Chapter 56 Changes
When talking about this with Gu Jie today, Song Yuanchao was still a little worried that when Gu Jie met Director Ma, he would not be able to control the situation with his personality. Now that Qin Zhengguo suddenly came, everything was solved. With Qin Zhengguo's eloquence, there would be absolutely no problem in talking about this matter with Director Ma.
Song Yuanchao did not hide it from Qin Zhengguo, and immediately told him the details of the matter in detail. After Song Yuanchao finished speaking, Qin Zhengguo patted his chest and told him not to worry, saying that this was a piece of cake for him. Moreover, Song Yuanchao had made all the arrangements very clear. If Qin Zhengguo could not do it, he might as well buy a piece of tofu and hit his head against it.
Song Yuanchao temporarily arranged Qin Zhengguo's residence in his own home. If the neighbors asked about it, he could just say that he was a relative from another place. Anyway, there was room for him to stay at home.
"No, it's not appropriate to live in your house." Who would have thought that as soon as Song Yuanchao proposed it, Qin Zhengguo shook his head and refused.
"Just find me a place."
"My house is spacious and I live alone anyway, so one more person wouldn't make much difference. There's no need to look for someone else," Song Yuanchao explained.
"That's different." Qin Zhengguo said seriously, "Rules are rules. My Qin family has never had such rules. It's okay to make do today. But tomorrow you should find a place for me as soon as possible. It doesn't have to be big, but it can be a place where I can put a bed and sleep."
"This..." Song Yuanchao . Since he said so, there was no room for negotiation. But Song Yuanchao thought about it carefully. It was not easy to find a suitable place to live in Shanghai. Moreover, Qin Zhengguo had just arrived in Shanghai and had little money. Although Song Yuanchao could help him pay for it, Qin Zhengguo would definitely not accept it.
As he thought about it, his eyes lit up, and Song Yuanchao suddenly remembered his three-story attic, which was now piled with some unused sundries and usually locked. It would be absolutely fine to clean it up and live there. Although it would be a bit stuffy in the summer, it would still be fine if he opened the dormer window (skylight) and added an electric fan as long as it didn't rain.
"There is a place where people can live, but I don't know if it is suitable."
"Is it far from your home?"
"It's very close, just upstairs from my house." Song Yuanchao said with a smile.
"Hey, what are you waiting for? Come on, let's take a look. If possible, I'll stay there tonight." Qin Zhengguo laughed immediately, stood up, untied the towel, and asked the bathroom master to help take down the hanging clothes.
After returning home, Song Yuanchao took Qin Zhengguo directly to the three-story attic. The three-story attic was located on the floor above Song Yuanchao's room. It was just one floor up the stairs at the door of his house. The so-called three-story attic was an attic three floors up. Shikumen houses all had pointed roofs, and the area separated from the pointed roof and the third floor was the attic.
This kind of attic was originally used to store sundries. Of course, some people with poor living conditions also used it as a room. The area is not small, with a floor area of nearly 20 square meters, but because it is an attic, the space inside is relatively low, and one has to bend over to walk in most of the place.
Using the key to open the door, Song Yuanchao reached out and pressed the switch on the wall behind the door. With a slight click, the lights in the three-story attic lit up.
"Come in and take a look." Song Yuanchao bent over and greeted Qin Zhengguo behind him, then walked to a more spacious place in the attic and straightened up.
"This is my three-story attic. It has always been filled with miscellaneous items and no one has ever lived there. It can be used as a place to live after some cleaning, but the conditions are a little poor. See if you think it's suitable."
Qin Zhengguo looked around the place. There were a lot of things piled against the wall, including rattan chairs, tables and some unknown things. It was dim at night and he couldn't make them out.
This place is indeed not small. Although you need to bend over most of the time because of the height, it is definitely possible to put a bed there to sleep. There is also a dormer window above your head. If you put a bed underneath, you can clearly see the bright moon in the sky while lying on the bed, which is quite poetic.
After walking around the three-story pavilion and even opening the dormer window to climb to the roof to take a look, Qin Zhengguo patted the dust off his hands after coming down, and said with satisfaction: "This is a good place, this is it."
"Okay, clean it up tomorrow and this place will be yours." Seeing that Qin Zhengguo was satisfied with the place, Song Yuanchao slapped the key into his hand and said with a smile.
"By the way, how much is the rent for this month?" Qin Zhengguo asked after receiving the key.
Song Yuanchao had thought about this a long time ago. With Qin Zhengguo's temper, it was impossible for him to stay for free. If Song Yuanchao said so, Qin Zhengguo would definitely turn around and leave without staying.
