Chapter 162: Free Fortune
"I just heard that there is stone material in Shimen Village. Didn't you say you wanted to buy some before, Lin Heng?"
The speaker was Zhang Zhigang, a man with a beard and a big smile on his face.
"What kind of stone?" Lin Heng asked curiously.
He had indeed told everyone before that he wanted to buy stone, but since no one in the town sold it, he had to get it from somewhere else.
He thought about spreading the news and asking, maybe he could get something out of it.
I didn’t expect that there would be news just a few days later.
"There are two mountains in Shimen Village that produce bluestone. In the past, many of us built houses with slate quarried there.
That bluestone is easy to cut. I asked and found out that there are still people cutting stone slabs. If you want to buy some, you can go and talk to the secretary of the Shimen Village Party Committee. "Zhang Zhigang said with a smile.
"Okay, I'll find time to ask." Lin Heng nodded.
He knew that stone slabs could be cut in Shimen Village, but he didn't know whether they could meet his requirements.
I didn't go there before because I didn't trust this kind of privately produced stone. If I wanted to buy it, I had to buy it cut by the stone factory.
But since someone has said it, it wouldn't hurt for him to go and take a look.
It is said that the scenery in Shimen Village is quite nice, you can go in and take a look.
After a pause, Lin Heng continued: "Today's work is still the same, continue to level the ground."
After everyone signed their work books, he assigned the work one by one.
After watching the scene for half an hour and feeling that everything was fine, he said something to his father and left.
"Leave this to me. You go back and meet your third aunt and uncle. They have been here for a whole day. It would be inappropriate not to meet them." Father Lin looked at him and said.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded. When he got home, Xiulan was taking Xiaoxia to chat with his third aunt and uncle in the yard of his parents' house. They were having a very happy conversation.
"Third uncle, third aunt, I was at Hongfeng Mountain yesterday and didn't know you were here. I'm so sorry. You must come to our house for lunch later."
Lin Heng also came over and greeted him with a smile.
Looking at the two people's faces, he remembered that he had been to their house when he was a child. They seemed to be relatives from his father's side.
He still remembered that their daughter was very beautiful and he had teased the girl at that time, but that was six or seven years ago and he didn't know if she was married now.
"Your mother said you are busy, it's nothing." His third uncle said with a smile.
If Lin Heng had behaved like this in the past, he would have definitely been suspicious, but now he believed in his heart that Lin Heng was just very busy.
Her third aunt also took Lin Heng's hand and said with a smile: "When you came to my house six years ago, you were not very tall. Now you are so tall, and you married such a beautiful daughter-in-law like Xiulan. Great."
In the past few years, they also wanted to visit relatives, but their son did not allow them. Now that the Lin family is rich, his son took the initiative to ask them to come and see the situation.
"Haha, thank you for the compliment, Third Aunt. You must come to my house for lunch." Lin Heng said with a smile. He could feel the sincerity of his Third Aunt.
After chatting for a while, Lin Heng took the man to his home. After entertaining him for a while, he asked his mother to help keep him company.
"Wife, please take care of me. I'll go to Shimen Village on horseback."
In the backyard, Lin Heng held his wife's hand and said that it was a bit unfair to leave this matter to her alone.
"Come back for lunch at noon. It's not appropriate for you not to come to the dinner table." Xiulan picked the leaves out of his hair and said with a smile.
This was just a very normal thing for her, but Lin Heng's words made her feel warm inside and made her happier and more content.
"Okay, I promise I'll be here when the time comes."
Lin Heng nodded in agreement, went out and said something to his third uncle and aunt, then went to the back mountain and rode Hongzao off.
"shelf!!"
"hiss!!"
As Lin Heng patted the horse's butt, Hongzao immediately let out a neigh and ran wildly on the dirt road.
The sky has been cloudy these past two days. There was sunshine in the morning, but it has disappeared now and it is a little stuffy.
Riding a horse, the autumn wind suddenly became cool, and the scenery on both sides of the road quickly passed behind me.
When we reached the junction with Shimen Village, the road became much narrower, only about 11.78 meters wide.
But for red dates, this road is still a fast one.
After walking about one kilometer, we arrived at Shimen Village.
