Although a lot has happened this morning, it's only around 7 or 8 a.m., which is when the public well is most crowded, so it's not a good time to pass by.
So the two decided to exit through the main gate of the Cheng family's house, but that meant they would have to take a long detour.
The two walked for a little over fifteen minutes and finally arrived near Rongfa Grain Shop.
Rongfa Grain Shop is located on Nanhou Street, which is a relatively important street in the southeastern residential area of Huaishan County. Almost all the few two-story buildings in the south of the city are located here.
Among the many shops on Nanhou Street, the most inconspicuous is Rongfa Grain Shop. Although the shop occupies three bays, the decoration is very simple and unpretentious. If it weren't for the signboard, people would probably just ignore it.
At this moment, Cheng Ruyi and Xu Cui were standing in the alley between the clothing shop and the jewelry shop. From this position, they could see the main entrance of Rongfa Grain Shop diagonally opposite and the back entrance on the west side.
As rumored, the main gate was indeed smashed to pieces and was clearly sealed off, so naturally no one passed through. However, the side gate was a completely different story. Not only was the door wide open, but people were constantly going in and out. After standing there for a while, Ruyi and the others saw five or six people go in, most of whom were women and children.
Seeing this, Cheng Ruyi felt a little more confident. She gripped the yellow piece of paper in her right hand tightly, thinking, "I have a trump card! It can save my life!" Then she prepared to walk over quickly in one go, but unexpectedly, she was stopped by someone.
"What do you want to do? We agreed that we would only look around from the outside and would never go in!" Xu Cui grabbed Cheng Ruyi's arm tightly, so tightly that Cheng Ruyi felt as if her hand was about to break.
Ruyi tried her best but couldn't pry Xu Cui's hands open. So she tried a more gradual approach: "Aunt Cui, you saw it too. Several women and children went in just now, which proves that there's not much danger inside. Look! More people have gone in. I swear, I'll go in and take a look. There are so many people inside, there won't be much danger!"
"There were even more people in the grain shop that day, and you still got into trouble, didn't you?"
Well………
"You can go in, but only if I come along too!"
Cheng Ruyi hesitated for a moment. Although she had brought two invisibility talismans, which should be enough to save two people's lives if necessary, she only planned to act alone so as not to implicate others if something went wrong.
Ruyi tried to subtly tug at her arm again, but it didn't budge...
Who knew Aunt Cui was so strong? She underestimated the hardworking women of ancient times.
"Okay, but you have to promise me you won't stray too far from me and you won't act alone!"
After listening, Xu Cui released her hand, patted her magnificent chest, and replied, "Okay, no problem!"
The two walked quickly to the back door of Rongfa Grain Shop, slipped inside, and after descending a few steps, found themselves in a courtyard. There were rows of houses on both sides. The west wall was the workers' dormitory, and the east wall was the kitchen and woodshed. Scattered in the courtyard were some millet grains, and two children were squatting on the ground picking them up one by one. In several rooms, women were rummaging through drawers and cabinets.
Seeing this, Ruyi and the others felt much more at ease. It seemed that there was indeed no danger inside. After discussing it, the two decided to give up searching this place and head straight for the main point.
After exiting the gate connecting the west courtyard and the front courtyard, the first thing that catches the eye is a spacious rectangular front courtyard. The courtyard is very simple, with almost no decorations. It is estimated to be over twenty meters long and over ten meters wide, with an area of more than two hundred square meters. Needless to say, there are several children squatting on the ground picking up grains of food one by one.
The building on the south side of the front yard was the grain shop. Before the two even reached the door, they could hear a great deal of noise inside. Ruyi secretly peeked into the shop and saw that there was indeed a lot of white rice, white flour, millet and other grains scattered on the ground. But good heavens! There were at least a dozen people squatting on the ground in the less than 100 square meter shop, including men, women, young and old.
"What's wrong? Aren't you going in?" Xu Cui was puzzled to see Ruyi standing at the door without going in. "Didn't you say you wanted to see the place where the accident happened and try to find your forgotten memories?"
"Yes, I see it. Let's go."
Xu Cui: "???"
Before she could react, Xu Cui was pulled away by Cheng Ruyi.