"Let's say fifty cents a month." Seeing Qin Zhengguo frowning slightly, Song Yuanchao explained, "The rent for a house of this size in this area in Shanghai is about one yuan, but this is a private house and it's an attic, so I definitely can't use the normal rate. It's not wrong to give it a half-price discount, right? Fifty cents, that's appropriate, what do you think?"
Qin Zhengguo thought about it and laughed. Although he had just arrived in Shanghai and didn't know the rental situation there, he believed that Song Yuanchao would not lie to him about this. Moreover, he, Qin Zhengguo, would live in Shanghai for a long time in the future, so he could find out about this by asking around.
Fifty cents, this rent is really cheap, not to mention that it is difficult to rent the area where Song Yuanchao's home . But then again, according to Song Yuanchao's explanation, he did not take advantage of Qin Zhengguo, and this price was also set according to the price set by the Housing Management Office, which was reasonable.
But Qin Zhengguo is not stupid. He certainly understands that the pricing of the housing management office is completely different from the pricing of renting out the property. Not to mention Shanghai, even his hometown of Andong is the same. This is a rule common to the whole country.
But since Song Yuanchao said so, Qin Zhengguo is not a pretentious person. Although there are some things that need to be distinguished when getting along with friends, one should not be too picky about human relationships. Only in this way can they get along better.
After saying thank you, Qin Zhengguo had a little nest in Shanghai from that moment on. Of course, this little nest cannot be occupied today. The three-story attic is full of debris and dust. If someone wants to live in it, it needs to be tidied and cleaned.
That night, Qin Zhengguo moved into Song Yuanchao's house downstairs. The weather was getting warmer now, and it was quite comfortable to sleep on the wooden floor with straw mats and quilts.
After a good night's sleep, at dawn the next day, Song Yuanchao took Qin Zhengguo downstairs to wash up and introduced him to the neighbors, to avoid any misunderstandings caused by the neighbors not knowing Qin Zhengguo.
After breakfast, Song Yuanchao left a key to the front door for Qin Zhengguo, and then went out to work. As for Qin Zhengguo, he also had a lot of things to do, the most important of course was to tidy up and clean the three-story attic. The sooner he finished, the sooner he could move in. Qin Zhengguo was still very excited to have a nest of his own when he first came to Shanghai.
"Aid Korea! Come here for a moment."
While the workshop was busy, Director Ma came into the workshop with his hands behind his back, walked around the workshop to check the production situation, and then greeted Song Yuanchao who was not far away.
Song Yuanchao responded quickly and hurried over.
"Master, you're looking for me?"
"Let's go to the office and talk." Director Ma looked calm and nothing could be seen, but as soon as he said this, Song Yuanchao was immediately happy.
According to Song Yuanchao's guess, the matter was probably settled. Considering the time, Director Ma had already talked with Principal Zhou and they should have made a formal decision.
As expected, as soon as Director Ma sat down in the office, he told Song Yuanchao the result.
"I met with the principal yesterday and discussed this matter. In principle, the school has no objection to this matter." Director Ma said leisurely while smoking a cigarette.
Song Yuanchao was delighted. This was a done deal. But Director Ma hadn't finished speaking yet. He glanced at Song Yuanchao and said, "But the principal also said that this matter is up to our school-run factory to decide. In addition, the school has a requirement, which is that after the official operation starts, some of the information needs to be provided for internal use by the school after it is printed."
"That's as it should be. Without the school's help, we wouldn't have these materials. It's no problem for us to print them ourselves." Song Yuanchao answered without thinking. Director Ma didn't say anything and continued to smoke silently. Song Yuanchao suddenly remembered something and asked tentatively, "Master, doesn't the school allocate funds? Is it in vain?"
Director Ma nodded, looking a little embarrassed: "Aiding North Korea, the school's funding is fixed, and the school can't afford this money, so..."
"Then have you asked how much the school plans to take?" Song Yuanchao continued to ask.
"Based on the number of students in the graduating class, plus a few hundred reserved copies, I think we need at least 300 copies," Director Ma estimated.
Song Yuanchao was speechless for a moment. 300 copies were not a small number. The cost of one copy would be at least 1.01 yuan, and this was calculated based on a print run of 5,000 copies. If the print run did not reach this number, the cost per copy would rise to 1.4 yuan or even nearly 2 yuan.
In this case, the expenditure for 300 books would be at least around 300 to 500 yuan, which is not a small amount.
