Chapter 354: Seizing the Family Property
As they spoke, Wu Xiaoguang suddenly reached out to snatch the box.
He appeared reckless, but in reality, he had thought it through. Although Xu Youyou had many bodyguards, they hadn’t followed her into the cellar. The elderly lady was too old to be his match.
However, he hadn’t expected that while Xu Youyou was holding the security box with one hand, her other hand moved with astonishing agility. Before Wu Xiaoguang could react, he was already face down on the ground.
“You… let me go!” Wu Xiaoguang shouted furiously.
Xu Youyou pinned him down and said, “Talking nicely clearly wouldn’t work on you, so this is the only way to have a conversation. Listen carefully, this security box was only kept in trust by your great-grandfather—it doesn’t belong to your family, understand?”
Hearing this, Wu Xiaoguang became even more convinced that the box contained something incredibly valuable. He turned and shouted at the elderly lady, “Great-aunt, you’re actually helping an outsider? If Grandpa knew, he’d scold you to death!”
The old lady remained unfazed and said, “Xiaoguang, I’ve lived longer than you and have seen people come for this box before. Miss Xu found it because your great-grandfather visited her in a dream. Otherwise, it would never have been found.”
Wu Xiaoguang was furious.
Xu Youyou had no intention of explaining further. After dealing with him, she was about to leave the cellar with the box when she suddenly heard the old man’s voice.
“Girl, have someone throw that useless wastrel out. Tell my daughter there’s another box in the cellar—its contents are for her alone. I don’t want that fool to get even a speck of it.”
Xu Youyou paused and lowered her voice. “Sir, you’re not leaving anything for your great-grandson at all?”
The old man’s voice was filled with frustration. “Why should I? He’d just squander it all! And to be honest, I want to leave the good things to my daughter. Besides, I’m not leaving the wastrel empty-handed. The two-story house in the village—my daughter wouldn’t want it, so he can have it. The house can’t be sold anyway, so at least he’ll have a place to stay.”
Xu Youyou softened. “Alright.”
She signaled to her bodyguards, who dragged Wu Xiaoguang out and locked him in a room in the two-story house, intending to release him after they were done in the cellar.
“Miss Xu, is there something else?” the elderly lady asked curiously.
“The old master left something for you. He wants you to have it and doesn’t want Wu Xiaoguang to touch it,” Xu Youyou replied.
The elderly lady was stunned. “Father… he really said that?”
Xu Youyou nodded. “You know your father never favored men over women. He said he wanted to leave the best things to his daughter.”
Hearing this, the elderly lady’s eyes immediately reddened. After a long silence, she nodded. “If that was my father’s wish, as his descendant, I must honor it.”
Following the old man’s instructions and after a series of meticulous steps, the elderly lady finally found another box in the corner of the cellar.
The box was about the size of a bucket and filled with various items.
When the elderly lady saw a small blue-and-white porcelain bowl, tears rolled down her face. “This was my childhood rice bowl… I never saw it again after I went to university. I thought it had been broken, but Father had been keeping it safe all this time.”
Xu Youyou, with her sharp eyes and expertise in porcelain, glanced at it and remarked, “This looks like a Ming Dynasty official kiln piece…”
The elderly lady handed the bowl to Xu Youyou, who turned it over and immediately saw the mark at the bottom. “It’s from the Yongle period—an official kiln blue-and-white bowl, well-preserved. If it were put up for auction, the starting price might be in the millions.”
The elderly lady was in disbelief. “But this was my everyday rice bowl! Though, I remember the bottom being covered with something…”
Xu Youyou, recalling the time period when the elderly lady was young, immediately understood. “People back then often hid valuable antiques in plain sight. No one would think a common rice bowl could be a priceless relic.”
Xu Youyou didn’t ask whether the elderly lady planned to sell the treasures in the box. Judging by her expression, it was clear she intended to keep them as sentimental keepsakes.
With the final task completed, Xu Youyou was about to leave when the elderly lady suddenly said, “Miss Xu, could I ask a favor? If you ever dream of my father again, could you tell him… he was the best father in the world, and if there’s a next life, I still want to be his daughter.”
Xu Youyou felt a lump in her throat and nodded firmly.
Just then, a familiar elderly voice whispered in her ear, “Girl, tell my daughter… she was the best daughter in the world too.”
Xu Youyou hesitated but eventually conveyed the message.
The elderly lady didn’t seem the least bit surprised by how quickly Xu Youyou relayed it. Instead, her nose twitched, and tears streamed down her face. “Miss Xu, you have great abilities… Don’t worry, I’m old and won’t go around blabbing about this.”
Xu Youyou immediately understood—the elderly lady had figured out that she could hear the spirits of the dead.
She should have been afraid, yet she felt no fear at all. People with such abilities, if exposed, would normally be feared or even experimented on.
But Xu Youyou had grown strong enough to protect herself.
It felt as if an unresolved regret had finally been put to rest. Just as she and the elderly lady stepped out of the cellar, her phone rang.
“Boss, the old master… his heart stopped… The doctor said this is death… But it shouldn’t have happened! The doctor said if he survived last night, he could have lived for years!”
On the other end of the call, Liu Xiangyi’s voice was full of panic.
The elderly lady, upon receiving the news, looked grief-stricken, but not at all surprised.
“My condolences,” Xu Youyou said softly.
Despite her sorrow, the elderly lady held herself together to arrange her father’s funeral.
Xu Youyou didn’t leave immediately either. She and her bodyguards stayed to help the Wu family with the arrangements.
Wu Xiaoguang, despite being a scoundrel, knew better than to act out during a funeral. He behaved himself for a while. But once the ceremony was over, he immediately turned to the elderly lady and declared, “Great-aunt, you’re a married woman—you have no right to fight me for the house and the cellar!”
By now, he had resigned himself to the fact that he couldn’t reclaim the security box taken by Xu Youyou. Unaware that the elderly lady had also retrieved a box from the cellar, his mind was still set on renting out the cellar to the film crew for a hefty profit.
