The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 19 Housing
"Master Jiang, don't worry, I will personally arrange a house for you." Director Li looked at the form filled out by Jiang Cheng and said enthusiastically, many places are good, and the fact that he is a retired military car soldier is also a plus. But when he saw that his marital status was single, he couldn't help but frowned.

When it comes to taking care of people, there must be limits. Even if the position is good, you can't give him a small building or a house with a courtyard that only cadres can live in.

Another thing is that the size of the house allocated to married and unmarried people is also particular. Excluding some houses that cannot be arranged due to insufficient conditions, only in the remaining houses can it be said to be taken care of. Otherwise, it is just thinking about it. If he is reported, the director of the street office will be punished.

"Then thank you, Director Li. It's almost time for lunch. I saw a restaurant when I came here just now. Why don't we go there and have lunch together. There are some things I want to ask Director Li in detail." Jiang Cheng said to Director Li. He understood the ways of the world, and he saw the frown on Director Li's face when he was looking at the information form he filled out just now. There must be something wrong.

"Master Jiang, you are so polite. Please feel free to ask me anything about housing and household registration," Director Li said with a smile.

The city street office is also a poor government office. At least the unit itself does not have many benefits, but you can still get some benefits at ordinary times.

These days, the street office is responsible for a wide range of matters, including work, housing, household registration, and some people's conflicts and disputes may also be mediated by the street office. Even fights and petty thefts are not reported to the police station but to the street office.

When arranging a job, even if it is a temporary job, people will give some thanks. It is not that they have the ability to arrange jobs casually, but there are too many people who meet the job requirements. When it is not against the rules to arrange anyone, it is different when someone gives a gift.

Jiang Cheng invited Director Li to dinner, and the young man was very good at handling things. Moreover, Jiang Cheng would be a truck driver in the future, and making friends with him might be useful in the future.

The three of them quickly arrived at the restaurant, ordered some dishes, drank some boiled water and started chatting again. The clerk from the personnel department who brought Jiang Cheng here managed to get a good meal.

"Director Li, do you think there are any rules for my house allocation?" Jiang Cheng poured a glass of water for Director Li and asked. There is no tea to drink in restaurants these days. That requires tea leaves. There is only boiled water.

"Master Jiang, actually there is a very nice house recently. It's in a yard, with two large blue brick and tile houses, plus a small kitchen. But you are single now, and you don't meet the conditions for allocation. There are suitable houses in other places, but they are not as good as that place. You are not married, so you will be at a disadvantage in arranging a house." Director Li said directly. He now understood Jiang Cheng's situation. It was normal for him to be unmarried after just returning from the army.

Nowadays, many people in the army stay for a few years. If they cannot become an officer, they may apply for retirement and go home to marry and have children. But if they become an officer, even a platoon leader, they will get paid, and then they will consider personal issues.

When serving in the army without a salary, most men don’t get married. Jiang Cheng is in this situation. Otherwise, at the age of 22, most men in the city would have been married.

In the 1970s, there was a huge difference between married people and unmarried people. In terms of job placement, married people were given priority. Even when officials were promoted, whether they were married or not was considered a factor.

"Director Li, I have a partner in my hometown in the countryside. You know, sometimes people in the countryside don't get a marriage certificate when they get married. Can I fill in "married"? " Jiang Cheng heard about the housing arrangements, and because he was unmarried, he couldn't get a good house, so he immediately wanted to change his marital status.

Although Jiang Cheng had not experienced this era, he had watched many TV dramas of this era. Now they say that they are distributing houses, but in fact they are rented and need to pay rent. The dormitory distributed by the company is also public housing, and rent is also required, but the rent is cheaper.

After you get your house, you can't just change it whenever you want. You have to live there until houses are open for sale in China. In addition, you can also relocate your house if you are transferred or promoted.

It is only 1972, and the house may be occupied for ten years. Jiang Cheng naturally wants to live in a better house, so that adults and children will not have to squeeze into one room in a few years. Director Li of the Street Office was really enlightened when he heard Jiang Cheng's words. He had actually met an officer who was demobilized from the army. He was also from the countryside and brought his wife and children with him. He also did not have a marriage certificate, but he also filled in the married form.

The subdistrict office doesn't actually check that much, but it's different if you take the initiative to write that you're unmarried. Also, if no one reports it, the area given to those who are truly unmarried is larger, which is actually not a big deal. But the people in the subdistrict office don't need to take this risk.

"I will take you to see the house in person this afternoon. Master Jiang, since you already have a partner and your conditions are so good, you might as well get married early. This will save you from gossip in the future." Director Li said.

In fact, with Jiang Cheng's conditions, if he really wants to get a good deal on housing and find a partner to marry right away, he can find one, and she is guaranteed to be pretty.

"Director Li, don't worry. Please help me arrange a house. Next month I will go and get the marriage certificate with my girlfriend and bring her to live with us." Jiang Cheng said. If he had known that he could get a better share of the house after marriage, he would have simply filled in as married from the beginning.

Having said that, it was OK. The house issue was resolved. The next thing was to chat. Director Li also wanted to befriend Jiang Cheng. Although he was old enough to be Uncle Jiang Cheng, he asked him not to call him Director Director all the time, but to call him Brother Li. He also stopped calling Jiang Cheng Master Jiang and called him Brother Jiang.

The food came soon. There were three of us, so we had two dishes and a soup. It was quite good and we finished all the food.

After the meal, Jiang Cheng followed Director Li to the Street Office. The clerk from the personnel department of the bus station who accompanied him went back first. It was not yet the time for the Street Office to work in the afternoon, but after Jiang Cheng had a good meal, he naturally found the key to the house he was going to see and set off directly after returning to the Street Office.

Along the way, Director Li briefly told Jiang Cheng about the house there. It was a three-story courtyard house with two entrances in front and back, and it should have been the house of a wealthy family a long time ago.

That is, the front and back yards. The front yard used to be the wing rooms and ear rooms, which were used to entertain guests, store things, and live in by servants. The backyard has the main house and the side rooms, as well as the ear rooms, where family members and children, and possibly even concubines, live.

The originally spacious yard was expanded to accommodate more than ten years ago, and houses were added to some of the areas where flowers and plants were previously planted against the wall.

The vacant house now is the former left wing of the front yard, plus a later added room and a relatively small kitchen. The previous resident was a five-guarantee household, whose two sons became martyrs, and the five-guarantee household also passed away a few months ago due to illness.

The kitchen is just a small corner. But the two rooms are quite large. If they are given to Jiang Cheng, who is single, he will be easily disgruntled and reported by the people in the yard. There are five or six people living in one room in the yard, and there are also three generations of a family, and seven or eight people who only have two rooms.

But when those people first moved in, there weren't so many people. Some of them have lived there for more than ten years and have several children. Or some of them had children who were already grown up when they moved in, and now they are married and have grandchildren.

You have to know that from the founding of the People's Republic of China to 1972, in just over 20 years, the domestic population almost doubled. In the past, houses were easy to divide, but now it is different. Too many people live in one room.

(End of this chapter)