The mountains on both sides of Shimen Village are very steep, with slopes of 70 to 80 degrees. There are a large number of cotinus coggygria growing on them. Walking inward is like walking into a peach orchard, with the mountains full of red cotinus coggygria.
This tall and steep mountain looks more majestic and shocking, making people feel extremely small.
After walking about two kilometers, the mountains on both sides suddenly moved away and the slope became much gentler.
Lin Heng knew that he had arrived at Shimen Village, which was also a very small valley basin.
The Shiban River is much smaller here, and there are farmlands along the river.
It seemed that because of the seven days of heavy rain last time, many farmlands were ruthlessly washed away.
"Come on, I'll get you some water."
Lin Heng took the red dates to the river to drink water.
While Hongzao was drinking water, Lin Heng washed his face and strolled along the river.
He heard from Caiyun that someone had picked up crystals in this river, so he also wanted to try his luck. If he could pick up crystals of super high purity, they would be worth a lot of money.
Even if it was just an ordinary crystal, it would be nice to put it at home as a decoration, so he began to search carefully by the river.
There is no need to worry about the red dates. They drink the water and then eat grass obediently by the river.
"Hey, this wood is a bit strange."
As he walked, Lin Heng discovered something was wrong.
This is a rotten piece of wood about three or four meters long and about forty centimeters in diameter, but only half of it is rotten.
He felt something was wrong because the texture of the wood was somewhat unlike that of ordinary rotten wood.
Taking out the tempered steel dagger from his waist, Lin Heng found an inconspicuous place and chopped it twice, his expression gradually becoming dull.
"Oh my god, this is a dark wood."
He exclaimed in a low voice. Although he couldn't tell what kind of wood it was, the fact that it was sunken wood was already very valuable.
This surprised him a bit. This time the flood not only washed out the crystals, but also the sunken wood.
But it seems that no one has noticed this and no one cares about these sunken trees.
This is normal. There are rotten wood everywhere in the countryside, and no one cares about this seemingly shabby wood.
And even if they know it is sunken wood, most farmers don’t know how to sell it.
This was great news for Lin Heng. The wood in the river had no owner and whoever found it would own it.
He could pick it up and take it home directly without spending a penny, and that was what excited him the most.
After taking a look at the red dates, he swam upstream again and continued his search.
If there are more, we have to inform the Shimen Village Committee and buy some stones to send them along.
If there is less, he will just take it home himself.
After searching upstream for several hundred meters without finding anything, he went downstream to look for it.
He found three pieces of wood and a large tree root downstream, which surprised him: "It seems that these dark woods are all downstream. Maybe there are some in the village. I have to go back and look for them."
It is not known what kind of tree this is. Many trees can form this kind of wood. Common ones include Cyclobalanopsis, Willow, Cinnamomum camphora, Toona sinensis, Phoebe nanmu, as well as Rosewood and Cypress.
Among them, nanmu takes the longest time to form, more than 8,000 years, and is also the most expensive, followed by red sandalwood, camphor and other species.
Before he was reborn, each kilogram of these dark woods cost several hundred yuan, and a small dark golden nanmu tree tumor could be sold for hundreds of thousands.
But he was picking up things for free, any tree would do, and he would make a lot of money.
After taking another look at the wood, he rode the red dates into Shimen Village.
When I walk there, I always feel like these dark woods are being stolen, and I can't wait to take them home.
Shaking his head, Lin Heng looked at the old man on the side of the road and took a cigarette for him. He asked with a smile: "Uncle, where is the mountain where the stone is mined in the village?"
"You just keep going up and look to the left, and you'll notice it."
The bald old man grinned and looked at the cigarette again and again. Daqianmen cigarettes, these are good cigarettes.
"Thank you." Lin Heng nodded and rode his horse up.
There are much fewer people in Shimen Village than in Hongfeng Village, with only sixty or seventy households. Most of them live in this small valley, and some live in the mountains farther away.
In addition to the common mud houses, there are also many stone houses made simply of stones, which look very retro.
After passing through the village, the highway had completely disappeared and the road turned into a 50-centimeter-wide mountain road. Lin Heng rode his horse for about four or five hundred meters and saw the stone mountain.
