at this scene, I already feel that this place is extraordinary. This scene is a must-see for taking photos in any park.

"How about it, it's okay here!" Tian Zao said after looking at the scenery in the yard.

"Yes, it is a good place whether it is connected to my yard or living alone, but the construction here is a big project." Jiang Yan said.

"When the time comes, we can let our street construction team build it for you." Tian Zao said.

"The construction team will definitely be used, but it is not the main force. To build such a house, Jiang Yan still prefers Lei Lao San. The house Jiang Yan owned before was the masterpiece of the engineering team and Lei Lao San."

Back in Jiang Yan's house, Tian Zao took out some documents, which were all the houses that the recorder had replaced for Jiang Yan. These houses were basically dilapidated, but they were in a good location and there were several facades in them. , so Jiang Yan made the decision directly.

Tian Zao's face was full of joy when he left, and Jiang Yan in the room was also happy. With this exchange, both of them felt that they had earned something, and it was a win-win situation.

(End of this chapter)