Chapter 163 It's over, the Zhao family is finished.
Liu Ye walked back to the altar, clasped her hands together in a gesture of respect, and then strode onto the altar with her long legs. She reached out and touched the strange spot on the painting. The moment she touched the painting, she smiled. She had thought to herself, "How come the stones in the painting are so three-dimensional, just like the real ones? They really are real."
She tried to rotate the stone, and it did indeed move. A sound came from behind the painting. She quickly and gently lifted the painting and saw a small door in the wall. The door was small, narrow, and low, and she had to crouch down and squeeze through.
Liu Ye gritted her teeth, mustered her courage, bent down, and crawled inside. She discovered that there was a hidden world inside. After walking about ten meters, she saw another iron door with a large padlock. The padlock was as big as her palm. Without hesitation, she grabbed it and pulled hard. With a clang, she broke the padlock in two.
She nervously pushed open the door and saw what she was looking for: hundreds of boxes in the room. She randomly opened one of the boxes, revealing gleaming silver inside. Good heavens, each box was worth fifty taels of silver. Could all these boxes be filled with silver?
She opened more than a dozen more boxes, all filled with silver. She didn't find any gold yet. She thought to herself, "What official doesn't embezzle? Humph! Now that I've found it, it's all mine."
Liu Ye waved her hand without ceremony, putting all the boxes into her spatial storage. The dark room was left with only dust on the floor. She clapped her hands triumphantly, quickly slipped out of the small door, and left the Zhao residence unnoticed. She happily returned home and then flashed into her spatial storage.
The first thing she saw was a pile of boxes on the ground. She opened one of them, wondering how much silver it contained. The box was quite large, and she picked it up and weighed it in her hand. It was rather heavy. She decided to count it, otherwise she wouldn't be able to sleep.
“One, two, three, 500, this box has exactly 1000. One costs 50 taels, ten cost 500 taels, 100 cost 5000 taels, 1000 cost 50,000 taels. That means one box costs 50,000 taels, ten boxes cost 500,000 taels, and 100 boxes cost 5 million taels. Wow, that's quite a lot! Isn't she making a fortune?”
Liu Ye put the silver back into the box and started moving boxes again, counting them. Ten boxes in a row, she noticed something was wrong as she moved them. The weight of the boxes was different. This box was so heavy! She opened the box and saw a bunch of gold ingots inside, so shiny they dazzled her eyes.
Holy crap, she said it herself, there couldn't just be silver, there must be gold too. The gold ingots in the box were also fifty taels each, the same size as the silver ingots, and there were about the same number. Without counting, there must have been 1,000 in the box. That must be it.
“One tael of gold is worth ten taels of silver. A gold ingot is worth 50 taels, which is 500 taels of silver. 1,000 of them would be worth 500,000 taels of silver…”
Good heavens! Prefect Zhao actually managed to embezzle so much silver, that's amazing! No wonder everyone, whether ancient or modern, wants to be an official, because officials make money so fast.
After all the boxes were moved and counted, there were 360 boxes of silver and 10 boxes of gold, which amounted to 25 million taels of silver.
Liu Ye wiped the sweat from her forehead, tired but happy. With so much silver, she could live a life of ease. Add to that the gold bricks she'd found earlier—wait, how many gold bricks did she have? Something like seven or eight hundred… she couldn't remember. (ω) Hey!
"Fine, whatever," she thought, and drank two bowls of spiritual spring water at the well. She immediately felt refreshed. She looked at the black soil, where the grains were ripe. With a thought, she instantly harvested the grains. A golden light flashed across the black soil, which had grown from 284 mu to 680 mu, doubling in size. The entire space also doubled in size. The box that was originally a dozen meters away from Liu Ye was now more than 100 meters away from her.
Liu Ye thought it would be over as usual, but then she saw a flash of golden light in the vegetable garden. The originally messy vegetable garden became neat and orderly, divided into squares. Each type of vegetable was planted in a square, and each square was one acre. Vegetables that were trellised, such as green beans and cucumbers, and vegetables that did not need trellises were also divided into two areas, one on the east and one on the west.
Liu Ye happily arrived at the vegetable garden. It looked so familiar, it was a bit like the QQ Farm game she played on Taobao. The garden was also much bigger, with so many vegetables and so many varieties. She couldn't possibly eat them all.
The vegetable garden has been upgraded. Why didn't it get upgraded? Just as I finished thinking this, I turned to look at the orchard and saw a flash of golden light above it. The orchard had also changed. Not only was it bigger, but it was also neatly divided up like the vegetable garden, with each variety planted in a separate square.
Cantaloupes, strawberries, and watermelons no longer roam in the orchards; they each have their own plots, much larger than vegetable gardens, with each plot covering ten acres. The number of fruit trees has also increased. Originally, there was only one banana tree, but now there are ten banana trees, and two trees have become twenty. Mango trees, cherry trees, grapevines, and so on have all doubled in number. Apple trees and chestnut trees are the most numerous, and they occupy the largest areas, with apple trees covering 20 acres and chestnut trees covering 20 acres, each growing in its own plot.
Liu Ye swallowed hard, her face filled with shock. With a thought, she replanted rice on the black soil. Oh, right, the ginseng she planted had multiplied. When she arrived at the place where she planted the ginseng, she saw that the original one ginseng had become ten, with fruits growing on the lush green leaves, and the pine needles had also grown into a large patch.
"That's great! I didn't expect this space upgrade to give her such a big surprise."
She looked at the mountain of grain in the distance. The rice and wheat together must weigh several million catties. Maybe she should open a grain store after the New Year and sell the fruit as well. She could use the same excuse: that she saved that old man and gave it to him. Anyway, Brother Bai would believe whatever she said.
If anyone causes trouble for her while she runs a grain store, she can just take them down!
The next day, after finishing breakfast, Prefect Zhao planned to return to Xiancheng. He had almost finished the task the Crown Prince had given him and was just waiting to pay and pick up the goods. Before leaving, he had to pay respects to his ancestors and ask them to bless him with good fortune and a successful official career.
When Prefect Zhao and his wife arrived at the ancestral hall, servants and maids were waiting outside. No outsiders were allowed to enter the ancestral hall; this was a rule set by Prefect Zhao. Anyone who dared to trespass would be beaten to death.
Just as Prefect Zhao was about to kowtow, he suddenly noticed something amiss with the painting on the wall: the stone mechanism was open. This discovery startled him, and he broke out in a cold sweat, his hair standing on end. "Oh no, oh no, please don't let this happen!"
Madam Zhao noticed that her husband was not feeling well and quickly asked cautiously, "Husband, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Prefect Zhao was so frightened that he could barely speak. He waved his hand at Madam Zhao and said, "You go out. I need to be alone..."
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