"Looking for it, of course we have to look for it, don't forget what we came out to do."
He turned his head and looked around, took a deep breath and said, "God knows this, the earth knows it, we know it, Yuanbao, do you understand what I mean?"
Yuan Bao nodded immediately, raised one hand and said: "I understand, don't worry, I will never tell anyone! I swear in the name of Xiaoxia and the child! Not even to my grandfather!"
Yuan Bao now cares very much about his new wife, and these words can be said to be a poisonous oath.
Nodding his head with satisfaction, he glanced at the bottom of the pit and ordered: "We must finish the work today and fill in the soil. Get your things quickly and go. You continue, I will go and see her."
I wanted to go, but my head was more careful than my heart, so he went to talk to Xiaoxuan.
The next time I went to the bottom of the Thief Cave, the situation was completely different.
Dou Sprout covered his mouth with his clothes and muttered: "Fengzi! This is too disgusting. I will never eat tofu in the morning again. Zhao Xuanxuan is too cruel."
I slapped Dou Sprout Zai on the head!
"Don't fucking talk nonsense! What does it have to do with Xiaoxuan!"
"It has nothing to do with us! This man fell to his death when he was herding cattle! Do you know?"
Dou Sprout nodded repeatedly: "I know, I know, it has nothing to do with us. This man fell to death by himself."
"Hey, no, where's that cow? I didn't see it."
I was stunned.
Really, I was scared by Xiaoxuan just now. I only paid attention to people and didn't notice the old scalper with the bell around his neck at all.
Brother Yu shook his head and said: "Don't worry about it. I guess he ran away while the cow was in trouble. The cow can't talk. It's okay. Let's listen to the leader's instructions and work quickly."
"Well, Brother Yu, you are right."
Starting at about 10:30 in the morning, we put the mud in the women's coffins into buckets, lifted them up, and then went to the river to wash them with river water.
I didn't touch the man. While I was working, I took off my clothes and covered the man's head that was flattened by a stone because I didn't dare to look any further.
This is still the hot season, but it only lasts a few hours, and I don’t know where it came from.
Perhaps he was attracted by the tofu brain, but a fly appeared on this man's head, a blowfly.
The sun gradually sets, and as time goes by, more and more flies are attracted by the "tofu brain" in this place.
I was filling the bucket with soil when I was distracted by the buzzing sound of these blowflies, so I walked closer and waved away them.
"Huh?"
"Brother Yu, come quickly and take a look."
This man was lying on his back with his head covered by clothes. When I was swatting away flies, I suddenly saw that this man had a rectangular iron sign around his neck.
I wear less clothes in summer, so I can see clearly.
I held it in my hand, picked it up and looked at it carefully.
It's not an iron brand, it's brass. Because it's been worn for a long time, the coating has turned black and looks like an iron brand.
And it's not new, it's definitely an old thing. The brass plate has holes punched in it and is hung around the man's neck with a hemp rope. There are two words written crookedly on it.
Due to long-term wear and tear, the protruding writing on the bronze medal has almost been worn away.
"water...."
"Water officer?"
These two characters are "Shui Guan'er".
"What kind of fish brother is this? What is Shui Guan'er?"
Brother Yu shook his head, indicating that he was unclear.
I raised my head again and asked Yuanbao who was lifting soil from the pit. Yuanbao frowned, thought for a while, and said, "Shui Guan'er? I seem to have heard of it somewhere before, or maybe I haven't heard of it before. I forgot about it. I don't know."
I don't know, so I don't worry about it.
This man died. I don’t know his name, so he left behind a bamboo basket on his back. The bamboo basket contained some grass with green leaves and purple flowers.
Yuanbao took a look and said: "This is the wild Salvia miltiorrhiza grass on Mang Mountain. Just like Bupleurum, if you dig it back, smash it and dry it, someone will come to collect it. It costs several pieces per pound. In the end, the drug dealers sold it to factories to make compound Salvia miltiorrhiza tablets."
.”
I threw down the bamboo basket and planned to bury it together later.
The sun has completely set and it is getting dark.
It was troublesome to wash bucket after bucket, but this method worked, and we gradually found gold beads mixed in the mud.
Finally, they were put together and counted, no more, no less, exactly as the head said, there were 16 pure gold beads in total.
Five or six of them are engraved. If they are strung together with threads, it will be a complete set of pure gold chiseled flower barrel-shaped bead chains worn by ladies during the Xinmang period.
In the evening we counted the harvest, and at about 9 o'clock, we backfilled the robbery hole and buried the man at the bottom.
Tread the soil firmly, and it won't take long before the place will be covered with grass. No one will know there are three coffins and a person underneath.
While eating, he raised his head and asked, "Are you all tired?"
Not only am I tired, I don't want to move now, my whole body aches, and my head hurts terribly because I didn't sleep.