From a distance, it looks like a green stone mountain, and there are two people digging stones on the hillside.
The horse was tied to the side of the road to graze, and Lin Heng walked closer to check.
There were a lot of gravel on the roadside, but they were all very smooth and hard, which was beyond his expectations.
"Uncle, are you going to mine this stone to build your own house?"
Lin Heng handed a cigarette to the two people who were mining rocks on the mountain and asked with a smile.
"Yes, I plan to build my own house." The older uncle nodded.
"This stone is getting harder and harder to open. The good ones have to be dug inside, because the outside has been dug away by others." Another shorter uncle lit a cigarette with a match and said with emotion.
"How is this stone sold?" Lin Heng asked curiously again.
"We can dig it up freely in our village. If we want to buy it from other villages, we have to consult the village party secretary, whether we dig it ourselves or buy it ready-made."
"You are from Hongfeng Village, right? Someone came to buy a slab of stone that was cut one meter by one meter for fifty or sixty cents a piece. If I bring it to you, you have to pay more."
"I don't think it's worth it. I can find a place in my village to dig some stones."
The two of them were smoking and talking to each other.
"Thank you." Lin Heng nodded, chatted for a few more words, looked at the stone slabs they had cut out, and left.
He searched upstream along the river, looking for traces of the dark wood, but unfortunately he didn't find any upstream.
On the way back, he saw a stone foundation on the road. He guessed that the two uncles were also planning to build a house with stones.
The pure stone house has a kind of beauty that is not part of the modern era. It costs nothing and it would take one or two years to build.
Lin Heng found the village party secretary of Shimen Village and told him about this matter.
What he meant was that Shimen Village would prepare the stone slabs for him and he would come up and pull them himself.
"How much do you want?" The village party secretary of Shimen Village is a tall and thin middle-aged man named Zhang Lei.
"Three hundred yuan, and the thickness must be at least three centimeters." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"That costs fifty cents a piece, and after you cut it, you have to make it into a regular shape, which takes half a day. If it's rotten, you may not be able to make a piece in a day." said Zhang Lei, the village party secretary.
"This is a bit expensive. I can accept 40 cents per piece." Lin Heng shook his head.
Zhang Lei nodded and said, "Actually, this price is fine, but I guess there are not many people willing to cut the stone. I can get it done for you in a month at 50 cents a piece.
You can also move any other rubble from the mountain. Many of those stones can be used.”
"That's fine." Lin Heng thought about it and agreed.
Both parties wrote a contract in duplicate, and the matter was settled.
"By the way, Uncle Zhang, there are some rotten wood in the river. I think we can move it back?" Lin Heng asked again.
"Not to mention the wood in the river, even if it's on the mountain, as long as it's not cut down by others, you can move it if you want." Zhang Lei didn't care about any rotten wood.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, folded the contract, put it in his pocket, and rode away on his horse.
He rode his horse at full speed and went home to get a chainsaw and a rope.
"Xiu Lan, where is that thick brown rope?" Lin Heng asked.
"In the fire room, do you want to go up the mountain? It's already ten o'clock, and it's time for dinner." Xiulan came over and asked.
"Well, I'm going to Shimen Village to carry back some wood. If we're lucky, we might make a fortune." Lin Heng found the rope, walked out and said with a smile.
"Get rich?" Xiulan looked confused.
"I'll tell you slowly when I get it back. I'm leaving first." Lin Heng grinned and went out with the rope.
After thinking about it, he went back to the house, got a bowl of corn paste, fed the red dates, and then left.
Arriving at Hongfeng Mountain, Lin Heng found his father working. On the way, he shouted, "Dad, stop what you are doing. I have something to talk to you about."
"What's the matter?" Father Lin came over and asked.
"Dad, pull the wooden cart down and tie it to the horse, let's go pull something." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"What is that? Why are you still holding the chainsaw?" Father Lin looked curious.
"You'll know when you get there." Lin Heng kept it a secret.
Father Lin showed a helpless expression: "Okay, wait a moment."
He turned around to arrange his work, then pulled the wooden cart out onto the road.
