Chapter 23: The Other Side of the Water

Panzi stared in a daze, his eyes wide. "You... why is your face still so pale? Could it be you drank fake alcohol?"

Zhang Luxun was left speechless, somewhere between laughter and tears. He paid the bill, helped Panzi into a van, and sent him back to the shop to be handed over to the clerks.

After driving the van back to return it, Zhang Luxun took a taxi back to campus.

The system was exceptionally considerate in this regard. Knowing that Zhang Luxun disliked sharing a room, it had arranged a two-person dorm for him. His roommate was a bookworm obsessed with studying, whose daily routine consisted entirely of moving between the classroom and the library. Returning to the dorm was like clocking in at work; the two barely exchanged a few words and remained complete strangers.

When Zhang Luxun returned to the dormitory, his roommate was nowhere to be seen.

After taking a shower, he sat cross-legged at the head of his bed, pulled two small black-gold spheres from his spatial storage, and fiddled with them.

Although he had consumed quite a bit of alcohol, his constitution caused the body to treat the ethanol as an invading toxin and flush it out immediately. Therefore, no matter how much he drank, it was no different from drinking plain water; at most, he could taste the flavor, but getting drunk was entirely out of the question.

As with the first one, when he reached the most crucial step with the second black-gold sphere, he found himself completely stuck with no way forward.

The system seemed to have truly entered hibernation; no matter how many times he called out, there was no response.

Zhang Luxun sighed, put the spheres back into his spatial storage, plugged his phone in to charge, checked the time, and then went straight to sleep.

For the next period of time, Zhang Luxun occasionally visited the library to read, attended a class or two now and then, and when he grew utterly bored, he would head to Wushanju to play video games with Wu Xiexie and listen to him recount wild historical anecdotes, which was surprisingly interesting.

Roughly half a month later, Panzi called to say that all sixteen porcelain vases had been sold and that he had scouted out the house Zhang Luxun wanted. He invited him over for a meal and to look at the property.

As Zhang Luxun happened to be at Wushanju, he dragged Wu Xiexie along with him.

After eating, the three of them drove to a courtyard on Qingbo Street near the Qiantang River.

It was certainly retro enough. The grey bricks on the walls looked like they had weathered many years, topped by rows of neat black tiles. The newly refurbished red-lacquered wooden door featured a pair of stone lions stepping on embroidered balls guarding the entrance, lending the place a very imposing aura.

The plaque above the gate bore the two characters: "Li Residence."

Zhang Luxun blinked. "Brother Pan, are you... certain this is the place?"

Panzi was also somewhat puzzled. He took out the address and checked it once more; this was undoubtedly the correct location.

Wu Xiexie circled the stone lions, inspecting them thoroughly before exclaiming, "For someone to sell a mansion this magnificent, just how out of their mind must the owner be?"

"To hell with it." Panzi stepped forward, grabbed the copper door knockers, and rapped on the door. "We'll find out once we go inside and take a look."

It wasn't until the third knock that someone responded from within. Moments later, the door swung open to reveal a young woman dressed in a plain white qipao, possessing delicate features and gentle eyes. She was momentarily startled upon seeing the group outside, but then smiled, revealing two adorable dimples at the corners of her mouth.

"Are you gentlemen here to view the house? Please, come in."

The three exchanged glances. Zhang Luxun nodded and was the first to cross the threshold.

Panzi and Wu Xiexie followed closely behind.

The young woman closed the door, turned, and made a welcoming gesture. "Please, this way to the parlor."

The interior of the mansion lacked the winding, labyrinthine corridors of ancient courtyards. After just a single turn down a hallway, the reception room came into view.

The young woman poured tea for the three of them, then went into an inner room and returned with an exquisite wooden box. Opening the lock, she retrieved a folded map and handed it to Panzi.

"This is the floor plan of the estate. Please, have a look, bosses."

Panzi passed the map over to Zhang Luxun.

Zhang Luxun glanced at it briefly before standing up, intending to inspect the property in person.

The young woman led the way.

From the entrance to the front courtyard and through to the back, the total area was around five or six hundred square meters. There were covered corridors, rockeries, a fish pond, a pavilion, eastern and western wing rooms, and a two-story main building. From top to bottom, there were five bedrooms, two kitchens (one large and one small), and two bathrooms. In the back courtyard, there were two additional rooms said to have been quarters for servants in the past, which were now being used as storage rooms.

