While they were dealing with the issue of the two pieces of clothing, an uninvited guest came to Zhao Guoliang's house. He looked at Zhao Guoliang with a forced smile and took out a document for him to sign.
When Zhao Guoliang saw it, his heart sank. It was a document to take back the house in the slum. The document clearly stated that they already had a house allocated by the school, and the house in the slum had to be handed over.
Seeing that Zhao Guoliang was still in deep thought, the visitor could not help but sarcastically say:
"It is said that the stinky old man is full of tricks and is very cunning. It is true. So many people are short of food and clothing, and it is not uncommon for more than a dozen people to live in one room. You are not satisfied with only four people living in two bedrooms and a living room in your family, and you want to occupy the country's resources. This is too much."
Zhao Guoliang took a deep breath, took out a pen and signed the document. Indeed, they had never lived in that house and gave it to their two younger brothers' children.
Now people asked him to give it up and provide it to those who needed it more. He had no reason to refuse, but his brotherhood, which was already weak, was probably going to be ruined this time.
After Zhao Guoliang sent the people away, he went straight to find Zhao Guodong and Zhao Guojian. He smelled the aroma of braised pork from afar and stopped. He forgot that it was already time for dinner.
Just when he was about to come back in the afternoon, Zhao Guojian saw him:
"Brother, why are you here?"
Zhao Guoliang glanced at Zhao Guojian and hesitated a little, but he had to tell this matter, otherwise it would be embarrassing when people came tomorrow and made a fuss.
"Where's Guodong?"
"Eating meat."
Zhao Guojian sneered and glanced at the tightly closed door. It was just a piece of meat, but he locked the door, as if someone was trying to steal his meat, even though he wanted to eat it too.
"Then inform Guodong that the house has been taken away."
"What? Why?"
"They said that since I already have a house allocated by the school, I am no longer eligible for a house here. There are still many people who are in need of housing, so they want to give the house to those who are in particularly difficult circumstances."
Zhao Guojian rolled his eyes and said, "Brother, you should return the house assigned by the school. We don't have enough space to live in this one."
Zhao Guoliang looked at Zhao Guojian in surprise: "I have returned the school house, where are we going to live?"
"I don't care. I won't move anyway."
Zhao Guoliang took a deep breath and went straight to knock on Zhao Guodong's door. However, he didn't know how many times he knocked, but the door didn't open. After waiting for a long time, Zhao Guodong finally opened the door.
They had already hidden the unfinished braised pork, but unfortunately the house was small and airtight, and as soon as the door was opened, the smell of the braised pork rushed out.
"You're eating meat, why don't you call me, big brother, to eat with you."
"Just a few pieces of meat, to give the kids a snack, so..."
"Don't make excuses. I'm here to inform you that the higher-ups have taken over this house. Please move your things out as soon as possible."
"This... Big Brother, you are too unkind, you did it on purpose, didn't you just give me two pieces of meat to eat, as for taking over the house."
Zhao Guoliang stopped talking, pondered for a moment, took out two ten-dollar bills from his pocket, and handed them to Zhao Guodong and Zhao Guojian:
"This is the last subsidy I, your elder brother, will give you. From now on, we will no longer be friends and have nothing to do with each other."
"Brother, that's not what I meant..."
Zhao Guodong took the money, but grabbed Zhao Guoliang's sleeve, looking reluctant.
Zhao Guojian took the money, snorted coldly, went into the house and closed the door very quickly. He didn't believe that Zhao Guoliang would be so stupid as to leave the house. He must be trying to rent out the house and trick them into moving out.
Zhao Guodong's wife Lin Fang spat on the ground and said, "What big brother?" He is a professor at Peking University, lives in a big house with two bedrooms and a living room, and earns a high salary.
He is really so stingy with his younger brother that he even takes away a small house. It is definitely intentional. It is better not to have such a brother.
The couple looked at each other, then looked at the tightly closed door of Zhao Guojian's house, and closed the door angrily. From then on, they broke off all ties with Zhao Guoliang.
"Guodong, should we move to that house?"
Although Lin Fang hated Zhao Guoliang, she still took his words to heart. Zhao Guodong shook his head and said that if Zhao Guojian didn't move, he wouldn't move either.
Early the next morning, when it was still dark, there was a knock on the door of Zhao Guojian and Zhao Guodong's house. It was a man who had just been assigned a house. He pointed at his house and asked the two brothers to move their things out.
"Who are you? This is my eldest brother's room. He gave it to us two brothers."
"Your eldest brother is Zhao Guoliang, right? He has been asked to check out of the house and the house has been allocated to me. Look, here is the house deed."
"this… "
After seeing the house deed, Zhao Guojian realized the truth of the matter. It turned out that his elder brother was serious yesterday and was not trying to fool them.
"Guojian, have you offended my elder brother?"
Zhao Guodong suddenly looked at Zhao Guojian. He always felt that Zhao Guoliang seemed to be somewhat disliked by Zhao Guojian, so he directed his criticism at Zhao Guojian.
"I don't want to offend him. He's a professor. How dare I offend him?"
"Are you going to move it or not? If not, I will smash it."
The man became impatient and his tone of voice began to become bad. They wanted to move early as they had to go to work in the afternoon, but they were reluctant to have half a day's salary deducted.
When the two brothers heard the man was about to break down the door, they realized that the house really didn't belong to them anymore, and they struggled to open the door:
"Brother, you see it costs money to build this wall and these two doors. Why don't you give us some money?"
"You're not getting any subsidies. This wall didn't exist in the first place. You changed the structure of the house. I'm going to the Housing Authority to report you for destroying public housing without permission."
"We'll tear it down, we'll tear it down ourselves, and you don't have to pay for it."
When Zhao Guodong heard the word "report", his whole body trembled. He never wanted to experience that kind of life again. It was too terrible.
"Forget it, there's no need to break down the wall, just move your things away."
The man also has two sons, and they were worried that the rooms were too small and could not be separated. Now there is a ready-made wall, and only a fool would knock it down.
The two men each brought their wives and started moving things in a hurry. Zhao Guojian's wife Sun Guo cursed under her breath, but her hands did not slow down at all. The broken family was worth a fortune, and she would feel sad if anything was lost.
Finally all the things were moved, but their home no longer felt like home. The already small house became even more cramped after adding a double bed.
Zhao Guodong asked Lin Fang to take out five dollars so that he could buy some gifts for Zhao Guoliang. He had two sons, and with such a small house, what would he do when his sons got married in the future
When Zhao Guoliang opened the door and saw that it was Zhao Guodong, his face darkened. They had already said yesterday that they were done with each other, so why was he still coming