Searching for memories was just an excuse for Ruyi; her real purpose was to find supplies. The fact that the mission had no effect meant that these were not what she was looking for.
"There are too many people in the store. If we divide it up, each person won't get much. The main problem is that it's easy for disputes to break out. It's better to find a less crowded place. This grain store is bigger than we thought. Let's look around the whole place first and then decide."
Xu Cui said she had no objection; as long as it didn't involve anything dangerous, she was used to listening to Cheng Ruyi.
The two then went to the east courtyard and the main hall, but unfortunately found nothing there.
The east courtyard was occupied by a group of thugs who wouldn't allow anyone to enter. Ruyi thought that must be the grain shop's warehouse, but wasn't it said that the grain shop had emptied out long ago? Yet those thugs were still guarding there, and judging from their posture, they were probably determined to find something, even if it meant digging three feet into the ground.
The main room was clearly where guests were usually received, and it was much cleaner than the other places. There were a few cabinets that looked quite valuable still inside, and they were surrounded by a group of people.
Only the backyard seemed particularly deserted, with hardly anyone around.
Compared to the front yard, the back yard was pitifully small, less than a third the size of the front yard. Apart from a row of artificial hills in front of the north wall and a pavilion in the northeast corner, there was nothing else.
Of course, the fact that the ground was also very clean was the reason why there were few people in the backyard. When Cheng Ruyi and Xu Cui came over, they saw someone standing at the backyard gate, glancing at it for a few moments, and then leaving without even going in.
Unlike others, Cheng Ruyi felt that there was something strange about this backyard.
The overall decoration style of the grain store can be described as going back to simplicity, or to put it bluntly, it is completely devoid of any decoration. The walls are just white walls, and the floor is just mud, without any carvings, paintings, or landscaping.
But suddenly a rockery and pavilion were built in the backyard. Based on Cheng Ruyi's experience from watching countless TV series, movies, novels and cartoons in modern times, there must be something ghostly here!
"Aunt Cui, I'll go look for the artificial hill. Can you go look for the pavilion instead?" The artificial hill has a very high probability of triggering special situations, making it relatively more dangerous.
She had a gut feeling that what she was looking for was probably hidden here!
Xu Cui thought they were just coming in for a quick look and then leaving, but she didn't expect Cheng Ruyi to actually plan to stay. Lately, she felt that she couldn't understand this child she had watched grow up at all. Although she used to be a bit impulsive, at least she could understand what she said. Ever since she hit her head, she had become very strange.
"Ruyi, what are you looking for? You can see everything here at a glance. There's nothing here. We might as well go back to the shop and at least pick up some rice."
Cheng Ruyi shook her head and walked towards the artificial hill, saying, "I feel like there's something strange about this place. Can you go and see if there's anything special here? Or you can come with me. In any case, we shouldn't split up."
Seeing Ruyi's insistence, Xu Cui hesitated for a moment, but still walked towards the pavilion. Anyway, the two places were very close and she could see them with just a glance, so she wasn't worried about anything happening.
Seeing Xu Cui walk towards the pavilion, Cheng Ruyi also began to carefully search the artificial hill.
She stood in front of the rockery, observing it from several different angles for a while, but couldn't discern any special symbols or shapes. After thinking for a moment, she circled the rockery a few times and wandered among the artificial hills, but still couldn't find any hidden doors or passages.
Could she be overthinking things? But other places are either too crowded or there's nothing special about them. There's no other possibility besides this place. There must be some secret she hasn't discovered yet!
So she approached the rocky hill and stared at each stone for a long time, occasionally touching, tapping, and twisting them. Anyone who didn't know better would think she was appraising some rare treasure.
There was no progress on Cheng Ruyi's side, and the same was true on Xu Cui's side.
The pavilion was small, with only four pillars and a round table. No matter how Xu Cui looked at it, it seemed to be an ordinary pavilion with nothing unusual about it. Could it be that her eyesight was bad?
Xu Cui looked up at the person who was half-lying on the rock by the artificial hill, and then suddenly realized, "Oh, that's how you look at it! That's easy!"
So when Wang Liu sneaked into the backyard and saw an old woman leaning against the pillar of the pavilion, touching herself, he thought to himself: When did this old woman from the Cheng family go mad?
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