After Jiang Yilu left, Gu Xiashi spent a whole week, during which time he hardly left the house except for eating and sleeping. Just in case, he even bought a lock and locked the cabin whenever he left the room.
If someone came in now, they would probably be shocked. All the wooden boards on the ground had been chiseled away, and a huge pit had been dug underground, which was one or two meters deep. The excavated soil had almost piled up into a small hill outside the cabin.
These days, Gu Xiashi only slept four or five hours a day, and every meal was delivered by Jiang Yilu. The rest of the time was spent digging on the ground, and he lost a lot of weight.
On the seventh day, he was about to give up and suspected that the place where the thing was buried was actually outside the cabin, but the hoe finally dug up something hard. Gu Xiashi threw away the hoe in surprise, jumped into the pit, and started digging at that place with his hands. Soon, he found an exquisite wooden box with a layer of metal that was not sure whether it was gold or copper.
It was unknown how long it had been buried underground. The wood had already rotted, and the brass lock on the outside had also rusted. He barely exerted any strength, and with a click, he pulled the brass lock off the wooden box. The wood had long been soft, and the ground was severely damp, so it felt a little soft to the touch. Gu Xiashi looked at the wooden box in front of him and took a deep breath.
The box was not big, only about 20×10cm in size. With a "creak", the box was opened while Gu Xiashi held his breath.
******
"uncle!"
Now that school hasn't started yet, Jiang Yilu has been living in Grandpa Bai's house. After some time, when his yard is renovated, he can move next door.
Jiang Yilu was just making breakfast for the old man when he heard a knock on the door. He opened the door and saw that it was his uncle.
"Divide the things in here among you and your sisters. I'll keep your eldest sister's share. These are for you and Erni and the others." Gu Xiashi handed over a small box. Jiang Yilu took it puzzledly. It felt a little heavy in his hand, and he had no idea what was in it.
"Go back and take a look." Seeing that he was about to open it, Gu Xia Shi hurriedly told his nephew, "There are so many people here now, and there are too many eyes." He looked at the scene of people coming and going around and glared at his nephew.
He used to be a smart kid, why does he look so stupid now?
"What is so mysterious?" Jiang Yiliu smiled, feeling a little curious. "By the way, uncle, you haven't had breakfast yet, right? I made some buns. Come over and have some."
Last night, Grandpa Bai suddenly said that he wanted to eat the spicy vermicelli dumplings that grandma often made when they were at home. Jiang Yilu specially asked his third sister, who was better at cooking than him, to prepare the filling. He kneaded the dough himself and now it is steamed in the steamer. He had planned to give it to his uncle after it was done, but it was just right that he had his uncle here, so he didn't have to make another trip.
"No, I'll be going back to the provincial capital soon. I came here just to bring you something." Gu Xiashi shook his head and handed the key around his neck to his nephew.
"Why are you in such a hurry? Have you found what you are looking for?" Jiang Yilu frowned and asked in confusion.
"I've found it. It's up to you what to do with the house from now on. I guess I won't come here again in the future." Gu Xiashi touched his chest pocket. Jiang Yilu was a little curious about what was in his pocket.
"I'll have someone renovate the house for you. If you and grandma want to come to the capital to live or relax in the future, you'll have a place to stay." Jiang Yilu would not be greedy for his uncle's things.
"Whatever you want." Gu Xiashi touched his nephew's head. The little guy who used to be not even as tall as his knees has grown up now. He has to raise his hand to touch his head. Time flies.
Gu Xia Shi sighed and was really leaving this time. He rejected his nephew's offer to accompany him to the train station and boarded the tram to the train station not far away.
It was not yet time to go to work, and there were not many people on the train. Gu Xiashi sat in the corner of the last row and took out a photo from his chest pocket.
It was a group photo of three people. The little girl standing between the two adults was about 11 or 12 years old. The photo had already turned yellow, but one could still vaguely see the girl's cute and sweet appearance. Gu Xiashi's fingers rubbed the girl's face for a few times.
After so many years, he almost forgot what she looked like. He sighed, carefully put the photo back into his pocket, and looked at the scenery outside the window with empty eyes.
******
"Who's knocking on the door?" Jiang Sini walked out of the room sleepily.
"Girl, you are so lazy that you only come out of your room at noon every day and only know how to eat ready-made food." Jiang Sanni glared at her sister and said unhappily.
"Aren't I our hardworking and beautiful third sister and our considerate and sensible younger brother here at home? I knew you were the best to me and would never care about my little flaws, right?" Jiang Sini clung to her third sister, sticking to her like a twist and acting coquettishly. Her voice seemed to be mixed with sugar, so sweet that it was sickening.
"Alright, alright, come down here quickly and wash your face and brush your teeth. Grandpa Bai and Second Sister will be back from their morning exercise soon, and we'll need to eat then." Jiang Sanni said unhappily, sounding a little impatient, but the smile on her face betrayed her.
"As you wish!" Jiang Sini saluted and was about to go out to wash up when she suddenly remembered that Xiaobao hadn't replied to her question just now. "Xiaobao, who was here just now? What is that box in your hand?"
