"Brother Qianjin, what wind blows you?" Xia Hongjun greeted with a smile.

"Come out." Guo Qianjin pulled Xia Hongjun aside and whispered: "Didn't you tell me some time ago that you want to buy a courtyard house? It's a matter of being settled! Now you go with me to see the house!"

Ho, really?

Xia Hongjun was naturally very happy. He went over and said sorry to Song Zhenzhen, greeted Cui Dongfeng and the others, and then followed Guo Qian into and out of the coffee house.

The wind outside was cold, and the Xia Hongjun couldn't help but shudder.

"Hey, Red Army, I haven't seen you for a long time. Have you changed your girlfriend?" Guo Qianjin asked suddenly.

"No."

"When I first came in, I saw you and the beautiful female classmate next to you, and they had a very intimate relationship."

"Don't talk nonsense, we are pen pals." Xia Hongjun hurriedly corrected and briefly introduced Song Zhenzhen's situation.

Guo Qianjin was a little unbelievable, and Xia Hongjun was too lazy to explain. He saw a white Santana parked on the side of the road.

"Brother Qianjin, have you bought a new car?" Xia Hongjun was so angry.

"The red flag was so broken that I couldn't drive, so I had to buy one. Actually, I still like the big red flag." Guo Qianjin sighed.

Big red flag?

That thing is a symbol of identity, and you can't buy it even if you have money!

"Brother Guo, be content. Look at how many people can buy it now?" Xia Hongjun said with a smile.

Don’t underestimate Santana. Xia Hongjun once went to see the market price: 80,000 RMB!

Damn, it’s much more expensive than a house in Yanjing!

A typical luxury car.

The two got into the car, Guo Qianjin started the car and was about to leave, and Xia Hongjun suddenly thought of something: "Wait, Brother Guo."

"What's wrong?"

"I'll call Zhaodi." Xia Hongjun pushed the door down after saying that.

This girl is so obsessed with the house. Maybe she wants to go and see it too?

Chen Zhaodi is making her final sprint for the test, so recently she has been staying in the classroom on the ninth floor of the teaching that she often goes to for review except for eating and sleeping. Xia Hongjun doesn't bother her if she has nothing to do.

After going to the ninth floor of the teaching, Xia Hongjun found Chen Zhaodi who was doing the exam in the classroom.

When Chen Zhaodi heard that Xia Hongjun was going to see the house, she closed the book without saying a word and put it in her schoolbag and left.

Oh?

More anxious than me?

Xia Hongjun and Chen Zhaodi left the ninth floor of the teaching staff, rushed to the front of the cafe, and after getting in the car, Santana got out of the school gate and quickly disappeared into the traffic.

On the way, Guo Qianjin told Xia Hongjun that the buyer was his buddy, who was about to go abroad and was anxious to sell the house in order to raise money.

"Or, if you want to buy that courtyard house for 60,000 yuan, there is no door." Guo Qianjin said.

"Does your buddy study abroad?" Xia Hongjun asked curiously.

"A person who hasn't graduated from high school can still study abroad?" Guo Qianjin laughed and said, "It's up to date. I want to go abroad to hunt for gold. He heard people say that the United States is full of gold..."

There are really people like this.

Xia Hongjun suddenly remembered a joke he had seen online before he came to this era.

In the 1980s when the hot and windy days went abroad, in order to realize his dream of going abroad, a Yanjing native sold a two-in and two-out courtyard on Gulou Street. He pieced together 300,000 yuan to Italy to make gold. He ate and stayed in the wind and rain, delivered food in heavy snow, learned foreign languages ​​in the middle of the night, was robbed 7 times and beaten three times in a slum. He worked hard and frugal, and now he is old and has a fair temple.

30 years have passed, and I finally saved 1 million euros (RMB 7.68 million) to return to China to enjoy the glory of retirement. Once I went back to Yanjing, I found that the Siheyuan sold that year was now listed for 80 million, and it collapsed in an instant...

He, my buddy, won't regret it in the future, right?

Guo Qianjin's car drove along Di'anmen Street for a while, then quickly turned into a small street, and finally stopped at the entrance of an alley.

"This is a good location? Houhai!"

Damn it!

I really found the courtyard near Houhai!

Xia Hongjun once told Guo Qianjin that the house must be within the Second Ring Road, preferably near Houhai, but he did not expect that he really realized his wish.

Houhai.

This is not only in the heart of the imperial capital, but also in the place where literary and artistic youth check-in for later generations.

Singer Li Jian also wrote a song for this:

The street I lived by Shicha Beach

The golden ginkgo leaves are everywhere

The river light has been lit

The dark night in the middle of the lake

But there is no shaking moon

Familiar music floated on the boat

Memories jump on the distant strings

The same story

A different feeling

.........

......

Houhai is part of Shichahai.

However, Houhai is far from the literary style of later generations. It looks a bit miscellaneous and dilapidated like the alleys in other places in this era. However, this could not stop Xia Hongjun's interest. He took Chen Zhaodi's hand and entered a alley called Yueya Hutong with Guo Qian. After walking less than a hundred meters, Guo Qianjin stood outside a gate.

"Well, it's this, No. 48, Yueya Hutong."

Xia Hongjun looked carefully and saw two doors in black, with a pair of brass cymbals and a couplet written in seal script on the door.

However, unlike ordinary couplets, they are not pasted on both sides of the door but are directly carved on the facade! Although it is a bit long and the font is blurry, Xia Hongjun can still recognize it:

"Loyalty and integrity have been passed down for a long time, and poetry and books have been passed down for a long time";

It seems that there are also families with stories.

The door was very open. It was a man in his thirties. He was perming the most popular curly hair of this era. He introduced himself as Tang and named Tang Songlin. When he saw Guo Qianjin, he warmly greeted him.

Although there are many courtyards in Yanjing, they can be divided into three types in terms of scale: large, medium, and small. The courtyard bought by Xia Hongjun is the smallest.

Small courtyards generally have three northern rooms, one is bright and two dark, or two light and one is dark. Two east and west wing rooms, and three south rooms (reversed room). The lying bricks to the top and the ridge tiled houses can be lived in three generations of family, the ancestors live in the main room, the younger generations live in the wing room, and the south room is used as a study or living room.

The yard is covered with brick corridors, connecting the doors of each room, there are steps in front of each room, and there is also an osmanthus tree in the middle of the yard.

Of course, there are few such big families in this year. Tang Songlin told Xia Hongjun that the courtyard was taken from his father and his parents were outdated, so he was the only son. He was going abroad and he was not going back, so he was planning to sell the courtyard.

Like the Yanjing Siheyuan in this era, there are neatly arranged cabbage on the eaves of the corridor, which has become dry and emit a smell of mold.

There is also the smell of coal smoke. The coal ball furnace, honeycomb coal stove, is like a smoke ghost that stretches the chimney out of the doors and windows, spewing clouds and mists. Coal tar and water vapor fall from the chimney mouth to the ground, forming a pile of black ice.

However, what made Xia Hongjun happy was that although the courtyard seemed messy, it was not very dilapidated. Later, Tang Songlin told him that it had repaired it more than ten years ago when his parents were alive.

Standing in the middle of the courtyard, you can see the silhouettes of the bell tower and the drum tower, clearly visible from the light red silk-like skylight.

The beast head at the west end of the bell tower ridge was said to have fallen during the earthquake in 1976, leaving only the beast head at the east end, with the iron beards curled upward in the sky light; the pillar of the wooden building of the drum tower was clearly revealed, adding a little light and lively charm to the originally solemn silhouette.
Chapter completed!