Chapter 118
"Are you sure this is the case?"
"Sure."
In front of a large and dilapidated western-style building somewhere in the south of the city, Yang Qiujin stood in front of a dilapidated courtyard gate, looking at the house in front of her, and said with some doubt: "Professor Cai has been beaten to the lowest level, but this house has not been confiscated and is still well preserved."
Chen Shengqing looked at the crowded houses around him and frowned as he said, "After Professor Cai divorced his wife, his wife and daughter's family background was fine, so if we transfer the house to their names, it won't be confiscated. But this house has been unoccupied for so long, it's inevitable that someone will target it, so we have to be careful."
In order to avoid being discovered when taking out any valuable items from Professor Cai's room, Chen Shengqing found a former comrade-in-arms who worked in the city and borrowed a car from him. One reason was to use it to transport the things, and the other was to use it to leave in case something went wrong.
They deliberately chose the middle of the night to arrive at this residence. The area nearby was full of narrow houses divided by various bungalows and courtyards. This shabby little Western-style building stood out among the crowd, looking particularly strange.
The gate in front of the small western-style building is already very dilapidated. There is no need to open the door at all. You can just push it lightly to go in.
Yang Qiujin squeezed in through the half-open door, holding a flashlight in her hand and shining it inside. A dark shadow flashed in front of her, and she screamed in fright. She turned around and threw herself into Chen Shengqing's arms: "Oh my God, what is that?"
Chen Shengqing also held a flashlight in his hand and shone it towards the dark shadow. He patted her back gently and said, "Don't be afraid, it's just a cat."
Yang Qiujin turned around and saw that it was indeed a shiny-fur tabby cat standing on the wall, staring at the couple with a pair of green eyes.
"It's so scary." Yang Qiujin patted her chest and muttered as she walked inside: "I came to the old house to look for something in the middle of the night. I am guilty of being a thief. Even a cat can scare me. But this yard is in good condition. There is not a single weed. It looks like someone is taking care of it regularly. I don't think anyone lives here."
As soon as she finished speaking, Chen Shengqing stopped and said in a deep voice: "Someone lives here."
"Who lives here?" Yang Qiujin was stunned. "Didn't Professor Cai say that he asked an old friend to help him find a house? Could it be that his old friend's family lives here?"
"It can't be his old friend. If his good friend's family lives here, he wouldn't ask you to get the things, but would give the things directly to his old friend. There is someone else living here, and it is very likely that he has taken over the place because no one has lived here for a long time." Chen Shengqing analyzed calmly.
Yang Qiujin's heart sank. "What should we do if someone else lives here? Could they have taken away Professor Cai and Professor Zheng's things?"
"Their things should be hidden in a secret place and won't be found so easily. When they were classified as the lowest class, the relevant departments should have brought people to check the room and the valuable things should have been taken away. Only the things that were not found would make the two professors keep talking about them. No matter who lives here, if they prevent us from taking things, don't blame me for being rude." Chen Shengqing pulled out the pistol he carried with him on his back, loaded the bullet with a click, and walked into the house with a flashlight in one hand.
Yang Qiujin followed behind him. They passed through the potholes and holes in the courtyard, which had been dug three feet deep, and soon arrived at the door of the ground floor of the two-story building. The door was blocked from the inside.
Chen Shengqing gave Yang Qiujin a look, signaling her to follow him closely, and whispered, "Unless it is necessary, we'd better not disturb the people in the room to avoid unnecessary trouble."
"I understand." Yang Qiujin knew that a strong dragon could not defeat a local snake.
The door was blocked from the inside and could not be opened, so Chen Shengqing walked to a window next to the living room, fumbled around the window for a while, opened the window lock from the inside, climbed in, made sure there was no danger inside, and asked Yang Qiujin to climb in as well.
Yang Qiujin entered the living room and found it in a mess. Things were turned over and scattered everywhere. There were also many signs of vandalism. She couldn't help but wonder, "What do you think the people who live here are thinking? They only clean up the weeds in the yard outside, but don't clean the house. How can they live here?"
