Chapter 128 Eight thousand foreign exchange coupons for an apartment, are you crazy? (please order in full)
Take a look first!
Come here anyway, you don’t have to spend any money to see it.
But looking at it this way, not only was Cheng Xuemin very satisfied with this house, this was a commercial house decades later, and the conditions were quite good. Cheng Xuemin had taken a fancy to it anyway.
The same goes for Feng Jiayou, whose already big eyes can shine!
It can be seen that Feng Jiayou likes this house even more than Cheng Xuemin!
That’s right!
The interior layout and decoration style of the first batch of commercial houses in China are completely in line with those of developed countries. I heard that they are still a combination of romantic France and our classical luxury, combining Chinese and Western styles.
The house was indeed so luxurious and beautiful that even the Feng family and young children could not move their feet.
"good!"
Finally, Feng Jiayou took a deep breath and said, "This house does look okay, but it's just too small. Our family may not be able to live in it!"
"Xuemin Lao Ge, let's go see that courtyard house!"
Although they like it, the foreign exchange coupons worth up to 8,000 yuan are not something they dare to afford!
So no matter how promising it is, you can’t afford it!
Feng Jiayou wanted to check out the nearby courtyard house with a good environment.
"dislike?!"
Cheng Xuemin asked the woman in a low voice. The look in her eyes just now could not deceive anyone.
"What's the point of liking it?! We can still counter-offer eight thousand yuan, eight thousand foreign exchange coupons... we can't even think about it!"
Feng Jiayou also whispered back to Cheng Xuemin, and then urged: "Let's go, let's go!"
The more he looked at it, the more he liked it. The Feng family didn't dare to look at it twice more. The more he looked at it, the more disappointed he felt, so he had to leave quickly.
"I'll go talk to the landlord!"
Knowing that the woman liked her so much that she couldn't move her feet, but still pretending not to care, Cheng Xuemin felt that it was necessary to fight for it.
"Ms. He, do you have to use foreign exchange coupons? You should also know the situation in our country. How can ordinary people like us have so many foreign exchange coupons?"
"How about we still calculate it in our RMB and make up for the exchange rate, okay?"
The current official exchange rate of rice gold to RMB is around two to three yuan, and the equivalent of eight thousand foreign exchange coupons is almost more than twenty thousand.
If the other party agrees to settle in RMB, as long as they relent, the price can be negotiated later!
"No! I have to get foreign exchange coupons, otherwise I won't sell this house!"
Ms. He shook her head directly. She was in urgent need of foreign exchange coupons now, and the national currency was dispensable to her. After all, she had saved a lot of RMB on her own.
There were no foreign exchange coupons. Of course she knew that it was really difficult for ordinary people to get too many foreign exchange coupons, but there was nothing she could do about it.
"This... may I take the liberty to ask, is there any urgent need for you to need so many foreign exchange coupons?"
It would give Cheng Xuemin a headache if he just wanted foreign exchange coupons. There was no need to discuss it at all, right?
"This is none of your business, I just want foreign exchange coupons!"
The second-generation overseas Chinese named He still said in a stiff tone, leaving no room for negotiation at all.
"Then I have no choice but to wish Ms. He that all her wishes will come true!"
Seeing that there was nothing to talk about, Cheng Xuemin could only shake his head that this house was impossible, so he said to Ge You: "Old Ge, take us to see that courtyard house!"
"Okay!"
Ge You obeyed and nodded repeatedly, saying: "Lao Cheng, this house is just like this, it's too expensive! And 8,000 yuan in foreign exchange coupons? I can't bear to buy it even for 8,000 yuan!"
"With these 8,000 yuan, I can buy two sets of two-entry courtyard houses in front of me!"
"Let's go, Lao Cheng, there happens to be a two-entry house in good condition ahead of us, and the owner is eager to sell it. The price won't be very high!"
Just as Ge You said, let alone eight thousand foreign exchange coupons, he would not be willing to buy even eight thousand yuan, nor could he afford it!
Seeing that they couldn't reach an agreement, Feng Jiayou felt a little disappointed. If he had known better, he shouldn't have listened to Lao Ge. He came in to see everything without spending any money.
It really doesn’t cost anything, but it’s a waste of time!
"Lao Cheng, I still think that courtyard house is more suitable for you. This overseas Chinese is stubborn and only recognizes foreign exchange coupons!"
"But these foreign exchange coupons are just a kind of coupon. They are not real money and cannot be exchanged for U.S. bills. What does she want with the foreign exchange coupons?"
On the way out, Ge You was still complaining that this second-generation overseas Chinese had no sincerity in selling.
All you need are foreign exchange coupons, and the asking price is as high as 8,000 foreign exchange coupons. Who can afford this sky-high price?
