Chapter 2533

The furniture and appliances in the rooms were also brand new, especially the furniture. Although it looked unassuming, it was all rosewood furniture made by friends Yu Ruizhi had found, and the quality was quite good—both beautiful and durable.

Guo Suhua was, of course, very fond of this courtyard after seeing it, but after looking around, she asked, "Isn't this courtyard too big?"

Su Xinghui said, "It used to belong to a wealthy family, but unfortunately, the descendants of that family were not up to the task and were spendthrifts, so they squandered all the family property. That's why it became cheap for me. If the courtyard is a bit big, so be it. When Dad retires, you can all move here to live."

Speaking of which, Su Wenjun was only a year or two away from retirement age. Actually, it wouldn't be impossible for him to retire early now; anyway, the family wasn't short of money. However, he quite liked his profession, so he wanted to wait until the normal retirement age to retire.

Guo Suhua said, "With such a large courtyard, how much effort would it take to clean it?"

Su Xinghui said, "It's fine, Mom. We can regularly hire a housekeeping company to clean it; it won't cost much money."

Guo Suhua nodded and didn't say anything more. Although she had raised many objections to this courtyard verbally, in reality, seeing her son buy such a large courtyard, how could she not be happy?

Su Xinghui and Lu Xiaoya took Su Wenjun and Guo Suhua to the room prepared for them for this Spring Festival. This room was the main room in the middle courtyard, and the main room was, of course, the best and largest room in the entire courtyard. The filial piety of their son and daughter-in-law made the elderly couple very happy.

The elderly couple lived in the main room, while Su Xinghui's family and Su Xingyun's family lived in the east and west wing rooms, respectively.

This courtyard house still looked like a traditional building on the outside, but inside, it was completely modernized, making it very comfortable to live in.

Su Xinghui said, "Dad, Mom, this main room will be where you live from now on. Even when you go back to Shangjun, it will be kept for you."

Su Wenjun and Guo Suhua both nodded happily.

That night, after the family finished dinner, they all played mahjong and watched TV in the main room where the elderly couple lived. The four people playing mahjong were the elderly couple, Su Xingyun, and Lu Xiaoya. They played mahjong while glancing at the TV.

Tan Mingcheng sat next to his mother-in-law watching them play mahjong, occasionally giving her advice, while ten-year-old Tan Weisheng played with toys in the room with Niuniu. Niuniu had plenty of toys—Transformers, Lego bricks, remote-controlled cars, everything one could wish for. The two brothers played very happily.

The family was harmonious and enjoyed the happiness of family life.

As for Su Xinghui, he went to the storage room to look at the room full of old furniture.

The condition of this old furniture was indeed not worth complimenting, and it was no wonder that the prodigal son didn't want it. This room full of old furniture was dilapidated; either the tables were missing a leg, or the cabinets were missing a door. Most of them had already lost their utility value.

This was understandable; this old furniture had been in this courtyard since before liberation, having been used for at least several decades and having gone through the period of turmoil. Being able to remain at all was already quite good.

The storage room was quite dusty. Su Xinghui wore a mask and rummaged through it. Most of this furniture was from the Republican era. Although it had a certain collection value, it wasn't very significant.

The characteristic of Republican-era furniture was that it was more "Westernized," meaning it had more Western features. For example, in this pile of furniture, there were wooden sofas with Western features, as well as high-backed chairs. In particular, those chairs had reversible seats—one side was wood for sitting in summer, and the other side was leather for sitting in winter.

These high-backed chairs actually looked quite luxurious and had Western court characteristics. If they were new and placed next to a long dining table, they would look very grand. However, these chairs were now severely damaged, especially the leather side, which had broken, revealing the cotton inside, making them unsuitable for display and use.

However, these pieces of furniture could still be used if repaired and the leather surface replaced. Regardless, they were still furniture from the Republican period, nearly a century old.

Su Xinghui did find some good things in this pile of furniture, such as two incense stands nearly a meter high with a three-curved-leg design, which were suspected to be old yellow rosewood furniture, likely from the Ming or Qing dynasties.

These incense stands were placed in the middle of rooms by wealthy families in the past. Because the design was generally three-curved legs, with soft curves and beautiful carvings, they could be used as decorations and art pieces for scholars to adorn their studies. At the same time, they could be used for burning incense and placing incense burners, hence the name "incense stand."

