Chapter 220

Li Chengru's family also used to have deep roots and owned a large courtyard house near the Jingcheng, but his father passed away when he was two. He had it even worse than Li Guangfu, and with 11 siblings in the family, it was even more miserable.

Even if his old father had hidden away some savings, there was nothing left once divided among 11 children, so Li Chengru's future success relied mainly on his own vision and courage.

But having too much courage isn't always good, which is why he later lost a fortune speculating on foreign exchange.

Currently, his main job is as a sewing worker at the Jingshan Garment Factory, right behind the Forbidden City, which is also his advantage for later entering the garment industry.

Besides that, he is also learning drama from Teacher Dong and has already set his sights on the amateur acting class at the Film Academy, preparing to sign up for the entrance exam. Helping look at the house today is purely a voluntary favor to get to know famous people.

As for whether he can skim a little commission from it, Wei Ming doesn't care, as long as the matter can be accomplished.

The person intending to sell the house has the surname "Na," which sounds like Manchu, a descendant of the Banners, though it's unclear if it's Yehenara or Ulanara.

Little Na is Li Chengru's middle school classmate, twenty-five or twenty-six, with no parents, though he has an aunt in the United States. They aren't very close, and the two have never even met.

The aunt promised to get him to the United States, but he would have to support himself once there. The aunt's family is just an ordinary American household, and she can't make decisions for her foreign husband, so that's all she can help with.

Little Na has long yearned for life abroad, so he wants to sell the ancestral home that was just returned last year. With some startup capital once he gets there, he can start a career, and later return home in glory as an overseas Chinese to become a person of status.

"Because that house was previously used by a government agency, there are no issues with other tenants after it was returned to him, so he can make the decision alone," Li Chengru said.

This point satisfied Wei Ming very much; before the wave of going abroad in the mid-80s officially arrived, such houses were rare.

After walking for a while, they encountered an intersection ahead, the three of them turned in, and then after another turn, they arrived.

Entering here, it felt much quieter. Wei Ming even specifically observed the width of the street; fortunately, a car could easily drive in.

Arriving at the entrance, the gate wasn't large, but it had two stone lions placed there, which looked quite old at a glance, and there were steps and a threshold.

Li Chengru introduced: "The one we are looking at isn't small in area; although it's a single-entry courtyard, the area is around four hundred square meters."

He didn't even knock on the door, just pushed it open and went in. Behind the gate was a spirit wall, and then they saw a quite spacious courtyard with a thick, fluffy-crowned ginkgo tree standing in the center.

Because of the existence of this tree, the courtyard in July had an extra bit of coolness. It wasn't autumn yet, so the ginkgo leaves were still green; they would be even more beautiful once they turned golden.

"Little Na, someone's here!" Li Chengru shouted.

Soon, a thin, tall young man wearing a tank top and looking unkempt walked out, holding half a rolled cigarette between his fingers.

"You're here, take a look."

Although he had an urgent desire to sell the house, he deliberately feigned calmness, and there was also a trace of reluctance to sell the ancestral property.

Courtyard houses of this era certainly aren't as beautiful as those renovated by wealthy people in the future, but because they were previously used by government agencies, they were relatively well-preserved. They were much better than large courtyard houses crowded with multiple families, and there were no phenomena of chaotic additions or illegal construction.

Another thing is that because it's only a single entry, there are no designs like winding corridors or hanging flower gates, lacking some typical features of courtyard houses.

Additionally, the courtyard is quite large, but there is no independent latrine.

Little Na introduced: "Turn right out the door and it's the public toilet, it's close."

This is the reason Wei Ming doesn't like these current courtyard houses; it's too inconvenient when it comes to using the facilities.

It's not that they can't be renovated, it's just that the procedures are complicated, and one has to look at policy changes; they can't be renovated at just any time.

The advantage of this courtyard is that it is square, has enough rooms, and retains some of the old style.

According to Little Na: "Just this ginkgo tree is over a hundred years old."

This tree counts as a plus for Wei Ming because the courtyard is large enough that it won't affect the light too much, and it provides a place to enjoy the shade, adding quite a bit of vitality to the small courtyard.

