Starting a new chapter in life

Chapter 73 House

“Our mother left behind a property in Shanghai, which is now under the management of the local street office. Back then, our mother was sent to a sanatorium to avoid the impact of the movement. Before she passed away, she told me that we couldn't keep that house. So, I made a tough decision and lent the house to the street office to help them resettle workers from nearby factories.”

"We agreed that we could take it back whenever we needed it, but it's been four or five years now, and we don't know what's going on. If we could take the house back, it would be more than enough for Zhijun and his wife," He Jiaoxu said, frowning.

"Are you talking about the house where our mother lived back then? Or the villa in Xuhui District?" Cui Hongru asked.

"Don't even think about the house Mom lived in. Back then, to protect herself, Mom lent it to the local government. They call it a loan, but we all know it was confiscated. It was like paying for peace of mind. If we could get Mom's house back, that would be great. I remember it was over 200 square meters, two stories, with a yard, a detached house right by the road, a pretty good location." He Jiaoxu was also thinking about getting the house back.

“I don’t know how well our mother’s house has been maintained over the years. If it were like other houses, with four or five families living in one, we might not have been able to get the house back.” Cui Hongru also felt a headache when she mentioned this.

“I’ll take a couple of days off to go back and check. If we can get it back, that would be great. We can spend some money to renovate it. If we can’t get it back, we’ll think about buying a house. I’ll decide whether to ship their things back to Yangzhou or ship them directly to Haikou after I go and take a look.” He Jiaoxu made up his mind and then cheered up to continue eating.

Cui Hongru looked at Zhou Jie and said, "Eldest sister, don't think we're being biased. Both your children are our flesh and blood. The house was originally ours, and we didn't pay you anything extra to give it to you. The house was transferred to your names a couple of years ago."

"Your brother's house is probably better than yours, but don't complain. If they were also going back to Yangzhou, the house they would get would be about the same as yours. But they're going to Haishi. If they can get your grandmother's house back there, their living conditions will indeed be much better than yours. But this isn't because we're deliberately being biased; after all, times change."

Seeing that He Zhicheng didn't respond and was busy eating, Zhou Jie spoke up: "Mom, what are you saying? The house we live in now is already very spacious. The three of us live in an 80 or 90 square meter house. There are quite a few families with more than ten people crammed into a 70 or 80 square meter house. We are not unreasonable people who will complain."

Seeing that her eldest son's family didn't seem to care about this, Cui Hongru felt relieved: "Old He, you go and look at the house first. If you decide on it, then send a telegram to the kids and have them ship it directly to Shanghai. We can just make a special trip to help with the packing. If you can't decide on it in a short time, that's fine too. Just ship it home first, and we can borrow a car to transport it over later. It'll just be a bit more troublesome."

He Jiaoxu nodded in agreement. After finishing their meal and having arranged most of the necessary matters, He Zhicheng's family went home. On the way, He Zhicheng, taking advantage of the moonlight, pulled Zhou Jie aside and said, "Thank you for your generosity. Mom probably called us back today because she was worried that if she got Xiaojun a house in Haishi, which would be better than ours in every way, we might be unhappy. Now she's relieved. When Xiaojun comes back, we won't be too far apart, so at least we can see each other during holidays. Mom and Dad won't have to worry about this and that all the time."

Zhou Jie smiled and said, "What's there to fuss about? Mom has never mistreated me. If everything had to be fair, there would be no human touch. I'm already very content. Mom and Dad don't favor either of you, and they love me very much. After we get married, we'll live separately. There's no messy situation like in other people's families. I'm living in a sweet spot. If I'm still not content, then I'm really being unreasonable."

"Speaking of this house, before we got married, I was prepared to live with my mother-in-law. You know my family; seven or eight people living in a 60-70 square meter house. It's always one person arguing or another making a scene. It's really annoying. Marrying you, the three of us living in a big house, is a life that many people would dream of."

