!"Brother Feng, what words are written on that door plaque?"!
Perhaps due to disrepair, the fonts on the door plaque were a little blurry. Xie Xuan looked up for a long time, but he didn't recognize what those words were.
"Ma's house..." Qin Feng looked up and said, "Xuanzi, this is not a prince's house, but a family named Ma."
As mentioned earlier, in the Qing Dynasty, except for the prince's palace, only the word "fu" could be used, and the other princes and ministers could only use the word "zhai" to refer to their homes.
This door plaque is carved from blue bricks and is rectangular in shape. It is embedded horizontally on the lintel of the gate tower, giving the gate tower a sense of spiritual beauty.
Although it is a blue brick door plaque, it is made with great care. There are decorative frames carved around the door plaque, and the brick frame is polished extremely smooth and delicate, giving people a sense of simplicity and elegance.
The frame is made up of green square bricks, with the four characters "Ma XX House" engraved on it. However, the two characters in the middle are really hard to see clearly, and only the two characters "Ma Zhai" can be vaguely recognized.
According to ancient rules, this family should be named Ma, and the residents have not changed for many years.
"Guys, what are you doing?"
You must have heard the sound outside the door. The heavy and thick door was opened from the inside, and an old man in his sixties walked out of the door.
The old man is about 1.7 meters tall and has a thin build. He is wearing a long robe and a cultural shirt. Although it is winter, he does not look very bloated, but he does have an air of immortality.
"Are you Mr. Ma?"
Qin Feng took a step forward and said: "My surname is Qin, and I am a friend of Mr. Zhou from Panjiayuan. He said that you have a house and want to sell it, so he introduced me to talk..."
"Oh? Are you Xiao Qin? Lao Zhou called me."
Ma Yuetian glanced at Qin Feng, but did not let anyone in. Instead, he looked at Miao Liuzhi and said, "Xiao Qin, I wonder who this old man is?"
To be honest, this house is the ancestral home of Ma Yuetian's family. He grew up here and has a deep affection for the courtyard house. Therefore, although Ma Yuetian intends to sell this house, he wants to sell it to someone who really wants to live here.
people.
When he first received a call from Zhou Lihong and heard that Qin Feng was a young man, Ma Yuetian only agreed to let Qin Feng come to the house to give face to his old friend. In fact, he had already excluded Qin Feng in his heart.
However, when he saw an old man following Qin Feng, Ma Yuetian changed his mind. With the old man watching, the young man would not destroy the courtyard too much.
"Mr. Ma, this is my elder..."
After hearing what Ma Yuetian said, Qin Feng's heart moved and he said: "Miao Miao originally lived in a courtyard house, but it is about to be demolished. He is used to living in this kind of place, so he thought about buying another one..."
Although the contact lasted only a few minutes, Qin Feng could see in the other person's eyes his reluctance to part with this courtyard house, and he could guess a bit of Ma Yuetian's thoughts.
"It's going to be demolished? Is it on the Jingshan side?"
Ma Yuetian is a member of the National Calligraphy Association. He is engaged in folklore research and is well aware of the distribution of large and small courtyard houses in the capital.
"Yes, it's the area behind Jingshan..." Qin Feng nodded and said, "Mr. Ma is very concerned about this aspect."
"Now that the country is engaged in construction, demolition is everywhere. Alas, out of sight is out of mind."
Ma Yuetian shook his head, let his body out, and said: "You guys, please go in and have a look. If this old gentleman really comes to live in, there is no harm in selling this yard to you..."
Qin Feng and Miao Liuzhi looked at each other and followed Ma Yuetian in.
As soon as you enter the door, there is a concierge. Generally, there is a concierge at the door of a large house. If someone comes to visit, they must pass through the concierge.
After the concierge is the front yard. The front yard is not very big. There is a small garden in the middle. There is a room on the left and right. This is where the servants live. Behind the garden, there is a hanging flower door and corridor.
Although the color of the hanging flower door and the corridor has faded a bit, the upper part is very clean. Apparently the owner cleans it frequently. After passing through the hanging flower door, the middle courtyard appears in front of you.
As the main body of the courtyard, the middle courtyard is undoubtedly the largest. Not only are there four wing rooms on the left and right sides, but the garden in the middle is also modeled after Jiangnan gardens.
There is a stream below the corridor above, and there is rockery water in the middle. The sound of gurgling water is endless. Even in this cold winter, it makes people feel relaxed and happy.
“There are mountains and rivers, elegant style, great place, great place!”
After seeing the layout of the middle courtyard, Miao Liuzhi couldn't help but praise it, and said to Ma Yuetian who was standing aside: "Brother Ma, why would you want to take action on such an excellent residence?"
"Brother, this is a long story. It's cold outside, so let's go inside and talk." Ma Yuetian shook his head and let a few people into the main wing of the middle courtyard.
In order not to change the structure of the old house, the courtyard in the scenic area does not have heating, so the northern stove is still burning in the wing room, and the thick chimney stretches out from the door glass. Because it is well sealed,
The temperature is quite good!
