Jiang Xi stepped out of the house. Snow clung to the bare branches, a cold wind howled, and the broken walls and ruins stood out even more silently in the snow, exuding an endless sense of vicissitude and weight.
Beneath the dilapidated window frame was a snowdrift, noticeably higher than the others. She walked over and used a machete to clear it away, revealing a pile of broken pottery shards. This must have been a water vat before, and years of wind, snow, and sun exposure had caused the glaze on the shards to separate from the pottery body.
Jiang Xi stood up and looked around: "This courtyard isn't very big. Let's go take a look next door."
Yan Zheng came out of the house upon hearing this.
The courtyard gate was made of wood and was closed from the outside. Yan Zheng found it troublesome and took the lead by walking along the collapsed courtyard wall. After passing through, he turned back to help Jiang Xi.
Yan Jing'an followed closely behind.
The second courtyard was nestled against the mountain, and it was larger than the first one. Even the main house was built with yellow bricks. Jiang Xi looked around and compared the different courtyards, discovering that it was located in the center of the village.
At this time, the courtyard and rooftop were covered in heavy snow, and the traces of their previous escape were also buried under the snow.
A towering ginkgo tree stood in the courtyard, its canopy so large from neglect that it covered almost half the yard. Withered branches and fallen leaves made the courtyard appear even more desolate and overgrown.
Yan Zheng optimistically said, "Ginkgo is good; it doesn't get infested with insects, and it's cool in the summer."
This was a house with two rooms facing southeast. Yan Zheng walked to the main house facing south first. The wooden door was locked. He gritted his teeth and pulled hard with his hand, and the latch and the rusty lock fell off the door.
The three of them went inside after the dust had settled. They were greeted by two ordinary-looking Ming Dynasty round-backed chairs and a square table.
This room is not only larger than the previous one, but the room is also well-divided, with clear divisions on the left and right sides. On the left is the bed and wardrobe, and on the right is a square dining table.
Jiang Xi looked around at the furnishings in the room.
She looked at the round-backed chair and said, "I didn't expect they had carpenters. Although this eight-immortal table is roughly made, it was made by a proper craftsman."
Yan Zheng said, "Since we are seeking refuge in this remote mountain forest, we should naturally select some strong and capable people to take with us."
Jiang Xi thought that in that turbulent era when people were starving, those without value would not have survived to enter the mountains.
She could imagine what a huge family it was, capable of both pottery making and woodworking; she wondered if they would make any other discoveries in a little while.
Yan Zheng pried open the wardrobe door, inside which were piled some ominous, blackened items that looked like fabric. She called Jiang Xi over.
Jiang Xi gently lifted the garment with her knife to examine it. It was made of rattan fiber, and although it was somewhat oxidized, she could still tell at a glance.
"Look, this is made of rattan fiber. I've made so many clothes with it, you won't mistake it."
Yan Zheng was also surprised: "It seems that our ancestors hundreds of years ago were already able to process this kind of fiber very well."
Jiang Xi exclaimed in genuine admiration, "Their craftsmanship is truly superb; they can weave the cloth so finely."
Do they also have looms?
Then I thought again, even if there were looms, hundreds of years have passed, and they probably wouldn't be usable anymore.
"I told you all to stop looking there and come look at this."
It was Yan Jing'an's voice coming from the side room.
The side room was a kitchen, with a stove built of mud bricks inside, which had collapsed halfway.
Jiang Xi walked in and her eyes lit up when she saw the stove. Of course, her focus was not on the stove, but on the big iron pot on it.
The pot was covered with a thick layer of grease and red rust, but Jiang Xi's heart was in turmoil. Could it be that they had mastered ironwork?
Yan Zheng was also somewhat surprised; this village was becoming more and more interesting.
Next to the earthen stove, there was a bowl rack with several earthenware bowls and jars on it.
Yan Jing'an took a liking to a narrow-mouthed jar sealed with cloth and some other material.