"My uncle came just now and said that he went back early this morning. The things in this box are gifts for us, and he asked us to share them equally." Jiang Yilu put the box in his hand on the table and answered the fourth sister.
"Gone, why did my uncle just leave like that?" Jiang Sini wailed. She wanted to take her uncle for a good stroll in the capital. When they were young, her uncle always bought them this and that. Now that she has money, she also wants to buy something for her uncle. But who knew that her uncle and Xiaobao disappeared as soon as they arrived in the capital. The two of them were mysterious and no one knew what they were doing. Originally, she thought that they would have time to play after they finished their work, but now her uncle just left without saying a word and didn't even say hello to them. This was so disappointing.
"Xiao, Xiaobao, this is something your uncle gave you, are you sure?"
Jiang Sanni opened the wooden box while they were chatting. I don't know what she saw, but she suddenly closed the box again. Her voice was trembling, and it was obvious that she was frightened by the things in the box.
"What scared you like this, Third Sister?" Si Ni smiled and reached out to open the lid of the wooden box.
"Pah." Before Jiang Sini's hand touched the wooden box, Jiang Sanni slapped it away. She looked straight at Jiang Yilu, expressing her anxiety.
"My uncle gave it to me personally. What's wrong?" Jiang Yilu was a little puzzled. What kind of scary thing could his uncle give him?
"Look." After getting the accurate answer from her younger brother, Jiang Sanni took a deep breath, pushed the wooden box to the middle of the table, and opened the lid.
The sight is golden, with large yellow croakers neatly stacked in a wooden box, with an estimated total of more than 20 of them. Large yellow croakers are also called gold bars, which are used as reserves by the Central Bank during the Republic of China period. The large ones weigh about 200 to 300 grams, while the small ones are small yellow croakers, weighing about 30 to 40 grams.
The twenty or so gold bars in front of me are all yellow croakers, which is like a huge sum of money.
"This, this can't be some piece of iron painted with gold, maybe my uncle wants to play a trick on us." Jiang Sini's voice was also a little vague.
But how is this possible? My uncle wouldn't joke about such a thing.
"What should we do, Xiaobao?" Whenever something happens, everyone tends to regard Jiang Yilu as the backbone. Although he is the youngest, he gives Sanni and Sini an infinite sense of security.
"Wait until my second sister comes back, and then we'll discuss this." This amount of money was too huge, not worth the snacks or cloth he had accepted before. Jiang Yilu put away the box of gold bars, wondering if his uncle had found a vault in that villa, and how he could just take out such a generous sum of money.
Sanni and Sini did not object. After all, the second sister was more stable than them, and it would not be easy to make mistakes by asking the second sister.
Jiang Erni was also surprised when she learned about this when she came back, but she had the same idea as Jiang Yilu, that the money could not be accepted. The final result was to let Xiaobao hide the box of gold bars well, and return it to his uncle intact when he went home for the holidays.
Jiang Yilu was very pleased with the results of the handling of the matter by his sisters. He was afraid that one of them might have other ideas, which would make the matter difficult to handle.
******
The incident of the gold bars was like an episode. Apart from making Jiang Yilu more curious about the secret of the villa, it did not bring any changes to their lives.
In the following days, everyone was busy with studies and business, and almost forgot about the box of gold bars.
Jiang Yilu is now worried about one thing, which is building a factory. He plans to mass-produce various sauces and pickles based on Granny Miao’s exclusive secret recipes.
In fact, Jiang Yilu has been thinking about this matter for a long time. High-end and rare things can certainly bring wealth, but everyone ignores the huge profit value brought by the indispensable things in people's lives, which even far exceeds those high-end goods.
According to Jiang Yi's observations in his own small hot pot restaurant, those hot pot dipping sauces, which are not uncommon in life, are extremely popular among people, even as good as those delicious pickles.
Similar to the most popular garlic chili sauce and the fragrant and delicious mushroom sauce, almost everyone will ask if the dipping sauces are for sale when leaving, just like asking about the pickles.
Jiang Yiliu did some calculations. For example, a small jar of garlic chili sauce has almost no cost. It relies on the secret recipe and craftsmanship. Nowadays, people live frugally and rarely go to restaurants, but everyone has side dishes and dipping sauces to go with rice. Jiang Yiliu is confident in the taste of his own food. He knows that as long as customers have tasted those things once, they will be willing to spend a little money to save the effort of making them themselves and buy these ready-made things instead.
China has more than one billion people, which is an extremely large market. The products produced on this assembly line seem to have little profit, but if the base number increases a little, it will become a huge number.
How could Jiang Yilu not know how profitable those famous sauce factories were in later generations? What he had to do now was to seize the initiative and become the leader before this market was developed.
As far as Jiang Yilu knows, those sauce brands in his previous life may just be small workshops now. If he can get ahead of others, his future path will be wider and broader.
However, Jiang Yilu now has two difficulties. One is the problem of the factory site and machinery, and the other is how to deal with the confidentiality of the recipe of this secret sauce.
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