Cao An finished his work and returned, joining the cleanup team with Xiao Hai. It took them an entire afternoon to clear out half of the dead grass. Xia Youyou felt a bit bad for dragging these half-grown kids into such hard labor. She dragged Ziqiu and Zidong to the market to buy groceries, intending to cook them a nice meal that evening.
Liu Hui occupied the Qi family's kitchen early, took out the food left by Cao An, and prepared to cook.
Qi Siling only gathered everyone in the evening and will officially start work tomorrow.
Xia Youyou was so tired that she took a bath in the bathtub at night, not even bothering to do skin care. She quickly washed up and fell asleep on the bed, forgetting to tell Cao An about the main courtyard.
The house renovations were finally completed at the end of the year, though it took a while. Xia Youyou didn't want to use the public bathrooms and toilets outside, so she designed a drainage system herself, connecting it to the public restroom. Fortunately, it wasn't far away, otherwise digging a sewer would have been a lot of work. An automatic shower wasn't available yet, so she had a large wooden tub built for her. She kept the bathtub for future showers outside.
For the past month, she had been dragging the two little girls, Ziqiu and Zidong, to various flower gardens, finally buying all the flowers and plants she liked. Unable to dissuade Cao An and her mother, she finally moved into the main courtyard.
The renovated courtyard house looked brand new. The blue bricks had been freshly brushed, no longer gray and stale, and the walls had been whitewashed. Sunlight streamed through the glass windows, illuminating the room with a bright glow. Xia Youyou moved the Qiangong bed into her room, bought a new desk, and scavenged a Huanghuali wood wardrobe and bookcase from a scrapyard. Once she had arranged the room to her liking, she left.
In the main courtyard stood a stone table and four stone benches, all of which she had found at a scrap yard recently. They were made of white marble and carved from stone. They must have once belonged to a wealthy family.
The pomegranate tree in the yard remained, and on the other side was a wood hydrangea she had found. The pond was also cleaned, and everything was just the way she liked it. Climbing roses and grapevines were planted along the corridor. To prevent them from freezing, she also used film as insulation, leftover from her previous greenhouse vegetable garden.
Today was their moving day. After more than a month of visiting the Qi family, Liu Hui and her children went out of their way to express their gratitude. They also prepared two tables of delicious meals as a housewarming treat.
The kitchen was occupied, and the ten children also went to help, blocking the kitchen tightly, and Xia Youyou was squeezed out.
Qi Siling supported her and said, "Take me to your yard to have a look." He just took a general look and didn't take a close look at it.
Xia Youyou readily agreed, giving him a chance to see the flowers and plants she had found.
However, Qi Siling's purpose was not this. After entering the main courtyard, he asked, "Do you want to know my secret room? Maybe you have a secret room here too?" The layouts of the two courtyards are similar, so it seems that they were designed by the same person.
"Will there be?" Xia Youyou didn't believe it. The workers didn't see anything wrong when they were renovating the room before.
"Why don't you go and take a look and find out?" The mechanism is a bit secretive, so it's normal that it hasn't been discovered.
Xia Youyou was full of disbelief, "Then go and take a look."
The two of them entered the master bedroom. Qi Siling looked at the Qiangong bed and asked, "Did you get this from the scrap yard?" He knew where these cabinets were from, but he didn't know when the bed was moved in. He had doubts in his heart, but he didn't want to delve into it.
Xia Youyou felt a little guilty and didn't dare to lie, so she just avoided the topic stiffly.
"Where is the secret room you mentioned?"
Qi Siling went to the bed and knocked on the wall, trying to listen for a hollow sound. After confirming that there was indeed a hollow sound in the middle of the wall of the east side room, he turned around and exchanged a surprised look with Xia Youyou.
There really is a secret room!
"The mechanism should be under the bed. Let me try to move it away." Qi Siling rolled up his sleeves and prepared to move the bed away.
Xia Youyou stepped forward to help. Qi Siling couldn't lift the bed at all, which had previously required the combined efforts of four people.
Finally, two people pushed outside and opened a passage.
Qi Siling gasped in admiration, then asked in confusion: "When was this bed moved in? How come I didn't know about it? It's so heavy!" He had been watching the workers here recently and hadn't seen anyone move a bed.
Xia Youyou's heart raced when she heard this, and her face almost gave away the truth. "Where's the mechanism?" The topic was changed again.
He squatted down and explored the floor in the corner, knocking and pressing, and finally found something loose on the fifth floorboard. He carefully peeled it open, revealing the mechanism inside.
Xia Youyou really didn't expect that such a magical thing would actually happen, and she couldn't help but sigh at the wisdom of the ancients.
Qi Siling reached out and twisted the mechanism, and a door opened at the spot where the two men had knocked. The white wall had been scraped off earlier, and the opening of the secret room had caused some of the white ash to fall off, revealing the dark entrance inside.
The two looked at each other and stood up. Xia Youyou took out the night pearl from her bag and wanted to go in and take a look.
Qi Siling stopped her, took the night pearl from her hand, and went into the secret room. Just like the outside, no one had entered for over a decade, and the room was covered with cobwebs. He returned to the outer room, took a broom, and swept away the cobwebs. "Come, follow me."
Xia Youyou followed him and saw him holding the night pearl in one hand and a broom in the other, sweeping away the spider webs around him.
The secret room is in the mezzanine between the master bedroom and the ear room. Only one person can pass through it. There is a downward staircase.
"It's the same secret room as the one in my house, but the mechanism is different." It's just the same in some way.
"Will there be a lot of treasures then?" This is something you can only look at but cannot use, and you will definitely be very upset when the time comes, not to mention that they belong to other people.
"The house is yours now, and these are yours too."
"That's definitely not possible. What if someone finds it back?" She couldn't feel at ease getting these things.
"Then take a look. If you want something, just put the yellow croaker in it, just like you did when you exchanged it for my night pearl last time."
Xia Youyou thought about it and it was not impossible.
When they went down to the basement, they found that, just as they had expected, it had not been searched, just like Qi Siling's old house. Xia Youyou was dazzled by the boxes of jewelry and covered her heart, "Am I dreaming?"
Qi Siling looked at her amusedly and rubbed her little head. "Go see if there's anything you like?"
Just as she was about to go forward, she heard someone calling from outside, asking the two of them to eat.
"Let's go eat first, and you can come down and see it yourself in the evening."
"But I'm a little scared." It's too dark inside.
Qi Siling pushed her shoulders and walked out, "Then call your brother."
"Yeah, why didn't I think of that!" He quickly ran up the stairs, no longer paying attention to Qi Siling's helpless face behind him.
Qi Siling felt upset, but there was nothing he could do. Everyone around him could see his love for this girl, except her...
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