Chapter 59: The House That Can't Be Moved

Zhong Kui glanced at the street lamp not far away: "That light is finally fixed."

"Yes, I've been calling to urge them for a long time, and it's finally fixed," He Zhixin seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "I'm really afraid she'll have an accident. I plan to buy a treadmill next month and put it at home so she doesn't have to run out every day."

"Yue Fengsheng is dead, what are you still afraid of?" Zhong Kui asked.

"Sigh, didn't you say last time that the person who hit my wife with a bicycle wasn't Yue Fengsheng? My heart is hanging again." He Zhixin sighed.

"By the way, who lives opposite Yue Fengsheng's house? I see it's always empty," Qi Fei asked.

"Oh, speaking of that..." He Zhixin opened his mouth, and it was clear there was a story. "Old Yu, he's been missing for six years. It's strange to say, Yue Fengsheng's ex-wife also disappeared at the same time..." He didn't continue, turning to say something with hidden meaning, "Yue Fengsheng is very taboo about this matter."

Zhong Kui and Qi Fei looked at each other. Although He Zhixin didn't say it clearly, it was clear that these two people had eloped.

As they were speaking, the sound of running came in the quiet night. Zhou Li returned. When He Zhixin saw her, he immediately went up to hand her a coat.

Zhou Li also muttered a few words, saying there was no need to be so nervous, and the two went back together.

"It seems everyone in this apartment lives very unhappily. This He Zhixin and Zhou Li are rarely happy and harmonious," Qi Fei looked at their retreating backs and sighed.

"The Old Yu next door on the fourth floor, according to He Zhixin, should add a stroke, becoming 'Old Wang' next door," Zhong Kui said playfully.

"People disappeared six years ago. If you've been missing for four years, you can be declared dead. If the other half is dead, you can remarry. Yue Fengsheng and Lv Xiuxia married two years ago. I see the relationship with the original spouse was average," Qi Fei said.

"Brother Fei, we went to investigate. After Old Lin's family in Room 301 died of carbon monoxide poisoning back then, the house was in a state of being unattended. As for the key, it's said to have been lost for many years. You say someone is coming in and out upstairs, but we don't know who it is..." The result Wu Shanqiu gave made Qi Fei very disappointed.

"Then who inherited this house? The whole family died, there must be collateral relatives, right?" Qi Fei said, refusing to give up.

"Ah, speaking of this, Brother Fei, you'll be disappointed. This building of Guiyue Apartment is a bit special; it doesn't have independent property rights."

"Huh? What do you mean?" This was a field Qi Fei was unfamiliar with.

Wu Shanqiu took out a set of copied materials not without triumph: "Hehe, this is the material I got after a lot of effort."

"Hmm?" Qi Fei looked at the thick materials in Wu Shanqiu's hand. Just looking at the font on it, it already had a sense of age.

Wu Shanqiu stuffed the materials into Qi Fei's hand: "Here! A copy of the 1983 Nancheng Guomao Company employee welfare housing allocation document."

"What?" Qi Fei was confused. This strange term sounded distant and had nothing to do with the case at hand, but the moment he saw the content of the document, he suddenly understood.

There were several familiar names on it: Chen Liangdi, He Zhixin, Wang Dakang... Qi Fei blurted out: "Aren't these all people living in Guiyue Apartment?" Then he looked at the names of the housing allocation and was confused again. "Guomao Apartment? Is this the same place we are investigating?"

"It's the same place. In the 1990s, state-owned companies were restructured into private and privately owned ones, and Guomao Company was one of them."

"I roughly understood it. This Guomao Company could be considered a giant in Nancheng back then. Its business scope was very wide: department stores, pork shops, pharmacies, leather shops... anyway, anything related to business was operated by its subsidiaries or stores. After the restructuring, these businesses were split into different companies. Over so many years, the market has completely changed. Things like pork shops have become products of the era and disappeared. Guomao Company is no longer there, so Guomao Apartment was changed to the name Guiyue Apartment now. However, the people living inside are still the same group, the ones who enjoyed the welfare housing allocation back then."

Wu Shanqiu's words answered many of Qi Fei's questions: "No wonder the decoration in these people's homes looks like they have good conditions. It turns out they were all 'iron rice bowls' back then."

"And..." Wu Shanqiu deliberately drew out her tone to sell the suspense, "Brother Fei, have you discovered one special thing? From 1983 to now, it's been at least forty years, and the people living in Guiyue Apartment are still the same group, and they don't sell or rent them out."

Being told this by Wu Shanqiu, Qi Fei also felt strange: "When I went door-to-door to investigate, I felt strange. What's so good about this old, broken, small apartment? These people seem to be tied to Guiyue Apartment for a lifetime, just refusing to move."

"Heh, there's a reason for this." Wu Shanqiu was clearly very proud of her discovery. "Because these people actually don't count as having bought this house; they can only be considered renting. Like the pork shop, it's also a product of the era. This is collective housing. The whole apartment only has one property right certificate, and there's no way to split it into independent property right certificates for each household. That is to say, all 8 apartments in Guiyue Apartment have to share one property right certificate. Even if they are willing to pay, they can't buy this house; they can only live in it in the form of a lease, but the rent is very low. When the house was allocated, it was allocated at a rent of 5 yuan per month. This price hasn't risen for over forty years. As long as they are willing to continue paying this 5 yuan rent, they can continue to live in Guiyue Apartment."

"That sounds pretty good."

"Heh, it just looks beautiful. Because they don't have their own housing books, these people living in Guiyue Apartment not only can't sell the house, but they can't even sublet it to collect rent. They can only live in it themselves. As long as they move away, the house automatically returns to the collective, and it has nothing to do with them."

"That is to say, as long as they leave Guiyue Apartment, it is regarded as abandoning the house, right?" Qi Fei roughly understood.

"Right. That's why Old Lin's family in Room 301 hasn't been taken over for so long after they passed away. In fact, no one will ever take it over. One is that it's a haunted house, and the other is that this house can't be bought or sold."

"Then this vacated house must be managed by someone. Guomao Company is gone, who does it belong to now?"

"Hehe, I clearly found the source, otherwise how could I get these things and know the ins and outs.

I asked around a big circle and finally found a small company of five or six people in an inconspicuous office building in the suburbs. It is considered the one specifically retained by Guomao Company to manage these collective assets. Usually, they collect a little rent from these old employees, and they can't make decisions to rent it out again."

"Eh? There's a management company, doesn't that mean the key has been found?" ===== CHAPTER 60 =====