Chapter 4 Zhang Jianguo

After leaving Zhang's mother's house, Song Yuanchao came to No. 23 next door, which was his home.
The houses in the alleys are all old-style Shikumen houses from Shanghai. This type of house has a long history, with the earliest ones existing in the Qing Dynasty.
Pushing open the wooden door with peeling paint, Song Yuanchao walked in. As soon as he entered the door, he saw the kitchen on the first floor, also known as the kitchen.
The kitchens in Shikumen houses are all like this, usually right at the entrance. In the past, each Shikumen house was inhabited by one family, so the kitchen area on the first floor was large enough to be used.
But due to historical reasons, nowadays, several families usually live in one house of this type, so the kitchen on the first floor is shared. Each family's cupboards, stoves, faucets, etc. are all here, plus some other sundries, making the first floor crowded.
Although he had been away for eight years, looking around, everything was almost the same as when Song Yuanchao left. Song Yuanchao stood there looking at this familiar place with mixed feelings. After a long while, he picked up his luggage, walked through the kitchen on the first floor and took the stairs to the third floor.
Song Yuanchao's home is in a bedroom on the third floor, which has the best location in Shikumen No. 23.
Usually, a Shikumen house has one or two bedrooms plus a living room, a pavilion, a kitchen, a two-story attic (or a three-story attic), etc.
Generally speaking, the master bedroom on the second or third floor is the best. If you don’t know the structure of Shikumen, you can watch the old movie "Crows and Sparrows". In the movie, Section Chief Hou lived in the bedroom, the hawker couple lived in the front living room on the first floor, the pavilion between the first and second floors was occupied by Teacher Hua and his family, and the original owner of the house, Kong Youwen, was driven to the back living room...

As for the second-floor or third-floor attic, it is the attic where miscellaneous items were originally stored, but now naturally people live in it.
The Song family has lived here for three generations. Back then, this house was bought by Song Yuanchao's grandfather using three large yellow croakers. Song Guangzeng and Song Yuanchao were both only sons, so after the old man passed away, the house naturally belonged to Song Guangzeng. Song Guangzeng and Wang Sufen got married here, and Song Yuanchao was also born and raised here.
Standing in front of the door, Song Yuanchao stared at the closed door for a long time before he took out the key given to him by Zhang's mother and inserted it into the lock.
I turned the key, the door lock opened, and when I pushed open the heavy door, there was the sound of an old creaking hinge.
Walking into the house, it was much brighter than the dim staircase. The weather was good today, and the sun was shining through the south-facing windows onto the floor.
The room was very tidy, without much dust. Zhang's mother had helped to clean it very well. However, since no one had lived there for a long time, there was inevitably a faint musty smell in the room.
Song Yuanchao put down his luggage and once again looked at the home where he had lived from his childhood to adolescence. The scenes at home overlapped with the ones that had been forgotten in the depths of his memory. Unconsciously, Song Yuanchao's face was covered with tears. He walked to the dressing table by the window, where a photo of three people was placed.
In the group photo, the young Song Yuanchao is on the right, and on the left is his mother Wang Sufen. Wang Sufen has neat medium-short hair, which is also called revolutionary hair. It was the most popular hairstyle among women at that time.
Sitting in the middle is his father, Song Guangzeng, who graduated from St. John's University. He is an extremely gentle and elegant scholar, wearing a pair of black-framed glasses, a neatly parted hair, and a well-ironed Zhongshan suit.
The three of them wore the Chairman's badge on their chests, their expressions were somewhat serious, yet they looked at the camera with a hint of smile on their lips. Song Yuanchao remembered that this photo was taken when his father took him and his mother to the Red Star Photo Studio before he went to the countryside, but he did not expect that this was the last photo of his family of three. After being separated by thousands of miles, they will never see each other again.
Song Yuanchao picked up the photo frame with a slight tremor, and couldn't hold back his emotions anymore and burst into tears...
After a long time, Song Yuanchao wiped away his tears and started to tidy up the room. By the time he finished tidying up the room and his luggage, it was already afternoon.
In the afternoon, Song Yuanchao went to a nearby bathhouse to take a bath.
Nowadays, it is basically impossible to take a bath at home except in summer, so people usually have to go to a bathhouse to take a bath.
There are many bathhouses in Shanghai. The most famous ones are naturally the large bathhouses such as Xiaoyaochi that existed before liberation. Song Yuanchao would naturally not go so far to take a bath as it is far and expensive.
The bathhouse he went to was not far from the alley. The name of this bathhouse was also very contemporary, called "People's Bathhouse". A bath cost five cents, and there were also services such as back scrubbing, haircuts, and shaving, with each service costing between five cents and ten cents.
After soaking in the pool for half an hour, he rubbed his back to clean off all the dirt on his body. After washing, Song Yuanchao had his hair cut and shaved in the bathhouse.
After finishing all this, Song Yuanchao felt relaxed all over. After changing into the clean clothes he brought with him, except that his face still looked a little dark, Song Yuanchao was no different from an ordinary Shanghainese.
I came home from the bathhouse and had just sat down for a while when there was a knock on the door.
"Uncle Jianguo?"
At the beginning, a familiar face appeared in front of Song Yuanchao. The middle-aged man in his thirties wearing a blue work jacket standing at the door was Zhang's mother's son, Zhang Jianguo, whom Song Yuanchao had called uncle since he was a child.
"Yuanchao, you're finally back!" Zhang Jianguo smiled and looked at Song Yuanchao whom he hadn't seen for many years. The little kid who followed him around back then has grown into an adult now. If he hadn't met him here, Zhang Jianguo probably wouldn't have recognized Song Yuanchao at first sight if he had met him somewhere else.
"You've gotten darker and thinner, but you've grown taller, stronger, and more energetic!" Zhang Jianguo picked up the lunch box in his hand: "Mom knows you just came back and probably won't have time to cook, so she simply made some food for me to bring over. Look, braised pork with bean curd sheets, hairtail, and egg dumplings made for the New Year, all of which are your favorites."

