The sight of the pried-up wooden floorboards in the living room, the debris scattered everywhere, the walls covered in cobwebs, and animal droppings left Zhao Dajie, who was showing Chen Lan and her entourage the house, feeling rather embarrassed. She truly hadn't expected the house to be in such a state.
She couldn't help but grumble inwardly: "How did this house get into such a mess? It's incredibly filthy! Those people completely ruined a perfectly good house. It's uninhabitable! The director is out of his mind for thinking of selling it. And charging so much for it, five hundred yuan for this dump! And I have to be the one to deliver the bad news and clean up his son's mess."
Chen Lan was unaware of Zhao Dajie's inner thoughts. Although she had prepared herself mentally, she hadn't anticipated the house being so thoroughly vandalized.
Zhao Dajie touched her short, ear-length hair and, bracing herself, walked over to Chen Lan and Xu Mingxuan. She smiled awkwardly and said, "That Comrade Xiao Chen, Comrade Xiao Xu, let's go upstairs to the second floor. It's a bit better than the first floor, not as severely damaged."
After saying this, Zhao Dajie felt she was shamelessly spewing nonsense and her face was burning. The director was really putting her in a difficult position, asking her to deliberately mislead these outsiders into buying this dilapidated house, even saying they could set any terms as long as they paid.
But wasn't this clearly swindling people? What a lack of conscience! A house in this condition couldn't possibly be lived in. These outsiders weren't fools; they wouldn't buy just because you asked them to.
Unbeknownst to Zhao Dajie's internal complaints, everyone followed her lead up the stairs to the second floor. The wooden staircase was surprisingly well-preserved, perhaps due to the quality of the wood or some other reason. When stepped on, it felt sturdy and secure, without the creaking sounds of old planks. Chen Lan guessed the wood used for the stairs must have been very thick. Old Zhangtou, however, commented enthusiastically, "They weren't exaggerating; it truly is solid, whole planks of red pine."
The second floor had three main rooms, a study, and a bathroom. As they moved along, Chen Lan and Xu Mingxuan, following Zhao Dajie and Old Zhangtou, entered one of the main rooms first. Er Zhuang and the other children had dispersed to explore other rooms.
Chen Lan noticed that the room was quite spacious, likely around fifty to sixty square meters. Its orientation was good, with excellent natural light, meaning they could get sunlight in the room without even leaving it, as long as the sun was out.
However, the wooden floor in the room was in a terrible state, littered with garbage, dust, and cobwebs.
Old Zhangtou lamented repeatedly, "What a sin! A true sin! Such good material wasted like this."
He mentioned that the wooden floor was also made of solid red pine planks, and it was a great pity to see it in such a condition.
The doors and windows in the room bore axe marks, and the glass in the windows was long gone. After a round of sighs, there was nothing they could do.
At that moment, Jiahui and Jiayao made a surprising discovery in another main room: a massive wardrobe.
Chen Lan and the others, hearing their exclamations, hurried over. They saw a large wardrobe that occupied a significant portion of one wall. It was built into the wall, which likely explained why it hadn't been severely damaged, bearing only a few marks from sharp objects.
Although the wardrobe was now covered in dust and cobwebs, and even had sparrows nesting in it, Chen Lan's unusually keen sense of smell detected something beyond the foul odor. Amidst the stench, she faintly smelled a subtle woody fragrance. Puzzled, she inhaled deeply again and confirmed the presence of a pleasant scent.
Without hesitation, Chen Lan immediately activated her system's search function using her mind. Soon, a prompt appeared on the system screen: "Hualiwood."
Chen Lan was astonished that this wardrobe, which took up almost half a wall, was made of hualiwood. It made sense that she could still smell its fragrance even in its current state.
She wondered who had built this house originally, but it was clear that the original owners must have been a wealthy family to afford furniture made of hualiwood, let alone such a large wardrobe. This suggested that the house must have contained many other treasures back then.
Considering the current dilapidated state of the house, Chen Lan thought how greedy those people must have been. Even after taking all the treasures, they were still unsatisfied and had even pried up the wooden floorboards, as if trying to dig up every inch of the house in search of hidden riches.
Thinking this, Chen Lan couldn't help but feel a sense of secret delight. Those people were truly ignorant; they didn't recognize the treasure right before them. This was hualiwood, a highly prized material in later generations, known for its saying: "an inch of hualiwood is worth an inch of gold."
Hualiwood, also known as *xianghuali*, is considered the finest of *hongmu*. It is admired for its unique and beautiful grain, its soft golden hue, and its intoxicating fragrance.
Furthermore, hualiwood is rumored to have properties that promote blood circulation, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, improve sleep, and alleviate a sore throat.
Chen Lan felt this wardrobe would be perfect for her mother, as if it were tailor-made for her.
Chen Lan decided that for the sake of this hualiwood wardrobe alone, she would buy this house, no matter how ruined or filthy it was.
With this decision made, Chen Lan gave Xu Mingxuan, who was standing beside her, a knowing glance. The couple, without looking at any more rooms, led their family out of the house. They descended to the first floor and, without lingering in the living room, walked directly out into the yard.
Zhao Dajie and Old Zhangtou assumed the couple hadn't taken a liking to the dilapidated house, a sentiment they both understood. After all, the house was not only incredibly old and run-down but also extremely filthy, with dust, cobwebs, and bird droppings everywhere.
Therefore, they didn't ask any questions and followed them down to the yard.