Chapter 94: Cellar or Tunnel?

Yike gave all the corn seeds she bought last time to Ma Youcai and the other three. In Yike's words, corn seeds made it easier for Ma Youcai and the other three to trade on the black market. Ma Youcai and Wang Feng and the other three were so moved that they said that Yike would be their real sister from now on. They no longer called Yike "sister-in-law" but called her sister instead. Liu Bing also said that if Ziyi dared to bully Yike, they brothers would never agree.

After a busy day, Yike thought he could escape danger when he went to bed at night. However, Ziyi spanked him again and told him to remember not to take risks again.

After breakfast, Hu Haohan, Li Youcai and Chen Dawang all went to reclaim wasteland for Yike. They wanted to exchange their labor for sweet potato seedlings. Chen Shengli wanted to go out of the mountain to buy corn seeds, but unfortunately no one paid attention to him. His son Chen Dawang just asked, "Do you have money?" and then he shut up.

Today we are helping Ma Youcai to reclaim a few acres of land, so all the people who wanted to exchange sweet potato seedlings went to Ma Youcai's wasteland. With strength in numbers, Ma Youcai's wasteland was reclaimed in just one day. After Wang Feng, Dong Guoqing and Liu Bing's wasteland were reclaimed, they would plant corn together.

…

It has been half a month since Ziyi came back, but Li Haoran has not come back yet. Ma Youcai, Wang Feng, Liu Bing and Dong Guoqing's land reclamation work has temporarily come to an end, and they want to take the cattle back to the production team. Ziyi also wanted to take the bull out to sell. Yike used sweet words, acted coquettishly and even verbally signed an unequal treaty before she got permission to go out with him.

So on the way out of the mountain, six people and six cows marched in the woods in a mighty procession, with some mountain dry goods and animal furs on the cows' backs.

This time when we go out into the mountains, we must prepare to buy some materials for making ice, so that we can freeze the animals we hunt and sell them at any time. In the past, hunted animals could only be sold in spring and winter, but if we have ice, we can hunt and sell them all year round. With Ziyi and Li Haoran's skills, they would never go hunting empty-handed. At present, what Yi Ke wants most is to make money, make a lot of money, so that when the new era comes, he will have money to buy houses, land, etc.

Ziyi, Yike and Ma Youcai split up outside the mountain. Ziyi and Yike were going to their new home, Beishan Village.

Beishan Village belongs to the second brigade of Shanfeng Commune. Almost everyone in the village has the surname Wang, and only a small number have the surname Li. There are also two families who migrated here like Ziyi's family, both with the surname He, and are said to be relatives.

Ziyi and Yike came down the hillside and came to a tile-roofed house at the foot of the mountain. However, Yike looked at the yellow mud and thatched houses in the distant village and then at this tile-roofed house. It seemed out of place no matter how you looked at it. No wonder it was built at the foot of the mountain, far away from the village. Hatred of the rich exists in every era.

In fact, Li Haoran and Ziyi were not afraid that the villagers would suffer from conjunctivitis at all. They simply wanted to stay away from the villagers so that they would not be easily discovered when they took goods out of the mountains in the future.

Ziyi said that this is a wall made of blue bricks, but a layer of yellow mud is smeared on the outside of the blue bricks, so it doesn't look very conspicuous from the outside. But Yi Ke still felt that it was conspicuous, because the number of families in the village who had tiled their houses could be counted on one hand. Ziyi said there was nothing that could be done about it, the roof could not be faked. What he said made a lot of sense, and Yi Ke was speechless.

"Don't worry. We told the villagers that we have an uncle who was injured on the battlefield. He has no children. Since I have been taking care of him for a long time, he used his money to build a house for us. This way we have a reason to buy the house, and we will have an excuse to be away from home often in the future." Ziyi explained how they found the excuse.

"What's your great uncle's name? Where does he live? So that I can answer people when they ask me about it in the future." Yi Ke asked.

"My great uncle's name is Li Hongxing. He is 65 years old this year and cannot stand on his legs. He did not want to cause trouble for the government, so he returned to my great aunt's hometown. We usually take care of him." Ziyi told Li Haoran in detail all the excuses he and Li Haoran had thought of, and Yike understood.

This tile-roofed house is a sanheyuan, except that it lacks the courtyard of the back house. There are three main rooms, with two side rooms extending at the corners on both sides of the main rooms. In the middle is a muddy ground.

"It's definitely muddy during the rainy season." Yi Ke said, looking at the dam.

“We’ll lay the stone slabs and dig a well when we have time, but we’ll have to do these things later.” Ziyi agreed.

Li Haoran was not at home, so Ziyi unlocked the door and entered the main room, which was the room in the middle of the main house. There is a bedroom on each side of the main room. Ziyi and Yike’s bedroom is the one on the left. There is a side room on the east and west sides. The west side room is used as a guest room, and the east side room is used as a kitchen and dining room. "We usually eat in the kitchen. If there are guests, we eat in the main room." Ziyi said.

