Xu Yue, however, believed Bai Jiaojiao's words without a doubt and nodded vigorously: "It's so cold here. Even with a hot water bottle, it still feels like I'm sleeping in an ice cave every night."

Xu Yue was happy to see the snow-covered landscape outside the train window after entering the north, but now she gets annoyed whenever she sees snow.

"It's just that our place is too small, so houses are definitely cheaper. You can buy a small courtyard in our town for only a hundred or eight thousand. But the prospects for development there are definitely not as good as in Yancheng. Most of us classmates will stay here in the future. All the people we know from university are here, so it's easier to get things done if you have connections. Look at Chen Meizhen, she can still represent the freshmen and give a speech on stage even like that."

Xu Yue's words were surprisingly mature.

"I'll just think about it."

When Bai Jiaojiao heard that it was a hundred or eight thousand, she felt more at ease.

When she buys a house, she won't care about its current location, but rather about getting close to the area designated after the reforms. Even if that area is currently a dilapidated wasteland, the houses there will be more valuable than those in other places.

At noon, Shen Heng went to Bai Jiaojiao's dormitory early to wait. When the female students who were going to lunch saw this person standing at the door, they all walked around him without saying a word.

Shen Heng noticed this as well, and consciously moved to the base of a large tree to avoid being too conspicuous.

This stop, however, turned into covert observation. It made him look even more like someone doing something wrong, and anyone who discovered him would be startled.

As soon as Bai Jiaojiao stepped out, she saw Shen Heng staring longingly at the entrance of their dormitory building, and quickly ran over: "How long have you been waiting here?"

"It didn't take long before it turned into an ice pop."

Bai Jiaojiao was amused by Shen Heng: "Didn't we say last night that we'd come out at midnight? Let's go after lunch. If we go too early, they might not be here yet."

"Yes, I was too anxious, okay? I haven't seen you for half a day, isn't it enough that I missed you?"

Shen Heng thought to himself that he had to close the deal on the house today, even if it was a bit dilapidated. He could just spend more time repairing it. But he couldn't bear to live apart from Bai Jiaojiao for even a day longer.

"Okay, okay."

"Why didn't you come out sooner? I was waiting outside your dorm, and I could see your female classmates were about to call security to arrest me."

Shen Heng even felt wronged.

Bai Jiaojiao shook her head. Men, sometimes they are quite vulnerable.

The two ate at the cafeteria, and then Shen Heng rode his bicycle to take Bai Jiaojiao to the residential area near the school gate.

They knocked on the door of the woman from that day, but to their surprise, the homeowner was already there.

But thinking about it, it's obvious that the daughter of this family is probably more eager to sell the house than the buyers, so how could she not be proactive?

"So, it's the two of you who want to buy my house?"

The seller glanced at Chen Heng and was quite satisfied with his physique. If her brother had brought two or three people to cause trouble, they might not have been able to.

But then he glanced at Bai Jiaojiao again, worried that she might not be able to withstand the ordeal.

"It's the two of us who want to buy it. Let's go take a look first."

“Okay, my surname is Gao, you can just call me Sister Gao. I’ll take you to see the apartment now.”

Ms. Gao was wearing a gray business suit, which was fitted and neat, making her look very energetic.

She spoke quite decisively, and seemed to be a leader at some point.

She led the two of them to open the courtyard gate and said, "Look for yourselves, this courtyard is perfectly maintained. My father loved cleanliness the most when he was alive. I usually come back every two weeks to help him tidy up. You won't find a house in this area that is so well maintained."

This yard is indeed more spacious than the older sister's house, and it looks exceptionally tidy because the old lady's things have been tidied up.

Bai Jiaojiao was satisfied, but she couldn't say, "But this house is quite old, it's an old neighborhood."

“It’s an old neighborhood, but if you’re looking for a place near Yanda University, this is the only area we have. It’s not worth it to go any further.”

Sister Gao's words are not to be taken lightly.

Bai Jiaojiao and Shen Heng looked around. The room faced south and had two bedrooms, as well as an east-facing wing room and kitchen. However, there was only one wall on the far west side, and the toilet was the same as before, located near the door.

“This house is more convenient than the ones you go further away from. Look, we have a toilet here. If you go to the south to see those courtyard houses, not only will you have to live with other people, but you'll also have to go outside and fight with them for the toilet.”

This was indeed something that made Bai Jiaojiao very satisfied.

Sister Gao added fuel to the fire: "Hey, we're reluctant to part with it too. My siblings and I grew up here. If we sell it, it'll be like cutting off our roots."

"Sister Gao, just tell us how much you want for this house. If we think it's worth it, we'll consider it. If the price is too high, we won't be able to afford it."

"Five thousand."

The price was within Bai Jiaojiao's expectations.

In this location, if this house hadn't had all those troubles, five thousand would definitely be a fair price.

But Bai Jiaojiao said, "Sister Gao, I can find out about your family's affairs by asking around here. You and your sister want to sell this house, but your brother is not willing, right? If we buy it, we will be taking on risks."

“Look at what you’re saying. My brother just wants more money. If I sell it to him at a lower price, he’ll definitely be even more upset.”

"So you mean you can't make this decision yourself?" Shen Heng looked down at her, putting a bit of pressure on Sister Gao.

“Now that I’m here, I can definitely make the decision,” she said. To be honest, she and her brother had fallen out. In the court case, she had already bought the two-thirds that her brother and sister had embezzled at the lowest price. “But if the price is any lower, I won’t be able to explain it to my brother and sister.”

Shen Heng and Bai Jiaojiao exchanged a glance.

Bai Jiaojiao pretended to be genuinely convinced by Sister Gao: "Brother Heng, they're not having an easy time either, let's not haggle. Let's go look at other things."

"Alright, we can't make things difficult for people here. Anyway, we're not in a hurry, and the school dorms are cheap. We can take our time to find one. To put it bluntly, in two years, there might still be old men and women dying in this area."

After Shen Heng finished speaking, he was about to pull Bai Jiaojiao away.

They're living in free dorms, what's the rush?

Sister Gao quickly said, "Oh, you two have just gotten married, and living apart isn't good. How about this, if you really want it, I'll give you a discount of two hundred yuan."

The fact that Ms. Gao was willing to lower the price shows that her bottom line isn't here yet.

Bai Jiaojiao shook her head: "Sister, since we don't plan to take your house anymore, let me tell you the truth. We only have four thousand yuan between us, and we know that houses in this area are expensive. If we hadn't heard that there was something going on with your house, we wouldn't have dared to ask you to come and see it. This is all the money we can come up with from our combined savings. It's much less than what you asked for, so we're embarrassed to haggle. Thank you for coming all this way, sister."