After tying up the carriage, Lin Heng drove him away and sped towards Shimen Village.
"Can you tell me what's going on now?" Father Lin glanced at him.
Lin Heng looked at his father and explained with a smile: "Let's go pick up some wood. If we're lucky, we can make a few thousand yuan, and if we're unlucky, we can still make a few hundred yuan."
"What kind of wood is so expensive?" Father Lin was stunned and couldn't believe it.
"It's the sunken wood. The rising water washed the sunken wood out." Lin Heng said with a smile
Father Lin was even more confused: "What is the dark wood?"
“It’s also called ebony, which is a kind of wood that has been buried in the ground for thousands of years and is about to carbonize…” Lin Heng explained.
Few people in rural areas know about sunken wood and have no idea about these things.
The price of sunken wood is not very high in this era. The ordinary one is four or five hundred yuan per ton, while the price of golden nanmu may be thousands.
But no matter what, this is free wealth.
Father Lin was shocked: "Rotten wood buried in the ground is actually so valuable!"
When he arrived at the place and saw the gray and rotten wood, he couldn't believe it.
"Come on, Dad, let's try to see if we can lift it." Lin Heng said to his father.
This piece of wood is four meters long and is very dense and heavy.
"Hey! It's so heavy." Father Lin was shocked.
The two men tried their best to lift the wood.
"This must be 500 kilograms." Lin Heng said gritting his teeth.
The two of them lifted it for a few steps before putting it down. Father Lin took a deep breath and said, "It has to be cut into two pieces, otherwise it won't be able to be lifted."
"Then let's saw it." Lin Heng also shook his head.
The two men padded up the wood, and Lin Heng turned on the chain saw and started sawing.
Unlike normal wood sawing, this dark wood is too hard and extremely difficult to saw. Fortunately, it is not carbonized, otherwise sparks would fly.
Father Lin brought some water and spent five or six minutes to saw the wood into two pieces.
When the cross section is poured with water, it shows delicate light yellow lines, which are somewhat grayish, but the texture is very hard.
"It looks like dark camphor wood and smells fragrant, but I can't be sure. But it is definitely dark wood." Lin Heng said after smelling it. As long as it is dark wood, he will not lose out.
"I didn't expect that this wood looks gray on the outside, but it actually looks quite nice on the inside." Father Lin said with some surprise. He was beginning to believe that this wood was valuable.
"Let's go, move it to the car first, there's more underneath, and there's also a tree root."
Lin Heng smiled and said that the root of the sunken wood was the thing he liked the most. There were many scars on it, and it could be used to make beads and tea trays, all of which were top-quality.
If the internal texture is good, it will be even more valuable.
After moving the two pieces of wood onto the carriage and driving it down for a distance, Lin Heng took his father to the location of the second sunken wood.
The three pieces of sunken wood are two meters, five meters, and six meters long respectively, with diameters exceeding thirty centimeters, but they have many cracks.
None of the three looked like complete pieces of wood, but rather like parts of a particularly large piece of wood that had been split open, with a charred black appearance.
The two of them used a chainsaw and cut it into about two meters long.
The three sawed pieces are the same as the one with dark wood above, with a grayish yellowish color inside.
"How did you find out?" Father Lin asked while moving wood.
Lin Heng is really amazing. He went to see a stone slab and got such a large pile of good wood and made hundreds of dollars.
I feel like it's too easy for him to make money.
"I have to thank Caiyun for this. It's all thanks to knowledge." Lin Heng grinned. If Caiyun hadn't told him about the crystal, he might not have gone to look at it specifically.
As I said, there is a lot of wealth in the mountains, you just need eyes to discover it.
Just like this sunken wood, many people can't recognize it. If it were intact, some people would want it, but no one would look at this tattered one.
"Do you know where to sell it?" Lin's father asked again.
"I don't plan to sell it for now. I'll wait for a chance to find someone to carve it or make it into a tea tray or something. It will be more valuable." Lin Heng shook his head. He was not short of money for the time being, so there was no need to sell these woods. They could appreciate in value in the future.
After loading the wood into the car, they walked down half a kilometer and arrived at the last sunken wood that Lin Heng had discovered.
A big black tree root that looks rotten beyond recognition.