"We have been working for two days and one night in a row. I know everyone is tired. The current situation is not optimistic. Let's take a short rest and wait until 12:15 before setting off to go back."
I nodded and said to listen to your lead.
After eating briefly, Xiaoxuan came over.
She asked me in a low voice: "Yunfeng, can you stay with me."
I said yes.
After getting into the tent, Xiaoxuan hugged me directly without saying anything.
I patted her back gently and whispered: "It's okay, Xuan, nothing happened. You can sleep for a while."
"Um...."
Xiaoxuan was in my arms, frowning and falling asleep. She looked tired.
It was past 11 o'clock, and it was dark and quiet outside the camp.
I was in a daze when Xiaoxuan suddenly woke up, gasping and shouting: "Ghost! There is a ghost! Yunfeng! I'm afraid! There is a ghost outside the tent! That person climbed up!"
I opened the zipper and took a look. The burglar hole not far away had long been filled in, and there was nothing there.
"Don't be afraid..." I hugged her tightly and comforted her softly: "You are too tired and had a nightmare. It will be better tomorrow."
At a quarter past twelve, we set off on time, carrying large and small bags full of things, and embarked on the return journey.
When I returned to the village, it was almost dawn, I took out my key and pushed the door in. I was shocked!
There was a dark figure sitting on the bench in the courtyard, motionless.
If you look carefully, it's Mr. Li.
"Grandpa...Grandpa..."
When Yuan Bao saw the old man, he felt guilty and did not dare to step forward.
Mr. Li stood up and took a few steps forward. He pulled Yuan Bao over with a black face, slapped Yuan Bao on the face with a big ear-scratcher!
"Didn't you say you went to the city hospital to get Xiaoxia's examination report? Did you go to the city? Where did the dirt on your pants come from?"
Yuan Bao lowered his head and did not dare to say a word.
"explain!"
Mr. Li's face was ashen and he scolded sternly.
I wanted to say a few nice words to Yuan Bao, but he kicked me hard on the head, meaning to tell me to leave him alone.
"You...you made me so angry!"
"You bastard! I've been telling you for fucking years! Tell you not to do this! Don't do this! Do you want to be like your father! Huh?"
"I am not short of money, my dear!"
"Your father, I am 74 this year! How many more years do I have to live?"
"If you die in the pit! If you go in! Who will raise your children? Who will take care of your wife!"
Mr. Li looked excited and yelled angrily.
Yuan Bao said with red eyes: "I know I was wrong, grandpa, don't be angry."
At this time, the head spoke.
"Brother Li, I am also at fault for this matter. The children are still young and do not understand some things. Unlike the two of us, who are 150 years old together, let's go and talk in the house."
We young people are the only ones left in the small courtyard.
Seeing his grandfather enter the house, Yuan Bao stopped crying immediately.
He held his booger in his right hand and said with a smile: "I, Cao, have been fooled."
Lighting a cigarette, Yuan Bao puffed out a smoke ring and asked me with a smile: "Brother, how much do you estimate the sales of these goods this time will be?"
I thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to say. It mainly depends on the strength of the boss who receives the goods. However, I guess if we just find a rich woman to sell the string of new gold necklaces, we can split it into a hundred or ten thousand each."
.”
"Ha ha!"
Yuan Bao laughed loudly, but when he heard his grandfather's voice in the room, he stopped laughing immediately.
He hugged me and whispered: "Brother, I will give you a card number when the time comes, and you can pay me the money. Don't let my father know about this."
"Is it so mysterious?" I asked speechlessly.
"Hey, you don't know," Yuan Bao warned me with a mature look even though he was only 18 this year: "Brother, you will know when you get married. We men cannot live without a small treasury."
After talking to Mr. Li for about an hour, I could see after coming out that Mr. Li's anger had obviously subsided a lot, and at least his face was not that ugly.
"You haven't had breakfast yet, Master Li? Why don't you eat here later," I offered the old man a cigarette.
"No, I have other things to do during the day, so you can eat."
I flicked the ash from my cigarette and asked casually with a smile: "Master Li, you are well-informed, do you know what "Shui Guan'er" means?"
He took my cigarette without lighting it, and immediately frowned.
"Shui Guan'er? You're talking about Huo Guan'er, right? Why, have you seen them?"
"Them? What do you mean Master Li."
He frowned and said: "This is a small group of people living in Ma Village. They moved to Luoyang during the Great Famine in 1942. I heard from an old friend of mine that this group of people make a living by collecting herbs. Their ancestors
, was the chieftain of Dali Kingdom in Yunnan during the Ming Dynasty."
"Boy, if you ask around, don't mess with these descendants of the chieftain."
"What? Did you provoke them?"
Holding the cigarette in his hand, he was stunned for a few seconds.
I quickly shook my head and said, "No, not at all."