Chapter 55 I Have a House

Lin Xiangjun obtained the property deed and the pass, while the Old Village Chief received one thousand underworld currency; both parties were very satisfied with the transaction.

After sending off the Old Village Chief in high spirits, Lin Xiangjun pulled the [Advanced paper doll collection album] out of her pouch with a beaming smile and summoned both Wang Min and Patrick Star.

Patrick Star had recently consumed the security guard's corpse fluid, so his entire body was still stiff. When released from the collection album, he stood there motionless like a sea-stabilizing pillar.

Fortunately, his shoulder, which had nearly been torn off by the security guard earlier, had mostly grown back. The new flesh was a bright pink, while his original skin was a pale pink; the contrast actually gave off a certain tie-dye aesthetic.

Vaguely, it even looked somewhat nice.

Lin Xiangjun sized Patrick Star up from top to bottom, left to right, and front to back. After confirming his body was fine, she tossed him aside and ignored him.

She beckoned to Wang Min.

Wang Min ran over with a pitter-patter, like a little bunny seeing its mother.

"What is it, Master?"

"Pick out a house for us to live in."

Lin Xiangjun pulled a large handful of Tribute Cards from her pouch, sorted out all the houses, and began selecting them one by one.

Most Chinese people have considered the matter of buying a home. For a Chinese person, the temptation of having a house of one's own is no less than that of an eight-year-old choir boy to a priest.

Lin Xiangjun was no exception.

Back when she was burning tributes for herself, she had considered the issue of where to put them.

If she were to live here for the rest of her life, one house would be enough.

But if she got bored and wanted to change styles, she would need a house for every style, and the quantity suddenly increased.

Furthermore, there was the issue of wear and tear—normally, living in a house wouldn't cause much wear, but this was the weird world.

Even if one hadn't seen the supernatural, surely they had seen Ultraman? When Ultraman and monsters fight, the surrounding houses are like weeds in a field; one wild bull charge or one fall, and the houses collapse row by row.

So, when she was a child, she always thought Ultraman was very well-suited for a demolition crew.

With one wiggle of the rear, a whole row would be gone.

A true case of 'you shed a single tear, and I'll slaughter an entire city.'

And it only consumes one plate of sushi per hundred kilometers—green, efficient, and the perfect pollution-free new energy demolition.

To prevent her own house from dying under the passionate combat of a demolition crew, Lin Xiangjun not only bought every kind of house but also prepared twenty sets of each.

Put it this way: Lin Xiangjun could change houses every day more frequently than she changed her socks, and she could guarantee she wouldn't live in a repeat for twenty years.

However, while having a large quantity and backups was reassuring, choosing between them was a bit of a struggle.

"Do you think this two-story western building is better, or this quadrangle courtyard? Or this European manor? This one that looks like a cactus is also quite good..."

The times were good now, and the burned houses came in all sorts of varieties.

In her left hand, Lin Xiangjun held a Tribute Card depicting a house shaped like a cactus with a small yellow flower on top, and in her right, a treehouse that looked like a giant banyan tree where elves from movies might live. She was extremely conflicted.

Both houses looked so cute...

Which one should she favor?

So difficult to choose.

"I feel like this Cat Paradise is also very cute!"

Wang Min held a pink-and-white Cat Paradise in her left hand and a blue-and-green one in her right. Looking at the cat-themed furniture stickers everywhere in the Cat Paradise and the giant cat tree in the living room, she was practically shooting heart-shaped beams from her eyes.

This must have been designed by a hardcore cat lover. The house came with furniture, including sofas and large beds that looked like cat nests, a refrigerator shaped like a white cat crouching obediently, and tables and chairs in various cat shapes. The overall style leaned toward a cream aesthetic, and the furniture included pieces for both humans and cats.

There were clearly smaller water dispensers, doors with little holes for cats to enter and exit, and macaron-colored cat bowls filled with cat food placed in the corners...

It was completely a cat lover's heaven.

"This quadrangle courtyard also looks very good and practical." Lin Xiangjun finally managed to put down the two Tribute Cards in her hands, only to immediately pick up another.

This one didn't have as much design flair as the others, but the square shape of the quadrangle courtyard was very practical, and there were several small vegetable plots in the middle for gardening.

Beauty was certainly good, but practicality was also important.

"If we're talking about practicality... this small courtyard is also very good. The yard is bigger, there are more rooms, and it's a three-entry style, which is very grand." Wang Min picked one out from the pile of Tribute Cards and handed it to Lin Xiangjun.

"This two-story building is also quite nice..."

There were too many house styles to choose from. The two of them were dazzled by the options, and after a long time, they finally managed to settle on one.

It was a Suzhou-style garden three-entry courtyard.

Lin Xiangjun put away all the other Tribute Cards and tore the chosen courtyard Tribute Card down the middle.

The Tribute Card transformed into specks of white light, as if stirred by a breeze.

White walls and black tiles appeared, divided into a front yard, a main yard, and a back yard.

The front yard contained the Daozuo rooms usually used as servant or Guest quarters, the South Study for work and rest, a corner yard, and a decorative spirit wall.

The main yard was the largest, with two ear rooms on the east and west, two wing room ear rooms, two wing rooms, two verandas, and the large main house.

The back yard should have been smaller by logic, but since this was a paper model burned for the dead, the back yard had been enlarged for aesthetic purposes.

Although the structure still consisted of the Houzhaofang, stables, and the back Garden, the back Garden had been expanded to be as large as the main yard. It was filled with flowers of all colors—red, yellow, and white—though their specific species were indistinguishable.

The miraculous part was that, from the outside, this courtyard looked as wide as any other house, but upon walking inside, one discovered the depth had increased nearly fivefold.

Lin Xiangjun measured it with her steps and confirmed it was indeed more than five times deeper.

She had no idea what kind of spatial technology was being used.

The courtyard had looked ordinary as a paper model, but once it became a physical object, it turned quite upscale.

The ground was paved with bluestone slabs. In the front yard, the slabs were laid in a cross pattern, leaving four empty plots presumably intended for planting flowers or placing large fish vats.

Beside the corridors were carved red lacquer railings, and the windows were diamond-patterned lattice windows covered with thin window paper.

Lin Xiangjun reached out to poke it; the window paper, which looked like the glutinous rice paper wrapped around candied haws, was unexpectedly sturdy. When she tapped it, the window made a crisp sound like glass.

Moreover, the courtyard was thoughtfully equipped with all sorts of matching furniture.

For instance, there was a similarly carved Babu bed hung with silk curtains thin as moonlight, a desk, a Luohan bed for resting, a round table and high stools for dining, and embroidered screens...

Lin Xiangjun took a look around and chose the largest main house.

Wang Min chose the east wing room.

The east wing had three rooms, and Wang Min chose the one closest to the main house.

As for Patrick Star...

He had neither a brain nor a gender. Letting him live alone would be like letting an uneducated person with a mental disability live by themselves—one hundred percent dangerous and not at all safe.

Out of necessity, Lin Xiangjun could only have him stay with her for the time being.

He could live alone once he gained intelligence in the future.