Exquisite Little Abode

Following Ji Yuan's fumbling movements and seeing his eyes, the broker beside him only then realized that Ji Yuan was actually blind. He hadn't noticed it on the road earlier, and the shop assistant also just discovered that the person looking at the brush pot seemed to be a blind man.

"Uh, esteemed guest, do you fancy this brush pot?"

The shop assistant felt a bit awkward. After all, how could a blind man buy the Four Treasures of the Study? Asking this was merely a polite reminder for Ji Yuan to put the brush pot down. This brush pot wasn't cheap, and it would be bad if it fell.

The voice pulled Ji Yuan back to reality. Though he sensed the cooling of the assistant's enthusiasm, he wasn't displeased.

"Shopkeeper, how much is this brush pot?"

Because of his earlier words, Lu Chengfeng shot him a cold glance. The shop assistant realized his lapse and replied more respectfully.

"To answer your question, honored guest, this Huanghua Brush Pot, though placed outside, is meticulously crafted from material to workmanship. Honest Dealing, two hundred coins. Outside Ning'an County, in other prefectures and provinces, it starts at one tael of silver!"

Was two hundred coins expensive or not? Ji Yuan had no clear concept. But earlier, a bowl of Yangchun Noodles cost three coins, so this brush pot was worth sixty to seventy meals. If an ordinary person cooked at home, it might cover a hundred meals. Not exactly cheap.

Ji Yuan was now carrying a small fortune. One hundred fifty taels of silver was one hundred fifty strings of cash, each string a thousand copper coins. Buying a brush pot was more than enough, but without a reliable source of income, Ji Yuan was reluctant to spend.

After all, it was useless anyway. If he fell on hard times later, those two hundred coins could save his life!

Ji Yuan had always been conservative with spending. In his past life, aside from buying games or computer parts, he rarely spent big money. Now, with some pressure, it was even more so.

As for feeling embarrassed about asking and not buying? Ji Yuan had never experienced that. His thick skin might have been innate.

Ji Yuan put down the brush pot and stood up, nodding toward the broker.

"I've looked around enough. Let's go. We'll still go see the house."

"Ah, oh, this way, this way. We'll head to the east of the city first."

The broker walked ahead, and Ji Yuan followed.

Lu Chengfeng deliberately lagged behind, glanced at the brush pot laid out on the table, and, to the shop assistant's confusion, took out a piece of broken silver.

"I'll take the brush pot."

The shop assistant hadn't expected to actually make this sale and immediately took the silver with a grin.

"Wait a moment, honored guest. Let me weigh it first, then I'll wrap it up for you!"

The shop assistant hurried inside with the brush pot and silver, handed the silver to the shopkeeper, who took out a tiny scale to weigh it, then clicked away on an abacus a few times.

Seeing that Lu Chengfeng didn't intend to come in, the shop assistant soon returned outside with the roughly wrapped brush pot and change.

"Honored guest, here you are. The silver weighs six Zhu, equal to two hundred fifty coins. Here's your change, ten Dangwu Tongbao!"

Dangwu Tongbao was common folk slang. This coin, in both weight and face value, equaled five small coins. Its proper name was Hongyuan Tongbao.

Lu Chengfeng didn't even look, took the items, and quickly chased after Ji Yuan and the broker, who had already walked some distance away.

From morning until noon, they had visited several places. Either the locations were too remote, too small, or too noisy.

Ji Yuan had now arrived at the fifth location under the broker's guidance, situated in the southern part of the city.

A quick glance showed a plaque above the gate. Before Ji Yuan could ask, the broker began to introduce it.

"Mister Ji, this is it. Ju'an Pavilion. This place will surely satisfy you. The surroundings are quiet. It's a one-courtyard residence with its own water well inside. The empty lot connected to the back gate is also part of this property. If you expand, it could become a large house fit for a wealthy family!"

Saying this, the broker looked up at the harshest midday sunlight, then took out a copper key and unlocked the copper lock on the gate.

"Click... creak~~"

As he pushed open the gate, dust fell in clouds.

"Cough, cough, cough... cough... hasn't been lived in for a while..."

The broker waved his hand, brushed off his clothes, and invited Ji Yuan and Lu Chengfeng inside.

Arriving here finally stirred some excitement in Ji Yuan. Though his vision was poor, he could vaguely tell this was the best house he'd seen today.

The courtyard wall wasn't tall, and the gate wasn't particularly ornate. Inside resembled a delicate small Siheyuan from his memory. There was a back door between the main house and the side rooms.

In the fairly spacious courtyard was a water well, covered with a large wooden lid, likely to keep out dust and fallen leaves from long disuse. Several round stones were piled on top to keep the lid from falling off.

There was also a big tree in the courtyard, its branches and leaves rustling with the wind. Perhaps because of the shade, it was noticeably cooler inside.

"There's a tree in the courtyard? What kind of tree is it?"

Ji Yuan suddenly asked the broker.

"Uh, you know there's a tree?"

Ji Yuan smiled, pointed to his ears, then gestured toward the direction of the big tree.

