Chapter 19: Exploring the Courtyard Mansion

Chapter 19: Exploring the Courtyard

Returning to Fengze Garden, He Yuzhu found his master and told him about buying the house. After requesting leave from both his master and Manager Luan, he left Fengze Garden.

He Yuzhu went back alone to the newly purchased small courtyard. Opening the door, he stepped inside. When he first viewed the house, his spiritual sense had detected three basements, but he hadn’t examined them closely. Now, with no one else around, he could investigate thoroughly.

He released his spiritual sense and began exploring the largest basement located between the two courtyards. This basement had two passageways. Following one passage led to the backyard, which had been converted into a vegetable garden. The entrance there was buried about a meter underground, so he abandoned that route for the time being. He then explored the other passage, arriving at the side wing on the west side of the main house. Moving aside some clutter in the corner behind the wing’s western wall, he pried up a stone slab and revealed a hidden entrance. He took an oil lamp from his spatial storage, lit it, and lowered it inside. Since the flame remained steady, he descended.

Below was a small storage room, exceptionally clean. It seemed the Hu family had discovered and used it as a secret chamber. He Yuzhu began searching for mechanisms and found a hidden switch in the corner above the chamber. He fetched a stool and pressed a brick inward. The wall slid aside smoothly. The oil lamp still burned steadily, indicating the chamber had ventilation. Behind the wall, thick dust lay undisturbed.

Inside the chamber were a dozen boxes, all opened. Three small boxes contained gold bars, each stamped with a ten-tael mark—three hundred bars in total. Two boxes held silver ingots; another contained various gold jewelry and jade bracelets and pendants. Six boxes held porcelain pieces that appeared to be antiques, and one contained ancient paintings. Among them, He Yuzhu spotted a painting by Tang Bohu.

On the floor lay a pile of stones. When he touched them, the “Jade Clarity Technique” began to operate automatically. These were raw stones. He absorbed them all, and his Jade Clarity Technique finally advanced to the second level. His body grew stronger, and his spiritual sense extended to a ten-meter radius. However, the spatial dimension remained unchanged.

He Yuzhu emptied the secret chamber, storing everything in his space, then restored the mechanism and resealed the stone slab of the side wing. He returned to the neighboring courtyard.

In this courtyard, the east wing was a pharmacy, furnished with camphor pine medicine cabinets filled with common herbs. Behind the shelves was another basement storing more valuable medicinal materials. Here, He Yuzhu found a tiger bone, five tiger whips, and three wild ginseng roots over fifty years old.

The basement beneath the main house was as clean as the adjacent one, with nothing left behind.

However, beneath the floor tiles deep in the kang bed of the master bedroom, He Yuzhu discovered a small box. Without his spiritual sense, he would never have found it. Inside were a boxed pistol, over three hundred bullets, ten small yellow fish-shaped tokens, a hundred silver dollars, and unexpectedly, two thousand US dollars. It seemed Old Master Hu had passed suddenly and left no instructions; otherwise, these treasures wouldn’t have fallen into He Yuzhu’s hands.

He then went to the study. The furniture was all made from fine wood: golden-threaded nanmu bookshelves, huanghuali chairs, and a zitan desk. The calligraphy brushes, inkstones, paper, and ink were all of rare quality. He Yuzhu collected them all.

Facing the bookshelf, he saw many medical books, ancient texts, porcelain artifacts, incense burners, seals, and unique stones on display.

The cabinets beneath the shelves also stored many writing implements from the Ming and Qing dynasties. He gathered all of these into his spatial storage.

He also found a hidden compartment beneath the bookshelf containing a sleek black wooden box. It felt heavy in his hands. Opening it, he found two nameless books, both quite new and not ancient texts.

He opened them and saw they were records left by Old Master Hu. One detailed several medicinal recipes, medicinal wines, and prescriptions. The other recorded the master’s medical experiences.

He Yuzhu had been worried about where to find recipes for medicinal wines, but now everything had come to him effortlessly.

Having explored the entire courtyard, night had fallen. Checking his pocket watch, he saw it was almost time to finish work. He quickly took out two three-jin jars of white liquor and three three-jin jars of yellow wine from his spatial storage, mounted his bicycle, and headed back to Fengze Garden.

He first carried a jar each of white and yellow wine to Manager Luan’s office.

“What are you carrying, Yuzhu?” Manager Luan asked, eyeing the two jars.

“I got these from a friend. Thought I’d bring some for you to try,” He Yuzhu said, placing the jars on Luan’s desk.

“Wangyou? Jieyou?” Luan read the red paper labels.

“Yes, my friend named them. Wangyou is white liquor, Jieyou is yellow wine,” He Yuzhu explained.

“Alright, I won’t be polite, I’ll take them,” Luan said.

He Yuzhu said goodbye and left the office, then found Second Senior Brother in the kitchen.

“Second Senior Brother, don’t rush off after work. Come find me in Master’s office,” He Yuzhu said.

“What’s up, Yuzhu?” Second Senior Brother asked.

“Something important. Don’t forget to come find me,” He Yuzhu said.

“Okay, I’ll come after I finish,” he replied.

Getting the confirmation, He Yuzhu went out to carry the remaining three jars of wine to his master’s office, waiting for Master and Second Senior Brother to finish work.

“Yuzhu, you brought more wine? There’s still some at home,” Master Fan Dakang said, looking at the jars on the table.

Since He Yuzhu first brought wine for Master Fan Dakang to taste, he had kept bringing several jars. Although Master drank daily, it was only a cup each time, so some wine remained.

“Master, it’s cold now, so I got some yellow wine to warm up. Also brought a jar each of white and yellow for Second Senior Brother,” He Yuzhu said.

Just then, Second Senior Brother entered.

“Master,” he greeted, then asked He Yuzhu, “What do you need?”

“Brought you some wine—a jar of white Wangyou and yellow Jieyou,” He Yuzhu said, pointing to the table.

“Wangyou, Jieyou—nice names. Perfect for tonight,” Second Senior Brother said.

“Drink up. If you want more, I’ll get it,” He Yuzhu said.

“Let’s take the wine and go,” Master Fan Dakang said.

He Yuzhu accompanied his master and Second Senior Brother to the door and bid them farewell.