"I found this at the Ning County Waste Recycling Station. There were a lot of old wooden furniture in there. I fiddled with it for a while and found secret compartments under the table legs and stools. There were gold hidden there. I didn't expect there were marks. There really was a big landlord living in Ning County in the past. He was famous for his large fields and wealth. I guess these belong to him. They can be considered to have an owner. Maybe..."

"It's okay. We didn't take it from their house. If it doesn't fall into your hands, it will be taken away by someone else. Maybe it will be transported directly to be used as fuel and melted in a big furnace. Isn't that more wasteful?"

"That's true, haha."

"You're quite capable, roaming around in scrap yards, and they let you in?"

"How could I have such a talent? It just so happened that I had three relatives working at different scrap yards. During the Spring Festival, I pretended to go to their scrap yard to look for some books on making medicinal wine. They let me just go in and look around, but I didn't expect to find any."

"Give each of them a bottle of medicinal wine in the future and tell them that you learned how to make it."

"Yes, about that tiger bone and tiger tendon wine, didn't you ask me and Master Gan who makes the wine to keep six kilograms each? I plan to give one kilogram to each of my three relatives."

"Not bad. This 'thank you gift' is valuable enough. It's tiger bone and tiger tendon wine. Just ask the master and you'll know that it has high medicinal value. Our boss repackaged it in white porcelain bottles. Each bottle is clearly marked with a price of several hundred or even a thousand yuan. Rich people are scrambling to buy it but can't afford it."

Meng Tao was honest. The ordinary bamboo leaf green wine that had been blessed by the space was already in great demand, let alone tiger bone and tiger tendon wine? A few hundred or even a thousand yuan a bottle was still a conservative estimate.

Zhang Fu thought she was bragging: "It's packed in a pound, so each bottle can only sell for a few dozen yuan at most."

Meng Tao didn't argue with him and started talking about business: "The boss sent a red deer and a wild boar today. They should have been delivered to the small warehouse. You can hire a butcher to deal with them, and also ask the medicinal wine master in your winery to make deer stalks, deer tendons, deer penis wine... In short, make everything that can be used to make wine. You can keep a dozen pounds of deer meat and wild boar meat each to give as gifts and for your own consumption, and put the rest in bamboo baskets and put them in the small warehouse."

When Zhang Fu heard there was a deer, he thought it was a good thing and asked excitedly, "Is it alive?"

"Of course he was beaten to death. How could he be transported here alive?"

"Okay, I'll go right away! No need to look for anyone else. Master Gan specializes in making medicinal wine. He knows how to kill these living creatures, remove the bones and skin, etc. He's an expert at it."

Zhang Fu locked the two drawers as he spoke. Meng Tao sighed in her heart: Who would have thought that such a simple table drawer could lock up gold, silver and jewelry? Fortunately, there are very few thieves these days, and few dare to break into houses. However, she still reminded Zhang Fu that it would be better for him to keep the items separately and not put all his eggs in one basket.

Zhang Fu agreed and opened another cupboard. There were five or six pieces of porcelain in it, and he had agreed to sell half of them to Meng Tao.

When Meng Tao saw him take out three stacked blue and white plates with one hand, she was immediately frightened and quickly reached out to take them - if these were really antiques, their value would be greatly reduced if they were treated so roughly by him and damaged a little bit.

There is also a small bowl with flowers all over the floor, a small pot in the shape of a flower basket, a blue and white general jar that is cute yet majestic, a doucai chicken heart bowl, and a plate with gold-painted edges.

They are all very delicate and beautiful porcelains. Girls will definitely like them when they see them, so Zhang Fu wants to give them to Meng Tao.

Meng Tao took a preliminary look and felt that they should all be authentic products from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and were very well preserved. They might not be worth much at this stage, but if they were preserved for future generations, their value would be immeasurable.

He said to Zhang Fu, "I will accept them all. I will take them back and let someone who knows how to appraise them have a look. If they are indeed genuine, I will give you an estimate of the price."

"Are you stupid? You don't want the money?"

"If it's valuable, why are you still complaining about it?" Zhang Fu pretended to be angry: "Forget it, I'll take it out and deal with it myself."

"No, you've seen them all, so whoever sees it gets a share! Then let's each get half of the money, okay?" Meng Tao said. She actually really liked these small porcelain pieces and was reluctant to let them go.

Zhang Fu then smiled and said, "Okay, half for each of us."

The porcelain was put back in the cupboard and would be taken away when Meng Tao was ready to go home.

The two of them went out to the hall, and Zhang Fu told Zhang's father and Jinniu: "I have something to do at the winery. You stay at home. My mother is stewing pork rib soup on the stove in the kitchen. Let Taohua watch it. If I can't get back before dinner, you can eat first and don't wait for me."

Father Zhang said, "Come back early. It's rare for Jinniu to come. Take him out for a walk on the tricycle."

"Of course, Jinniu, you can't do any work in the village anyway, so stay for a few more days. We'll go out for a walk every day and I guarantee you'll get familiar with the county town."

Taurus smiled and said, "Okay. Then you go and get busy first. The sooner you go, the sooner you will be back."

Meng Tao called Zhang Fu again: "Just now when we were having dinner, my brother said that there is a family named Tian in the back alley. They just moved in. Do you know them? Why don't you go and ask them where they are from?"

Zhang Fu said: "I grew up in the county town, and I know almost all the people in the three alleys in front and behind. But I don't know the family that just moved in. I only heard that their surname is Tian."

"The Tian family of Linshui Village, I told you about it before, maybe it's them."

"What? It's them?!" Zhang Fu and Jinniu said in unison, obviously not expecting it.

Zhang's father asked, "The Tian family has an agricultural household registration. They don't work in the village to earn work points, but come to the county town to buy a house and live here with their whole family. How do they live?"

Meng Tao: "Their son used to work in a big factory in the provincial capital. He came back to the village for the Spring Festival this year. He was beaten and hospitalized. He couldn't go back to work, so he resigned and received a resettlement fee. He has been receiving medical treatment in the county. His mother and brothers and sisters all came to take care of him. Maybe because there were too many people and they had money, they simply bought a yard in the county and lived there. With that money, they should be able to get by for a while."

"Oh, so that's how it is. That guy from before...that guy deserved it. He had bad intentions and should be beaten to death!" When Zhang's father saw his son winking at him, he stopped asking questions.

Zhang Fu said to Meng Tao, "You don't need to ask. When I come back tonight, I'll take you there and you'll know. They bought an old, uninhabited yard for only a hundred yuan. The house is run-down and one side of the wall has collapsed. They didn't repair it, but just used a few pieces of wood to block it. Neighbors passing by can clearly see into the yard. Let's go take a look."

"Okay, then you should come back early." Meng Tao replied.

(End of this chapter)