265 Signing the Contract
When the Cao family members saw how determined Old Mr. Sun was, they immediately panicked.
"Wait, wait! Didn't we agree to exchange it with our house? How did it become yours?" the eldest daughter-in-law of the Cao family looked at Old Mr. Sun and said anxiously.
"When did you agree, haven't you guys been hesitating?" Old Mr. Sun said.
"We agreed just now," said the eldest daughter-in-law of the Cao family.
When Cao Da heard this, he hurriedly pulled his wife to his side and whispered, "Are you crazy? If we don't have this house, where are we going to live?"
"Didn't you hear Old Mr. Sun said that this ginseng is priceless? Old Mr. Sun is even willing to exchange his big house with four sections for this ginseng. Doesn't that tell you something of its worth," the eldest daughter-in-law of the Cao family whispered back.
Cao Da thought about it for a moment. He felt that what his wife said made sense, so the two of them immediately agreed and said that they were willing to exchange their house for it.
"Yes, we'll do the exchange," Cao Da said.
"We will exchange it with you, but you'll have to sign a contract and move out within half a month. What we are exchanging for is your entire house," Xia Zhe said.
Cao Da and his wife said in unison, "No problem."
"We'll give you this ginseng after you hand over the house to us," Qiao Mei said.
Old Mr. Sun hugged the metal box tightly. He knew he had to return it now.
When Old Mr. Sun returned the metal box, he cast reluctant looks at it.
"I'm sorry, Old Mr. Sun. This house is meant for my wife's grandfather. Your house is really too far away," Xia Zhe said embarrassedly as he took back the metal box.
"My place is not that far, it's just two steps away. Sigh, what a pity," Old Mr. Sun said regretfully.
"There's one more thing I need to trouble Old Mr. Sun with. Please stay and be our witness," Qiao Mei said.
Old Mr. Sun nodded. Since he was already here, he was willing to render his help.
"What about you guys? Do you need a witness?" Xia Zhe asked.
Cao Da hurriedly shook his head and said, "No, no, we all trust Old Mr. Sun. It's sufficient for Old Mr. Sun to be a witness for this matter."
He did not want the news of the 100-year-old ginseng to spread.. If more of his relatives knew about it, then there would be more people coming to ask for the ginseng. If he did not give it to them, he would offend many people. He felt that it would be better if fewer people knew about it.
Moreover, this ginseng was a very useful thing. He definitely did not want any strangers to know about it.
The two families agreed on this matter and signed the contract. From that moment on, Qiao Mei had the right to live at the property.
Qiao Qiang was not present, so it was Qiao Mei's name that was written on the contract.
The two families only signed the documents, but they did not have to go through the procedures to transfer the ownership. This was because the property deed of this house still belonged to the Xia family.
Back when the house was reallocated, it was actually considered rented out. For people who lived in the capital, if they owned more than 15 houses or an area of 200 square meters, they would have to demarcate a portion and rent it out.
The party who rented the house would then pay the owner 15% to 30% of the property value as the yearly rent. After 10 years, it would be deemed enough to cover the cost of the house and there would be no need to pay the rent anymore.
Although there was currently a policy in place to return such houses to the original owners, it was only implemented in some regions. For other areas, the policy implementation process had been delayed repeatedly.
In the end, once the ownership of a house became unclear, the government would seize it and tear it down.
Qiao Mei looked at the hard copy contract and still felt uneasy. She did not know if such a contract without any evidence would be legally binding.
All of them might not understand why Qiao Mei kept wanting to buy a house now. Qiao Mei could not say that it was because she knew the price of this house would increase by dozens of times within the next few decades. That would likely make them think that Qiao Mei was a money-faced person.
"Does this mean that the house belongs to us now?" Qiao Mei asked.
"This will do," Xia Fang said.
After thinking about it, Qiao Mei still felt uneasy.
"Why don't we go around and meet the neighbors to tell them that this house is now ours?" Qiao Mei looked at Xia Fang and asked.
Xia Fang smiled and said, "You think things through quite thoroughly. Then let's go and say hello to the neighbors around us."
