Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 1211 Malian Road

After finishing their meal and drinking tea for a while, a dozen or so people came out of the restaurant.

It was already dark outside, and Old Chen tightened his coat: "It's still quite chilly at night."

Chen Hui said, "It feels like the wind is stronger here than at Qianhai."

Old Chen said, "It needs to be bigger. There are too many houses over there, so the wind can't get through. This side is much more open. This used to be the edge of the city."

Everyone got on the cars, and with a series of thuds as the doors opened, the four cars turned around and headed back.

The streetlights illuminated the main street brightly. There were few pedestrians and even fewer cars. The era of a nationwide nightlife had not yet arrived. At this time, the nightlife was concentrated in Houhai and Sanlitun in the city center, which were basically bars and nightclubs.

……

Rows of old buildings, dilapidated roads, and cement squares.

A group of middle-aged and elderly people were gathered in the square, dancing to songs played on a tape recorder. There were also a few young people mixed in, though not many.

Chen Hui said, "From Yangfangdian to here, the migrant population is concentrated. The young people dancing here are all from other places. They have nothing to do and can't hang out with the local young people, so they can only come here to hang out with the middle-aged and elderly."

Xiao Wei asked, "Do they all live underground?"

Chen Hui nodded: "We can't afford to live upstairs. Don't be fooled by how remote it is or how old the building is; the rent is beyond the reach of these young people from out of town. The basement is cheaper, two or three hundred yuan a month, maybe three or four hundred yuan."

Xiao Wei said, "Not all people from other places have to live underground, right?"

Chen Hui said, "Of course, we're from out of town. Those who can really make money definitely don't live there; they're the minority. Apart from places like restaurants that provide food and lodging, most migrant workers work underground."

Perhaps one day in the future, some of them will make money and move to a better place, while others will be unable to stand it and return to their hometowns. Most of them will remain quite stable.

Those who can live a relatively comfortable life in Kyoto are either there to do business—running a small restaurant, shop, or inn, where food and lodging are all taken care of—or they aim for management positions; once their salary increases, the rest is just getting by.

The two were currently in Maliandao. Chen Hui was showing Xiao Wei around to see the lives of people from other parts of the country who had come to Beijing. Actually, Xiao Wei was interested in the legendary basements.

Following the uneven, badly damaged cement road, we went around the river and entered the residential buildings. This area consisted of old three- or four-story buildings.

In the middle of the residential building, Xiaowei saw the door to the basement.

On the ground was an inconspicuous cement house, about one and a half rooms in size, with two large iron doors wide open, and young men and women coming and going from time to time.

There were many wires strung around the cement house, and bedding was drying on them. Lots of them.

The two stood there for a while, and then they saw several young people come back from outside. They went over to take the blankets and then went downstairs.

"It's really damp down there, kind of like the changing rooms in an old bathhouse. If you don't air out the bedding for a day, it gets soaked and unusable. Even if you take it down after get off work and use it overnight, it's wet again in the morning."

"They just leave it in the sun every day. If it rains and I can't get back, I'll be without a blanket. I can either ask someone I know here to bring it in, but that usually doesn't work. Everyone here is busy; some have to commute a long way to and from get off work."

Xiao Wei looked at Chen Hui: "How do you know so much?"

Chen Hui said, "Just ask. The leaders want to know, so we have to find out the details."

Xiao Wei smiled and put his arm around Chen Hui's shoulder: "Go wherever you want?"

Chen Hui said, "Just come in, nobody cares. Do you think this place would have security guards or gatekeepers? Theft, robbery, and the like are nothing here."

The two entered the gate and walked down the stairs to two larger iron gates, somewhat like the gates of a secret facility in a movie, which slid open to the sides, but were open at the moment.

As soon as you get here, you can feel the dampness. There are water stains on the walls, cables are dangling overhead, and light bulbs emit a pale white light.

After passing through the large iron gate, there were several corridors, each over two meters wide, extending in four directions without any signs. The corridors weren't straight; they turned backward on both the left and right sides. There was a registration room next to the door, but it was empty; the phone number and pager number were written on the window.

I randomly chose a direction and walked along the corridor. Inside, the room was divided into a densely packed series of rooms, with numbers painted on the doors in red paint.

When someone is cooking inside, the smell of cooking oil lingers in the hallway, mixed with the dampness, making people feel stuffy.

Xiao Wei touched a door and his hands were wet.

"Can you really live here? Won't you get sick if you stay here for a long time?" Xiaowei asked Chen Hui.

Chen Hui smiled and said, "Then where are you going to let them stay? This is at least a place to live, are they going to sleep on the streets?"

Xiao Wei said, "Isn't it all just work? Can't the company do something about it?"

Chen Hui glanced at Xiao Wei and said, "Companies are so eager not to pay salaries that they'd rather provide food and lodging. Opening a company in Kyoto is quite expensive. Office rent and various other expenses are a huge expense. Better companies might subsidize transportation costs, and a few might even provide lunch allowances, but those are the companies that are making money."

Xiao Wei asked, "How much do they usually earn a month living here?"

Chen Hui said, "I don't really know, but I'd guess it's only a thousand or two thousand yuan, at most. Food, lodging, transportation—you name it, that costs money."

There was a room ahead with its door open, and Xiaowei walked over.

It was a girl, around twenty years old, making the bed. The room was about eight or nine square meters, with a bed, a chair, and an old television set on an old desk. The signal seemed weak, with a lot of static.

There was no wardrobe; a suitcase sat in the corner, clothes were piled inside, and shoes were simply placed against the wall.

Xiao Wei reached out and touched the wall; it wasn't wet, but it was damp.

There are no windows in the room. It is more than ten or even twenty meters underground, and there is no ventilation system, or if it is, it is not turned on. It relies on the corridor and the open door to exchange air with the ground.

"Who are you? What do you want?" The girl stopped making the bed and looked at the two men who had inexplicably entered.

"It's alright, you go ahead and lay yours, we'll just take a look." Xiao Wei glanced at her.

"What are you looking at? Where are you from? This is my house."

"I've never been to a basement like this before, so I just came to take a look. How much would it cost to stay in this kind of place for a month?

"Go ask the boss, his phone number is at the door." The girl was quite wary, clutching her blanket and staring at the two of them.

Xiao Wei laughed and said, "We're not bad people. Would bad people be so obviously bad?"

Chen Hui looked around the room and said, "You just got back from get off work and haven't eaten yet, have you? How about we treat you to dinner? You can invite a few more people too, just so you won't worry."

(End of this chapter)