Chapter 171: Bursting Gold Coins
"Three or five yuan!"
The young laborer swallowed hard and squatted down without saying a word to start turning over the load.
Three silver dollars were enough for him to do odd jobs for a month.
The news spread very quickly.
Before long, five or six laborers gathered around and began rummaging through the ruins of the west wing.
The fire brigade leader glanced at it from a distance, cursed, "You all better watch out, don't collapse the wall," and then ignored it.
With more people, the noise level will be higher.
The broken bricks were moved aside one by one, the rubble was shoveled aside, and the charred wood was dragged out and piled into a small heap.
Chen Mo mingled in the crowd, working at a leisurely pace.
The deeper the broken bricks were cleared, the more the underlying layer of gray soil was gradually revealed.
He shoveled at the layer of gray soil with a shovel, but found that he couldn't move it. He then moved to a different spot and shoveled again. Suddenly, the shovel hit something with a "clang".
"Um?"
He squatted down and used his hands to remove the loose soil and clumps of ash, revealing a rotten corner of a wooden plank.
The wooden board was about a foot square, black in color, and its edges were charred by fire, but the center still retained the shape of the wood.
"This looks like... the material for the flooring," Chen Mo muttered, using a shovel to pry open the wooden planks.
Beneath the wooden board was a dark, gaping crevice, about two or three inches wide and bottomless, from which a damp, musty smell wafted.
A nearby laborer came over to take a look: "Hey, it's hollow underneath?"
"The floorboards may have collapsed."
Chen Mo frowned and used a shovel to clear away the broken bricks and ash from the edge of the gap, revealing a hole about three feet wide.
It was pitch black below the cave entrance, but you could vaguely see wooden boxes inside the cellar.
"A cellar?" The leader, who had somehow joined in, squatted down by the entrance and peered down. "There's a cellar under the Hou family's study?"
"It's probably used to hide things."
Chen Mo patted the dust off his hands. "Could that ledger have fallen into the cellar? When the study collapsed, the floor cracked, and it's not impossible that the ledger fell down through the crack."
The leader hesitated for a moment, then said, "Let's go down and take a look."
"I'll go down."
Chen Mo volunteered, took off his jacket and threw it on the ground, revealing an old undershirt covered in patches underneath.
Then he crawled through the hole and landed steadily on the pile of broken bricks.
The cellar was dark, but that didn't affect him.
The air was stuffy and had a strong musty smell, but there was no rotten smell, which indicated that the cellar was well-insulated.
He first looked around. Twelve camphor wood chests were stacked against the east wall, and a tin cabinet leaned against the west wall, with a passageway about two steps wide in between. On the lower shelf of the tin cabinet on the west wall, the rosewood box lay quietly.
Chen Mo walked to the west wall, squatted down, and opened the lower cabinet door.
Three sandalwood boxes came into view, each about a foot long and half a foot wide, their surfaces engraved with runes for locking spirits.
Now is not the time to study this. He took the box in his hand, and with a thought, the wooden box disappeared silently.
Then he stood up, turned around and walked to the top of the metal cabinet, and opened two drawers.
The gold bars on the black velvet lay heavy in the dim light, golden yellow, each about a hand's length and two fingers' width.
Twenty large yellow croakers.
Chen Mo didn't reach out to take it; he simply touched the top bar with his fingertip. One by one, the gold bars disappeared from the velvet cloth, as if swallowed by the air.
It only took a few seconds.
The drawer was empty, leaving a few shallow marks on the velvet fabric. He casually removed the velvet fabric from the drawer to erase the marks.
These twelve boxes are now available! All the readers have gone to read Cola Novels! He plans to take only half.
Otherwise, the cellar would be completely empty, which is clearly illogical.
He lifted the lid of the top camphor wood box, where silver dollars were neatly stacked, their silvery-white color gleaming faintly in the dim light.
it is true.
Chen Mo put the silver coins back, closed the box, and lifted the box with both hands, raising it to the opening of the hole.
"Head, there's something inside, catch!"
The laborer above reached out and took the box, then moved it aside.
One, two, three...
The boxes were handed up one by one, and the laborers gathered around to watch, their eyes wide with amazement.
Someone couldn't resist reaching out to touch the silver dollars in the box, only to be slapped away by the leader. "What are you touching! These are all Hou family property. If you lose even one, you couldn't afford to pay for it even if you sold yourself!"
Chen Mo listened from below, a slight smile curving his lips.
He took one and handed it to her one by one, then pretended to rummage through the bottom again before looking up and shouting, "That's all, that's all."
"Come on up," the leader's voice came from the cave entrance.
Chen Mo braced himself against the edge of the hole with both hands and flipped himself up.
He immediately started brushing the dirt off his body. His undershirt was covered in mud and rust, making it look like he had indeed been crawling around in a cellar for half a day.
"Stand still." The leader walked over and looked him up and down.
Chen Mo was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening and stood up straight, his arms slightly outstretched, assuming a posture that allowed him to be inspected.
The leader didn't stand on ceremony. He first patted him from his shoulder to his elbow, then patted him along his waist, and finally squatted down to pat his trouser leg and ankle.
His technique was very skillful; he was clearly someone who did this often.
His technique was very skillful; he was clearly someone who did this often.
Foremen in the concessions were never very trusting of laborers, especially those who handled valuables from the cellars; body searches were a rule.
"good."
The leader patted him on the shoulder, a rare smile appearing on his face. "He's an honest man. He hasn't touched a single silver dollar of the Hou family's things. That's quite something."
He took out ten copper coins from his pocket and handed them to Chen Mo.
"Here, this is a reward for you. It's not easy to make the trip."
Chen Mo happily accepted it, bowing and scraping, "Thank you, boss, thank you, boss."
The leader waved his hand and turned to count the camphor wood chests.
He stuffed the copper coin into his pocket, bent down to pick up the jacket from the ground, shook off the dust, and put it back on.
On the open ground nearby, six camphor wood chests lay open, the silver coins gleaming a dull white in the firelight.
The leader squatted down to the side, counting them one by one while muttering to himself.
Chen Mo picked up the shovel leaning against the wall and slowly walked out of the crowd.
There were still many people busy working on the ruins.
The firefighters were still working, the Japanese police in black were patrolling the area, and the steam fire engine was still chugging and emitting white steam.
The leader was squatting next to the pile of silver coin boxes, talking to a man who looked like a steward from the Hou family who had just arrived.
Nobody paid any attention to him.
He glanced back, then turned and continued walking out.
When Chen Mo reached the street corner, he encountered a Japanese man dressed in a black haori, with a short sword at his waist, looking at the busy crowd on the ruins with a gloomy gaze.
Onmyoji.
Chen Mo kept his head down and walked past the person without stopping, without even changing the frequency of his breathing.
With a shovel slung over his shoulder, he walked with a slightly hunched posture, like a laborer who had worked a long day and couldn't straighten his back.
The Onmyoji's gaze swept over him, lingering for less than half a second before moving away.
He's just an ordinary laborer, not worth looking at.