National Tide 1980

In the past, there was a saying in Beijing that could be called a slogan, "ceiling, fish tank, pomegranate tree, husband, fat dog, fat girl."

This sentence actually talks about the yearning and imagination of Beijing people in their old age for a happy life.

It's just like the desire of modern people to own a three-bedroom, one-living-room school district house in a first-tier city, with parents by their side, husband and wife, children lying on their knees, and no worries about firewood, rice, oil and salt every day.

Most people understand what it means, and the situation described by this sentence is easy to understand.

But at the same time, it can also be realized that the first half of this sentence can be completely summarized as the joy of Beijing people in summer, but there are not many people.

The main reason is that modern people have gradually forgotten what ceiling is.

At the same time, an old profession - shed craftsman, has gradually died out.

At present, the closest thing to this history to the people of Beijing is the TV series "Four Generations Under One Roof" that pushed the lion dance Master Liu to everyone, so that the older generation of Beijing people remembered that there was such a profession in the past.

If you ask young people, after the age of 40, let alone seeing it, they have hardly even heard of it.

The so-called "ceiling" is actually a canopy for cooling off in the summer, which is called "ceiling" by people in Beijing.

It is built with reed mats, fir poles, and bamboo poles tied with ropes.

In the past, once the summer came, Beijing entered the "ceiling season", and all the canopy shops were busy doing the business of setting up canopies.

The climate in Beijing is relatively accurate.

Generally, according to the weather, it starts from May of the lunar calendar and lasts until the autumn wind rises on the Zhongyuan Festival. Sooner or later, it is time to add a small jacket, and the ceiling can no longer be kept and should be dismantled.

But building a ceiling did not start in the Republic of China. This industry can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty at least.

In the early years, whether in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the princes and nobles in Beijing, in order to block the hot sun in midsummer, would build a tall canopy in the courtyard of their home to cool off.

Later, this method was gradually introduced to the people. In addition to respectable merchants, ordinary people also built canopies in their courtyards.

Even the civil and military agencies, and the gates of various government offices, the annual canopy fees were included in the official public budget.

It can be seen how prosperous this industry was at that time. For people who didn't have fans or air conditioners in the past, it was a rigid demand.

Even to be honest, in the Republic of China period, not only courtyards could be built with canopies to cool off, but also high-rise buildings.

For example, the embassies and banks in Dongjiaomin Lane in Beijing are all multi-story foreign-style buildings. Especially the scorching sun from the east and west is indeed a great threat to people. Every year, these foreigners also build them.

Even the palace, until Puyi walked out of the Forbidden City, has always relied on this method to escape the summer heat.

Why are there no tall trees in the Forbidden City except the Imperial Garden?

If you listen to the tour guide, you will be a fool for the rest of your life.

Those ignorant and nonsense people all told you that they were afraid of assassins sneaking in and trying to kill you, or that it was necessary to prevent fire. It was pure nonsense that they treated tourists as fools.

The real reason was that they had to build a shed in the summer. This custom existed in the courts of the Ming and Qing dynasties and was recorded in archives.

The emperor was not stupid. It was unreasonable that the people knew how to enjoy themselves, but the court did not know.

So when it comes to the exquisiteness of building a shed, there is no one better than the capital in the world.

The industry of building a shed is called "shed shop", and the people who do this kind of work are called shed craftsmen.

They need to climb up and down the eaves, work in the air, and tie long wooden stakes and thick bamboo poles into a frame with hemp rope.

From the nature of the work, people who do this job should be roughly considered as a member of the construction industry.

But it is not exactly the same, because buildings are used for a long time, while sheds are temporary.

In the past, when you hired someone to build a shed, the shed craftsman would calculate the price for you according to the size of the owner's yard, how much money per season.

Everything is covered by a shed, and the owner only has to pay the rent, and when the time comes, the owner will take it all away.

So the price is not expensive, and basically middle-class families can afford it.

But now it's no longer possible, there is no place to rent these things, and you have to buy them all yourself.

And it's hard to find people, and the wages are not low, so the expenses must be real.

Even though the prices and labor in the mainland of the Republic are super cheap, it's still expensive to build a shed for a small courtyard. Including buying materials and labor, it costs 3,000 yuan.

This is not to count, because this money is only the money to put up the ceiling, and it has to be dismantled after it is built, and the materials have to be stored after it is dismantled.

