Martial Arts: I Have a Wilderness World

Chapter 490: Chapter 266: The Joy of Housewarming (Part 2)

This reminded Cheng Zongyang of homesteads.

The land belonged to the state, but the house was your own. As long as the government didn’t expropriate it, living there for several generations, or even a dozen, wasn’t an issue. It was unlike those commercial properties with seventy-year leases, after which the house was basically no longer yours. You could renew, sure, but it would cost you.

Besides, those reinforced concrete buildings of average quality could hardly last seventy years anyway. After thirty or forty years, they’d probably be declared old, hazardous buildings. What happened next would depend entirely on the policies at that time.

But back to the matter at hand, Cheng Zongyang walked out of the main hall, holding his "property deed."

From now on, that house was his.

"Congratulations. You’re now a resident of Zi’an County. With this matter settled, our business relationship comes to an end."

As Lady Qin boarded the Beast Vehicle, she said one last thing to Cheng Zongyang. This time, she showed no intention of inviting him aboard.

Cheng Zongyang pulled himself from his thoughts, cupped his fists toward Lady Qin, and smiled. "Thank you, Lady Qin. However, I believe we’ll have more opportunities for business in the future."

The corners of Lady Qin’s mouth curled up. "If you can bring me business, young man, I’d naturally welcome it with open arms. But you have a lot to take care of now, so I won’t keep you. Oh, right, this is for you. Consider it a small bonus for our deal."

As she spoke, she took a small booklet from the carriage and handed it to Cheng Zongyang.

Cheng Zongyang accepted it with both hands. The cover was blank, but the inside was filled with content.

But before he could ask any questions, Lady Qin had already entered the carriage, and her servant turned the Beast Vehicle around and departed.

Watching the vehicle slowly drive away, Cheng Zongyang was speechless. ’Did she really have to leave in such a hurry?’

But Cheng Zongyang didn’t linger either. He looked around, deciding to head back and see what he needed to procure.

He read the booklet Lady Qin had given him as he walked back to the courtyard estate. By the time he finished, a warmth spread through him at the woman’s thoughtfulness.

Inside was a list of all sorts of people Lady Qin knew, detailing their residences, shops, and professions.

For example, anticipating he might need new furniture, Lady Qin had noted a master craftsman with excellent skills located in the South District.

Considering he might want to use the Spirit Field, the booklet also mentioned a Spirit Seed Store with quality goods and fair prices for all.

She had even considered that Cheng Zongyang might want to change the Array, introducing an Array Master with a shop in the West District.

And all the people listed in the booklet were acquaintances of Lady Qin; mentioning her name would even get him a discount.

"This woman..." Cheng Zongyang sighed deeply.

Then, looking at the courtyard’s name plaque, Cheng Zongyang took out a notebook and jotted down: Redo the name plaque.

Next, he noted down hiring an Array Master to reset the protective Array, to prevent the previous owner from being able to return at will. The other Arrays didn’t need changing. Although the County Town had its rules, he couldn’t rely on them completely.

After that, he listed hiring people for a deep clean, renovations, purchasing furniture, modifying the Spirit Field, rebuilding the rockery, and so on.

And finally—build a basement!

The basement would have to wait until after the house was fully renovated.

After listing out a series of to-do items, Cheng Zongyang sprang into action.

He followed the booklet’s records, finding each person or shop he needed. After mentioning Lady Qin’s name, some gave him a ten percent discount, while others offered him better goods or better service.

It wasn’t much, but he did end up saving a fair bit.

Although Lady Qin had earned 1,800 Spirit Stones from him, the savings from his large-scale purchasing spree far exceeded the commission he had paid her.

He planned to treat her to a meal after the renovations were complete, as a token of his appreciation.

This flurry of activity ended up taking a whole month.

「Mid-July, morning.」

Cheng Zongyang looked at the new name plaque, covered by a red cloth, and smiled. "After all this work, the renovations are finally done."

Standing to the side was Lady Qin, still dressed in simple, plain clothes. Seeing Cheng Zongyang holding a formal housewarming ceremony with such a sense of occasion, she was momentarily at a loss for words.

She didn’t dislike it, but this kind of ceremony was something you would only see among ordinary families. It didn’t exist among Cultivation Immortality Influences.

Although Cheng Zongyang had made a good impression on her, she never thought he would do something like hold a housewarming party.

"Is this a custom from your village?" Lady Qin asked.

