"Ahem, so this young lady is your daughter? Well, our matriarch asked me to thank you on her behalf. I misunderstood earlier. It's all thanks to this young lady for stopping the carriage in time, otherwise..." The rest of the message was self-evident. The coachman, who had previously been arrogant and hot-tempered, apologized and thanked him profusely.
Although he felt that what had just happened was just a coincidence, the old lady said that no matter what the truth was, it was the young lady who stopped the carriage and saved them from disaster, so they should be thanked.
"These ten taels of silver are a reward from the old lady." The coachman handed over a silver ingot.
Neither Zhou Laoda nor his wife accepted the ten taels of silver; in fact, they were somewhat wary. Zhou Laoda gestured for Zhao Guihua to quickly carry Xingxing onto the oxcart. He calmly said to the coachman, "What happened just now was purely accidental. Please thank your old lady for me. My daughter accidentally wandered out and blocked our way. It was quite a coincidence. We don't want the reward. We can't go this way; we'll have to take a detour. Farewell."
Watching the oxcart quickly turn around and leave, the coachman had no choice but to go back and report to the old lady, "The farming couple refused the reward and hurriedly drove the oxcart away."
The old woman's kind voice came from inside the carriage, "They are a kind family. Since they don't want it, let's leave it at that. Let's go, we have important business to attend to."
The oxcart quickly arrived at another street, far away from the scene of the incident. Zhao Guihua said with lingering fear, "When we buy a house, we'd rather spend more money than buy a dilapidated building. We don't want it to collapse suddenly like that old building. If the house collapses, that's one thing, but if someone gets crushed to death, then we're really doomed."
“That old building looks like no one lives there. The place was remote, and the surrounding houses were all old and dilapidated. Otherwise, why would there not be a single person watching the commotion after so long?” Zhao Guizhi reminded her.
Hearing her say that, Zhao Guihua thought about it and realized that no one had come out to watch the commotion. She figured that not many people lived in that area, and even if a few families still lived there, they probably didn't like to cause trouble. No one was willing to come out and see what was going on, even with such a big commotion.
"But we should still buy a house further away from that place, to avoid any more trouble." Zhao Guihua patted her chest, her heart, which had just calmed down after Xingxing ran to stop the carriage, began to pound again.
"We definitely can't buy the house over there. Let's buy a shop first, and then a house closer to the shop." The shops that can be used for business are all in bustling and lively areas, quite far from where we just left off.
"Let's find an inn to stay in first, and then we'll look for a shop tomorrow." As Zhou Laoda drove the cart, he kept an eye out for inns around them. They wanted to find one that wasn't too expensive, but also not too bad, since they were traveling with two young girls.
Half an hour later, we finally found an inn that wasn't too expensive but had a decent environment. We booked two rooms. The inn had a backyard where we could drive the oxcart.
It was already evening, but the days were getting longer, so it was still early before dark. After putting their things in the inn, Zhou Laoda and his two companions took the two little girls out for a stroll.
I plan to explore the surrounding area more thoroughly.
"I just asked the innkeeper. It's quite far from the dock. The town is nothing compared to the county. There are only a few lively places to do business in the town, while the county has four streets in the east, west, south, and north, and each street is suitable for doing business. The dock is also more crowded than the dock in the town, so business is easier there." Zhao Guizhi told him all the information she had gathered.
"Shall we go to the dock tomorrow?" Zhao Guihua said.
"We definitely have to go take a look, but we can't rely on ourselves to find a house. Let's go ask at a real estate agency." They're not familiar with the county town, and it would take forever to ask each agency one by one.
“Okay, you know more about these things than we do, we’ll listen to you.” Old Zhou said with an honest and simple expression.
Xingxing obediently fiddled with her fingers in Zhou Laoda's arms. This girl had been very well-behaved from the beginning until now. No one saw her lowered eyes darting around for a moment before she leaned on Zhou Laoda's shoulder and looked at Ruru behind her.
As Zhao Guizhi approached, Xingxing reached out to grab Ruru's hand. Ruru was puzzled when she felt something being stuffed into her palm.
"Huh." Ruru opened her hand and saw that it was a piece of candy. Xingxing had secretly hidden candy to eat again.
"You've already had candy twice today, you can't have any more now, or you'll ruin your teeth!" Zhao Guizhi said, both amused and exasperated. She glanced at Xingxing, who was looking at her nervously, afraid that she would tell her parents.
In fact, Zhao Guihua had seen them long ago. Although she was walking in front with her back to them, it was as if she had eyes in the back of her head, and she noticed Xingxing's every move.
"You little rascal, I don't know where you got all that candy, you're really good at hiding it." Old Zhou patted her little bottom lightly.
Xingxing immediately opened her arms, "Mommy, hug me! Xingxing wants Mommy to hug her."
"You've become increasingly naughty lately, always secretly doing bad things, and you don't listen to your parents anymore." Zhao Guihua tapped her forehead.
“The star didn’t do anything bad,” the star argued, or rather, explained, “the star has its reasons, it hasn’t been naughty.”
"Why does such a little person have so many worries and troubles? What troubles can't you tell your parents? Why do you have to stop other people's carriages and secretly eat candy to solve them?" Zhao Guihua teased.
Xingxing immediately protested, "Mom, can we not mention stopping the carriage anymore? You even disciplined me today, sigh, it's a long story."
“You’re the most mischievous one, always causing trouble. I would never lay a finger on you normally, and now you’re in trouble and you think you’re right?” Zhao Guihua tapped her forehead again.
"That's not how it is." After saying that, Xingxing whispered something in her ear.
"Really?" Zhao Guihua wanted to ask a few more questions, but stopped herself because her sister and Ruru were there.
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