The ancestors of this prodigal son, although capitalists, whether they were truly learned or just pretending to be refined, it was perfectly normal for them to have a few incense stands in their home.

If the incense burner used for burning incense on the stand was something like a Xuande burner, it would be worth a lot of money. However, it couldn't be found in this storage room now; it was either lost during the turmoil or sold by the prodigal son after it was returned to him, leaving only these incense stands.

If these incense stands were truly yellow rosewood, they would also be quite valuable. In ten years, selling them for several million would be possible. However, in this era, not many people might know their value, and that prodigal son was even more likely not to recognize yellow rosewood, treating them as two broken tables. Since they were already dilapidated, giving them away was fine.

These two incense stands were damaged in some places, and one was so unstable it could barely stand. The surfaces were covered in thick dust and grease, making it hard to see their original appearance.

Su Xinghui brought a basin of warm water and carefully wiped them with a soft cloth, then slowly dried them with a dry cloth. They finally revealed their original appearance. These two incense stands had a light yellow wood color with purple and red tints, and the colors were very vibrant. They were also carved with auspicious patterns like bats.

Su Xinghui could almost conclude that these two incense stands were old items from the Ming or Qing dynasties and that the material was yellow rosewood, because Su Xinghui knew quite a bit about collection knowledge. The three-curved-leg design of these two incense stands could only be achieved with yellow rosewood material.

This was because yellow rosewood material is stable and can remain undeformed for hundreds of years, which is why it can maintain the stability of this three-curved-leg design. And the wood color of yellow rosewood is exactly this color; old yellow rosewood is light yellow with purple and red, and the color becomes more vibrant the older it gets.

Su Xinghui used a piece of fine sandpaper to gently polish the bottom of the stand surface a few times. Sure enough, a fragrance unique to yellow rosewood was emitted. By this time, Su Xinghui could be certain that these two incense stands were made of old yellow rosewood.

This discovery made him very pleasantly surprised. He didn't expect that buying this courtyard house would come with such a surprise. Just these two incense stands were a considerable fortune.

Besides these two incense stands, Su Xinghui also found a bed made of black acid branch wood. This bed was also missing a leg and was leaning in the corner of the room. Although this bed was also dilapidated, after wiping it with a cloth, Su Xinghui saw that its carvings were very exquisite, the patterns were beautiful, and the workmanship was very fine. It should also be furniture from the Ming or Qing dynasties.

Although the other Republican-era furniture was not as old as the Ming and Qing furniture, the wood used was also quite good, all being hardwoods like acid branch, red sandalwood, and rosewood. In terms of growth age and value, they might not be as good as Ming and Qing furniture, but they could still be considered fine materials.

During the Republican period, there were no longer as many large pieces of material as in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, under the whole world, everything belonged to the Emperor, and every person belonged to the Emperor. What kind of large material couldn't be obtained? And at that time, there were no protection measures. As long as it was good wood, even if it was an ancient tree that had grown for hundreds of years, it would be cut down if they wanted to.

Therefore, there were many large pieces of Ming and Qing furniture, mostly made from whole large pieces of material. Some wealthy families even used whole red sandalwood logs as roof beams for their houses. Such roof beams could be described as priceless.

This was why Ming and Qing furniture was particularly precious. Su Xinghui searched for a long time, and only these three items were suspected to be Ming and Qing furniture, but this harvest was enough to satisfy him.

These were all items that looked dilapidated; those in good condition must have all been sold by the prodigal son.

Next, what Su Xinghui needed to do was to repair this furniture and strive to restore them all. Placing some such furniture in this large courtyard would also make their home appear to have depth.

Of course, repairing this furniture could not use new wood. He had to try his best to find wood of the same material as these pieces to repair them. This way, it would be "repairing the old as the old," rather than "repairing the old as the new," which would be incongruous.

In Jingcheng, finding such old wood was relatively easy. In recent years, many old houses in Jingcheng had been demolished, and there was a lot of wood salvaged from these old houses. Therefore, some merchants specialized in collecting this old wood to repair old furniture for others.

Some houses of former wealthy families also had such high-quality hardwood salvaged from them. Therefore, as long as one paid careful attention, one could still find the same things. When the time came, Su Xinghui could buy some of this old material back and repair the old furniture in his home. ===== CHAPTER 2535 =====