"Brother, there are four rooms in the backyard. There used to be a horse porch, but now it has been converted into a garage. Do you want to go and take a look?"
After sitting down, Ma Yuetian introduced Miao Liuzhi to the backyard. It was obvious that he regarded Miao Liuzhi as the person in charge. Qin Feng was also happy, and he sat aside and looked around.
"The writing is not bad, but the character is a little bit worse."
Qin Feng discovered that the main wing was covered with calligraphy, and there was a long desk on one side of the wing, which contained pens, inks, paper and inkstones and other four treasures of the study. The entire wing was filled with the scent of ink.
There is a piece of handwriting on the long desk. From Qin Feng's perspective, this person's handwriting is far inferior to that of Mr. Qi. Although the handwriting is elegant and free, it lacks some strength.
Of course, Qin Feng was just slandering him in his heart. If he had said it in person, the old man would have kicked them out, let alone buying a house.
"Brother Ma, the standard of your house was only slightly worse than the palace in the Qing Dynasty."
Miao Liuzhi suddenly shook his head, changed his words, and said: "No, this house is not as good as Prince Gong's Mansion, but it is worse than some of the Prince Gong's Mansion. I know the structure of this backyard, no need to look any further.
Already..."
Miao Liuzhi was sincerely satisfied with this courtyard house. He was over eighty years old. If he could enjoy his old age here, it would be considered a good death.
"Brother, I have a good eye. I don't know how many princes and nobles wanted to buy our house back then, but they didn't sell it at that time. Now, to me, oh, I really feel ashamed of my ancestors..."
After hearing Miao Liuzhi's words, Ma Yuetian became a little excited. In ancient times, selling one's ancestral home was definitely a prodigal act. He was afraid that he would not be able to see his ancestors even if he was under the Nine Springs.
Looking at Ma Yuetian, Miao Liuzhi suddenly raised his brows and said: "Brother Ma, let me ask one more question, is your ancestor Ma Xinyi? I think this is the only person named Ma who can buy such a family property...··
·”
The Ma Xinyi mentioned by Miao Liuzhi was a native of Lu Province. His ancestors had been officials in the Qing Dynasty for several generations. He was a Jinshi at the age of 27 and held the rank of Governor of Liangjiang and Minister of Commerce. He was a veritable official in the border areas.
On July 26, the ninth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1870), Ma Xinyi was assassinated and died. The emperor personally gave him a memorial inscription, an inscription, and a special gift to the crown prince and Taibao.
There are many doubts about the assassination of Ma Xinyi. Although the assassin was caught on the spot, the story is still simple and confusing. Some say it was a murder, and some say it was a vendetta.
There are also rumors that the assassin was a soldier of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom because Ma Xinyi suppressed the Taiping Army, but the assassin assassinated Ma Xinyi to avenge the death of the Taiping Army soldiers.
However, after Ma Xinyi was assassinated and his wife committed suicide, the Qing court took great care of Ma Xinyi's descendants. In particular, the Empress Dowager Cixi personally ordered that Ma Xinyi's son be given a title, which also preserved the Ma family for decades to come.
Everlasting.
"Brother, you are indeed knowledgeable about the past and present. What you are talking about is Ma's ancestor."
Seeing Miao Liuzhi tell his family's origin, Ma Yuetian suddenly felt like a confidant and said: "Brother, you and I won't talk nonsense. This house is my family's ancestral home. If I weren't in a hurry to use money, I would
Don’t want to sell the house…”
It turns out that since Ma Xinyi, the heirs of the Ma family have been in trouble, and this has been passed down through the generations. After liberation, several families lived in this courtyard house. It was not until the early 1980s that the government returned the courtyard to Ma Yuetian.
Ma Yuetian has an only son named Ma Junsheng. He went to the United States in the early 1990s and has been working in securities trading on Wall Street. He is also considered to be an upper-class person.
But when Hong Kong Island returned to China last year, Ma Junsheng followed the international financial giants to get involved in the Hong Kong Island stock market.
It's just that as a retail investor, Ma Junsheng failed to get out in time. In the end, he invested all the wealth he had accumulated in the United States for more than ten years and owed a lot of debt to the bank.
Ma Junsheng is also a very strong person and has never told his father about this matter. But this year, when the bank pressed for debt, Ma Junsheng was really desperate, so he called his father for help.
Although Ma Yuetian is well-known in the domestic calligraphy circle and has some savings in the past ten years, his son signed hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he couldn't even repay it even if he sold it. In the end, he had no choice but to move to his ancestral home.
superior.
"Brother Ma, how much do you plan to sell this house for?"
After hearing what Ma Yuetian said, Miao Liuzhi asked calmly, "He has become an old man in the world of martial arts. No matter how nice Ma Yuetian says it, it will still be the same."
"200,000, it's not you, brother, if someone else comes over, if it's 2.5 million less, I won't sell this house at all!"
Ma Yue said loudly, although he knew that the price was a bit high, but there were not many courtyard houses with the size and location of Ma's House in the entire capital.
