Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 388: Chapter 384: The Odd Gatekeeper Uncle

Uncle Tong sat on a trove of valuable items, when clearly he could make a fortune just by selling one set.

Yet he preferred to live in modesty, guarding every item in this house without complaint or regret.

Why was that?

Huo Sining puzzled about this. Could it really be just because her father had shown kindness to Uncle Tong, helping him in his time of need, and now he sought to repay the debt?

Huo Sining looked through several bedrooms, observing not only the antique furniture but also the layout and purpose of each room.

She soon had an overall understanding of the residence.

Indeed, it was a complete siheyuan, composed of three courtyards arranged along a north-south axis, including a reverse-facing room, Chuihuamen, main hall, main house, and back house.

Each courtyard complex included east and west wing rooms, with side rooms flanking the main hall, and the entire courtyard was surrounded by a veranda that ran through it.

The estate was large and the design and preservation of the buildings impeccable, but there was one thing that struck Huo Sining as peculiar.

That was, after inspecting the main house and wing rooms, she found no signs of anyone living there.

The old furniture was just for show, unmarked by use; the beds were empty, without a blanket or pillow in sight.

This puzzled Huo Sining. Wasn’t Uncle Tong living here to take care of the house? If no one resided in the main house and the rear courtyard, where did Uncle Tong live?

Perhaps sensing Huo Sining’s thoughts, Huang Hanyun spoke softly, ”Uncle Tong resides in the rear, in the northernmost room of the reverse-facing rooms.”

At these words, Huo Sining was taken aback and instinctively turned to look at Uncle Tong.

No wonder Huo Sining found it odd. Although the siheyuan looked delicate and beautiful, it had a flaw: due to exposure to sunlight, the rooms on all four sides received the best natural light only if they faced south.

Therefore, the north rooms were considered the main residence, meant for the homeowners;

The east and west sides were wing rooms, occupied by the daughters and families of large clans;

The south rooms, with poorer lighting—some even without windows—were typically used for different purposes such as exterior living rooms, offices, gatehouses, or servants’ quarters.

In modern times, these rooms were mostly used for storage or pet habitation, certainly not for people.

Hence, hearing that Uncle Tong resided in a north-facing reverse room led Huo Sining to feel baffled and surprised.

To not harbor any ill intentions towards the valuable items in the house was one thing, but for this upright man to neither reside in the main nor the wing rooms, instead dwelling for over a decade in the dimly lit reverse room—wasn’t that too odd?

”Was this room assigned to him by my father when he was alive?”

Such a grand residence, carefully guarded by someone, and there were decent places to live, yet to let someone live in such a terrible room seemed too unkind.

Huo Sining thought this must have been arranged by her father, and immediately felt a strange sensation in her heart.

However, what Huang Hanyun revealed next only deepened Huo Sining’s puzzlement.

”I found this matter as strange as you do, so I specifically asked Grandfather about it. After several inquiries, he finally told me that Uncle Tong actually came to us on his own initiative. At the time, your father was on a mission in Bashu, and none of us knew the specifics of the situation. Then, Uncle Tong turned up with a letter of introduction,” Huang Hanyun said.

”A letter of introduction? What letter of introduction?” Huo Sining furrowed her brows.

Huang Hanyun explained, ”It was a letter personally written by your father, recounting Uncle Tong’s experiences in the army and asking Grandfather to arrange for him to come here to look after the old mansion.”

”He came by himself? Didn’t Great-Uncle suspect anything?” Huo Sining asked.

Huang Hanyun shook her head, ”He did suspect it, but we couldn’t get in touch with your father at that time, and the handwriting in the letter was indeed your father’s. You probably know what Grandfather is like; he’s a soldier who has been to war. He naturally felt a kinship with other soldiers and sympathized with Uncle Tong’s predicament. So, after some hesitation, Grandfather agreed to it.”

”At first, Grandfather wasn’t reassured, so he arranged for someone to stay with Uncle Tong here. However, nobody had to tell him, Uncle Tong just moved into the servant quarters on his own. No matter who tried to convince him, he wouldn’t budge, so Grandfather had to let him stay,” she said.

”Everyone in our family thought he had ulterior motives, but after he moved in, there were no incidents at all; he just honestly guarded the house. Whenever someone eyed the valuable items in the house with bad intentions, Uncle Tong chased them off without fail.”

”Seeing him so devoted, we finally believed he was indeed sent by your father. But shortly after Uncle Tong arrived, we received news of your father’s tragic demise in the army, so the matter of whether Uncle Tong should stay or leave was put on hold,” Huang Hanyun continued.

”Uncle Tong rarely went out, but the mansion was truly protected because of him. Grandfather felt bad about driving him away and allowed him to keep living in the mansion, and just like that, nearly twenty years have passed,” she said.

Upon hearing this, Huo Sining felt a strange sensation, as if something was off. She subconsciously glanced towards Uncle Tong, who was standing in the courtyard outside the house.

Because he had lived in the dimly-lit servant quarters for years, Uncle Tong’s skin, including his hands, exhibited a sickly pallor.

Even though Uncle Tong’s face was marred with scars, leaving no expression visible, for some reason, Huo Sining always felt as if he was secretly sizing her up.

It was an odd intuition, and Huo Sining couldn’t say why, but her Azure Pearl told her that this man was indeed covertly observing her.

However, when Huo Sining turned to look, she found nothing out of the ordinary. The man remained calm, his gaze as lifeless as a stagnant pond.

”This must have been the room where your grandmother used to live,” Huang Hanyun said.

A few of them approached an antique, elegantly furnished woman’s boudoir. The bedroom was divided into two sections, inner and outer, by a moon-shaped arched canopy.

The inner section was the bedroom, featuring a dark brown, exquisitely carved bed in one corner. Diagonally across from the bed was a tortoiseshell dressing table inlaid with colorful shells that glimmered and gleamed under the light.

The outer section was used for writing, painting, and needlework. Near the outer wall stood a square curio shelf, and by it, a writing desk with the Four Treasures of the Study displayed upon it. Near the desk stood an ancient zither in the corner.

Yet Huo Sining had only swept a glance over these things. As soon as she entered the room, her gaze was drawn toward the carved screen on the east side. The screen stood behind the carved bed, clearly indicating a bathroom behind it.

The reason Huo Sining fixed her eyes on this screen was because of the two silk embroidery pieces stitched upon it.