Chapter 004

Chapter 004

Lu Mingzhu was not the original body and did not care about the whereabouts of the huge fortune belonging to Madame Lu. The wealth they currently possessed was enough to secure her and Lu Pingan's future.

By buying properties in Hong Kong and renting them out, they could live comfortably without worrying about money.

Everyone knew that property prices in Hong Kong were sky-high, and landlords there were the ultimate winners in life.

For Lu Mingzhu, the most important thing at the moment was to leave Shanghai smoothly and arrive in Hong Kong safely, hoping that everything would remain calm and without any mishaps during this period.

She told Lu Pingan this, and he understood.

He said, "Rest well, Auntie. I'll go out and buy some things to bring on the journey."

"Go ahead, and come back early."

After he left, Lu Mingzhu locked the door behind her.

Too tired to rest after a sleepless night, she first took out the gold bars intended for exchanging foreign currency with Wang Xingcai from her space and placed them together with the gold bars, silver dollars, cash, and gold/silver jewelry outside, leaving the 120 large gold bars from the old master untouched. Then she took 10 pounds out and put them into her handbag, storing the rest in her space in case of any accidents on the road. Finally, she started packing her luggage.

The main items included seasonal clothes, shoes, socks, textbooks, and a collection of books, as well as antique paintings and calligraphy works. Lu Mingzhu also found two Browning pistols and a box of ammunition unexpectedly in the wardrobe, which she decided to carry with her for personal safety.

She would take as much as she could.

When traveling, everything costs money.

As someone who came from an ordinary citizen background, Lu Mingzhu knew how to be thrifty and manage a household budget.

Remembering that there were unused and substantial amounts of silk, cloth, fur, books, medicinal herbs, and other items in various rooms, along with the large antiques she hadn’t collected in front of Lu Pingan the previous night, Lu Mingzhu quietly went upstairs and stored them in her space, planning to use them after they left to save herself the trouble and expense of acquiring new ones.

Rather than letting everything be burned or smashed to pieces more than a decade later, it was better to make full use of them now.

If only she could dismantle the furniture, Lu Mingzhu thought, she would have taken it all with her. The huanghuali wood was intricately carved and extremely valuable.

Unfortunately, her personal space was a bit small, and after putting these items in, only half of the space remained available.

Regretfully, Lu Mingzhu pulled out a metal detector and scanned the third and fourth floors. As expected, she found a diamond ring and some gold and silver jewelry in the third wife's room, and a pair of emerald green jade bracelets along with a box containing 10 large gold bars in the footrest of the canopy bed in the fourth wife's room. The only other item she found was a foreign watch in the seventh brother Lu Changgen's wardrobe.

The front and back gardens also needed a thorough scan to check for buried treasures.

While Lu Pingan was not at home, Lu Mingzhu avoided the three maids and embarked on her treasure hunt in the garden. Sure enough, there were several spots that gave a response, so she marked them and planned to dig them up with Lu Pingan after he returned.

To their surprise, they did find something.

Following the seven marks, they dug and found that one spot only contained worthless scrap metal, while the other six revealed six large jars, four small copper boxes, and six large iron-clad chests.

Lu Mingzhu pried them open immediately.

Wow!

The six jars were filled with silver dollars, the copper boxes contained large gold bars, and the large iron-clad chests held antique jade carvings and porcelain wrapped in silk, all buried separately and dug up from six different locations.

Lu Pingan's eyes widened. "Aunt, these must be Grandfather's!"

Lu Mingzhu noticed that many of the antiques were items that had once been displayed in Father Lu's room, but she couldn’t tell who the silver dollars and gold bars belonged to, as the jars were corroded and the copper boxes were covered in green patina, both showing signs of age.

"We've struck it rich!" Lu Mingzhu said with a beaming smile.

Lu Pingan was also very pleased. "Aunt, you're brilliant! I didn't even think about digging up the garden."

Lu Mingzhu patted him on the shoulder. "I’ve got a few more years under my belt! They say it's easy to find treasures in the old mansions of wealthy families, and sure enough, they didn’t lie! The priority now is figuring out how to handle these things."

Lu Pingan pondered for a moment. "We can exchange gold and silver for foreign currency, but going back to Old Master Wang would raise too much suspicion."

Lu Mingzhu nodded and asked, "Then what should we do? There's so much, we can't possibly take it all with us."

Lu Pingan soon had an idea. "When I did business with Grandma, I got to know quite a few bosses who I can talk to. I can take the gold out in batches and exchange it with different bosses for foreign currency. They all have plenty of foreign currency—US dollars, pounds, Hong Kong dollars—and they respect Grandpa and Grandma, so they won’t give us black market rates. We can also ask them to keep it confidential."

"Then take the gold bars and give it a try first." Lu Mingzhu counted out ten large gold bars from the copper box and handed them to him.

