Chapter 149 Precious Manuscript
The middle-aged man glanced at the doghouse and said lightly, "The doghouse is five hundred yuan."
Xu Youyou frowned and looked at him.
The middle-aged man said confidently: "This wooden box was my mother's dowry. It is very valuable."
The middle-aged man actually couldn't remember whether the box was a dowry or not, but that didn't stop him from using this statement to raise his status.
“No matter how valuable it was in the past, it’s just a doghouse now,” Xu Youyou said.
The middle-aged man nodded: "If it wasn't used as a doghouse, I wouldn't sell it for 500 yuan. There must be someone willing to buy this old wood."
He felt that what he said was reasonable and well-founded.
Xu Youyou said: "If you want to do business like this, then I won't even buy the dog. I haven't paid for it anyway."
The middle-aged man was being held at the mercy of the enemy, and he said helplessly, "Okay, okay, I'll take the loss, I'll buy a dog and give you a kennel for free."
The little black dog's farewell to the old man also came to an end. The dog followed Xu Youyou out, looking back every few steps, but his eyes were always looking at the old books in the house with reluctance.
"Woof woof! These old books are the owner's favorite things. I don't know how this bad guy will deal with them..." said the little black dog Wangwang.
Xu Youyou touched its head, turned around and said to the middle-aged man, "I want all the old books in this room. Five hundred yuan."
The middle-aged man had just received a thousand yuan, and seeing that there was still business to be done, he immediately said, "Ten thousand."
Xu Youyou: “Forget it.”
The middle-aged man tried to persuade her to stay: "You are a young girl, but you are really good at bargaining. If you sell so many books to a junk collector, they would probably be worth thousands of dollars. You are really too low a price."
"Okay, then one thousand. I don't want any more." Xu Youyou said.
For her, these old books were something she could buy or not, it was purely for the sake of the little black dog's whim. She really hated this man's greedy attitude.
"Okay, one thousand is one thousand, I'll take the loss." said the middle-aged man.
Xu Youyou paid the money, and Xu Fang behind her suddenly took out a piece of paper, wrote a few words, and gave it to the middle-aged man to sign.
"Oh, you rich people are so particular about doing things. You even need signatures when you sell something." The middle-aged man sighed.
Xu Fang took out a transaction contract. Xu Youyou liked to buy some seemingly messy things, and she would ask the seller for a receipt almost every time she completed a transaction.
Xu Fang noticed that Xu Youyou seemed to care a lot about whether the property rights were clear, so she printed out such a transaction certificate in advance. In case of temporary transactions, as long as she filled in the name and price of the item, she would quickly get a paper certificate.
Xu Youyou looked at Xu Fang with approval, and had already put the matter of giving Xu Fang a salary increase next year on the agenda.
Xu Fang had never been an assistant before, but now with a high salary, Xu Fang's progress is particularly obvious, and Xu Youyou is almost dependent on her.
The old books in the house were sorted out by the bodyguards and put into the car, and the doghouse was also carefully carried into the trunk. In order to fit so many things, Xu Youyou even temporarily hired a truck to help.
On the way back to the villa, Xu Youyou called and told Old Mrs. Li about the little black dog's situation.
As soon as the old lady saw the puppy, her eyes immediately turned red: "What a good child, its owner also cares about him. If he hadn't realized that he couldn't continue to take care of it, how could he bear to lock the child outside the door."
Xu Youyou and Old Lady Li have the same idea. Even though everyone says that the owner of the little black dog is crazy, she still feels that the other party truly loves the little black dog.
"When you come here next time, just like you're home, go and play with other kids for a while?" Old Mrs. Li gently advised the little black dog.
Guaiguai rarely competed for attention with other puppies. He gently nudged the little black dog. However, the little black dog was still listless and stared blankly at the boxes of books being unloaded from the truck.
Xu Youyou simply let it watch the workers unloading the goods. She turned to look at the wooden box doghouse and carefully took out the small quilt inside.
Old Lady Li took it and said, "This quilt is clean. I can just take it out to dry in the sun."
Xu Youyou nodded, turned around, looked at the things in the wooden box, and was stunned for a moment.
She thought the treasure in the wooden box might be hidden in the interlayer, but she didn't expect it to be just placed at the bottom of the box, covered only by puppy bedding.
It was as if its original owner intended to give this thing to the puppy's new owner.
The treasure he found this time was a small square box, about three centimeters high. The wooden box was not locked but fastened with a latch. Xu Youyou removed the latch, opened the box, and revealed the contents.
On the top was a palm-sized piece of paper, and below was a thick stack of manuscripts.
The note read: "I have lived a confused life, my wife died early, I have no children or grandchildren, but I am lucky to have a black dog to accompany me in my later years. I am giving it to you as a gift, the most precious treasure in my life, and I only hope that the black dog will be free from worries and disasters."
The handwriting was beautiful and neat. Through the paper, Xu Youyou could vaguely feel the expectant look on Mr. Zhang's face when he wrote these words.
She carefully put the note away and turned to look at the manuscripts.
Although the manuscript paper is a bit old, it has been well preserved. It is obvious that the original owner cherished it very much.
After Xu Youyou put on gloves, she reached out and took one of them.
She only took two glances and her breathing became rapid.
"The last forty chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions!"
Xu Youyou never imagined that the last valuable item left by Mr. Zhang, and the target of discovery instructed by the system, was actually the manuscript of "Dream of Red Mansions".
She instantly sketched out the old man's life in her mind. He was an intellectual in the first half of his life, had twists and turns in his middle age, and was fortunately rehabilitated in the second half of his life. Unfortunately, he was already half crazy and was kicked out of the house by his son. He lived a miserable life. Occasionally he would wake up and be obsessed with how to find a place for the little black dog.
The old man could have easily sold the manuscript, and there would definitely be a Redology enthusiast willing to pay a huge price for it, but he did not sell it. Instead, he carefully preserved it in order to find a true owner for the little black dog.
Xu Youyou has obtained many priceless treasures, but she feels that none of them can compare to this manuscript.
She did not read the commercially available version of Dream of the Red Chamber until she was in college. At that time, she was busy with a part-time job and could only find time to read the book when she had some free time.
Even so, she still marveled at the exquisite story, and still sensed the fragmentation of Gao E's sequel, and felt even more regretful that she could not see the full picture of the story.
The paper was fragile, so Xu Youyou didn't dare to touch it too much. She placed it carefully on the sofa, took out her mobile phone, took pictures of it one by one, and then immediately put them all away.
She didn't know whether these manuscripts were originals, but even if they were copies, she couldn't bear to see any damage to them.
After carefully putting away a box of manuscripts, she could hardly wait to start reading this one.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