"Is this also useful?" Father Lin asked in surprise. This thing seems to be of no use no matter how you look at it.
"This may be the most valuable one." Lin Heng grinned.
Whether this shape is used for carving, making a tea tray, or making beads, it is more valuable than the pieces of wood mentioned above.
It's normal that his father doesn't understand. Rural people can never imagine the city people's pursuit of these things.
Cultural relics and the like are only played by rich people.
Holding the electric saw, Lin Heng cut it open a little, wanting to see what color was inside.
The tree had many roots and knots, making it even more difficult to saw. I had to pour a lot of water before I could barely saw it open.
"Oh my god, blood red!!!"
The moment he sawed it open, Lin Heng was stunned. The tree root knot, which looked black on the outside, was actually a beautiful blood red color inside.
"This wood is so beautiful!" Father Lin was also shocked. He had only cut this part, but the texture was already so beautiful.
"I'm rich, I'm rich!" Lin Heng was so excited that he couldn't close his mouth. He got a lot of wealth for free.
If you keep this tree root at home, you can buy a new house in the next few years without any problem.
"Is this the root of a red toon tree?" Father Lin asked curiously.
Lin Heng nodded: "The only red trees I know of are red sandalwood and red toon. We don't have red sandalwood here, so it must be the ancient red toon."
"Then take it home quickly to avoid any further complications." Father Lin also became excited.
This small tree root weighed more than 300 pounds. The two men barely lifted it onto the road and put it on the carriage.
The total weight of the wood in this truck is more than 2,000 kilograms, and the tires seem to be unable to bear the pressure.
Fortunately, the roads back to Hongfeng Village are all downhill or flat, with very few uphill roads, otherwise we would definitely not be able to get back.
After tying up the wood, Lin Heng and his father each held one side and slowly walked back.
It took me more than forty minutes to reach the road in front of the door. When I looked at the time, it was almost one o'clock in the afternoon.
Lin Heng's uncle and aunt were waiting for them to come back for dinner.
Seeing them pulling a cart of wood back, I asked curiously, "What kind of wood is this?"
"Ebony is not worth much. I brought it back to make something. Let's go eat." Lin Heng said with a smile, not wanting to reveal his wealth.
"Why don't you move back first?" asked Lin's father.
"No need, come back after dinner." Lin Heng said with a smile. Now that he was back, he was no longer worried.
Now this thing has changed from being ownerless to having an owner.
It was installed on my own car and no one dared to touch it.
"That's fine."
When I went back to the room and washed my face, Xiulan had already served the dishes.
After the nine dishes were served, his third uncle and aunt couldn't help but show shock on their faces.
"This dish is so delicious." His third uncle said in shock.
I thought the food I had at Lin Heng's parents' house was sumptuous enough, but now it seems like it was just a drop in the bucket.
Lin Heng’s family’s nine dishes include fish, pork, beef, braised pig offal, fish balls and winter melon soup, and black truffles.
Just the aroma made their mouths water and their stomachs growl.
It was considered good to be able to eat pork once a month at home, but Lin Heng's family only had five or six meat dishes, and also braised meat.
For a moment, they had a very deep understanding of Lin Heng's wealth and envied him from the bottom of their hearts.
"You're too polite. Just do something simple." Lin Hengsan's aunt also said quickly.
"Nothing special, it just happens that there is a lot of meat these days, uncle and aunt, let's drink and eat."
Lin Heng said this and started eating. He was almost starving.
"Yes, you're welcome." Lin's father and mother also said.
"Okay."
The two agreed with a smile, and after taking a sip of wine, they couldn't wait to pick up a piece of braised pork liver and eat it.
Even if they wanted to be polite, their bodies were out of control.
The two of them felt like crying when they ate it. It was so delicious that it felt like a dream.
"It's all thanks to you, Lin Heng. I haven't eaten braised pork for a long time." His uncle sighed.
"Then eat more, as much as you can." Lin Heng said with a smile.
I'm sorry, I updated too late today. I left my dad in the morning and went back to my hometown. It was already 11 o'clock when I got back. I just finished the manuscript, so I know the plot a few hours more than you.
(End of this chapter)
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