After saying goodbye to Mayor Wang, Su Nuan took Johnson and Jack to the Su family's old house at No. 198 Huayuan Road.
The car stopped at the door of the old house. Through the two tall, rusty iron gates, the general layout of the Su family's old house could be vaguely seen. Several people got out of the car and pushed open the iron gates to enter.
The Su family's old house, located on Huayuan Road, has witnessed the prosperity of Huayuan Road for more than a hundred years. The old house covers an area of 5,000 square meters and combines Chinese and Western architectural styles. It integrates the Western garden residence architecture with the Chinese Jiangnan garden.
The design of the entrance courtyard adopts a combination of Western and Chinese gardens. There are huge lawns and tall camphor trees in the garden. Three red and white villas are hidden among the lush flowers and trees. In the courtyard, there are winding paths and tall bamboos covering the sky. The buildings at the garden gate are surrounded by a winding low wall, which is more than 100 meters long and has 18 undulating sections. It is known as "a dragon lying in half of the garden", so it is also called "Dragon Wall". There is a cave entrance to the dragon wall, called the Dragon Gate, and the entrance is paved with pebbles.
Although the courtyard is barren with fallen leaves and untrimmed trees, appearing messy and untidy, it still shows the glory of the Su family during its heyday.
There are three Western-style garden villas built in the garden. The three villas adopt 19th-century American villa architecture. The appearance and internal structure are the same. The middle is protruding, and the upper floor is an open-air balcony. The red and white colors make the small buildings look particularly bright against the backdrop of the surrounding green land.
There are many lilac trees planted in the garden to the south of the old house. There is a lake in the garden with a Nine-Curve Bridge on the lake and a Lakeside Pavilion in the center of the lake. The octagonal spire with plain glazed tiles has a phoenix on it, facing the dragon head of the dragon wall in the courtyard, which symbolizes the auspiciousness of dragon and phoenix. There are land boats by the lake and rockery echoing the traditional garden design. The garden has green trees, flower beds, rockery, stone caves, thick shade of rocks and the fragrance of flowers. Various plants are planted in the garden, such as wintersweet, wisteria, sycamore, camphor, osmanthus, but the most common is lilac. The Chinese garden is perfectly combined with the Western garden.
Su Nuan fell in love with the beautiful garden instantly. No girl would not like flowers and plants. She thought about drinking tea and appreciating flowers in the garden that was like a dream in the future. It was so wonderful.
After admiring the somewhat desolate but lush and vibrant garden, Su Nuan walked into the garden and looked at the three villas. The villas were divided into a main building and a secondary building. The third small building, different from the main building, looked small and exquisite.
Entering the main building, there are three main rooms on the first floor facing south, with the dining room and living room in the middle, and the kitchen, storage room, and servant's room on the north side. There are three main rooms on the second floor, with a large protruding balcony in the middle, and a small study and reception room on the side. The layout of the annex building and the main building is not very different. The main building is much like the annex building, and there is basically no furniture to be seen. There are signs of damage on the floors and walls of the rooms, and some window glass is broken. On rainy days, rainwater flows back into the golden house, and the walls are covered with moss.
The smallest one was the former library of the Su family. The Su family's ancestors had been in business for generations and were also well-known Confucian businessmen in Shanghai. The Su family members were all very intelligent and attached great importance to reading. When entering the library, most of the furnishings were a combination of Chinese and Western styles. There was a reception sofa on the first floor, which was covered with a lot of dust. There were traces of human damage on the sofa, making it look tattered. The surrounding walls were inlaid with black solid wood bookcases, but there was not a single book on them, and some of the bookcases were damaged.
After inspecting the house, Su Nuan felt very heavy in her heart. The once magnificent old house had become so desolate and dilapidated after the passage of time. If her grandfather and parents were still alive, they would be so sad to see this scene.
Su Nuan did not feel sad for long. Since she was back, she also wanted to return to the old house. The old house was dilapidated by time, but time could be used to restore its former glory.
Now, the most important thing is to repair the old house, and then store the ashes of grandpa and parents in the old house so that they can return home.
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