Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 541 Neighborhood Committee

Xiao Wei took the family tree and stuffed it into his bag. He said to Engineer Wang, "Just separate this side of the school with the wall. Just build the main gate here. Don't touch the outside yet. You can start building the houses here. I found a design institute outside the yard. They might build a high-rise building. The shops here will be three stories high. Can you handle that?"

Engineer Wang looked around and said, "That's fine, building more means more money. How tall should the high-rises be?"

Xiao Wei said, "Let's build the main building at 30 or 33 meters, together with this area below, the factory buildings, and the neighborhood committee area over there. We'll build an annex. Dean Cheng said that this area has a large water system, and if we build it separately, it might sink if it's too high, and the cost would be too high."

Engineer Wang nodded and said, "That's true. Five, six, seven, or eight stories isn't a big deal, but if it's dozens of stories high, sinking will become a major problem. It's like trying to shove a stick into the ground; if you put a brick on the end of the stick, will it still go in? The larger the load-bearing area, the more stable it is. Pouring such a large surface together will definitely be enough to support a high-rise building. Otherwise, you'd have to throw hundreds of thousands into the foundation alone."

Xiao Wei said, "I want it finished before November. Dean Cheng said he has a solution, but it will be a bit more expensive. What's the solution?"

Engineer Wang said, "We just pour multiple layers at once, using a higher grade cement and adding a hardener to the soil. It only takes two months to finish. It's not a difficult task now. Back in '82 and '83, the entire construction industry in China was learning from Shenzhen's speed, but now it's all standardized. It's just that the cost is slightly higher."

Xiao Wei said, "I understand. It's good that it works. It definitely needs to be usable by the end of October, otherwise it will cause delays."

Wang Gong pointed to the neighborhood committee and said, "If you're in such a hurry, go talk to them right away. The house still has to be demolished, doesn't it? Don't let things get messy and delay everything. What will you build then?"

Xiao Wei glanced at the neighborhood committee office, realizing he hadn't thought of it. He smiled sheepishly and said to Engineer Wang, "Okay, I'll go talk to them right away. Thanks, Engineer Wang, I completely forgot about it."

Engineer Wang said, "Go and talk to them. Talk to them nicely. There's a whole bunch of old women there; you can't win an argument with them."

Xiao Wei pinched his nose, turned around, and walked towards the neighborhood committee.

Xiao Wei, a resident committee member, had been there before. It was in the county, just a few offices in a corner of a building, where a group of old ladies would huddle together eating sunflower seeds and knitting sweaters. This was Xiao Wei's first time visiting a resident committee in Fengtian, and it was much more organized than the one in the county.

The spacious and bright office is divided into several departments.

A woman in her forties was coming downstairs when she saw Xiaowei looking around furtively. Alarmed, she demanded, "What are you doing?"

Xiao Wei glanced at her and said, "It's nothing, I was just taking a look. The top two floors belong to other people, right?"

The woman frowned at Xiao Wei and said, "Are you alright? Get out of here right now, don't you know this is a government office?"

Xiao Wei said, "I didn't mean anything by it. I just wanted to see how many families live up here so I would have a general idea. Do you work at the neighborhood committee, ma'am?"

The woman asked, "What do you do for a living?"

Xiao Wei said, "I came to see your director about something, and I just wanted to check on things. Where is your director? On the first floor or the second floor?"

The woman said, "The offices are all on the first floor, and the second floor has activity rooms and meeting rooms."

The building isn't big; each floor is only about 200 square meters, with six or seven rooms.

Xiao Wei turned and walked downstairs, the woman following behind. Xiao Wei said, "Sister, you live upstairs too, right? Is this considered welfare housing allocated by the neighborhood committee or a dormitory? How many families live here? Do you have any other houses elsewhere?"

The woman, sounding a little impatient, said, "Why are you asking about this? Do you have something to say?"

Xiao Wei glanced at the woman, then went downstairs to find the director's office without saying another word.

The director's office was the second to last room inside. There were three elderly women working there, all with gray hair. One was quite thin, while the other two were stout. One of them was even bigger than Xiao Wei.

"Who are you looking for?" The large, imposing old lady, even bigger than Xiao Wei, turned her head and asked.

Xiao Wei said, "I'm looking for the director here."

The old woman sized up Xiao Wei, then pointed to the thin, frail old woman. The thin, frail old woman also looked up and asked, "Is there something you need?"

Xiao Wei walked over and asked, "Hello, Director, what's your surname?"

The thin, elderly woman said, "My surname is Lin. What's on your mind?"

Xiao Wei said, "Director Lin, I'd like to ask, does the district not provide an office location for your neighborhood committee?"

Director Lin was taken aback for a moment, then asked, "What do you do? Just get to the point."

Xiao Wei said, "Here's the thing, I bought this land and I'm going to rebuild it. This whole area will be demolished soon, so I came to let you know."

Director Lin frowned: "Demolish? Who gave you the right to demolish this part of my land?"

Xiao Wei said, "The land is mine. Do I need anyone's permission to use my own land? Didn't you know you occupied someone else's land in the first place?"

Director Lin shook his head and said, "We didn't occupy anyone's land. The land belongs to the state, and we are a state-owned unit. If you have nothing else to do, you can go back."

Xiao Wei said, "Auntie, can't we be reasonable? Just because you build things on my land and it becomes yours, does that mean I can't touch it? Does that mean if I go into your house now, your house is mine? You have no right to take anything from me?"

Director Lin looked up and said, "You're such a handsome young man, why are you being so unreasonable? What do you mean you think my house is yours just because you're here? Public and private matters are separate. This is a workplace; we do business here, and don't cause trouble here if there's nothing to do."

Xiao Wei said, "Auntie, am I being unreasonable? You're occupying my land, so it's public property just because I want it? I'm saying I can go to your house, so it becomes private property, right? So you're the ones who always benefit?"

The burly woman said, "Young man, stop making a scene here. Go do what you're supposed to do. This is the neighborhood committee office, not your private property. Don't wait for the police to come looking for you. Go on."

Xiao Wei said, "So you've just taken over this land? I'm not getting it back, is that it?"

Director Lin slammed his hand on the table and said, "What? Your land? Where is your land? This building has been standing here for seven years. How come I don't know I'm occupying someone else's land?"

Xiao Wei said, "So Brother Zhang was just too embarrassed to talk to you guys, you understand? Back then, he thought he wouldn't be farming the land anyway, so he'd just use it for a few days. How did it become yours? Don't you have any self-awareness at your age? Brother Zhang was just too embarrassed to contact you because his sister-in-law works here, you know? He was embarrassed, but you're so shameless. The land just became yours?"

As the woman walked in through the door in the hallway, Director Lin looked up at Xiao Wei, then turned to the woman and asked, "Xiao Liu, did your brother-in-law sell the house and land?"

Xiao Liu glanced at Xiao Wei and said, "Yeah, it's sold. It's been a while. What happened?"

(End of this chapter)