Chapter 49 Lu Chenzhou walked over, slowly…

Lu Chenzhou walked over and slowly lifted the wooden box. The dull creaking sound was particularly noticeable in the quiet night. The flashlight shone inside the box, the cold white light tearing through the darkness and highlighting the eerie atmosphere of the glassware...

Lu Chenzhou's heart sank.

This is the "treasure" that enemy agents are trying so hard to find.

And this was the only one among many boxes that wasn't locked.

What was inside those lead boxes and wooden crates, securely sealed with brass locks? What darker, more unspeakable evidence was hidden within?

The answer is self-evident.

The evidence here is invaluable.

The flashlight beam trembled slightly, casting Lu Chenzhou's shadow on the rock wall, stretching it into a long, silent silhouette. He turned his head to look at Yu Jiajia, who was squatting on the ground, weeping. Her eyes were red and swollen, brimming with tears, large drops sliding down her cheeks as she cried pitifully.

Because of chasing a wild boar that stole her backpack, she uncovered this place where evidence of the crime was buried.

He walked up to Yu Jiajia, half-squatting in front of her, deliberately tilting the flashlight beam downwards to cast a cold, clear light between them: "Although it's very painful, it's a miracle we found these. If enemy agents had discovered them first, these testimonies of blood and tears might never have seen the light of day."

His voice was gentle, like a spring breeze brushing past Yu Jiajia's ear.

A drop of water fell from the tip of a stalactite and shattered into countless points of light on the stone at Yu Jiajia's feet.

Yu Jiajia suddenly remembered the blurry old photos in the memorial hall. In the black and white images, the eyes of the victims shone with an astonishing brightness, as if they were looking at her across time and space.

She took a deep breath and dug her fingertips deep into her palm.

Yes, this suffering must be seen.

But I still feel sad.

Lu Chenzhou sighed. The young girl didn't even touch the gold and silver jewelry. There were no fingerprints on the dusty gold and silver; she only felt sorrow for history.

Her eyes were red and swollen, suggesting she had cried countless times before he was dragged into this mess.

Such a pure and transparent character is like a diluted treasure, truly rare.

He was more patient than usual, speaking softly: "Your father and mother have also come. They've been in the water all afternoon, hoping to find you. Your mother is a very good swimmer. The soldiers advised her to wait for news on the shore, but she refused. She can stay underwater longer than the best divers."

Yu Jiajia stopped sobbing, looked up, and said, "My mom is amazing! What else?"

Lu Chenzhou sighed, "Your attention is so easily diverted, you're really just a child." He said, "Your brothers and sisters are also looking for you in the water. Your younger brother said you must have gone somewhere, maybe even found treasure. Your mother also thinks you are safe and sound, waiting for everyone to rescue you in some treasure trove. The army has sealed off the entire mountain range."

The whole family is incredibly confident; they all firmly believe that Yu Jiajia will not get into any trouble.

It seemed that if they did that, Yu Jiajia would really be alright.

Yu Jiajia interrupted him: "The mountain is sealed off??? Then the enemy agents will escape, right? We met two people on the mountain who were meeting up. They are probably enemy agents. One is a barefoot doctor from the Dongwu Brigade, and we don't recognize the other one."

Lu Chenzhou was surprised that the Yu family could run into enemy agents. Their luck was truly unbelievable. He said, "The enemy agents in the vicinity are being monitored, and the mountain is under a small-scale lockdown so that outsiders won't know."

Yu Jiajia was relieved. "Go on!"

Lu Chenzhou: "The army also found that cunning wild boar. It was caught not far from here. They put the wild boar back into the water to see if it would come back here. It still dives, but it never disappeared."

Yu Jiajia snorted twice: "No matter how cunning it is, it's useless. It still got caught! When I was swept here, the wild boar was eating the wild ginseng I found! Only a little bit of its whiskers were left! Fifty-year-old ginseng! But I don't feel sorry for the ginseng at all now. If it weren't for the ginseng, I wouldn't be here. So, in a way, that wild boar was a hero!" She pointed to the other side of the river: "As soon as it saw me, it ran away in fear and swam in and disappeared. Luckily it ran away, otherwise I would be afraid of it. What about you? How did you find this place?"

Fifty-year-old wild ginseng?

Wow, that's incredible luck!

Lu Chenzhou chuckled: "I can roughly guess where you disappeared. I've been keeping watch nearby. Actually, if we couldn't find you, the army was preparing to blow up the mountain."

