42: Chapter 42 He said he wasn't cold

"Auntie, don't talk nonsense, I was acting in legitimate self-defense!"

"He's not dead either, he's just unconscious."

"I've already called the police!"

Zhao Jian hurriedly clarified.

If he let them keep spreading rumors, who knew if he'd end up being labeled a murderer who successfully escaped legal punishment in the court of public opinion.

Seeing that he was fine, the vegetable vendors watched as the police car soon arrived.

They all began to disperse.

As they walked, they discussed among themselves:

"Boss Zhao is really something. Did you see the knife on the ground?"

"Exactly. It's a pity we arrived late; I bet the boss looked incredibly imposing while he was fighting."

"At that time, the boss just went slice-and-dice, one for each of them, and stabbed those three unlucky bastards unconscious just like that."

"Right, our boss must have practiced his knife skills!"

Their voices weren't loud.

But they were just loud enough for Zhao Jian to hear.

He really wanted to say that the knife wasn't his!

But the people had already walked far away.

It was over; his reputation was ruined.

The police took statements and hauled away the three men lying on the ground.

Zhao Jian then returned to his rented room.

In the middle of the night, he suddenly woke up after having fallen asleep while scrolling through short videos.

[Today's Intelligence (Red): East of Shizi Village in Chengnan District, on the eastern edge of the fifth plot of farmland directly south of the garbage recycling station, lies buried gold and silver jewelry hidden by a landlord over a hundred years ago. Total value: 400,000 yuan.]

Zhao Jian watched as the light screen gradually faded.

He wondered to himself if this counted as 'striking the local gentry.'

He couldn't imagine how much treasure worth four hundred thousand would look like.

He couldn't go empty-handed.

Shizi Village wasn't like Wu Village; it had a large population.

Moreover, it had a lot of light industry and was an important shoe-making hub for Xiong City.

Originally, they mostly made knock-offs.

Now, they produced various off-brand labels.

Digging up someone else's field wasn't something he could do openly.

If he started digging without a word, people would stop him, but if he greeted them, he couldn't exactly say there was treasure buried in the ground.

He had a sudden flash of inspiration.

Got it!

He opened his phone to search for geological exploration workwear and chose the nearest clothing store.

He also looked for car rental companies.

He selected a light-duty yellow-painted pickup truck.

By the time everything was ready, it was already dawn.

Ignoring his need for sleep, Zhao Jian followed his plan to buy the clothes and rent the truck.

He didn't know how to drive.

Fortunately, hiring a Designated driver was very convenient.

The one who took the order was a Young man, very energetic.

He was also quite talkative.

"What do you do for a living, boss?"

At this moment, Zhao Jian was wearing a set of workwear identical to those worn by oil workers; he had even prepared a safety helmet.

"What do I look like I do?" He didn't give a direct answer.

The Young man glanced at him again, thinking to himself: You look like a sucker to me.

But out loud, he said, "You look like a leader in the oil industry."

Those words were very pleasing to the ear.

Zhao Jian felt that the Designated driver fee was well worth it.

Not only did he drive, but he also provided emotional value.

He waved his hand dismissively:

"Just a regular team leader. The guy who usually drives has acute gastroenteritis and is hospitalized, and I never got my driver's license."

Upon reaching the destination, Zhao Jian gave him a good rating.

He waited for the Young man to leave on his bicycle.

Seeing that no one was around.

He took out the shovel he had borrowed from his landlord and began his search.

The farmland was rectangular. The edges on both sides were about 5 meters wide.

A five-meter distance wasn't far.

But relying on the shovel in his hand to dig up the buried gold and silver would take quite some time.

Fortunately, technology had changed life nowadays.

Most people only came to the fields during sowing, fertilizing, spraying, watering, or harvesting.

Usually, they were all working in the factories.

No one noticed him.

He could dig holes to his heart's content.

It was just exhausting.

He had only dug less than a tenth of the area and was already drenched in sweat.

According to the current progress.

