Chapter 41 The Old Residence and The Pas (1/2)

Chapter 41 The Old Residence and The Past

Wen Jiubo smiled, “No, at first, this old residence belonged to someone else. The story is quite interesting. The house was actually the fee a client paid a long time ago.”

“Fee?”

“Yes, fee. You gain some, you lose some. Since I took their request, they had to pay the price for it,” said Wen Jiubo. “At that time, the client was broke. Therefore he had to give me this old building – which was all he had left. He once said when he got some money, he wanted to repurchase this house. He eventually died alone though, having never been able to borrow enough money to buy it back till the day he died.”

I was still curious after hearing his words, “He must have once been a wealthy man to afford this big house. Wait, what happened to him to force him to sacrifice so much?”

“He was a great man,” praised Wen Jiubo. “He knew he could never change the situation he faced, so he asked me to make sure his work would be read by people throughout the ages.” I had never heard him give a compliment to anyone before. He was usually such an arrogant person, so I was a little surprised.

“Have you fulfilled his wish?” I asked him, curiosity bleeding through my voice.

“Of course I have, that’s why I took over his home.” Wen Jiubo smiled and stood up. “It’s late, I’ll go to the study room to see if I can find any useful materials. If you’re bored, you can read the books here. The bathroom is to the left, and if you want to charge your phone, you can go to the living room.”

After he finished speaking, Wen Jiubo began to walk towards the door.

However, the conversation aroused my curiosity, and I stopped him before he left. “Ay, who’s the client you talked about?”

“Why do you care so much? He was a man who died long ago.”

I didn’t give up. “I’m just curious, what’s the matter? As you said, he was a man who died long ago.”

Wen Jiubo seemed to give in, he turned around and said, “He was a descendant of a fallen ministry councilor during the time of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty. You must have heard his name before; his given name was Cao Zhan, his courtesy name was Mengruan, and he styled himself as Cao Xueqin. (TL note: he is best known as the author of Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. The other three novels are Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West.)

Cao Zhan? My brain shorted out, and he styled himself as Can Xueqin? Wait a minute, he was Cao Xueqin, the one who wrote the novel Dream of the Red Chamber?!

Before I could voice my doubt, Wen Jiubo left the room with a big grin on his face.

————————————————————

“Ay! Bro, what’re you thinking about now?”

I was startled by Bai’s sudden, sharp voice. I turned around and saw that the little guy had shown up. He stood on his hind legs with two small paws held together at the front. Bai stared at me with his little eyes.

I drew a long breath of relief. “Bai, you scared me. Where were you?”

Bai was unhappy. “What do you mean where was I? I’ve been here the whole time, you’re the one who didn’t notice me. Anyways, what’s making you think so hard?”

“Bai, is it true that this house once belonged to Cai Xueqin?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Em…probably. I think his surname was Cao or something. Who knows? I never remember human’s names.” Bai didn’t pay much attention to my question, he kept looking around. “Where is Wen Jiubo? Hasn’t he come back already?”