Ji Yuan was lying on a large flat rock looking at the stars in the sky. In his peripheral vision, the small paper crane had already flown away. This little guy had an excellent ability to hide, a smart mind, and a unique spiritual perception. Ji Yuan was not worried about anything.
The stars in my eyes were shining brightly, and then slowly became blurred. This was because clouds appeared and gradually blocked the starry sky. In the second half of the night, fine snow began to fall. It should be the last snow of early spring.
In this environment, Ji Yuan actually felt a little sleepy, so he used the sky as a blanket and the ground as a mat, then fell asleep on his side with his arm as a pillow. The golden armor under the stone maintained a cross-legged posture, his back was straight, and a pair of eyes with a majestic look straight ahead, as if no wind or snow could affect him at all.
On the other hand, the little paper crane of course flew to Nandao County. People are the best objects of observation and the little paper crane’s favorite to observe, especially in places where people gather, there are always interesting things to see.
Nandao County has always been considered one of the few prosperous cities within a radius of several hundred miles. Although this is only relatively speaking, it does look like a city after all.
It was late at night and the ordinary people in Nandao County had already been submerged in water. However, this did not mean that Nandao County had become quiet. On the contrary, no matter where, as long as there were large groups of people, there would always be people active in corners outside the daily routines of ordinary people.
To the south of the county town, near the middle of the southern city wall, there is a relatively large courtyard surrounded by a wall, with several houses and even a special ancestral hall.
Although there were no lights in the house at this moment, in fact, the family members of this household had not slept tonight. They were lying on the bed and had only taken off their coats. Now they all sat up from the bed, put on their coats and went out.
At almost the same time, people from several rooms came out.
The first half of the night was starry, but the sky was cloudy in the second half and it began to snow. The visibility outside was not very good. Several people came to the ancestral hall in the dark, and after everyone came in, the last person quickly and gently closed the door of the ancestral hall.
"Quick, light the lamp."
"Why!"
A young man took out a fire starter he brought with him, blew on it a few times to produce sparks, and then lit a candle on a candlestick in the ancestral hall. Suddenly, the entire hall was illuminated by the candlelight. Because the ancestral hall was closed and had no windows, there was almost no light from outside, and only a little light came through the gaps between the door and tiles.
"Come on, go to the back."
The one who gave the order was a sturdy old man in his sixties or seventies. He led a few people around to the back of the wall of the ancestral hall, then took a shovel nearby, shoveled it into a crack on the ground, inserted it into the crack and pressed down, and a whole piece of hardwood board loosened.
"Come and give me a hand!"
The old man and another middle-aged man squatted down together, grabbed both sides of the hardwood board, and after a few "one, two, three" movements, they moved the heavy hardwood board to one side.
As the hardwood boards were moved away, a large black hole appeared in front of the people. The young man holding the candlestick shone it inside and could see that it was a long and narrow tunnel.
"Dongdong..."
"Hey, those inside, you can come up now!"
The old man took a shovel and knocked twice on the stone of the tunnel wall. The sound spread far into the depths of the tunnel. Not long after, a rustling sound came from below, including the sound of dragging heavy objects and light footsteps.
Under the light of candles in the ancestral hall, the first thing that appeared at the entrance of the cave was a medium-sized wooden box about an arm's width, and a sound was also coming from below.
"Help me, help me, it's very heavy!"
"Quick, ropes and sticks."
The old man on one side quickly gave instructions to the people around him, and the woman next to him immediately handed over the thick hemp rope that had been prepared long ago and tied into two loops of noose, and someone else found a round wooden stick.
The old man sent the noose into the cave. The person below kept reaching into his collar to scratch himself while waiting. When he saw the noose coming down, he quickly put the two ends of the noose on the two ends of the box. The person above had already passed a short wooden stick through the ring on the top of the noose.
"Okay, carry it up."
"Um!"
The old man was old but very strong. He and the middle-aged man squatted down at the entrance of the cave, one in front of the other, and let the short sticks fall on their shoulders.
"One, two, three, up..."
"Kala-la..."
With the sound of the rope being tightened, the old man and the middle-aged man slowly stood up, and the box also moved away from the cave entrance little by little and was slowly lifted to the ground. The person below carefully held the noose to prevent it from slipping, and held the box and walked with the two people above, and sent the box to the ground on the side.
"boom… "
The box fell to the ground with a dull thud, and the two men carrying the load breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's really heavy, I can hardly stand up!" "Yeah, there must be a lot of good stuff!"
"Of course, there are a lot of good things!"
The people at the bottom of the tunnel also climbed up, not one, but four people came up one after another. It was obvious that the other three had been waiting in the narrow tunnel.
