Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

In the Victorian era, rooms and kitchens used by servants in aristocratic manors were often designed in semi-basements, because it was easier to obtain water in such places when there was no running water and water had to be drawn from various wells.

But as times changed, such dark, damp rooms were either converted into other functions or abandoned.

The semi-basement in this manor must have been abandoned for a long time. When Liang En walked through the corridor, he could see a series of clear footprints on the ground.

After opening the kitchen door. Through the sunlight projected from the glass window above the room, Liang En could clearly see the specific situation inside the room.

It may be because the room has been sealed for a long time, so although there is dust inside, it is not very thick.

A large number of things that had been stored for who knows how many years were piled up in various places in the kitchen. Some of them were placed in cabinets, while more things were thrown everywhere.

"This is so unkind." Liang En cursed subconsciously after standing at the door and turning on the flashlight to look around the entire kitchen.

Because he saw more than a dozen very fresh-looking footprints on the kitchen floor, and the tables and cabinets also showed signs of being opened.

Obviously, the tycoon who hired them today had already roughly inspected these houses before. Naturally, if anything valuable was found during this process, it would be impossible to keep them.

What's even more disgusting is that this Russian tycoon did everything perfectly. Although the labor fee of 600 pounds a day is a bit low compared to the current situation, it is still within a reasonable range.

But for people like Liang En and Pierce, who came from London, they actually didn't make much money at all if they took out the accommodation and gas expenses.

From a certain point of view, this behavior is as unethical as a merchant who disassembles all the blind boxes before selling them, picks out the valuable figures inside, and then seals the other boxes before selling them.

But the problem is that some tacit understandings are just unspoken rules. If the other party is rich and powerful and does not join this industry, they will indeed have the capital to do whatever they want.

For example, Liang En's antique shop in his previous life had rules such as "No counterfeiting in the antique market." "Pay the money in one hand, deliver the goods in the other hand. Once the purchase is made, there will be no returns or exchanges."

But he also heard that a certain important person bought an antique at a large price for a gift, but he lost face when it was directly recognized as a fake at his birthday party.

After returning home, he directly went to court to sue the seller, and the well-known boss in the antique industry in that city was sentenced to nearly ten years for fraud for defrauding a huge amount of money.

So after complaining for a few times, Liang En, knowing that he could not change the status quo, could only accept this reality.

After a general inspection of the room, he returned to the back seat of the van and took out some pulleys and ropes to make a simple lifting tool. Then Pierce and two people moved the heavy objects out from the windows in the semi-basement.

After all, whether it is the servant's room or the kitchen used by the servants, there are many heavy things in it, such as tables, cabinets, beds, cast iron stoves, etc., which need to be cleared out.

If you just rely on the narrow stairs outside the basement, you will definitely not be able to clean these four rooms in three days, so using tools is a must.

On the way to pick up the tools, they also met several other junk dealers who also came from other places to clean the room. From their expressions, it can be seen that the Russian tycoon is really good at what he does. He should have checked all the rooms in advance.

After the lifting tools are ready, cleaning begins. Naturally, the three servants' rooms on Pierce's side were cleaned first, because those three houses were simple in structure and small in area, making them easier to clean.

The only things left in the maid's room were beds, cabinets or chairs.

Although these things seem to be seventy or eighty years old, both the materials and the condition of preservation are very average, and they are not very valuable.

So the two people simply used axes and saws to dismantle the obviously damaged furniture into wooden boards or strips on the spot, and then tied them into bundles and sent them to the ground.

Compared with discarding the entire piece of furniture, these disassembled wooden furniture not only occupy less space, but can also be given directly to churches or charities for free as firewood, saving a fortune in garbage disposal fees.

When taking apart the furniture, some small surprises were discovered one after another. For example, coins or small gadgets such as hairpins fell into the gaps in the furniture.

Although these items are relatively common varieties, the prices are not high. But it is one of the more popular varieties on the market and can be easily cashed out.

Considering the cost of crossing half of the UK to come here, they naturally hope to find enough to make up for their losses after being ripped off by the Russian tycoon.

It only took two people one day and one morning to clean up the three servant rooms.

They cleared out a total of nearly 30 antique coins, two brass horse lanterns, a gold-plated silver brooch and several pieces of furniture that seemed to be in relatively good condition.

"If I'm lucky, what I find can be sold for more than 200 pounds," said Pierce, who was walking towards the kitchen carrying various tools. "Now it depends on how the situation is over there."

According to the prior agreement between the two, Liang En and Pierce would cooperate with each other to clean those rooms during this operation. Harvests come from their assigned rooms.

In other words, anything found in the kitchen belonged to Liang En himself, just like everything found in the servant's room belonged to Pierce.

"Those guys cleaned up too clean."

After entering the kitchen, Pierce walked to the cabinet closest to him and opened the cabinet door. As a result, he clearly saw round or square marks left on the layer of dust on the partitions in these cabinets.

Obviously, these cabinets used to contain a lot of things, but now they are gone.

"No, it's not that clean." Liang En opened another cabinet and saw a pile of pottery bowls and several pottery plates still placed there.

"But they took away almost everything that looked valuable, and to us it was no different than emptying out an entire room."

Pierce shook his head, and then he and Liang En cleaned up the room. Compared with the servants' rooms, the kitchen has more and more complicated things. Unfortunately, most of it is just clutter.

Fortunately, the business Liang En and the others are doing now is a mid- to low-end business, so they also need things like oil lamps, oil lampshades, horse lanterns, and candlesticks. But the cleaning and renovation work may be busy for a while.

They worked overtime until noon the next day before the two of them emptied everything in the kitchen.

What's interesting is that compared with the things that could be carried in one suitcase the first day, Liang En and the others cleared out the things in the kitchen and piled them up about half a person high, just in the center of the kitchen.

"Now is the perfect time to try my card." Looking at the clean kitchen, Liang En suddenly thought of something.

"It's just a good time to check if there are any missing treasures in this room, and by the way, see which of the things found is the most valuable."

Will update twice a day starting tomorrow, regularly