My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 33 Foreign Alleyways
A few days later, in the evening, Lin Ying packed up her stall early. Zhou Jiye helped her push the cart back to her residence. After putting her things away, the two headed towards their agreed meeting place.

When they arrived, they saw Lao Wen already waiting in the distance. When he saw Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying arrive, Lao Wen quickly greeted them with a smile.

"This must be your wife, brother? I'm Lao Wen. I've always heard that your wife is capable, and seeing her in person, I can confirm it's true. Brother Zhou, you're truly blessed!"

"Hello, Brother Wen." Lin Ying shook hands with Old Wen in a generous manner and said very politely, "I've heard about you for a long time, Brother Wen. My family's Jiye has been very fortunate to have your help at the vegetable market these days. It's a pleasure to see you."

"Hehe, it's Brother Zhou who's looking out for me, not me looking out for him!" Old Wen laughed heartily, chatted with Lin Ying for a bit, then pointed to the residential area behind them: "We've already made an appointment with the homeowner, let's go over there now."

Zhou Jiye and the others nodded in agreement. They had come today to look at houses and followed Lao Wen into the residential area.

The environment of this neighborhood is very nice. It doesn't look particularly remarkable from the outside, but it's a different story once you enter the alley.

Rows of row houses stand one after another, all three stories high, and with similar layouts. They are typical commercial housing from the 1920s. Because they were built by foreigners, they are also known nearby as "Foreign Lane".

The houses face south and each household has two entrances.

To the south is a garden, surrounded by a brick wall with an iron gate. To the north is a lane with a gate, and there are two entrances.

Many gardens are planted with flowers and plants, while others are filled with piles of miscellaneous items. Due to the erosion of time and the lack of maintenance, these gardens look desolate and messy, but you can still see the exquisiteness of the past from some traces.

There weren't many people in the neighborhood, making it quite quiet, a far cry from the alleyways they now lived in. The surrounding greenery was lush, and the sound of cicadas echoed from outside in the evening, creating a unique atmosphere.

“I recognize this place.”

As they walked forward, Lin Ying suddenly whispered something to Zhou Jiye.

"You came before?"

Lin Ying nodded slightly, her expression filled with reminiscence.

She had indeed been to this place, but not in this timeline, but decades later in another timeline. Many celebrities later lived here, and some of the houses changed hands several times in later generations, even being transformed into unique guesthouses and studios.

Lin Ying once had a friend from abroad who visited Shanghai. She saw a nice guesthouse online and booked one for her friend, who stayed there for a while.

But compared to then, this place now appears somewhat dilapidated and old, after all, there's a difference of several decades.

Old Wen led them forward, and soon they arrived at the north-facing entrance of a house.

At this moment, Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying both noticed a bungalow that was completely different from the other houses on the east side. The bungalow was gray with cement plastered on the walls and red tiles on the roof, which was similar in color to the roofs of the surrounding houses. Moreover, the house was right next to the eastern wall, with most of it inside the wall. There was a window on the outside of the wall, and not far from the window was a closed door.

"Could it be this house?" Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying thought to themselves. They glanced over there a few more times, but it was about ten meters away, and it was already dark, so they couldn't see anything clearly.

They went up and rang the doorbell. The doorbell rang from inside. A moment later, the door opened, and a man who looked to be in his fifties, wearing a white shirt and glasses, appeared before them.

"Who are you...?" Upon seeing the three people outside the door, the other party asked with slight wariness.

"You must be Teacher Chen? My surname is Wen, and I'm a relative of Teacher Zhang," Old Wen said with a smile.

"Oh, right? You're renting a place, aren't you?" Teacher Chen suddenly realized.

"Yes, yes, Teacher Zhang told you, right? We came to take a look at the house today."

Teacher Chen nodded, but his attitude wasn't as enthusiastic as expected; instead, it was somewhat distant. He glanced at Zhou Jiye and the others behind Lao Wen and asked suspiciously, "Are you renting together?" "No, no, I'm introducing this to a friend. This is my friend Zhou Jiye, and this is his wife, Xiao Lin. They're the couple who want to rent the place," Lao Wen quickly introduced to Teacher Chen.

"Hello, Teacher Chen, we are looking to rent a room and we apologize for bothering you so late," Lin Ying said to Teacher Chen with a smile and a generous hand outstretched.

Teacher Chen did not shake hands immediately, but hesitated slightly before raising his hand to shake hands gently with Lin Ying. Then Zhou Jiye said a few polite words and shook hands with Teacher Chen as well.

"You two, husband and wife..."

Teacher Chen glanced at Zhou Jiye and the others, nodded slightly, and then, without inviting them into the house, muttered something to himself before walking out and closing the door behind him.

"Alright, I'll take you to have a look first." Teacher Chen said, and walked eastward after going down the steps. At this moment, Lin Ying frowned slightly. She felt that the homeowner had a somewhat unapproachable attitude and seemed very guarded.

