He Haiming was upset. He was unwilling to live there, but he also complained about the high price. He wondered why all the newly arrived educated youth were so poor.
"Let's discuss it. You wait outside for a while." He Haiming waved to He Zhuzhu, He Pingping and He Zhaoyang. The four of them walked into He Zhaoyang's house, leaving the five standing there.
Zhang Meili saw the village chief bringing the three landlords in and looked at Guo Jingyi hesitantly, "Are they unwilling to arrange free accommodation?"
Guo Jingyi: "If the village can arrange other places, they won't let us pay to live in villagers' homes. I guess we should go in and negotiate a rent reduction."
Zhao Heping said to himself in disappointment: "How could this happen!"
Inside the house, the village chief looked at the three people and said, "You have seen the situation. There are no vacant houses in the village. If that Lu Beichu really makes trouble in the town, maybe you will have to give them your house for free."
He Zhaoyang shook his head. "That won't work. If you don't pay, I'd rather let my grandson move back. Anyway, there's no spare room in my house."
He Pingping nodded. "If the village hadn't said that the new educated youth had no place to live, we wouldn't have vacated the room. We built the house with our own money. If they get tired of living in it, who will compensate us?"
He Zhuzhu looked embarrassed. Her family was the worst off and she had originally thought of giving her room to the educated youth to earn some extra income, but if it was for free, she would definitely not be willing to do it.
He Haiming: "Then lower the price. If three yuan is too expensive, then go for two yuan. Two people can live together, two yuan each, which is only four yuan a month. You can recover the cost in four to five years, and when they get married and move out, you will have made a profit."
"Two pieces is fine." He Zhuzhu was the first to agree.
He Pingping and He Zhaoyang looked at her, thought for a few seconds and nodded, "Two dollars then."
Wang Shuning looked at the four people who came out, wondering how much the price would drop.
He Haiming said with a sullen face: "Two dollars per person, this is the bottom line."
Lu Beichu turned around to look at Guo Jingyi, and seeing her nod in agreement, he said, "Okay."
Seeing that Lu Beichu and Guo Jingyi agreed, Zhao Heping and Zhang Meili had no choice but to nod.
Guo Jingyi quickly pulled Zhang Meili over and said, "Meili, can we live together at He Pingping's house?"
Wang Shuning frowned and looked at Zhang Meili, deliberately putting on an appearance of being reluctant and unable to speak.
When Lv Beichu saw that Guo Jingyi wanted to live at He Pingping's house, he said to Zhao Heping, "Then the two of us should live at He Zhaoyang's house?"
Zhao Heping felt bad about the rent, so he agreed dejectedly, "Okay." He decided to spend his money frugally.
Zhang Meili felt awkward when she saw Wang Shuning opening and closing his mouth, but she couldn't delay in agreeing to Guo Jingyi's request. She turned her head and looked at Guo Jingyi and replied, "Okay, we'll live together."
Wang Shuning lowered his eyelids, turned his head and looked at the village chief and said, "Aunt Zhu's house has no kitchen, and there are cracks. It may leak when it rains. It's not fair to pay the same two yuan a month as everyone else."
The village chief subconsciously glanced at He Zhuzhu who was standing aside. The conditions of her house were indeed worse than those of the other two families, but there were no other houses in the village, and He Zhuzhu's family was not well off. He Haiming also wanted to help. Two yuan a month was a considerable income for He Zhuzhu's family.
He Zhuzhu said quickly: "It will only leak when it rains. Just use a basin to catch it when the time comes. My mother-in-law has lived in that room for more than ten years and it is fine."
Wang Shuning was a little confused. "You rent out the house, but what about your mother-in-law?"
They have looked at He Zhuzhu's house and found that there are only two rooms in total. Could it be that the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law live in one room? Then what about her husband and children?
"My mother-in-law passed away a month ago, and I live in another room with my two children."
Wang Shuning's brows relaxed slightly, which meant that there was no man in this family.
Zhang Meili suddenly asked, "Why did your mother-in-law die? Was it in that room?"
He Zhuzhu saw that everyone's eyes were suddenly focused on her, and she swallowed nervously, "My mother-in-law died of old age in her sleep in the middle of the night. She was 83 years old when she died, which is considered old in the village."
The five people's eyes were vague. Even if he died of old age, it had only been a month since he died. They all felt a little nervous.
Zhang Meili and Guo Jingyi stared at Wang Shuning. They came here together, but now they let Wang Shuning live in such a shabby and unlucky house alone. They felt a little guilty.
Wang Shuning had already made up his mind. He bit his lip and deliberately made his tone sound very depressed. "Village head, the youth camp has a large dormitory. I can squeeze in."
He Haiming refused directly, "No, the youth training center is completely full. You are willing, but others are not."
Those girls are very delicate, otherwise they wouldn't come to grab the house today.
He Zhuzhu felt a little panicked when she saw that Wang Shuning would rather squeeze into a large dormitory bed than live in her own house.
Do people in the city still care about this? But her mother-in-law died of old age, not illness, and she doesn't want to go without paying the two dollars a month rent.
She took a deep breath and walked directly to Wang Shuning. "Although my house is a bit shabby and I don't have the money to repair it for you, you can eat the vegetables in the yard as much as you want without spending any money. I can also let you cook in the kitchen first."
Wang Shuning lowered his head in embarrassment and did not respond immediately.
She wanted more than that. Everyone in the village now used earthen stoves, and she had to go to the riverbank or the mountains to collect firewood, which was a time-consuming and laborious job. If she wanted to use the stove, it was a problem as to where to buy honeycomb coal, and it had to be transported to the village, and she had no means of transportation.
"I..." Zhang Meili was tempted for a moment when she heard that the vegetables could be eaten for free, as it could save some money.
Guo Jingyi was worried that Zhang Meili would go back on her word, so she quickly looked at He Pingping and said, "I see there's some space near Uncle Ping's vegetable garden wall that's empty. Can Meili and I use it? After all, the two of us have to pay four dollars a month in rent."
He Pingping frowned, then thought of his large vegetable patch and said, "You can grow vegetables in the row at the corner."
Zhang Meili is trying to lower the rent, so she probably won't pay to buy vegetables from his family. It's better to let them grow their own than to pick them secretly in the middle of the night.
Wang Shuning looked up and stared at He Zhuzhu, "It's inconvenient to share a kitchen. There's an empty space next to that room. It would be great if you could build a kitchen for me."
He Zhuzhu was stunned.
The corner of He Haiming's mouth twitched. How could He Zhuzhu's family have the money to build a kitchen? The vacant land was originally a small warehouse for firewood. The house was too old and had not been repaired, so it collapsed later.
"If you want a separate kitchen, build it yourself. Aunt Zhu's family doesn't have the money."
"That won't work. Repairing the house and building a kitchen will cost more than ten dollars." Wang Shuning raised his eyes.
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