Chapter Eleven: House Hunting (Part Two)

  The two exchanged a look, and Chen Xin said to Wu Fangya: "Why isn't this door facing south, but rather east, taking up part of the storefront?" Wu Fangya replied: "I'll tell you, Master Chen. This street runs north-south, and the house faces east towards the street. The south side is already right against someone else's courtyard wall - how could we possibly put a door there? All the houses on this half of the street face east."

  "It's still not quite satisfactory, we are also doing business, and this feng shui position is also particular."

  "You don't know, young master, that although this door is open in the east, it's actually southeast and occupies the Xun position. The main house is in the Kan position. A Xun door with a Kan house is also a very auspicious layout."

  Chen Xin didn't understand Feng Shui at all, he just wanted to find some flaws to bargain, but as soon as the eight trigrams came out, no one could understand what he was saying. He had no choice but to insist that the door not facing south would affect his business, and also said that the kitchen was too simple, arguing with Fang Ya.

  Liu Minyou finally came out to mediate, expressing basic satisfaction but asking for a price reduction of several taels. Chen Xin disagreed with the immediate purchase and quarreled with Liu Minyou, singing in harmony to put pressure on Fang Ya.

  Wu Fang couldn't help but say to the two of them, "Since that's the case, I'll go discuss with the master again and see if we can make some concessions. I will definitely give you an answer by tomorrow morning."

  The two thought for a moment, Chen Xin didn't have to go to work until the day after tomorrow, so they agreed that it was okay to come tomorrow as well.

  Liu Min suddenly remembered something and asked the house owner: "If the price is agreed upon, when can we hand over the house?"

  "As long as we can find Mr. Tan here, and with the help of our neighbors to witness, this place has another advantage - Mr. Tan has ready-made contracts, if he is available, we can hand over the property tomorrow. Are you two gentlemen going to write the contract yourselves or ask someone to do it for you? If you need someone to do it for you, there will be an additional 4-5% silver fee for the writing service."

  "Of course, find someone to write on their behalf. Then, are there any other fees?" Neither of them was confident in writing this thing.

  "One thousand for contract tax, take eight hundred, and the remaining two hundred will be used to pay off the neighbors who witnessed the transaction. As for the rest, it's up to your discretion, young master. This is just my brokerage fee."

  Liu Min nodded and said: "Uncle Wu has made it clear. In that case, I'll trouble Uncle Wu to make another trip, so we can settle this matter early."

  Wu Shu had a good impression of Liu Min, and with a smile on his face, he said: "No trouble, no trouble, I also live nearby. If this matter is successful, we will be neighbors in the future, and helping each other is what should be done."

  They all came out together, Wu Yue bid farewell to several people and hurriedly rushed to the southern city to discuss with the owner of the house.

  Seeing him leave, Zhang Er grabbed his head and asked Liu Min: "Liu brother, can you return the knife to me?"

  "Return the knife to you? This knife is for self-defense, do you need to use a knife to smash a bowl? Next time, if you do this again, I'll confiscate the knife and use it to chop vegetables."

  "Got it."

  Liu Min glared at him fiercely for a few moments before handing the knife back to him. Zhang Er Hui took it with one hand, sheathed the blade and tucked it tightly into his clothes.

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  Zhang Dahuai carried a piece of meat and rushed into the thatched hut, shouting "Dai Gege, this is Chen Dage letting us send it to you."

  A group of porters saw that it was Chen Xin's little follower and immediately welcomed him warmly.

  Dai Zheng just pulled Zhang Da Hui with his left hand, and held Hai Gou Zi with his right hand. "Little brother, come quickly, sit down! Last time was too rushed, didn't even have a chance to ask your names? Can you tell big brother?"

  "Great Zhang!" "Seadog!"

  "Good, good, this name is good." Dai Zheng just naturally couldn't say where the two names were good. Looking at the two people behind him, he changed the subject and said: "Why didn't your brother Chen come?"

  Zhang Da Hui replied: "Brother Chen went to find work today, and he's been thinking about Er Tun Ge's injury all along. Let's send some food over. He said that eating meat will help him recover faster."

  Er Tuan hastily thanked the two of them. Hai Gouzi didn't say much, just foolishly smiling as he looked at Zhang Da Hui.