Zhang Jianguo walked in, put the three lunch boxes in his hand on the table and opened them one by one. A burst of fragrance came to his nose, making Song Yuanchao swallow his saliva.
That’s right, these were Song Yuanchao’s favorite foods since he was a child. But even so, in this era of material scarcity, he could only eat them during festivals and holidays.
And today, Zhang's mother actually made so many delicious food for Song Yuanchao, which made Song Yuanchao deeply moved.
"Haha, don't look at me silly, eat it while it's hot. You've suffered a lot in the northwest, and you're so thin. Come back and replenish your energy." Looking at Song Yuanchao's expression, Zhang Jianguo smiled and patted his shoulder. Song Yuanchao was touched, but given the relationship between the two families, there was no need to say thank you at this time. Song Yuanchao would remember the Zhang family's kindness to him and would definitely repay them in the future.
"Uncle, please sit down and have a cigarette." Song Yuanchao turned around and poured a glass of water for Zhang Jianguo, then took out Bao Baocheng from the drawer. He brought this cigarette back from the countryside. Although it was not as famous as the cigarettes in Shanghai, it was considered pretty good locally.
"This cigarette looks festive. I've never smoked it. Is it from the northwest?" Zhang Jianguo took it and looked at it first, then asked casually. Seeing Song Yuanchao nodded, Zhang Jianguo took out a cigarette without hesitation after opening it. He put it under his nose and smelled it, then nodded slightly and picked up the match on the table to light it.
After taking a long puff, Zhang Jianguo exhaled white smoke rings with enjoyment and nodded: "The taste is not bad, but it's a bit strong. But I'm a heavy smoker, so this is just right."
As he spoke, Zhang Jianguo laughed and pointed at the open lunch box, signaling Song Yuanchao to eat quickly.
Song Yuanchao didn't hesitate to eat. He found a pair of chopsticks, sat down and started eating.
The food tasted just as he remembered. Song Yuanchao ate it with relish. Ten minutes later, all the food was gone.
When Song Yuanchao finished eating and was about to pack up his lunch box, Zhang Jianguo signaled him not to rush and to sit down and chat for a while.
"I heard you were back after get off work, so I went to the police station." Zhang Jianguo said to Song Yuanchao, "I know Uncle Wang at the police station. I said hello to him. When you go there tomorrow, just go find him and give him the documents. He will handle the household registration as soon as possible. If there are no problems, it will be done in ten days or half a month at most."
"Thank you, uncle. I remember. Let's find Uncle Wang." Song Yuanchao nodded. It was the same in his previous life. Officer Wang helped to implement the household registration. Although the country has policies, the household registration procedures are cumbersome. This era is not like the future where everything is connected to the Internet. Right now, all the archival materials have to be retrieved from other places and then filled out manually to go through the declaration procedures.
If there is no acquaintance, it will not be so fast to settle the household registration. It would be great if it can be done within two or three months. Zhang Jianguo asked Officer Wang for help and saved a lot of time.
In this era, household registration is an extremely important thing.
Without a household registration, a person would have problems with identity and work, and even survival. You have to know that every household needs coupons for food, non-staple food, meat, eggs, oil, cloth, cigarettes, and so on.
Household registration is the basis for issuing tickets. Only with a household registration can you get tickets. Without a household registration, there are no tickets. Without tickets, people simply cannot survive.
"Take this first." Zhang Jianguo took out an envelope from his pocket and pushed it over: "I just came back, your parents are gone, and your household registration is not settled, but you still have to live your life."
"No, no, uncle. You have elderly parents and young children to take care of, and your family is not well off. I also earn work points in the northwest, and I have money on me." Song Yuanchao quickly refused.
Zhang Jianguo's job was pretty good. He was a driver in the small car team of a large state-owned factory. Driver was a very popular profession in that era, and he was also a driver in a small car team.
Zhang Jianguo's basic salary is 36 yuan, and his bonus and vehicle allowance on weekdays are about 15 yuan, which adds up to more than 50 yuan.
In addition to wages, the factory also provides very good benefits. Not only are clothes, soap, toilet paper, etc. distributed every quarter, but there are also fish, meat, chicken, and duck during festivals. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you can even get some cigarettes and alcohol when you are driving.
Zhang Jianguo's wife Sun Xia is an employee of a street factory. The street factory is a collective factory, so the salary and benefits are naturally not as good as those of large state-owned enterprises. The employees in the street factory receive hourly wages of 80 cents a day, and no salary is given for rest on Sundays. On average, the monthly salary is about 21 yuan.
The couple's combined monthly income is more than 70 yuan, which is acceptable for an ordinary couple, but you have to know that Zhang Jianguo and his wife also have to support the elderly and children. Zhang's mother is a housewife and has no pension. Zhang Jianguo's father passed away many years ago, and with two children, a boy and a girl, the monthly expenses are just barely enough.

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