This broken house is worse than not inheriting it!

An hour and a half later, Shen Le sat dazed in a conference room in an office building, with thick stacks of documents piled on his left and right.

In the center of the documents lay a massive map, with a huge plot of land outlined in red ink.

"What? My inheritance? Such a large... house? A mansion?"

"Yes, an ancient mansion." The lawyer smiled with a look of certainty and warmth.

"Two sections, east and west, each with three courtyards deep, totaling 2,000 square meters. Don't worry, it's not a protected cultural relic; you can do whatever you like with it."

"Hiss..."

Shen Le felt his head buzzing, and even the Copper Fragment hanging against his chest began to grow slightly warm. 2,000 square meters! A 2,000-square-meter mansion!

In this day and age, how many people struggle and toil, getting into top-tier universities, joining big corporations, working 996 or 007, just to have a roof of their own? And he, having done nothing at all, had just acquired a 2,000-square-meter mansion!

Even if the location were extremely remote, in some obscure, backwater county, such a property could at least sell for millions, instantly achieving financial freedom. At the very least, he would have a place to live!

He tried hard to calm himself, then calmed himself again, ruminating over the data before rubbing his temples.

"Wait... you said my granduncle... how have I never heard of this relative in our family? Grandpa never mentioned it, and there are no records of it at home..."

"Mr. Shen Le, since we sought you out, we have certainly ensured the accuracy of the information." The lawyer pushed up his silver-rimmed glasses, the narrow frames reflecting a sliver of light that made Shen Le squint.

"In short, this ancestral mansion is the family property of your granduncle, Mr. Shen Yinmo. After the reform and opening-up policies were implemented, it was returned to his father's name."

"He was an only child, went abroad when he was young, and had no descendants. According to his wishes, the property rights to this street were bequeathed to the blood relative who still holds household registration in his hometown—which is you."

Well, regardless of anything else, getting a house for free was always a good thing. Shen Le steadied his breath, pressed against the still-warming Copper Fragment through his clothes, and began to sign the documents with a flourish. As he signed, he listened to the lawyer continue.

"According to Mr. Shen's will, the property rights to this old mansion cannot be transferred again within twenty years. Since you have inherited this estate, you will have to develop it yourself."

"I understand." Shen Le's mind was entirely on his signature; he answered lightly without looking up.

If he couldn't sell it, he couldn't sell it. As for the house, it shouldn't be hard to rent it out!

Two sections, east and west, three courtyards each—that meant six courtyards in total. He could live in one—even if he occupied one whole courtyard, he could still rent out the other five.

Even if the location was terrible, if he rented each courtyard for a thousand, that was five thousand a month. From now on, he would be someone who could just lie back and collect rent!

He finished signing quickly, grabbed his suitcase full of documents, and was escorted out by the lawyer. As soon as he left, a chubby, narrow-eyed middle-aged man slipped out from the reception room of the firm.

"Well? Well? Did he accept it?"

"He accepted it." Having sent Shen Le away, the lawyer dropped his stiff, professional demeanor and slumped down in his chair.

"I'm telling you, Old Hu, don't bring me this kind of trouble again. Creating a granduncle out of thin air, forging a full set of documents, and then coaxing him into accepting the inheritance—do you have any idea how hard that was!"

"Hey, my grandson owes him a debt of life; I have to pay it back somehow." Old Hu smiled with a helpless expression.

"It's a good thing if it can be settled with money; it's better than having to sell himself into servitude to him decades from now, spending decades or even a century paying it off. Besides, didn't I pay the lawyer's fee?"

"The lawyer's fee isn't enough! That kid has something on him; I almost couldn't handle him. He even ruined this thing of mine—"

The lawyer took off his glasses and tossed them at Old Hu. The bright, narrow rims of the silver glasses were now dull and tarnished, looking as if they had been oxidizing for decades.

"You have to compensate me!"

"Fine, I'll compensate you! ...Hiss, what could have burned this thing like that..."

The lawyer and the man behind the "inheritance" continued their clandestine dealings, but Shen Le flew from the Imperial Capital to Shanghai following the address on the documents. After completing the property transfer procedures, he took a car sixty kilometers west from Shanghai, heading straight for Zhuxi Town.

Upon arriving in town, he walked from the central commercial street to the edge of the town, then bypassed a cluster of crooked private houses. The further he walked, the more remote it became, until finally, he stood at the end of the old street named "Nanhua Street" on the map, his face twisted.

He knew Zhuxi Town; it was his hometown, and his grandfather had taken him back there when he was a child. But how could he not remember a street like this in town?

And this street was far too old!

Blue tiles and white walls, a murmuring clear stream with a small bridge spanning across it, connecting the streets on both banks. It looked beautiful enough, but the small streets on both sides of the river, and the short alleys branching off them—every single house was visibly made of wood.

The few residents were barely hanging on in single-story houses, their doors only opened a crack. Outside the wooden window frames, the iron bars were covered in thick layers of rust. As Shen Le walked along, he even saw two small coal briquette stoves emitting thin wisps of white smoke.

Aside from the Lamb Noodle Shop at the end of the old street, few of the shops facing the street were open. Most were tightly shut, their storefronts covered by foot-wide, two-meter-long wooden shutters, sealed up completely.

On the roofs of the uninhabited houses, wild grass swayed in the wind at various heights, and there were even a few small trees growing tall and straight.

