This time, I’ll make sure my mother-in-law is satisfied.

An atomic bomb, and Li Qingquan was frightened off at once.

Old Qian’s lunch was looking hopeless, so he kept glancing hopefully at the Feng parents. Hadn’t they agreed to go out for lunch?

Mrs. Feng pretended not to notice.

What she had said earlier was only polite talk, nothing more. Right after Old Qian had penned such a sharp criticism of her son-in-law, and he still expected her to treat him to a meal?

What was he thinking?

“Old Feng, what exactly was that ‘atomic bomb’ your wife mentioned?”

Mrs. Feng sent all the younger Feng children back inside, and Mr. Feng stayed in the front courtyard chatting idly with Old Qian.

Old Qian could not help asking.

“What atomic bomb? Just an article! A piece written under the joint hands and guidance of Old Wu, Old Mao, and Ding Ling!”

“It won’t be long now. After this plenum is over, it ought to be published.”

Mr. Feng was not nearly so alarmist. It was only an article, after all. Was it really something so taboo that no one could even ask about it?

“What? Even Old Mao was brought into this?”

Old Qian clicked his tongue in astonishment. He had not expected that the article behind this issue of October would actually have Old Mao’s personal guidance, and it seemed to be tied to the plenum as well. That sort of scale... was a little terrifying, wasn’t it?

No wonder Mrs. Feng had been so sharp when she took him on over Li Qingquan.

“Leave that aside. Old Qian, why did you decide to bring such a severe criticism down on The Horse Herder?”

“Didn’t you used to think very highly of The Horse Herder? You even promised to translate it, didn’t you?”

Mr. Feng still could not help asking on his son-in-law’s behalf. The sharpness of his wife’s earlier words had been due in large part to Old Qian’s critical draft.

“Oh, that? Li Qingquan has been getting a bit too full of himself, so I thought I’d take a different route and turn things around, just to warn him not to get too cocky!”

“And besides, isn’t your wife at odds with Li Qingquan? I figured it was better to offend that boy than let your wife keep me in mind!”

“But somehow I feel like my draft still wasn’t critical enough, and Teacher Gu wasn’t satisfied?”

“That’s all right. Didn’t Li Qingquan come asking us earlier? When the time comes, we’ll go to his Capital Literature place together and criticize him even more forcefully!”

Now that Li Qingquan was not around, Old Qian naturally chose only the pleasant things to say. And wasn’t that just the sort of thing Mr. Feng’s wife liked to hear?

Old Qian’s attitude was excellent.

He was only a step away from saying outright: Look, look, I, Old Qian, am on the same side as your October magazine all along.

“Well... we’ll talk about that later.”

The flesh on Mr. Feng’s face twitched hard several times. He had not expected Old Qian’s motive for criticizing The Horse Herder to be exactly that.

They had not asked him to write a criticism at all; they had wanted him to praise it properly!

And he was even planning to wait until the day they went over and stormed the gate, to criticize her son-in-law even more deeply?

Fine. If you like it, then fine!

So long as, when Wednesday came and you dared to stand before his wife and criticize her son-in-law with all the depth you pleased, all one could say was: Old Qian, you are something else!

“Of course! By then I guarantee your wife will be satisfied.”

Old Qian nodded repeatedly, and the rough draft in his head was already nearly complete.

“Later at noon, why don’t you invite your sister-in-law to come eat with us? This time, thanks to the care my elder brother gave me when I came back, otherwise our whole family would have been sleeping in the street.”

“Old Feng, don’t be so formal with me. Next time, next time. You’re taking your family out to eat; why should I go making a fuss and joining in?”

Mr. Feng formally issued the invitation, but Old Qian’s expression turned serious instead, and he waved it off again and again.

However greedy he might be, he still knew this was a family meal. What was an outsider like him doing joining the fun?

“Old brother, what are you being so polite to me and Xueqing for?”

