Chapter 82 The Gold Left by My Maternal Grandfather
Zhou Zhao picked up the small piece of gold from the ground, stared at it with wide eyes, and exclaimed, "Big brother, look, there's a piece of gold here!"
Zhou Ruiyuan parted the grass in front of him, strode over to his side, and, seeing the small, golden object in his hand, asked in surprise, "Where did you get this?"
Zhou Zhao handed him the gold in her hand, saying, "I just picked it up from the ground. I don't know if there's any left."
After saying that, he squatted down again and searched on the ground.
Parting the thick grass, all that was left were stones and black mud; there was no trace of gold to be found.
Zhou Zhao straightened up and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Looks like there aren't any left."
Zhou Ruiyuan held the gold up to his eyes, frowned, and interrupted him, "No, there's more."
Zhou Zhao looked at his older brother in confusion, "Brother, I see that there is only this one piece on the ground."
Zhou Ruiyuan shook his head, then pointed to a small mark under the gold, "Look what this is?"
Zhou Zhao looked up and saw that the character "Lu" was clearly written under the gold, but because of the missing gold, a corner was missing.
He was suddenly startled, "This is my maternal grandfather's gold!"
Zhou Ruiyuan nodded. "Before my maternal grandfather confiscated the property, Steward Sun ran away with a box of gold ingots. If I'm not mistaken, this gold is very likely the batch that Steward Sun took away."
Zhou Zhao was stunned, staring at the gold again and again, puzzled, and said, "But, didn't Steward Sun run away? How come the gold he took is in the mountains?"
Zhou Ruiyuan carefully put away the gold and looked into the distance. "Steward Sun's hometown is in Wanzhou Prefecture, which is near Qingzhou Prefecture. If he wants to return to the village unnoticed, he has to take this mountain path."
Zhou Zhao suddenly realized, "This Steward Sun, when disaster struck, he ran away with the gold. I think my grandfather will haunt him even in death!"
Steward Sun was a long-time member of the Lu family and had always been loyal. However, when the Lu family was in dire straits, he secretly left the capital with the gold left by Master Lu.
Zhou Ruiyuan frowned and looked around. "The gold was originally stored in a wooden box, but now a piece has suddenly fallen out. Considering that he encountered some trouble on his way back, we can search again. Maybe he hid some gold here."
Zhou Zhao nodded emphatically, "Okay, I'll look for it again."
Zhou Suiyuan, carrying a hoe, followed along as they searched.
The two brothers searched for most of the day and finally only dug out a wooden box. Although they didn't find any gold, it confirmed Zhou Ruiyuan's statement.
Steward Sun did indeed hide some of the gold in this mountain.
But where exactly in the mountain is it? We'll have to search carefully.
Although the mountain range around Changliu Village is not high, it covers a very wide area, and it takes at least an hour to walk from west to east.
Zhou Zhao sighed and sat down, saying, "Brother, let's call it a day. We'll come back tomorrow."
Zhou Ruiyuan was also exhausted. He looked at the sandalwood trees around him and nodded. "Okay, let's take these trees down today and come back to look for gold tomorrow."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhao lay down on the ground, but soon after, he stood up again, picked up an axe, and began to chop down the tree.
Zhou Ruiyuan got up, patted the mud off his clothes, and helped cut down trees.
Not long after, the two men carried two fine sandalwood trees down the mountain.
The two of them happened to pass by the Cao family's house as they were descending the mountain.
Du Damei happened to see them and quickly brought two cups of water to the door for them to drink.
While Zhou Ruiyuan and Zhou Zhao were drinking water, they could hear Cao Shi calling from inside the Cao family's house.
However, Du Damei seemed to ignore her calls and went about her business. After Zhou Ruiyuan and the others finished drinking their water, she smiled and escorted them to the foot of the mountain.
After returning the sandalwood, Zhou Ruiyuan and Zhou Zhao went back to the vegetable garden.
The two brothers then planted some more vegetables in the garden.
When Du Wanchun saw them go up the mountain, she brewed some tea at home and then boiled some eggs and sent them to the vegetable garden.
The family didn't return home until dusk.
When no one was around late at night, Zhou Ruiyuan took out the gold from his pocket and told Du Wanchun about it.
Du Wanchun looked at the gold and exclaimed in surprise, "Husband, this piece of gold is worth at least a hundred taels of silver!"
Zhou Ruiyuan nodded. "Yes, that's right."
After taking the gold and examining it, Du Wanchun pondered, "If we calculate it this way, with this gold we can buy another shop."
Zhou Ruiyuan sat down next to her. "Yes, we can indeed buy another shop, but now is not the time."
"Why?" Du Wanchun asked.
Zhou Ruiyuan replied, "The entire Qingzhou Prefecture is Fang's territory. If we don't cooperate with them, they will definitely find a way to make it impossible for us to do business in Cheng'an County."
Upon hearing this, Du Wanchun quickly said, "How about this, husband? Since we can't do business in Cheng'an County, why don't we open the shop in another place? That way, the Fang family won't be able to control us, and we can have our own shop."
Zhou Ruiyuan nodded, "That's exactly what I was thinking."
Du Wanchun asked, "Husband, where do you think we should open the new shop?"
Zhou Ruiyuan slightly raised his eyes to look into the distance, and after pondering for a long time, replied, "The capital city."
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