Because the kitchen was built directly from the side room, it looks particularly large. Even with a square table in the kitchen, it still appears very spacious.

There is a large water tank, a two-pot stove, and a large cupboard in the kitchen, which stands against the back wall.

When Yike was surprised that the cabinet was too big, Ziyi stepped forward and moved the cabinet, revealing a piece of bluestone under the cabinet. Ziyi moved the bluestone away, and a dark hole was revealed.

"Oh! The cellar! No, why should the cellar be hidden?" Yi Ke looked at Ziyi in confusion.

"You'll know when you go down and take a look." Ziyi deliberately kept the person in suspense.

Ziyi went down first with a flashlight on the wooden ladder. "Come down, be careful." He shone the flashlight on the wooden ladder from below.

Yike went down the wooden ladder and when she got underground, she realized that this was not a cellar but a tunnel. I couldn't help but mutter in my heart, this is just like the movie "Tunnel Warfare" I watched in my previous life.

Yike looked at Ziyi, who nodded and said, "It's just as you thought. This tunnel leads to the mountain. You don't have to worry about being discovered when you transport things out of the mountain. The end of this tunnel is in the woods behind the mountain. Usually, there is no one in the woods during working hours. You don't have to worry about being discovered."

Yike just remembered that in this era everything was publicly owned, no wonder Ziyi wanted to hide it and transport it out. Like the last time when there were thousands of kilograms of meat, if they were discovered, it would definitely be divided among the entire production team.

Ziyi and Yike walked forward in the tunnel, which went diagonally upwards. After about 200 meters, they reached the exit. The exit is in a valley with a lot of thorns growing around it. There are no edible wild vegetables and no dead branches, so no one from the village comes here to pick wild vegetables or collect firewood. It is really a good hidden place.

"Ziyi, this place is really hidden. We can dig a cellar underneath here and put the things with strong fishy smell here." Yi Ke thought of the extensive tunnels in Ji Zhong in his previous life and felt that he could borrow some of them.

Ziyi thought for a moment and said, "You're right. There are bound to be people who are jealous of us and see that we have money even though no one is working. They will definitely try to find out where we get the money. They will probably search our house. Some things are really not safe to leave at home."

"There are old people in our village who tell stories about the Tunnel Warfare. I think we can learn from them." Yi Ke said.

"You have so much on your mind, do you really think we are fighting guerrilla warfare?" Ziyi knocked on Yike's head.

When I think about what might happen in those chaotic situations, I get terrified and feel that I really need to be well prepared. As the saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry. She even felt a little regretful that she didn't stop Ziyi from leaving the mountain and settling down.

In fact, Li Haoran and Ziyi had thought about these problems a long time ago. They were people who had fled into the forest and lived there for several years. They were also very clear about the situation outside. They had to move out just for the sake of their children's future lives. And this time the situation happened to be special, which was very suitable for them to settle down in the village under an assumed name. They were afraid that they might not have such a good opportunity in a few years. If they knew that things would be good in the future, they would definitely not be in a hurry to settle down. Of course, Yike didn’t know that they were doing this for the child’s future life. If she knew, she would definitely stop them. Because the social situation will be very good in the future, there is no need to worry about these problems at all, but unfortunately she doesn't know it.

After Ziyi and Yike returned to the new house, Ziyi asked Yike to rest while he went to cut grass to feed the cows. Yike slept in a daze, and when he woke up, Li Haoran had returned.

"Dad, you're back. Mom missed you so much at home!" Yi Ke said happily.

"Haha! Your mother misses me, but you don't miss me. You have no conscience, little girl. I even thought of buying apples for you." Li Haoran was very happy to see his daughter.

"Dad! It's not that I missed you, it's just that I thought you had a bride outside and didn't want us mother and daughter anymore. There's a saying that goes 'You only see the new couple laugh, but never hear the old couple cry.'" Yi Ke said mischievously.

"Great! You're so bold that even your father dares to make a joke. What bride or old mother? That's impossible." Li Haoran also pretended to be angry.

"I don't believe it. How could a handsome uncle like our dad not have any girls who want to marry him? Otherwise, why wouldn't dad go home for more than ten days? Making our mom wait for him at home anxiously." Yike pouted.

"So you are speaking up for your mother! You must not mention those messy thoughts in front of your mother, otherwise she will think about things that don't exist. You are also not allowed to say such nonsense, you must be careful about what you say out there. What you said just now can convict your father of hooliganism and send him to prison for ten or eight years." Li Haoran said seriously. He was really afraid that someone would speak casually without knowing the immensity of the world.

"I know. I'm angry because you don't go back to see me and mom!" Yike said with a pout.

"I really have something to do and can't leave. We have just settled down in this production team and there are many things to deal with. We can't leave casually. At least one person must participate in the labor and earn work points in the production team, otherwise it will arouse suspicion. Ziyi and I will take turns living outside in the future." Li Haoran explained.