He Jiaoxu was relieved to see that she genuinely didn't care: "I'll contact some of my retired comrades during this time. Some of them work at the railway bureau. If we can get the shipping sorted out, Dad will be much less worried. I don't know what will happen to Grandma's house. If we can't get it back, buying a house will be a real problem. Everyone is facing housing shortages these days, and buying and selling houses is too difficult."

Two days later, He Jiaoxu took three days off and got a letter of introduction to deal with the house matter. He first went to the house in Changning District to take a look. The gate of the courtyard was closed and the wall was built quite high, so he couldn't easily peek through the gate. There was a small open space not far away that resembled a small garden but was not quite a garden. Some elderly people were wearing thick cotton-padded coats and sitting in the pavilion playing chess or listening to Peking Opera on the radio. It was quite lively.

He went over and found a place to sit. He watched the chess game for a while and soon became familiar with a few people. He casually asked, "Brother, aren't there many people living around here? There are much more people out for a stroll in my neighborhood than here. Or is it because it's cold and everyone is staying at home?"

One of the chess players chuckled, “In the past two years, quite a few people have been exonerated and returned to the city. This area used to be a wealthy neighborhood. The houses around here were requisitioned years ago and rented out by the neighborhood committee to employees of nearby large factories. Now that the original owners have returned, they have nowhere to live, so the neighborhood committee has to solve the problem. Some large factories even built special apartment buildings for their employees who performed well. As a result, some people have moved out one after another, which is why there seem to be fewer people now.”

"Are only the houses of those who have been exonerated vacant? Or is the entire area vacant?" He Jiaoxu asked, a thought striking him.

"The houses rented from the neighborhood committee are almost all vacant. Those not rented from the neighborhood committee should still have some left. Young man, are you asking about this because you're planning to rent a house nearby?" an old lady chimed in enthusiastically, adding a bit of gossip as well.

He Jiaoxu shook his head: "No, my mother used to live here. She passed away a few years ago, and her house was lent to the neighborhood committee. My son is coming back from Beidahuang soon, so I came to check if we can get the house back for him. If not, we'll think of another way. We can't let the young couple have nowhere to stay, right?"

The old woman nodded in agreement: "That's right, that's a legitimate reason. If you want to know more accurate information, you'll have to go to the neighborhood office and find out what procedures are involved."

Feeling reassured after gathering this information, He Jiaoxu said goodbye to everyone and prepared to go to the subdistrict office to inquire. He arrived at the subdistrict office in the afternoon, found the director, and asked about the house.

The head of the neighborhood office, surnamed Wu, was a man in his forties with a refined appearance and a slightly coquettish voice. When he heard about the house, he rummaged through the filing cabinet behind him, found a booklet, flipped through it for a while, pointed to a piece of paper, and laughed: "Found it. The last family moved out of this house last month. Last year, the policy was relaxed, and many intellectuals who were sent down to the countryside returned to the city. Our area was mostly inhabited by intellectuals back then. Now, they've returned home but have nowhere to go, so they had to come to the neighborhood office."

We also took a practical approach and discussed the matter with the large factories that were assigned to this area. They applied for land from the government and built staff housing. It was agreed that tenants in the vicinity would be given priority if they applied for staff housing. The staff housing was built by the factory itself. Although it's not as spacious as ours, it's their own home.

"Look, we didn't even need to do anything. Those with some savings moved out on their own. Your house originally housed three families. If you want to take it back, you need to bring your property certificate and household registration book to register here. We'll handle the handover, and that's it."

He Jiaoxu was very satisfied. He took out his documents from his briefcase, and when he took them out, he also brought out the property certificate for the villa in Xuhui District. Director Wu saw it, picked it up and looked at it. He said enviously, "Your house is in a really good location. Not just anyone can live in a villa like this. What, was this one also expropriated?"

He Jiaoxu nodded and handed over the property certificate and his household registration. Director Wu put down the property certificate and began registering the documents in He Jiaoxu's hand. After verifying the documents, he found the key and took He Jiaoxu to collect the house. He Jiaoxu stuffed the documents and the two property certificates back into the inner pocket of his handbag before following Director Wu.

