As soon as everyone left, Jiang He immediately closed the gate of the yard, and Jiang Shushu filled the hole he had dug last night.
Jiang He asked quietly, "Shushu, what's going on? Why is Li Chunyan staring at our family?"
"I saw Li Chunyan enter your room, and then I went around to your window to eavesdrop. Dad, guess what I heard?" Jiang Shushu deliberately kept the question in suspense, trying to test whether Jiang He and his wife knew about the gold bars?
"What did you hear? Tell me quickly, I'm so anxious."
"I heard Li Chunyan talking to herself. There are treasures on the wall of your room."
Jiang He and Xu Hehua's eyes widened, their faces bewildered. "..." I've lived in my room for decades, how could there be treasure? How come I didn't know? I've been poor for decades, and now I'm told that my family has a lot of money, and it's in my room. Don't you think this is ridiculous?
Jiang He thought that he had ordered people to build the earthen bricks on the wall, and he had watched and participated in the whole process, so he couldn't believe that there was a treasure on the wall.
Jiang He shook his head again and again, "Impossible, impossible, how could there be treasures on the wall? Dad and his men laid these bricks together, who would put treasures in them? It's not like we have too much money to spend."
Xu Hehua also nodded in agreement, "Yes, yes, I helped dig the soil back then. The mud was dug near the lawn at the edge of the field. How could there be treasures there?"
Xu Hehua suddenly realized, "Old man, we dug the mud one shovel at a time. Could it be that there are some gold beans or silver beans in it that we haven't seen?"
Jiang He: "Maybe that's possible, but even if there are, there probably aren't many. Otherwise, how come there aren't any of us, with more than ten of us, able to see any?"
Jiang Shushu looked at the expressions of Jiang He and Xu Hehua and knew that they were not lying.
It seems that Jiang He and his wife really were unaware of the situation, and it wasn't like they were secretly hiding some private money. So where did the gold bars come from? Could it be that some wealthy man, with too much money to spend, secretly replaced the bricks used to build Jiang He and his wife's house with mud-covered gold bricks?
"Mom and Dad, Li Chunyan wasn't talking about gold beans or silver beans, but gold bars, hundreds of kilograms of gold bars."
Xu Hehua was so scared that she burped. "Burp, burp, really? Burp, burp, how is it possible? Burp..."
Jiang He's mouth opened wide, his mind full of hundreds of kilograms of gold bars. Then, excitedly, he also started burping, "Burp, burp..."
Jiang Shushu poured a glass of water for each of them and said, "Mom and Dad, drink some water to calm your nerves. We don't know whether the story is true or not, so don't get so excited." Next time when he talked about the story, he would definitely not do it when they had just eaten, so as to avoid making them suffer.
The two old men quickly picked up the water and drank it, trying to suppress the hiccups, but it was obviously useless. Fortunately, after drinking the water, the hiccups were not so frequent, and they only occurred every once in a while.
Jiang He: "Shushu, was Dad scared just now? Hundreds of kilograms of gold bars? I never dared to think of such a thing in my dreams. Besides, this brick was really supervised by Dad's relatives. Like your mother said, there might be a gold bean or silver bean or something, Dad can still believe it, but when you mention gold bars, or hundreds of kilograms of ginger bars, Dad can't believe it at all? Even if I'm blind, then your other ten or so uncles can't be blind, right? Unless we have encountered a ghost."
Jiang Shushu: "..." It's possible you've encountered a ghost. You and Xu Hehua must have been powerful figures in your past lives, otherwise how could you possibly know the Judge? How could you possibly have the Judge protecting you? If you know such a high-ranking official, it wouldn't be surprising if you knew a few more ghosts who sent you money. Maybe it was really a ghost who sent it.
Jiang Shushu walked to a corner and patted the wall. "Is it true? Let's dig out the bricks tonight. We'll know for sure. Li Chunyan knocked on this spot. It's only hundreds of kilograms of gold bars. If she wanted to hide it, she could only hide it in five or six bricks at most."
Jiang He: "Are you sure it's this location?"
"Are you sure? I put my ear close to the outside and listened. It's definitely at this location. I'm 100% sure."
Jiang He: "Okay, whether it's true or not, let's dig it out tonight and see. We still have a dozen bricks at home, so when these bricks are taken down, we'll have bricks to put them back. Later, when no one's around, dad can go dig up some clay and save it for tonight."
"Dad, I'll go dig the clay. We're not building anything right now, and if you do it, it'll attract too much attention."
Jiang He thought the same thing and said, "Okay, then you go dig it. Your mom and I will stay at home and remove half of the clay from each brick first."
Jiang Shushu dug the clay into a bag, and then used his body and the grass to cover the clay in a small space. After washing his hands, Jiang Shushu walked back confidently.
Late at night, the three members of the Jiang family gathered in the room of Jiang He and his wife. Instead of turning on the lights, the family lit a kerosene lamp. Xu Hehua even deliberately left the wick exposed only a little bit, making the fire very small and dim. If it weren't for the fear of being unable to see one's hand in front of one's face and digging in the wrong place, Hehua would not have been willing to give even this little bit of light.
Xu Hehua stood on a stool and leaned on the window to look out to make sure there was no one outside. Jiang He and Jiang Shushu, father and daughter, dug out the remaining clay, one holding a dagger and the other holding a pointed iron rod. An hour later, eight bricks were taken down by Jiang He and his daughter.
In order to avoid being discovered, the father and daughter immediately blocked the hole with a new brick the moment the brick was taken down.
Jiang Shushu said to Xu Hehua who was coming down from the window, "Mom, turn on the fan and blow it towards the wall. I want the clay to dry faster."
"Return." Xu Hehua immediately took out her treasured fan, plugged it in, and blew it towards the wall.
Jiang He put eight bricks into the bucket and basin prepared in advance, then poured water into them and waited quietly.
The three members of the family didn't speak a word. They all stared at the bucket or basin quietly. After about ten minutes, the three members of the Jiang family put on gloves, found a small stool to sit on, and rubbed the bricks hard as if they were soap, trying to turn the entire brick into mud and water.
"Not a single one."
"No two."
"No three."
…
Jiang Shushu rubbed the dirt while saying, "Mom and Dad, you take a break. I'll do the last brick. After I rub it, we'll know if there's a treasure."
Jiang He and his wife looked at the bricks in Jiang Shushu's hand nervously, praying silently in their hearts, hoping that the last brick would produce a treasure.
Only when the last mud brick turned into mud water did Jiang Shushu have to accept the fact.
Hundreds of kilograms of gold bars, bah, let alone hundreds of kilograms, I wouldn't be angry if you gave me one or two ounces, but in the end I got nothing, it was all for nothing.
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