"What a coincidence! I was just on my way back when I ran into you. By the way, what brings you here today?" There were still three days until the day they were supposed to meet the old scholar to pay their tuition, but Zhao Guihua had come to this alley today, so Madam Gu asked this question.
"Grandma Gu, we've come to buy a house. We'll be going to study at your house in the future. It's a long, long way back to the village every day, and there are bad people and wild animals on the way. My parents are worried about us, so they want to buy a house for my brothers and me to live in, but unfortunately, they haven't been able to find one yet."
Xingxing shook her little head helplessly and sighed in distress, which made people chuckle.
Everyone burst out laughing.
"You want to buy a house?" Madam Gu was a little surprised, but she quickly recovered. She thought that the Zhou couple were farmers and dressed very simply. They had taken out seven taels of silver and other things to pay tuition earlier. She thought they had emptied their savings, but she didn't expect that they still had money left to buy a house.
I underestimated them before.
The Zhou couple, unaware of the other's complicated thoughts, smiled憨厚ly and said, "That's right, we did want to buy a house, but unfortunately we couldn't find a suitable one."
After thinking for a moment, Madam Gu said, "The family next door does have a house they want to sell, but it's a bit dilapidated. Why don't I take you to take a look first?"
That would be great! Zhao Guihua introduced Zhou Laoda to Gu Wangshi, saying that he was her husband and hadn't come with her before because he was working, but he came with her today to buy the house.
Afterwards, the group followed Madam Gu to see the house next door. It did look quite old, with several roof tiles missing. It would need to be extensively repaired before anyone could live there.
"To be honest, this house belongs to my old man's younger brother. My brother-in-law passed away early, leaving behind my sister-in-law and his only son. My nephew has two sons who are of marriageable age."
"It's just that times have been tough these past few years, and their family is struggling financially, so they can't afford the bride price to get a wife. Fortunately, my brother-in-law left behind two houses; they live in one now and want to sell this one."
What Madam Gu didn't say was that because her nephew was short of money, he couldn't afford to renovate the empty house, which had become increasingly dilapidated in recent years.
The house is a bit run-down, but that's acceptable. After all, it's a two-courtyard house and quite spacious. I just don't know the price. If it can be cheaper, I can consider it.
“My sister-in-law urgently needs money, so this two-courtyard house is only selling for one hundred taels of silver. That’s really not expensive,” Madam Gu added.
One hundred taels is indeed not expensive, but with the cost of renovation, it becomes quite expensive. Besides, you always have to bargain when buying things, but since the other party is the sister-in-law of the old scholar, it's not easy to bargain too low.
Zhao Guihua smiled gently and whispered to Gu Wangshi, "We are a farming family and don't have much savings. Could you lower the price of this house? Do you think we can sell it for eighty taels?"
Gu Wangshi said she needed to ask her sister-in-law before she could give a reply, so she took them to see the old scholar's sister-in-law and bargained with her. Zhao Guihua felt much more at ease then.
Finally, the old scholar's sister-in-law said she would choose an auspicious number for the character and sell it to Zhao Guihua for eighty-eight taels.
Both Zhou Laoda and Zhao Guihua thought the price was reasonable.
Once the price was agreed upon, Zhao Guihua paid the other party a deposit of ten taels of silver. The remaining seventy-eight taels would be paid in full the next day after she took the land deed, household registration, and other official documents to the yamen to complete the formalities.
Because the house needed renovation, Zhou Laoda and Gu Wangshi discussed it and decided that the children would have to wait a little longer to start school.
"It's alright, you can come back after you've finished repairing the house." Madam Gu exchanged a few polite words with Old Master Zhou, and then said that she wanted them to stay for dinner.
Zhou Laoda said no need, as he had family matters to attend to and bid farewell to Gu Wangshi.
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