In the Victorian Era, rooms and kitchens for servants in noble estates were often designed in semi-basements because they were easier to access water sources in a time when tap water was unavailable and various wells had to be used for water supply.
However, with the changes in time, these dark, damp rooms were either remodeled for other purposes or abandoned.
The semi-basement in this manor must have been abandoned for a long time. When Leonard walked past the corridor, he could clearly see a string of footprints on the ground.
After opening the kitchen door, with the help of sunlight projected through the glass windows above the room, Leonard could see the specifics inside the room.
Perhaps because the room was sealed for a long time, there was dust inside, but it was not too thick.
A large number of things that had been stored for who knew how many years were placed in various locations in this kitchen. Some were placed in cabinets, while many others were scattered all over the place.
"This is simply too unconscionable," Leonard muttered unconsciously after scanning the entire kitchen with a flashlight while standing at the door.
He saw that there were a dozen or so fresh footprints on the kitchen floor, and the tables and cabinets also had traces of being opened.
Obviously, the tycoon who hired them today had already checked these houses roughly beforehand, and naturally, if any valuable items were found during this process, they would not be left behind.
What made matters worse was the Russian Tycoon's thoroughness. A labor fee of 600 pounds per day is considered reasonable for the current situation, albeit somewhat low.
However, for people like Leonard and Pierce who rushed from London, they could hardly earn much after deducting accommodation and fuel expenses.
In a way, this behavior was as unscrupulous as merchants who unboxed all the blind boxes before selling them, picked out the valuable figures, and then resealed the remaining boxes for sale.
But the problem was that certain unspoken rules were merely unwritten rules. If the other party was wealthy and powerful and did not deal in this line of business, then they indeed had the capital to do whatever they wanted.
For example, Leonard's antique store in his previous life had rules such as "antique markets do not expose fakes." "Pay and deliver, once a deal is made, no refunds or exchanges."
However, he also heard of a high-ranking official who bought an antique at a high price for a gift. However, it was recognized as a fake on the recipient's birthday banquet, causing the buyer to lose face.
Afterward, the buyer directly went to court to sue the seller, resulting in a famous antique store owner in that city being sentenced to nearly ten years for the crime of fraud and a huge amount of defrauded money.
So after grumbling a few words, Leonard, who knew he couldn't change the situation, had no choice but to accept this reality.
After roughly inspecting the room, he went back to the rear seat of the van and took out some pulleys and ropes to make a simple lifting device. He then worked with Pierce to move the heavy objects out through the windows of the semi-basement.
After all, there were quite a few heavy items in both the servant's rooms and kitchens, such as tables, cabinets, beds, and cast iron stoves that needed to be cleaned out.
If they were to rely solely on the narrow staircase outside the basement, they would not be able to clean out the four rooms within three days. Therefore, using tools was a necessity.
On the way to fetch the tools, they met several other antique dealers who had also rushed in from other places to clean the rooms. From their expressions, it was evident that the Russian Tycoon was ruthless, as he probably had checked all the rooms beforehand.
Once the lifting tools were ready, the cleaning process began. Naturally, they started with the three servant's rooms on Pierce's side, as they were simpler in structure and smaller in size, making cleaning more convenient.
The items left in the servant's rooms were mostly beds, cabinets, or chairs.
Although these things seemed to have a history of seventy to eighty years, both the materials and the preservation were quite ordinary and not very valuable.
So the two simply used an axe and saw to dismantle the obviously damaged furniture on the spot, turning them into wooden boards or strips. These were then bundled up and sent to the surface.
Compared to disposing of the whole piece of furniture, the dismantled wooden furniture not only took up less space but could be directly donated to a church or charity organization for firewood, saving on waste disposal costs.
As the furniture was taken apart, small surprises were gradually discovered, such as coins or hairpins that had fallen into the gaps between the pieces.
Although these items were quite common and not very expensive, they were popular in the market and easy to cash in.
Considering the cost of traveling halfway across the United Kingdom for this venture, they naturally hoped to find enough things to make up for their losses after being swindled by the Russian tycoon.
With just one daytime and one morning spent, the two had cleaned up the three servants' rooms.
They cleared a total of nearly 30 antique coins, two brass horse lamps, a gold-plated silver brooch, and several pieces of furniture that looked reasonably well-preserved.
"If we're lucky, the stuff I found could sell for about two hundred pounds," said Pierce, carrying various tools toward the kitchen. "Now it's up to you."
As per their prior agreement, Leonard and Pierce would cooperate to clean the rooms during this operation, with each person's gains coming from their assigned room.
In other words, any gains from the kitchen belonged to Leonard, just as everything found in the servants' rooms belonged to Pierce.
"They cleaned it up too well."
Upon entering the kitchen, Pierce took a step toward the nearest cabinet and opened the door, only to clearly see the traces of various round or square objects left on the layer of dust covering the cabinet shelves.
Obviously, these cabinets had contained many things, but now they were gone.
"Not quite, it hasn't been cleaned that thoroughly," Leonard said, opening another cabinet and finding a stack of ceramic bowls and a few ceramic plates still neatly stored inside.
"But they took away almost everything that looked valuable, which for us is no different than if they had emptied the whole room,"
Pierce shook his head before he and Leonard began cleaning the room. Compared to the servants' rooms, the kitchen had more and a greater variety of items. Unfortunately, most of them were just clutter.
Fortunately, their current business dealt with mid to low-end antiques, so items like oil lamps, oil lamp hoods, horse lamps, and candlesticks were also of interest to them. However, the upcoming cleaning and refurbishing work would probably keep them busy for a while.
They worked overtime until the next day at noon, finally clearing the kitchen of all its contents.
Interestingly, compared to the items that could be taken away in a single suitcase the day before, the pile of things they cleared from the kitchen was about half a person's height and was stacked in the center of the kitchen.
"Now is a good time to test my card," said Leonard, recalling something as he looked at the cleaned-up kitchen.
"We can check if there are any treasures we missed in this room and see which of the items we found is the most valuable."