Before Su Qingluan pushed open the door of the shop, she really didn't expect the scene in front of her - had she accidentally entered the water city of Venice?

Originally, this shop sold various musical instruments, such as guzheng, guqin, pipa, and dongxiao...

As a result, for some unknown reason, the floor of the entire store is flooded, and all kinds of well-made musical instruments are soaked in water. Some of them have cracked and deformed and are about to be scrapped.

The people in the shop were wading through the water, all in a hurry, anxious to move the musical instruments to the high shelves that would not be affected by the accumulated water.

Even so, there are still many musical instruments that are damaged by being soaked in water.

Seeing someone coming, a waiter waded over and asked with a smile, "What musical instrument do you want to buy? They're all on sale now, and there are gifts for buying more. It's a good deal!"

Su Qingluan shook her head: "I don't buy musical instruments."

Seeing this, the guy immediately stopped smiling, turned his head away, and changed his expression as fast as turning the pages of a book.

Su Qingluan asked with great interest, "Is this how you treat your guests?"

The clerk turned around and glanced at Su Qingluan, saying with a sad face, "Hey, young man, please stop joking with us, okay? Can't you see that this place is a complete mess?"

Su Qingluan didn't bother the young man anymore and just asked the shopkeeper Liang next to him: "Uncle Liang, what's going on?"

Shopkeeper Liang shook his head: "It's just that this family is unlucky."

It turned out that there had been many heavy rains in the past few days, causing the ground to collapse in many places.

However, most buildings have foundations underneath, which doesn't easily lead to soil loss and ground collapse. Unfortunately, the previous owner of this house had secretly built a basement inside the house. Although it was filled in when it was moved to this house, it still damaged the foundation. Over the years, the basement has long been dilapidated.

The ground had been empty for a long time without any sand or rocks to fill it, and when it rained heavily, the ground collapsed. In addition, there had been a lot of rain recently, and the underground water suddenly came up, soaking a large number of musical instruments placed close to the ground. The inside of the store was also flooded, making it impossible to enter.

Even now, if you want to walk inside the store, you need to use a "pathway" paved with wooden planks and stones. You have to step carefully.

In fact, this situation is easy to deal with. Just wait until the accumulated water recedes, fill the missing part of the foundation with sand and gravel, compact it, and then renovate the floor of the store.

But the difficulty lies in that it is the rainy season in summer, and the next wave of rain may come before the water in the house recedes.

In those days, there were no large pumps like those in modern times that could remove the accumulated water in a short period of time, so in a sense, we could only "leave it to fate."

Su Qingluan and Manager Liang stood at the door, neither buying any musical instruments nor turning around to leave, which made them very eye-catching.

After a while, a thin young man in a light blue straight-hem robe came over, clasped his fists, and asked, "What are you two guests doing here at Gong Yu Pavilion?"

Su Qingluan also returned the greeting: "I heard that the store owner wants to rent this shop out?"

Shopkeeper Liang was startled when Su Qingluan asked this, and immediately turned to look at her, his expression as if saying, "Are you kidding me? I've already told you the actual situation of this store, why do you still want to take on this hot potato and rent it?"

Su Qingluan seemed not to feel the nagging in Manager Liang's eyes, and still looked at the young man opposite with a smile. The young man had a sallow face and two big dark circles under his eyes. It was obvious that he was not in good spirits.

He looked Su Qingluan up and down and sighed, "My dear little brother, if you are impulsive, please don't joke with me." He smiled bitterly, as if he was about to cry, "I really can't stand any jokes right now."

Su Qingluan looked at the puddles on the ground and said, "Puddles of this magnitude should recede in a couple of days. Even if it's rainy season now, we only need to wait a month or two until autumn arrives, when the rain will be much less. Why rush to rent out the shop at such a low price right now?"

There must be something wrong when things are abnormal. Su Qingluan always felt that the shop owner was not telling the whole truth.

Sure enough, the young man was still laughing: "Since the shop has been flooded like this, it's better to lower the rent a little, so that at least someone will come to rent it."

Su Qingluan looked at the young man carefully: "The price you offer can be considered very favorable." It is more than a discount, it can be regarded as a bargain rent.

Even though this store is relatively small, based on a rough calculation based on the market conditions of other stores, even if it cannot reach an annual rent of fifty or sixty taels of silver, it will at least be forty taels or more.

Now this company actually asked for a lease of only twenty-two years, which instantly made Su Qingluan alert - it seemed that there was a big pitfall in what seemed to be a good deal!

Hearing Su Qingluan put emphasis on the word "discount", the young man pursed his lips tightly, and then asked impatiently: "Are you going to rent it or not? I'm still busy here! I don't have that much free time!"

Oh, you are angry?

Su Qingluan touched her chin with interest and chose a compromise reason: "Look, you took out dozens of taels in one breath. It's not a small amount for me. I have to go back and discuss it with my family and come back in two days."

Seeing that she seemed to really want to rent a shop, the young man resumed his polite demeanor and bowed to her. "If your family is interested, the rent can be negotiated."

Su Qingluan looked up suddenly: "It's so cheap, and you still say 'rent is negotiable'?"

The other party obviously knew that he had blurted out something in a hurry, so he pursed his lips tightly and stopped talking.

On the way back, Shopkeeper Liang apologized, "My dear niece, I'm truly sorry. I only saw that the shop was in a rare location and that it had been flooded. I assumed it was gone after the village was over, so I didn't ask any further questions."

It was obvious that Shopkeeper Liang hadn't thought too deeply about the "low rent." But the thin young man from Gong Yu Pavilion was so anxious to rent out the shop, even willing to offer a low rent, that it was clear on his face that there was something fishy going on with this place, and I'm desperate to sell it.

This made Su Qingluan and Manager Liang hesitate.

but……

"Come to think of it, it might not be a bad thing," Su Qingluan recalled the young man's facial expression that could be seen at a glance, "At least that person is not good at lying." Although he tried his best, his expression still betrayed him.

Shopkeeper Liang smiled and shook his head after hearing this: "Although it's a pity, my niece should not consider this family for the time being."

Su Qingluan's eyes rolled, but she asked in return: "Uncle Liang, why do you think the store owner is in such a hurry to rent out the store?"