Chapter 116 - A Complete Makeover Of A Junk Storage Room
When the sumptuous dinner was served, Yuan Ge was just about to call Rong Qiuchen down for dinner when she heard a call from upstairs, "Childe Yuan, come quickly!" The voice was full of surprise.
"What's wrong?" Yuan Ge said anxiously as he rushed upstairs. When he followed the sound to where the boy was, he found him standing in his mother's room, staring at the mess around him and seemingly at a loss for words.
Yuan Ge hastily explained, "Oh I'm sorry. Please don't judge my actual standards for a tidy living environment based on what you see here. Just to be clear, this is my mother's room and is not at all representative of my taste. Look at the whole house, where is it as messy as this? The only place that doesn't meet my standards is this room of hers. She's been collecting old junk for years, piling them up in her room and calling them 'her precious'. But she doesn't sort through them at all and the room has turned into a junk storage room. If it wasn't for the fact that the room was already full, I would have put the coffin she insisted on bringing back in here as well!"
Rong Qiuchen couldn't help but smile as he looked at Yuan Ge's pained expression at the mention of his mother, "The gift of life from a mother can not be repaid even in three lifetimes. Childe Yuan, you...…"
"I shouldn't say anything bad about her, is that what you meant to say?" Yuan Ge felt wronged yet helpless, "Sure, I agree with you in principle, but every time I open this door and see this room full of junk, I can't help but blame my mother. Yes, blame her! You see, on this floor, apart from the guest bedroom, my parents have their separate rooms. I guess it's because my dad can't stand my mum's messiness, so he prefers to sleep separately."
Qiuchen listened to Yuan Ge's complaints, but he didn't seem to care. His eyes sparkled as he surveyed the old furniture, bottles, jars and various antiques in the room and said excitedly, "Childe Yuan, if you don't mind, would you allow me to rearrange this room?"
Yuan Ge was taken aback and looked at him uncertainly, "Are you sure? If you don't have a penchant for tidying things up and just want to do it for the sake of year-end house cleaning, I suggest you don't take this job at all or suffer at your peril! The mess in my mother's room is the result of over a decade of accumulation that even she couldn't handle herself. If you try, you'll probably end up eating dust for nothing and eventually have to give up."
"Don't worry, Childe Yuan. I am willing to do it!" Qiuchen blinked his big eyes, straightened the paper hat, tightened the apron strings around his waist and was about to throw himself into the job when Yuan Ge pulled him back, "Okay, fine, but let's eat first. After we've eaten, you can rearrange this room at your heart's content."
Having received Yuan Ge's permission, Rong Qiuchen was delighted. He rushed through his dinner, then excitedly grabbed all kinds of tools, followed by the little robot Vivi, and dived into Professor Fu's room to start this gigantic cleaning project.
Yuan Ge smiled and shook his head, thinking to himself that this guy is just too thin-skinned, not wanting to just be an idle house guest, wanting to chip in and be useful. Then let's see what he can do.
After clearing away the dishes, Yuan Ge returned to his own room on the top floor to delve into his next film project. After all, once the New Year holidays were over, King Guan's blockbuster film would start shooting, and he had to face this huge challenge with the same enthusiasm he had for Qingqing.
Before Yuan Ge knew it, it was already after midnight. Feeling a little tired, he left the office, and only then did he realise that Qiuchen had not come out of his mother's room all night. Had something happened? He was worried and hurriedly went downstairs to check, but when he pushed open the door, he was stunned by what he saw.
The dusty old furniture had been wiped clean and placed in appropriate locations; the painted folding screens, bookcases, display shelves and even the curtain rods and tent supports above the carved bedsteads had all been sensibly rearranged; the bronze mirrors, basins, scholar's treasures and various porcelain knickknacks, hundreds in all, had been gathered together in one corner to be taken to the bathroom for a good clean; and the embroidered screens, scrolls and knitted items had been placed together in another corner, perhaps to be moved to the balcony for airing?
Yuan Ge looked in amazement at the new look of the room. Although there was still a lot of details yet to be taken care of, the effect of this rearrangement was already evident, successfully transforming this messy junk storage room of Professor Fu's into an elegant and quaint sitting room. One could easily imagine that once all the items had been cleaned and put back in place, the room would be more beautiful and authentic than a professional movie set in some costume drama.
And most incredibly, at first glance, the interior style of the room actually resembled that of the Rong Mansion. A modern person, even one as talented as Yuan Ge himself, could not have relied solely on trance-like dreams or pure imagination to recreate the true classical feel of a place.