But he still had to complain that it took up space while knowing it couldn't be dug up; such historical trees are all registered and cannot be removed.

In Liu Heng's "The Happy Life of Poor Zhang Damin," why is there a tree on the bed in the hut Zhang Damin built privately? It's because trees in Yanjing City cannot be dug up just because a private individual wants to.

After looking for about half an hour and checking the relevant certificates and proof, Li Guangfu helped look; he had experience, and after looking, he knew whether this house had other owners or tenants.

Wei Ming was quite satisfied with the courtyard. Even if he doesn't live there often, it would be a place for his parents and family to stay when they come in the future. Moreover, it will definitely be renovated to be more livable later, and one can alternate between living in high-rise apartments and courtyard houses.

He felt this kind of courtyard is more suitable for writing. When tired of writing, one can sit on a rocking chair under the tree to relax the mind, or look up at the sky, listen to the rain in summer, and admire the snow in winter; these are charms that apartments don't possess.

Next was the price negotiation stage.

The languid Little Na finally got some energy; he held up one finger: "I want ten thousand US dollars."

After hearing this, Wei Ming smiled politely: "Well, I have something to do, so I'll be going first."

Currently, the price of a single-entry courtyard house is usually only around ten thousand RMB. If the location is extremely poor, the living environment is extremely poor, the area is extremely small, and the owner is in a hurry to sell, it can even be bought for under 5,000.

This one has a larger area, a good location, clear property rights, and a century-old tree. Reasonably, it could be more expensive; fifteen thousand would be acceptable.

According to the official exchange rate, fifteen thousand RMB is ten thousand US dollars; that's what Little Na thought.

But in this day and age, who can you exchange fifteen thousand RMB for ten thousand US dollars with? Keep dreaming!

Although Wei Ming still has over ten thousand US dollars, he can't squander it like that.

Seeing this, Li Chengru hurriedly criticized Little Na.

"Na Rilang, you're being too ruthless. You want ten thousand US dollars for just such a small courtyard; there's no such market rate."

Li Chengru was caught in the middle, with an old classmate on one side and a rising star of the literary world on the other. He certainly hoped to facilitate the deal, and for both sides to be satisfied, so he tried his best to mediate.

After he said this, Little Na loosened up: "Then eight thousand is the minimum."

Wei Ming still shook his head; he held up three fingers: "Three thousand."

Three thousand dollars can easily be exchanged for fifteen thousand RMB, or even more.

Little Na also got anxious: "Three thousand is too little! How long can I spend that when I go to the US! No, no!"

Wei Ming smiled: "Three thousand dollars will definitely be enough to last half a year in the US, and even if you wash dishes over there, you can support yourself."

"I don't want to wash dishes; I'm going there to be a person of status," Little Na said defiantly, "You have to give at least..."

After some bargaining, it was finally set at the figure of 5,000 dollars. Na Rilang was satisfied, and Wei Ming didn't feel too much heartache.

This only used less than half of his remaining US dollars, and there should be new foreign exchange arriving for Melinda soon.

To secure the deal, Little Na urged to start the procedures and run the paperwork today; he was just waiting to get the money to go to the US.

Wei Ming thought for a moment: "Okay."

It seems he will have to hand the students over to Little Mei completely in the afternoon. Anyway, he enjoys it, it's just a bit tiring.

After coming out of this courtyard, estimating that the tour group had almost finished sightseeing, Wei Ming temporarily bid farewell to the two Lis and agreed to eat together at Quanjude in the evening. Having completed such a big transaction, it wouldn't be appropriate to just give the money; treating the two brothers to a few good meals is a must.

Wei Ming also planned to bring Little Mei along. Jingshan Garment Factory is a big factory, and letting Little Mei get to know Li Chengru is also beneficial for expanding business.

As for whether Li Chengru will therefore get the hang of entering the garment industry early, Wei Ming isn't worried at all.

The Yanjing market is too big; Wang Fujing, Dongdan, Xidan, with so many famous commercial streets, how could one person or one shop possibly handle it all?

Arriving at the North Gate of the Forbidden City, after waiting for ten minutes, Mei Wenhua brought the team out.

He, along with Yunyun and Teacher Li, were in the front, while Xiao Hong and Teacher Hu were in the back, with 20 children wearing red scarves in the middle.