  Lu Lu Zi asked Zhang Da Hui with some hesitation: "What kind of business is Brother Chen looking for? Is it being an official or doing business?"

  "Go be an accountant, two taels of silver per month."

  Lu Lu Zi was shocked "Brother Chen is here to be an accountant?"

  "It wasn't originally like that. Brother Chen had over ten taels of silver on him, and used some along the way. When he saw you were in trouble that day, he gave it all to you, so we could only stay in Tianjin."

  Dai Zhenggang hastily asked: "Then how did you get by these past few days without any money?"

  "There was some loose silver left, and Brother Chen couldn't bear to use it. For the past two days, he had us practicing thriftiness, and we didn't eat our fill every day. Today, he just found a job and received his wages in advance, so he gave me the remaining silver on him and told me to buy some food to send over to Second Uncle."

  "Ah..."

  －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

  Chen Xinsi and the other three had nowhere else to go, so they wandered around and returned to their inn room. There, they saw Dai Zheng bringing Lu Zizi and Er Tun back with Haigouzi. Er Tun's arm was in a splint, and his spirits were much improved.

  Dai Zheng had just met Chen Xin, and with a face full of shame, he said: "Just now, this young brother Zhang Da Hui told me that Brother Chen came to Tianjin to find work, and is not from a wealthy family. Those ten taels were already a generous contribution, yet you've been going hungry for days, and still managed to scrape together silver to send us food - it's truly embarrassing for us."

  Chen Xinyi immediately reacted and climbed up without a hint of embarrassment: "Brother, you must not listen to this kid's nonsense. Although it's a bit hard work, being willing to help others is the beautiful virtue of our Chinese culture. It's obvious which one is more important between eating less and saving people from danger."

  Lu Lu Zi anxiously asked: "Brother Chen, you've lost your capital, and we can't pay it back for the time being. How are we going to get by?"

  "It doesn't matter, they don't know that I pawned the family heirloom jade pendant yesterday and now have some silver in hand. Tianjin seems pretty good, so I think I'll just settle down here."

  Liu Min looked at Zhang Dahuai with surprise, this kid's talent for talking nonsense was quite impressive. No wonder he kept saying he wanted to go swindle money every day. Chen Xin also cooperated seamlessly, quickly shaping a glorious image of justice and righteousness. They moved Dai Tiezi and his gang to the point of being overwhelmed with emotion, if they were women, they would probably have promised their bodies in marriage.

  As expected, Liu Min had anticipated this. When Chen Xintian took out the family heirloom jade pendant, Daitiezi and several others immediately knelt to the ground. Er Tuan even burst into tears, wanting to kowtow to the two of them. Chen Xin and others hurriedly went to help him up, but Daitiezi was as strong as an ox, and Chen Xin couldn't budge him. He simply knelt there, saying to Chen Xin: "Dai Tiezi has never submitted to anyone before, but today I submit to Big Brother. No matter how you look at me, from now on I will forever regard Big Brother as my superior."

  Lu Zhu Zi and Er Tun also echoed together.

  Chen Xin burst out laughing and said: "Alright, I should be a few years older than you all, so I'll brazenly accept your title of 'big brother'. In friendships, what's most important is understanding each other's hearts. There's no need to kill the chicken or burn yellow paper now. Just listen to big brother this once, get up, all of you, get up!"

  Dai Zhenggang and others finally stood up with joy. Lu Zizi also said to Chen Xin: "Brother Chen, tell me where your family heirloom jade pendant is now, I will definitely help you redeem it back no matter what."

  Chen Xin didn't have any jade pendant, it was all nonsense. He easily changed the subject and said: "When I fell into the enemy's lair, I hid that jade pendant here and there. Later, I realized that what they called 'family heirloom' was just a way to remember our ancestors. What's important is the feeling, not the object itself. As long as you have this feeling in your heart, then the object doesn't matter."

  "But..."

  Chen Xinyan waved his hand to interrupt Lu Zizhong, "Let's talk about this later, big brother has a plan. The silver I borrowed has been used to buy a place to live, and in two days you can send all the injured people here to rest."

  "It's no good to trouble big brother again."

  "You've already acknowledged me as your elder brother, what's the big deal? Living in that shabby hut of yours, you might catch a cold or something, and that would be troublesome."

  "Alright then."