20 years later, tell the story of the house

In the 2018 Spring Festival Gala, the two major music queens joined hands again and sang "Years" together. Twenty years have passed since the last time the two of them collaborated on this song, "Meet Me in 1998".

In that year, 1998, the State Council announced the abolition of the physical housing distribution system and began to commercialize housing. China has thus entered the era of commercial housing.

This big move has not only had a profound impact on China over the past two decades, but especially its economy. Looking at it now, it will continue to have a profound impact on our lifestyle and quality of life for a long time to come.

I started working in 1985, and by 1998 I had been working for 13 years. In terms of seniority, I would be ranked higher, but I happened to catch up with the abolition of the physical housing allocation system. For example, if you want to purchase a product that is extremely in demand, you have to wait in line all day and all night. When you see that there are only a few people left in front of you, you are almost there, but you are ruthlessly told that there is no need to line up, the item is not for sale. If you want to buy it, you have to change your approach.

Faced with the sudden monetization and commercialization of housing, if you look at your colleagues and friends around you, they all look confused.

No more room sharing in the future? Real or fake? What's going on? Why do you think this has just changed?

With a series of question marks, I don’t understand. But you still have to move forward if you don’t understand, right? Then just go with the flow.

At the end of 1999, my unit changed its leadership. The new leader, as soon as he took office, focused on promoting "three reforms and one strengthening", that is, the reform of the labor system, the reform of the employment system, the reform of the distribution system, and the strengthening of management. Business conditions began to slowly improve. Immediately afterwards, the company's internal newspapers, cable TV and radio created public opinion and grandly promoted the renovation of 300,000 square meters of shantytowns in the factory family area, giving it a nice name, "Glory and Dream".

But I never expected that the words would become a prophecy. For such a good project, the common people are far from realizing it. It happened at the wrong time and it was "glorious" even before it was launched. There were far more votes against and abstentions than in favor. Shantytown reconstruction has really become a "dream" for 30,000 employees and 100,000 family members.

I think back then, I voted for it, but it was in vain.

If the fence had been lowered at that time, the commercial housing in the Changnan Family Area would cost 800 to 900 yuan per square meter, and the commercial housing in the 204 area would cost about 1,000 yuan per square meter. Buy it and earn it. Look at this area now. Isn’t that park 18,000 square feet?

But at that time, no one really bought a house, and they really had no money. Buy with a loan? At that time, I didn’t even know what the mortgage was about. Mortgage loan? How to pay it back? What to give in return? He was even more confused and confused.

At that time, the top leaders of the company said that it is a small matter to have an empty pocket, but the head cannot be empty, and the thinking must keep up.

At that time, the top leaders of the company mentioned "liberating the mind". Later, they called it "freeing the mind." Emancipating the mind means breaking the shackles of old ideas. Freeing up your mind means thinking innovatively and daring to think and do.

Step by step, people are flying in the sky, while we are still running on the ground. Although I can't keep up with the pace, I still have to grasp the direction well.

The same is true for houses.

When I got married in 1991, I lived in a house allocated by my mother’s work unit. The south side of the third floor was 17 square meters, and there was a kitchen and a toilet for both families. Even so, there is still a wedding room after all. One kitchen for two families is okay and manageable, but one toilet for two families makes this convenient thing really inconvenient.

Not long after, the dry building where my parents lived was moved again.

This kind of dry house is similar to a bungalow. These are two apartments in the family area that were renovated from single-family villas during the Republic of China period, and are known as "Little White Buildings". There is water in the building, but no water. For heating and cooking, the stove is used to burn the kang. If you want to go to the toilet, you have to go to a public toilet a hundred meters away. That public toilet is also a dry toilet.

After a villa was demolished and renovated, six families were squeezed in. Our home should be in the living room on the first floor of the original villa. The houses are elevated and cannot be kept warm in winter. Two oversized windows let in the sun from the west. There are still faint traces of stairs going up and down on the wall. It turns out that this is the living room where I lived since I was a child.

As soon as the Hanlou was moved, the whole family crowded together again.

There are seven people from three generations, old and young, and such a large family is crowded into a 17-square-meter house, with a simple partition of furniture in the middle.

Not long after, the eldest sister got married and the younger sister went to school out of town. Five people from three generations, old and young, continued to live in this 17-square-meter house for more than two years.

At the end of 1994, I finally got the key to the relocation house, and there was a lottery to move back. What I got was a 60-square-meter two-bedroom and one-living room on the second floor. Although the house type was not good, it was a well-shaped floor, with two bedrooms facing east and south, a dark living room, and a large corridor. I was very satisfied with it at the time. After all, it was the first time to live in a real building. There is water, gas and central heating.

However, this house also left me with deep regrets. My father passed away due to illness at the beginning of the year and could not wait until the day he moved back to his new home.

A few years later, I bought a second-hand house of more than 90 square meters; a few years later, I bought a new house of 153 square meters. Just like this, buy a house, sell a house; earn a little money from selling a house, add money or provident fund loan to buy a house... the cycle starts over and over again, moving every three or four years. The house gets bigger and more spacious, and the living conditions get better.

In the past twenty years, I have moved seven or eight times. First move from area 201 to the south of the factory, then to the south tower, then to area 205, then to Hunnan, then to the Expo Park, and then to the city center. Looking at this moving route map, it is basically in the southeast and central part of Shenyang City, and it only wanders around the three districts of Dadong, Hunnan, and Shenhe.

In 2014, my mother failed to live in the house in Bayuquan Vanke Harbor City that her elderly family had chosen. Originally, the old man was in poor health, so he went to choose a house even though he was ill. He only wanted to live at the beach to recuperate and recover as soon as possible. Unexpectedly, the disease did not give my mother such an opportunity, and also caused me to lose the opportunity to live in a sea-view apartment for my mother, who had worked hard all her life. This once again left me with painful regrets.

In the past twenty years, the houses have become bigger and bigger, and the population has become smaller and smaller. Both parents are gone, and the sisters have started their own families and careers. They have children of their own, and by the end of the year, my niece will have her own baby.

Gradually, there were only two of us in the big house, and gradually we became an old couple again. As a person, as I get older, I like silence, but to be honest, I don’t like emptiness. In the past, I wanted to live in separate rooms because I felt like I was snoring while sleeping, but now we live in separate rooms. It's very quiet and doesn't affect each other.

Sometimes, I feel a little melancholy. Just when there were signs, my sister said, "What's wrong, are you anxious to take care of your grandson? There will be bread and everything. In a few years, your family will be a big family again."

OK. I believe this.