Chapter 1151

Leaving Zhujiang depart the country, Ye Chen hurried toward the vegetable market.

Time had been delayed quite a bit; if he didn't hurry up and buy the vegetables to take back, his wife wouldn't be able to eat lunch when she got home from work.

Although Jin Ling is an ancient city, its modern atmosphere is becoming increasingly thick. The buildings in the old city have been destroyed, demolished, or renovated, and now it has basically turned into the style of modern urban skyscrapers.

In the past, many traditional crafts and markets have also been gradually replaced by various high-end shops and comprehensive supermarkets.

In earlier years, there were many barbers on the roadside with excellent skills in shaving and cutting hair; one could sit on the roadside and get a haircut for two or three yuan.

But now, they have long since disappeared.

Replaced by various dazzling, high-end, and atmospheric beauty and hair salons. Those "Tony teachers" with mediocre skills and barely grown hair charge one or two hundred yuan just to cut someone's hair. Occasionally, when encountering unethical merchants, they will trick customers into getting a membership card, and it is common to be scammed out of thousands of yuan for a haircut.

In the past, there were many horse-drawn and donkey-drawn carts on the roadside. They were all farmers from the countryside who picked vegetables from their fields in the morning and then drove their carts to the city to sell them. The vegetables and fruits were both fresh and cheap.

However, in recent years, animal-drawn vehicles have not been allowed to enter the city, and even traditional vegetable markets have become fewer and fewer, so that most people can only go to supermarkets to buy vegetables.

The quality of vegetables in supermarkets is not very good, but the prices are surprisingly expensive. Buying a simple Chinese cabbage costs more than ten yuan.

This has also caused this ancient city to gradually lose that sense of the "smoke and fire" of traditional life.

In fact, Ye Chen usually doesn't like going to the supermarket to buy vegetables; he always feels something is missing.

Therefore, he often goes to a protected old residential area in the old city, where there is a very lively vegetable market.

The reason he likes to go to that old residential area is not only because it is more grounded, but there is also another reason hidden in Ye Chen's heart that he hasn't told anyone.

In the past, when he and his parents first arrived in Jin Ling, his parents particularly liked the characteristics of the old city of Jin Ling.

There were many old-style buildings left over from the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China period. This architectural style was very different from the north, and his parents liked it very much.

Because of their love for traditional culture, his parents rented an old house in the old city. After his father renovated it, the family lived very comfortably.

Later, after his parents met with an accident and Ye Chen entered the orphanage, he would still often sneak out with his friends Zhao Hao and Li Xiaofen to take a look at the old city area.

At that time, Zhao Hao and Li Xiaofen both thought Ye Chen was just playful and wanted to sneak out to have fun.

But what they didn't know was that Ye Chen was actually just missing his parents.

After his parents' accident that year, the house was rented out for a few more years, changing one batch of tenants after another.

Later, the house was bought by real estate investors waiting for demolition and appreciation.

Still later, this house and the nearby old buildings were designated as a historical building protection area, and demolition and rebuilding were strictly prohibited, so the house was left vacant for a long time.

Ye Chen had also quietly inquired about it. It is said that the person who invested in this house was the initiator of a house-speculation group from Wencheng. Although this old house was stuck in his hands and couldn't be cashed out, this amount of money didn't mean much to him, so the house was just left there.

Later, because this house speculator was involved in a lawsuit for illegal fundraising in another place, the house was sealed by the court.

Two or three years ago, there were rumors that it would be auctioned, but because the case the person was involved in was relatively large, the final judgment hadn't been reached in the past two years, so it hadn't entered the judicial auction procedure.

The vegetable market where Ye Chen goes to buy vegetables is not far from this old house, so he planned to stop by and take a look.

Just as Ye Chen was riding his scooter on the way there, a Rolls-Royce had already stopped in front of this mottled old house.

An old man stepped out of the passenger seat of the Rolls-Royce. This person was the old butler of the Du family of Yanjing in Jin Ling.

After the old butler got out of the car, he nimbly opened the rear passenger door and said respectfully to the woman sitting in the car: "Second Miss, we have arrived."

The woman sitting in the car was none other than Du Haiqing.

After getting off the plane, she first took her son and daughter to return to the old Du family residence with the old butler. After settling the rooms and luggage, she hurriedly asked the old butler to take her to see the place where Ye Changying had lived before he passed away.

As for the siblings Su Zhifei and Su Zhiyu, they each had their own plans.

Su Zhifei went to the welfare institute to discuss donations, while Su Zhiyu held her laptop and continued to search for Ye Chen's traces among thousands of portraits.

Du Haiqing was happy to be relaxed. After all, she was coming to the house where her lifelong love, Ye Changying, had lived before he died. Bringing her son and daughter along was, more or less, somewhat inappropriate.

At this moment, Du Haiqing's mood was exceptionally nervous.

Although she knew that Ye Changying had been dead for many years, coming here, she could still feel a strong sense of nervousness.

It was just like those years when she loved Ye Changying deeply in her youth; every time she saw him, or was about to see him, she couldn't control her racing heartbeat and rapid breathing.

Carrying a wildly beating heart, Du Haiqing got out of the car and, through the courtyard wall, examined this small, southern-style detached courtyard.

The stone wall of the courtyard was very low, and many hollow designs were made with blue bricks in the middle, allowing people to easily see the situation inside the courtyard.

At this moment, the courtyard was full of withered yellow weeds and branches and leaves that had fallen from the trees. The osmanthus tree in the courtyard had long since withered into dry wood because no one had taken care of it.

There were large patches of dead ivy on the walls of the main building.

At this moment, the entire small courtyard appeared extremely dilapidated. However, Du Haiqing could imagine that if it were well-maintained, when the rainy season of spring and summer arrived, the courtyard would surely be lush and green. Coupled with the green grass and trees in the courtyard, the scenery would surely be desirable.

Moreover, although the courtyard was not large, one could see that the architecture appeared very exquisite.

Blue bricks for walls, blue tiles for the roof, and bluestone for the paths.

The summers in the south are humid. If it had rained, the blue bricks and bluestone would surely be covered with moss.

Moss itself has a very natural sense of age. To those who don't like it, moss is dense, slippery, and somewhat disgusting to the touch.

But to those who love ancient oriental culture, this is a creature full of poetry and Zen.

Whether it grows in the courtyard, on the surrounding walls, by the pond, or in a bonsai, it exudes a unique sense of exquisiteness and tranquility.

Therefore, moss has always been quite popular among scholars and literati.

At this very moment, in Du Haiqing's eyes, this dilapidated small courtyard had already restored the scene and charm of the days when Ye Changying lived there.

In her mind, she even envisioned the scene of the young and handsome Ye Changying playing with his child in this courtyard.

Lost in her fascination, Du Haiqing felt that Ye Changying was truly in this courtyard, and that little boy whose face she couldn't see was his son, circling around him incessantly.

Immediately after, the old and tightly closed door inside opened, and a woman with a dignified and beautiful appearance, a tall and outstanding figure, and an apron tied around her waist walked out.

The woman smiled and greeted the father and son to come inside for a meal. The scene of the family of three living in harmony was truly enviable.

Du Haiqing, who was lost in her imagination, looked over carefully again and saw the woman's appearance clearly.

The woman in her imagination was not Ye Changying's original wife, but Du Haiqing herself!