"Perhaps the people who live here don't like to clean, so they clear the weeds in the yard to make it easier for them to get in and out." Chen Shengqing said, holding up a flashlight and walking around the first floor, and then said to Yang Qiujin, "There's nothing on the first floor."
Yang Qiujin nodded in agreement. She had just taken a quick look and saw only a few sofas, tables, chairs, stools, bowls, chopsticks and plates on the first floor. All of them were smashed. Even the curtains in the empty rooms showed signs of being burned. She didn't know if there were any Little Red Soldiers among the people who confiscated the house. They were so cruel.
"Let's go to the second floor and check." Chen Shengqing clasped his pistol in his hand, pointed at the stairs and said, "Be gentle, there should be someone living on the second floor, let's not wake them up."
"Okay." Yang Qiujin felt inexplicably nervous and followed Chen Shengqing up to the second floor quietly.
The door of the master bedroom was closed, and there were several pairs of men's shoes placed at the door. The person who had occupied the room was living here.
Chen Shengqing glanced at Yang Qiujin and motioned her to look for something in another room. He turned off the flashlight, put it back in his pocket, took out a dagger from his pocket, slowly pried open the door of the master bedroom, and walked in in the dark.
There was no moon in the sky tonight and the room was pitch black, but that did not prevent Chen Shengqing, whose night vision had been trained, from getting a rough idea of what was going on inside the room.
The master bedroom was very large, estimated to be no less than 80 square meters. There was a large bed in it with four people lying on it in a disorderly manner, snoring all of them, and the whole room was filled with the smell of smelly feet.
Chen Shengqing was like a nimble cheetah, searching the house for places where things might be hidden. The people on the boat were completely unaware and were sleeping soundly.
Yang Qiujin searched the other rooms but found nothing useful. She walked to the master bedroom and saw that the door was open. She guessed that Chen Shengqing must have gone in. She did not dare to be careless, so she turned off the bright flashlight and waited at the door.
Chen Shengqing's skills can be said to be one in a million. Although Yang Qiujin's skills are also good, she will not act rashly when she doesn't know who is the enemy and who is her, which will bring trouble and danger to herself and Chen Shengqing. The best way for her is to wait where she is.
Time passed minute by minute. Chen Shengqing searched the house roughly but found nothing useful. When he was about to leave, he suddenly found a large square box on the head of the bed in the master bedroom. He intuitively felt that there was something in the box, so he reached out to take it.
At this moment, a man sleeping at the head of the bed suddenly woke up and saw a figure suddenly appearing in front of him. He knew it was not his own man and shouted, "Who is that?"
His roar woke up the other three men in the bed and they all jumped up. Some tried to get the lights to light up the place, some were still confused, and some reacted very quickly and wanted to attack Chen Shengqing.
Chen Shengqing did not give them any chance to attack. He quickly grabbed the man in front of him by the head and slammed his head against the bed, causing the man to suffer a bloody headache. He fell on the bed, dizzy and half dead.
After the man was knocked unconscious, Chen Shengqing clenched his right hand into a fist and hit the man who was rushing towards him in the stomach with a quick, accurate and fierce blow. The man screamed miserably and fell straight on the bed like a pancake, holding his stomach and howling.
The other two people reacted and rushed towards Chen Shengqing, shouting, "Fuck you, who are you? Do you know who we are? We are the famous bad guys of the Sijiu Chengnan faction. You dare to touch us, do you want to live?!"
Chen Shengqing easily knocked the two shouting men to the ground, and laughed sarcastically in the dark night: "Naughty guys? They are just street thugs. Even if I kill you now, no one will care whether you live or die. No one will know if you die here."
He has been training in the camp for many years, practicing Sanda, military boxing, and various fighting techniques. He is also an iron-blooded soldier who has actually been on the battlefield, seen blood, and risked his life. The power of one of his punches can directly kill a cow.
These four thugs were no match for him at all and had no power to fight back. They were beaten by him until they fell on the bed, twitching all over, curled up with their bodies, and screaming miserably. None of them could stand up.
