Chapter 640 - 235: What Good Days Did I Have Before
Chapter 640: Chapter 235: What Good Days Did I Have Before
Xu Su Ying looked at the nanny, struggling to find her words. "These are all the things I disliked?"
The old nanny nodded, looking at Xu Su Ying with curiosity. She wondered if the young lady’s tastes had changed and she had started to like these items.
"You were never like this before," the old nanny remarked. "You used to feel that these pieces were too flashy and lacked elegance, or that their colors were too heavy and not playful enough. You also found them too formal. Since they had no practical use in daily life, you would only reluctantly bring them out during the holidays. Otherwise, they were just in the way no matter where they were placed.
"And what did you say about that red coral?
"Oh, you said it was nothing more than the skeletons left behind after some coral polyps died and their tissues decomposed.
"You admitted it was beautiful, but said that thinking about where it came from made you feel quite disgusted."
Once the old nanny said this, the way the others looked at Xu Su Ying changed entirely.
She truly was a lady raised in the lap of luxury, able to find endless flaws in such exquisite treasures. If it were a poor family... well, a poor family wouldn’t even be able to afford these things in the first place.
Chen Wanqing held Zhao Jing’s hand and urged him, "Which one do you like? Hurry up and pick. Mother said we can take whatever we want today. It’s now or never."
Zhao Jing chuckled and joked, "These are all the things Mother disliked, which shows they are a grade lower. I’d rather see what the things she actually liked look like."
Xu Su Ying was curious as well. She immediately called out to the nanny, "Let’s go. We’ll take a look next door."
By this time, Yu Gu had freshened up and was waiting outside. She pulled a key from her waist and looked at Xu Su Ying. "The other key is with the nanny."
"The door to this storehouse requires two keys to be turned simultaneously to open," the old nanny explained. "You previously gave one key to Yu Gu and kept the other yourself. Before you left to attend Mr. Chengyi’s invitation, you left them all in the manor. Later, when you... Well, we brought all these things to the old madam. She had another set of keys made to keep for herself, and she gave this one to me. It makes it easier for Yu Gu and me to come over regularly to clean and inspect everything, just in case anything gets damaged from being stored for too long."
Xu Su Ying nodded. "That makes sense. Mother’s arrangement was correct."
The two keys were inserted into the keyholes together. With a loud CLICK, the lock sprang open.
Pushing open the door to the storehouse, the group truly experienced what it meant to be surrounded by radiant jewels and boundless, enduring wealth. The space was massive. Compared to this storehouse, the previous room could barely be called a side closet. Inside, numerous shelves were arranged by category, with various chests and boxes piled up in front of them.
On the shelves dedicated to writing materials, there were agate paperweights, a green-and-white jade brush rest carved with the motif of ’Three Rams Bringing Fortune’, a candlestick featuring cranes soaring through clouds and intertwined Lingzhi mushrooms, and an ivory-carved black-lacquer lotus brush pot. There were also Chengni inkstones and Songhua inkstones. Neatly arranged ancient books sat alongside countless painting scrolls, the latter stored in blue-and-white porcelain vats depicting a shepherd boy playing a flute against a yellow backdrop with blue borders.
Seeing all these treasures, Zhao Jing was stopped in his tracks. Although he was very pragmatic, never pursuing superficial things or being won over by ostentatious status symbols meant only for saving face, the sheer impact of seeing all these items gathered together far exceeded his expectations.
Unlike Zhao Jing, Xu Su Ying and Chen Wanqing were immediately drawn to the jewelry boxes placed near a dressing table as soon as they entered the room.
Yu Gu peeled off the seals on the boxes one by one, revealing complete sets of gold-inlaid emerald jewelry, agate accessories, cloisonné ornaments, and gold-set sapphire pieces. There were tassels, flat hairpins, decorative hair sticks, rings, bracelets, dangling hair ornaments, court beads, tortoiseshell pieces, Jade Pendants, nail guards, and elaborate hair flowers. It was a dazzling and radiant feast for the eyes. No woman could possibly walk out of this room empty-handed.
In addition, there were small mountains of various fabrics that emitted a gentle luster, practically reeking of money and power. There were also countless precious medicinal herbs, including ginseng, deer antler velvet, and Lingzhi.
Among the collection were even several uncut jadeite rough stones. Just from the small exposed sections, it was obvious that their translucency was absolutely superb, marking them as top-tier masterpieces. These raw stones took up a remarkably large section of the floor.
Chen Wanqing felt dizzy from the spectacle. She teased her mother, "I can’t even imagine what kind of fabulous life you used to live. Compared to you, I feel like I was raised in a beggar’s den."
Chen Song chimed in, "Daughter, that cuts deep."
Chen Wanqing laughed. "Dad, don’t interrupt. I’m trying to play the pity card with my mother here. The more pitiful I seem, the more things she’ll give me. Like you said, it’s a rare chance to reap a windfall, and I have to seize the opportunity."