After making a full round, Zhang Luxun was thoroughly satisfied. It was so spacious that even if Fatty, Wu Xiexie, and Lesser Brother moved their entire warehouses over, there would still be more than enough room for everyone to live comfortably.

Seeing his interest, the young woman said, "Since the little boss is sincere about buying, I will be honest about my conditions. This mansion was left behind by my grandfather. Back then, to escape the ravages of war, he relocated his entire family abroad. While they saved their lives, this ancestral home remained a lingering sorrow in his heart. He passed away from cancer earlier this year, and the title deeds to this property ultimately ended up in my hands. I have my own career overseas and inevitably cannot look after the place, so I thought of finding a buyer."

She paused for a moment before continuing, "I can see that the little boss is a person of refinement. If you truly purchase this estate, I hope you will maintain it regularly. Minor alterations are fine, but please do not ruin the original furnishings."

Seeing that Zhang Luxun remained silent, she added, "The price is negotiable."

Zhang Luxun smiled. "Very well. I quite like the original structure of this house and don't have the idle time to remodel it anyway. At most, I'll hire people to reinforce it—you can rest assured on that score."

The young woman let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "In that case, I am relieved. The furniture inside is made of fine materials, and I've already hired people to renovate the outer walls, the main gate, and the courtyard. What price would you estimate offering?"

After some bargaining, they finally settled on a full payment of 4.5 million to purchase the entire estate along with its title deeds.

Before leaving, the young woman took down the plaque above the door and carried it away with her.

Truth be told, from Zhang Luxun's perspective, he had gotten the better end of the deal.

An estate of this scale in later generations wouldn't necessarily be sold to you even if you offered a hundred million.

However, his casual wealth caused Wu Xiexie a great deal of envy and jealousy (not really), and he didn't stop badgering Zhang Luxun until he had extorted three full meals out of him.

The next few days were spent replacing bed linens, curtains, pots, pans, and a mountain of other miscellaneous items. Every single piece was personally chosen by Zhang Luxun.

The fish pond in the front courtyard was drained and refilled with fresh water, and over twenty goldfish fry were purchased to populate it, along with a scattering of lotus seeds—though whether they would survive remained to be seen.

Zhang Luxun also bought various plants like coin grass, money trees, and bamboo palms to place in every room, making the place look quite respectable.

The space above the main gate had always looked bare and displeasing to the eye, so Zhang Luxun simply brushed four characters in cursive script himself, had a master craftsman carve them into a plaque, and hung it up.

Shortly after, Wang Fatty called and asked him to come to Beijing, claiming there was a small job waiting.

Zhang Luxun had nothing better to do, so he tagged along.

They successively explored three minor tombs, splitting the spoils evenly down the middle. All the items Zhang Luxun received were left with Panzi to sell on his behalf.

Combined with the foresight-driven investments he had made in a dozen fiercely rising companies, his shares and dividends accumulated over time meant that the card in Zhang Luxun's pocket now held roughly six hundred million.

Well, that should be enough for Little Innocent to light a few Heavenly Lanterns.

How many hundreds of millions did Little Innocent spend on lighting lanterns in the original plot? Two hundred and sixty million, if he remembered correctly.

That wouldn't do; he needed to earn a bit more. Those funds were only enough for Little Innocent to play around with lighting two lanterns, which wasn't nearly flashy enough.

Returning to Hangzhou, he spent a few more blissful days lazing about.

Zhang Luxun decided he couldn't afford to rot away like this anymore; it was time to apply himself and strive for greatness.

Using his materialization ability, he manifested an antique-looking notebook and began organizing the thoughts and memories remaining in his head.

As a side note, after receiving the reward for reaching the intermediate stage of the materialization ability, Zhang Luxun was now capable of materializing dangerous and intricate objects, such as firearms and explosives.

If he ever ran into a tight spot while tomb robbing from now on, he could just blow the bastards straight to kingdom come.

Ah, sweet satisfaction~

As the old saying goes, a good memory is no match for a worn-out pen. Zhang Luxun wrote voluminously for three whole days, recording every fragmented detail he could still recall from his memory into the notebook.

His father's notes had only documented key events, leaving some details unclear to Zhang Luxun. But it didn't matter—with the system around, if worst came to worst, he could always just check the original plot directly.

That's just how willful he could be!