Yu Jiajia's eyes widened: "!!! Won't it collapse here???"

Looking into the girl's beautiful almond-shaped eyes, Lu Chenzhou chuckled, "The geological experts and demolition engineers will do a good job of surveying; this place won't collapse." He took out some dry rations from his person, "Are you hungry? Eat something first, and I'll check the situation here."

He examined the lead-lined filling and wooden boxes one by one, without forcibly opening them. He only estimated the weight of the boxes and recorded it. Some were very light, only about ten pounds, while others were very heavy, weighing over a thousand pounds. He didn't know what was inside.

The gold and silver jewelry remained untouched.

The least important thing here is the piles of gold and silver jewelry.

Yu Jiajia didn't eat anything. She tried to help with tears in her eyes. She didn't want to cry, but she couldn't help it when she thought about what was in the box.

Lu Chenzhou didn't want to hear her crying beside him, so he gave her something to do and gently asked her to sort and count the gold, silver, and jewelry.

Yu Jiajia squatted down to sort through the items, wondering why they weren't packed in boxes but were simply piled up like a small mountain. There were 100 large yellow croakers, 280 small yellow croakers, over 2,000 silver dollars, and many other gold and silver jewelry pieces, including dozens of gold bracelets, as well as pearl necklaces and jade of excellent quality.

After Lu Chenzhou finished recording, he helped Yu Jiajia count the jewelry. They had a rough idea of ​​the quantity. After putting a few sheets of paper into a waterproof bag and putting them in his shirt pocket, Lu Chenzhou said, "I'll try to get out of here. It's best not to stay here overnight."

The temperature difference in the mountains is huge, and it gets very cold at night.

Yu Jiajia stopped him: "Let me try it. What will I do if you go out and leave me here alone! Is your flashlight waterproof? You can use it, I'll go into the water to test it."

She doesn't want to spend the night here alone.

Lu Chenzhou couldn't guarantee he wouldn't leave alone; the undercurrents were very unpredictable. But he couldn't very well send a young girl into the river to find an exit.

Yu Jiajia added, "Are you afraid to be alone too? Don't be afraid. Actually, the water flow here has slowed down, so you probably can't get out. I've tried many times."

Lu Chenzhou: ...

No one ever comforted him or told him not to be afraid; it all sounded rather strange.

In the end, Lu Chenzhou left Yu Jiajia a military-style flashlight so she wouldn't be afraid of the dark. Lu Chenzhou went down to try it out, because the temperature was very low at night, and it would be very cold if her clothes were soaked.

Yu Jiajia shook her head: "It's too dangerous for you to not have a flashlight."

Lu Chenzhou: "Just leave the lights on, I remember the way. If there's an exit, I'll come back for you immediately."

Yu Jiajia squatted on the shore and shone a flashlight on him.

Lu Chenzhou jumped into the water and tried both sides, but there was no exit. The place had become a confined space again.

When he resurfaced, Yu Jiajia knew he hadn't found the exit. She comforted him, "Let's keep an eye on the riverbank. When the river gets turbulent, we'll jump in and swim out! The water is calm now."

Lu Chenzhou went ashore and asked Yu Jiajia to turn off the flashlight. He took off his clothes and wrung them out.

Yu Jiajia was bored sitting alone, so she hugged her knees and sat on a rock, watching the dripping water. "What's your name? Are you a soldier too?"

Lu Chenzhou: "My surname is Lu, which means 'sinking boat' as in 'a thousand sails passing by the sinking boat'. I've been demobilized and am now in Xiangyang Commune."

Yu Jiajia exclaimed in shock: "Wow, are you a cadre from Xiangyang Commune? Xiangyang Commune is amazing! My grandma said that even the pigsties in your commune are three feet wider than other places! You've received the 'Red Flag Commune' banner for three consecutive years. Last year you built a food factory, and this year you built a pig farm. You even pay much less grain tax than other communes! My grandma said everyone wants to be a member of Xiangyang Commune! Can you tell me about Xiangyang Commune?"

A large pigsty means more pigs can be raised, and the members of the commune can get more pork.

When the commune built its factory, it gave priority to recruiting commune members, which meant they had a secure job and became proud workers.

Paying less grain to the state means that the commune members can receive more grain.

These are all in the vital interests of the members.

