Ten days is neither a long nor a short time.
This period of time is very short for those officials who once built tall buildings but whose buildings have now collapsed.
The wealth and power he once enjoyed, the sense of superiority he once felt, with others bowing their heads and bowing to his every whim—all of that has vanished in the blink of an eye.
This period of time was a bit long for Li Lanzhen. He left early and returned late every day, which was tiring, but he was happy.
She wasn't looking at shops, houses, or estates; she was either standing in the shops and estates observing.
Fortunately, Manager Hua was there to guide them, and fortunately, Han Minghai was now experienced and sociable, able to strike up conversations with all sorts of people.
Moreover, Li Lanzhen discovered that Hai Minghai was also a master of bargaining.
The first house they looked at was a large mansion with four courtyards.
How to put it? As soon as Li Lanzhen entered, she felt the magnificence and luxury!
The entire mansion, with its pavilions, terraces, lakes, streams, rocks, long corridors, carved corridors, and painted pillars, was so large that Li Lanzhen hadn't even finished exploring it. After walking around half of it, she asked Han Minghai for directions.
"Boss, what's going on with this family?"
Having already prepared for a full-blown shopping spree, Han Minghai quickly took out a booklet, flipped through a few pages, and spoke to her.
"Mother, this is the residence of the Minister of Works."
He's a corrupt official. Don't be fooled by his position; he's not a lazy bum. He's very ambitious, knows how to manipulate people, and has dirt on the families of several of his ministers.
Moreover, he was incredibly audacious, daring to embezzle any amount of money, and he even colluded with the imperial concubines in the palace…
"Alright, that's enough. What do you think of this family's inner quarters?"
"He favored his concubines over his wife; this old bastard actually had 13 concubines..."
Seeing that Han Minghai was still flipping through the booklet and wanted to continue speaking, Li Lanzhen waved her hand to interrupt him.
"Let's go, we can't keep this house."
This house is definitely not worth buying; Han Mingxiang is on the verge of becoming an official.
Besides, this inner quarters...
That's enough!
Later, they chose a three-courtyard house, which had a fairly spacious area and included two side courtyards on the east and west sides.
The entire courtyard has a fresh and elegant style, with pavilions, lakes, and bamboo groves.
Han Minghai saw that his mother liked the courtyard house, and he liked it too, so he quickly took the brochure and introduced it to Li Lanzhen.
It turns out this house belonged to an old scholar.
The reason for selling the house this time is that the eldest son of the family is going to become the headmaster of Bailu Academy.
The elderly couple went to Bailu Academy with their son.
"Okay, let's buy this one."
Li Lanzhen looked at the three-courtyard house, which also had two side courtyards on the east and west sides.
This is their home in the capital.
All the children and grandchildren can live here, and each has their own yard and room.
Even Han Yuemei, who got married, had a courtyard.
Yes, how wonderful!
In addition to this house, Li Lanzhen bought two small courtyards.
They are all single-courtyard houses. The front yard is a bit small, while the back yard is more spacious and can accommodate a vegetable garden.
I bought two shops. Although they were on Wangshi Street, the shops were not big. Fortunately, they were two-story buildings with a small courtyard at the back of the first floor.
Li Lanzhen was very happy to have bought two shops.
Because last time the emperor gave us three shops and a manor.
She gave one shop each to Han Mingxiang, Han Yinan, and Han Yuemei.
Han Mingjiang, who was far away on the southwestern border, had not yet arrived.
She had always kept it in mind, and this time she decided to put one of the shops under Han Mingjiang's name.
After running around non-stop for several days, Li Lanzhen visited all the houses, shops, and estates owned by Manager Hua.
In addition to the house and shops, Li Lanzhen acquired two more estates.
It's a small estate, but it has a hot spring and is decorated very elegantly.
Li Lanzhen heard that it was a resort with a hot spring, so she didn't mind being a little small; it was a nice place.
