34: Chapter 34 Treasure Hunt in the Old House

After Wang Peng and the others left, Zhao Jian also set off to return to his rental house.

After all, it was already night, and he didn't want to continue staying up late at the Vegetable Market.

Returning to his wooden bed, he fell fast asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

By the time he opened his eyes again, it was already the next morning.

[Today's Intel (Red): All the villagers of Wu Village moved into the city years ago, and the entire village has become a wilderness playground.

Hidden in the foundation of the southeast corner of villager Wang Liang's old house is 200 grams of gold.]

Gold!

Finally, there's money to be made again!

Wu Village is located southeast of Xiong City and was originally a cluster of villages and towns.

Its main industry was fiberglass products.

It caused severe pollution to White Lake.

After the overall relocation later on, the villagers moved into the city, and the village was abandoned.

A village without human presence is quickly taken over by plants and animals.

Nowadays, finding Wang Liang's old house is not easy.

Even if it's not easy, it has to be done.

Two hundred grams of gold can be sold for 180,000 at current market prices!

Adding his 280,000 in savings, he was only a little bit away from the huge sum of 500,000 needed to buy the South City Vegetable Market.

Zhao Jian put on long clothes and jogger pants, and took a sickle used for harvesting wheat from the Landlady's house.

The sickle was heavily rusted and hadn't been used for many years.

But it was better than being empty-handed.

He didn't know how lush the vegetation in Wu Village was now, so taking it along was a precaution.

It's just that he couldn't take the bus.

Logically, a sickle is a farming tool.

It's not within the scope of prohibited items.

But the driver wouldn't listen to his logic.

He hailed a ride-share and spent quite some time talking to the driver, finally convincing the middle-aged man that he was taking the sickle to cut grass for a pet, not to cut off his head.

He arrived at the destination.

It was already close to noon.

The ride-share quickly turned around and drove away, looking as if someone were chasing after it.

Zhao Jian looked at Wu Village.

It had now become a "Tree Village."

There were wrist-thick poplars everywhere, with tangled branches growing wildly.

There were also many weeds and reeds, half-hiding the houses.

But there was a small path that had been trampled out.

Zhao Jian gripped the sickle tightly.

In such a wild and secluded place, humans are a greater threat than wild beasts.

After all, the most ferocious carnivores within the vicinity of Xiong City are stray dogs.

He walked into the village along the small path.

Once inside the village, the road became much easier to walk on; the former concrete pavement was not yet completely destroyed, although there were many leaves and a bit of soil on it.

It was still flatter than other places.

And very little grass grew on it.

Zhao Jian had looked up information about Wu Village on his way there.

It was a remote village and hadn't produced any famous people.

Information was scarce.

Only a small amount of information remained on some ancient forum-style apps.

He was lucky enough to find information about Wang Liang.

It was a picture of a blue brick tile house with three rooms.

It had an adobe courtyard wall.

The person who took the photo had their back to the sun, and the sunlight shone on the wooden door.

It wasn't very bright.

Zhao Jian guessed the photo was taken in the evening.

Therefore, the main gate opened to the west.

With this information, he could eliminate a large number of houses that didn't fit the description.

He walked along the dilapidated concrete road.

He used his peripheral vision to observe the houses on both sides at the same time.

He would only stop to take a closer look when he saw a blue brick tile house.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

Wu Village wasn't large, only about three to five hundred households.

With a drone, one could even capture the entire village in a single photo.

But searching house by house, if his luck was bad, he might not find it even by dark.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a drone.

The gold would wait there; he could come to get it anytime.

But the South City District Wholesale Market wouldn't.

He had to get the gold today!

He continued walking forward, but he didn't see any blue brick tile houses.

Instead, he saw two old men.

One was an old man carrying reeds, and the other was carrying a washbasin with fish jumping inside.

Had he accidentally stumbled into the senior citizens' division of a wilderness survival competition?

"Old man, what are you doing?" Zhao Jian pointed at the reeds and fish in their hands.

The old man with the fish laughed.

He said somewhat sheepishly, "The two of us used a ground cage to catch some fish to make a fish stew."

"Want to have some with us?"

The old man was quite polite and invited Zhao Jian to join them.

He wasn't very interested in eating fish.

But he could ask about where the blue brick houses were.

He followed the two old men to their residence, which was a common two-story self-built building.

There were eight rooms in total.

The two old men lived on the first floor.

According to them, many houses that aren't maintained will leak when it rains and have drafts in the winter.

They aren't habitable.

A two-story building is different.

Leaking water won't affect the first floor.

With many rooms, as long as the windows are sealed well, it's warm enough in the winter.

"Grandpa Fish, isn't it cold in the winter without heating?"

In the room, Zhao Jian only saw an earthen bed made of bricks, two thin quilts, and a wardrobe.

Perhaps they had winter clothes, but it would still be very difficult to endure without heating.

"My surname isn't Yu, it's Li, and that one's surname is Xiao."

Old Man Li, who had come back with the basin of fish, emphasized his surname before shaking his head and sighing:

"Of course it's cold. We had seven old men last year. Three passed away during the first snow of winter. Two were picked up by their children for the New Year. Now only the two of us are left."

Zhao Jian didn't say anything more.

Over an hour later, the fish stew was ready.

Zhao Jian ate the multigrain flatbread stuck to the side of the pot and the crucian carp stew, which was simple in seasoning but tasted good.

He couldn't help but praise, "Old man, your cooking is great; this fish is delicious."

"Eat more, eat more. There are still several catties in the ground cage; I didn't pull them out because I was afraid we couldn't finish them. If you like it, I'll give you some later."

Old Man Li was very talkative.

The three of them ate until evening, and most of the pot of fish stew ended up in Zhao Jian's stomach.

He let out a burp.

He asked Old Man Li, "Old man, let me ask you something."

"Have you ever seen a blue brick tile house with an earthen courtyard wall and a broken wooden door that opens to the west?"

He didn't know how long it would take to find it himself.

The two old men had lived in Wu Village for a year; even if they hadn't seen it, they could help eliminate the places they frequently visited, narrowing down the search area.

"Blue brick, I've seen it! Old Xiao and I passed by it on our way back from setting the ground cages. There is such a house. But the courtyard wall has collapsed."

"The door was also dragged back by us to be chopped into firewood."

Following the direction given by Old Man Li, Zhao Jian finally saw the house before it got completely dark.

The door and windows were gone.

Only gaping holes remained.

Against the backdrop of the gradually darkening sky, it looked like a monster with its mouth wide open.

Ready to devour anyone.

Zhao Jian wasn't afraid; his mind was full of gold.

Covering his nose and mouth, he walked into the house.

Grass had already grown on the floor, and discarded old clothes were mixed with dust and weeds, making the room look even messier than the outside.

He walked toward the southeast corner and used the sickle to loosen the soil.

He started digging with his hands.

While scraping away the soil, Zhao Jian thought to himself:

"I wonder if there are any taboos about digging up gold buried in a foundation, like whether I should light a candle in the corner!"