Chapter 639 - 235: What Kind of Good Days We Had Before
Chapter 639: Chapter 235: What Kind of Good Days We Had Before
The weather was already quite cold. A howling gale whistled through the courtyard, causing their clothes to flap wildly in the wind.
Seeing her daughter and son-in-law come out, Xu Su Ying hurriedly asked them, "Why haven’t you gone to sleep yet?"
"We slept too much during the day, so we’re having trouble falling asleep. Mom, what are you and Dad doing? Are you planning to go out?"
Xu Su Ying had a habit of eating midnight snacks. She didn’t indulge often, but she would have them three to five times a year. Sometimes, Chen Song would bring something back for her. On holidays when the county town didn’t have a curfew, she would take the whole family out late at night. In Chen Wanqing’s memory, those outings were highly adventurous affairs. However, it wasn’t too late in the evening yet. She wondered if they could really stomach a midnight snack at this hour.
Xu Su Ying waved for her daughter to come over. "I’m planning to take a look at my storehouse. Since you two happened to catch us, come along."
Chen Wanqing and Zhao Jing exchanged glances, entirely caught off guard. They hadn’t expected to encounter something even more absurd than going out for a midnight snack at this hour. They wondered if the storehouse held some precious treasure that simply had to be seen right this second.
Even Xu Su Ying couldn’t answer her daughter’s unspoken question. After all, she had only been back at the Xu Mansion for a full two days. Her storehouse inventory lists had all been kept by her mother. They should have been sent over just now along with the account books, but she hadn’t had the time to look through them.
Xu Su Ying scratched her head and said, "We’re just sitting around idle anyway, so we might as well take a stroll. Are you coming or not, daughter? If you do, whatever catches your eye is yours. It’s rare for me to be this generous, so you better seize the opportunity."
"What’s there to think about?" Chen Song chimed in from the side. "Come on, daughter, let’s go freeload off the rich."
An old nanny laughed and added, "The young lady has two storehouses. One holds her beloved items, which she wouldn’t give to anyone no matter who asked. The other storehouse is filled with things she dislikes. Whenever a casual acquaintance celebrates a birthday, she just grabs a gift straight from there."
Her curiosity piqued, Chen Wanqing followed her mother toward the storehouses.
The courtyard where Xu Su Ying lived had three compounds. The second compound, including the east and west wings, had a total of four rooms. The two large south-facing rooms served as the actual storehouses. Yu Gu, the caretaker of the storehouses, lived in the left wing. The right room functioned as an office—specifically used for registering the items going in and out of the storehouses and recording their exact dates.
Presently, several shelves filled with ledger books were kept inside. They contained detailed records of the items Xu Su Ying had received and gifted away during her years at the Xu Mansion. Just by looking at these social exchanges, one could get a crystal-clear understanding of her social circle and her level of intimacy with various people.
Upon seeing the shelves of ledgers, even Xu Su Ying was utterly amazed. It was no exaggeration to say that there were more of these ledgers than De’an had books. She was absolutely convinced that De’an had failed the Provincial Examination simply because he hadn’t read enough. She silently vowed to assign him more coursework later.
The caretaker, Yu Gu, had been one of the Dayas by Xu Su Ying’s side in her earlier years. Because she was highly trusted by Xu Su Ying, she was assigned to watch over the storehouses. During the years Xu Su Ying was missing, out of the four Dayas who served her, one had died. Another had taken a vow of celibacy and stayed at the mansion to continue waiting for her—this was Yu Gu. The third’s contract had been bought out by her parents, and she was married off early. The last one was married to a mansion steward under the grandmother’s arrangements and still worked daily in Xu Su Ying’s courtyard.
Hearing that Xu Su Ying had arrived, Yu Gu didn’t even have time to light a lamp, hastily putting on her clothes in the dark. When she came out to greet her, she realized that the frog closures on her clothes were misaligned, making her look quite disheveled. Embarrassed and ashamed, Yu Gu apologized profusely and wanted to return to her room to change properly, which actually made Xu Su Ying feel quite guilty.
Xu Su Ying knew she couldn’t blame the woman for her unkempt appearance. She herself was the one to blame for coming over late at night and disturbing someone’s sweet dreams. In the entire Capital City, she was probably the only person who would inspect her storehouse in the middle of the night instead of sleeping.
Telling Yu Gu to go back to her business, Xu Su Ying led Chen Song, Chen Wanqing, and Zhao Jing straight into the storehouse. The old nanny had already stepped inside first, striking a fire starter to light the lanterns within. Illuminated by the bright light, everything in the storehouse was laid out before their eyes.
A round five-beaded horn palace lantern, a black-lacquered, ivory-carved screen depicting a traditional festival walk, a large lotus-leaf style pastel porcelain vase with peony motifs, small porcelain wares with interlocking lotus patterns, a complete set of contrasting-color lotus porcelain bowls, a cloisonné enamel bronze mirror painted with flowers and birds symbolizing a harmonious marriage, a filigree incense burner inlaid with rubies, and even a red coral tree nearly two meters tall...
The old nanny’s voice sounded close to their ears. "These are all the things the young lady dislikes, barely kept here just to make up the numbers. If relatives or friends have a birthday, a coming-of-age ceremony, or are adding to a dowry, the young lady usually picks a gift directly from here."