The next morning, Chen Shouyi accompanied his parents to look for a house to rent.
Finding a house was not difficult. With no electricity and few orders nowadays, most factories had already shut down, and many migrant workers had returned home, so there were plenty of houses available for rent.
"Ah, miss, I really can't lower it any further. In the past, people would fight to rent this place for fifteen hundred. Now it's only twelve hundred—that's already a huge discount." The landlord was a well-dressed, refined-looking middle-aged woman in her forties who seemed like an educated person.
But haggling had nothing to do with refinement. It was simply an innate talent of every middle-aged woman.
"You said it yourself—that was in the past. Who's still coming to rent houses now? If we don't rent it, you'll just have to leave it empty. One thousand, and not a cent more." Mother Chen's bargaining skills were by no means inferior.
"Ah, but this is only temporary, isn't it? It can't stay without power forever. Once the electricity returns, the rent will rise immediately."
"Buying and selling depends on the market price, not on whether something has the potential to appreciate. And who knows when the electricity will come back?"
The two women began trading arguments back and forth, haggling over the price.
Chen Shouyi, his sister, and Chen Dawei stood foolishly to the side, unable to get a word in.
After more than ten minutes, Mother Chen ultimately came out on top, successfully closing the deal at one thousand a month.
The house was a five-story self-built building. The landlord's family lived from the fourth floor upward, while the first floor was rented to another household.
The second and third floors were still vacant, and Chen Shouyi's family chose the third