Lechunfang

"Mom, what are you doing here?" Chen Qi was startled. This was the first time his parents had ever come looking for him at Beijing Film Studio. "I came to let you know—weren't your dad and I looking for a place for you? We finally found somewhere decent. If you've got time, come home with me and let's go take a look." "Looking at a house can't wait! I have time right now! Wait for me a second, I'll go get my bicycle!" He dashed off, and before long rolled out on that 28-inch bicycle. Yu Xiuli didn't dilly-dally either, setting off immediately. Beijing Film Studio was up on the North Third Ring Road. They headed south all the way, passing the various universities in Haidian, reached the Second Ring Road, cut east, crossed Shichahai, and came to a stop on the southern shore of Shichahai before turning into a cluster of hutongs. Many famous figures had lived around Shichahai: Zhang Zhidong, Feng Youlan, Puyi's Consort Wenxiu, Guo Moruo, Marshal Ye, Hou Baolin, and so on. Longtime residents knew that in the past, one could often run into Marshal Ye out for a stroll along the lake... Once inside the hutong, Chen Qi first saw the famous sign for "Baimi Slanted Street." Cutting further south from Baimi Slanted Street, they took an abrupt turn into a small alley. Nailed above the alley entrance was a plaque: Lechunfang! "Back in the Ming Dynasty, a jinshi scholar from the south bought a plot of land here and built a garden, modeled after the pink blossoms and green willows of Jiangnan. Many literati and scholars gathered here, and they gave it the name Lechunfang. By the late Qing and early Republic, a public bathhouse opened here. "After the founding of the country, a small factory was set up. Anyway, none of them lasted, and now it's all dilapidated." "..." Chen Qi wore a subtle expression. In his past life, he had lived in Beijing and visited Shichahai often. He knew Lechunfang—it was just an ordinary little alley. The location was prime: right next to Shichahai, and only about two li from Beihai and the Forbidden City. The alley was about a hundred meters long and four meters wide, running north to south, not completely straight but with a gentle diagonal curve. Altogether, there were only six courtyards. This area fell under the jurisdiction of Shichahai Subdistrict. Yu Xiuli had arranged beforehand for a subdistrict cadre to accompany them on the tour. "This property used to be a subdistrict factory, and later it was partitioned out as housing for everyone. An old place hundreds of years old. A fire broke out a few years ago, so everyone was relocated. Now there's a restitution policy, but we can't track down the original owner. We were thinking of repairing it for dormitories or reopening a factory. "If I didn't know Xiao Yu here, I wouldn't even want to sell it!" The subdistrict auntie prattled on, unleashing a whole barrage of words. "Then thank you so very much!" Chen Qi secretly rolled his eyes. What his mom had actually told him was quite different: the compound was too severely damaged, the government had no money to repair it, and just as superiors issued directives allowing private property purchases, they jumped at the chance to dump this burden! The three of them reached Courtyard No. 6, at the very end, which was also the largest. Three stone steps led to the entrance, flanked by drum-shaped stones beneath a weathered, red-lacquered wooden door. Blue bricks and gray tiles gave off an air coated in dust, bearing not the slightest trace of grandeur. The auntie pushed the door open. With a groan of creaking wood, it sounded almost as if she were pushing open the doors of her own youthful years. Chen Qi looked up. It seemed to be a two-courtyard compound, and quite a grand, well-designed one at that. Normally, the northern wing could accommodate seven rooms: three main rooms flanked by two side rooms on either side. It could even accommodate exterior verandas, linked by covered walkways to form a continuous loop around the inner courtyard. Now, however, nothing remained. The screen walls and festooned gate had been demolished long ago, and several irregular shacks had been tacked on, turning it into a crowded communal courtyard. Aside from the main northern rooms, which were barely intact, the grounds were covered in rubble and broken walls, with soot marks lingering on the brickwork. To say it was severely damaged was an understatement. "..." Chen Qi walked a lap around the grounds, forming an estimate in his mind. If it were truly a centuries-old house intact, he wouldn't even dare live in it—too much eerie, heavy yin energy! What he lacked right now was land, and land was hard to come by. Having a dilapidated courtyard like this was perfect: raze it to the ground and rebuild it fresh, just like building his own house from scratch. Otherwise, he'd