The so-called gangsters were actually the unique refugees in the old Beijing city of that era, the descendants of Ming and Qing officials, and the ruined children of large families. Through their own opinions on state affairs and the customary practice of commenting on current affairs, they became what people called "kanye". Later, due to the cultural differences between the north and south cities, they were divided into gangs and factions, and became the unique gangsters in the old city, commonly known as gangsters.
These hooligans were well-known and had numerous connections in the city. They often fought for turf, women, and status. Every few days they would have a fight in the city, holding sticks, kitchen knives, daggers, bayonets and so on. They would sit and stand with the Little Red Soldiers and fight each other. Even the military, police and police were often unable to control them, and the common people were terrified of them.
It can be said that these hooligans idled around in the city all day long, fighting and causing trouble was their job, and most people did not dare to mess with them.
Chen Shengqing had no intention of being polite to the cuckoo in the nest. When he heard the other party introduce the title of the snitch, he became even more impolite. He stepped on the head of one of the snitch and asked: "This house has an owner. When did you move in? Have you opened the things inside, such as the wooden box on the bedside?"
There was no light in the house, so the four rascals had no idea who the other party was. They thought they were their enemies and were afraid that he would hurt them if he got upset. They said in a very cooperative manner, "This house has been empty for more than ten years. I heard that it was a professor's house before. Later, he was labeled a rightist and sent to the countryside to die. For some reason, his house was not confiscated and has been kept here. I heard that someone is covering it up. It was not a few years ago when the little red soldiers rushed in and smashed things. We thought this house was nice and no one lived in it, so we lived here from then on. If you like this place, we will leave immediately and give you this nice place."
Another man immediately answered, "Yes, yes, yes, if you like this place, we'll leave right away. We found the box on the bedside with great difficulty. It's very heavy, and there must be something good inside. Unfortunately, the box is made of wood, and you need a special key to open it. Without the key, you can't split it open even if you use a knife, or shoot it with a bullet. It also won't burn. It seems to have been specially treated. We have had it for several years, but we can't open it, so we just put it on the bedside."
Chen Shengqing said nothing and silently took the heavy box in his hands.
The man who was dazed at the bedside saw his movements and replied, "My dear, you are the descendant of the owner of this house. Are you here to get something? I'll tell you the secret room in your house. If you spare my life, I will tell you where it is."
"Oh? Are you so kind?" Chen Shengqing didn't believe it at all. He pointed the knife at his neck twice and said, "I can find it even if you don't tell me. Why should I spare your life?"
The man was so scared that he pissed himself. Just when he didn't know what to do, Chen Shengqing said, "Tell me where the secret room is. If you tell me the right answer, I might be able to spare your life. If you don't, I'll send you to hell right now."
In the face of the absolutely oppressive armed force, what else could the man say? He honestly told Chen Shengqing the location of the secret room.
After Chen Shengqing heard this, he walked around the house, took down the curtains, tore them into strips, and tied up the four men in the dark. Before leaving, he said, "Ask for help from nearby people when it's daybreak. If you start screaming now, you know the consequences."
What could the four men say? They just nodded and agreed quickly.
Chen Shengqing held the box and said to Yang Qiujin who had been waiting outside the door: "Let's go to the secret room."
The secret room is next to the dry toilet in the backyard of the small western-style building. It is a dark wall extending downwards. When the people who confiscated the house, they smashed and dug up the entire small western-style building, even the yard was dug three feet deep, just to find the treasure hidden by the Cai family. They never imagined that all the good things of the Cai family were hidden in the secret room next to the toilet.
After all, there were people living in the Cai family at that time, and the toilet was full. Who would hide the treasure next to the toilet?
No one had lived there for many years and the toilet was dry. Chen Shengqing took Yang Qiujin to the toilet and pressed a brick in the corner of the wall. With a series of clicking sounds, a hole appeared next to the toilet.
There were stone steps inside. The couple walked down a few meters with a flashlight, revealing a tightly-fitted black Ruomu door with many marks of being smashed and chopped. The soil nearby also showed signs of being dug. However, this secret room seemed to have walls made entirely of Ruomu on all four sides, and it could not be opened even if the soil beside the wall was dug.
