After leaving his home, Qiu Zean changed buses several times and arrived at an inconspicuous detached courtyard on the outskirts of Beijing.
The courtyard is quite large, nearly 400 square meters, but there are not many houses, only three dilapidated thatched houses. This is the house that Qiu's mother left for Qiu Ze'an.
It was indeed quite dilapidated, but fortunately, although the wooden door looked dusty, worn, and old, it was very heavy and sturdy.
Qiu Zean took out his personal key and fiddled with it for a long time, but still couldn't open the lock.
It's been too long; exposed to wind and rain, the lock has long since rusted shut.
Qiu Zean sighed, stepped over the earthen wall beside him, avoiding the shards of glass on it, and jumped into the yard.
Fortunately, he was skilled, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get in today. Although the lock on his door was a regular lock, the inside of the lock panel was made of pure copper, making it extremely difficult to break.
The courtyard was bare, filled with withered weeds. Qiu Zean looked around and then went into one of the houses.
This courtyard was purchased by Grandpa Min after he secretly left the city every day to choose a place for a long time when the situation was bad.
Back then, Grandma Min was particularly disgusted, feeling that even if she didn't buy a big one, she had to buy a small house with its own yard in the city.
Even if we take a step back and buy in the suburbs, we'd still need to buy a few brick houses!
Grandma Min had never seen a more dilapidated house than this; two of the three thatched huts had leaky roofs.
However, Grandpa Min insisted on doing so, and Grandma Min agreed, so Grandma Min had no choice but to agree as well.
After buying the house, Grandma Min wanted to tidy it up, but Grandpa Min refused no matter what. He only raised the courtyard wall and put broken glass on it, and changed the door.
Grandpa Min had a heavy and sturdy wooden door made, but he painstakingly mixed a particularly dirty color and painted it on, making the already ugly and dilapidated house look even more run-down.
In the courtyard, however, Grandpa Min, along with Grandma Min and him, secretly expanded the cellar in the house every day, gradually moving over all the things they couldn't take with them.
He was very young then and genuinely didn't understand Grandpa Min and Mom Min's behavior.
Even when he came over occasionally later, he still didn't quite understand why his grandfather and mother had chosen such a remote and dilapidated house.
When he was 16, on his last visit before joining the army, he suddenly understood his grandfather and mother's intentions.
Yes, he might not be able to keep the good house, but this dilapidated house is different.
No one would put too much effort into such a dilapidated house. Even if someone really wanted to live there, they would have to consider the cost of repairing it.
Even homeless people don't choose this place, because it's not as good as the dilapidated temple outside the city, and it's even worse than going to the train station in the city, where at least you won't be exposed!
Therefore, he left with great peace of mind back then, because he knew that no one would care about this place.
Pushing open the dilapidated door, Qiu Zean first went to check the location of the cellar.
Seeing that the cellar hadn't been disturbed, Qiu Zean was completely relieved.
After clearing away the accumulated soil from the cellar and ventilating it for half an hour, Qiu Zean jumped down into the cellar when he felt it was about time.
After groping around in the corner for a while, Qiu Zean finally managed to pull open the stone slab on the wall with all his might; this was the second cellar.
This cellar, which is on the surface, was originally part of the house when my grandfather bought it. It's not very big, only about 3 square meters. The stone slabs around it were added by my grandfather later.
The second cellar was dug by Grandpa and Grandma. This cellar was also lined with stone slabs, and the roof was reinforced.
The second-floor cellar isn't very big; it's only about 10 square meters at most.
There was a tight schedule when digging this cellar, and there were only three elderly and weak people, including the grandfather and his grandson, so the grandfather did not dig a very large one.
I dug out ten square meters, and I figured I could put all my antiques, paintings, jewelry that was hard to carry, and jade inside.
None of the old silk fabrics, precious wood furniture, and other space-consuming items left over from the family were put in.
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