have to look south of Beihai and west of the Forbidden City—there was a huge parcel of land over there, enclosed by high walls... "How large is this courtyard?" "Around eight hundred square meters. But we don't calculate by area; we go by room. Five hundred yuan per room. That comes to..." Chen Qi spun on his heel and made to leave! "Hey, hey, don't walk away! Everything's negotiable!" "Auntie, do you take me for a fool? It's so ruined you can't even count the rooms, and you want five hundred per room? You should go ask Sihanouk—he's got money!" "Our good old Sihanouk isn't in Beijing right now, or else I really would!" "Just tell me straight: how many rooms were there originally in this courtyard?" "At least twenty rooms! It's a grand courtyard!" "A flat price of five thousand yuan. Take it or leave it... Don't speak just yet. Have you sorted out the property rights? I don't want to build a brand-new house only for someone to suddenly pop out claiming the courtyard belongs to them! Or for you to pop out saying you're taking it back. Wouldn't I be the biggest chump in the world then?" "I'm friends with your mother. How could I ever do something like that?" "Business is business. We go to the housing management bureau, the district government, and the notary office. One way or another, the title has to be locked down so that it officially belongs to me before I fork over a single cent." Chen Qi handled the entire negotiation himself while Yu Xiuli watched from the side, her face beaming with pride. *This boy takes after me—never lets himself get shortchanged!* The auntie sighed and grumbled, muttering confusing phrases like "morals aren't what they used to be under socialism" and "where has trust between people gone?" Her lamentations made both mother and son burst into laughter, filling Lechunfang inside and out with merry air. After viewing the property, Chen Qi headed back. Truth be told, he didn't care all that much. It was a take-it-or-leave-it deal; if the price was right, he'd buy it as a collectible. Even if he lived there, he wouldn't spend his whole life there—a few years at most. What he truly longed for were the grand luxury mansions of later eras; primitive siheyuans were not comfortable in the slightest. Fortunately, he could do an extreme makeover. He already had a blueprint in mind: first, high walls had to be built properly, followed by dense foliage for privacy. Anyone who had regular sex knew just how crucial privacy was. In later years, staying at a hotel was a risky proposition; before you knew it, you might end up the male lead in a domestic amateur video. And that was the better scenario—the absolute worst was discovering your girlfriend was the female lead, and the guy wasn't you... * * * Morning, cafeteria. Gong Xue stood in line for food. She wore a white short-sleeved top and a very simple long skirt that reached her ankles, paired with low-heeled leather sandals and a small hairpin in her hair. It was an outfit that caught the eye without being ostentatious. If she had worn a red dress, she would have been done for—indecent, flaunting herself, bourgeois decadent habits! Beijing Film Studio's Three Golden Flowers—Liu Xiaoqing, Zhang Jinling, and Li Xiuming—were big stars whose faces put together took up a whole square meter. The studio's bachelors, accustomed to coarse fare, could hardly handle such refined fare from Shanghai! And now this refined delicacy had landed right in their studio, as their colleague! "Comrade Gong Xue, let's switch spots! Why don't you stand ahead of me?" "No need, really, it'll be my turn in a moment!" "Comrade Gong Xue, look how hot you are. Here, take my handkerchief to wipe your sweat." "No thank you, I'm fine!" "Now I must criticize you. We're colleagues now, so why be so polite? We ought to be united and help each other out!" "No, it's not that—I have my own handkerchief." Gong Xue had no choice but to pull out her handkerchief and dab at sweat that wasn't even there. She felt dreadfully uncomfortable. The guy in front and the guy behind were both striking up painfully awkward conversation—the kind where they thought they were being hilarious, but it was just awkward to the extreme. "I've got my food. I won't trouble you two anymore!" After finally getting her meal, seeing the two men looking like they might follow her, she worried about where to sit. Suddenly she saw Zhang Jinling waving: "Xiao Gong, come eat with us!" "Okay!" She hurried over and sat across from them, only to realize that next to Zhang Jinling sat two others: Liu Xiaoqing and Li Xiuming. Oho! Everyone's eyes turned toward the table with meaningful looks. Though Gong Xue wasn't yet famous, having these four women seated together made for quite a sight. The Three Golden Flowers were about to become four. Cai Ming: "Ermmmmm!"