No wonder the old man is unhappy, to put it bluntly, this is a matter of spending money and getting into trouble.

Not to mention, if you follow Jiang Nianyun's idea, you have to build a wedding shed and repair the theater building according to the past, and hold a grand ceremony.

Then I don't know how much money it will cost, there is no way to calculate it.

In fact, when Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko returned to Ma's Garden by car, they got out of the car and walked into the yard.

Ning Weimin understood why Luo Guangliang advised him to consider moving to another place on the way, but did not drive the car in.

It was not for anything else, but because the stalls set up in the yard were too big and too messy, and there was no room at all.

I don't know when the entrance to the yard changed its appearance, and countless things covered with rain cloth fell into the empty space as soon as you entered the yard.

And from the exposed part, you can see that they are all bamboo poles, fir poles, ropes and other things.

That’s not all. There was no parking space in the original carport, because Ning Weimin found that the tables, chairs and benches were piled up in it, and stacked together. There were dozens of various eight-immortal tables, and the chairs and benches were countless.

And he saw clearly that these were not the red sandalwood furniture he bought in the past, nor were they the ones that the old man refunded. They must be newly purchased.

That’s not all. It was also a coincidence that when he walked forward, he found that there were two tricycles parked there. The cardboard boxes on the cars were tied with ropes and piled high.

Two shirtless drivers were unloading their goods and carrying things into the house one by one. They were sweating and their foreheads were oily.

You can tell at a glance that these boxes are not light.

It was also a coincidence that the person who opened the door for them with a key chain and watched them work was none other than Zhang Shihui.

Seeing Ning Weimin and his group pushing eight trolley suitcases over, he was happy and hurried forward to greet them.

"Wei Min, you are finally back. I have been waiting to attend your wedding. If you don't come back, how can this drama be performed without the protagonist? Oh, look at the situation, it's quite good. I'm afraid you two have emptied all the stores in Paris?"

"Hey, Miss Matsumoto, you have worked hard all the way. You are becoming more and more like an international superstar. Forgive me for claiming to be a relative, but now we should be considered family, right? Can I call you my sister-in-law?"

"Ah? What are you asking about? Is there any need to ask? We have to prepare all the household items, right? We can't just have tables and chairs, we also have to have cups, plates and bowls. What? Too much? Not much, these are just half of the goods. They have to make another delivery."

"Hey, I still need to tell you about this, always There are 300 sets in total, all of them are good stuff. They are antique porcelain from the Jingcheng Arts and Crafts Factory, and they were specially made for you by Master Liu Yongqing. I heard that they are imitating the wedding porcelain of some emperor, and they are better than the ones we use now in the Altar Palace. Anyway, they are absolutely classy and worthy of your status. The factory manager Lao Chai is also very kind. For your sake, he gave us a 30% discount and sold it half-way. It's only about 50,000 or 60,000 yuan. "

"Hard work? Oh, that's what I should do. I say, don't be polite, shouldn't I help you with your marriage, don't be so mean. To be honest, even my wife is here today, she is busy inside, and after she finishes her work today, we will welcome you together..."

If this guy is really different now, he really deserves to be the head of the Altar Palace.

In the past, he could be so excited to earn 2,000 yuan by reselling two TVs that he couldn't sleep all night, but today he doesn't take 50,000 or 60,000 yuan seriously, and his tone is so relaxed.

However, when the two drivers carrying goods heard his words, it was inevitable that they would look at him sideways and be shocked.

Especially when he spoke, he was so excited that he shook his head, which made Ning Weimin frown.

He was too arrogant.

Somehow, it reminded people of the scene in the old movies where the landlord who was rich and unkind inspected his territory and was flattered by his lackeys.

And this pair of people naturally made Ning Weimin feel very uncomfortable and awkward.

So he coughed quickly to interrupt the flattery of "Mu Renzhi" and told him to get some tea for the two drivers and two boxes of cigarettes for each driver.

Without waiting for the two drivers who were carrying heavy objects to say thank you with their dry lips, he ran away and continued to go inside.

To be honest, Ning Weimin really couldn't be happy at this time, but he couldn't help but feel a little worried.

The scene in front of him was too grand. It was completely different from the buffet he remembered when his aunt’s eldest son got married and hired a few chefs to host the banquet.

He originally thought that it would be convenient for him to find a chef. The wedding was just to borrow the old man’s garden to set up a few tables and invite all his acquaintances and friends. Everyone could close the door and have a casual and unrestrained lively time.

