My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 9 Smooth
Perhaps it was God's will finally be on their side this time, or perhaps it was a once-in-a-millennium chance that Uncle Huang was reliable.

When they found the place and inquired, they discovered that there were indeed rooms for rent. It was in an alley near the vegetable market, and a family was renting out their attic.

The house is a private residence. There is a small attic on the third floor, which used to be used as a storage room for all sorts of things. It was recently cleaned up and the family planned to rent it out to supplement their income. Just then, Zhou Jiye and his family came looking for them.

As instructed by Uncle Huang, they didn't say that he had introduced them, but only that they had heard about it from relatives and friends and came to take a look. The other party was very wary at first, but relaxed after hearing Lin Ying's fluent Shanghai dialect and her explanation as a so-called educated youth returning to the city. Then they took them to see the attic that was for rent.

"That's it?"

Upon entering the attic, Zhou Jiye, who had been full of expectations, was greatly disappointed. The small attic was less than eight or nine square meters, and the ceiling was very low. The tall Zhou Jiye could barely stand upright in the highest part where the dormer window was opened, and he had to be half-bent over in other places.

As for furniture, apart from an old five-drawer cupboard in the corner and a wooden bed, there was nothing else. Even so, this attic was not cheap.

"It's settled! The rent is five yuan a month, one month's rent as deposit. Utilities will be split per person. We don't have gas here, so you'll need to prepare a coal stove for cooking. All the coal stoves are downstairs. You'll use them in the kitchen downstairs. The main door downstairs will be locked at nine o'clock at the latest. You'll need to get a key made yourself..."

The landlady who rented the house kept talking non-stop. The house wasn't great, but there were a lot of rules. Zhou Jiye was getting annoyed listening to her one after another.

“Okay, okay, no problem. We’ll rent this house, Auntie. Can we finalize the deal and move in today?” Lin Ying didn’t care about any of that.

“Sure!” the aunt said nonchalantly. “You can move in today if you pay the rent. By the way, you’re all locals, right? Remember to register your household registration with me; the neighborhood committee needs to keep records.”

"Household registration booklet?" Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying exchanged a glance. Why was there such a rule? Where did they get their household registration booklet?
"Auntie, I need to talk to you about something." Lin Ying timidly said to the auntie, her fingers clutching the hem of her clothes. "I'm a former educated youth who returned to the city. My husband isn't a local; his household registration is in another place. I just got back, and the procedures for returning as an educated youth haven't been completed yet. I don't have a household registration booklet. But we have a letter of introduction from the commune where we went to the countryside. Could you make an exception for us?"

"This..." The aunt looked them over thoughtfully, then said after a moment's thought, "If that's the case, it's a bit troublesome. It's not easy to handle, as the neighborhood committee has requirements that all private rental properties must be registered and filed."

"Please be lenient and help us out. Don't worry, we're all respectable people, not the kind of shady characters. Look, this is our marriage certificate, and this is the letter of introduction from the commune..." Lin Ying said, while Zhou Jiye quickly took out the documents proving their identities one by one.

After glancing at it briefly, the aunt's expression softened, and she hesitated, saying, "I'm taking a risk with this..."

Although she said that, Lin Ying could hear the softening in her tone and quickly said, "We know, thank you so much. How about this, we'll add another yuan to the rent? Is that alright?"

"It's not about the rent..." the aunt said, then sighed after thinking for a moment, "Never mind, never mind, I'm just too soft-hearted. You two young people have it tough, I'll try to figure something out for you. You can stay here for now, and the rent will be the same as we agreed, six yuan. Also, remember not to tell anyone that it's a rented place. My surname is Wang, so if anyone asks, just say you're relatives from my family, understand?"

"I know, I know, thank you so much." Lin Ying was overjoyed. Although she paid an extra yuan, it was worth it. Without Aunt Wang's leniency, they wouldn't have been able to rent a place at all.

After discussing it, Zhou Jiye and his partner did not hesitate and immediately paid one month's rent and deposit. At the same time, they wrote a simple rental agreement, stipulating the time for monthly rent payments.

After finishing all that, Aunt Wang gave the key to Lin Ying, gave her a few more instructions, and then left. After Aunt Wang left, Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but smile as they looked at their small, cramped apartment.

We've finally found a place to live; now it's time to move.

They were new to the area and didn't have much to move; besides their luggage stored at the hotel, they had nothing else.

I went back to the hotel first to retrieve and put my luggage away, but that wasn't enough. The place was currently empty except for a chest of drawers and a wooden bed. I needed to buy daily necessities, otherwise I wouldn't be able to make a living.

The state-run stores had everything, but the problem was that Zhou Jiye and his group had neither ration coupons nor much money. They could only find a consignment shop to buy some second-hand goods. They picked out a bunch of cheap and usable odds and ends and got two old quilts, one for under the mattress and one for on top, to make do. By evening, they had almost finished getting everything. After tidying up, they looked at their cramped apartment, which was gradually taking shape, and then realized that they hadn't eaten dinner yet.

Although they bought a coal stove, they didn't have any coal briquettes, so there wasn't enough time to start a fire today. Besides, they didn't have any rice, flour, or vegetables. They had no choice but to make do with whatever they had, just like yesterday. They took the pot to a nearby store and bought some food. Back in their cramped apartment, they shared it and ate it all up. Afterward, the two of them lay comfortably on their made-up bed, staring blankly at the dormer window above them.

