TGCF extra chapter (1/1) from Lisbet Zirbel. Buy me a koffee for more chapters. Thank you for your support!
As dusk fell, the two cars pulled into an alley. Xia Mian, holding Xiao Feng, looked up at the grand vermillion gate in front of them and murmured, “Sister Ning, is this the old shabby courtyard you mentioned?”
“These are all old houses, just renovated. And mine is not that big; it’s a double-entry one,” Ning Shaoyun said with a light laugh. “This was a birthday gift when I turned ten,” she pointed to a neighboring courtyard house, “that one belongs to Xiao Bai, it has three entries.”
Xia Mian abruptly turned to look at Ning Shaobai. As expected of the future big boss—he even owned such a grand courtyard house at such a young age!
When Ning Shaobai met Xia Mian’s gaze, he had an unsettling feeling, as if he were a delicious meat bun being eyed by a hungry dog.
Eyes sparkling, Xia Mian asked again, “Does your family own many courtyard houses?”
Ning Shaoyun chuckled, “Not really. The Ning family’s ancestors all lived here, and over the years, as families branched out, they also settled nearby. Some houses have been sold in recent years, but my father inherited two and gave one to each of us siblings.”
“That three-entry one is actually our family’s ancestral home,” Ning Shaoyun explained. “However, western-style villas have become popular lately because they are more convenient to live in, so a couple of years ago, our father and grandfather also moved into a villa.”
Seeing Xia Mian’s eager look, Ning Shaoyun couldn’t help but laugh, “Do you like courtyard houses?”
Xia Mian nodded vigorously like a pecking chick, “I love it, absolutely love it.”
It’s a courtyard house, a courtyard house! In her previous life, she hadn’t even dared to dream of such a place!
Due to the preconceived notions she brought from the modern era, traditional courtyard houses had never entered Xia Mian’s mind. When she planned to buy old houses to wait for demolition, she mainly thought of rural-style houses in the suburbs. But she hadn’t realized that in the economically burgeoning 1990s, people hadn’t yet recognized the value of courtyard houses!
The price was even cheaper than apartment units! How could she miss this opportunity?
“I’m buying this type of courtyard!” Xia Mian emphasized again, “Several of them if possible!”
Then she turned to Xia Wenyue, who had been quietly following behind her, “Second Aunt, you should buy one of these courtyards too, so we can live next to each other!”
Just as Xia Mian was getting excited, she suddenly heard a mocking sneer, “Greedy for the unattainable, quite the dreamer, aren’t you?”
Xia Mian turned around to see a young woman standing at the doorway of the opposite courtyard house. She appeared to be in her twenties, dressed in a floral long dress, with large wavy hair draped over her shoulders.
The dim twilight made it hard to see her features clearly, but Xia Mian felt this style seemed familiar. As she glanced at Ning Shaoyun, she realized this woman looked remarkably similar to her.
Ning Shaoyun’s eyebrows knitted together, which was rare for her, and her voice turned cold, “Zhou Qianqian? What are you doing here?”
The girl named Zhou Qianqian approached. Her movement, while distinct, was clearly an inferior imitation of Ning Shaoyun’s mannerisms. While not greatly exaggerated, it was still somewhat disgusting to watch.
As the person drew closer, Xia Mian could finally see her face clearly. In short, she could rate Zhou Qianqian’s appearance seven out of ten, which could go up to nine with makeup. However, given the blatant disdain and hostility she showed them, Xia Mian decided to give her a zero.
The so-called Miss Zero, Zhou Qianqian, crossed her arms and walked up to Ning Shaoyun with feigned elegance, smirking proudly, “It will take two months to renovate the house that Brother Xuewen bought for me, so Aunt Huo gave me the keys to this courtyard to stay temporarily. I just didn’t expect to run into you here, Shaoyun.”
“Why didn’t you go back to the Huo’s villa?” Zhou Qianqian feigned curiosity. “You should have called Brother Xuewen earlier; he just left after helping me move. If you had called him sooner, maybe he could have waited for you, and you might have been able to meet him.”
Hearing the clearly provocative words, Xia Mian asked Ning Shaoyun, “Sister Ning, who is this? Is she Mr. Huo’s mistress?”
Zhou Qianqian frowned, “How can you talk like that? Who are you calling a mistress?”
Ning Shaoyun had already calmed down. Undoubtedly not in the mood to engage with this Zhou Qianqian, she softly told Xia Mian, “She’s nobody; just someone unimportant. Let’s go in, we shouldn’t bother with her.”
Seeing that Ning Shaoyun didn’t want to speak about it, Xia Mian didn’t press on, but it seemed Zhou Qianqian wasn’t ready to let go and tried to follow, “Ning Shaoyun… Ah!”
A scream followed by the sound of a crash made Xia Mian turn around just in time to see Zhou Qianqian sprawled face-first on the ground in a most undignified manner. Xia Mian thought, well, that zeroes out to negative points now.
Ning Shaobai stood beside her, sneering coldly, “If you can’t even walk properly, maybe you should be careful, especially since your face is all you have to show for yourself. Now, even that’s going to be messed up.”
“…” Xia Mian realized that Ning Shaobai’s sharp tongue towards her was, in fact, rather mild in comparison. Listen—why did he suddenly sound so cool?!
Clearly, Zhou Qianqian’s fall was quite hard, as it took her a moment to get up. Touching her sore nose, she looked up at Ning Shaobai and accused, “Ning Shaobai, you did that on purpose!”
Ning Shaobai simply hummed in affirmation, “Yeah, you intentionally came looking for trouble, would it be fair if I didn’t respond in kind?”
He sneered, “Zhou Qianqian, I warn you, this isn’t the Huo’s place; you can’t act as you please here. Did you think our Ning family was dead?”
Zhou Qianqian didn’t dare to test Ning Shaobai’s patience. However, she was still not willing to give up, so she turned to Ning Shaoyun, biting her lips resentfully, “Anyway, I still have to express my thanks. Director Luo genuinely liked the painting you made. Thanks to that, Brother Xuewen’s project got approved.”
Ning Shaoyun abruptly stopped walking, turned around, and kicked Zhou Qianqian hard on the leg. She was wearing sharp-pointed leather shoes and put a lot of strength into her kick, making Xia Mian instinctively wince with phantom pain.
“Ah!” Zhou Qianqian cried out, both in shock and pain.
Xia Mian also noticed the surprise in Ning Shaobai’s eyes. The usually gentle and calm Ning Shaoyun was provoked to physically retaliate—this Zhou Qianqian must have really crossed the line.
As Zhou Qianqian hopped on one leg and nursed the other, no one cared about her.
“Do you like this kind of courtyard?” Ning Shaobai asked Xia Mian.
Xia Mian nodded vigorously, “I really, really like it.”
Ning Shaobai gestured towards a row of houses across the street, including the one Zhou Qianqian had emerged from, and said, “These are all the Huo family’s properties. Which one do you like?”
Xia Mian’s eyes widened, “They own so many courtyards?”
“Yes, our family and theirs have been neighbors for generations, which is why we are old friends,” Ning Shaobai explained the background. “Before the cultural revolution, the Huo family was extensive and wealthy. When descendants grew up and branched out, they all lived along this row. Later, only Old Master Huo returned once the chaos subsided, so these four courtyards ended up belonging to his family.”
“That one in the middle with three entries is the ancestral home, but the old madam of the family prefers modern villas and high-rise apartments, so these courtyards have been mostly vacant and not well-maintained. If you like, we could look into buying them.”
“Wow!” Xia Mian exclaimed in awe, “Choose? Only kids make choices, adults take it all!”
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