Hearing Gu Yi’s stammering voice, Song Wan Yue knew it had something to do with her and asked with a smile, “It’s not going to drive me to the mountains, is it?”
“No, it’s not ……”
Xiao Si saw that his young master was too abashed to speak, and was busy covering up, “It’s because I didn’t stop Sun Jin just now, and the young master is lecturing me, saying that if there’s another time, he’ll drive me to the mountains to chop wood.”
“Is that so?”
Song Wangyue smiled and looked at Gu Yi.
Gu Yi, for some reason, felt a little chill down his spine, and swallowed back the word “yes” as it reached his lips, winking at Song Wan Yue and winking again, looking completely pitiful.
Song Wan Yue almost burst out laughing, but she held it back.
“Big brother said that it’s not safe for us to stay in the inn with so many silver tickets, so let’s go rent a courtyard.”
“Really?”
Gu Yi put away his pitiful look for a second and joyfully walked over, shoving the silver tickets he was holding into her hand, “I’m not buying anything, take it and rent a room.”
Renting a small courtyard was better than staying at an inn, the main thing was that he had given the silver ticket to the little girl and had no money to go out and buy delicious food, the little girl would definitely feel sorry for him and then personally make him some delicious food.
Xiao Si didn’t understand his mind, and when he saw that he had made the foolish mistake of giving the silver ticket to Song Wan Yue, he almost slapped his thigh in anxiety.
Song Wan Yue also didn’t expect Gu Yi to give him the silver ticket, so she froze and then shoved it back into his hand, “You can take it, Mr. Sun just gave another two hundred taels of deposit, so there’s plenty of silver to rent the courtyard.”
Gu Yi shoved it back into her hand, “No, I have to pay for the courtyard as Xiao Si and I are going to live there.”
Seeing the silver ticket being shoved around, Xiao Si’s eyes quickly turned around a few times, “Miss Song, young master, why don’t you just give me this silver ticket.”
“No!”
Gu Yi gave this eyeless one a fierce glare. Having followed him for so long, he hadn’t learnt a bit of his cleverness, couldn’t he see that this was his caution?
Song Wangyue, however, had already handed over the silver ticket.
Xiao Si happily took it and was about to give his young master credit without a trace when he saw the look in his young master’s eyes that he wanted to beat him up and froze in place, slightly baffled.
“Let’s go.”
Song Wangyue didn’t see Gu Yi’s glare at Xiao Si and turned to walk out the door, Gu Yi gave Xiao Si a few more fierce glares before he quickly followed.
Xiao Si stood bewildered with the silver ticket in his hand, he, he, he had done wrong again?
The coachman rushed the carriage over and the two of them got on it, Song Wan Yue raised her voice, “Go to the city gate.”
The coachman raised his whip, and Xiao Si rushed out of the inn, climbed onto the front board and sat down, panting and panting.
Gu Yi heard him clearly and rather disgustedly lowered the carriage curtain.
The carriage made its way to the city gates.
It was not yet late and there were still many people coming in and out. The man who had stopped the carriage to solicit customers when they entered the city yesterday was still there.
Song Wangyue asked the coachman to stop the carriage, and before she could say anything, Gu Yi had already kicked at Xiao Si, “Go and call the man over.”
Xiao Si nimbly jumped off the carriage and went to the man, “You come with me, our young master wants to rent the courtyard.”
The man’s eyebrows flew up in delight as business came to him on his own initiative, he followed him over and was just about to ask, but he recognized at a glance that it was the carriage he had stopped yesterday, his smiling face paused, then he returned to his normal self, “This gentleman, what kind of small courtyard are you renting?”
“What kind?”
“There are two rooms, four rooms, a north room, and both east and west rooms, as long as you can afford it, there are all kinds.”
“Take us over there and have a look.”
Although Gu Yi was young, his aura was extraordinary. This man had been specialising in renting rooms for many years, but had never seen such a naturally noble person before, so he said nothing more and led them through.
As they walked, he asked, “Do you want a room near or far from the examination hall?”
“Not too far, not too close. I can get to the examination hall quickly, but without the noise there.”
The man understood, led them to a small courtyard, took out the key and opened the door, and led Gu Yi and Song Wan Yue in after they had gotten off the carriage.
The courtyard was small, compact and clean, with four northern rooms and two compartments to the east and west.
The man showed them around, the kitchen, the woodshed and the water well were all there.
Song Wan Yue was satisfied, “How much is the rent?”
“This small courtyard is normally rented out for thirty taels of silver a month, which works out to one tael a day. ”
Two taels a day, the price is acceptable.
“Are there any other houses nearby that you want to rent out?”
“There’s more on the other street, nothing closer.”
Song Wangyue was satisfied.
Sun Jin had taken his grievances out on them yesterday, and if he knew that they had re-rented the small courtyard, he would certainly ask Master Sun to come over and rent it, and if they rented it together, there would certainly be less trouble, so it was good that even if they did, it wouldn’t be very close to this side.
“That’s it.”
The people were busy bringing out the deed, and after Song Wangyue read it carefully, she put her handprint on it and gave him a deposit of ten taels, as agreed on it.
“Do you all need a cook? I also have ready-made ones on hand, with good skills, for thirty wen a day.”
“No, just tell us where the vegetables are sold.”
“Go out and go left, turn a corner and there is a market, no one should be here at this hour, but there are shops selling vegetables on both sides, you can buy them if you go there.”
Song Wangyue took note of this, and when the people had left, she instructed Xiao Si, “Go back and bring Big Brother and our people here, tell Big Brother to tell Master Sun the truth, just tell him the truth.
Xiao Si answered and went out the door and got on the carriage to go back to the inn.
Song Wangyue also walked outside, “Let’s go, let’s go buy vegetables.”
Gu Yi followed her with great enthusiasm, and after locking the gate, went to the market.
It was true that no one was buying vegetables at the market, but the shopkeepers on both sides of the market were very enthusiastic in their greetings, and when they stood at the head of the market, they could be heard soliciting customers.
Gu Yi wanted to take Song Wan Yue’s hand, but there were not many people in the market, so it was too obvious to do so. He regretfully put his hand behind his back, “Little girl, what are we eating?”
Song Wan Yue had already stopped in front of the shop selling vegetables, looked around, there weren’t many vegetables left, and they weren’t very fresh, so she picked two at random, paid for them and let Gu Yi carry them, she also bought a few pounds of meat and two chickens, estimating that there was almost enough for ten people to eat, and carried them back. There was no need to buy rice, flour, oil and various spices, as they were all available in the rented house.
The next few days will be three shifts, see you tomorrow, mua-da-da.