But since they were already there, they definitely wanted to see the house, and the environment here was indeed quite nice. If they could rent it, it would be a good thing for them.

Upon reaching the door of the bungalow, Teacher Chen took out a bunch of keys from his pocket, found one by the moonlight, and unlocked the door.

He pulled the door open, took a step inside, and then reached out and felt around on the left wall to find the light cord. He pulled it down, and with a click, the light in the room turned on instantly. Teacher Chen turned around and beckoned Zhou Jiye and the others to come inside together.

“Take a look first. I have water and electricity, and gas was also connected in 1966. Back then, a separate meter was installed, so it can be considered a separate household. The total area is a little over 20 square meters, and there is a small storage room in the back. It leads directly to the garden to the south, but don’t go to the garden unless you have to…”

As they talked, Teacher Chen gave a general overview of the house. Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying looked around the house. Just as it had been described, the house was quite large and the room was very square. The kitchen was right by the entrance. The kitchen was not separate; it was just separated from the other rooms by a wall with doors and windows installed in the partition.

The kitchen wasn't big, only about three square meters. There was a sink near the entrance, and further in was the stove with an old single-burner gas stove on it. The rubber hose of the stove was worn out, and the gas pipe next to the rubber hose was covered in black grease. The main valve was closed, and it looked like it hadn't been used for years.

The house has poor lighting; there isn't a single window in the entire house except for two windows facing outwards near the kitchen entrance. There is a window in the wall separating the kitchen and the room, but it looks like even during the day, it's difficult for sunlight to get into the house through the kitchen. In other words, people at home during the day have to turn on the lights, otherwise it's pitch black and you can't see anything.

There's also a small door at the far end of the room leading to the garden. Going out through this door, to the left, is a storage room of about two square meters. Continuing forward, a path paved with blue bricks leads deep into the garden, but it's too dark to see the garden clearly now.

The room was empty with little furniture, and some junk and miscellaneous items were piled up in one corner.

Looking around, the room was clearly visible. Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying exchanged a glance. They both felt that although the house was worse than expected, it was still much better than the attic they were currently living in, and it looked alright.

The place was more than twice the size of the attic, and it even had gas, making it far superior to their current living conditions. Even the poor lighting didn't matter much, as they weren't home during the day anyway. More importantly, although this bungalow was built next to Teacher Chen's house, it was still practically a detached dwelling. They could close the door and do their own things without disturbing others, which was much better than living with Aunt Wang.

To be honest, both Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying immediately took a liking to this apartment; renting it would be much more convenient. More importantly, the neighborhood wasn't far from the market and the movie theater where Lin Ying had her stall, making it easy for them to do business.

"Teacher Chen, how did you rent this house?" Lin Ying asked.

"I have gas here, and the water and electricity meters are all installed separately. Plus, the neighborhood is nice, so the rent is a bit more expensive. It's eight yuan a month, three months' rent upfront and one month's deposit. Also, there are some things I need to tell you in advance if you're going to rent from me. It's fine if you live here by yourself, but you can't bring any shady people back. Also, you can't be noisy at night. I have a bit of neurasthenia, I like quiet, and I'm a light sleeper, so I can't stand loud noise. And also..."

Teacher Chen rattled off a string of requirements, making Zhou Jiye frown. This was outrageous! These rental requirements were numerous and varied. Some were understandable, but others were completely incomprehensible, like the rule against noise at night? What exactly constituted "noise"? Was it speaking loudly or shouting? If everyone had to be completely quiet after 8 PM, that was impossible! They had just returned from the movie theater and needed to prepare tea eggs for the next day; keeping quiet was unthinkable.

Another crucial issue is that Teacher Chen requires Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying to provide their identification documents, saying it's for registration with the local street office. This is something they can't fulfill; neither of them has a Shanghai household registration, only a letter of introduction from Northwest China. The same thing happened with Aunt Wang initially, but Lin Ying managed to get away with it by adding a yuan to the rent and bribing Aunt Wang with tea eggs. However, given Teacher Chen's strictly businesslike attitude, this method seems unlikely to work.

Lin Ying tried to discuss things with Teacher Chen, but unexpectedly, Teacher Chen was not as easy to talk to as Aunt Wang had been. Teacher Chen insisted on these conditions and refused to budge an inch, which left Lin Ying feeling helpless.

"Thank you, Teacher Chen. Could you let us go back and discuss it? Can you give me an answer in the next few days?"

"That's no problem, but let me make this clear from the start: you're not the only ones who want to rent my house. I'll wait three days. If I don't hear from you after three days, I'll rent it to someone else."

"Okay, okay, thank you so much. We'll discuss it when we get back and give you an answer." Lin Ying nodded repeatedly with a smile, but her heart sank. It seemed that although the house was nice, it was not meant for them!
(End of this chapter)