With good luck, he could get the gold and silver jewelry within two hours and then call a Designated driver to take him back.

With bad luck, he wouldn't finish until dark.

Just as Zhao Jian was leaning against the truck to rest, a Woman carrying a vegetable basket walked over from a distance.

She came close.

The Woman looked at the edge of the field that had been dug into a pit and inquired:

"Whatcha doin' here? Why are ya diggin' up our land?"

Zhao Jian also understood the local dialect.

He knew she was asking why he was digging in the field.

He explained, "Auntie, I'm an oil explorer. According to our measurements, there might be oil under this spot. I need to take some soil from below for testing. Normally we'd use explosives, but I was afraid of damaging the wheat seedlings, so I'm digging it myself."

"Are ya takin' all this dirt away then?"

"No, no, no, just a little bit from the bottom, about the size of a water bottle. Once I've taken it, I'll fill the soil back in."

"Alright then, go ahead and dig."

The Woman glanced at the truck a few times and then left with her vegetable basket.

It looked like she was going to pick wild vegetables.

Zhao Jian wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He made up his mind that he couldn't rest anymore.

Once that Woman went back, she would definitely spread the word about what he was doing.

Never mind that he was a fake; even if a real exploration team dug up someone's farmland, people from the village would come to check and supervise.

It would be hard to handle then!

Under his efforts, the shovel finally struck something that made a different sound.

It was the sound of steel striking ceramic.

Found it!

He didn't rush down to get the things out.

He cleared the loose soil around it.

At the same time, he scanned the surroundings with his peripheral vision.

He made sure the Woman was far away and couldn't possibly notice anything here.

There was no one else nearby.

Into the pit, retrieve the treasure!

It was a ceramic jar. Not large, its height only reaching Zhao Jian's knee.

It was very heavy to lift, probably weighing over a dozen catties.

Zhao Jian was overjoyed.

The system intelligence indicated these things were worth 400,000, so it should mostly be silver jewelry.

It was just a pity that he had cracked the jar; he didn't know if the jar itself was a treasure.

He hauled it onto the truck. Then he took off his jacket and wrapped it up.

These things couldn't be seen by others, otherwise it would be easy to guess their origin.

The mud on the jar was still fresh.

Once everything was settled on the truck, he immediately began filling the soil back in.

The Woman had picked a basket of wild vegetables, and when she returned, she saw that Zhao Jian really was backfilling the hole.

She said with a smile, "This Young man is quite honest. Take a break, look at ya, yer head is covered in sweat."

Zhao Jian quickly said, "It's fine."

How could he dare to rest? Every extra minute he spent here was another minute of risk that his cover would be blown.

He said he was exploring for oil, but who explores for oil with a shovel?

It was just that most people didn't understand the actual exploration process.

He could fool them for a while.

The Woman didn't say much more; it was almost dark, and she was in a hurry to go home and cook.

After a few words of small talk, she left in a hurry.

Zhao Jian worked until evening.

His back was sore and his muscles ached.

He ordered a Designated driver and added a tip.

The destination was his rented room.

The Designated driver was very professional, arriving on his folding bicycle after only half an hour.

By chance, it was the same Young man who had brought him here.

"Leader, your work is quite exhausting. Do you want to put your jacket on? It'll be cold in a bit."

The Young man asked kindly before starting the car.

When people exert physical effort, the heat they generate makes them feel warm. But once they stop, that heat quickly dissipates.

In Xiong City these days, the temperature at night had already dropped to around 7 degrees Celsius.

Zhao Jian was only wearing a T-shirt and could easily catch a cold.

But he couldn't take the jacket back to wear it.

The jar already had a hole in it, and without the jacket wrapping it, the gold and silver inside would be exposed.

The Designated driver's folding bike was also in the truck bed.

Without the jacket covering it, he would discover the jar when he went to retrieve his bike at the end of the trip.

Especially since he was the one who drove him here in the first place.

With a little thought, he would know that the jar was something valuable unearthed from the ground.

"It's fine, I'm not cold!" Zhao Jian sniffled.