Chapter 8 Mother's Inheritance, the First Treasure
After saying goodbye to Wang Ma, Su Wantang returned to her room and locked the door behind her.
To isolate oneself from all the disturbances outside.
She sat in front of the dressing table, looking at the face in the mirror that was both familiar and unfamiliar, and took a deep breath.
Instead of opening it immediately, I waited quietly for my heartbeat to calm down. The more crucial the moment, the more important it is to remain calm.
Finally, she reached out, her fingertips trembling slightly, and gently pried open the clasp that was already covered in patina.
“Clatter.”
A soft sound.
The box lid opened with a click.
There were no gold bars or jewelry as one might imagine, nor any dazzling jade or emeralds.
Inside the box, lying quietly, were only a neatly stacked stack of yellowed letters, an old-fashioned, unremarkable brass key, and two other ordinary keys.
Su Wantang's heart sank slightly.
Then, she laughed self-deprecatingly. She was wrong; how could a woman as intelligent as her mother leave behind an inheritance in such a crude way?
She carefully picked up the top letter.
Familiar, neat yet strong handwriting came into view. It was my mother's handwriting.
"To my dearest daughter, Wantang: It is as if I am seeing you in person. By the time you read this letter, you will have grown up, and your mother may no longer be alive. Do not grieve, do not be sad. Life and death are predestined, and reunion and separation are impermanent."
The opening few sentences instantly brought tears to Su Wantang's eyes.
She suppressed the surging emotions in her heart and continued reading.
The letter is filled with a mother's deepest love and reluctance to part with her daughter, reminding her to eat on time, wear warm clothes when it's cold, and attending to every little detail.
But as you look further on, the brushstrokes suddenly shift and become sharp.
"Wantang, remember this: no one in the Su family can be trusted! Especially that woman Liu Liyun, you must be extremely wary of her! This woman is as venomous as a snake, and her origins are unknown; she is definitely not a good person. I fell for her tricks back then..."
Origin unknown!
These four words, like a bolt of lightning, cleaved through the fog in Su Wantang's mind.
She said, how could an ordinary concubine have such audacity and means to turn the Su family upside down and even scheme against the original owner and her mother to their deaths!
Su Wantang's fingers unconsciously tightened, and the letter paper was slightly wrinkled from being squeezed.
She continued reading, and at the end of the letter was the real highlight.
"...I know your father is easily swayed and unlikely to amount to much. Handing over the Su family's vast fortune to him would not be a blessing for you. Therefore, I have already prepared a sum of money for you to rely on. The list of assets is hidden in the lining of this letter. Also, this key is the key to the largest vault in Shanghai's Huitong Bank. What's inside is your last resort."
Su Wantang's breath hitched.
Huatong Bank! Vault!
She stared at the ordinary brass key, feeling as if it were burning hot to the touch.
This isn't a key, it's a mountain of gold! It's her biggest trump card—to secure her place in this world and live a life of vengeance!
She put down the letter, picked up the thickest-looking sheet of paper, and carefully began to separate it from the edge under the light.
Sure enough, the letter paper was double-layered.
When the interlayer was completely removed, the densely packed tiny characters inside instantly came into her view.
"A warehouse called 'Fuyuan' in the west of the city contains three hundred bolts of top-grade Suzhou embroidered brocade and twenty boxes of porcelain from the imperial kilns of the previous dynasty..."
"Three prime shops on Nanjing Road, with land deeds..."
"A garden villa in the French Concession, with a land deed..."
"One copy of 'Travelers Among Mountains and Streams,' and two genuine shrimp paintings by Qi Baishi..."
Each and every incident made Su Wantang's heart pound and her blood rush to her head.
This is not just a sum of money to keep on your hands; it's clearly a business empire!
What shocked her most was a line of small words written by her mother in red ink at the end of the list.
"The above-mentioned property is all my premarital private property and has nothing to do with the Su family. Su Zhenhong is merely the person in charge of managing it."
Su Zhenhong is just a temporary manager!
Su Wantang felt a sudden dizziness, followed by an indescribable surge of mockery and coldness from the depths of her heart.
She couldn't help but chuckle, a laugh tinged with a morbid glee.
After all this, it turns out that the Su family's current immense wealth was not earned by Su Zhenhong at all, but rather built up by his mother's dowry and shrewdness!
Who does Su Zhenhong think he is?
A man who lives off a woman from humble beginnings, a fool who let a wolf into his house, and an accomplice who caused the death of his wife!
Does he really think he's someone important?
How dare he act like a father in front of her?
Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!
Su Wantang memorized every word on the list, and then she looked at the other letters in the wooden box.
The handwriting in these letters is different, and more vigorous and powerful.
She opened the letter, and the signature was an unfamiliar name—Qin An.
The letter addressed him as "Uncle Qin".
"To the young lady: The hungry wolf in the 'north' has been making frequent moves lately, which may be detrimental to your operations in Tianjin. I have already sent people to keep a close eye on it..."
"As you instructed, 30% of the shares in the Shanghai textile factory have been quietly sold off and converted into gold, which is now stored in the usual place..."
"We've made some progress on the investigation into the Liu family's background that you asked us to investigate. This woman seems to have some unclear and ambiguous connections with the 'Hongmen' in Hong Kong..."
Su Wantang read through the letters one by one, becoming increasingly alarmed with each reading.
The contents of these letters were entirely about business strategies and maneuvering, revealing an immense amount of information. Her mother was no ordinary, sheltered woman; she was a highly skilled and shrewd top-tier player in the business world!
And that woman named Liu Liyun actually had connections with triads in Hong Kong.
Things were far more complicated than she had imagined!
Su Wantang carefully put all the letters and lists back into the wooden box.
Her mind was clearer than ever before.
The goals are also clearer than ever before.
One week!
Within a week, before going to Beijing with Lu Jingyan, she had to transfer everything her mother had left behind, down to the last hair, into her Begonia Space!
Su Zhenhong? Liu Liyun?
She wants to completely remove the foundation upon which they stand!
She wanted to make them fall from the clouds into the mud, to let them taste what it means to have nothing!
Su Wantang's gaze fell on the list again.
Her gaze settled on her first target—the "Fuyuan" warehouse in the west of the city.
Top-quality silk and antique porcelain.
These things are high-value and have big targets; we must get our hands on them first.
However, this matter must be done discreetly, without alerting anyone.
Especially... Lu Jingyan.
That man was as sharp as a cheetah; it wasn't easy to play tricks on him right under his nose.
We must come up with a foolproof plan.
A plan that could deceive everyone and leave him with no room for error.
Su Wantang's fingertips tapped the table more and more frequently.
Tap, tap, tap, tap...
In the mirror, the girl's red lips curved into a confident smile.
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