It was very comfortable to have this place in the summer without being disturbed. There was no need to make any extra preparations.

Who knew it was not the case at all.

Looking at this scene and this waste, even the royal palace in the past would have held weddings like this, right?

Just these building materials, tables, chairs, benches and tableware, how much money would it cost.

He knew best how much money the old man had.

When he left, the arrangement he made for the old man’s life was nothing more than asking someone to give the salary that Pierre Cardon gave him to the old man.

More than 5,000 yuan a month, 3,000 foreign exchange coupons, double salary at the end of the year, that year, it was only 80,000 to 90,000 yuan.

However, these expenses should have exceeded the old man's financial ability. I'm afraid he has spent all his money. What is the old man thinking?

And Zhang Shihui is also a man of few words. Why is he showing off in front of outsiders?

If those words were spread by the two drivers, they would be very threatening. They are just looking for trouble.

Just thinking about this, they came to a fork in the road.

Ning Weimin lowered his head and thought, and was about to run towards the courtyard.

As a result, countless shouts came from a distance, "Come on! Come on! Go!". They turned their heads and were shocked.

Because they could see from a distance that there were many people busy on the rockery side, and it seemed that a multi-level archway as high as more than ten meters was erected.

According to Ning Weimin's observation, it seemed to be much more complicated than the temple fair held at the Temple of Heaven.

After a moment of hesitation, Ning Weimin could not help but lead others to follow the sound.

Soon, when he saw it clearly, not only did he himself shout "Wow!"

Not only did his Japanese wife cover her mouth with both hands and shout "Squaw!" in shock

Even Luo Guangliang and Xiao Tao, who knew the situation here, were excited.

"Fuck!", the two blurted out at the same time.

For no other reason, it was because what they saw just now was not a memorial archway at all.

To be precise, it was a flower wall outside the frame of a building that served as a facade.

There were dozens of people gathered here, and they were actually building a building!

And the area was very large, so large that Ning Weimin couldn't believe it.

You know, this can be said to be the largest open space in the middle of the garden, where you can splash water and set up an ice rink in winter.

There is a billiard room on the rockery in the north, a three-volume hall in the southwest, and a Xiyin Hall in the southeast.

The space in between is at least hundreds of square meters, which has been fully utilized by these people, and a huge frame building has been built on the flat ground.

That's not all. Looking at the fir pole frame that has been set up on the side of the billiard room.

You can know their plan. It seems that they will connect the original buildings in the three directions with this wooden frame building.

You can imagine how big this project is?

How much money will it cost?

That is, China is too poor these days, and people and things are not worth money.

Otherwise, with this movement, it has caught up with the royal families of those small countries in Europe. I am afraid that it is not a show that the so-called old money can put up.

And what is more amazing than this building is the people who are working.

Ning Weimin saw that they used large fir poles to install pillars and bamboo poles to tie the frame.

But the tools for construction are only ropes and "needles".

Ropes are used for binding, and "needles" are used to sew reed mats.

There is absolutely no need for axes, saws, or large iron hoes.

And it is different from the south where you have to dig a pit and bury poles first.

The shed builders in Beijing never dig pits or bury poles when building sheds.

They just erect the brackets directly on the flat ground, which are very sturdy and of excellent quality.

No matter how strong the wind and rain are, the shed poles and brackets will not move at all.

And this is the craftsmanship and attention to detail that the shed shops in Beijing were the best in the world back then.

Needless to say, it is all based on formal apprenticeship, master-apprentice inheritance, and the skills passed down from generation to generation in this industry.

Even if people who don't understand can tell from a few glances that it is impossible for a monk who has changed his career to do such a job.

What a good shed builder, although some of them are quite old, they are at least fifty if not sixty, and many of them are masters.

But they are really as light as a swallow and as agile as a monkey.

Whether they are building a building on the frame or building a shed on the eaves, they are so light and flexible.

They would never step on the tiles on someone else's house.

Especially when they were setting up the scaffold, even though there was only a fir pole in the middle of the several-meter distance, those people walked like tightrope,

from one end to the other as if walking on flat ground.

With just this skill, can it work?

According to Ning Weimin's idea, he was qualified to join the acrobatic troupe.

So he finally couldn't hold back, and he called his mother for the first time, and he called the old man.

"Oh my God! Awesome!"