Cheng Zongyang held the red cloth and chuckled. "Yes. If setting off firecrackers wasn’t forbidden here—I’d be afraid of attracting trouble from the patrol disciples—I would have set off a few strings."

Lady Qin didn’t understand what he was talking about and asked, "When are you going to pull off that red cloth?"

"Almost time," Cheng Zongyang said.

Chen Ziming had calculated the hour for him, saying he could unveil the plaque at Noon today and officially move in.

As the time arrived, Cheng Zongyang immediately pulled away the red cloth covering the plaque and declared, "A joyous move-in, may it be prosperous and booming!"

Lady Qin didn’t know what to make of it. She just found it rather interesting.

When she saw the new plaque, she was quite surprised. "Cheng Mansion?"

Cheng Zongyang nodded. "That’s right. This is my Cheng Family’s first home in Zi’an County in the Cultivation Immortality Realm, so of course it should have this name. As for those pretentious, artsy names, I’m not a fan."

"It’s very good." Lady Qin nodded slightly in approval. As for his talk of "entering the Cultivation Immortality Realm," she just assumed that leaving his village and coming to Zi’an County counted as such.

She was a practical person herself and naturally disliked such empty and flashy things.

Entering the house, Lady Qin discovered that the courtyard had been transformed.

The Spirit Field had been modified. Where the one-mu Spirit Field once was, now only a single, person-high tree stood. The rest of the empty space was paved with new stones, and a wooden pavilion had been built to the side, a place for people to drink tea and cool off.

She walked closer to the tree, and after sensing it for a moment, she asked in surprise, "A Spirit Tree?"

Cheng Zongyang smiled faintly. "A Spirit Tea Tree. I bought it from a street vendor."

Lady Qin nodded slightly and didn’t ask any more questions, continuing to look around.

The original rockery was also gone, replaced by a small fish pond containing little silver fish she didn’t recognize.

In other places, many flowers and plants she also didn’t recognize were growing. Overall, it looked like a small garden.

"I really don’t know what you were thinking, wasting so many Spirit Stones just to turn this into a small garden. What’s the point?" Lady Qin looked at Cheng Zongyang, confused.

Cheng Zongyang grinned. "Not everything needs to have a purpose. I like it this way, and if this style makes me feel comfortable in body and mind, then it’s worth it.

Lady Qin, you’re the friend I know best in Zi’an County, so I only invited you. I’m going to cook myself to celebrate. Make yourself at home. You can look around at my renovations and give me some new ideas if you want."

Hearing this, Lady Qin was a bit stunned.

’Friend? Cooking himself to celebrate? Asking for my opinion?’

But before she could say anything, Cheng Zongyang had already headed to the kitchen.

Lady Qin’s expression was complicated. She hadn’t expected this seemingly straight-laced kid to actually consider her a friend.

’Is he after my body?’

’Or is he after my money?’

Lady Qin couldn’t help but let her thoughts drift in that direction. After all, those were her two most valuable assets at the moment. ’He can fantasize about my body all he wants, but my money? He can forget about it!’

She temporarily suppressed these half-amusing, half-annoying thoughts and began to observe the renovated courtyard estate.

In fact, many of the things here had been brought from the Wilderness World: the Spirit Tea Tree, the Spirit Fish, the Spirit Flowers and Herbs planted as ornamental flora, the furniture, and so on.

The only things he truly spent money on were the renovation materials, the Array, and other things the Wilderness World couldn’t supply.

Luo Daoist’s research into Arrays was not yet very deep; he had only managed to create a Teleportation Array by replicating it from existing materials.

Cheng Zongyang had already prepared plenty of ingredients from the Wilderness World.

There was medicinal wine steeped in Spiritual Liquid, which was greatly beneficial to Qi Refining Cultivators. There were also Spirit Vegetables grown from Spirit Vegetable Seeds he had bought at the market back then.

While he was busy in the kitchen, Lady Qin did not enter the master bedroom, but she did look around the other areas.

The original Pharmacy and Talisman Room had been converted into bedrooms. This puzzled Lady Qin.

’Could it be that what he said before wasn’t a joke, and he’s really planning to bring people here? His family?’

One could say this was now a house for several people, and it did have the look of a mansion. But the courtyard’s layout was just a pavilion; it wasn’t grand enough to be a true mansion with multiple courtyards and halls.

But she would never know that Cheng Zongyang’s plans for this house were merely to use it as a "temporary dormitory."