"Hehe..." Zhou Xiaozheng looked at his daughter and laughed out loud.
Laughter echoed, and Zhou Jiao quickly signaled her father to stop laughing. "That's too scary, isn't it?" She glanced at her father. She mustered up her courage and stood in front of the mechanism.
If Zhou Xiaozheng hadn't been so worried about being exposed, he would have burst into laughter. He had thought his daughter Jiaojiao was incredibly brave, but it turned out she was still a delicate little princess.
Following Zhou Xiaozheng's instruction, Zhou Jiao quickly opened the door next to her.
When she walked out the door, she saw a wide passage that could accommodate a small stroller. She ignored her fear and called out softly, "Dad, look!"
Zhou Xiaozheng was also surprised at this moment. He had not expected that the three secret rooms mentioned in his mother's suicide note, even though they were described as understated, would actually be quite large.
Seeing the door behind him slowly closing, he quickly grabbed Zhou Jiao.
After a moment, seeing nothing unusual, Zhou Xiaozheng squatted down and looked at the ground in front of him. He found a single stone slab leading to the front. There were also ancient bricks filling the corners on both sides. It seemed that this basement was built by the ancestors of the Gu family.
"You follow behind Dad."
There shouldn't be any danger here; there won't be any traps on the ground. Zhou Xiaozheng thought about his own caution and shook his head in amusement.
Despite thinking so, Zhou Xiaozheng, worried about accidents, still protected his daughter behind him. He stepped forward quietly and lit the lantern on the wall.
"Dad, this is the location of the back garden." Zhou Jiao said softly when she saw him stop and look up at the top of the passage.
"I'll check the vents. No one's been in there for decades, but they've maintained their original state. They must have some trick up their sleeve."
Before Zhou Jiao could respond, she noticed a tricycle leaning against the wall in front of her, and quickly pulled Zhou Xiaozheng.
Zhou Xiaozheng took a few steps forward and looked at the unicycle in front of him. He found that the tire was still rubber, which showed that it could not be very old. It must have been used by his mother, Gu Mingzhu.
Holding the lantern, the father and daughter continued to move forward along the tunnel. Zhou Xiaozheng silently estimated the direction and distance, and stopped when they reached the corner.
"This is past the back garden, heading towards the main courtyard. We're almost to the secret room your grandma mentioned. Do you want to rest for a while before going on?"
"Haha... Dad, you're teasing me." Zhou Jiao pushed him and hurried on—at this critical moment, her dad couldn't afford to make a mistake. She then whispered, "Dad, are you really in the study in the main courtyard? Did you notice the tiles on the study floor just now? Many of them don't match the color. Do you think they've been dug up? I didn't have the courage to ask my aunt just now. Did she mention this to you?"
Zhou Xiaozheng praised, "My daughter is so clever! The old lady didn't mention it to us, probably because it involved the cost of repairing the courtyard. Look, the courtyard is empty now. Even if she took it after liberation, the money would be quite a lot. I guess the old lady spent all her private money on this. We'll have to make up for it after we return to Beijing."
Even your grandmother's yard has been dug up three feet deep, let alone the study. I don't know if the exit over there is usable, let's try it later."
Zhou Jiao nodded. If there was only one exit, she would never let her father in. If the father and daughter were really trapped in there, it would be a lot of fun.
As they were talking, an empty platform appeared in front of them. Two old antique carts were standing alone against the corner of the wall, covered with weathered straw.
As they walked in, two large stone doors opposite blocked their way.
"arrive!"
Zhou Jiao breathed a sigh of relief and finally arrived at her destination - the secret room in her grandmother Gu Mingzhu's suicide note.
"Dad, don't move. Let me feel the door first." Zhou Jiao smiled at her father. She didn't dare to say that she liked the two stone doors. Such huge stone slabs were more attractive than gold. They gave her a sense of security. If anyone messed with her, she could crush a large number of people with the doors.
Zhou Xiaozheng would never have thought that his daughter, who had just been so timid, could have such cruel thoughts in her heart. Now he was smiling and patting her head affectionately.
"Well, Dad will wait for you. Xiaowu is outside, so you don't have to worry about the time."
Hearing this, Zhou Jiao patted the door reluctantly, feeling a pity. Worried that Zhang Guoqing was worried outside, she quickly stood beside Zhou Xiaozheng, waiting for him to open the door.
Zhou Xiaozheng smiled and shook his head, then followed the instructions Gu Mingzhu had given him. Breaking the Bagua formation was a piece of cake for him; he was confident he could activate both doors without any prompting.
As he moved, the two doors slowly retreated back into the wall.
When Zhou Jiao saw this scene, she didn't have time to sigh before she saw the secret room behind the stone door - the open space was filled with wooden boxes and antique shelves, so big that only the father and daughter could stand at the door, and they couldn't even stretch their legs in.
Faced with all this, Zhou Jiao covered her forehead with her hands in pain and looked at her father.
Seeing this, Zhou Xiaozheng couldn't suppress his smile any longer and patted her head, "Put it away quickly. For a family with hundreds of years of history, this is already too little. Dad has seen the largest secret room abroad, and it was really scary. If you can't put it away, just decorate it less."
"Dad, don't scare me. You're not going to be a thief, are you? That's too dangerous."
Zhou Xiaozheng laughed out loud after hearing this - his Jiaojiao was really imaginative.
