Jingji Real Estate Agency.

The old agent recommended two cheaper houses, but when he saw that the father and son did not respond, he knew that they had no money.

He put away the room list in his hand without leaving a trace, and asked calmly: "My husband, just shake your head. It seems that my recommendation is not to your liking."

"All your recommendations are good," Zhao Shouzheng hesitated for a while and said awkwardly, "But 'the whole family is in the autumn wind, and the clothes are not cut in September'..."

"Uh, what do you mean?" The old agent was confused. "It's only February, how come it's September?"

"What my father means is that we don't have much money and can't afford to rent an expensive house." Zhao Hao explained helplessly.

"I see." The old agent shook his head, feeling disgusted. These poor scholars were so concerned about their reputation that they made the word "poor" sound so strange.

He picked up another list of houses, handed it to the father and son, and said, "The house above is the cheapest, so go find it yourself, husband."

After saying this, he got up without saying goodbye and went to the back to drink tea.

"What a face!" Zhao Shouzheng muttered unhappily. "He dares to be so cold to me, the one I usually ignore."

"You'll get used to it." Zhao Hao comforted her and carefully looked through the pile of room bills.

Zhao Shouzheng was a carefree person, so he looked away and drank his tea leisurely, forgetting his unhappiness in a blink of an eye.

After a while, Zhao Hao made a decision and pointed to a room list and said, "Go here and take a look."

~~

More than half an hour later.

The old agent drove the carriage, carrying the father and son, to Caijia Lane, ten miles away from the Imperial College.

Zhao Hao and his son jumped out of the car and followed the old agent into an alley. They walked a few steps inside and arrived at a dilapidated courtyard.

"This is it." The old agent took out the key and fixed the rusty iron lock on the door.

Looking at the leaky and rotten broken gate and the crumbling adobe wall, both the father and son looked troubled.

With great difficulty, the old agent unlocked the door and pushed it open with a creak.

"Come in and take a look. What a spacious yard."

The father and son went into the yard with gritted teeth, only to see broken branches and fallen leaves all over the yard. The house was missing windows and tiles, and was leaking wind and rain. It was in an unimaginably dilapidated state.

"Can people live here?" Zhao Shouzheng coughed repeatedly and asked the old agent in surprise.

"This is Nanjing City. You can't even rent a decent house for two taels a month!" The old agent rolled his eyes and said, "It has three main rooms with a private courtyard and two side rooms on the east and west sides. It's less than ten miles away from the Imperial College. I only charge you one tael of silver a month. What else do you want? Can't you live here for free?"

"Speak nicely, don't be sarcastic!" Zhao Hao shouted coldly, "If you say another word of nonsense, we will rent a house somewhere else."

"Okay, okay..." He was too angry to work in the brokerage business, not to mention that the broker had already paid for his travel expenses, so how could he ruin his business for the sake of gossip?

"This house is too bad, it's totally uninhabitable." Zhao Hao seemed very dissatisfied and said to Zhao Shouzheng: "Let's take a look again."

"If you want to find a cheaper one, you have to leave Nanjing." After dealing with two poor guys for such a long time, the old agent was already very impatient and was not willing to continue paying for their travel expenses.

"Isn't it just that it hasn't been cleaned for a long time? It doesn't matter if you clean it or not?" The old agent was eager to help. While pushing the door of the main room, he said, "Look inside, there are so many furnitures..."

Before he could finish his words, the door of the main room collapsed with a loud bang.

With a bang, dust flew in the room, and the father and son hurriedly covered their noses and retreated.

When the old agent came out in disgrace, Zhao Hao sneered, "There's not even a door, how can people live here?"

"Why don't you just fix it yourself?" The old agent patted the dust off his body in embarrassment and coughed repeatedly.

"You'd better fix it before renting it out." Zhao Hao pulled his father out with a determined look.

"No, don't go!" The old agent hurriedly caught up with him and said with a bitter face, "I admit defeat. I don't have to pay the rent annually. I only need to pay one third of the deposit and four taels of silver, and you can move in right away. Is this all right?"

