Even if Jiang Ci were extremely knowledgeable, he wouldn't go out of his way to look at what a corpse looks like, especially a corpse that is completely decomposed.
She tilted her head close to Zhou Mingli's chest, Jiang Ci almost directly pressed her face against his chest, unwilling to look at the rotting corpse any longer.
Although Zhou Mingli's face was pale, he managed to hold on. He glanced at the spot Jiang Ci had just poked and said in a low voice, "We still don't know who the deceased is. Should we call the police?"
His large hand landed on Jiang Ci's head, gently stroking and rubbing it. He lowered his head and kissed her forehead, his gesture conveying a sense of comfort.
But his gaze suddenly fell on the buried body, and there was a piece of cloth with something written on it.
“Jiang Ci, there are other things there,” Zhou Mingli said softly to Jiang Ci.
Jiang Ci straightened her back instinctively. "There's another dead person?"
She was already terrified when a random poke with a stick went right into her eye; what if someone else died...?
Jiang Ci took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.
“No.” Zhou Mingli said slowly, “You stand here first, I’ll go and pick up the things.”
Jiang Ci didn't move, but Zhou Mingli walked over and pulled out the piece of cloth that was mostly buried in the soil.
I don't know how long this thing has been buried, there's still a lot of dissolution on it.
Zhou Mingli unfolded it and could barely make out the characters.
“There are words on this cloth,” Zhou Mingli whispered to Jiang Ci.
Jiang Ci finally made a move, her gaze shifting to the object in Zhou Mingli's hand.
"Whoever finds this cloth, please go to the grove of trees at the foot of the mountain near Shanding Brigade. There's a box buried in the soil containing three gold bars. There's a hidden compartment at the bottom of the box; please be sure to open it. —Huang…"
The last name was illegible, but Jiang Ci and Zhou Mingli understood the words "the forest of Shanding Brigade" and "three gold bars".
Jiang Ci and Zhou Mingli's eyelids twitched almost simultaneously.
There was only one grove of trees in Shanding Brigade, the one behind their house, and gold.
About half a month ago, Jiang Ci, along with Zhou Miao and Zhou Yang, were searching for cicada nymphs in the woods when they found a box containing three heavy gold bars.
this……
Jiang Ci and Zhou Mingli looked at each other in bewilderment. "Was that box deliberately buried by this person? And that other box, we never discovered that it had a hidden compartment inside."
Zhou Mingli said in a low voice, "There are three gold bars inside, so we probably won't check if there's a hidden compartment in the box."
Jiang Ci, quick-witted as ever, said, "We can report this person's body to the police, but we can't hand over this piece of cloth for now."
They found the three gold bars first. If they handed over the cloth along with them, the police would definitely suspect that they had embezzled the gold.
Zhou Mingli and Jiang Ci exchanged a glance and quickly made a decision.
Go home first and see what's hidden in the secret compartment of that box. If there's anything that proves this person's identity, then we can make further plans.
This sudden discovery couldn't be resolved hastily, so Zhou Mingli and Jiang Ci took the child back to the chestnut tree and packed all the chestnuts into a basket to take away.
After all the chestnuts were put into the baskets, Jiang Ci carried one basket on her back and helped Zhou Mingli carry another. The other two baskets were carried by Jiang Ci and Zhou Mingli respectively. All four baskets were full. If you count carefully, Zhou Mingli's two baskets were even a size larger than Jiang Ci's, and they were filled with more chestnuts.
The two children, Zhou Yang and Zhou Miao, were very quiet, clearly frightened by Jiang Ci's sternness earlier. They didn't run around or make a sound, but obediently followed Jiang Ci's side, doing whatever she asked them to do.
Jiang Ci glanced at the two children. To avoid putting any psychological burden on them, she called them over after bringing the things home.
Did I scare you today?
Zhou Miao and Zhou Yang blinked, then belatedly realized they were feeling wronged again; one's eyes reddened, and the other started crying.
Between sobs, Zhou Miao said, "Mom, we're good."
Although Jiang Ci would occasionally lose her temper with them, she would never scold them so harshly. When she was disciplining Zhou Yang's personality, she would make him more and more accustomed to the equal distribution of resources at home. If he threw a tantrum, his parents would not hit or punish him, but would just watch him cry and make a fuss. If he wanted to smash things, that was another matter.
He gets a beating for every thing he smashes.
As the saying goes, "You get what you pay for," and over time, Zhou Yang stopped causing so much trouble. He also stopped saying things like "Everything that belongs to my sister is mine," and he started sharing half of the food they both owned with Zhou Miao, which became quite commonplace.
It was precisely because Jiang Ci rarely spoke such harsh words to them that they couldn't figure out what they had done wrong, which made them feel helpless and aggrieved.
Jiang Ci sighed, raised both hands, patted their little heads, and hugged the two little ones into her arms. "You are very good. I was not being mean to you. I was just too harsh with my tone. I apologize to you, okay?"
“Before you grow up, I will try my best to prevent you from seeing things you shouldn’t see, so you must remember my words. You must not go to places I forbid you from going, such as riverbanks or dangerous places, okay?”
Zhou Yang and Zhou Miao hugged Jiang Ci and burst into tears, but they also listened to what Jiang Ci said. They cried so hard that they hiccuped and nodded while hiccuping.
They had already equated the places their mother had strictly forbidden them from going near with "danger," so naturally they no longer felt wronged.
After the two children cried themselves to sleep, having walked so much that day, they quickly fell asleep. Zhou Mingli, who had been watching Jiang Ci educate the children, went over, picked them up one by one, and put them to bed.
Jiang Ci then went to retrieve the box.
The lacquerware on the surface is still quite intact, with a simple and antique style, and it is quite functional.
Inside were Jiang Ci's face cream and a comb. She took everything out and placed the box on the table.
Zhou Mingli and Jiang Ci sat on either side of the table, staring at the small box.
“I didn’t notice it much before, but now that I’ve opened it and look closely, it seems that the bottom inside the box is actually a little higher than the bottom outside.” Jiang Ci stretched out both hands, one finger pressing inside the box and the other on the table, and the difference in height was immediately apparent.
Zhou Mingli's gaze swept over her hand and he said, "It's only a little bit higher, so it's indeed not easy for anyone to notice."
Jiang Ci searched carefully for a long time and actually found a small mechanism. With a gentle tap, the two of them heard a crisp click.
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