Upon seeing Wei Ming, Yunyun was especially excited: "Brother Ming, Brother Wenhua is amazing! We just saw a few foreigners, and he was actually able to talk to them in a foreign language!"

Mei Wenhua's tail was about to wag to the sky. His past efforts finally had meaning at this moment; it wasn't in vain that he had long been chatting up foreigners at the English Corner.

Wei Ming knew he only knew some simple daily conversations, but in the eyes of Yunyun and the elementary school students, it was enough to be deified. Xiao Hong's English test scores were also very good, but she was very shy when it came to conversation.

Wei Ming smiled: "Little Mei is indeed very diligent in learning English because he likes a neighbor sister who went abroad to study, and he hopes to be able to go find her one day."

Yunyun: "Ah? So that's how it is."

Mei Wenhua got anxious: "I haven't liked her for a long time, Yunyun, don't listen to his nonsense."

Wei Ming laughed, pulled Little Mei aside, and told him to take the children to the Temple of Heaven in the afternoon.

"I have something else to do. We'll eat at Quanjude in Hepingmen in the evening; you just come over yourself, it's official business."

Mei Wenhua nodded. Although he was thinking about the renovation of the storefront, he couldn't ask for more than being able to play with Yunyun without Wei Ming's supervision.

At noon, Wei Ming took the children to eat Luzhu Huoshao; this was the first time they had seen this way of eating.

Back home, braised meat and pig intestines are usually stuffed inside the flatbread, but here, the offal and flatbread are boiled together in a pot, and then eaten from a bowl.

However, they only had one evaluation: "Delicious!"

After passing the test of Douzhi, there is nothing left in Yanjing City that tastes bad.

In the afternoon, Wei Ming rode his motorcycle and started running the procedures with Little Na. This kind of courtyard house transaction is even more complicated than houses in the Overseas Chinese Apartments, and there are more government offices to go through. It can't be finished in a few days, so it can only be done slowly.

At dinner time, Li Guangfu arrived at Quanjude first, then he helped Wei Ming greet Li Chengru and Mei Wenhua. Wei Ming arrived last, holding a bottle of Moutai and a bottle of Wuliangye.

"Sorry, sorry, just got back from the Housing Management Bureau. Little Mei, you and Brother Chengru have already met, right?" he asked.

Mei Wenhua smiled: "Met, met. After this busy period is over, I plan to go to Jingshan Garment Factory to take a look; I have Brother Chengru there!"

It seems they chatted very happily; Li Chengru appeared even more humble.

"I've seen your shop when I passed by, and I was wondering what kind of business it was. I didn't expect it to be a clothing store, and that it was opened by you, Writer Wei. Amazing, amazing!" This "amazing" came from the heart. If it were an official business, it wouldn't be anything, but this was actually an individual business opened by three young men in their twenties. Such a big shop, that's too amazing, and the rent for that area isn't cheap, and it's even more expensive to rent to an individual.

At this moment, he was indeed a bit tempted, but the desire to be an actor still outweighed doing business. In his twenties, he knew money was important, but ideals were still paramount.

And Mei Wenhua also learned that his Brother Ming had bought another courtyard house, and he was incredibly envious. It seems he really earned a lot of foreign exchange writing novels. When will he have this kind of carefree spirit of squandering money?

When leaving after the meal, Wei Ming walked with Little Mei. On the way, the two chatted about the opening plan and the preparatory work.

"Besides Yunyun, we need a few more sales assistants who are familiar with clothing and have a glib tongue."

"The people have already been found; they are all unemployed female educated youth who returned to the city. We are also helping the neighborhood solve employment. The probationary salary is 30 yuan, and everyone is fighting for it."

But because the policy isn't that open yet, there are only four sales assistants in total including Yunyun. Although the neighborhood really hopes they can help share the burden, it's hard to say if they hire more than five employees.

"We need to step up training now." Wei Ming doesn't plan to intervene for the time being; just let Little Mei train according to what he saw in Guangdong.

His top priority now is to take photos for Sister Lin and let Sister Lin and Sister Xue be the image ambassadors for Oriental New World together.

