(A female protagonist who is outwardly cold but rich in inner world, a plain slice-of-life story, purely fictional with no research value, writing is hard, please be lenient, dear readers.)
C...
"By the way, Ershuang and his brother haven't been here for a while, right? When Ershuang comes, I will ask him to cook eight dishes for me, no, ten dishes." Thinking of Ershuang's cooking skills, Cen Zixiang couldn't help drooling.
It’s not that Ershuang’s cooking skills are much better than Shuanzhu’s. The meals cooked by both of them are equally delicious. Shuanzhu’s disadvantage is that he has no proper chef to guide him, and he doesn’t know as many dishes as Ershuang.
"They'll be here after the autumn harvest. They agreed to save up a few more days off this time so they can go up the mountain together to harvest produce."
After taking those two people to the mountain once four years ago, they would always come to the mountain for a walk once or twice a year during their holidays, especially last year when the villagers happened to be leaving the mountains.
That guy, the two of them were like mice that fell into a rice jar, their eyes were almost red, and they insisted on coming back next year. They had already made an appointment with her that she must wait for them.
"Still joining the villagers this year? I think we should just go straight to Xishan."
"Okay, we'll take Ershuang with us this year so it won't be easy for them to follow the villagers." After all, Ershuang and Dashuang are not from the village, and if they go up the mountain to get mountain products, they will be suspected of taking advantage of the villagers.
"How's the matter of Ershuang becoming a regular player?" Cen Zixiang was quite worried.
"I don't know. The last time I came here, I was told I'd be able to become a regular employee soon. But I didn't come back after that."
"When I get back this time, I'm going to the county town. My family is missing a lot of things, and the autumn harvest is coming soon, so I have to buy some food first."
"I'll go with you then. I have something to do in the county town." It was a good opportunity to go to the county town to call home and ask about Ye Zi's work.
"Okay, let's go on a tricycle." The tricycle made by Chen Ye is very durable, and they all like to ride it when they go out.
After eating, Chen Ye felt sleepy instead: "Let's take a break before looking for it?"
Seeing that Chen Ye's eyes were dull, Cen Zixiang immediately nodded and agreed: "Okay, you rest, Feizi and I will take turns on duty."
In this unfamiliar environment, it is hard to say whether there are any hidden dangers. No one would really be so careless as to ignore everything and fall asleep.
There was no sunlight in the cave. When Chen Ye opened his eyes, the only light he saw was from the fire between the three people. "You two should take a break. I'll take over the rest of the shift."
Gao Fei glanced at his watch and said, "No, we're taking turns to rest tonight. Are you awake? Do you want to eat something before leaving?"
Chen Ye touched her stomach and found that she was really hungry again. Could it be that she had slept for a long time?
"What time is it now?" Without the sun in the sky to tell time, Chen Ye lost the ability to tell time by looking at the sun.
"A little after four in the morning."
"Have I slept for so long?" If she remembered correctly, she asked this question when she closed her eyes to sleep last night. It seemed to be just after eight o'clock at that time.
Cen Zixiang didn't notice anything: "I'm tired, so let's hurry up and go back early so we can have a good rest when we get home."
After eating something, the three of them headed towards the middle road. Gao Fei led the way, Cen Zixiang was the rear guard, and Chen Ye was sandwiched in the middle. They put up their flashlights to deal with any sudden situations, and now they were moving forward with torches in their hands.
They could clearly feel that they were going downhill. By calculating the slope and distance of the road, and by the time they reached the final location, Chen Ye could roughly infer where the treasure was specifically in the West Mountain.
The further you walk, the lower the temperature in the cave becomes. But the strange thing is that there is no sunlight here, so it is not humid at all, but extremely dry. This is also the reason why we hardly saw any plants on the road along the way.
They set out at less than five in the morning and walked until two in the afternoon before they realized that the unchanging road had changed. This change startled the three of them, because they had reached the end and a stone wall was facing them.
If there weren't some patterns on the stone wall that shouldn't be there, the three of them would have turned around and walked back, thinking they had reached a dead end.
Three people each held a torch and began to study the stone wall at the end. It was obvious that it was man-made, and the problem was how to open it.
After searching for a long time, the three of them met and said, "I didn't find anything. The stone carvings above don't seem to have any meaning."
Chen Ye also shook his head: "I didn't find any so-called mechanism or anything, and I didn't see anything special about the stone carvings. What about you, Brother Cen?"
Cen Zixiang also shook his head: "No, there is only a dent, but it is very small. No matter how I study it, it doesn't look like a switch of a mechanism." He had just been digging at the stone wall for a long time but it didn't move at all.
"Speaking of which, could this really not be the door to a secret chamber or something? Or is it just a carving done for fun by someone who's been here?"
Chen Ye's eyes lit up when she heard this. How could she forget that this jade pendant was a key? She mentioned it yesterday and forgot about it today. When did her memory become so bad?
Before Chen Ye suggested that Cen Zixiang take her to see that place, Gao Fei spoke first.
"I heard something, but it happened many years ago. I don't know if it's true or not, I almost forgot it. If Ye Zi hadn't mentioned it yesterday, I wouldn't have remembered it."
Cen Zixiang looked at Gao Fei and said, "If you have something to say, just say it directly. I don't know what you are trying to say if you are beating around the bush like this."
Chen Ye's heart moved. Why did he feel that it was related to these treasures?
Gao Fei's next words proved Chen Ye's guess: "That was when we were about ten years old. I think we were playing hide-and-seek that day. I was hiding behind the rockery next to the grove in our yard."
"Damn, you're so cunning. Almost no one goes to that place. No wonder I can never catch you when we play hide-and-seek. Why don't you take me with you?" He was just saying that this guy was more cunning than him.
Gao Fei glared at Cen Zixiang: "Don't interrupt."
"I always hide there and no one can find me. The weather was good and I fell asleep in a daze. Later I was woken up by the sound of two people talking." Fortunately, he is not a startled person, otherwise those two people would definitely find him.
Now that I think about it, if he had been discovered by those two people at that time, he would have been silenced by them!
"The two people were talking quietly, but I was hiding in the rockery and could hear their conversation clearly."
"They said the jade pendant is missing, so there's no way to find the treasure. We've been tracking down the jade pendant based on the clues."
"Another person said, if we don't know the approximate location, we should send more people to look for it. We don't believe we can't find the place."
"That person shook his head and said that the jade pendant was the key to the treasure. Without the jade pendant, there was no way to open the treasure door. He also said that people had been sent out and that if they followed the clues, they should be able to find the jade pendant soon."
"Another person asked if the news was true or not. Don't waste manpower only to find it's false in the end."