There were many skeletonized corpses outside the city gate.
The city was said to be deserted because there were no guards at the gates, leaving them wide open. She looked inside, but there was no sound of human voices, not even a hint of human activity. She wondered what had happened there before.
The guard had said he was trying to lead them into the city, but he hadn't lied. The government of this city was gone.
The first two rows of houses at the city gate have collapsed. Going further in, there are many stone houses that look quite solid, but the people inside are nowhere to be seen. I don’t know whether they fled famine, suffered persecution, or died in the disaster.
"Let's go see if there's anything good we can find."
Jiang Nian thought she was going to look for money, but the first place she walked into was actually a restaurant. Of course, it was now half a restaurant.
"Yueyue, what are you looking for?"
Jiang Nian led the mule and watched Jiang Yue acting mysteriously. Then, she went into the kitchen and pulled out three large pots...
Jiang Yue: "We don't lack food right now, but we do lack these ironware. It's been three years since the natural disaster, and we don't know how many years it will take for everything to return to normal and for the ironware shop to reopen. So, what we need to prepare now are the most difficult things to make. Even if we don't need them right now, we might be able to exchange them for better things at a critical moment."
Jiang Nian suddenly understood, "I've learned something."
Jiang Yue snorted a few times. Her little tricks could only make her feel superior to Jiang Nian...
The restaurant owner must be quite wealthy, so he didn't take away any scattered items. Jiang Yue seemed to have a hoarding habit, grabbing every large steamer and every unbroken table, chair, and bench she saw.
The second store next door is a wine shop. The wines here are probably not good, but Jiang Yue likes the jars, which are all good materials.
Beyond that was a cloth shop. The cabinets outside were all empty, as if nothing had been sold there for a long time. Even the few scraps of cloth that were there had long since grown moldy.
When it comes to shopping, her favorite place is actually the humble general store. As the name suggests, the store has everything from food and clothing to daily necessities. While the quality isn't as good as in specialty stores, it's still affordable for everyday people.
She rummaged through the grocery store and found a new fishing net, a work box, twine, and other odds and ends.
Jiang Yue was in a very good mood at this time. No one was chasing after them. The two of them led the mule and leisurely enjoyed the joy of treasure hunting. They felt like the whole city belonged to them.
Although Jiang Nian teased them that they looked like rag collectors, Jiang Yue was not convinced. These rags were treasures for those who were about to start a new life!
Jiang Yue was walking through a shop when she noticed the ground beneath her feet was loose. Raising an eyebrow, she squatted down, lifted the stone slab, and found a wooden box inside.
She took it out. The wooden box looked to be of good quality. After the dust on it was wiped off, it looked smooth and shiny.
Unfortunately, it is locked and cannot be opened without a key.
"Cut it?"
"Cut it off." Although Jiang Yue felt it was a pity, there was nothing she could do about it.
Jiang Nian just took the hatchet and chopped off a corner of the wooden box at an angle, which was just enough for Jiang Yue to put his hand in.
She touched it, smiled, and took her hand out. "Guess what it is?"
Jiang Nian knew it was a good thing when he saw her smiling face, no need to guess, "It's something valuable."
"You're half right, it's money!" She opened her palm and saw a small solid gold ingot.
"Who said I was a rag collector? Aren't I collecting good things?"
"Yes, yes, you are right."
Jiang Nian picked up the bottom of the box with both hands, turned it over, and poured out all the gold ingots.
"One, two, three... there are twenty-four in total!" Jiang Yue held the pile of round and cute gold ingots and smiled like a lucky cat.
She made a fortune again!
This unexpected fortune made her more interested in looting. She dragged Jiang Nian to visit every house and would not be disappointed even if she didn't find anything good.
"The wall of this house is so high." Jiang Yue looked up. The house in front of him was square in shape, and the wall was four or five meters high, forming a sharp contrast with the low walls around it.
"I have a feeling there must be something good in there."
Seeing the door open, Jiang Nian guessed someone had already gone in to search it. But Jiang Yue was in high spirits and didn't mind taking another look.
The two walked in and found the yard in a mess. The cellar door in the yard was opened and a foul smell came out.
Jiang Yue looked around and found that there was no kitchen here, which meant that the owner did not live here.
Since she didn't live here and had spent a lot of effort to build a high wall, she became more and more certain that the things she had deposited there before were good things.
No one lived there, so the houses must have been built to store things. There were three rooms in total, and she went into each one to examine them.
The two rooms on the left and right are empty. In the main room, apart from a set of tables and chairs, half of the room is occupied by a large kang.
Jiang Yue compared the kang with the skirting and found that it was a new one.
"Come here, kid, and see if you can lift up the top layer of mud."
Jiang Nian pried it open with force and found that this layer of mud was not solid at all.
Jiang Yue followed the craftsman to make a kang several times, and the more she looked at it, the more she felt that this was not a kang at all, but was just pretending to be a kang.
As she expected, there was a wooden board covering the thin layer of mud.
The two men lifted the wooden planks, and a small underground passage appeared before their eyes. Was this what they really wanted to hide?
Worried about the lack of air circulation down there, she waited for a quarter of an hour before diving down.
She took only one look before coming up, her expression a little shocked. "No wonder they built such a high wall. There's so much food down there. It's incomparable to the granary we stole before. At least, it's worth five granaries."
The small cellar in the yard outside is used to confuse the informants.
Jiang Nian's expression suddenly became serious, and he looked outside, "Yueyue, there are people coming from the city, a lot of people."
"Quick, let's put the cellar door back and see what happens."
The mule cart was difficult to hide, so they put it directly into the space. Then the two of them found a two-story building that had not collapsed and looked outside.
There were more than a dozen, or even a few dozen, entering the city. There were at least one or two thousand of them. They were dressed in the uniforms of their dynasty, their movements were uniform and well-trained. This was an army entering the city.
The leaders rode tall horses, wore armor, and looked very imposing.
"stop!"
The soldiers stopped.
"Rest here for the next two days. Remember one thing: do not harass the people!"
"yes!"
Those people turned around, and Jiang Yue saw clearly that except for the middle-aged general who gave orders, the people around him were familiar to him.
The bearded man was the one who bought her poisonous snake to make wine. I heard that he ran away with his family's children. I didn't expect that he is now a soldier, and his official position should be quite high.
As for the two young men in their teens who looked similar, Jiang Yue also recognized them. They were the twins who saved her.
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