After leaving Zhang's aunt's house, Song Yuanchao came to No. 23 next door, which was his home.

The houses in the alley are all old-fashioned Shikumen in Shanghai. This kind of house has a long history, and the earliest one was built in the Qing Dynasty.

Pushing open the wooden door with peeling paint, Song Yuanchao stepped in. As soon as he entered, he saw the kitchen room on the first floor, also called the kitchen room.

The kitchens of Shikumen are like this, usually right at the entrance. This kind of Shikumen used to be occupied by one family, so the kitchen area on the first floor is enough for use.

But due to historical reasons, there are usually several families living in one house of this kind now, so the kitchen on the first floor is shared. The cupboards, stoves, and faucets of each family are all here, plus some other sundries.

The first floor was packed to the brim.

Although he has been away for eight years, looking at it, everything is not much different from when Song Yuanchao left. Song Yuanchao stood there and looked at this familiar place with complicated emotions. After a while, he saluted and walked through the kitchen on the first floor.

Take the stairs to the third floor.

Song Yuanchao lived in a bedroom on the third floor. The location of this room was the best in Shikumen No. 23.

Usually, Shikumen has one or two bedrooms plus a living room (living room), a pavilion room, a stove room, a two-story pavilion (or three-story pavilion), etc.

Generally speaking, the master bedroom on the second or third floor is the best. If you don’t know the structure of Shikumen, you can watch the old movie "The Crow and the Sparrow". In it, the bedroom is where the chief hou lives, and the hawker and his wife live in the bedroom.

Teacher Hua’s family lived in the front living room on the first floor and in the pavilion between the first and second floors. The original owner of the house, Kong Youwen, was driven to the back living room...

As for the second-story or third-story pavilions, these are attics. They were originally used to store sundries, but now they are naturally occupied by people.

The Song family has lived here for three generations. This house was built by Song Yuanchao's grandfather with three large yellow croakers earlier. Song Guangzeng and Song Yuanchao were both only sons. After the death of the old man, the house naturally belonged to Song Guangzeng, Song Guangzeng and Wang Sufen.

She got married here and Song Yuanchao was also born and raised here.

Standing in front of the door, Song Yuanchao stared blankly at the closed door for a long time, then he took out the key given to him by Zhang's mother-in-law and inserted it into the lock.

Turning the key, the door lock opened, and when the heavy door was pushed open, there was the sound of old hinges rattling.

When we walked into the house, compared to the darkness of the stairs, the house seemed much brighter. The weather was good today, and the sunlight was shining on the floor through the glass window on the south side.

The room was very tidy, not much dust could be seen, and the Zhang family's mother-in-law helped clean it very well. However, it had not been occupied for a long time, so there was inevitably a faint musty smell in the room.

Song Yuanchao put down his luggage and once again looked at the home where he had lived since childhood. The scenes at home overlapped with those that had been forgotten deep in his memory. Unknowingly, Song Yuanchao's face was covered with tears, and he walked to

In front of the dressing table by the window, a photo of the three of them was placed on it.

In the group photo, the young Song Yuanchao is on the right, and his mother Wang Sufen is on the left. Wang Sufen has neat short and medium hair. This hairstyle is also called the revolutionary hairstyle, which was the most popular hairstyle for women at that time.

Sitting in the middle is his father, Song Guangzeng. Song Guangzeng graduated from St. John's University. He is an extremely gentle and elegant scholar. He wears a pair of black-framed glasses, his hair is neatly parted, and he wears a straight Mao suit.

The three of them wore presidential badges on their chests, looked a little serious, and looked at the camera with a smile on their lips. Song Yuanchao remembered that his father took him and his mother to the Red Star Photo Studio before he went to the countryside, but he didn't.

Thinking of this, this is the last group photo of my family of three. After being separated from each other back then, now it is a day when Yin and Yang will never meet again.

Picking up the photo frame with slight trembling, Song Yuanchao could no longer restrain his feelings and burst into tears...

After a long time, Song Yuanchao wiped away his tears and tidied up the room. By the time he finished packing the room and luggage, it was already afternoon.

In the afternoon, Song Yuanchao went to a nearby bathhouse to take a bath.

In this era, except in summer, it is basically not possible to take a bath at home, so you usually have to go to a bathhouse to take a bath.

There are many bathhouses in Shanghai, and the most famous ones are of course the large bathhouses such as Xiaoyaochi that existed before liberation. Song Yuanchao would not go so far to bathe, as the place was far away and expensive.

The bathhouse he went to was not far from the alley. The name of this bathhouse was also very contemporary. It was called "People's Bathhouse". Bathing costs five minutes. It also provides services such as back rubs, haircuts, and face shaving. The price of each service is

About five cents to ten cents.

After soaking in the pool for half an hour, he rubbed his back and wiped away all the dirt on his body. After washing, Song Yuanchao went to the bathhouse to get a haircut and a shave.

After finishing all this, Song Yuanchao felt relaxed all over. After putting on the clean clothes and pants he brought, except that his face looked a little dark, Song Yuanchao was no different from ordinary Shanghainese people.

After returning home from the bathhouse, I had just sat down for a while when there was a knock on the door.

"Uncle Jianguo?"

At the beginning, a familiar face appeared in front of Song Yuanchao. The man in his thirties standing at the door wearing a blue work jacket was the son of the Zhang family's aunt, Zhang Jianguo, whom Song Yuanchao had called his uncle since he was a child.

