Chapter 41 See you again, old friend!

Around four in the afternoon, the weather outside became a little cooler and not as hot anymore.

Li Changhe and Zhu Lin walked out of their house, then rode their bicycles towards the Housing Management Office in Haidian.

The notorious real estate agents of later generations did not exist in this era.

In the past, there were pawnbrokers. Later, during the Republic of China period, amid the chaos and war, these pawnbrokers gradually changed their name to "pullers."

That’s right, it’s the “pulling the boat” in the phrase “matchmaking pulling the boat”, which means the real estate agency.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, these boatmen were arranged to work as workers, and the buying and selling of houses were all under the jurisdiction of the Housing Management Office.

Li Changhe brought Zhu Lin and quickly arrived at the Housing Management Office of Haidian Town. Seeing that the people inside had not yet gone off work, he walked in.

"Hello, comrade!"

After Li Changhe entered, he greeted politely.

"Hello, what can I do for you?"

The attitude of the staff inside is quite good, at least much better than the sales clerks in department stores.

"It's like this, we are going to get married soon, but the space in our house is not big enough for us to live in."

"I want to ask, are there any suitable houses for sale here?"

Li Changhe made up an excuse and asked.

The clerk from the Housing Authority across the street had a puzzled look on his face.

"House for sale?"

"Are you sure it's a house sale? Not a lease?"

The other party stared at Li Changhe and asked seriously.

Looking at the other party's posture, Li Changhe was thoughtful.

broken!

There is a high probability that my memory is wrong!
"I'm not sure either. I'm an educated youth who just returned to the city not long ago. This is my partner, a student at the Medical College. We both live in the staff quarters of the Beijing Industrial College."

"We heard from an elderly man while we were having dinner outside that our housing authority can sell houses and that there are some former private houses that can be sold, so we came to ask."

After hearing Li Changhe's explanation and looking at the two people's attire, the clerk from the Housing Management Office nodded.

"Beijing Industrial College, no wonder!"

“You guys have been deceived.”

"You can't say you were cheated. In the past, our real estate agency could indeed buy and sell private houses, but that was more than ten years ago. We changed that a long time ago."

After the other party's explanation, Li Changhe finally realized where he was wrong.

Before 58, there were indeed private houses that could be bought and sold, but starting in 58, due to housing shortages, the state began to reform the rental system.

That is, a portion of the individual's private property is left to them, the remaining portion is taken out and rented out by the state, and then a portion of the rent is returned to the landlord.

But a few years ago, another notice was issued that the rent would not be refunded and the property would not be allowed to be bought and sold, and could only be rented out by the Housing Management Office.

"The old man you met was probably too old to think that the rules were from a few years ago. We changed them a long time ago."

"You guys are waiting for a house if you want to get married now. One option is to wait for your company to allocate housing. Isn't this girl from Union Medical College? She is a quasi-cadre. She can apply for a housing allocation when the time comes."

"The second option is to rent, but housing is tight here now, so I'm afraid there's no suitable house."

The clerk from the Housing Management Office spoke politely to Li Changhe.

Li Changhe sighed, it was indeed too early.

He remembered that he had read a book in his previous life that started in the 80s, which talked about property returns and house sales.

This means that the country most likely liberalized housing sales in the 80s, so it is still impossible to buy a house now.

"Okay, thank you comrade!"

Li Changhe thanked him and was about to leave with Zhu Lin.

Unexpectedly, a middle-aged woman next to me who had been silent suddenly raised her head.

"Two little comrades, wait!"

Li Changhe heard the call and turned back curiously: "Do you have anything else to say?"

"Well, do you two want to rent a house? I have a suitable house here and I can take you to see it!"

"Sister Zhang, we don't have any suitable houses in our institute, so where can we rent them?"

The clerk who had answered Li Changhe before heard what the middle-aged woman said and spoke to her in a low voice.

Sister Zhang waved her hand, then looked at Li Changhe and asked with a smile: "Just now you said that this female comrade is a medical student at Union Medical College? What about you? You are a returned urban youth, right?"

"Correct!"

