After Chen Lan and Jia Xing returned home, they immediately got busy. Jia Xing began tidying and organizing the junior and senior high school textbooks in the first-floor living room, while Chen Lan went straight upstairs to her room, intending to sort through the good items in the system warehouse.
Chen Lan first took out the several ancient medical books and ancient books on acupuncture and tuina, placing them aside. She wouldn't be able to understand these obscure texts anyway. Once Jia Yao returned from the hospital after work, she would hand them over to him for safekeeping.
Afterward, Chen Lan went to the washroom to wash her face, changed into her comfortable home clothes, and then reclined on her large wooden bed, closing her eyes to rest.
Chen Lan had been busy at the scrap yard for a long time that morning and was too lazy to take things out of the system warehouse to organize them. Instead, she used her mind to sort through the warehouse.
First, Chen Lan classified and organized the ancient books, jade artifacts, porcelain, and ancient paintings she had exchanged from Brother Hu, storing them in the original camphor wood chests. Then, she also organized the old items she had found at the scrap yard during her recent trips, placing them in their respective camphor wood chests.
Seeing the small wooden box containing the bracelet and the small leaf rosewood box containing the property deeds, Chen Lan first used her mind to take out the crimson agate bracelet that Xu Mingxuan had told her to keep and wear for fun.
Chen Lan put it on her hand and admired it for a while. The red agate beads were finely textured, and the color was incredibly vibrant and beautiful. The more she looked, the more she liked it.
Curious about the specific locations of the two houses Brother Hu had exchanged for her, she used her mind to retrieve the small leaf rosewood box containing the property deeds from the system warehouse.
Chen Lan opened the box and reached out to take out two property deeds. She noticed that one of the deeds was slightly yellowed. The header of the deed, written from right to left, read "Land and Property Ownership Certificate," which was a property certificate that combined both land and property deeds.
Chen Lan was surprised that property certificates were already combined land and property deeds shortly after the liberation.
The building area of the house was two hundred and thirty-six square meters, and it was also noted that it came with a front and back courtyard. The property certificate did not specify the exact area of the front and back courtyards.
The date on the deed was March 15, 1951. The issuing authority was the People's Government of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province.
It appeared to be an old property deed from not long after the liberation. The owner's name was Liu Changgeng, and the property was located on Yiyuan Street, Nangang District.
When Chen Lan saw the words "Yiyuan Street," she felt it was somewhat familiar. She thought she must have seen or heard of this place somewhere. After thinking carefully, Chen Lan finally remembered that Yiyuan Street was the same street as the railway central hospital where Wei Dang was hospitalized!
Chen Lan never expected things to be so coincidental. Wasn't Director Huang, Jia Yao's mentor, looking to buy a larger house near the hospital for his family to live in?
With this thought, Chen Lan carefully reconfirmed the address and found no mistake; it was indeed Yiyuan Street in Nangang District.
She then picked up the other property deed and examined it closely. This property certificate was relatively new. The front header printed "Supreme Instruction" – Serve the People Wholeheartedly, and slogans like "Never forget class struggle." The issuing authority was the Urban Construction Management Bureau of the Revolutionary Committee of Harbin City, dated October 13, 1967. Soudan Novel Network.
The address of the house was No. 106, Xizhi Street, Nangang District. Chen Lan thought that this address was relatively close to Harbin Institute of Technology. Could this indicate that the children might have the opportunity to study at this nationally renowned university in the future? This way, the children could live at home and attend school nearby.
Chen Lan hoped that heaven would prove the saying "as you wish" true, hoping that there was an arrangement in the unseen world.
The next morning, after the family finished breakfast, Jia Yao, as usual, quickly ate and left on his bicycle, taking breakfast for his mentor, Director Huang.
Chen Lan said to Jia Xing, who was preparing to leave to deliver food, "Jia Xing, you're in charge of cooking at home today. Also, deliver food to Wei Dang and Jia He at the hospital. When you deliver the food, don't forget to bring Jia He his junior high school textbooks and tell him to review them quickly. Your mother and your fourth sister have something to do today, so your mother and daughter won't be eating at home for lunch."
Jia Xing readily agreed, "Mom, son understands! By the way, Mom, will you and fourth sister eat dinner at home?"
Chen Lan replied with a smile, "You don't need to worry about dinner; your mother and fourth sister will make it when we return. Your father is coming home on leave today, so we'll have a special meal tonight. For dinner, we'll have the seafood hot pot you've all been wanting. Oh, Jia Xing, remember to bring the keys to the front door when you go out."
Jia Xing cheerfully agreed, "Okay! Son understands! Oh! We can have seafood hot pot tonight!" With that, he picked up the bag with the lunch boxes and walked out of the living room.
Chen Lan quickly called for Jia Hui, and mother and daughter also prepared to leave immediately. Chen Lan planned to first visit the old house located on Yiyuan Street, Nangang District.
This time, Jia Hui rode her bicycle with Chen Lan. Ten minutes later, mother and daughter rode to Yiyuan Street. Following the address on the property deed, they found the house. From a distance, it looked like an ordinary civilian house.
Chen Lan looked at the location of the house and realized it was very close to the railway central hospital, only about a ten-minute walk away. It was even closer than Director Huang's home to the hospital. This house was essentially situated between the hospital's staff dormitory where Director Huang's family lived and the railway central hospital.
As mother and daughter walked closer, they saw that it was a very ordinary wooden log house in the Russian "Molokeleng" architectural style. The courtyard in front of the house, enclosed by a wooden fence, was overgrown with knee-high weeds. The dilapidated wooden fence was leaning in all directions, and the main gate and many of the wooden fence sections were missing.
In front of the log house, there was also a porch-like entryway built, said to provide protection against the wind.
The house's design followed a minimalist style, making it incredibly ordinary compared to the Baroque-style buildings on Central Street.
It was said that this type of wooden structure house was very sturdy and durable, as well as very safe, and would not be damaged even in an earthquake of magnitude ten.
This was because the house was built with an inner and outer wooden structure, with a layer of lime and sawdust in between for insulation. Moss was also placed between the wall layers. The advantage of this construction was that it was airtight. Even in Harbin's temperatures of minus thirty to forty degrees Celsius, the walls with moss were airtight, making the winters very warm and the summers very cool.
Pine wood strips were nailed to the interior and exterior wooden walls, and then several thick layers of cement mortar were applied. This formed an integrated wooden frame, making this type of house the most earthquake-resistant.