Chapter 126 - Second Meeting (1)
In the past, they only needed to look for a place that was close to school. Now that she has a shop, she also needed the place to be close to a bus stop which has buses that would take her to West City Nan Road. That and when she threw in the criteria that it must be close to school, the areas she could look at were very limited.
She mentioned that she needed to look for a new place to Lao Hu yesterday. Lao Hu even apologized to her then and immediately promised that he would look for an even better place for her.
Shu Yan did put all her hopes on Lao Hu. She also contacted Lin Hui and Wu Xiuyue. They were both locals and have many friends and relatives. Even if they’d just casually asked around, it’d be better than Shu Yan trying to look on her own.
Ideally, she’d prefer to find something on or around Fujian Road. Except that Shu Yan’s criteria was for the place to have its own kitchen and bathroom. That made things a little bit more difficult.
Housing was limited in 1992. It was not unusual for three generations to live together in a 40 ~ 50 square feet unit and most of them don’t have individual bathrooms. So looking for an ideal place was no small feat.
“Maybe you want to compromise for a few months? You will be able to move into your new place by the end of the year, right?” said Wu Xiuyue to Shu Yan after she had asked around some. Most of the places were either rented out or that they were only renting a room out for supplemental income.
“Let me look around for a little more.” That would be the last report. If she started now, she just might be able to find something that meets her criteria. ‘
“I have a relative whose daughter studied overseas and stayed after graduation. Now that she had a child, her parents went to take care of their daughter and the grandchild. They plan to rent their place out. It’s a single-family house with a yard, so the pricing might be on the higher side.” Lin Hui brought up her relative’s place after she thought about it for a while.
“I don’t mind a little higher rent, but I only need to rent it for four months. Six at most. As you know, I’ve bought a place over at Nanfu Mansion. I am just waiting to move in after the remodeling is done and the place is aired out. Will your relatives be okay with that?” Shu Yan had already made up her mind. If this place fell through, she would look for a shared rental place. But it must have a bathroom, that was her ultimate bottomline.
“I am aware of your situation. I don’t think that will be an issue. Truth was, my relatives are quite well off. They are not renting their place out for money, but more so that someone would be there to take care of things for them. The couple is really nice. The older lady of the household isn’t as nice, but you don’t have to live with her anyway. You can just close the door and do your own thing.” Having said that, Lin Hui took Shu Yan to go and check the place out.
There was a bus stop not too far from the house. That was the first thing that Shu Yan looked at. It’s all moot if there was no bus that’d take her to West City Nan Road.
She was quite lucky; there were buses that would take her to West City Nan Road. And if she made a right, that’d be the road to the grade school. Just a 5-minute walk. Transportation was about as good as it could get.
The house was a little two-story building with yards in the front and in the back. In the front yard, there was a jujube tree and two pomegranate trees. The jujube tree was already bare, but there were still fruits on the pomegranate trees. The living room was in the middle and the kitchen to the left side of it. To the right, there was a study. There were three bedrooms, a small living room on the second floor and bathrooms on both floors. The place was very spacious and furnished. They just need to move in with their clothes.
The backyard was sectioned up with lettuces, green onions, chives growing there. There was another section cordoned out for gingers. No weeds could be seen anywhere.
“I thought you said they are overseas? How is this place so well maintained?” asked Shu Yan as she gave Lin Hui a dubious look.