Zhou Jiao shook her head helplessly at him. She had a really low sense of humor! She took out a pen and paper and continued, "It can still fit, but it feels too scary. Dad, you open the box, I have to write it down so I know how much."
"Why write it down? It's all yours anyway. You can look at it later when you have time." Zhou Xiaozheng stopped laughing and shook his head. He only loved Jiao, so what he kept was not hers.
"Dad, that won't do. I will have brothers and sisters in the future. Don't ever think like that. The things you gave me are so much that I can't spend them all in my lifetime. Don't give me these."
Seeing her shaking like a wave drum, Zhou Xiaozheng was really worried that her little head would fall off. "Okay, I'll put it there for now. We can talk about the rest later."
After that, he saw her smiling and directing him to open the box. He just let her do what she wanted - as long as his daughter was happy. Brothers and sisters? Haha, this kid thinks a lot.
He had never planned to have another child. Besides Jiaojiao, who else could inherit the Zhou and Gu families' fortunes? Who could possibly inherit the virtues of his parents like Jiaojiao? Who could guarantee that the next child wouldn't follow the Lin family? He owed his daughter so much, yet he still wanted to have children in his old age, leaving Jiaojiao to shoulder the responsibilities of the eldest daughter? How could that be possible?
As for the family line, Zhang Guoqing wasn't the eldest son, so he had privately agreed with his in-laws that both Jiaojiao's children, regardless of gender, would be registered under his name. His in-laws also agreed that even if Xiaowu had only one, Ping'an, he would still be able to take on the responsibility of supporting both the Zhang and Zhou branches. This was also what he was most satisfied with about the Zhang family—their generosity!
Zhou Jiao didn't know what her father was thinking. At this moment, she said worriedly: "Dad, do you think my uncle just walked away on purpose? Grandma is really honest. If that letter fell into someone else's hands, wouldn't our things be taken away? You say we only have so much stuff at home, will my uncle's house have more?"
"Don't criticize your grandmother! So what if your great-uncle did it on purpose? My father and I went out empty-handed, and they followed us all the way. Even if they were suspicious, they wouldn't be able to find anything.
The Cheng family has wealth, but it's definitely not much. Of the three families, Zhou, Gu, and Cheng, the Cheng family primarily runs a school. Our Zhou family has been incorruptible officials for generations, not to mention the Cheng family made significant donations in the early years. The richest family is your grandmother's Gu family; they owned two seagoing vessels during the Qing Dynasty.
After Zhou Xiaozheng finished speaking, he opened several boxes in succession, and found them filled with yellow pearls. Unconvinced, he walked to a corner and opened them. He saw that they were all silver and gold. It was true that pearls are like dirt and gold is like iron.
It seems that the three families formed an alliance, and several generations of ancestors of the Gu family had their own ulterior motives.
Thinking of the Cheng family, Zhou Xiaozheng shook his head. He didn't want to think ill of them. Money was indeed tempting, but he could feel that Old Lady Cheng treated him sincerely.
As he quickly unpacked the boxes, Zhou Jiao's heart pounded with fear—no wonder the Gu family had been driven to ruin. She'd assumed that after the 10,000 taels of gold had been loaned out, the secret room would contain nothing more than heirloom books, valuable porcelain, and some silk. Who could have imagined so much would remain?
"Dad, do you think the other two places contain our Zhou family's property?"
Zhou Xiaozheng had suspected this, but his mother hadn't left any message. He could only wait and find a chance to visit later. It was impossible for aristocratic families to be completely destroyed as rumored—that the Zhou family was utterly destroyed.
"Your grandfather must know about his family's wealth. The Zhou family doesn't have much gold and silver, but they must have a lot of ancient books, calligraphy and paintings. You'll see when you look at those two places later. Now, you must not touch those places. Remember? When you go out, pay attention to Dad's eyes. I think a lot of people are following our family this time."
"I'll be careful. I'll discuss any decision with you in advance. I won't act without your consent! And Dad, please don't let Auntie know about this.
I'm not worried about her, I'm worried about my cousins and their families. When it's time to repay them, I'll do it. But the premise is that my family's safety is the basis."
Zhou Xiaozheng patted her head happily. They were indeed father and daughter, as they thought the same thing.
After cleaning up and clearing up the traces, Zhou Xiaozheng tried the mechanism leading to the study, but it really couldn't be opened.
Zhou Xiaozheng and Zhou Jiao returned to the rockery along the same route. After destroying the mechanism, the father and daughter smiled at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. They no longer had to worry about anyone discovering the Gu family's secret.
On the way back, the father and daughter met Zhang Guoqing, and the three of them returned to the main courtyard.
In the study, Zhou Xiaozheng and his daughter laughed out loud as they took the wet handkerchief he handed them. They had just cleaned up, but they hadn't expected Zhang Guoqing to have anticipated the outcome. He was indeed a smart man.
Zhou Xiaozheng looked around the study room with nostalgia. Aside from the books that Old Lady Cheng had retrieved and the valuable furniture that had been repaired, even after all the repairs, it was no longer as good as it once was.
This was where his mother and his grandfather conducted business, and it was also his mother's favorite place to stay. It was here that his mother, Gu Mingzhu, learned to write and to manage the family business. It was also here that his mother and his father became close friends.
"The things here are left for tourists to visit. Let's go, Ping'an needs to make trouble." After Zhou Xiaozheng finished speaking, he looked around deeply again.
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