The Lamb Stew Dwelling

11,013 characters2007.01.18

Mutton Soup Dwelling

Xing Ding 发表于 2007-01-18 20:14:07

Mutton Soup Dwelling

At last I’m connected to the internet; broadband in Beijing isn’t as good as Shanghai’s, and it’s so slow and yet so expensive…… But getting online means I’ve completed the entire grand relocation project! (Of course, the hauling of books is still under way……)

I was bound to rent a place for a while sooner or later anyway, especially during that stretch between finishing my undergraduate degree and starting graduate school; my more than two thousand books had to have somewhere to go. And judging by my book-buying trend, the dorm’s capacity is about to be full to bursting, with books piled all over the place and finding any one of them becoming extremely inconvenient. But I never expected I’d rent a place this semester. At first it was because my laptop broke, and since I needed to go out frequently for all-nighters before the final exams, I wanted to buy another computer. Later I thought I might as well not buy a computer, and instead rent a place earlier, then move the desktop from the dormitory out here to use. In the end it turned into my parents personally coming to Beijing to help me settle both the apartment and the new computer!

Having one’s own study is an extremely convenient thing. So many books can finally be “spread out” properly; I can see at a glance what I have, and there’s no lights-out and no other disturbances, so life and reading are wonderfully free and easy. The downside, of course, is being cut off from communal life; in fact, I’m extremely fond of dormitory life. Still, I don’t think living alone will make me lonely or isolated or anything like that. If we’re talking about loneliness, I’ve always had it; it doesn’t increase simply because I’m by myself. Even if I live in the middle of a crowd, when loneliness comes it still comes. Sometimes, in a lively surrounding, the feeling of loneliness is even stronger; whereas when I’m alone and quietly to myself, loneliness actually becomes a kind of spiritual enjoyment.

I call this place “Mutton Soup Dwelling,” since this is just a marker for the place where I write, so I might as well be blunt about it. Because this apartment is right across from Peking University’s south gate, and hanging at the entrance are four big characters reading “Mutton Soup in a Bun,” with a couplet on either side: “Neighbor to Huaxia’s No. 1 school, the humanistic Peking University; heartily eating the world’s No. 1 bowl of mutton soup in a bun,” and the horizontal inscription “The world’s No. 1 bowl.” It feels pretty hilarious. There’s also a sign at the door saying “computer repair,” plus a small placard: “To buy adult health products, please come inside,” truly a chaotic place……

My room is on the fourth floor. Nominally it’s a one-bedroom rather than a single room; water, electricity, gas, and telephone are all independent, and three households share one bathroom. The room is neither big nor small; if you were only putting in beds, three to five people could live here without a problem. But I set up four bookshelves and divided the room into a “two-room one-living-room” arrangement.

The walls are a mess, all covered with the “masterpieces” left by previous tenants: two funny rabbits, “If you’re too yielding, you’ll get bullied!”, “It feels so great to write here!”, “I kill you,” and so on.

The apartment was rented through the neighborhood committee. 1,100 a month. That price is still pretty good; housing prices around Peking University are like this. Later I learned that the landlord entrusted the neighborhood committee for 1,000 a month, meaning the committee took 100. This was somewhat unexpected for the landlord, because it’s said the committee people are rather bad; originally the agreement was that 1,000 would be fully entrusted, but later all those odds and ends were deducted until only 900 reached the landlord. So the landlord and the neighborhood committee seem to have some conflict—which is also the reason my broadband could not be put in place for so long.

In a certain sense, the neighborhood committee is just a kind of sub-landlord. But the advantage of finding a place through the committee is that one can reliably avoid a sub-landlord. If you run into someone with bad intentions, someone impersonating the landlord and cheating people out of money, that would be rather bad. Of course, you can avoid that by carefully checking documents, but now it’s too easy to make fake IDs; who knows. In any case, the neighborhood committee can’t run away.

Another reason I chose this place was even more a matter of chance. At the time, when I posted on the BBS asking for housing, a young lady主动 contacted me and said she wanted to rent this place, had already paid the deposit, but for some reason couldn’t move in, so she hoped to transfer it to someone else. Later she told me that she had also graduated from Peking University’s Department of Philosophy as a graduate student (probably not so much because she was deliberately trying to get friendly with me), which also counts as fate.

The reason the neighborhood committee lowered the rent was not without cause. On the one hand, perhaps it was that senior female student’s bargaining; on the other hand, it was said the house was too dirty (that wall……), though perhaps there were some other reasons as well.

The two households next door (the neighbors who share the bathroom): one is an eighty-something grandmother; she’s neither hard of hearing nor visually impaired, a very nice person, and also a community work enthusiast of more than thirty years. The other household seems to have some problems. The grandmother warned me that the woman in that household is very bad, and that she also comes into my kitchen (the kitchens of the three households are all opposite each other down the corridor, facing north) to steal water and electricity. I found this was indeed the case, so I installed a padlock on the kitchen. Anyway, apart from occasionally washing my face and body, I hardly use the kitchen at all.

