Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

Zhuang Zhongchen's thinking was actually quite simple. Who would be so foolish as to treasure such a monkey-like three-wheeled vehicle?

If the military wants it, they can take it; if they don't like it, they can keep it in their own unit and use it anyway.

Through this experience of DIY assembly, Zhuang Zhongchen also discovered a very important problem—in this day and age, ordinary people can't accomplish anything by working alone!

Take this motorized tricycle for example.

It took Zhuang Zhongchen more than half a month to assemble a motorized tricycle. Judging from the process, it seemed effortless. However, in reality, this situation is very difficult to replicate.

Asking individual residents in the neighborhood to help with assembly. Is this even possible without a good relationship with the neighborhood leaders?

Ask Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong for help. If they weren't neighbors in the same courtyard, would the two old men be too polite to help you rub your hands?

Asking a factory to help you manufacture two-stroke engines. Unless you're a section chief in the labor bureau, who would actually bother with you?

Even when purchasing standard parts from hardware stores, some parts simply won't be sold to you unless you have an engineer's certificate. For ordinary people, these are strictly controlled goods, and they generally don't even have the qualifications to buy them.

Unlike the later Industrial Age of Cthulhu, where you can easily have all your goods delivered to your door with just a few clicks on an online store.

In this special era, the greatest difficulty is not invention and creation, but resource integration—how to obtain the necessary resources and integrate them together!

Now you understand, right? How can we invent or create anything in this mess? It's getting more and more of a headache, so I might as well just keep doing nothing!

Anyway, if the military wants it, you can take it; if other departments want it, they can take it too. I'm too lazy to care anymore; I'd rather eat, race cars, and flirt with girls!

But to my surprise, when I returned to Nanluoguxiang, it was still packed with people, a large group of them eagerly waiting for me.

"Chenzi, hurry up, let's go for a spin."

"Why should you drive? Just because you have a big face? Is this your family's car?"

"Nonsense, I've long since acknowledged Chenzi as my elder brother! I'm second in rank. Haha!"

"Have you no shame? I'm the second oldest, so call me Second Brother right now."

"Grandma!"

"Ahem." Zhuang Zhongchen was both amused and exasperated. "Stop arguing, stop arguing. It's your turn to go for a drive! I can drive around in no time."

"Let us drive! You're just a lowly office worker, what do you know about driving?"

"Cough cough cough."

"..."

The children cheered and jumped for joy, and laughter filled the air.

The tricycle was packed with people time and time again, and it drove around the streets. In the end, even the girls from the Central Academy of Drama were excited and eagerly boarded the tricycle.

Zhuang Zhongchen, who was standing to the side, was surprised to find that two of them looked very familiar. They were the veteran artists who often sat in the front row as mascots at the film festival and later became respected for their virtue and talent.

Recalling their gray-haired appearances, these two now have faces full of collagen, looking so youthful and energetic. It's truly heartbreaking; time is a cruel mistress!

……

Inside a semi-abandoned house, several locust trees provide shade from the outside of the window.

This was originally the back garden of the courtyard house. When the residents were relocated, the street designated this area as an off-site zone.

To be honest, it's difficult to allocate new residents to this place unless they're willing to level the land and build new houses themselves. So it's just been abandoned here; who would want to waste their money on that?

To explain: Housing policies were quite chaotic back then, and property rights were somewhat ambiguous. Generally speaking, the house belonged to the organization where you worked.

For example, Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, He Yuzhu, Xu Damao, and Qin Huairu all work at the steel rolling mill, and their houses belong to the steel rolling mill.

Yan Fugui is a student at Hongxing Primary School. His house belongs to the Education Bureau.

Zhuang Zhongchen's house certainly belongs to the Labor Bureau;

The deaf old woman's house currently belongs to the local street administration. However, she and Yi Zhonghai have a support agreement for the elderly woman receiving government assistance, meaning that after Yi Zhonghai inherits the house, it will also belong to the steel rolling mill.

There are established rules regarding the division of responsibilities for both working parents and the inheritance of property.

It can be said that the company must take care of its employees from birth to death, but the employees must dedicate everything to the company.

So what's the difference between public housing and private housing? All land belongs to the state, and public housing, including the buildings themselves, is publicly owned. Private housing, on the other hand, is privately owned. This is similar to self-built houses in rural areas, where the land belongs to the state collective, but the house itself is privately owned.

The housing management office is essentially a real estate transaction center, with some of the functions of a property management company. It registers and maintains property ownership information. In case of damage, public housing is repaired free of charge, while private housing is only charged for material costs.

Undoubtedly, under this policy, large state-owned factories are making a considerable profit, and they will accumulate more and more real estate.

For example, if a steel rolling mill builds a new staff housing complex and allocates an apartment to an elderly man named Yi Zhonghai, then the original courtyard house would be returned to the steel rolling mill and could be allocated to other employees. Wouldn't the steel rolling mill simply gain an extra property?

If Yi Zhonghai's apartment is a private residence, it should have been allocated a two-bedroom apartment, but now it's a three-bedroom apartment. The price difference for the private portion will be compensated. However, its nature hasn't actually changed; it's still a steel mill apartment.

Therefore, it's impossible for a neighbor to steal a house. To put it bluntly, even if they were to bully a widow and orphan like Qin Huairu, tens of thousands of people from the steel mill would immediately come knocking on their door. Are you looking for trouble? Dare to steal a house from our steel mill?

Therefore, they'd rather build makeshift, cramped courtyards than seize other people's homes. Note: They wouldn't dare! This isn't a neighborhood dispute; it's the robbery of state property! People could really die!

Besides, the neighborhood committees also benefit considerably, as they accumulate more and more properties. The logic is simple: if a family becomes extinct or moves out of the neighborhood, the property becomes part of the neighborhood's property ownership.

That's why the streets of Beijing and Shanghai later became the domain of local deities, and they ended up owning a huge amount of real estate.

The neighborhood committee generally doesn't allocate housing to other organizations; it only distributes it to employees of the neighborhood. It's basically a matter of everyone minding their own business. If you want housing? Go to your own workplace!

Therefore, the street authorities are too lazy to deal with these semi-abandoned gardens, and the street staff don't even care about them.

As such, this place was chosen by a certain scumbag and turned into a place for him and Qin Huairu to meet secretly.

Amidst the birdsong and fragrant flowers, a faint murmur could be heard...