Li Changhe nodded. This kind of identity is legitimate and safe. "You are living in the staff quarters of Beijing Institute of Technology now. Are your parents both teachers?"

Sister Zhang asked again.

Li Changhe nodded: "Yes, may I ask what does this have to do with our renting a house?"

"Well, I'm ready to go home too. Come with me and we can talk while we walk."

"This is a good thing for me!"

Sister Zhang then stood up and packed her things.

Well, it’s very normal to get off work at 4:30 these days, and going home to buy groceries and cook is just basic stuff.

After leaving the housing management office, Sister Zhang pushed a bicycle and waved to Li Changhe and Zhu Lin.

"Strictly speaking, the house I found for you is not a public house, but the kind of private house you mentioned."

"When the housing reform was carried out, this house was reserved for their own use according to regulations. It is a small courtyard house with an area of ​​about 200 square meters."

Li Changhe seemed to be thinking about something. According to what the official said before, when the housing reform was carried out, the standard area reserved for private property owners was 225 square meters, which was equivalent to sticking to the standard.

"Then this house."

Li Changhe asked curiously.

"Let me first tell you about this house. The owner is Zhang Shiqi, who is considered my elder brother."

"When the housing reform was carried out, their family had a large population and the house they left met the standards, so it has always been a self-occupied house."

"But over the years, their family members have passed away one after another, and they originally had two sons and a daughter living in the countryside."

"As a result, the two sons got into a fight with someone in the countryside, injured someone and then ran away."

"The girl found a husband in the countryside, and we just received news a few days ago that the baby was born with difficulty and could not be saved."

Li Changhe was speechless after hearing this. My goodness, this is a doomed star.

"The problem with his house is that it is strictly speaking still private property, but because there are few people living in it, if the next national inventory is conducted, it will not meet the criteria and will need to be rented out."

Sister Zhang said slowly to Li Changhe.

Li Changhe understood what the other party meant: "Aunt Zhang, do you mean to rent it to us?"

"Not just renting to you, he's quite selective about tenants, mainly."

When Sister Zhang said this, she slowly made up her mind.

"This old man is quite stubborn. We can rent the house to him, but he has to be pleasing to the eye. We are also worried about him. After all, he is now a widower, so we are thinking of finding a young couple with good jobs."

After hearing what Sister Zhang said, Li Changhe was speechless.

"Does this mean we still have to take care of him on a daily basis?"

Zhu Lin on the side said somewhat unhappily, what do you take them for?

Sister Zhang waved her hands hastily: "It's not the kind of elderly care. To put it bluntly, it's just looking after him. He's an old widower now. The government will take care of some things, but we are often too busy to handle it. If you have any problems, just call us."

"Actually, my brother is in pretty good health. I don't think he'll be dead for another ten or eight years. It's just that he has a weird temper and a lot of problems. In my opinion, he's a pretty capable person."

"Forget it, you can go and have a look later. His house is really nice and it's the only one of its kind in Haidian. It's thanks to his ability that it's been preserved!"

"If you don't like it or are not happy with it, just pretend it never happened."

"Okay, let's go take a look."

Li Changhe didn't have any taboos. To be honest, there were many people like Zhang Shiqi in this era.

When people reach middle age, China has experienced unprecedented changes. After decades of tossing and turning, there are really too many people who have been separated from their wives and children and are left alone.

Just like an old man in a courtyard house, he dreams of having someone to take care of him in his old age.

Soon, Li Changhe and Zhu Lin followed Sister Zhang to the gate of a courtyard house in Haidian Town.

The location of this house is indeed good. It is not far from the Friendship Hotel and the road in front of the door is slab-shaped.

"Second brother! Second brother!"

Sister Zhang walked up, knocked on the door, and shouted loudly.

A moment later, the door opened and a haggard and sad old face appeared in front of Li Changhe.

Li Changhe looked at this face and always felt inexplicably familiar.

Zhu Lin was also a little surprised and looked at the old man in amazement.

"My goodness, isn't this the old man that old Mori met?"

Li Changhe finally remembered who the other person was. This could be considered an "old friend" of his in this era.

(End of this chapter)