Lian Manman is currently in the middle courtyard.

Her family enlisted Liu Yakuai to find a shop and a house in the county town. This is a location Liu Yakuai helped to find. Wu Lang and Lian Shouxin have both visited, and they liked it very much. Now they’ve brought along Lian Manman and Xiao Qi to let Lian Manman take a look. If she also likes this house, then today they can finalize the purchase.

Lian Manman first looked around the middle courtyard and then went to see the shop at the front. This shop faces Guangmao Street and is located on the south side of the street. Guangmao Street is situated in a populous part of the county town; the shop was originally a general store. The store owner had to return to their hometown due to personal matters, so is eager to transfer ownership.

The goods in the general store have already been cleared out, leaving only some empty counters.

Lian Manman went up to the second floor, opened the window facing the street, saw the nearby crowded houses, the network of streets, and the constant flow of people on the street. After asking Liu Yakuai and confirming that there were no other general stores nearby, she felt seventy to eighty percent inclined to like it.

However, she didn’t immediately express her opinion. Instead, she came downstairs and went to look at the backyard. She saw that the layout of the rooms was decent. She looked at the eaves, then entered the house to check the roof beams and pillars, all of which were genuine materials and not old. Only then did Lian Manman nod quietly.

Liu Yakuai, knowing that Lian Manman could make decisions, was very attentive, explaining thoroughly.

"...The shelves and counters are all ready-made and the store can open immediately. The tables and chairs in the house are crafted from good wood, popular in the county town. As long as you move in your luggage, you can live here.... The original owner said these are a gift and won’t charge for them."

Lian Manman came out of the house, walked through the Moon Cave Gate between the main room and the west wing room, and arrived at the back of the house. Behind the house was a small garden planted with a few plum trees and two peach trees. The back wall had a blue brick door opening, with two wooden doors tightly locked.

"...These plum trees bloom in the winter and look beautiful. Their fragrance is different from other flowers.... The peach trees are already bearing fruit, and next year you can eat peaches from them. These aren’t ordinary peaches; they’re large sweet peaches."

After introducing the plum and peach trees in the garden, Liu Yakuai took out a key from his waist, opened the back door’s lock, and showed it to Lian Manman. Outside this door was Willow Tree Well Alley, where well-off families lived on either side.

After seeing both inside and outside the courtyard, Lian Manman had an idea in mind and nodded to Wu Lang.

Wu Lang understood, knowing that Lian Manman also favored this house.

The entire courtyard had twenty-three rooms, with a front shop and backyard, perfectly meeting the family’s agreed requirements.

Lian Manman’s family business expanded, and since Wu Lang was now a scholar who often needed to travel to the county town, acquiring a property in the county town had become necessary. Additionally, having such a house in the county town also facilitated traveling to the prefecture city in the future.

Moreover, they needed a shop and a warehouse.

The produce from Lian Manman’s family farm needed to be sold throughout various places. Although many people came to Thirty Mile Camp to buy, opening a shop in the county town would significantly expand their farm produce’s coverage.

The county town, with its large population, commercial prosperity, and convenient transportation, would further enhance the reputation of their farm produce, providing convenience for buyers and thereby increasing sales naturally.

And Jinyang County Town was merely their first step from Thirty Mile Camp into the outside world. With this first step, their production sales chain could extend to many more, farther places in the future.

After all, only by developing sales could the produce from the land be converted into circulating currency, thus achieving wealth.

Lian Shouxin, Wu Lang, and Lian Manman were all fond of this house, and Xiao Qi, of course, had no objections, so the following matters proceeded smoothly. Liu Yakuai soon invited the original owner over, called the neighbors as witnesses, and immediately wrote the property sales contract.

At that time, property sales were similar to land sales. One way was to trade privately without going through the County Yamen, saving a significant amount of taxes. But without using this method, typically only the seller’s name appeared on the sales contract or property deed, along with signatures from the broker and witnesses, with the buyer’s name not mentioned.

In that era, the property deed was the only proof of property ownership. Buying a house this way, the holder of the deed was the owner, leading to possible loss of the deed, a change in ownership, or fraudulent activities.

Lian Manman had long heard from Wu Jiaxing about such matters, so their family always used another more secure, official method for all their land purchases, and property sales should naturally be the same.

This way of buying property involved first purchasing the government-issued uniform property sale contract from the County Yamen. Then, the buyer and seller filled it in, both parties signed it, along with witnesses and the broker. Afterward, the signed contract was submitted to the County Yamen, paying a certain percentage of tax silver. Thus, the property transfer procedures were archived by the government office. In the future, even if the property deed was lost or disputes arose, reviewing the archived documents in the County Yamen could resolve any disputes according to the archive’s content.

Liu Yakuai was well-prepared, having bought the contract from the County Yamen early on. The entire front shop and backyard, including all interior furnishings, cost a total of one hundred and twenty taels of silver. Everyone quickly signed the sales contract, and Lian Manman provided the silver, including one hundred and twenty taels for the price and six taels as tax silver. The price was paid to the original owner, and five taels and five coins of the tax silver were entrusted to Liu Yakuai, who was responsible for going to the Yamen to pay the tax silver, archiving the transfer, and finally retrieving the contract imprinted with the Yamen seal.

This contract, which was the new property deed for the courtyard, was naturally carefully kept by Lian Manman.

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Posting one Chapter first, there will be another Chapter tonight, asking for likes. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)