Chapter 147
147 Buying a House
When the agent heard Old Madam Wang’s sharp words, their hearts skipped a beat. They knew that they had encountered a tough person.
“Don’t worry, Old Madam. I definitely won’t cheat you.” The agent chuckled. “What kind of house do you want? Tell me first so that I can bring you to take a look.”
Old Madam Wang said, “The house has to be slightly larger. It has to have a courtyard, and it has to have at least two entrances. I need five or six rooms, and the beds in each room must be big enough to accommodate at least two people. The closer it is to town, the better. It’s even better if it’s nearer to the school.”
When the agent heard Old Madam Wang’s words, he smiled brightly. This was a big customer!
Other families would usually only buy a small house. The entire family would squeeze into one room. If they wanted to add another member to the family, they would at most buy a two room unit.
A house with a courtyard and five or six rooms would not be a small house.
“Based on your requirements, I really have two units on hand. One is at the east end of town. It’s about seven minutes away from the school. There are four rooms and two servants’ rooms. If you don’t have any servants at home, you can change the servant rooms to a young master’s or young lady’s room. The courtyard is quite big, and there’s a well inside. The owner wants to go to the capital to take the Imperial Examination, so he decided to sell this house. They’re in a hurry to raise money, so the price is very fair.”
Old Madam Wang’s expression did not change. “Then what’s the other unit like?”
“The other one is a little further away, but this one’s courtyard is larger. There are five rooms, and there’s also a well inside. Moreover, there’s also a study room. Of course, the books inside have already been moved away. This family has fallen from grace, so they want to sell the ancestral home. However, it’s half an hour away from the school. The price is about the same as the other house. If you don’t find it troublesome, I recommend this one.”
Wang Chuangui said to Old Madam Wang, “Mother, why don’t we go to both of these units first and see what they look like?”
“Of course. Let’s look at the more remote unit first. That unit is quite close to my house.” With that, the agent returned home and took out a bunch of keys.
After walking for about a quarter of an hour, they saw a courtyard in the distance. Outside the courtyard was a wall built with stone bricks, and there was a wooden door in the middle.
The wooden door was locked. After the agent went up to unlock it, they saw that there was indeed a large courtyard inside.
On the left of the courtyard was a vegetable field. Beside the vegetable field was a small chicken coop. Beyond that was the outhouse.
On the right side of the courtyard were a few trees and a swing.
After walking into the courtyard, there was another door. Behind it was a place similar to a garden. It could be seen that the aesthetic standards of this family were not bad. Although the flowers planted inside were not expensive, in spring, the flowers leaned against each other, and the colors were very good.
Inside were the rooms where everyone lived. There were a total of five rooms. Other than the master bedroom, the other four rooms were located on the east and west side of the house.
Other than the bedrooms, there was also a dining room and a reception pavilion. It looked big enough.
However, all the furniture was very old. It was obvious that they were from a long time ago. Some of them had already become unusable and were severely worn.
After Old Madam Wang finished looking around, she roughly had an idea.
Little Ah Yu had long been attracted by the swing and was swinging under the tree.
There was a cherry tree beside the swing. The cherry blossoms had just withered and fallen all over the ground.
“Hahaha, Grandma, this is so fun. Grandma, come and try too!” Little Ah Yu swayed high and low, laughing continuously.
When the agent saw this, he said, “The owner of this house originally raised a young lady. This swing was built for that young lady. I heard that the young lady was later married to a very good family. Everyone says that it was related to this house. Isn’t the ancestral mansion prosperous?
Actually, it’s quite good to choose this courtyard home. A half hour walk to the school every morning is not considered very far. The kids can even temper their bodies that way. Some students who lived too close to the school will even wind up being late. Not only did they not train their bodies, they even cultivated laziness. This is not good.”
Old Madam Wang did not comment on this.
There was more than one school in town, but the agent tacitly hinted that it was just an ordinary small school. He thought that she only wanted to send the children in her family to school.
If the agent knew that Wang Chuangui was also going to enter the school, his eyeballs would probably fall out.
Although scholars nowadays were of all ages, this was the first time he had seen someone start studying after the age of 30.
“Old Madam, what do you think of this house?” the agent probed.
Old Madam Wang nodded. “Not bad. What’s the price of this house?”
“I won’t hide it from you anymore. If this house is sold in the county city, it will cost at least 200 taels. Although the property in our town won’t be able to reach such a price, it won’t be much cheaper. I’ll give you a sincere price. 150 taels. It’ll come with all the furniture and items and I’ll even save you the agent fees. However, I can’t strike off the administration fees. If I do that, I’ll suffer a huge loss!”
Old Madam Wang said, “Let’s go to the other unit to take a look first.”
She did not say if this price was too expensive or too cheap.
The agent could only brace himself and bring Old Madam Wang to see the other unit.
The other unit was farther away and it took a lot of time for them to reach, but the owner was indeed not lying. This courtyard house was slightly smaller. It also has a courtyard outside, and the layout was similar to the previous unit.
But the conditions were much worse inside.
There were only three bedrooms inside. The master bedroom was more spacious, and there were two servant rooms. The servant rooms could only accommodate one bed. They could not even put an extra table, let alone a wardrobe.
Such a room was suitable for the children, but not for the adults.
“Old Madam, the advantage of this unit is that it’s very close to the school. Of course, that means that it’s even closer to the teachers. Usually, if the children encounter any difficulties in their studies, they can come and ask the teachers directly. It’s very beneficial to their studies.”
At this point, the agent smiled. “Actually, many people fancy this house not because it’s comfortable to live in, but because of what it can bring. For example, this house is slightly worse than the previous one, but the connections it can bring are different.”
In other words, although there was a difference between the two houses, the prices were about the same.
In fact, this house was even more expensive.
Little Ah Yu ran around for so long and finally understood that they were buying a house for the family.
Little Ah Yu counted with her fingers for a long time and said in confusion, “Grandma, who is this house for? It doesn’t seem to be big enough for our family!”
There were many people in their house, but there were only a few rooms here.
Their old house in Hu Family Village was very spacious. Although it was a little dilapidated, everyone had a place to live.
Including Divine Physician Xue. They could even find a chicken coop for him to sleep in.
Old Madam Wang smiled and said, “This is the house Grandma bought for you. In the future, this house will be used as your dowry.”
As soon as these words were spoken, not only the agent, but even Wang Chuangui, who had followed them, was subconsciously shocked.
This was actually a house for Little Ah Yu?!