Xiangyang Commune did well in pig farming last year, and the county awarded it the "Red Flag for Scientific Pig Farming". The county reduced Xiangyang Commune's grain quota by 20%, rewarded it with 100 piglets, and specially approved Xiangyang Commune to open a small pig farm.

In addition, each brigade had five to ten pigs, and Xiangyang Commune had a total of eleven brigades, with approximately 100 pigs.

By this calculation, Xiangyang Commune has raised more than 200 pigs.

The more pigs a commune raises, and the better the pigs they raise, the more pigs they have, the less grain they have to pay in public taxes, the more grain members can keep for themselves, eat more pork, and live a better life. With more money in their hands, they can also send their children to school to learn to read, write, and acquire skills.

This is stable and sustainable development.

The pig farm can be expanded next year to accommodate more piglets. Most importantly, there's a good supply of pig feed; being backed by a food processing plant and cooperating with an oil pressing factory, we have no shortage of oil residue cake.

Communes that didn't raise pigs well would receive fewer pig-raising quotas. Some brigades might only be allocated one pig, which might die before it was ready, requiring them to pay more in grain taxes. Even if the pigs survived, after the quota was paid at the end of the year, there wouldn't be enough left for the commune members to share, and they wouldn't even get to eat much meat during the New Year.

Lu Chenzhou didn't want to talk about pig farming techniques with a young girl, and she wouldn't want to listen anyway. He simply told her some interesting stories, such as how at the end of last year, the brigade that raised pigs well each received two to three catties of pork, enough to make a big fat man. Before the wheat harvest this year, wild boars were ravaging the crops, so the commune organized militia to hunt them, and each family received more than a catty of wild boar meat.

Yu Jiajia asked curiously, "Do wild boars also damage crops?"

Lu Chenzhou hesitated to say, but those were marks deliberately made by the commune members to hunt wild boars in the mountains. He said, "Wild boars like to eat wheat."

"You're really amazing! You'll definitely be a good cadre that all the commune members like!" Yu Jiajia knew all too well the value of pork. It was only recently that her family's life had improved so they could have meat at every meal. Before, they wouldn't even eat pork once a month.

The Yu family's life was considered relatively good even by city standards.

No wonder I heard my grandmother say that girls from the brigade were very willing to marry into Xiangyang Commune.

Lu Chenzhou asked, "Did you go up the mountain to pick medicinal herbs? I accidentally saw the astragalus in your basket."

Yu Jiajia: "Yes! We came to the mountain specifically to pick medicinal herbs! We can sell the dried astragalus at the health station. We also found a large patch of motherwort! Motherwort can also be exchanged for money! Actually, there are many places on the mountain that are very suitable for growing medicinal herbs. Can the Hongcheng Brigade grow medicinal herbs?"

In those days, it was capitalist to grow medicinal herbs individually, but it was permissible for a large production team to grow them together, which was a collective workshop where everyone planted the herbs together and received dividends together – this was permitted by policy.

Those members of the Hongcheng Brigade were living very comfortably.

Lu Chenzhou: "The government encourages the development of rural collective sideline businesses, and we can apply to the county for socialist medicinal herb experimental fields."

As the two chatted, Yu Jiajia felt a bit cold, so she stood up and bounced around to stretch her arms and legs. "It's so cold! When can we go out?"

As soon as she finished speaking, the water splashed up again, and Yu Songchuan and a man in military uniform jumped out of the water.

Yu Songchuan's eyes reddened with emotion as he hugged Yu Jiajia tightly, saying, "Sister, I knew you'd be alright! You'd definitely be alright!"

He was soaked to the bone, and the cold water made Yu Jiajia shiver. She happily hugged Yu Songchuan and said, "Songchuan, I'm fine. I knew you could find me."

She was cold, but her heart was warm; she was deeply moved.

The fact that Yu Songchuan was able to get in means that he was constantly watching over the lake. The lake water must have been freezing cold at night, but he was still soaking in it.

Lu Chenzhou: "Now is not the time to talk. I'll take Jiajia out first. Otherwise, who knows when the next undercurrent might appear."

Yu Songchuan: "Sis, I'll take you out!"

Yu Jiajia: "You're strong, so staying here will definitely be helpful. If I stay here, I'll only be a hindrance. I'll go out with Brother Chenzhou first."

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Author's Note: Here's one chapter for now. I'll update as usual at midnight. [Owl][Owl]