And they only recognize foreign exchange coupons!
As Ge You said, foreign exchange coupons are just a special kind of coupons, not real U.S. dollar bills, and these foreign exchange coupons are one-way coupons.
That is, the foreign exchange bills remitted from outside are forced by the policy to be converted into foreign exchange coupons. Ordinary people who want foreign exchange coupons can go to a bank or post office to apply for exchange, but the amount they can exchange is almost miniscule, pitifully small.
If you want to use foreign exchange coupons, you can also exchange them for RMB, but they cannot be exchanged for real money and US dollars.
In this era, in order to attract the inflow of foreign exchange for national construction, ordinary citizens are not allowed to have real money in the hands of US dollars. They will basically be forced to settle into foreign exchange coupons.
So Ge You also questioned, what do girls want as long as they have foreign exchange coupons?
Is it possible that I can change it into US dollars and sneak out?
"There are always people who have ideas. Maybe there is a way to exchange foreign exchange coupons for real gold and silver US dollars?" Cheng Xuemin replied calmly.
There are no absolutes in everything, and there are always loopholes in every system that can be exploited. Moreover, as a second-generation overseas Chinese, the system inherently favors treatment!
Maybe they can't exchange them for real gold and silver US dollars, but others may not have the means to exchange them for real gold and silver US dollars.
Of course, this actually has nothing to do with Cheng Xuemin.
Since the other party only recognizes foreign exchange coupons, the foreign exchange coupons worth up to 8,000 yuan are really not something they dare to hope for!
Next, Ge You took Cheng Xuemin and two of them to see the courtyard house in the alley ahead.
As Ge You said in advance, this two-entry courtyard is similar to Qian Lao's, with two courtyards at the front and two entrances.
It is also very well maintained, clean and tidy, and the conditions are not much better than the large courtyards I saw before.
Cheng Xuemin even felt that it was much better than the old-fashioned money-making accommodation they were living in now.
After asking about the price, the landlord was anxious for money and asked for 6,500 yuan, RMB!
Six thousand five hundred yuan for a two-entry courtyard is actually not expensive. After all, the one-entry courtyard they saw before was so dirty and messy that the owner dared to ask for four thousand yuan.
And more than one company quoted this price, so the current market situation is basically the same. The price of a large courtyard ranges from 3,000 to 4,000, and those with evil intentions dare to ask for 5,000;
The general bidding price of a two-entry courtyard is between About six thousand to eight thousand.
I heard that Mr. Qian’s courtyard house cost him 8,000 yuan in royalties!
In the past ten years, housing prices in Yanjing have stagnated and have not increased, so the price is about the same.
Therefore, the owner of the house quoted 6,500, and he should really be in a hurry to make a move. If Cheng Xuemin counter-offered, he might even be able to get it for 5,000!
Cheng Xuemin looked at it again and found that the back of the courtyard should be a tributary of the Yongding River, and not far away was the garden. It was considered a good Feng Shui backing.
The most important thing is that Cheng Xuemin went through it in his mind. When he bought a house, he only wanted to have a private bathroom. He didn't want to empty the chamber pot in the early morning in winter, go to the public toilet in the scorching summer, and get bitten by mosquitoes and flies.
But he also realized that the courtyard did not have such equipment, so he could make one by himself.
Just this courtyard house in front of you!
A septic tank can be dug in the back of the independent bathroom, and the bath water can be directly introduced into the tributary outside.
The flush toilet is also easy to handle. Doesn’t he have a hundred yuan in foreign exchange coupons now?
You can definitely go to the overseas Chinese store not far away to buy it. It should be sold there. If you buy it and decorate it yourself, it is actually very easy to create a separate bathroom!
Anyway, tap water is available in the yard!
The worst thing may be the hot water for bathing in winter. There is definitely no water heater for sale at the moment, but if you really want to, you can be a little more luxurious and connect a hot water pipe from the bathhouse next door.
But there is no need. Cheng Xuemin can reserve a large bucket of hot water pipe. Every time the Feng family wants to take a hot bath, they can boil several pots of hot water in advance and pour it into the big bucket...
It seems that there is no need to bother at all. You can buy a large bathtub and put it in the bathroom!
When taking a shower, just fill the big bathtub with hot water, which is the same thing as taking a bath in a bathhouse!
so……
In fact, buying a courtyard house that is more cost-effective and adds value is more cost-effective than that overseas Chinese apartment!
Thinking of this, Cheng Xuemin basically made up his mind, this is the courtyard house!
And it's not far from Yanda, just across the street for about a quarter of an hour by bicycle, which is really not too convenient. However, Feng Jiayou seems to be a little uninterested in this house. After all, he just spent time and saw a better house, but now none of the houses he looks at are very attractive!