When Wei Ming returned home, he saw there seemed to be a letter in the mailbox. After opening it, he saw Sister Xue's letter; it seems it was written just two days after he left.

!

After entering the house, Xiao Hong and Yunyun were watching TV. They came back by bus themselves; Wei Ming had already bought them monthly bus passes. Monthly passes are too important.

And try to act together as much as possible, don't be alone.

"Brother, who is this woman in the painting?"

Just as Wei Ming sat down on the sofa, Yunyun handed him a cup of tea obediently, while Wei Hong brought the picture frame over.

"Oh, this is my friend Sister Zhu Lin. The tape recorder bought for our dad was originally hers," Wei Ming answered frankly.

"Then how old is she?"

Wei Ming: "Seems like she's almost thirty."

Hearing this age, and looking at his brother's natural and relaxed appearance, Wei Hong knew she had overthought it. Maybe her big brother just loves painting, so he let a friend be his model.

She put the painting back in disappointment, and Wei Ming urged: "I have to run some errands tomorrow, so you guys follow the main group to visit Tsinghua and Peking University."

Tomorrow's plan is the visit to Tsinghua, Peking University, the Summer Palace, and the Old Summer Palace.

"What errands? For the clothing store?" Xiao Hong asked.

Wei Ming: "No, I bought another courtyard house today, running the procedures for that."

"What!" Xiao Hong and Yunyun were both dumbfounded.

"Brother, why are you buying a house again? Wouldn't it be better to save the money to marry a wife!" Xiao Hong started her "mother-in-law" mode.

Wei Ming explained with a smile: "There are still years before I can marry a wife. Don't worry, there's definitely no lack of money for marrying a wife. When our dad and mom move into the city later, I'm afraid they won't be used to living in apartments. Buying a courtyard house so they can live wherever they want, isn't that great?"

Looking at his brother's confident appearance, Wei Hong felt she really needed to integrate into Yanjing life as soon as possible and broaden her horizons, otherwise she would never be able to catch up to her brother's height.

Returning to the bedroom, Wei Ming immediately opened the letter. There was nothing major in Sister Xue's letter; it could be summarized in two words: "Miss you."

Wei Ming: I miss you too!

The next morning, Xiao Hong and Yunyun took the bus themselves to find the main group. The big bus from their hometown would take them to Peking University.

Wei Ming first called Uncle Anping's house to explain the matter.

"Great, I'll be at school today, and I don't have anything going on. I'll be their guide myself."

"That's wonderful!" Wei Ming said, "With you as an example, Uncle, this group of little brats will know how bright the outcome of studying hard is."

It's just that it's vacation now, there aren't many students in school, and there isn't much of a learning atmosphere.

Waiting until about work time, Wei Ming called Zhu Lin's workplace again, asking her to wait for him to pick her up at noon.

"There's no one home at noon~"

Zhu Lin covered the receiver, her ears turning red.

Afterwards, Wei Ming went out to find Little Na, and the two continued to run the procedures.

At the West Gate of Peking University, a few days after Mei Wenhua resigned, he returned to this place. His colleagues at the gate were still surprised and teased him one after another.

"Little Mei, didn't you open a shop? How come you're acting as a tour guide?"

Mei Wenhua answered: "These are all fellow villagers of Brother Ming; I'm acting as a guide under orders."

The children had been in the capital for three days. Today, just entering Peking University, they felt that the temperament here was very different from the hutongs and Wang Fujing before. There was a sacred feeling that made people yearn for it, especially those big children.

Wei Hong was even more expectant, wishing she could fast-forward to two months later when she could step into Peking University as a student.

Soon Wei Anping also arrived. The two elementary school teachers immediately greeted Division Chief Wei respectfully, with worship in their eyes.

Wei Anping was very polite. Among these children, he could still recognize quite a few and call out the names of their fathers, instantly closing the distance.

Wei Anping pointed to the simple and unadorned West Gate: "Back then, I entered Peking University for the first time from here. Today, let's start from here too. Xiao Hong, you push my bike."

Also representing outstanding figures who walked out of Gouzitun, Wei Anping and Wei Ming had the same psychology: hoping that more excellent talents would emerge from their hometown.

