After bidding Uncle Wang farewell, Su Su returned to her room to rest.
Early the next morning, the Su household was indeed left with only her.
Avoiding the servants’ eyes, Su Su went straight to Zhao Guoxiang’s room. Following Uncle Wang’s description, she quickly found the entrance to the secret chamber inside the wardrobe.
In the past, wealthy families often dug secret rooms in their homes to escape war or hide valuables. Now, however, the secret chamber of the Su family’s old residence had been taken over by Zhao Guoxiang.
Su Su took a flashlight out of her space and carefully made her way down the pitch-dark stairs.
Before long, an open area appeared before her eyes, lined with many large huanghuali wooden chests.
She opened several of them in succession, and inside were piles of gleaming gold bars—each a full ten taels in weight!
With a thought, Su Su immediately put the chests into her space.
As she opened more chests, she couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.
The Su family truly lived up to its reputation as one of Shanghai’s most prominent capitalist families.
Each chest was filled with heaps of copper coins, silver dollars, and all kinds of precious antiques and jewelry—wealth beyond what ordinary people could ever see or even imagine in a lifetime.
The jewelry included imperial green jadeite, jade, agate, coral, eastern pearls, tortoiseshell, tourmaline, turquoise…
There were also porcelain pieces: white porcelain, blue-and-white porcelain, famille-rose enamelware…
Some chests even held priceless calligraphy and paintings by famous masters, Song-dynasty jiaozi, Qing-dynasty dragon banknotes, and national bonds…
These were all collections that Old Master Su, a banker by background, had accumulated over the years.
In one corner, there was even a pile of rare medicinal herbs: century-old ginseng, lingzhi, deer antler, cordyceps, saffron, pangolin scales…
Su Su did not hesitate at all and put everything into her space.
After clearing out the entire secret chamber, she still hadn’t found the Su family’s land deeds.
Could they be hidden somewhere in the room?
After coming back up from the secret chamber, Su Su looked around and noticed many furs in the wardrobe. Most of them looked familiar—apparently left behind by Su Mu.
The dressing table was also filled with jewelry that had belonged to Su Mu.
Mu Lanxin had always harbored hatred toward Su Mu, yet she often unconsciously imitated Su Mu’s way of dressing.
A classic case of aping without understanding!
Su Su sneered inwardly and directly put all of Su Mu’s belongings into her space.
After searching around again with no results, Su Su suddenly had a thought. She left the room and turned into Zhao Guoxiang’s study next door.
Most people tended to keep important items in their studies, since these rooms were usually off-limits and thus the safest.
The bookshelves were filled with all kinds of books, but they were all brand new—some hadn’t even been unwrapped.
A thick carpet covered the center of the room, and on it stood a huanghuali desk that looked imposing and grand.
Su Su reached out and pulled open all the desk drawers.
Sure enough!
One of the drawers was filled with a thick stack of the Su family’s land deeds.
Most of them were written in Su Su’s name.
In this era, these things would undoubtedly become hot potatoes in a few years. Rather than letting Zhao Guoxiang sell them to others for profit, it was better to hand them over directly to the state.
That way, she would not only receive a certain annual dividend, but people would also praise her for having ideological awareness!
The corners of Su Su’s lips curled upward. Besides this, she still had a big “gift” prepared for Zhao Guoxiang.
She stuffed all the land deeds into her pocket.
Leaving the house, Su Su went straight to the municipal government and stated her purpose directly.
As soon as the staff heard this, they immediately reported it to Director Zhou and warmly invited Su Su into the office.
After understanding the situation and learning that Su Su came from the Su family—one of Shanghai’s top families—Director Zhou felt that she truly lived up to being the descendant of the patriotic entrepreneur Old Master Su. She really did have remarkable ideological awareness!
Director Zhou promptly began the registration process and soon brought out a contract.
“Just sign your name here,” he said.
Su Su nodded and, under Director Zhou’s expectant gaze, quickly signed her name.
“Wonderful!”
Holding the contract, Director Zhou praised her with high spirits:
“Thank you for supporting national construction! You truly are Old Master Su’s granddaughter—broad-minded and decisive!”
“Tomorrow, we’ll send people to the Su residence to discuss the specific compensation details and the handover work. At that time, we’ll need your cooperation.”
After accepting the praise with a clear conscience, Su Su returned to the Su residence amid Director Zhou’s send-off.
After seeing Uncle Wang, she told him everything she had done in detail and then instructed him, “Uncle Wang, it’s not safe to stay here these next couple of days. Tomorrow, use poor health as an excuse and leave the Su residence.”
Uncle Wang was utterly shocked after hearing this. After a long while, he sighed.
“Miss, I believe you must have your reasons for doing this.”
“But what are you going to do in the future?”
Su Su smiled and reassured him. “After everything is settled, I’ll leave this place.”
“But going to another city all by yourself—will you really be okay?”
Uncle Wang’s face was full of worry and anxiety. In times like these, even grown men weren’t safe outside, let alone a young lady as beautiful as Miss Su!
It was truly hard to feel at ease.
Suddenly, he thought of something and said happily, “Miss! You can go to Heicheng to find Qin Xutao!”
“I’ve seen that young man before—he’s a good one. I hear he’s serving in the army; he’ll definitely be able to protect you!”
“And that marriage was arranged back when your grandfather was still alive. The Su family once showed kindness to his family. If you go to him, he definitely won’t dare mistreat you!”
Hearing the name Qin Xutao, Su Su froze for a moment.
Her mind instantly recalled the man’s scorching breath from that day.
Uncle Wang didn’t know that Qin Xutao had already agreed to break off the engagement.
But before leaving that day, he had said that if she regretted it, she could go to Heicheng to find him…
He would take responsibility.
No wonder his eyes had been full of mockery at the time, yet he still left behind such a promise.
So it turned out that the Su family had once shown kindness to his family.
Su Su subconsciously touched the bracelet on her wrist.
In the original story, the original owner hadn’t taken his words to heart at all, only rejoicing that the engagement had finally been broken off.
But later, after the original owner hanged herself in the cowshed, her body rotted and stank. Everyone else avoided it in disgust, unwilling to come near.
It was he who, after hearing the news, rushed all the way from Heicheng once again, not minding the filth, and buried the original owner together with her mother and grandfather.
By then, he was already a highly renowned figure…
No matter what, Su Su still decided that after leaving Shanghai, she would head to Heicheng.
On one hand, Shanghai would only become more and more dangerous later on, and with her identity, it wasn’t suitable for her to stay there. Heicheng was relatively remote, and she wouldn’t attract too much attention.
On the other hand, since the debt of gratitude hadn’t been repaid, that man would definitely protect her. That was better than going to a completely unfamiliar place!
Besides, he really was quite to her taste.
Having made her decision, Su Su no longer hesitated. After bidding Uncle Wang farewell, she turned and headed out into the streets.
Since her next stop would be Heicheng, she needed to purchase a lot of supplies.
After all, she couldn’t rely on others for everything!
She had to prepare more herself!