Cheng Xuemin saw this in his eyes and remembered it in his heart, and went home first.
It was already dark when we got home, and Feng's mother was humming a little tune in the kitchen, cooking, and she could tell that she was in a good mood.
Obviously, their "October" issue is released today, and sales should be good.
It was brought up at the dinner table, and just as Cheng Xuemin guessed, their October sales also broke records.
Although it is not as exaggerated as "People's Literature", it is still closely following it. It is the only magazine and newspaper that published the atomic bomb article. If the popularity does not decrease, the sales volume will not decrease.
It's a pity that the same sentence is true. No matter how good the sales volume is, it has nothing to do with the original author Cheng Xuemin.
"Xuemin, do you want to submit an article to a foreign publication?"
After dinner, Cheng Xuemin chatted with his father-in-law in the yard and asked a bold question.
The Feng family was very optimistic about the overseas Chinese apartment, but unfortunately the owner only recognized foreign exchange coupons.
For other ordinary people, it might be really difficult to get so many foreign exchange coupons, but Cheng Xuemin is different. He is a writer.
He has countless classics from past lives in his mind, regardless of whether they are ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, and Cheng Xuemin can pay homage and copy them at any time if he wants.
In addition, with my father-in-law as a shortcut to the outside world, if I can submit articles to foreign magazines and publications, I can earn a lot of green dollars in foreign exchange.
Although I got foreign exchange coupons, I still made a contribution to the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
And as long as the country needs it, Cheng Xuemin can pay tribute to "Harry Potter" and contribute more than one billion US dollars to the country's foreign exchange earning cause.
After all, "Harry Potter" in the previous life brought billions of dollars in royalties to the original author.
Moreover, the time difference is only a few years, so it will not be accepted by Western readers because it is too early to pay homage to the times and is inconsistent with the times.
Just like now, if Cheng Xuemin pays homage to those classic online novels of later generations, he will definitely be criticized. But "Harry Potter" is different. It was originally written by the author in the 1980s and became a bestseller!
So, as long as he opens up the shortcut of his father-in-law, Cheng Xuemin will explode sooner or later in his great career of earning foreign exchange.
"Harry Potter" alone is worth billions or even billions of dollars in foreign currency.
If this can be done and can make such a big contribution, Mr. Wu and the above will have to invite him to a state banquet at Zhonghai next year!
"Dad, I have this idea!" Cheng Xuemin thought about the beauty in his heart, nodded to his father-in-law, and added, "Actually, my parents and I have chosen a house in the Overseas Chinese Apartment! The landlord is a second-generation overseas Chinese. She said all she wanted was foreign exchange coupons!”
"Overseas Chinese Apartment? The houses there are not cheap. Why did you go there to look at the houses?"
Father Feng was stunned when he heard this. How many years have passed since the Overseas Chinese Apartment?
I think when the Overseas Chinese Apartment was first built, Feng's father took Feng's mother to see it. It was indeed very luxurious and high-end. Her mother took a fancy to it at first sight and wanted one.
After all, her mother grew up living in that kind of bungalow when she was young.
It's a pity that the houses there are only for sale to returned overseas Chinese, and those who want them are only in foreign currency and US dollars. Intellectuals like them are not qualified at all, and they can't afford them either.
If it changes, the housing price of more than 10,000 US dollars will be out of reach. At that time, my mother was very depressed for a while.
I really didn’t expect that this cycle would come around again. After a while, her daughter started to start a family and start a business, and she actually went there to look at a house and wanted to buy it too!
But the houses there, even though they have been secretly opened up now, are no longer exclusively for the inner circle of overseas Chinese to buy and sell, ordinary citizens can also buy them.
But if you still only recognize foreign exchange, it will be difficult!
Twenty years ago, it was more than 10,000 U.S. dollars, but now it will not fall even if it does not rise. Foreign exchange coupons with more than 10,000 U.S. dollars are difficult to get!
Even Feng’s father, who works in the Bureau of Foreign Languages, thinks this is an astronomical figure.
My son-in-law is nice, but he also likes his wife and wants to buy one. Writing articles and submitting them to foreign magazines is indeed a way for them to earn foreign exchange.
But now the window is very tight. If you want to submit a manuscript to a foreign country, you may not be able to submit it after many layers of review.
"The landlord quoted 8,000 foreign exchange coupons. My parents and I visited the house. The environmental conditions are good!"
"If we make a counter-offer, we might get six to seven thousand!"
"The problem now is that I want to write some articles and submit them to foreign publications. Earning some foreign exchange should be considered as earning foreign exchange for the country and making some contribution, right?"
