The general's wife knows medicine

Yang Tingzhen brought Tang Peipei directly to the home of the person who wanted to sell the shop.

There are three courtyards with images of door gods pasted on the door. A Bagua bronze mirror is hung on the beam of the main entrance, and above it is a plaque with the words "Cao's Residence" written on it.

Yang Tingzhen came and knocked on the door.

The door was opened by a little boy. When the boy saw Yang Tingzhen, he said, "Are you here to see my master? Please come in."

After saying that, he opened the door and let Yang Tingzhen and Tang Peipei in.

As soon as I entered the outer courtyard, a man in his fifties or sixties came in from the second gate.

The man smiled and saluted Yang Tingzhen, saying, "Deputy General Yang."

Yang Tingzhen also returned the greeting, "Master Cao."

Master Cao invited Yang Tingzhen and Tang Peipei into the reception room in the outer courtyard.

After a while, a girl dressed as a maid served tea to Tang Peipei and Yang Tingzhen respectively.

Master Cao asked, "Is this the girl that Deputy General Yang was talking about?"

Yang Tingzhen said: "Yes, this is Miss Tang, she wants to see your house and shop, and is ready to buy them if they are suitable."

When Master Cao heard that they really wanted to buy it, he was very happy and shouted outside, "Someone come here."

The girl who had just poured tea for the two of them reappeared and bowed to Master Cao, saying, "Master."

Master Cao smiled and said, "Xiao Zi, take Miss Tang to the backyard for a walk."

The girl named Xiao Zi said respectfully, "Yes." Then she bowed to Tang Peipei and said, "Miss Tang, please follow me."

Then he walked out of the reception room first and took Tang Peipei from the corridor to the backyard.

After entering the yard, Tang Peipei found that it seemed similar to the three-courtyard house that Mu Jintang lived in Suzhou, but it seemed a little smaller. Also, it was not as luxuriously decorated as Mu Jintang's, nor did it have that faint scent of sandalwood.

The courtyard is a bit old, but it should be renovated from time to time, and the house looks okay.

There was a tree in the yard, which Tang Peipei didn't recognize. Under the tree, there was an old woman sitting in a rocking chair, with her eyes squinting and a thin blanket covering her body. She looked like she was asleep.

The girl named Xiao Zi wanted to go forward and wake up the old woman, but Tang Peipei stopped her.

He signaled Xiao Zi not to say anything and told her to just take a look.

In fact, there was nothing to see. She had a general understanding of the three courtyards and they were all similar in structure.

Tang Peipei took a quick look and went back to the front yard.

"How is it? Are you satisfied?" Yang Tingzhen asked when he saw Tang Peipei coming back.

Tang Peipei nodded, "It's not bad, the house is well maintained, but it's a little small."

Tang Peipei thought that with so many people in her family, they would need a bigger place to live.

Although they may not necessarily come to live here, since they are planning to buy the house, shouldn’t we make preparations?

Tang Peipei took a rough look at the house. There were two rooms in the east and west wings, one main room, one ear room, but it was very small. There were three rooms in the back wing that could be used for living.

There are seven rooms in total, which is enough for their whole family to live in.

But they probably won't live here permanently, so these are not very important. Tang Peipei is more concerned about the shop.

Tang Peipei said to Master Cao: "Master Cao, can we go and see the shop?"

Master Cao nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go with you."

Tang Peipei said: "No need, you can just ask a servant to accompany us. If you decide to buy it, we will come back here after we have looked around."

Mr. Cao felt that it was not a good idea, but he was worried about his wife and was a little hesitant.

Tang Peipei said: "It's okay, you can go and accompany Madam Cao."

Master Cao looked at Tang Peipei, nodded in understanding and said, "Okay, then let my butler take you there."

Then he said to Xiao Zi, "Go and call housekeeper Cao to accompany the two guests to see the two shops on East and West Streets."

Xiao Zi said respectfully, "Yes, I'll go right away." Then she went to find Butler Cao.

Mr. Cao called Tang Peipei and Yang Tingzhen and said, "Please sit down for a while and have some tea."

Yang Tingzhen picked up the teacup and took a sip.