"How much money do we have left?" Lin Ying suddenly turned her head and asked.

"I'm not sure, we haven't calculated it in detail yet."

"Take out all the money and see how much we have left. We can't live without money in the future; the expenses are just too high."

As Lin Ying spoke, she began to pull money from her chest, and Zhou Jiye also pulled out the money he had hidden in his lower body. They put all the money together and sat cross-legged on the bed, counting it penny by penny. After a short while, they finished counting the money, and the two of them had a total of forty-two yuan and thirty-seven cents. This amount of money was slightly more than the monthly salary of an ordinary worker in Shanghai, but the problem was that for them, this amount of money was far too little.

"How come there's only this much left?" Zhou Jiye couldn't help but ask.

"Let me do the math... The bus ticket from the county to the provincial capital cost five yuan and sixty cents, the train ticket to Shanghai cost twenty-four yuan and eighty cents, the bus from the train station cost one cent and eighty cents, yesterday's dinner plus the fried dough sticks and pancakes I ate this morning plus dinner just now cost five cents and twoty cents, the hotel room cost five yuan, the room rent and deposit here cost twelve yuan, the things I bought at the consignment shop cost thirty-six yuan and thirty-seven cents, and the money for cigarettes is..."

Lin Ying found a small notebook, held a pencil in her hand, and wrote down her notes. After she finished writing, she checked with Zhou Jiye to make sure she hadn't missed anything. After confirming that she hadn't made any mistakes, she finally figured out that they had spent a total of 105.66 yuan since they came to Shanghai from Northwest China. Of the less than 150 yuan they originally brought, they only had 42.37 yuan left.

This also includes the money that Zhou Wangshi secretly slipped to Zhou Jiye; without that money, they probably wouldn't have had more than thirty yuan left. Besides this money, they also had twenty-seven jin of national grain coupons and three and a half liang of Shanghai grain coupons, which was all their assets at the moment.

In a rural area of ​​Northwest China, this amount of money would certainly be considerable. After all, Zhou Jiye only spent thirty yuan on a bride price to marry Lin Ying, a sum that an average farming family couldn't save in a year. But in Shanghai, it's different. As Zhou Wangshi said, "Even a poor family needs to be extra frugal on the road," and money is needed everywhere. Even if they were frugal, this money would only last Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying for a maximum of three months.

Although the amount of money was not much, neither Zhou Jiye nor Lin Ying were too worried. As time travelers, they were well-versed in how to make money. According to the course of history, there would be plenty of opportunities to make money in the future, and wealth would be almost within their grasp. Not to mention the first group of people who got rich after the reform and opening up, there were also many people who became rich overnight by relying on luck, demolition compensation, and other opportunities.

Making money couldn't be easier!

This was a sentence Zhou Jiye said with great enthusiasm. He said excitedly, "The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held just a few months ago. The country is about to enter a period of comprehensive reform and opening up. The 1980s will be an era of great opportunities. Standing at this cusp, even a pig can fly!"

"By taking advantage of policy and information gaps, there are plenty of opportunities to make money all over the world. At that time, becoming a millionaire, let alone a multi-millionaire or even a billionaire, will not be difficult. This is the benefit of being born in this era. When I have money, I can buy whatever I want, such as cars and houses, become a big boss, become the chairman, and welcome..."

Just as Zhou Jiye was speaking with great enthusiasm, he suddenly realized that he had inadvertently said something wrong, so he quickly shut up and looked at Lin Ying guiltily.

"Go on, keep talking." Lin Ying smiled and looked him up and down, but Zhou Jiye sensed something was wrong from her smile.

"Are you done talking?" Zhou Jiye said, feigning ignorance.

"That's it. What comes after you become chairman? What are you going to welcome?"

"Welcome...welcome...Yingying, you'll be the boss's wife, and we'll reach the pinnacle of life together!" Zhou Jiye, sweating profusely, quickly came up with a clever idea.

"Yingying, you big dummy!" Lin Ying glared at him. "Do you think I'm stupid? Yingying? Marrying a rich and beautiful woman, is that it? You, Zhou Jiye, you've only been here a few days and you already want to dump me for a rich and beautiful woman? Reach the pinnacle of life? I'll make sure you fall to the bottom first!"

As she spoke, Lin Ying rolled up her sleeves and pounced on him, startling Zhou Jiye into quickly dodging.

"Stop it, stop it. I just misspoke, that's all. I just said it smoothly again, is it really that big of a deal?"

"Is it really that serious? 'Smoothly'? You're clearly just being honest! You scumbag!"

"I don't know Mingming!"

"Okay! And Mingming too? Who is Mingming?"

"I...I was wrong...I was wrong, okay? Don't hit my face! It won't look good to go out with a smudged face!"

"Not good enough? Confess now, who are you going to show this to? You, Zhou Jiye, you've only been in Shanghai for two days and you've already hooked up with someone outside? Confess now! Honesty is the best policy, resistance is the worst! If I don't teach you a lesson today, I'll change my name!"

"Injustice! Injustice!"

Despite Lin Ying's aggressive demeanor, she was mostly bluffing. Although she said she was fine yesterday about the search for her relatives, she had been holding back her anger. Now she was taking this opportunity to teach Zhou Jiye a lesson and also vent her frustration.

He pinched Zhou Jiye hard a few times, making the guy yell and scream.

(End of this chapter)