"Why rent a house?"
Right Vice-Chancellor could not understand Cui Xiao's decision at all.
Other officials renting houses was understandable. After all, capital officials and local officials had to rotate after a certain period, and houses in the royal capital were not cheap. Renting was far more cost-effective than buying. More importantly, ordinary officials simply could not afford to buy. Buying a house was not merely a matter of choosing enough rooms to fit the whole family. One also had to consider one's official rank, the location, and whether the house's furnishings matched one's status.
One could imagine how expensive that was.
If not for the hefty rental subsidies included in their salaries, along with a number of rental houses specifically meant for capital officials, house prices alone would have made many officials suffer miserably. Alas, it pained him to say it, but Right Vice-Chancellor rented as well. He was currently saving hard to buy a house. Still, Vice-Chancellor Cui surely could not be part of the renting crowd. With that long string of titles over his head, surely he could not even obtain a bestowed residence?
Cui Xiao fell silent at the question.
Right Vice-Chancellor asked cautiously, "Are you having some difficulty?"
Was Vice-Chancellor Cui a victim of the government-bond scam that had exploded last time?
Had he been swindled out of even his bestowed residence?
Was he now so hard up that he could only rent?
Right Vice-Chancellor lowered his voice further. "Your bestowed residence..."
Cui Xiao said, "The construction was halted several times and never finished."
Right Vice-Chancellor was dumbfounded. "Ah?"
Cui Xiao sighed and repeated, "It was never finished."
Right Vice-Chancellor said, "...Did you offend someone in the Ministry of Works?"
Cui Xiao fell silent.
He rather wished he truly had offended someone in the Ministry