Everyone knew that Su Xiufeng was currently the person most in need of control.
So, Erhu was the first to sneak up on her.
This matter only needed to unfold naturally, allowing everyone to redirect their attention back to their careers and studies.
Despite the medicinal diet store being busy, with customers filling the place and seats often in short supply, the group had no plans to open a branch.
They even advised healthy people to only try the food occasionally, since medicine is inherently toxic to some degree.
It wasn’t clear whether the customers heeded this advice or not; after all, the medicinal diets they served were completely harmless—the caution was only to deter those customers who hoped for more branches.
Han Zheng and Zhao Xiaoxin were now in charge of the medicinal diet store on a full-time basis.
After Shen Ci and Meng Chuyue had opened a pastry shop under the names of Han Muxuan and Lin Muyun, they found some time and went to number fifteen on Yangliu Street with Su Jinnian and Han Zheng.
They visited in the afternoon, around three o’clock, and Erhu, who was busy with something else, was not taken along.
Erhu had visited the place several times over the past few days and hadn’t noticed anything amiss.
Upon seeing the house, Han Zheng was full of praise, "No wonder you all like it, it’s really nice. Jinnian, if you’re not at ease, just leave it be; its value is sure to appreciate in a few years."
Even if the previous owner of the house had a questionable character, and the house had been vacant for years, his concern over it had faded.
Meng Chuyue agreed, "Right, with all the development going on around here, this area will become busier; the house will definitely become more desirable."
Su Jinnian accepted their view, "Okay, then I’ll do as everyone suggests."
Anyway, he wasn’t short of the more than two hundred thousand yuan.
Saying that, since they were already there, everyone decided to take a closer look. It would be ideal to wait for the previous owner and see if he had any other ulterior motives.
As Meng Chuyue looked around, a sudden thought struck her, "Hey, do you think there could be a secret room or tunnel inside this house?"
Her hypothesis sprung from the fact that the previous owner lived right behind the property.
The others were startled by the suggestion but agreed it was possible.
Shen Ci picked up some sticks from a pile of firewood in a corner of the yard. She handed three sticks to the others and started tapping on the ground and walls first, "Everyone tap around. Hollow spaces make a different sound."
They all laughed and imitated her, tapping around playfully.
They were just doing it for fun and didn’t genuinely expect to find any secret rooms or tunnels, but to their surprise, they actually discovered one.
It was Su Jinnian, the current owner, who tapped it open, in the wall between the woodshed and the storeroom.
For a moment, no one knew quite what to say, but they mustered the courage to explore the tunnel.
They found that not only did this tunnel connect to the property behind run by the previous owner, but it also linked to several of the neighboring houses.
And, judging by the wear on the tunnel door, its use was most frequent with the door beneath the previous owner’s current residence.
A collective shiver ran down their spines.
Nevertheless, they didn’t lose their wits and unanimously decided to call the police.
The police arrived quickly and soon arrested the fraudulent former owner.
After an investigation and interrogation, shocking news swept through every nook and cranny of the neighborhood: apparently, the Feng family had been using these tunnels for generations to steal from the nearby houses.
As for why all these houses had tunnels? It was said that they were all previously owned by a certain wealthy merchant.
Finally, the police sent a team to thoroughly inspect each property, helping to fill the tunnels with stones.
Of course, they didn’t fill them completely, leaving each house with a basement.
Now that the house was free of hidden dangers but still considered somewhat inauspicious, Meng Chuyue suggested to Su Jinnian, "You’re not short of money; you could actually build a retro-style teahouse."
"A retro-style building, what does that look like? Like the ones on TV?"
"Exactly, like those. My father can even design it for you—are you going to ask him?"