After a night of rest, early the next morning, Yu Shu woke up Xia Mingming and took Yu Xiaoxiu out of the house, leaving Jing Chen to rest in the inn.
They separated at the street corner. Xia Mingming rented a car and went to the east of the city to find the Peiren Hall, while Yu Shu led Yu Xiaoxiu to wander around the unfamiliar streets.
"Sister, where can we find information about the house?"
"Let's look around first." In ancient times, there were no real estate agents to find. They were unfamiliar with the people and the place in the capital. If they wanted to buy a house, they had to ask around first to avoid being cheated.
The siblings walked around the nearby streets and found a teahouse. They ordered two plates of snacks and a pot of iced chrysanthemum. The first floor of the teahouse was crowded. A storyteller was telling a story with a big folding fan. The second floor was a private room, and there were only a few people going in and out of the stairs.
After listening for a while, Yu Shu used the storyteller to talk to an old man at the next table. She went out this morning and deliberately combed her hair until it was smooth. There was no hair on her forehead, so she looked more mature. The older generation always liked mature young people. The old man heard that she was polite and looked kind, so he was happy to talk to her. After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Yu Shu naturally led the topic to the houses.
The old man's surname was Bai, and he was a local in the capital. When he heard that Yu Shu wanted to settle down here, he enthusiastically helped to give her advice. He told her about the prices of the land in the south and north of the city. Finally, he pointed her to Huixing Street in the west to ask around. There were many houses there, and many people were renting and selling them.
Yu Shu thanked him and immediately led Yu Xiaoxiu to Huixing Street. It went smoothly. After asking around on the street, she heard that there were several houses renting and selling houses. She was also led to those houses by a warm-hearted aunt.
There were more than a dozen alleys on Huixing Street, and most of the alleys were residential houses with single doors and courtyards. The houses were old, and many of the courtyard walls had traces of being rebuilt. Yu Shu originally thought that the price would be cheaper, but she didn't expect that after asking a few houses, the cheapest one would cost 150 taels of silver to obtain the title deed. The two houses that Yu Shu was interested in only rented and didn't sell, and it cost 8 taels of silver a month.
Yu Shu and Yu Xiaoxiu both thought that it was expensive. They bought an empty house without furniture. If they bought more, they wouldn't even have money for food next month.
As a last resort, Yu Shu and Yu Xiaoxiu changed another place. From the warm-hearted aunt, they found another street. They went to take a look, but it wasn't as clean as the houses on Huixing Street.
At noon, they bought a basket of steamed buns on the street to eat. Because they had told the waiter to send food to Jing Chen's room, they weren't in a hurry to go back, so they walked to Huixing Street. They wanted to say that they could rent the house that cost eight taels of silver a month first. It was better than wasting it by staying in an inn.
Back on Huixing Street, Yu Shu wanted to find the two houses that they had seen before, but she was stopped by someone at the entrance of an alley.
"Little brother, the two little brothers in front," a slightly plump young man ran up and walked in front of Yu Shu. He said with a smile, "You were looking for a house to buy this morning, right?"
Yu Shu nodded. They had wandered around this street for half a day in the morning, so it wasn't strange for people to hear that they were buying a house. "That's good. I have a courtyard here that was built just a few years ago. The place is quiet, and there are plants in the courtyard. I think little brother looks like a scholar, so this house is perfect for you to live in."
The man opened his mouth and praised himself. He wanted to entice Yu Shu to follow him to see the house. Yu Shu asked and found that it was on the street behind. Seeing that it was broad daylight, she wasn't afraid that he would do something bad, so she went with him.
When they arrived, they knew that the fat man wasn't lying. This small house with a siheyuan was indeed not bad. There was a house on the east, west, and north sides. There was also a kitchen in the corner of the courtyard. A row of fences surrounded a small circle of land. Although there were only some wild flowers and weeds growing inside, without anyone taking care of it, it looked a bit bleak. It was rare to see a little bit of interest.
At first glance, Yu Shu fell in love with this small courtyard. She carefully looked around inside and outside and found that there was no problem with Fengshui. She turned to ask the owner of the house: "This small courtyard, how much are you willing to sell it for?"
The fat landlord said reluctantly: "Well, someone in my family is sick and I am in a hurry to raise money for medicine. This house is originally only for rent and not for sale. If you can buy it now, I will only charge you 200 taels of silver."
The price was not expensive. Compared with the house itself, it was considered cheap. If it wasn't in urgent need of money, it couldn't be sold for less than 300 taels of silver. This made Yu Shu very tempted.
"Is the deed of the house and the land complete?" In the morning at the tea house, Yu Shu asked Mr. Bai about the procedures of buying a house in An Ling City. She was afraid that she would meet a swindler.
The fat landlord immediately took out the deed of the house and the land and handed it to her: "Here, I have it with me. I will take you to the magistrate's office and put your fingerprint on it. After you give me the money, this house is yours."
Yu Shu had seen the deed of Zhao Hui's small courtyard and recognized the format. She saw that the deed in his hand was a few years old and didn't seem to be fake. Moreover, she had to go to the magistrate's office and pay the money last. She wasn't stupid. If she found out that he was cheating, she could just refuse to buy it.
Yu Shu had an idea in her mind. She asked the landlord a few more questions and made an appointment with him to go to the magistrate's office tomorrow. The landlord was naturally overjoyed and happily sent them away.
