Chapter 11 The Rat That Fell into the Oil Tank

Qu Weiwei quickly regained her composure. After running out of the secret room, she cautiously made her way towards the study. The study was usually a secret room or the location of important documents. In any case, she had to go there.

It's not that she had never been to the Zhang family. In the past, to show her magnanimity, the First Madam would bring all her illegitimate sons and daughters to her parents' home once a year.

However, once they arrived, they would be confined to a courtyard and could not leave or wander around, lest they offend the Zhang family. So, their arrival was essentially meaningless. Nevertheless, the servants who came in would explain to them which areas were where and which places they were not allowed to go, lest they offend the distinguished guests.

The original owner of this body had a pretty good memory. Although she would just follow silently every time she came in from outside, she would also carefully observe which way the servants led when they introduced the different places.

However, it was pitch black everywhere, making it difficult for her to find her way. She could only rely on her memory of the general location to find her way.

The thought that these ladies and young women all had their own savings made her give up on searching and start directly from the back. After all, she was more familiar with that area. Every time she came, she was confined to the backyard, so they knew exactly which courtyard belonged to whom. The little girl had it all in her memory.

The first place we went to was, of course, the room of the old lady of the Zhang family. She was the matriarch of the family, so her room and courtyard were the largest, and they looked more classical in style.

After sneaking into the courtyard, she went straight to the bedroom. Looking at the neatly arranged bedroom and the dressing table that had been ransacked, Qu Weiwei was certain that the Zhang family's mistress had run away.

However, after looking around, I found that many things in the room were exactly the same as before. The small drawers on the dressing table were empty, and most of the clothes in the wardrobe were gone.

Qu Weiwei glanced at the wardrobe, which had been rummaged through and was in a bit of a mess. She fiddled with the clothes and was surprised to find that a wooden board had been pulled out from under the wardrobe.

Perhaps because they were in a hurry to escape, the wooden plank wasn't put back, but there were definitely still things inside.

Seeing a few small yellow croakers and several rolls of Yuan Shikai silver dollars wrapped in red paper, Qu Weiwei took them all without hesitation. Looking up, she saw several very beautiful mink coats in the wardrobe. These things were very valuable, so she had to take them back. Even if she had to sell them later, it would be good.

Of course, she wouldn't let go of those new quilts in the wardrobe. The old lady of the Zhang family used the thousand-craft canopy bed that came with her dowry back then. It was made of precious sandalwood, and that bed was worth a lot of money.

Unfortunately, she couldn't take such a large item, but the drawers on top seemed to have storage space. So, after taking off her dirty shoes, the little mouse Qu Weiwei climbed onto the bed and began her treasure hunt. She pulled out drawers, cabinets, and hidden compartments one by one with her chubby little hands.

This old lady has so many things! There are more than a dozen drawers on the bed, and half of them are still full of things.

What puzzled her was that some of these house and land deeds were not filled in with names. Could it be that others could fill in their own names?

According to the little girl's memory, the addresses on these land deeds were all large courtyards and shops facing the street. Qu Weiwei pulled out all the house deeds and land deeds without names.

He also stored all the valuable gold, silver and jade artifacts from those drawers into his own space; this trip was quite fruitful.

Qu Weiwei was like a rat that had fallen into a vat of oil, and she began her plundering journey with a smile wherever she went.

There were more than a dozen courtyards in the backyard. She visited all the uninhabited courtyards, in addition to the ones where people lived. And she actually found something. There were four uninhabited courtyards in the back, and the things inside those courtyards were no less than those outside.

The rice and flour alone occupied an entire courtyard. You don't even need to count to know that it must have been several tons. You should know that in addition to the main hall, there were ten side rooms on the left and right sides of these courtyards. Since no one lived there, these ten rooms were all empty. They were used as warehouses to store grain and were larger than a regular official granary.

Perhaps they were caught in a rush, and no one touched anything inside. When she came over, the locks were still in good condition, and those people probably didn't have time to open them and check, so they didn't know there were things in the yard.

After thoroughly cleaning the entire yard, they used a ladder to climb into another yard.

The layout of these courtyards is all the same, generally intended for less favored illegitimate sons and daughters. So what seems like a small courtyard to the Zhang family is a place only wealthy landlords could afford to live in. This courtyard is filled with fine cigarettes and liquors presented as gifts, piled high. The ten rooms are also filled with these things, probably overflowing. Some less valuable liquors are piled on the covered walkways outside the rooms.

Qu Weiwei doesn't like alcohol and cigarettes, but these things, whether sold or given away, would be very presentable gifts, and of course Qu Weiwei wouldn't be polite about them.

The next courtyard was filled with fabrics delivered by the textile factory—cotton, linen, towels, and blankets—piling up everywhere. Ordinary fabrics were piled up in the main room of the courtyard, while the rooms inside were filled with fine fabrics, such as fabrics for making Zhongshan suits, silk cheongsams, and mink coats, as well as plenty of silk fabrics for making quilts and duvet covers.

As Qu Weiwei searched, she saw that the last two rooms were filled with gauze. This was a crucial medical supply needed on the front lines. Since they couldn't find anything else outside, they had filled two rooms with it.

After packing her things away, Qu Weiwei climbed into the last courtyard, which was full of good things.

Two rooms were filled with cured meats, such as bacon, sausages, smoked meat, and ham, while the remaining eight rooms and the main hall were filled with tonics and medicinal herbs.

Qu Weiwei glanced at it and recognized only ginseng, lingzhi and bird's nest. She only knew what the others were when she saw the boxes.

She saw several strange-looking objects, carefully packaged and placed on a mahogany shelf. Qu Weiwei was very curious about what they were, so after taking them, she took them out of her spatial storage and carefully examined the words on the box, discovering that it was something about deer.

Little Mouse Qu Weiwei tossed the items back into her spatial storage like they were hot potatoes. Could it be that Master Zhang has some kind of illness? Otherwise, how could he have stored so many boxes of these things?

Oh dear, I can't think about this, children shouldn't know about these things. She quickly shook her head, bringing her thoughts back to the right path.

Before her eyes, Qu Weiwei recognized many of the dazzling array of tonics that she had seen in her own home. She knew that when the First Madam returned to her parents' home every year, she would bring a lot of things with her, including cigarettes, alcohol, fabrics, and all kinds of meat and tonics.

Many of the items here likely originated from the Qu family.