Xia Daohua looked curious as she walked and looked around, and she was not at all nervous when facing the natives of Jixiang County.

She quickly struck up a friendly rapport with the enthusiastic and talkative locals, and inquired about the city's situation. In less than a quarter of an hour, she had a basic understanding of Jixiang County.

The outer city of Jixiang County is the area from the city gate to the inner city wall, which is inhabited by the native civilians of Jixiang County and people from other places who come to make a living.

She only saw the city walls of the inner city, but was not qualified to enter.

Because the inner city was reserved for officials and the wealthy families of Jixiang County, outsiders had to live in the area for a certain number of years before they were eligible to live there.

Of course, this does not include officials, clerks, and slaves who come here on official business.

If people from the outer city need to go to the county government office to do business, they can also enter the inner city, but they need someone to act as a guarantor - such as a guarantor from an official brokerage firm, or locals or officials who already live in the inner city.

After the three families entered the city, they only stopped at a wonton stall near the city gate to rest, drink a bowl of hot wontons, and inquire about some news.

The first thing I did after that was to go straight to the dental clinic.

They had to rent a yard to live in first, settle down the whole family, and then slowly buy land and houses.

The mule carts used by the family for traveling could also be disposed of. At least for the Xia family, the family did not need so many mule carts for the time being.

When looking for a place to live and buy a yard, the Xia family, the Hu family, and the Zhao family had different opinions and a disagreement arose. In fact, not only did the three families have different plans, but the Xia family itself also had a huge difference of opinion.

The Hu family wanted to go to the countryside to farm and did not want to live in the county town of Jixiang County.

The Zhao family also wanted to farm, but they didn't want to go too far, just in the suburbs of Jixiang County.

The Xia family wanted to settle down in the county.

Xia Dalang needs to find a college to study.

Wulang had to go to a private school or academy.

The second wife and her husband want to farm, the third wife wants to work, and the fifth wife wants to do some small business.

The couple wanted to buy some land to farm their own crops, but their children wanted to continue running the shop and sell the Daohuaxiang series of products.

In the end, the three families pooled their money and rented a large tenement house for a short period of time.

They agreed to live together for the time being.

Firstly, we cherish the affection for each other. Secondly, when we first arrive in a strange place, we will feel braver with more people around and can more or less take care of each other. Thirdly, this also saves money.

It’s not too late to separate when you find land or shops that suit your ideas, and buy or rent a house that suits you.

The yard that the three families rented for a short period of time was near the dental clinic, about a quarter of an hour's walk away.

This large courtyard was originally a standard quadrangle courtyard, but later the owner built some more houses for the convenience of renting out.

However, ordinary families cannot live in so many rooms, and the landlord's family also lives in several rooms, so he divided the entire yard into two parts and rented them out.

Gradually, a good courtyard house became a large compound with more than a dozen families living in it.

These tenants have different sources of income. Sometimes some of them cannot pay the rent and have to move out.

Of course, there are also people who have become rich and feel that the environment here is not good, so they move to the inner city.

The previous wave of tenants was a theatre troupe. Later, the mainstay of the troupe was spotted by a powerful family, who spent a large sum of money to buy the person from the troupe owner.

The troupe owner was old, and after a long time of wandering around, he couldn't help but miss his hometown. After much deliberation, he simply disbanded the troupe, took his money and a child, and returned to his hometown in the south.

The yard became vacant and was listed in a real estate agency for a long time, but no suitable tenant was found.

When the Xia, Hu, and Zhao families saw this house and looked at the layout and number of houses, they all felt somewhat satisfied.

The landlord hadn't found a tenant for this house for some time, and he couldn't help but feel a little anxious. He bargained with the three families and the broker for almost two hours, and drank several pots of tea, before finally agreeing on a price that satisfied both parties.

This courtyard is located in the outer city and is not a single-family house. Its only advantages are that it is large in area, has many houses, has a kang, and there is a well in the courtyard.

Therefore, the rent for the courtyard was three taels of silver per month, which was thirty-six taels for the whole year.

There were exactly three families, and each family contributed twelve taels of silver.

The burden is not too heavy, but it is indeed painful.

The Xia family was allocated twelve rooms on the north side.

Xia Dalang and A Liu shared a room, Xia Yougui and Sun shared a room, Xia Erlang and Zhou Yunniang shared a room, the three Taohua sisters shared a room, Sanlang and Silang shared a room, Grandma Qu and the Zhou children shared a room, Xia Youxi and Wu shared a room, Lanhua and Juhua shared a room, Xia Youtian and Jiang and Huaihua shared a room, Lihua, Wulang, Xia Daohua and Linghua shared a room, Xia Youliang and Cheng shared a room, and Liulang and Zaohua shared a room.

Everyone contributed about the same amount, but the second family had more people and occupied the largest house.

Sun felt that she had gotten the upper hand, and she looked at the children brought by Zhou and Grandma Qu with particular favor.

Sun didn't know that Erlang had secretly given the money to Zhou.

Unlike Sun, Erlang never wanted to eat or take more than he deserved.

Everyone hurriedly unloaded their luggage and belongings from the car, crammed them into their own rooms, and then lined up in the big kitchen to boil water for washing - this was one of the shortcomings of this courtyard - the kitchen was shared, not that each family had their own kitchen.

Fortunately, we have been traveling together and have developed enough tacit understanding.

I'm also well-adapted to things like queuing up to boil water.

There was no dispute.

Xia Daohua asked others to line up first while she stayed in the house to decorate the room.

Anyway, there is space, so moving things around is effortless.

You can also take out the things you smuggled in the space one by one and mix them in with the large amount of luggage, so that people will find out without realizing it: "Oh, I brought this with me too!"

By the time Xia Daohua got the chance to take a bath, it was already dark.

In order to save money, Zhou told the children to be frugal and not to waste candles and oil on lamps, but to take a bath in the dark.

After hearing this, Xia Daohua felt very happy.

She locked the door, quietly slipped into the space, took a refreshing bath in it, and then came out again without anyone seeing her. It was so convenient!

For this convenience, Xia Daohua specifically suggested that Linghua and Lihua wash before her.

Lihua declined awkwardly, but Xia Daohua said:

"Sister, I'm just being lazy. You and Linghua go wash first. The hard work of scrubbing Linghua, this little mud monkey, will all be yours!"

Linghua pouted and said, "I'm not a little mud monkey!"

Xia Daohua smiled and said, "Well, you're not a little clay monkey, you're a little clay figurine."