Lu Pingan left with them.

After making sure no one was around, Lu Mingzhu secretly put the antiques back into her space, buried the empty boxes in their original spots, used her space ability to bring the copper boxes back to her bedroom, and left the large jars in the garden.

Before long, Lu Pingan came back with a wad of US dollars.

"100 taels of gold exchanged for 3,125 USD, according to the bank exchange rate. We got a fair deal." Lu Pingan handed the dollars to Lu Mingzhu. "Boss Li, who is close to Grandma, loves gold. If we have more, we can exchange it with him again. He has tens of thousands of US dollars and doesn’t plan to leave the country, so he’s looking to offload some."

Since the government only accepted gold and silver but didn’t allow them to be taken out of the country, Boss Li preferred not to exchange at the bank.

He believed gold was a hard currency and more trustworthy than paper money.

Lu Mingzhu then gave Lu Pingan 40 more large gold bars.

The copper boxes were small, each holding 50 large gold bars, totaling 500 taels of gold.

Lu Pingan worked from late morning until evening, exchanging 200 large gold bars for 50,000 USD, 40,000 Hong Kong dollars, and 3,000 pounds, all of which he handed over to Lu Mingzhu.

Lu Mingzhu didn't refuse and said, "Since it's difficult to carry, I buried the antiques again."

"You did the right thing. We really can't take them out." Lu Pingan agreed. "What about the remaining six jars of silver dollars? I can't carry much in one trip, and it's not as convenient as exchanging gold bars."

Lu Mingzhu thought for a moment. "Let’s leave them for Godfather. He gave me an extra 3,000 pounds, which should be worth tens of thousands of silver dollars."

"Alright." Lu Pingan had no objections.

Glancing out the window, he said, "It’s getting dark; Old Master Wang should be here any minute."

Sure enough, not long after they had dinner, Wang Xingcai and Butler Li arrived as scheduled.

Lu Mingzhu and Lu Pingan warmly welcomed them.

Wang Xingcai waved his hand dismissively. "No need to worry, just let them start."

Counting 50,000 to 60,000 silver dollars was no small task.

Lu Mingzhu smiled and told him about how she and Lu Pingan had dug up the six jars of silver dollars. "Godfather, we've decided to give all these silver dollars to you to thank you for taking care of us."

Wang Xingcai was startled. "I can’t take advantage of you two like this. Let Butler Li count them later, and I'll give you foreign currency in return."

Before Lu Mingzhu could refuse, he said, "It's said that it's better to have more money when traveling. You two are going far away, so it's not a bad thing to have more cash."

"Yes, Master." Butler Li immediately accepted the order.

The trusted helpers quickly moved the six large jars of silver dollars into the living room in batches, where they began counting them under the bright lights.

With more people working together, the counting was completed after two hours.

"A total of 100,000 exactly," Uncle Li reported to Wang Xingcai.

Wang Xingcai couldn't help but say, "Mingzhu, your father really leaves me speechless. He’d rather bury these silver dollars than leave them to you. His heart is really hard."

"It might not have been my father who buried them," Lu Mingzhu replied.

"Makes sense," Wang Xingcai said, not bothering to pursue who had buried the silver dollars. He calculated in his mind, "100,000 silver dollars can roughly be exchanged for around 30,000 US dollars, but I only have 30,000 on hand, so I’ll have to give you a little less than that."

Lu Mingzhu's face lit up with joy. "That’s more than enough. Thanks so much for your generosity, Godfather."

Wang Xingcai personally went home to fetch 30,000 US dollars and handed them to Lu Mingzhu.

At that time, Uncle Li was overseeing the counting of gold bars, silver dollars, cash, and gold and silver jewelry, all of which were being moved from Lu Mingzhu's bedroom to the living room, with the accountant recording everything.

Under the bright crystal chandelier, they were all busy at work.

Lu Mingzhu hesitated for a moment and then said, "Uncle Li, they left behind a lot of clothes, shoes, and bedding. I want to sell them at the second-hand market. How should I handle this?"

This kind of matter didn’t require asking the busy Wang Xingcai; she needed to ask Uncle Li, who managed household affairs and would certainly know how to deal with it.

Uncle Li replied without hesitation, "Why sell them? Miss Mingzhu, those are made of good materials. You could either add some money to exchange them for new items or get them exchanged for unprocessed materials to bring to Hong Kong for your own use. Let me tell you, Hong Kong is a small place, and it’s not as prosperous or sophisticated as Shanghai. You might find it harder to get high-quality items there."

Wang Xingcai, sitting next to him, nodded. "Uncle Li is right. I was very unaccustomed to Hong Kong when I first went there. It has developed better in recent years because wealthy merchants from the mainland have brought in a lot of capital, talent, and factory equipment, with a large portion from our Shanghai."