Even if the talents didn't stay in their hometown in the end, it wouldn't affect them building their hometown, giving back to their hometown, and making their hometown better.

At noon, after the students finished touring Tsinghua, Wei Anping arranged for the elementary school students to eat in the Peking University cafeteria.

Wei Anping took the opportunity to talk about the 22.5 yuan monthly subsidy for rural students, which was enough to cover meals and daily expenses.

This figure shocked this group of elementary school students again. How, how could there be so much!

After eating, Mei Wenhua also ran into Master Liu from the school bus team. He asked Little Mei to pass a message to Wei Ming, saying that he could take the actual driving test.

On the other side, Wei Ming picked up Zhu Lin and went straight home.

Although they were both wearing helmets, Old Sun saw at a glance that today's woman wasn't one of his two sisters; it was probably that other sister.

After entering the door, Wei Ming was changing his slippers when the sister hugged him from behind.

Wei Ming immediately turned around and met the sister's little mouth.

Having not been touched by Wei Ming for more than ten days, Zhu Lin's inner fire was very strong now, and she wasn't reserved at all.

But Wei Ming didn't extinguish the fire immediately. He said: "Good sister, I want it too, but let's do the official business first. I'm afraid I won't be able to take photos after we're done."

Wei Ming had already explained to Zhu Lin that he and Little Mei had opened an individual clothing store and planned to find a few beautiful girls to wear the clothes they manufactured and take photos, which was equivalent to living signboards to attract customers.

Although Zhu Lin felt a bit embarrassed, she agreed without hesitation for her lover's career.

However, when she saw those clothes, her last bit of resistance disappeared.

"So beautiful!"

Wei Ming's hand reached into her clothes: "Then let's start changing clothes now, I'll help you."

A total of thirty or forty sets of clothes were made, and Wei Ming chose five or six sets, but they were all suitable for Sister Lin's temperament—bright, atmospheric, and slightly heroic, with the potential to become bestsellers.

Zhu Lin changed into the first set, and Wei Ming asked her to stand in front of a blank wall to pose. She was still a bit unaccustomed to it.

"Usually, taking photos is in a photo studio or outdoors. This is the first time taking them at your place."

Wei Ming smiled: "This is called private house photography, taken in a private house. Later, I plan to tidy up another room to use as a darkroom for developing photos."

After school starts, he will leave the school newspaper office, and it's not good to always trouble others to use their darkroom. With Wei Ming's current financial resources, there's absolutely no pressure to get a set of photo developing equipment himself.

Basically, one or two photos are taken per set of clothes, and the shooting speed is very fast. The time is mainly spent on changing clothes and flirting while changing clothes.

Whether it was Wei Ming or Zhu Lin, they both had to try very hard to control themselves from going too far.

When the last set of clothes was finished, Wei Ming asked her to take the clothes off, and then she didn't need to wear them.

Zhu Lin took them off while looking at the bedroom door uneasily: "Do your sisters have keys?"

"Yes, but they went to Peking University, and after that, they have to go to the Summer Palace, so they won't be back until evening." Wei Ming walked over to hug Sister Lin, and the two turned into the bedroom in a tango posture.

Only after closing this door did Zhu Lin feel completely at ease, releasing herself to the fullest.

I don't know how much time passed, anyway, Zhu Lin was going to be late for work in the afternoon, but she really couldn't bear to leave Wei Ming's pectoral muscles.

She said recklessly: "Late is late. Anyway, I'll have to be late often after entering the acting class later."

Wei Ming told her about a friend he just met: "His name is Li Chengru, he's from Jingshan Garment Factory, and he apprenticed to Dong Xingji of the People's Art Theater. He also plans to apply for this year's amateur acting class at the Film Academy. If you both get in, you'll be classmates later."

"Ah, he's a disciple of a famous drama master. If there are a few more like that, I guess I won't have a chance."

Wei Ming teased her: "What are you saying? Is your master, me, that bad? I'm a product of the Film Academy's orthodox education."

"Yes, yes, yes, your orthodox education is just teaching people how to use their tongues flexibly, right?" The sister counterattacked strongly and pinched him back.

The war that was about to be extinguished had a tendency to reignite~

……

(Yesterday's base update)

(End of chapter)