The Prime Minister's Darling

Chapter 186: 120 Local Tycoon Xiaojingkong (One more update) _2

She was afraid that children might mishandle her things, so she reached out to pocket the property deed.

But Xiao Jingkong made an oblivious sound, “I have one of these, too.”

The three people were stunned.

Xiao Jingkong scampered back to the carriage, fetched a small box from his little basket, took the box back to the grand hall, and put it down on the wooden table in front of the three.

The table was a little high for him, so once he put it on the table, he couldn’t reach to open it anymore.

“I’ll do it.” Gu Jiao reached out her hand.

Gu Jiao had seen a few boxes like this when she was tidying up Xiao Jingkong’s things at home, but she had never opened them.

“Okay! Jiaojiao do it!” Xiao Jingkong decisively nodded.

Gu Jiao opened the small box, and inside were a few thumb-sized seals and a few documents, which were not ordinary documents, but property deeds!

All three of them were quite astonished.

“Let me see,” Xiao Liulang said.

“Mhm.” Gu Jiao took out the property deeds and handed them to Xiao Liulang.

Zhang Baoren also leaned in to take a look.

He almost choked from surprise when he looked at them; there were properties on Changan Avenue, Xuanwu Avenue, and even on Zhuque Street!

Did these properties reach all the way to the Imperial Palace?!

“Are these real property deeds?” Gu Jiao asked Xiao Liulang.

“They are real,” Xiao Liulang answered, “The deeds have Jingkong’s name on them. They are definitely his.”

Gu Jiao looked at Xiao Jingkong in her arms: “How did you get these?”

Xiao Jingkong glanced at the property deeds in Xiao Liulang’s hand; he counted his fingers: “Are you talking about these papers? My master gave them to me. He gives me one each year on my birthday. I’ve had three birthdays, so there are three!”

Gu Jiao: “…”

Xiao Liulang: “…”

Zhang Baoren: “…”

Gu Jiao suddenly could not bear to look at Xiao Jingkong’s big box of junk…

The locations of the three mansions were better than the ones before. Zhang Baoren had been boasting that the mansion with a hundred taels of rent was diagonally opposite Guozijian, which took five hundred steps to walk to. In fact, it took more than a thousand steps.

The mansion that Xiao Jingkong’s master gave him was much closer to Guozijian. You could just come out of the alley, take a turn, and then you would be at Guozijian.

In his over thirty years of life, this was the first time Zhang Baoren had miscalculated. Dressed like a local tycoon but owning three grand mansions. The mansion on Zhuque Street is hard to purchase, not to mention that its residents are mostly related to the royal family. The two mansions on Xuanwu Avenue and Changan Avenue are also priceless.

What on earth was the background of these people?

Xiao Jingkong didn’t understand what a property deed is, but when Gu Jiao explained to him that it was a precious thing and a proof of owning a house, he quickly put all of the deeds in front of Gu Jiao: “I give all of them to Jiaojiao!”

The place with Jiaojiao is the home of Xiao Jingkong!

Gu Jiao had already accepted his guqin, so she couldn’t accept his property deeds now. In the end, Gu Jiao proposed to rent Xiao Jingkong’s mansion for thirty taels of silver per month.

Xiao Jingkong firmly said, “No money from Jiaojiao!”

Gu Jiao patted his little head and said, “It will be your brother-in-law who pays.”

Xiao Jingkong thought earnestly and agreed. “The brother-in-law gives the payment to me, and I give it to Jiaojiao. That makes sense!”

Both parties invited Zhang Baoren to be the guarantor and signed a lease agreement for the house.

This was Xiao Jingkong’s first time doing business, and he took it very seriously, signing it and even stamping it.

The guarantee fee was 30% of the first month’s rent, which was nine taels of silver. This was to guarantee that he would be there in person to terminate the lease at the end of it.

Originally, the fee was 50%, but Zhang Baoren intended to gather some good karma, so he reduced it by 20%.

“The guarantee fee is paid half and half by each person.” Zhang Baoren smiled as he said.

“Do you have any silver?” Xiao Liulang watched Xiao Jingkong leisurely.

Xiao Jingkong was stumped, he had no silver. This was a story more tragic than a tragedy!

But soon, he thought of a solution: “Deduct it from your first month’s rent!”

Xiao Liulang was both annoyed and found it amusing. The little monk did have a head for business.

The mansion was a courtyard with two sections. Upon entering, you would find a front yard with bamboo trees around. The first row had two side rooms, a study, and a kitchen. The backyard can be accessed through the passageway. Backyard had an osmanthus tree and behind the tree were three side rooms.

They arranged the rooms just like they used to in the village, Xiao Jingkong and Xiao Liulang shared a room whereas the remaining people had their separate rooms.

The rooms were not very big, but they had excellent light.

The best thing was that it was not only close to Guozijian but also to several private schools which would undoubtedly solve Gu Yan and Gu Xiaoshun’s schooling problem.

When Gu Yan and Gu Xiaoshun heard that they had to continue going to school, they were dumbfounded.

“Didn’t…didn’t we drop out?” Both asked almost simultaneously.

Gu Jiao opened a suitcase and said, “We dropped out in the county city, but we naturally have to continue once we get to the Capital City. You guys are still young, so what should you be doing aside from school?”

Both of their faces were as gray as death. So, were they getting happy on the road for nothing? And also, what did you mean by ‘you guys are still young’? It seems like you are not too old either!

The mansion was fully furnished, but there was a lot of dust due to it being uninhabited for a long time. The group simply tidied up several rooms and moved in, intending to clean the yard and kitchen at a later stage. As for pots and pans, they decided to buy them tomorrow morning.

Dinner was steamed bread that they bought from outside, which they ate with the pickled vegetables Gu Jiao had brought.

The Capital City was colder than the county city; by October, Gu Jiao had already felt the chill of winter.

Unlike in rural areas, they couldn’t just go up the mountain to chop wood here; they needed to go to the marketplace to buy firewood and charcoal.

Everyone was exhausted from the journey, and they went straight to bed when they got back to their rooms.

Next to Xiao Liulang, Xiao Jingkong was sprawling and already snoring evenly.

But Xiao Liulang had no inclination to sleep.

He had finally returned here.

“Ahen, Mr. Zhuang’s lessons are too hard. Shall we go out and play?”

“Ahen, this little rabbit is injured. Shall we take it home?”

“Ahen, I want to eat jujube. Can you pick some for me from the tree?”

“Ahen, could you buy me an osmanthus cake?”

…

“Ahen, can you die for me?”