Besides these boxes, there were also a dozen or so burlap sacks in the corner not far away. I thought they were all empty because they were piled up flat, but I didn’t expect that there was actually a little bit of flour left in each sack. All of them together looked to weigh more than 100 pounds.
Cheng Ruyi was finally relieved. Money was good, but it was only useful if you could buy things with it. It seemed that the system hadn't lied to her. With this food, no matter how turbulent the future might be, her family would at least not starve to death.
Ruyi looked happily at the grains scattered on the ground, her mind already conjuring up all sorts of fried rice, rice bowls, dumplings, and noodles.
Suddenly, on the edge of a vast expanse of white rice, I spotted a few dark, eye-catching things.
So she went over and picked it up, only to find that it was a shiitake mushroom. It seems there are still some mountain products in this warehouse.
Following the fallen mushrooms on the ground, Ruyi arrived at the shelves in the middle of the warehouse and discovered that the entire side of these shelves facing the wall with its back to the door was made up of small drawers, from which the mushrooms had obviously fallen.
Each of these shelves has six layers and is estimated to be over two meters tall. There are five of them in total, arranged vertically in the middle of the warehouse. Since they are just empty wooden shelves at first glance, Cheng Ruyi and Xu Cui gave up searching this area and went to the places that attracted them the most.
After Cheng Ruyi finished searching the five shelves, in addition to a few pounds of shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts, and wood ear fungus, she also had two large hams. These hams were all on the top of the shelves. If she hadn't persevered in moving a chair to stand on and search every corner, she might have missed out on her favorite meat.
"Aunt Cui, look! I found meat!"
"What? There really is meat?" Xu Cui had just finished stuffing the messed-up flour back into the sack when she heard the voice. Turning around, she was immediately shocked. "Oh my! This...this is Yushan ham! Such a big piece, it must cost over a hundred taels of silver!"
One hundred taels for a ham?
Cheng Ruyi couldn't believe it: "Over a hundred taels? Are you sure? Isn't this price outrageous?"
"That's for sure. I saw it in the shop when Rongfa Grain Shop first opened a few years ago. I even asked the shopkeeper about it, but he looked down on me and ignored me completely. I was so angry that I turned around and left immediately!"
Xu Cui became increasingly angry as she spoke, "Later, I was still not satisfied, so I asked around for a long time and finally found out that it was the famous Yushan ham. I heard that it was very rare and that the high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital loved to eat it. Even a small piece the size of a palm cost tens of taels of silver!"
Although Jinhua ham is expensive in modern times, it is not so expensive that ordinary families cannot afford it. Cheng Ruyi has eaten it several times. Who would have thought that ham would become a luxury item here?
"Oh, I see~~ Then we absolutely can't let this delicious food go to waste. We'll figure out how to cook it properly when we get home!"
As a foodie, Ruyi really wanted to try this ham worth a hundred taels of silver! But right now, the most important thing was how to sneak all this food back home.
"Aunt Cui, there's so much stuff that the two of us can't possibly carry it all back. Do you have any ideas?"
Immersed in the joy of the harvest, Xu Cui suddenly realized, "That's right! If we carry the grain out like this, we don't even know if we'll be able to get out of the grain shop! And we don't know if Wang Liu has been discovered yet. It would be dangerous if we ran into those thugs!"
Ruyi nodded, "You're absolutely right. So I think there must be a back door in this courtyard. They built this secret storehouse because they didn't want anyone to know about it. If goods need to be transported in and out through the main gate, then what's the point of the secret storehouse?"
Xu Cui thought it made a lot of sense after hearing it, so the two of them decided to go out into the yard to look for the back door and see which place it led to.
It was quite easy to find, since all the footprints and wheel tracks in the yard pointed to the southwest corner. Based on their previous experience, they easily found the lotus jade carving hidden inside the brick wall. With a gentle twist, the hidden door opened.
Before us was a narrow path, only wide enough for about three adults to pass at a time. The walls on both sides were quite high, about four or five meters high, and looking up, we could only see a small patch of sky.
It seems this is the secret passage used by the grain store to secretly transport goods.
The two carefully entered the secret passage, and then found the lotus jade carving switch in the same position on the other side of the secret door. Only then did they begin to slowly move forward along the secret passage.
The path was longer than expected, dark and quiet, and winding and seemingly endless. The thought that there was such a secret passage near the place where they had lived for decades made them increasingly uneasy as they walked. Fortunately, after a turn, the two finally saw the end of the passage not far ahead.
"How long have we been walking? Could we have left the county town?" Xu Cui was a little flustered; what had happened today was beyond her comprehension.
“We’ve only been walking for a quarter of an hour, so we must still be in the city. Besides, we haven’t gone uphill or downhill along the way, so how could we possibly have crossed the city wall and gotten out?” Cheng Ruyi was quite calm. As a science student, she always had a very good sense of direction. “Although we’ve taken many detours, we can still tell that we’re generally heading northwest. Although it seems like we’ve been walking for a long time, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve gone very far.”
Seeing Cheng Ruyi's calmness, Xu Cui gradually calmed down as well. "That's true. Although the walls on both sides are too high to see outside, we can still occasionally see a bit of the eaves, so we should still be in the city. So, where exactly is outside?"
"Where... you'll find out once you get out!" Ruyi looked at the brick wall at the end of the secret passage ahead, and to be honest, she was also very curious.
"Hmm, let me find the switch this time." Xu Cui suddenly became excited again. After watching Ruyi do it so many times, she already understood the principle of finding the switch and was eager to try it.
Xu Cui quickly walked to the end, then skillfully felt around the walls, and soon found the switch. Just as she was about to turn it on, Cheng Ruyi stopped her.
Ruyi gestured for Xu Cui to be quiet and not make a sound, then pressed her ear against the wall to listen carefully.
This is the most important and genuine back door of the grain shop. If they left someone guarding it outside, it would be troublesome. She deliberately stopped some distance from the wall to speak just in case, although the possibility is not high, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.
After a long while, it was still quiet outside, without a sound, so Ruyi opened the door with peace of mind.
Unexpectedly, behind the door was a staircase leading upwards, about ten steps. After the two climbed the stairs, they suddenly realized why the walls on both sides seemed so high. It turned out that the ground had been dug down!
Thinking back carefully, I did go down a few steps after entering the back door, from the courtyard to the front yard, from the front yard to the back yard, and from the back yard to the warehouse. Each time, I went down two or three steps. I hadn't noticed it before!
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