That year, I was assigned a unit apartment
Not long ago, Lao Bai, a comrade-in-arms who had been lost for a long time, suddenly called, which really surprised me. Come to think of it, it's been a full decade since we last met. However, as soon as I heard his familiar voice, all kinds of memories came flooding back to me, and our conversation naturally became cordial and pleasant.
Knowing that Lao Bai returned to his hometown a few years ago and had a successful career, he couldn't help but feel a little relieved for him.
In the process of chatting, Lao Bai suddenly mentioned the "illegal" residence provided by the family home back then, and deliberately said the word "illegal" very seriously, full of deep meaning. This mention reminds me of that unforgettable past.
That year, I struggled to get an apartment in the family home. Although the process was tortuous, the end result was quite satisfactory.
The apartment is not very spacious, only 50 square meters, with two bedrooms and a living room, plus a kitchen and toilet. However, for one person, it is enough to finally have a warm home.
It turned out that at that time, the unit carried out a large-scale construction project and demolished the four-story single apartment for government cadres, causing everyone to lose their places of residence all of a sudden and become a group of "homeless" "bitter children". In this predicament, everyone can only show their talents, and they have found various corners such as health teams, trolley classes, and large halls as temporary shelters.
After a lot of hard work, I finally won this apartment in the family home, which solved the "urgent need" at that time.
Later, I found out that since I lived in the family home, I not only solved my own housing problem, but also brought convenience to many people, including Lao Bai.
At that time, Lao Bai in the agency happily talked to us about his new girlfriend, and I heard that he was found from thousands of miles away from his hometown, and planned to come to the army to see him. Lao Bai was naturally overjoyed, but at the same time, he was also facing a problem: in the huge camp, there was no place to stay. He was caught in a dilemma, he couldn't protect himself, and he didn't know what to do.
Although the army has a guest house, it is quite difficult to move in, and there have been few similar cases before. After all, a girlfriend is just an identity, and it seems that "the name is not right, and the word is not good".
It is also not ideal to choose to rent an apartment outside, because the troops are surrounded by small villages and hotels are hard to find. It is still three or four kilometers away from the county seat, and it will be inconvenient to go out on leave or visit the troops.
Although the apartment I live in is relatively simple, and most of the furniture and appliances are second-hand, there are sofas, TVs, coffee tables, beds, etc., which are enough to meet the basic needs of life. Lao Bai finally found me, and at first I refused without hesitation, because it was not easy to find a place to live.
He tried to persuade him so much that he almost cried. To sum up, he has three main reasons: first, I am currently single, and it is easy to find a place temporarily, without family members;Secondly, he is not young, and it is not easy to find a partner, which is a little help from me;In the end, he agreed to invite me to dinner as a token of gratitude.
However, I was still hesitant to see if the two of them would be suitable to live together, especially in my apartment. If something goes wrong, do I have to be "jointly and severally liable" to at least provide a place to stay? But the comradeship led me to roll up my bunk, look for other places to live, and leave him the keys to the apartment.
Lao Bai lived in the apartment for more than half a month. During this time, he invited us to dinner several times at my apartment. However, as the owner of the house, I became a guest instead, and I was cautious after entering the door, not daring to look around, for fear of finding something wrong and affecting Lao Bai's "family construction". After all, this is a lifelong event for him, and if something goes wrong, we can't afford it.
Although my cooking skills are average, the kitchen is equipped with pots and spoons, as well as induction cookers and other kitchen utensils, so it is still a breeze to make some simple hot pot or stir-fry.
Usually we eat with Lao Bai and laugh, but at this moment everyone tacitly keeps quiet, not only speaking an octave lower, but also becoming very elegant, pretending to be a "civilized person".
Since we are not familiar with Lao Bai's girlfriend, we can't be too proactive, but we can't be too indifferent. During the meal, we could only talk a few words from time to time. More often than not, however, we try to "sell" our tenants for Lao Bai, using a lot of elegant words, such as Yushu Linfeng, talented, responsible, etc., to "build" Lao Bai into a very attractive character. Although we felt a little embarrassed by this, we still did not hesitate to "put gold" on him. Of course, we are also quietly reminding Lao Bai, "Pay attention to your body and act carefully"!
We are serious about helping him get off the list as soon as possible, we did our best, this may be all we can do, I only hope that Lao Bai can understand our "good intentions". As for their subsequent development, we do not know, because Lao Bai always did a good job of secrecy.
Since then, however, my apartment utilization has increased significantly.
It has not only become a place for everyone to gather on weekends, but has also evolved into a major activity base for the Chinese New Year. Everyone gathers together, enjoys the food, has a drink, and has a pleasant game of cards, which seems simple but full of happiness. As time went on, several more comrades-in-arms came to the door, mainly because their subjects were also coming to the army, and continued to ask me for "illegal accommodation", and I always gladly agreed. After all, in this remote northwestern barracks, it is really not an easy task to find a suitable object.
Looking back on the scene now, it still feels intimate and natural. Although time has passed and we can never go back in time, this experience has become a precious memory for us together. It records the most real life, and also records the bits and pieces of our youth, perhaps this is another embodiment of happiness.