On the way to inspect the house, Director Wu casually remarked, "The policies are changing quite a bit now. If you have enough time, you can go to Xuhui District to ask around. As long as there are no serious historical problems, there is a high probability that the house can still be taken back. Even if it has been requisitioned by the local authorities, you can at least get some compensation, since this property originally belonged to your family."

He Jiaoxu was also tempted. He hadn't expected anything before, but now that there was hope, he naturally had to go and see. He took out a pack of Pegasus cigarettes from his pocket and handed it over, saying, "Thank you." Director Wu didn't stand on ceremony, took it without hesitation, and put it in his pocket after seeing that it was still unopened.

When they arrived at the house, there were still quite a few people in the nearby pavilion. When they saw the two of them coming, they greeted them and asked, "Is the house available now that you're here to take possession?"

Director Wu replied with a smile, "Yes, this house has been returned. There are only two other houses in this area that no one has come back to claim. If anyone knows the owners of those two houses, please help to notify them so they can come back to complete the formalities."

"Okay, no problem," everyone agreed.

I opened the door and went inside. There were some wilted vegetables growing in the courtyard. Well, it's cold, and it's already a miracle they're alive. I followed the brick path into the house. Judging from the marks inside, there was one apartment on each floor of the two-story building, while the right side of the first floor was a single-story building with one apartment. Overall, apart from the dark walls and the broken and messy things inside, there wasn't much damage. It was much better than I had imagined.

Going up the stairs, everything was fine except for the usual mess. However, the bathroom, toilet, and kitchen where his mother used to live were all gone, leaving only an empty house.

Director Wu touched his nose and explained, "When people come back and see the house, they have a similar expression to yours. They feel that the layout is completely different from before. Actually, it's understandable. Before, no matter how many people lived here, they were all one family, and all the necessary facilities were provided. But later, they were all strangers, so the division became clearer. Some families didn't have enough room, so they had to remove the facilities they considered unnecessary. There's a public toilet if you turn left and walk for four or five minutes after you go out the door, haha."

"There's always food to cook, but I can't find the kitchen," He Jiaoxu said, a bit of a headache.

Director Wu was even more embarrassed: "Except for the vegetable garden, which is open-air, the right side of the path has been paved with cement and a shed has been built on top. The previous tenants would put small coal stoves, tables and chairs under the shed to cook and eat. It was sheltered from the sun and rain. Apart from being cold in winter, hot in summer, and having many mosquitoes, it had no other drawbacks."

He Jiaoxu didn't want to say anything more, so he just nodded haphazardly: "Thank you, Director Wu. I'll go home and discuss it with my family, and see how to renovate this house. At least the walls need to be painted white again."

Director Wu, hearing that he had no objection to the damage to the house, quickly took his leave, explaining, "The previous rent was used for maintaining security and repairing the roads in this area, so..."

He Jiaoxu was also very understanding: "I'm already very satisfied that I was able to get the house back. As for the rent, it's our honor to be able to contribute to the area."

Director Wu got the answer he wanted and left happily. Another problem solved—perfect!

He Jiaoxu didn't linger. After confirming that the house was bare and there was nothing to lose, he locked the door and left, heading straight for Xuhui District. By the time he arrived in Xuhui District, it was already night. He found a guesthouse, booked a room with his letter of introduction, ate and drank his fill, and then rested.

The next morning, after breakfast, he went to the old house. However, compared to the other houses in the neighborhood that had been destroyed and rebuilt, his house, which was being used as the street office, had not changed much.

He looked around at the surroundings and stepped inside.

I went to the director of the neighborhood office and asked, "Comrade, is there something you need from me?"

"Hello, I heard that the villas in this area have been gradually returned to their owners, so I came to inquire about the news. I don't know if it's true," He Jiaoxu asked.

"That's right. The villas in this area were all requisitioned back then, and they are gradually being returned to their original owners. May I ask which villa you own?" the director asked enthusiastically.

He Jiaoxu opened his briefcase, took out the property certificate from a hidden compartment, and handed it to the director, saying, "This is the building."