Cheng Xuemin nodded and told his father-in-law his plan!
We are all adults, why are we doing multiple-choice questions?
Cheng Xuemin likes that courtyard house and must buy it!
After buying it back, Cheng Xuemin casually renovated it, and it was actually much more comfortable to live in than any commercial house;
But today, the woman Feng Jiayou was thinking about it. She had taken a fancy to the overseas Chinese apartment, and it was very difficult for her to live in it. Like it and want to buy it!
It's a pity that I can't get foreign exchange coupons!
But just because she can't do it, it doesn't mean that her man is really helpless.
As long as the father-in-law has a way to go here, eight thousand foreign currency notes is really nothing to Cheng Xuemin.
After all, the fees for foreign publications are not calculated in the same way as in China!
There are copyright royalties and sales commissions over there!
No matter how bad the buyout price is, the unit price of the manuscript fee is tens or even hundreds of US dollars for a thousand words. Cheng Xuemin casually paid tribute to a foreign masterpiece. Eight thousand foreign exchange is really nothing to him.
The only thing missing now is the channels to submit to foreign publications. I hope my father-in-law can do more.
After all, he is from the Foreign Publishing Bureau, and his job is to publish to the outside world, compete with foreign publications, and grab the sales window to earn foreign exchange.
"Eight thousand foreign exchange coupons?!"
Father Feng frowned. Sure enough, the price was quite different. Although it was less than ten thousand dollars, eight thousand was still a very high price.
At the same time, he also thought about the policy aspect, so he said: "There are opportunities to invest outside, but they are very tight. If you really have this idea, when you go to the bureau tomorrow, you can stop by and see Lao Zhou from the Foreign Affairs Department!"
"He has a lot of dealings with foreign publications, and if you have articles, you can ask him to help introduce foreign guests to the foreign guest hostel. There should be many resident reporters and editors from foreign newspapers and magazines!"
Father Feng thought for a moment and informed his son-in-law of the domestic and foreign submission channels.
We are not completely closed now. There are many reporters and editors from foreign newspapers and magazines stationed at the Foreign Guest Guest House. Especially after the conference just ended, there are still many foreign reporters and editors stranded there.
If Cheng Xuemin has a manuscript in hand, he can go directly there and talk to those foreign guests in person!
Of course, colleagues from their Foreign Affairs Office must be around, otherwise it is generally difficult to see those foreign guests.
Even if we can meet, we can't talk in private!
Lao Zhou from the Foreign Affairs Department is usually responsible for these tasks.
"Okay, thank you dad!" Cheng Xuemin nodded. He really had a channel in his heart. He thought of something again and emphasized it, "By the way, dad, I just want to give it a try now. I don't know whether it will work or not. Please bother dad." Please don’t tell your parents and mom first, okay?”
"It's really possible. I want to give my children a surprise!"
Cheng Xuemin quickly added another sentence.
"Okay, if you want to give it a try, go ahead! But I'm not very optimistic about it. We're just translating this part. You don't want to just take the Chinese manuscript and show it to those foreign guests, do you?"
Language barrier is actually the biggest obstacle, and if you want to publish a manuscript in a famous foreign journal, the quality of the manuscript is very high. It is difficult to write a good and localized article without being proficient in English.
If there is no flavor and no localization, external publications will not use it at all and will not be able to pass the manuscript.
Therefore, although my son-in-law writes good articles, if he wants to submit his articles to prestigious outside magazines, he must first find a good translator.
The old man in Qianyuan is proficient in several foreign languages, but if he really wants to translate it, he can only read it in "Chinese Literature", which is published by them. If he really wants to be published in famous foreign magazines, he has to have something localized.
This is also the reason why Father Feng is not optimistic about his son-in-law. Although he knows that his son-in-law's English is good, it is only at the examination level.
"Dad, my English is actually pretty good!" Cheng Xuemin said modestly, "Then I'll try it first and see if it works. Dad, don't tell mom and the others yet!"
"Okay, I won't tell them yet!" Father Feng nodded and promised.
With the direction in hand, Cheng Xuemin was full of energy. The next day, he went to the Foreign Languages Publishing House to report and contacted the working group there about the foreign language manuscript of "Director Qiao's Taking Up the Job."
Then I went to Lao Zhou from the Foreign Affairs Office introduced by my father-in-law, and made contact. After opening up the submission channels, I came back and started working.
The Feng family had been a little distracted these past two days, and finally after celebrating with Cheng Xuemin one night, they proposed to buy the courtyard house.
She didn't want to think about it anymore, and the more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became, so the woman decided to be cruel and buy the courtyard house directly, thus giving up the idea of overseas Chinese apartments.
…
(End of chapter)