He picked it up, shook it in surprise, and said, "There's something else inside?"
Jiang Xi took it and shook it too. She could hear a faint sound of water. She teased, "I hope it's wine from three hundred years ago."
Unexpectedly, Yan Jing'an took it seriously, and looked regretful.
It was as if the pot contained a priceless elixir.
Jiang Xi glanced at the seal, but it was all dust and she couldn't see anything clearly: "How is this sealing technology done? It's sealed so tightly, yet nothing has evaporated."
While they were studying it, Yan Zheng made a new discovery on the other side. He gestured for Jiang Xi to come over, then lifted the tall ceramic jar in the corner, which was covered with a ceramic lid.
The contents inside had long since decomposed, leaving only a small portion of the bottom of the jar frozen into a black, lumpy mass.
Yan Zheng said, "It looks like moldy and rotten rice."
He wasn't sure either, after all, it was something that had been around for three or four hundred years.
Jiang Xi thought for a moment and said, "Ceramics have always had good sealing properties. Even if it is really grain, it is normal that it has not completely decomposed. It's just a pity that we can't tell what kind of grain it is."
She didn't expect any seeds, after all, no seed could survive for hundreds of years. She just wanted to know what they were planting so she could plant it in the jungle next year.
After they came out, they went to the easternmost courtyard. It was still a courtyard with two rooms facing each other in the southeast, but it was smaller than the previous room. The courtyard was also not big. The walls were made of stone bricks and mud, and it did not look as spacious as the one next door.
The beams and pillars in the southwest corner of the main house collapsed, having stood for countless years in a precarious, unyielding posture.
Seeing the danger, Yan Zheng told them to wait at the door, then took a few steps forward. The house was unlocked and half-open.
He cautiously walked in and was greeted by a kiln.
Surprisingly, there were no tables or chairs inside, and all that could be seen on the walls were ironware.
Besides swords and knives, there were also plows, harrows, hoes, and even sickles. Although they were all rusty, you could still tell what they were originally made of at a glance.
Besides these, there was only a single wooden bed in the corner. It looked like a blacksmith's workshop. It's worth coming back to study it in more detail and see how they smelted iron.
In addition, the tools on the wall can also be used after being polished a second time.
After Yan Zheng came out, the three of them went to the courtyard in the northeast corner. This house had only one room and no windows. Many things in the courtyard were covered by snow. The only thing that could be seen was a deer head with antlers hanging on the wall by the door.
Perhaps it was created using some special technique. The deer head still has fur on its face. However, most of it is damaged, making it look rather eerie.
Yan Zheng pushed the door open, but couldn't budge it. Then he used more force. With a clatter, the entire door fell apart. He opened the door and went inside, immediately covering his mouth and nose because of the pungent smell. The room was filled with a strong, acrid odor.
Yan Jing'an, who followed behind, immediately covered his mouth and nose with his scarf: "What's that smell?"
Yan Zheng said in a deep voice, "It should be a hunter's house."
Animal hides of varying sizes hung on the wall, but most of them were moldy, and the smell seemed to be coming from them.
Jiang Xi walked towards the corner, where she saw a bow standing upright. She intended to pick it up and show it to Yan Zheng, but as she passed the wooden bed, she screamed in fright, nearly dropping the machete from her hand.
Yan Zheng hurried over and followed the line of sight, then gasped in shock at what he saw.
There was a person lying on the bed, or more accurately, a skeleton. The skin and flesh had weathered away, leaving only a bare skeleton. The body was covered with a charred blanket, with the head and arms exposed.
Yan Jing'an, who was standing nearby, leaned closer to the bed and asked in surprise, "Huh? This person doesn't have a left arm?"
Jiang Xi calmed herself down and mustered her courage to look over. She was surprised to find that it wasn't just one arm that was showing; there really was only one arm, and the place where her left arm used to be was completely empty.
Then, something occurred to her, and she said, "He's missing an arm... He must be the person in the mural."
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