"I never thought that the place where Professor Cai hid things was so secret and the materials used were so rare." Yang Qiujin was amazed. She took out a half-foot long and inch wide gilded engraved key with complicated craftsmanship from her bag, tentatively inserted it into the keyhole, and turned it a full circle left and right as Professor Cai said.
The lock made a click sound, and the dark door slowly opened, revealing a room of less than 30 square meters, filled with various ancient poems, calligraphy and paintings, porcelain antiques, various precious mahogany, rosewood, agarwood and other woods, as well as two boxes full of large silver dollars, two boxes of various jewelry, and a box of small yellow croakers.
When Yang Qiujin saw the things in the house, her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "Oh my God, there are so many things, how much would they cost?"
Chen Shengqing turned around and said, "The yellow croaker is easy to sell. Antique calligraphy and paintings, porcelain and the like are all authentic and worth a fortune. Now they can only be sold on the black market. The price is low and it would be a pity to sell them. You can pick out some jewelry you like. We will sell the yellow croaker, and I will ship the rest back to the border. Ask Professor Cai and Professor Zheng how to deal with them."
Yang Qiujin said happily: "We have so many jewels and small yellow croaker silver coins. We are rich now."
Chen Shengqing said, "Don't be too happy yet. These things belong to the two professors. Although they said they were gifts to us, we can't really accept them all. We have to divide them into three parts and give them to the two of them. Let's not just stand there. Let's move the things to the car before daybreak."
"Okay." Yang Qiujin said nothing, and the two of them started moving things.
After moving everything, which took almost two hours, Yang Qiujin asked, "What's in that wooden box you took?"
Chen Shengqing had already put the box in the car and shook his head, saying, "I don't know. It's made of the same material as the secret room. It needs a key to open. Professor Cai only gave you one key. He probably thought that the box might have been taken away and could not be retrieved. Since the box is still there and has not been opened, let's take it back to Professor Cai and let him open it himself."
Yang Qiujin nodded: "Okay."
Chen Shengqing drove the car to his residence. When he arrived, he said to Yang Qiujin, "It's too dangerous to park the car here. There are too many people and it's easy to get into trouble. I'll park the car in a safe place and sell the silver dollars and small yellow croakers."
Yang Qiujin was worried: "With so many small yellow croakers, is it easy to sell them? Will someone target us?"
There were more than a hundred small yellow croakers in the box, each weighing one liang (about 31.25 grams). If you go to the bank to exchange them, one fish can be exchanged for about 280 yuan, and one silver dollar can be exchanged for about 8 yuan.
Just two boxes of silver dollars and one box of small yellow croakers can be exchanged for about 40,000 yuan.
Chen Shengqing smiled and said, "Do you think your man has been out on missions for nothing for so many years? Don't worry, nothing you worry about will happen. But we took so many things, those bad guys will definitely find someone to investigate. I have to drive away at dawn. Ask your mother-in-law and Tianyou to pack their luggage and leave with me at dawn."
It was indeed unsafe to put so many antiques in the car that Chen Shengqing borrowed. The sooner they left the capital, the better. Yang Qiujin said, "Be careful on the road and pay attention to safety."
Chen Shengqing hummed, started the car, and drove away.
Yang Qiujin returned to the room in the dark. Except for Xiao Tianxing who was still sleeping soundly on the bed, Li Xiu'e, Wu Shulian and Chen Tianyou were waiting for them in the living room.
Seeing her coming back alone, Li Xiu'e asked worriedly, "What happened? Why are you the only one coming back? Where is Shengqing?"
"He went to deal with the silver and small yellow croakers." Yang Qiujin told everyone about the small western-style house, and finally instructed: "Remember to keep your mouth shut about what you heard. No one can tell anyone even if it is rotten in your stomach. Don't show your wealth to others. If someone knows about it, it will bring disaster to our family."
The three of them understood the pros and cons of this and nodded in agreement.