Seeing this, Tang Peipei also picked up the teacup and took a sip.

Tang Peipei thought it necessary to understand why Mr. Cao's family bought a house and returned to their hometown.

As if asking casually, "I heard that Master Cao is planning to buy a house and return to his hometown. Where is Master Cao's hometown?"

Mr. Cao smiled and said, "It's from Qianzhou."

Hearing this, Tang Peipei couldn't help but sigh that the world is really small.

Tang Peipei smiled and said, "Then Mr. Cao and I are from the same hometown."

Mr. Cao was also surprised and asked, "Miss Tang is also from Qianzhou?"

Tang Peipei said: "It's from Jinghe Town, Qianzhou."

Mr. Cao instantly felt like he was meeting a fellow villager.

He said, "I heard Miss Tang's accent sound familiar. My hometown is Wanxiang Town, Qianzhou. I was only eighteen years old when I left Qianzhou. It has been almost forty years now. I don't know how Qianzhou has changed now."

Tang Peipei is not very familiar with Wanxiang Town, and it can be said that she is not even familiar with Jinghe Town.

He smiled and said, "It's been a long time. Have you never gone back?"

Mr. Cao felt emotional. In the past thirty or forty years, he had experienced ups and downs, which made him have no chance to return to his hometown. Now that he was old, he missed his hometown very much.

Thinking of this, Master Cao had some sorrow on his face, and said, "Yes, I never had the time to go back. Now that I'm old, I won't be able to go back anymore. I'm afraid I can't go back."

Tang Peipei saw that Mr. Cao was still in good spirits, but the old woman sleeping under the big tree was probably in bad condition.

Tang Peipei also understood why Mr. Cao was in a hurry to buy a house and a shop and return to his hometown. He probably wanted to take his wife back to his hometown.

At this time, Xiao Zi also brought Butler Cao to the reception room.

Butler Cao looked about the same age as Master Cao and was very skinny.

When he met Master Cao, he first greeted Master Cao: "Master." Then he bowed to Tang Peipei and Yang Tingzhen.

Perhaps he didn't know how to address Tang Peipei and the other man, so he just bowed.

When Master Cao saw Butler Cao coming, he said, "Lao Zhen, take Miss Tang and Deputy General Yang to see our shop on East and West Street."

When Butler Cao heard this, he knew that they were here to buy a shop, so he smiled flatteringly and said, "Please follow me, both of you."

Tang Peipei and Yang Tingzhen said goodbye to Mr. Cao and followed Butler Cao out of the Cao family.

Butler Cao smiled and asked, "Do you two want to buy our shop?"

Tang Peipei didn't like Butler Cao very much, so she nodded perfunctorily and said nothing.

Yang Tingzhen asked, "Butler Cao, which shop should we go to first?"

Butler Cao smiled and said, "You can look wherever you want first."

Tang Peipei said, "Then let's look at the ones on West Street first, and then look at the ones on East Street when we come back, it's more convenient."

Butler Cao said, "Okay."

East Street and West Street are adjacent to each other. Although the Cao family belongs to East Street, it is only a few steps away from West Street.

Butler Cao brought the two of them to West Street.

The Cao family’s shop is exactly the tenth one to be built, and now it is run as a grocery store.

Butler Cao took Tang Peipei into the grocery store.

The owner of the store greeted Butler Cao with a smile and said, "Why are you here, Butler Cao?"

Butler Cao smiled and said to the boss, "Now you have found a buyer. Bring him to have a look at the shop."

The boss looked like an honest man with a simple and honest look on his face.

He smiled and greeted Tang Peipei and the other two, "Come inside and take a look."

Butler Cao let the boss mind his own business and took Tang Peipei into the shop to take a look.

This shop has a backyard, which is now occupied by the grocery store owner and his family.

The shop is quite spacious, but because it is a grocery store, all the things are piled up a bit too much.

Tang Peipei thought it was okay, but she probably wouldn’t need it in the future, so maybe she would just keep renting it to others.

Finished looking at the shops on West Street.

Butler Cao took Tang Peipei and the other person back to East Street.