When everyone came out, they gathered around the box and carefully opened it under the candlelight held by the young man.
"Wow..." "That's a lot of money..."
"Yeah, I've never seen so many valuable things in my life..."
Displayed before everyone was a box of goodies, including various jewelry and pearls, handfuls of copper coins and silver, some folded gorgeous clothes, and some belts inlaid with jade and agate. In addition, there were some exquisite small objects, mostly made of jade, copper and silver, and even a few exquisite daggers.
"It's really eye-opening, really eye-opening!"
"Hey, don't talk about you guys, it's the same for us. I heard that they just robbed an ordinary wealthy family, and they divided the goods among several groups of people, and they just filled this full box!"
The person who spoke was the man who had put the noose around his head earlier, and he scratched the back of his neck fiercely.
Several people's eyes lit up and they couldn't help but reach out to play with the treasures in the box. The woman on the side even took out a golden hairpin and gestured with it on her head, with a smile on her face that could not be removed.
"I think Old Li will send some more things in the next two days. Be careful to receive them. We have to find some suitable carriages and horses in the city and go to the big city in the north to sell all the things. It would be better to exchange them for cash. We will mint a small part of these Dazhen Tongbao coins ourselves and hide the rest."
"Why?"
The old man asked this, and a man who came out of the tunnel looked at his three companions before answering.
"Uncle Li, from what Old Li said, the war seems to be going against us. In fact, it's not just us. There are also some people secretly transporting things to the back..."
As the man spoke, he reached behind his collar and scratched himself again. The old man next to him looked at him and then at the other three people next to him, and found that two of them were also scratching themselves. One reached inside his clothes from the waist and scratched his stomach, one was scratching his back, and the third was scratching the outside of his thigh. He was not satisfied, so he finally reached inside his cotton pants and scratched directly.
"Are you so itchy?"
The three people who were scratching themselves paused, and the leader's smile also faded.
"I've been itching a lot lately, and it's not just me, everyone feels the same, like they're always bitten by fleas."
When the old man heard the man say this, and saw that he couldn't scratch the itch with his back of his hand, he took a step closer.
"Come on, let me scratch it for you."
As he spoke, he opened his shirt and reached his hand into the back. When he reached the center of the spine, he felt a dense cluster of small bumps.
"Is this it?"
"Yes, yes, that's it, scratching, ah, yes, hiss... comfortable..."
The old man grabbed for a while before pulling his hand out. As a result, he smelled a foul odor on his hand, especially his nails.
"Oh, it stinks. You guys should clean yourself up. Now that you're back, there's no need to rush back. When it's light, I'll ask A-Yu and the others to boil some hot water so you can take a good bath. The camp should be fine, right?"
"It's okay, it's okay. We have all kinds of people in this army, and the management is not strict. After we withdraw and rest, it will be even better. Old Li will cover us during the roll call. By the way, Uncle Li, please prepare some good wine and food!"
The old man smiled and patted the man on the shoulder.
"Needless to say? Er Shunzi should be fine, right?"
"What can happen to Old Li? I just want you to make some preparations. You've made money anyway."
"Hahaha, of course. And you, boy, it's time to marry Yu, right?"
“Hey, hey…” “Hey hey hey…”
"Oh my daddy~~"
The men nearby all laughed wickedly. The old man glanced at the other three men coming out of the tunnel and laughed too.
"I've also helped you guys find it. Now that you have money, you don't have to worry anymore. Come on, finish this first and then go to the kitchen. There's still wine and meat warming up!"
At this moment, a little paper crane had crawled in from the beam of the ancestral hall at some point and had been squatting there, staring at the area below. Originally, he was quite curious about what this family was doing sneaking into the ancestral hall and thought it was quite interesting, but after those four people came up, the little paper crane's attention was mainly focused on them.
The group of people below first put the box back to the entrance of the tunnel, sealed the tunnel together, blew out the candles, and then left the ancestral hall one after another.
Before closing the door, the little paper crane flew out with a whoosh, passing by the old man's hand like a breeze. It flapped its little wings gently, and a thin black line was blown out.
Seeing the thin line shooting into the darkness in the corner, the little paper crane immediately chased after it like a bird that had discovered a small insect. After fluttering around in the corner for a long time, it pounced under a blade of grass like lightning, and pressed its two paper wings forward together, just like a cat that had caught a little mouse.
There was an object the size of eye booger twisting constantly under the tips of the crane's wings. Although the crane's wings were made of paper and there was soft soil underneath, the black shadow could not break free in the flashes of faint white light.