“Come with us. Think of it as letting me make up a banquet for Jia You and Xue Min.”

By this point, Mr. Feng was truly serious.

“Uh—speaking of your Jia You and your son-in-law, you really don’t plan to hold a wedding banquet?”

“Honestly, I think your son-in-law is quite good too.”

Old Qian thought the reason the Feng family had not held this banquet was because they were dissatisfied with that son-in-law, too embarrassed to even say so, and that was why they had not given their daughter a proper, grand wedding.

“Xue Min really is good! As for the banquet, maybe after they go on holiday, the two families can sit down together and discuss it.”

“And the housing from my work unit still hasn’t come through. In the future, I may even have to borrow your house, old brother, for the wedding departure.”

At this point, Mr. Feng could not help looking a little embarrassed.

Before, his wife had truly not intended to make up a banquet for Jia You and Xue Min, but lately she had relented, feeling that no matter what, they ought to hold one.

Whose daughter’s wedding was not supposed to be grand and glorious? What about his Feng family? And she was the first daughter, too. No matter what, they had to set a good example and let her leave home in splendor.

Mr. Feng actually knew that this was because his wife had changed her opinion of Xue Min as a son-in-law.

What stood before them now was the matter of housing.

“It should be held! As for the house, don’t talk to me about borrowing or not borrowing. Are we really that distant from each other?”

“If you think this place is a little shabby, I can lend you the one over by Dongzhimen as a bridal home?”

Old Qian grew extravagant in tone, and he had the capital to do so. The courtyard here was a shared compound, and it really was rather shabby and simple.

If Mr. Feng’s wife did not think much of it, he could simply lend the Feng family the three-courtyard house by Dongzhimen as the bridal home for their daughter’s marriage.

“No need, no need, thank you!”

At this, Mr. Feng hurriedly waved it off. He had once gone to see that three-courtyard house by Dongzhimen.

It would not do.

With his sensitive status as someone just returned to the city, he could not very well go live in such a good house.

“Old Feng, come to think of it, your own house—can’t it really be taken back?”

When the topic turned to housing, Old Qian asked about Mr. Feng again.

Before Mr. Feng and his wife were sent down, they had not lacked their own place to live. So why could they not move back now?

“That house is hard to talk about right now.”

Mentioning his own place, Mr. Feng’s expression became even more complicated, and he kept shaking his head, unwilling to say more.

“All right. Anyway, if you ever need anything, just say the word.”

Old Qian could understand his feelings. Mr. Feng had been among the earliest to be sent down, and his spirit had long since been worn thin.

Even if there were a chance to get the house back now, he might not dare to go ask for it himself.

Because that house of his was a sensitive matter.

“I’ve already had your English version of The Horse Herder translated, Old Feng. Wait here while I go get it for you.”

“So fast?”

Mr. Feng looked stunned. Since when had Old Qian’s temperament become so brisk?

In the past, even arranging for a draft could take from one New Year to the next. Yet this time... had half a month even passed?

“Translation... for me, Old Qian, is no different from copying it over once. Easy.”

Speaking of his own strength, Old Qian was honestly quite smug.

As he said, translation was as simple to him as drinking water. One glance at the Chinese version, and he could turn it straight into a foreign language. After all, it was only a few plain little words without much depth.

Turning a foreign language into Chinese, on the other hand, required serious thought. Our language is broad and profound, rich in substance; one choice of word can carry a whole different meaning. This is scholarly work for the young and those who come after us, so it must be weighed carefully and cannot be handled carelessly.

After watching the excitement and chewing over the gossip, the morning outing of Cheng Xuemin and Feng Jiayou had been delayed.

At noon they ate at Quanjude. In the end, Old Qian and his wife did not come along. They said they would wait until Mr. Feng formally gave his daughter away before coming to take a free meal.

Still, Mr. Feng, out of politeness, brought Old Qian a whole roast duck when he went back.

After finishing lunch, Cheng Xuemin and Feng Jiayou still headed over to Capital University.

