After introducing themselves and exchanging greetings, Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran followed Zhao Clan Chief to look at two vacant houses belonging to the Zhao Family.
As the group entered the Zhao family's territory, Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran's first impression was that compared to Village Chief Cui's brand new brick houses, these were like heaven and earth.
All the houses here were made of rammed earth, although there were some signs of repairs, they still looked quite sturdy overall.
Zhao Clan Chief pointed to the courtyard with the shortest wall in front and said, "This is our family's old house. Later, as our sons grew up and wanted to get married, it became a little crowded living here, so we moved to a slightly bigger place and built a new courtyard."
Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran exchanged glances and walked towards that courtyard together.
The courtyard was not small. In the middle were three main rooms, with two side rooms on either side to the east and west. There was also a vegetable garden about half a mu in size in the back yard.
Seeing them look around, Zhao Clan Chief came over with a smile and asked, "Although this house looks a bit old, it is sturdy enough to withstand the winter cold."
Mo Jiuye did not give his opinion. With only three courtyards available for rent, he could not afford to be picky.
"Zhao Clan Chief, let's go take a look at the other one!"
Zhao Clan Chief knew that not a small number of exiled people were sent here by the officials this time, but he did not know exactly how many households there were.
Seeing Mo Jiuye say this, he guessed that they were not interested in this courtyard.
But Zhao Clan Chief was not discouraged. The other courtyard also belonged to their clan. As long as he could rent out one, there would be some income.
Zhao Clan Chief called over a clansman.
"Zhao Fu, take Old Nine and his wife to see the courtyard at your house."
Zhao Fu nimbly ran ahead to lead the way. In his heart, he also prayed that the house could be rented out successfully, so that the family would have some extra income.
The courtyard at Zhao Fu's house was about the same size as Zhao Clan Chief's, but the houses looked a little better.
After looking around, Mo Jiuye finally turned to Zhao Clan Chief and Zhao Fu, who had been staring intently at him.
"May I ask how much rent you charge for these two courtyards?"
Zhao Fu always listened to the clan chief, so he simply handed over the right to speak to him directly.
Zhao Clan Chief was an easygoing man. Even though he knew Mo Old Nine was eager to rent a house, he did not ask for an excessive price.
"These two courtyards have been vacant for several years. Leaving them empty is leaving them empty, so two hundred wen a month from you will do."
This price was very cheap for Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran.
One had to know that renting a ten-person guesthouse room for one night cost at least one hundred wen.
A big courtyard with several rooms only cost two hundred wen a month. It was evident that this clan chief was quite genuine.
Mo Jiuye also understood clearly in his heart that they had to rent these courtyards no matter what, as his three families needed to rent houses, and moreover, there were only three vacant courtyards here.
"Zhao Clan Chief, we'll rent both these courtyards. After we have seen the Zhou Family's courtyard, we will discuss the details with you."
This news was quite shocking to Zhao Clan Chief. He had thought that since they did not like the first courtyard, they would not be interested in the second one either.
He did not expect that both would be rented out!
"Very good, I'll take you to the Zhou's now."
Saying so, Zhao Clan Chief made a "please" gesture, intending to personally take Mo Jiuye and his wife to the Zhou Family.
"No need, I'll take them to see the courtyard myself."
Zhou Clan Chief had been following behind them. He thought after they were done looking at the Zhao family's courtyards, there would be no business left for his Zhou family. He was just there to watch the show.
He did not expect that they actually wanted to go to his Zhou family's place to see the courtyard!
Faced with such good news, how could Zhou Clan Chief not act enthusiastically?
Zhou Clan Chief looked quite a bit older than Zhao Clan Chief and walked slower.
Luckily the two families' residences were not far apart, and after walking for about ten minutes or so, they arrived.
Indeed as Zhou Clan Chief had said, the Zhou family's courtyard was bigger than the two Zhao family ones.
Although still built from rammed earth, there were six main rooms, with two side rooms on each side. The whole courtyard was rectangular in shape.
There was also a vegetable garden in the backyard, covering an area of almost one mu.
Although still rammed earth houses, they were much bigger than the Zhao family's courtyards. Moreover, there was also a well in the center of this courtyard.
Of the three houses, Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran preferred this one.
However, there were still the Xie and Fang families. They could not make a decision hastily before informing the other two families.
At least they had to let the other two families know before making a decision.
Mo Jiuye still asked about the price first: "Clan Chief Zhou, how much is the rent for this courtyard?"
Clan Chief Zhou smiled and said, "The Zhao family's courtyards are smaller than mine, with a monthly rent of two hundred wen. Mine is a bit bigger, so how about three hundred wen?"
He was afraid that if the price was too high they would not rent it, thus missing out on income for no reason.
Compared to the Zhao family’s house, this price was quite fair.
Without any hesitation, Mo Jiuye nodded, "Alright, we'll rent this courtyard too."
Winters are cold in the northwest, with possible snowfall. After looking around, Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran realized that almost every room had a kang heated bed which could serve to keep warm. This saved them from the trouble of not having beds for the time being.
Therefore, Mo Jiuye decided to move in tonight. Although the house was rather cold and cheerless from having been unoccupied for years, it was still warmer than living in tents.
Having made up his mind, Mo Jiuye spoke: “Clan chiefs, we plan to move in immediately tonight. Do you have any objections?"
"No objections, no objections. If you need any help, we can all lend a hand." Zhao Clan Chief said with a beaming smile.
"Good, I'll go notify my family to move now."
With that said, Mo Jiuye pulled He Zhiran along to stride quickly towards the foot of the mountain.
At this time, everyone had not yet gone to sleep.
Just then, Fifth Brother also returned from the eastern house. Although he still looked a little weak, as long as he did not make big actions, there would be no issues.
Besides, Fifth Sister-in-Law was always attentively taking care of him, so the others did not have to worry too much.
When the two returned, they shared this piece of good news.
Hearing that they had rented a courtyard, everyone seemed very excited.
The bitterly cold feeling from last night in the tents was still fresh in their memories. Just thinking of that cold made them unwilling to sleep.
Now things were finally looking up. They had rented a courtyard at last and would no longer have to freeze tonight.
After everyone got over their initial excitement, Mo Jiuye talked about the three courtyards’ situations and asked the Xie and Fang families which one they wanted to rent.
Without a doubt, the Fang and Xie families were already looking up to the Mo family, so of course the best courtyard had to be given to them.
The two families took the initiative to propose renting Zhao Clan Chief's two courtyards respectively, leaving the biggest Zhou family courtyard for the Mo family.
Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran had liked the Zhou family courtyard to begin with, so there was no dispute over this.
Having settled on this, everyone started packing up their belongings.
As they were all exiled here, they did not have much besides some luggage and simple daily necessities. Packing up was very easy, they only needed to carry some items each.
