The setting sun blazed across the horizon, its fiery red clouds covering nearly half the sky, even tinting the entire earth below.
"Cleaning the ancestral hall is really quite simple."
Lin Lei walked out of the hall, having to admit he'd prepared too thoroughly. What he'd expected to take an hour was finished in just fifteen minutes.
On the Yulan Continent, a year had 12 months, each month had 30 days, a day had 24 hours, and each hour had 60 minutes. Most nobles had desk clocks to know the precise time, and the very wealthy or high-status individuals even had exquisite personal pocket watches.
"The ancestral hall gets tidied and cleaned every month, so in just one short month, it's not really dirty at all. Just a quick wipe will do. Still, there's nearly an hour before evening training. What should I do?" Bored, Lin Lei looked around.
The ancient Baruch estate had a history of over five thousand years.
The front courtyard was tidied every day, but the much larger rear garden, besides the ancestral hall, was filled with other houses and courtyards all layered with dust, some even showing cracks. Messy weeds and verdant moss covered every corner and stone path.
"Huh?" Looking at these ancient, decaying buildings, Lin Lei's eyes gradually lit up. "So much of the rear garden hasn't been tidied or cleaned in over a hundred years. Could there be some ancient, valuable things in there?"
At this thought, Lin Lei's heart couldn't help but pound with excitement.
"If I can find something valuable and give it to Father, he'll definitely be happy." Lin Lei took a deep breath and immediately started walking toward a dilapidated house next to the ancestral hall. He stepped carefully, picking up a sturdy wooden rod to sweep away spiderwebs and examine everything closely.
Stepping into the old house, Lin Lei smelled a musty odor. Dense spiderwebs clung to the corners of the walls, and he could see spiders crawling upon them.
Many webs covered the surfaces of decorations. Looking carefully, the wall decorations in the old house were clearly very ancient. But those ornaments had long since rotted away, their shapes barely discernible.
"If these decorations hadn't rotted, if they were new, they'd probably be worth a lot." Lin Lei shook his head helplessly, then continued examining other things. With the wooden rod, he brushed away layer after layer of spiderwebs, carefully observing every item.
On the floor, on the wooden shelves, or checking the walls for hidden mechanisms.
"As the books say, building mechanisms into walls is very common." Lin Lei tapped the walls carefully, listening to the sounds.
Lin Lei was thoroughly enjoying this feeling of 'treasure hunting in an old house,' but he forgot that if he could think of searching these old houses for treasure, couldn't his father, or even his grandfather, and the even older ancestors of the Baruch family have thought of it?
The contents of these old houses had long ago been thoroughly searched and claimed by the Baruch ancestors.
Lin Lei was, after all, only eight years old. Although his family's upbringing had made him mature for his age, he still wasn't on par with an adult. His thinking wasn't yet comprehensive.
"This house has nothing. The next one—" Lin Lei stepped out of the first old house and headed toward the second.
There were still many buildings in the rear garden. After all, the front courtyard estate where Lin Lei and the others now lived was only one-third of the entire estate. The area behind was much larger. To search everything would take Lin Lei a whole day.
"Every decoration is about to rot away, and not a single valuable one." Lin Lei emerged from yet another old house.
He looked up at the sky.