Wu Shulian sighed, "Oh my God, they can sell so many things for so much money. The rich people are really different from us poor people. I can't even imagine how much money they can make in my lifetime."
Yang Qiujin drank the water that Chen Tianyou poured for her and said, "Mom, when I have money, I will not forget to honor you, but you must remember that you cannot tell Dad anything about our family affairs."
"Mom knows. I was confused and muddled for most of my life. I won't be confused and soft-hearted anymore." Wu Shulian assured again and again.
After daybreak, Chen Shengqing came back, and with him came a short, smart-looking man in his thirties.
Chen Shengqing introduced: "This is a real estate agent I asked someone to find. He specializes in real estate transactions. He introduced several houses to me. You all should go with me to have a look. We will buy the one that suits us."
Yang Qiujin knew that he wanted to make a quick decision, so after buying the house, she left the capital, asked the whole family to pack up, and followed Chen Shengqing and his wife.
The introducer, who said his surname was Wang, found five houses for them. All of them were courtyard houses, some big and some small, all in convenient locations. Three were near the city center, and two were next to the Forbidden City and Wangfujing.
The prices are very high. For example, the courtyard house next to the Forbidden City costs 12,000 yuan. In this era when most people cannot get enough to eat, 12,000 yuan is undoubtedly a sky-high price.
Yang Qiujin finally chose an old-style courtyard house of nearly 200 square meters, located near the city center park. It was divided into a front and back yard, and the place was spacious. The rooms were divided into the main house and east and west side rooms, with many rooms.
The layout is very similar to Commander Zhou's home. There is a well in the front yard and two toilets and a bathroom in the backyard. It is quite convenient for the family to live in. The most important thing is that it is convenient for the active little Tianxing to run around in the house. When nothing happens, the family can go to the park for a walk. There are also grocery stores, supply and marketing cooperatives, grain supply stations, shops, etc. nearby, so it is also very convenient to buy daily necessities.
The price was not cheap either. The house was priced at 6,000 yuan. It was only after Yang Qiujin had persuaded the owner that the price was reduced by nearly 1,000 yuan from the original 7,000 yuan that he was willing to sell it.
The landlord's son offended someone in Beijing, and the other party wanted to kill him and his family. The family wanted to flee to the United States and hurriedly dealt with their property in Beijing.
Most people could not afford such a nice compound, and the owner was anxious to sell it. Seeing that Yang Qiujin's family had cash, he readily lowered the price. Both parties went to the housing authority to sign the title deed, paid the money, and got the keys, and the house belonged to Yang Qiujin and her family.
When Yang Qiujin got the key, the person who was most excited was Wu Shulian.
She walked around the house and said, "It's such a nice and spacious house. What a pity that I can't even stay there for one night and I have to go back."
Yang Qiujin said, "Mom, the house is here, it won't move away. You can stay here for a long time if you have the chance in the future. Now it's urgent, you and Shengqing have to leave early."
The silver dollar and the small yellow croaker were sold for more than 40,000 yuan. After deducting the money for buying the house, there was still more than 30,000 yuan left. Chen Shengqing said to Yang Qiujin: "You are now a reserve cadre. It is not appropriate to deposit a large amount of money in the banknotes, nor in my account, so as to avoid investigation from above. I will take all the money back to the frontier and give 20,000 to Professor Cai and Professor Zheng. I will find a place to hide the rest of the money and take it out when we need it urgently. Do you think it's okay?"
Yang Qiujin had no objection. She put two packages she had bought earlier in her hands on the car and told him, "Be careful on the road, don't drive tired, and rest when you need to."
Chen Tianyou raised his hand and said, "Mom, don't worry. Dad is tired of driving, so I'll drive for him. I'm a very good driver."
"You are just a half-grown kid, why are you driving a car?" Yang Qiujin glared at him. "Do you think the roads in the border areas are as smooth as the roads in the capital? The roads in the border areas are full of potholes, quicksand and dark holes. They are very dangerous. Don't try to show off. You've put your grandma and your dad in trouble."
Chen Tianyou stuck out his tongue and said, "I'm just talking, don't take it seriously."
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