Zhao Hao was delighted. He actually wanted to rent this house. The old agent was right. It was impossible to rent a house with a private entrance and courtyard within ten miles of the Imperial College at this price.

Besides, the father and son had a total of more than ten taels of silver. Even if they rented this place and paid the annual rent as usual, they would still have nothing left for food. Now they only need to pay a small part of the rent to live here. What difficulties can't be overcome?

Just tidy up and you can always find a place to stay!

Well, it seems that the old agent also said this.

"Son, don't force yourself..." Zhao Shouzheng pulled Zhao Hao aside and said reluctantly, "Since you don't want to, look somewhere else..."

"I don't mind. I said that on purpose in order to pay less money." Zhao Hao explained helplessly.

"So that's it, cunning, oh no, smart!" Zhao Shouzheng suddenly realized and said to the old agent:

“Just rent this!”

~~

After the decision was made, Zhao Shouzheng followed the old broker's carriage back to the brokerage house to complete the transaction, while Zhao Hao stayed in the courtyard.

He looked at the dilapidated and desolate yard, where there was not even a place to sit down, and felt it was absurd.

What I've been going through these few days is like falling into a dream. I thought my luck had turned and I had finally become a rich young master, where I could happily spend my days drinking and partying, bully men and women, and at the very least, have a meal for free. Who knew that in the blink of an eye, I would end up like this...

But no matter how much he sighed, he couldn't change any reality. After feeling lost for a while, Zhao Hao pulled himself together, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to clean up first.

But he searched every room and couldn't find even a broom.

Looking at the three-legged chairs and two-legged beds in the room, Zhao Hao didn't even have the energy to smile bitterly. It turned out that the buyer was not as smart as the seller when he moved from Nanjing to Beijing. It was estimated that the house was really hard to rent out, so the old agent took the initiative to make concessions.

After returning to the yard, Zhao Hao remembered that there was a blacksmith shop at the entrance of the alley, so he prepared to borrow some tools.

The blacksmith shop was just around the corner. Zhao Hao stood at the door and looked inside. He saw that the furnace was out and the blacksmithing tools were hanging on the wall. It seemed that the shop was not open for business.

However, he heard a few coughs from an old man in the inner room, obviously someone was there.

After a slight hesitation, Zhao Hao stepped in and was about to ask loudly, "Is anyone there?"

Before he could say anything, the dark cotton curtain was lifted, and a burly, ferocious-looking man came out, escorting a man dressed as a doctor and carrying a medicine box.

"Alas, your father's illness is probably incurable." The doctor twirled his goatee and whispered to the burly man with a serious expression.

The strong man was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then he stammered, "Can a shiver kill someone?"

"Alas, it's taken too long..." The doctor shook his head repeatedly, as if blaming him for not coming to him earlier.

The sturdy man's eyes were red, and he held it in for a long time before he cried, "I didn't dare to delay. I've seen many doctors recently and I've taken more than a dozen prescriptions, but none of them worked."

"There's nothing I can do. As a doctor, I only treat illnesses, not life. Just prepare for your father's funeral." The doctor said as he stepped over the threshold and was about to leave.

Zhao Hao, who had been ignored by the two, suddenly interrupted and asked, "Have you used Artemisia annua?"

The doctor then discovered that there was another person in the blacksmith shop. He was a medical authority on this street, so how could he allow this young boy to question him?

He stopped, looked at Zhao Hao with a gloomy face and said, "Don't pretend to know something if you don't. The medicine used in the "Zuo Hou Fang" to treat malaria is Artemisia annua. I have never heard of Artemisia annua."

Just as Zhao Hao was about to explain, he heard him continue to scold him coldly: "Besides, doctors over the past thousands of years have repeatedly verified that Artemisia annua cannot cure malaria at all."

"Of course Artemisia annua can't cure malaria, only Artemisia yellow can." Zhao Hao said confidently.

ps. A new day asking for recommendation votes! Everyone please leave more comments~~~