To look at houses.

With a belly like Feng Jiayou’s, searching the streets for housing was obviously unrealistic.

So once Cheng Xuemin had pedaled Feng Jiayou over to the area near Capital University, they went straight to the nearest housing office, also known as the exchange station.

In those days there was no concept of commercial housing, and it was even less possible to have real estate rental agencies.

Only the housing offices in each district.

As early as the first half of this year, the elder statesman had given an important speech on the issue of urban housing.

Roughly speaking, it was to solve the problem of tight housing for city residents, allowing private construction under policy conditions, or joint effort to build and live together.

But it was only a speech, not yet formalized into written directives. Besides, the wealth gap in those days was not very obvious, and most people did not have the means to build privately. They were basically waiting for housing allocation from above, since most of the housing stock was state-owned.

Families like the Fengs, who really had nowhere to live, would also choose to rent.

So in this era, the housing office mainly served a supervisory function, focusing on people who wanted to exchange or rent housing.

Because housing allocated from above could not be bought or sold, exchanging homes had become one of the main ways residents improved their living conditions.

What did “exchanging homes to improve living conditions” mean? If you felt cramped living in a shared compound and wanted to switch to a bigger courtyard house, or simply to a tube apartment or dormitory-style block, what were you supposed to do?

Applying upward was one route, but unless you had considerable influence or rank, it was impossible.

If you still wanted a better home, that was possible.

It meant going from door to door like Cheng Xuemin and Feng Jiayou were doing now.

Asking people whether they were willing to let their house out so that you could live in it.

You could make up the difference in cash.

If you ran into someone unwilling, they might well chase you out with a broom.

But if you met someone who was interested, and they were willing to take a little compensation for the price difference, then the exchange could really be made.

Once both sides agreed, all that was needed was to register at the nearest housing office. Since the houses belonged to the state on both sides and no transfer of ownership was involved, once the exchange station had registered everything clearly, the exchange was considered complete.

Of course, there was another route as well: for those who wanted to improve their housing but did not have the time to search out and arrange a place themselves, they could also register their exchange needs here at the housing office’s exchange station.

Likewise, homeowners who were short on money and urgently needed cash could come here to register their wish to exchange a house in return for compensation.

The housing office’s exchange station would then act as the go-between and supervisor. Once both sides took a liking to one another and each got what they needed, the exchange would likewise be completed.

So in fact, the housing office’s exchange station in this era was very much like a later-day property agency.

There were few rentals and many people seeking exchanges, and none of it involved changing property ownership.

And there was one last small category: private house sales.

At this time, private house sales had not been strictly prohibited, and such transactions still existed in the civilian sphere.

Private home sales likewise had to pass under the supervision of the housing office, where one could register a desire to buy a private house or a willingness to sell one, and wait for a match.

Cheng Xuemin and Feng Jiayou headed straight for the housing office near Capital University because they were hoping, if lucky, to see whether there were any notices for private homes for sale here.

That would save them from having to go alley by alley asking, Do you have a house you want to sell?

But today happened to be Sunday, and the housing office was also closed for the day.

Still, it was not a wasted trip.

Since there was a housing exchange station, there was bound to be people lurking around outside making a business of it.

Of course, they would not have been called speculators in those days, but rather people who sold housing information or helped connect buyers and sellers so the homeowners would not have to search through a sea of strangers on their own.

“Are you two young comrades looking to rent a place or exchange one?”

Sure enough.

As soon as the two arrived, a streetwise young man came up quietly to greet them.

“You two young comrades don’t need to keep looking inside. The exchange station is closed today and not open for business.”

“But whether you’re renting or exchanging, I basically have all the listings that are available.”

The streetwise fellow lifted the hem of his military greatcoat a little, and inside were indeed quite a few slips of paper, each bearing an address.

He was bold, there was no doubt about that. Whether this counted as profiteering was another question entirely.

...