"This humble one's hearing is fairly sharp. The tree desires stillness, but the wind does not cease."

"Sir, it's a jujube tree. It looks quite old."

Lu Chengfeng stepped forward and answered respectfully.

"That's right, that's right. It's a jujube tree. After autumn, you can eat plenty of sweet fresh jujubes!"

The broker said with a smile.

"Come, let's look at the back gate."

Sometimes the broker would forget that this gentleman was blind, only to be reminded by some small detail.

Beyond the back gate was a completely overgrown stretch of wasteland, along with some abandoned vegetable plots and a gourd trellis—clearly where the original owners had grown their own produce.

Still, the space wasn't small at all. At the outermost edge stood a low fence that could be stepped over in one stride, serving as a boundary. As the broker explained all this, Ji Yuan even found himself amusingly thinking that if he expanded the fence outward, wouldn't his property get bigger too?

Then the three of them went to inspect the main hall, side rooms, and kitchen within the courtyard. The house and yard weren't large, and though a layer of dust had settled inside every room, the overall layout was sound and the residence had an elegant charm.

The furniture, however, had been mostly cleared out. Only the largest main hall still had a bed, a table, and two stools.

To be honest, even in his past life in the 21st century, if Ji Yuan could live in a place like this—as long as there was internet and a bit of arranging—he would have been more than willing.

When they finished the tour and returned to the courtyard, Ji Yuan's smile hadn't faded once.

"Hehehe, sir, are you satisfied? I knew you'd take a liking to this place. And the price is cheap too—buying it only costs thirty-six taels of patterned silver. A courtyard like this with such spacious grounds, anywhere else would sell for at least a hundred taels!"

"Oh? That cheap?"

Ji Yuan was a little surprised. He certainly didn't have a clear grasp of local housing prices, but he could compare. Those earlier small mud-brick houses and dirt yards had all cost twenty or thirty taels.

This place was on a completely different level from those previous houses. A doubling or even tripling of the price wouldn't have been unreasonable. Selling for under forty taels was genuinely a bargain.

"Heh, ahem, sir, you may not know..."

The broker stumbled through a stilted attempt at refined speech but couldn't find the right flow to continue.

"Ahem, the original owners of this place all passed away long ago. The house and land deeds now belong to the government office. Plus, the location is a bit remote... so it's never sold. The wealthy don't fancy it, and ordinary folks can't scrape together thirty or forty taels. If someone really wants a house, it's much cheaper to build one themselves. So it's been sitting unsold, and the government keeps dropping the price!"

"Oh!! So if I want to buy it, I have to go to the county magistrate's office myself?"

"Sir, have you decided to buy it?"

The broker looked at Ji Yuan expectantly.

"Why wouldn't I buy such a cheap and elegant courtyard? Even if there's some dust, a little cleaning will fix it!"

Ji Yuan chuckled, in excellent spirits.

"Great, great! Sir, you have excellent taste!! How about we take advantage of the early hour and head to the county magistrate's office together to transfer the house and land deeds?"

The broker was clearly eager to get his hard-earned commission. On a deal of over thirty taels, he could take nearly two taels in commission—no small sum!

Ji Yuan felt much the same way. People always want to get their hands on something they fancy as quickly as possible. In his past life, he couldn't afford a house and could only envy others. In this life, he was moving up in the world.

Lu Chengfeng smiled from the side.

"Sir, you can return to the inn and rest. Let Chengfeng accompany him to the county magistrate's office to handle the deed purchase!"

Good lad, promising future. Ji Yuan was overjoyed inside—not having to run errands himself couldn't be better.

"Very well, I'll trouble Young Master Lu to make the trip."

"You're too kind, Mister Ji. Let us escort you back to the inn first!"

Sharp, sharp—boundless prospects! Ji Yuan felt that Lu Chengfeng's personality would let him thrive even in the 21st century. It was called being good at seeing things from others' perspectives.

Half an hour later, in a room in a side courtyard of the Ning'an County Magistrate's Office, the registrar under the county vice magistrate looked at Lu Chengfeng in surprise.

"Young Master Lu, you truly want to buy this house? To live in yourself? You're not from Ning'an, are you?"

After asking this, the registrar glanced at the broker surnamed Zhou, squinting and stroking his beard. The latter grew a bit uneasy under his gaze.

"What? Registrar, is there a problem with this house? Will it collapse, or is there a dispute?"

The registrar wore an expression that said "I knew it" and looked back at Lu Chengfeng.

"Young Master Lu, you are benefactors of our Ning'an County. I cannot deceive you. I'll tell you the truth—this house is solid and elegant, but it has a poor reputation in local gossip. Over seven years, three successive owners either died of illness or met with accidents. Especially two years ago, a scholar was found frightfully dead in the courtyard. Since then, Ju'an Pavilion has had no takers!"

With that, the registrar turned the ledger—usually not shown to outsiders—toward Lu Chengfeng, letting him see the official annotation inside: Rumored in the streets to be a haunted house.