Zhao Xinya, standing beside them and shielding them, felt her blood pressure rise. Fortunately, Ding Yun was quick-witted and supported her, preventing her from falling and allowing her to regain some composure.
"Are you serious? I'm not dreaming?"
"This is quite a shock..."
"How can I explain it to you?
How about this, I'll go cancel the bounty first, and then we'll go down together. We can talk more once we're on the truck!"
Ding Yun soothed her parents and, supporting each of them, led them to the work window to cancel the previous bounty. She retrieved forty catties of glutinous rice bricks, returned after the official commission. Then, with the rice bricks and her parents, she went downstairs and out of the trading hall.
As soon as they stepped out, they saw a truck.
With a registered capacity of eighteen tons, Ding Yun had crammed twenty tons of goods into it. This heavy-duty truck was now minus its tax.
Ding Yun continued to support them onto the truck and closed the door before continuing her explanation:
"Dad, Mom, this is the truck I brought back. The back is filled with food, currently over thirty thousand catties. If housing prices here only require thirty catties of grain per square unit, then even the fractional part
can buy a decent house.
The remaining over thirty thousand catties of food can last a long time.
I'm even worried it might spoil before we can eat it all, so I might have to sell some. Therefore, you don't need to worry about buying a house and not having enough food. Besides, I have other channels to acquire grain."
"Wait, let me process this. It feels like I'm dreaming. How can there be such good things in this world? My daughter comes back with so much grain.
Am I really not dreaming!"
Muttering to herself, Zhu Rong quickly pinched the fleshy part of her thigh. At first, she hadn't used much force, so it didn't hurt. Then, she pinched hard, and feeling intense pain, she finally confirmed that she wasn't having a daydream in broad daylight. This was reality.
Compared to Zhu Rong, who felt like she was dreaming, Zhao Xinya was already in tears. She hugged Ding Yun again, her voice choked with emotion and concern, saying:
"Daughter, you must have suffered so much...
How much risk did you have to take, how many dangers did you have to brave outside, to get all this grain..."
Undoubtedly, Zhao Xinya believed that with food being so scarce and precious now, Ding Yun must have gone through immense hardship and possibly risked her life to retrieve so much food from the zombie hordes.
However, Ding Yun didn't want their reunion to turn into a tearful affair. She quickly explained:
"Oh, Mom, don't cry. I'm fine. I really didn't suffer. This food isn't as risky to obtain as you imagine. I was just lucky and found a granary. Besides the labor of moving it, there was really no danger.
Alright, alright, you should both calm down, and then we'll go down to look at houses. Ideally, we'll finalize the house and move in before dark. The diesel in this truck can still last for a while, so moving won't be too difficult."
Under Ding Yun's determinedly lighthearted efforts to comfort and reassure, Zhao Xinya finally calmed down. She wiped her tears and then asked many worried details about how Ding Yun had managed over the past year.
Ding Yun had to rack her brain, squeezing out every last brain cell,
to finally manage to fool her mother.
Then, the family of three discussed which areas were good geographically, which were safer, and which had better environments, before getting out of the truck again to inquire at the housing transaction window in the trading hall about available properties.
Finally, they found three properties that Ding Yun and her parents were quite satisfied with. One was a spacious penthouse apartment on the top floor. Not only was it large, but the space above also belonged to them, making it perfectly suitable for growing vegetables.
They even heard that some people grew trees up there.
And they survived.
The only drawback was that this penthouse was on the thirty-second floor, and the elevator was already damaged.
It was unlikely that power would be restored or the elevator repaired in the future.
Another option was a detached house with a yard. It would normally be quite popular, but the original owners had all died inside. Later, a team that moved in also perished while searching for food outside. Since then, no one had bought or rented the house, despite its cheap price.
No one dared to buy or lease it.
The last option was a small building, four stories high with a total area of over five hundred square meters. The drawback was that the top floor hadn't been finished when the apocalypse hit, so it was effectively only three floors. The fourth floor was incomplete but was being sold as a four-story building. Now, they felt that building materials were difficult to acquire, and finishing the fourth floor would cost them a considerable amount of grain. They had to sell it at the price of four floors despite only having three usable ones, which was clearly not cost-effective.
Therefore, it hadn't sold yet.
"We definitely can't choose the detached house with the yard. It's better to be safe than sorry, we don't need to take that risk."
"Exactly, exactly. We can't choose that one. And that four-story building is completely uneconomical. I think we should just choose the penthouse on the top floor. Although it will be tiring to climb thirty-two floors without an elevator, it should be okay.
Let's just consider it exercise!"
"No, no, it's too preposterous to have thirty-two floors without an elevator. Climbing up and down would take half our lives. We can't go up and then try not to come down, it's too inconvenient.
And if any danger arises.
It would be inconvenient to escape.
Dad and Mom, please listen to me. If we're still worried about that haunted house, then let's buy the four-story building. At worst, I'll go out and do a few more trips.
And finish building the top floor!"
"No, that's too uneconomical. Besides, you don't lack food and drink now, so why go out and risk danger? You can earn grain by working in the base."
"Yes, and that four-story building is so expensive! It costs fifteen thousand catties of grain in total, which is insane. That haunted house only costs five thousand catties of grain, and its area is about the same as the building, and it even has a small garden in the back. The building is too expensive."
During the discussion, Zhu Rong and Zhao Xinya were both tempted by the price of the haunted house, yet fearful of the rumors that it was unlucky. At the same time, they felt the new four-story building, which hadn't had any deaths, was too expensive.
If it weren't for the lack of an elevator, the penthouse would have been the best choice.
In the end, Ding Yun made the final decision and bought the four-story building. It wasn't that she wasn't tempted by the haunted house. The main reason was that she wasn't just buying it for their family of three. She also planned to bring her aunt's entire family to live with them.
If her aunt's family knew that they had specifically bought a haunted house for them to live in, and they were narrow-minded, they might think that their family wanted to harm them with the haunted house.
Even if they weren't narrow-minded, they would likely feel uneasy.
Or perhaps they would feel a little uncomfortable. If any accident happened, someone got hurt or even died, they might blame them for buying a haunted house.
Anyway, she wasn't short on grain.
Why create a hidden thorn, a source of resentment?
By buying a house with no negative rumors, and bringing her aunt's entire family to live there, wouldn't everyone be at peace and comfortable?