The three of them took a carriage to go see it.
The hot spring is near the back mountain. The manor is built about 200 meters away from the back mountain, with a courtyard wall that is two meters high.
Passing through the front hall and back door, there is a huge hot spring pool, which is divided into two large rooms.
Li Lanzhen thought there should be separate hot spring pools for men and women.
The other rooms in the courtyard are for sleeping and the kitchen.
Near the hot springs on the back mountain, there are vegetable gardens. Perhaps because of the underground hot springs, the temperature here is still acceptable, and the vegetables are still green.
However, in Li Lanzhen's view, this was a complete waste of resources.
She pointed to a few places and spoke to Han Minghai, who was standing next to her.
"Boss, look at this area here and those two next to it. You can build greenhouses here and grow vegetables in them."
We don't even need to light a fire inside anymore, saving on firewood expenses, and we can grow vegetables. This is truly a wonderful place.
Everyone in this small village was sold off by the owner, so it's now empty.
After purchasing the property, it will take time to determine how to manage it effectively.
The other village was quite large, but it was too desolate.
I wonder what the owner of this estate was thinking. Perhaps he owns too many estates, or perhaps the owner's family is short-handed and can't manage this one.
When they arrived, they could see from a distance that the walls of the manor had collapsed in several places.
Even Zhuangzi's gate was crooked and leaning to one side.
It took Han Minghai a long time to open the lock with the key.
"Mother, it seems no one has been here for the last six months. I came here yesterday, and the lock was rusted. It was hard to open."
As soon as you enter the manor, a winding road stretches into the distance.
They didn't get out of the carriage, but continued walking along the road. When the curtains were opened, they saw barren grasslands on both sides, withered and overgrown with weeds.
After walking about 500 meters, I finally saw a courtyard to the south.
The courtyard wall has also collapsed, and there are obvious signs of people crawling in and out of the wall.
"Mother, this courtyard is where the owner lived, but it's in terrible disrepair," Han Minghai explained to Li Lanzhen.
"Alright, Han Minghai, let's not go any further."
From afar, they could see several small hills to the west of the village, with courtyard walls next to the hills, and even larger hills behind the courtyard walls.
There is also a river at the foot of the mountain, which runs through the entire village and flows south.
Han Minghai noticed his mother's furrowed brows and wondered if she didn't like it here.
However, Han Minghai really liked this large estate, for no other reason than that it covered more than 5,000 acres.
Moreover, he had seen it the first time he came here; the soil here is of medium to high quality, and with a little improvement, good crops can be grown.
Li Lanzhen glanced at Han Minghai and knew exactly what he was thinking.
She also liked the estate, and she was frowning as she considered how to revitalize it.
If you hire a manager, or buy a group of people, you can choose a manager from among them.
I'm afraid they can't handle managing such a large area of land in the short term.
Moreover, she didn't want to do that; she wanted to cultivate someone of her own.
As for the farmhands in this manor, we could buy a batch of them from the human trafficking shop.
Let's discuss it again when we get back!
Yesterday, Manager Hua brought Han Minghai here to see the estate. He was certain that Li Lanzhen liked it and would definitely buy it.
Manager Hua only owned six estates in total; the other two were given to Su Chen and Xuan Shen.
This estate is very large, with a lot of land, and he believes Li Lanzhen will definitely like it.
"Manager Hua, Han Minghai, we want this estate."
The land is great, but how to manage it? We need to discuss that properly when we get home.
In the past ten days, Li Lanzhen spent nearly 300,000 taels of silver to buy three houses (one large and two small), two manors (one small and one large), and two small shops.
The three-courtyard house cost over 60,000 taels of silver, and the hot spring resort was about the same price.
Two small shops—don't underestimate them, because I spent over 60,000 taels of silver shopping there.
Only the largest manor, perhaps because it was deserted or for some other reason, was acquired by Li Lanzhen for a little over ten thousand yuan without further investigation.
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