Lu Mingzhu's eyes brightened. "Then I might meet a lot of acquaintances there?"

"Yes," Wang Xingcai nodded again. "Your Godmother Ruyi is in Hong Kong. She went there two years earlier than me and has resumed her old business, opening a film company with a wide network of connections. If you encounter difficulties that even your elder brother can’t solve, you can ask her for help."

Lu Mingzhu said with a smile, "I’ll listen to you. I won’t try to handle things on my own."

She then asked Uncle Li, "How does the exchange for new items work?"

Uncle Li said with a smile, "Just leave it to me. I’ll handle everything properly."

"Thank you then," Lu Mingzhu said. "Pingan and I can’t carry a lot of luggage when we leave, so just exchange a little for me. You can use the rest of the money to buy tonics for Godfather."

Wang Xingcai smiled. "I don’t lack those, so you should bring them to Hong Kong."

"What you have is yours, but this is a gesture of goodwill," Lu Mingzhu said. She then stepped outside and called three nervous maids to move all the clothes, bedding, and other items from all the rooms except her own and Lu Pingan's to the living room for Uncle Li and the others to take away.

One maid dared to ask, "Eighth Miss, are you going abroad too?"

Lu Mingzhu didn't deny it. "Everyone else has gone abroad. It wouldn’t be fun for Pingan and me to stay here and guard the house alone. Make sure to finish up here properly. I won’t forget to reward you when I leave."

"Thank you, Eighth Miss," the three maids immediately cheered up.

After all, everything the family used was top-notch!

They quickly sorted and moved everything, piling it on sofas, coffee tables, and dining tables, with some on the carpeted floor. There were fur coats, various fur hats and muffs, cheongsams, Western dresses, student uniforms, traditional Chinese-style suits, Western suits, woolen coats, leather shoes, silk stockings, and embroidered shoes. There was enough variety to stock several boutiques.

The Lu family was incredibly wealthy and always cared about looking their best. All the things left behind looked brand new, with not a single old item among them.

Lu Mingzhu told the maids to pick some for themselves.

They all agreed and each took a fur coat, along with other valuable items like woolen coats, leather shoes, fur hats, or muffs.

Since we can't wear them ourselves, we can sell them directly for money.

Noticing that Lu Mingzhu didn’t object, the maids quickly grabbed several quilts and wool blankets for themselves, saying they would be useful at home.

Lu Pingan pressed his lips together without a word, while Lu Mingzhu smiled and said kindly, "Those cotton clothes won't fetch a high price. Take a few more pieces home to alter and wear, or keep them to make shoe soles."

In a few years, the country will enter the era of fabric coupons. Without them, you won’t be able to buy cloth to make clothes.

The three maids were overjoyed and quickly gathered several piles, wrapping them up carefully.

Uncle Li emerged and noticed the remaining fur coats. He pointed at them and said to Lu Mingzhu, "I’ll exchange these for some new fur coats for you when we return."

Lu Mingzhu smiled. "I heard that Hong Kong is very warm. Will I even need to wear them?"

"It’s not warm all year round. Last year, Hong Kong experienced a cold spell. Which lady or miss from Shanghai didn’t have a good fur coat?" Uncle Li was very familiar with the situation there and added with a smile, "I’ll also get some top-quality silk brocade suitable for making cheongsams (traditional Chinese dresses). You can find a tailor in Hong Kong to take your measurements and customize them. There are highly skilled tailors from Shanghai."

Hearing this, Lu Mingzhu felt deeply appreciative.

Uncle Li was always so efficient. That evening, he oversaw the inventory and transport of gold and valuables, and returned home with Wang Xingcai. The next morning, he brought people to deliver the exchanged twelve bolts of silk brocade and twelve fur coats, with both long and short styles, in various colors—sable, fox, and even a chinchilla fur with no imperfections. There were also matching hats and fur muffs, each exquisite.

In addition, there were twelve woolen coats, twelve pairs of leather shoes, twelve dresses, and twelve cheongsams (traditional Chinese dresses).

After Wang Xingcai returned, he often instructed the butler to buy clothes and shoes for Lu Mingzhu, remembering her measurements.

Lu Mingzhu, however, looked overwhelmed and said, "Uncle Li, that's too much. It's hard to carry."

Uncle Li said, "Master instructed me to take a few people to escort you and Young Master on your journey. We’ll meet Madam and the young masters before returning on the ship. The master has important matters to discuss with the eldest young master, so I must go in person."

Hearing this, Lu Mingzhu immediately understood Wang Xingcai's kindness.

It was clear that he was concerned about the young niece and nephew and had specially arranged for people to escort them for part of the journey.

"Godfather is truly kind," Lu Mingzhu said sincerely.

Uncle Li smiled. "I won’t disturb you while you pack. I’ll come to pick you up early the day after tomorrow for the ship."