After the group of people left, a few women poked their heads out of the alley. They gathered together and whispered, pointing at the house that Yu Shu intended to buy. Their voices could be faintly heard, "Xu Laoliu has found a sucker this time."
"Yes, that haunted house is full of ghosts. No one would want it even if it was free. Those two foreigners …"
"Xu Laoliu lost money in gambling again."
Yu Shu and Yu Xiaoxiu went to a nearby pharmacy to buy some medicine and then returned to the inn. The sky was still bright and Xia Mingming had not returned.
In the guest room, Jing Chen sat in front of the window and watched Kim Bao licking his claws and combing his hair. When he heard footsteps outside the door, he got up and walked a few steps forward. Then he heard a knock on the door.
"Jing Chen, open the door. We are back."
Yu Shu and Yu Xiaoxiu entered the room and poured a cup of tea for each of them. Jing Chen sat opposite Yu Shu and gestured: "How is it?" Yu Shu said, "Once I've chosen a place, I'll bring the money to the magistrate's office tomorrow to transfer the ownership. Later, I'll buy a few more pieces of furniture and clean it up. In a few days, we'll be able to move in. At that time, you'll be living in one room. Mingming and I will be living in the other room.
Jing Chen smiled and did not raise any objections. When he saw that Yu Shu's cup was empty, he took the initiative to refill the teapot for her.
It wasn't time to eat yet, so the three of them sat in the room and busied themselves with their own things. Yu Xiaoxiu and Jin Bao hadn't seen each other for a day, so they were getting intimate with each other. Yu Shu took out an abacus, a pen and paper, and did some calculations for herself. She didn't find anything unusual. To be on the safe side, she used the six lines to do a divination for the purchase of a house.
Jing Chen sat quietly and watched Yu Shu do the abacus.
In the evening, Xia Mingming finally came back. She went to the room next door and looked gloomy the moment she entered. Yu Shu guessed that she must have had a bad start, so she teased her on purpose, "Did you see any Da Yi Master?"
She had heard from Xia Mingming that the Peiren Teahouse was a teahouse for the traders who had come to the capital to take part in the Great Yan Examination to exchange knowledge. To put it bluntly, it was a place for a group of gloomy quacks to chat and fart. In that kind of place, the most important thing was not whether one had the ability, but having a mouth.
With Xia Mingming's bad temper, Yu Shu had predicted last night that she wouldn't be able to get anything out of today's trip. Sure enough, Xia Mingming angrily sat down next to Yu Shu, slapped the table, and angrily said: "Those snobbish bastards! I'm talking to them because I respect them, yet they still dare to put on airs in front of me. Who do they think they are? I've been learning Yi since I was four years old. I can even recite the Eight Trigrams backwards, unlike those half-baked people. If I hadn't lost my recommendation letter, I wouldn't have paid attention to them!"
The more Xia Mingming said, the angrier she got. Her saliva flew out. She grabbed the teacup in Yu Shu's hand and gulped it down. Then she slammed the teacup on the table, making a loud noise.
Yu Xiaoxiu looked at Yu Shu. Jing Chen looked at Yu Shu. Yu Shu held back her laughter. After she vented her anger, she stood up as if nothing had happened. "You must be hungry. I will go downstairs to see if there is anything to eat."
Yu Xiaoxiu also stood up. "I will go with you."
Jing Chen also wanted to go, but he got up too late. Yu Xiaoxiu had already dragged Yu Shu out of sight. He had to sit back down.
Xia Mingming puffed up her red cheeks. She couldn't find anyone to talk to, so she glared at Jing Chen. Jing Chen looked back at her innocently. It was hard to get angry with his handsome face. After a while, Xia Mingming felt embarrassed. She pushed the empty teacup in her hand forward and ran out of the room with her head down. She whispered: "What a waste of a good appearance. Unfortunately, he is dumb and stupid. He is a freeloader."
Jing Chen turned his head and looked at the figure who disappeared at the door. He closed his eyes and slowly clenched his fists on the table. His knuckles made a crisp sound, and then he loosened his fists.
No matter how Xia Mingming begged at night, Yu Shu didn't agree to go to the training hall with her. She kicked her out early the next morning.
It wasn't that Yu Shu was purposely making things difficult for her. From a certain perspective, Yu Shu was doing this for Xia Mingming's sake. She wanted to use this rare opportunity to grind down her sharpness, to let her eat dust a few times, so that she would understand the ways of the world. As soon as Xia Mingming left, Yu Shu planned to go out to do business, but before she left, Jing Chen expressed that he wanted to go with her.
Yu Shu thought that it wasn't far. If Jing Chen was really tired on the way, they could go back by carriage. So she asked Yu Xiaoxiu to stay in the inn. She bowed and went out with Jing Chen.
When the two arrived at Huixing Street, Fatty Xu was already waiting for them at the place where they agreed to meet yesterday. When he saw Yu Shu appeared on time, he smiled and greeted her.
Originally, Yu Shu planned to go directly to the government office to do the formalities. But since Jing Chen came along, it didn't matter. Yu Shu let Fatty Xu lead Jing Chen to see the house first. He will be one of the tenants in the future.
When Fatty Xu heard that Yu Shu wanted to bring Jing Chen to see the house, he looked at Jing Chen. He thought that this person has an extraordinary temperament and asked: "This is?"
Yu Shu said: "He is my brother. We will live together in the future."
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