"Yuanchao, I'm finally back!" Zhang Jianguo smiled and looked at Song Yuanchao, whom he hadn't seen for many years. The little kid who followed him back then has now grown into an adult. If he hadn't met him here, he would have first seen him somewhere else.

Zhang Jianguo couldn't recognize Song Yuanchao either.

"I have become darker and thinner, but I have grown taller, stronger, and more energetic!" Zhang Jianguo raised the lunch box in his hand: "My mother knew that you had just come back, so she probably didn't have time to start the fire, so she simply cooked some food.

Let me bring it over. Take a look, the braised pork with fenugreek knots, hairtail fish, and the egg dumplings made during the Chinese New Year are all your favorites."

Zhang Jianguo entered the door, put the three lunch boxes in his hand on the table and opened them one by one. A burst of fragrance hit his nostrils, making Song Yuanchao swallow his saliva.

Yes, these are Song Yuanchao's favorite foods since he was a child, but even in this era of scarce supplies, they can only be eaten during major festivals.

But today, the Zhang family's aunt actually made such delicious food for Song Yuanchao, which moved Song Yuanchao deeply.

"Haha, don't look stupid. Eat it while it's hot. You've endured hardships in the northwest and you're so thin. Come back and make up for it." Looking at Song Yuanchao's expression, Zhang Jianguo smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

I was touched in my heart, but due to the relationship between the two families, there is no need to say thank you at this time. Song Yuanchao, the Zhang family, will keep his kindness in mind and will definitely repay him in the future.

"Uncle, please sit down first and smoke." Song Yuanchao turned around and poured a glass of water for Zhang Jianguo first, and then took out Bao Baocheng from the drawer. This cigarette was brought back by him from the countryside, although it is not as famous as the cigarettes in Shanghai.

, but it’s pretty good locally.

"This cigarette looks really festive. I've never smoked it before. Is it from the northwest?" Zhang Jianguo took it, looked at it, and asked casually. When Song Yuanchao nodded, Zhang Jianguo opened it without any courtesy and took out one directly.

Put it under your nose and smell it, nod slightly, pick up the match on the table and light it.

After taking a long puff, Zhang Jianguo puffed out the white smoke ring with enjoyment and nodded: "It tastes pretty good, just a bit strong, but I'm a big smoker, so this smoke is just right."

As he spoke, Zhang Jianguo laughed and pointed at the open lunch box, signaling Song Yuanchao to eat quickly.

Song Yuanchao was not polite, found a pair of chopsticks, sat down and started eating.

The food still tasted as he remembered it. Song Yuanchao ate it very deliciously. After about ten minutes, Song Yuanchao swept away the food.

When Song Yuanchao finished eating and was about to pack his lunch box, Zhang Jianguo told him not to be busy and to sit down and chat for a while.

"I heard you were back after get off work earlier, so I went to the police station." Zhang Jianguo said to Song Yuanchao: "I know Uncle Wang from the police station. I said hello to him. You can go to him directly after you go there tomorrow and give him the information and so on. Just leave it to him, and he will handle the household registration matter as soon as possible. If there is no problem, it can be done in ten days and a half at most."

"Thank you, uncle. I remember, look for Uncle Wang." Song Yuanchao nodded. It was the same in the previous life. Officer Wang helped to implement the household registration. Although the country has policies, the procedures for implementing the household registration are cumbersome. This era is not like the later generations where everything is available.

Internet-connected, currently the file information must be retrieved from other places and then manually filled in and declared.

If you don’t have any acquaintances, how can you implement the household registration so quickly? It would be very good to be able to get it done in two or three months. Zhang Jianguo asked Officer Wang to help, which saved a lot of time.

In this era, household registration is an extremely important thing.

If a person does not have a household registration, not to mention his identity and job, he will even have problems with survival. You must know that every household has all kinds of food, non-staple food, meat and eggs, oil, cloth, cigarettes... everything you can think of.

All necessities of life depend on vouchers.

The household registration is the basis for issuing tickets. Only with the household registration can there be tickets. Without the household registration, there will be no tickets. Without the tickets, the person cannot survive at all.

"Take this first." Zhang Jianguo took out an envelope from his pocket and pushed it over: "I just came back, your parents are gone, and your household registration has not been finalized, but you still have to live this life."

"No, no, uncle, you have a senior and a junior, and your family is not well off. I also earn work points in the northwest, and I have money." Song Yuanchao quickly refused,

Zhang Jianguo's job is pretty good. He works as a driver for a small car class in a large state-owned factory. In this era, being a driver is a very popular profession, not to mention that he is also a driver for a small car class.

Zhang Jianguo's basic salary is thirty-six yuan. On weekdays, the bonus and car subsidy are about fifteen yuan, which adds up to more than fifty yuan.

In addition to wages, the factory's benefits are also very good. Not only are clothes, soap, toilet paper, etc. distributed every quarter, but also fish, meat, chicken, and duck during the holidays. Sometimes if you are lucky, you can get some tobacco and alcohol.

Zhang Jianguo's wife Sun Xia is an employee of a street factory. The street factory is a collective factory, and the wages are naturally not as good as those in large state-owned enterprises. The street factory pays hourly wages, 80 cents a day, and Sunday rest does not count as wages. On average, it is about 100 yuan per month.

About twenty-one yuan.

The total monthly income of the couple is more than 70 yuan, which is acceptable if they are living as an ordinary couple. However, you must know that Zhang Jianguo and his wife also support the elderly and children. The Zhang family's aunt is a housewife without a pension. Zhang Jianguo's father has long been
Chapter completed!