The landlord’s son also seems to be a big problem. According to the grandmother, they seem to be on bad terms with the elderly landlady, and they also come here to steal things! They have keys to this place (the three households share one iron gate, and each household’s own door uses a small padlock). It’s said that the previous few households were all visited by them about a month after moving in; once they even stole all a student’s identification documents, not even leaving the chocolate on the table, and in the end the police station had to help recover everything. It’s said they came again a couple of days ago, but were blocked outside by the grandmother.

But the elderly landlady gave a different version, saying that the grandmother has a problem, stirs up trouble, and scared away all the previous residents. The elderly landlady doesn’t look like a bad person either, so who’s right and who’s wrong, I really don’t know. In any case, there are definitely conflicts among the neighbors.

Still, I don’t really care about any of that. The padlock at the door has already been replaced by me with a new one. Though this broken door doesn’t need to be pried open—if I had to guess, one hard bump would probably break it—once someone breaks in through the door, that counts as burglary. Those people (whether or not they’re the landlord’s son, and whether or not they really exist) probably wouldn’t be so brazen. Besides, there’s nothing much to steal in the room. I’d definitely take my laptop with me if I were away for a long time, and the rest are all books; moving those would require hiring a moving company…… (Though if I were really robbed, I’d rather have the computer sitting at the door, so that the thief would know when to stop while ahead; by all means, don’t take your anger out on my precious books~~)

The books in the dormitory have already been mostly moved over through my carrying them one schoolbag at a time; only two boxes of books and one large and one small bookshelf’s worth remain in the dorm. But the bookshelves here are already basically saturated as well, and the sorting work is under way.

This place can be made available for friends to study in. If they’re willing, any classmates who know me can come (of course, in reality not many people come; so far this service has only been offered once). Actually, this place is quite suitable for gatherings too. If necessary, I can move out the round table that’s separated off in the kitchen, and like in a dorm, order some chicken wings and beer—it would be pretty nice. Of course, what I most hope to provide is library service—if there are friends with similar tastes, they may not have the conditions or the energy to buy so many books. My resources can be provided to them without reservation: besides borrowing books and recommending books, I also have quite a few duplicate books waiting to be given away; and for good books that I don’t have here, if friends want to read them but don’t want to buy them, they can also use my money to buy them, and just give the books back to me after reading them. In addition, scribbling and writing in my books is also welcome (unless they’re certain precious collectibles); the blank space in the margins is itself an extension of the book’s content, a platform for spiritual communication with the author and other readers. —Providing these services has always been my dream, only I still haven’t found any readers……

I’ll upload photos later。。。

January 18, 2007, 20:06

At Mutton Soup Dwelling

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Latest comments

Insect

2007-01-19 01:10:46 [Reply]

I want a set of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, Xiaogu—can you front the money and buy it first? 🙂
Ming

2007-01-19 01:42:28 [Reply]

Uh… looks like the photos are saved……
UNIC

2007-01-19 01:48:39 [Reply]

“……perhaps they don’t have the conditions or the energy to buy so many books. My resources can be provided to them without reservation. Besides lending books and recommending books, I also have quite a few duplicate books waiting to be given away.”
Haha, could you mail them??? Need an address?
Sigh, why am I not in Beijing? Then wouldn’t I have run into a gigantic library? Not to mention being able to scribble and write in the books however I want!
Sigh, if I could really go, I bet I’d be smiling in my dreams?!!! Not to mention there’s even an actual teacher right beside me introducing things and discussing with me…… what else could this be if not heaven?!
1,000 yuan per month, too expensive!!!!! My parents’ combined monthly wages together barely amount to less than 3,000…….
The kind of “perhaps they don’t have the conditions or the energy to buy so many books……” you’re talking about isn’t just me! I have neither the conditions nor the energy, hehe.
Just kidding.
It counts as having one’s own space again, congratulations!
And may you also have new experiences of life in your new home.
Photos below

2007-01-19 02:50:46 [Reply]

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Gu

2007-01-19 02:52:53 [Reply]

To Chong: Since I said, “If there are friends who want to read it but don’t want to buy it, they can also use my money to buy it, and just give the book back to me after reading it,” of course I can help you buy it. The premise is that you must make sure to finish reading the book!
Gu

2007-01-19 02:56:30 [Reply]

To UNIC: Of course it can be mailed. But the books here are of no use to you right now; your top priority is to deal with the college entrance exam. There’ll be no problem with me mailing you a few packages of books when you have a chance later.
unic

2007-01-19 16:30:29 [Reply]

Hehe……
unic

2007-01-19 16:57:16 [Reply]

I looked at the photos……
Suddenly I came up with a phrase: remote bookshelf
I finally understand
why you have to read books so violently
—because there are just——too——many books!
PS: The two rabbits left on the wall by the previous people were drawn pretty well.
Li

2007-01-22 01:15:56 [Reply]

^_^ Xiaogu’s style in this piece is truly lively and lovely. Sooner or later I’m going to ask you for The Heritage of Greece. Make a list of your duplicate books.