Siheyuan's Journey Through the Ages

Chapter 115: A series of plots
Zhang Xingkui stared at Ma Qing nervously. If the situation was not going well, he would have to turn around and run. "Mr. Ma, do you know foreign languages?"

"I don't know him. I just look at the grandeur of the house deed seal. You see, foreigners' things are always exquisite." Ma Qing already knew what was going on, but he didn't intend to fall out with him at this time. At least he had to stabilize Zhang Xingkui and give him the money for morning tea. He had agreed to treat him. From this, it can be seen that Ma Qing's vision is really not big.

Zhang Xingkui breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that this northerner really didn't know English. Although he didn't know it either, he thought that this northerner would suffer a great loss because of his lack of experience.

In order to keep the liar steady, Ma Qing gave the liar a free breakfast and was too lazy to expose him, which made everyone look bad.

"Mr. Zhang is very generous. No problem. Let's talk about our deal after dinner. Hey, another tray of shrimp dumplings." Ma Qing ordered again and said to Zhang Xingkui, "Mr. Zhang is right. The shrimp dumplings here are really special. I'll order one more tray. You won't mind, do you?"

Zhang Xingkui, immersed in great joy, didn't care about the small amount of money. He waved his hand and ordered a few more dim sum generously, "Mr. Ma, what are you talking about? These are just small things. Are these enough? If not, order more."

When the two finished eating and walked to the street, Zhang Xingkui looked around and said, "Mr. Ma, shall we go to the bank now? You give me the money and I'll give you the deed. Let's complete the transaction as soon as possible. I need the money urgently. I can't delay this loan sharking. My son is still in Xinji's hands."

"Mr. Zhang, this is where you're wrong. Buying a house is such a big thing, how can you be so careless? I haven't even seen the upstairs of your house, how can the deal be done right away? How about this, let's go to the upstairs of your house and take a look, so I can feel at ease. Don't you think this makes sense? There's no need to rush at this moment." Ma Qing said calmly while picking his teeth with a toothpick.

Zhang Xingkui was so angry that he almost smoked. The pleasure of success just now came and went quickly. He said dejectedly: "Okay, let's go back and look at the house first. I'll go back and prepare. Mr. Ma, please feel free."

After Zhang Xingkui left, Ma Qing returned to the rickshaw and said, "Old Huang, let's go to the house on Xintiandi Street. Be careful later. If I call you, just rush in. Don't worry, I won't treat you unfairly."

"I understand, Mr. Ma, don't worry." Huang Hongtu agreed readily. He had also realized in these days that Mr. Ma was a rich man and he should seize the opportunities in life.

When Ma Qing followed Zhang Xingkui to the shop, the door was wide open, but a middle-aged man in a satin gown was standing at the door, directing several people to move things.

Ma Qing walked forward and was about to enter the store when he was stopped by the middle-aged man, "Young man, the store is closed."

"I'm looking for someone, Boss Zhang Xingkui, I'm buying a house."

"I am Zhang Xingkui and this is my house, but I have never seen you. What nonsense are you talking about?" the middle-aged man asked in confusion.

Ma Qing thought to himself, I knew it was like this, I met a scammer, "Ah, I came to see the house yesterday, a man named Zhang Xingkui said it was his house, we had agreed on it, how could this happen?" Ma Qing pretended to be shocked.

"I had to go out for something yesterday, so I asked my assistant to look after the store. Yang Wei, Yang Wei, where the hell have you been? Come out quickly and explain everything." The middle-aged man shouted, but there was no response from inside the store.

The middle-aged man walked into the shop and looked for his clerk for a long time but couldn't find him. He realized what was happening and said, "This clerk ran away. Damn it! He actually used my name to cheat people. I'll see what I'll do to you when I catch you."

The middle-aged man turned around and said to Ma Qing, "I'm sorry, I'm Zhang Xingkui. I was indeed selling a house, but I didn't expect that the guy took advantage of me. I hoped that you didn't get cheated. Did you suffer any loss?" "No, it was too late. I almost didn't make it." Ma Qing pretended to be frightened and was about to leave after he finished speaking. He thought it was his bad luck to encounter such a thing. Anyway, he didn't suffer any loss, Ma Qing comforted himself.

"Wait a minute, sir, you want to buy a house, right? I'm going to sell my house, and I wrote the notice for renting the shop." The real Zhang Xingkui said, pointing to the sales notice at the door.

"My son has started working in the United States and has established himself there. So he asked me to go there too. I was planning to sell this house, but I didn't expect this guy to take advantage of me. If Ma Xiangsheng is still willing to buy this house, I will take you around to have a look. What do you think?" Zhang Xingkui seemed to be in a hurry to sell the house and was promoting his own house at the right time.

Ma Qing thought about it and decided to just take a look first since he was already here.

Zhang Xingkui held a bunch of keys in his hand and took Ma Qing up to the second floor, introducing the house as he walked, "This house was built around 50... This floor is divided into 6 apartments, each of which is about 500 square feet. Five of them are rented out, and I live in one. They are all one-bedroom and one-living-room apartments."

Zhang Xingkui opened his room and took Ma Qing for a walk, then they sat down and started talking.

"You've seen the location of my building, so I won't say much. The apartments upstairs are all occupied by senior white-collar workers. The rent for each room is 80 yuan per month. The rent alone is 400 yuan per month."

Ma Qing looked at the house. It was indeed nice. With an annual rent of 5000 yuan, it would pay for itself in years. Damn, it was not nice at all.

Zhang Xingkui continued, "Does Mr. Ma have many family members? If not, you can buy my house and your family can live in my apartment. Wouldn't that be comfortable?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Qing lied, "My parents are at home, but they are not in good health. I have two younger brothers, so I'm afraid this house can't accommodate them." It's better not to let others know that you are single. There are great risks involved.

"That's fine. We can just evict one tenant at a time. It's a simple matter." Zhang Xingkui said nonchalantly, "How about Mr. Ma go to the 4th floor and feel how high this building is?"

Ma Qing asked curiously, "Didn't you say that the apartment was rented out? Wouldn't it be too disturbing to the tenants if we went to their homes?"

"It's okay. The tenant has gone to work and no one is home."

"There's no one at home, how are we going to get there?"

Zhang Xingkui shook a bunch of keys in his hand and said, "I'm the landlord. I have all the keys. Let's go and take a look."

"Damn, this damn landlord can actually do this." But Ma Qing thought, it might as well take a look, since he wouldn't suffer any loss anyway, so he followed the landlord to the 4th floor and entered one of the apartments.

(End of this chapter)