The corners of the walls, the steps, and even the lower halves of the wooden shutters were covered in moss...

Standing at the end of this old street, he had the sudden, disorienting feeling of having traveled through time, stepping back a hundred years with a single stride.

As for the foot traffic... the foot traffic...

This old street was three or four hundred meters long, with houses lining both sides of the river. From one end to the other, and back again, less than a third of the houses were occupied.

Oh, right, at both ends of the old street, there was a suspected Buddhist temple and a suspected Taoist temple or City God Temple. Even these were—completely empty.

Shen Le felt like crying.

With such low foot traffic, could he even rent out the mansion if he wanted to?

Wouldn't people just think it was a haunted house?!

If he couldn't rent it out, a two-section, three-courtyard mansion would be a massive money pit for daily maintenance and repairs!

"Forget it, at least I have a place to stay..."

Shen Le slumped, rummaged through his bag, and pulled out a document and a set of keys. Following the address on the document, he began to search along the old street, house by house.

"15 Nanhua Street... 16... 17... 18... 18... 18! Wow!"

Shen Le couldn't help but let out a low whistle. 18 Nanhua Street, the Old Mansion he had inherited, stood out from the rest of the Old Street like a crane in a flock of chickens.

It didn't hide away in a narrow alley but occupied a prominent stretch of Nanhua Street itself. Three stone steps led up to the main entrance, where a pair of vermilion-lacquered doors stood behind an intricately carved brick gatehouse.

"Pomegranates and magpies..."

"Lotus flowers and begonias..."

"Auspicious clouds and cranes..."

Shen Le stepped back, then forward, then back again, his eyes nearly pressed against the relief carvings on the gatehouse. The gatehouse alone—the spandrels, the upper and lower friezes—featured three distinct brick-carved patterns. In the center, the four characters "Jiayi Youchang" were written with vigorous, powerful strokes, clearly the work of a master.

On either side of the plaque, two square, foot-wide brick carvings faced each other. On the left, the "Three Heroes Fight Lu Bu" was depicted, the pheasant feathers on Lu Bu's helmet seemingly rustling in the wind. On the right, the "Four Fierce Eight Hammers" showed four types of hammers—gold, silver, copper, and iron—each with such exquisite detail that the patterns on the hammerheads were all unique.

"Just this gatehouse alone looks like it belonged to a wealthy family..."

Shen Le muttered to himself as he pulled out the key to unlock the door. Stepping over the high threshold, the first section facing the street was the sedan chair hall, featuring a three-bay gatehouse and a seven-bay beam structure. The lattice windows were filled with ice-crack, plum blossom, swastika, and ruyi patterns, with no two designs alike.

The second section was the main hall. Though the carved beams were dim and the paintings covered in dust, the qilin on the stone pedestals remained vivid, and the inverted lotus petals carved into the column capitals were clearly defined. The twelve doors of the main hall were each carved with a different seasonal flower for every month of the year.

The third section was the living quarters. Stepping over the moss on the polished square bricks and looking up slightly, he saw a two-story, three-bay building standing in quiet repose. With its grey tiles and white walls, the twelve floor-to-ceiling windows on the ground floor were shut tight, while the "beauty's leaning" railing on the upper floor stretched out leisurely. Across the span of time, one could almost imagine a beautiful woman leaning there, gazing into the distance.

Shen Le pushed through a curtain of wisteria vines hanging before the building, casting dense green shade, and opened the door. Once inside, he caught sight of a twelve-panel floor screen standing behind two master chairs, and he couldn't help but gasp softly:

"Wow... this thing must be incredibly valuable... It looks like huanghuali wood... I wonder which dynasty it's from? Judging by the style, maybe the Ming Dynasty? My great-granduncle, or his ancestors, were truly wealthy..."

According to the inheritance documents, this mansion and everything inside—the furniture, the decor, even the plants and trees—belonged to him. The mansion couldn't be sold, but there was no rule against selling the contents. If this screen was truly Ming Dynasty huanghuali, selling it would grant him instant financial freedom!

On the long table in front of the screen, a purple copper Xuande Incense Burner held half a bowl of accumulated ash; as he stepped closer, he could almost imagine wisps of incense smoke curling upward. To the left and right of the burner, red wax tears still clung to the candlesticks, and beside them stood a pair of Yuhuchun Celadon Vases, their lines fluid and graceful, as if jade light were flowing across their surfaces.

"I'd believe it if someone told me this was a genuine Xuande Incense Burner... It's a pity it's full of ash; it's hard to lift it to check the maker's mark..."

Shen Le muttered as he turned left from the main hall. In the bedroom, a Thousand-Craft Bed carved with the "Three Friends of Winter" stood silently, its curtains hanging low, a faint, lingering fragrance in the air.

Beside the bed and along the walls sat a Sandalwood Magpie-on-Plum Double-Pillow Concubine Couch, a black-lacquered five-drawer chest inlaid with mother-of-pearl bird and peony patterns, and a Huanghuali Lingzhi-Pattern Upturned-End Table...

Every piece of furniture he laid eyes on was an antique with a long history.

Yet, for the moment, Shen Le didn't feel the urge to sell them for a fortune. He touched this, examined that, gave a wobbly flowerpot stand a gentle shake, and then walked back outside to touch the slightly moldy base of a column, his eyes shining with excitement:

"If I can restore all these things, and if they can charge the Copper Fragment, then I'm going to be rich!!!"