My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 329 The villagers also have their eyes on the treasure

Chen Ling meant, "Who is your boss? He's got connections so wildly that he even knows about people robbing tombs everywhere."

The answer he received was somewhat unexpected; the boss was none other than Sun Yanhong's wife.

"So it was her. No wonder she's so resourceful; she even knows about tomb raiders."

After Little Sheep left, Chen Ling was still wondering if Sun Yanhong knew so much about the tomb raiding, and whether she had known that bastard Erzhu before.

Then he shook his head. Why think so much? Whether he knew him or not, Erzhu had already gone in.

"Zhenzhen, don't just sit in front of the TV on Sundays. Come on, let's go to Liu Ni'er's house together."

"What are you going to Liu Ni'er's house for? I haven't finished watching this episode yet."

In the living room, Wang Zhenzhen sat cross-legged on a wicker chair, cracking sunflower seeds while watching TV intently.

Hearing Chen Ling speak, he answered without turning his head.

Chen Ling walked over and glanced at her. Was she watching cartoons, or a rerun of one she'd seen last night? He pulled her up and said, "What's so great about a rerun? Come on, let's go for a walk and rest your eyes. Watching TV all the time will ruin your eyes."

The little girl couldn't resist, so she could only pout and follow behind him sullenly.

Now that we have a TV at home, this little rascal doesn't go out to play anymore. He watches TV all day long. When one channel runs out of content, he switches to another. He stays up all night until there are no more programs on the TV. He practically wants to crawl inside the TV.

Wang Susu was holding her child and feeding the puppies in the yard when she learned that they were going back to the village. She instructed them, "Go and tell them what happened first, and don't get into a fight."

"Don't worry, I know the severity."

Chen Ling responded and dragged Wang Zhenzhen to Wang Lixian's house.

Upon entering the house, Wang Lixian and his wife were standing by the well in the south courtyard of their home.

This well is an abandoned well, usually used for irrigating the vegetable garden in the south courtyard.

Now they've put a plastic sheet into the well.

If this plastic film is left outside, it will become less durable and less sturdy from being exposed to wind and sun.

It will break easily when you pull it, and you'll have to buy a new one.

Soaking it in water like this is like raising it, so it will last for a relatively longer time.

"Good heavens, it's Liu Nier who went down the well."

Chen Ling walked to the well and looked down. He saw Liu Nier climbing a rope ladder and holding a rope with hooks, tying several piles of plastic film soaking in the well water with the rope.

The plastic film got very heavy when it got wet, and it was a bit difficult for little Liu Ni'er to work in the well.

Wang Lixian smiled at him: "The well opening is too narrow for an adult to go down, and my back is not good either. Let Liu Nier go down and try."

It used to be very easy to throw the plastic film down, but now it takes a bit more effort.

"Is this okay, Liu Ni'er? If not, I'll take over." Chen Ling glanced down into the well and called out.

Wang Zhenzhen also shouted into the well, "Sixth Sister, if you can't do it, I'll take your place!"

"No need, this rope has hooks, just tie it once and pull it up, I can do it."

Liu Nier called out, wrapped a large, wet wad of plastic film around her neck, and then exclaimed, "Okay, Da, pull it up!"

As he spoke, he returned to the rope ladder and pressed himself tightly against the well wall, hiding to the side.

Wang Lixian said "okay" and pulled the rope upwards. The plastic film, after getting wet, was not only heavy, but also very easy to get stuck at the narrow well opening.

Seeing this, Chen Ling quickly reached out and grabbed the large bundle of plastic film to help pull it out.

"Sigh, you're still the strongest, Fugui," Wang Lixian said with a laugh, rubbing his lower back.

Liu Yuzhi patted Chen Ling's arm and smiled at him, giving him a thumbs up.

“Sister-in-law Yuzhi, my brother-in-law bought a TV a while ago, and Liu Ni’er often goes to watch it. Why don’t you and Brother Lixian go? The TV series are so good, much better than movies, and they’re longer.”

Wang Zhenzhen leaned closer to the couple and said.

Liu Yuzhi shook her head, pointed to the plastic film, then pointed to the east, and smiled as she patted Wang Zhenzhen's little head.

Wang Lixian smiled and said to her, "Your sister-in-law and I have been busy working on the greenhouse lately. We'll come over to watch TV with you after we're done. Your brother-in-law said you're always watching TV and don't want to come out to play. Is that right?"

Wang Zhenzhen immediately felt embarrassed and whispered, "No, it's just that it's cold and I didn't want to come out."

Wang Lixian and his wife laughed heartily.

Chen Ling ignored her and asked, "There's still a clump down there, do we need to pull it up again?"

Wang Lixian shook his head and said, "No need, this is for the newly built shed. The old shed has already been planted, so it's not needed now."

Chen Ling hummed in agreement and said to the well, "Liu Ni'er, hurry up and come up. Don't catch a cold after getting soaked in the well."

Liu Ni'er is indeed a master at climbing trees. In no time, she grabbed the rope ladder and scrambled up.

"Good lad, you've grown up, you can even help with chores at home now."

Chen Ling patted his wet head approvingly.

Upon hearing this, Liu Ni'er subconsciously puffed out her small chest, then glanced at Wang Lixian and chuckled.

Wang Lixian snorted and laughed, "These little arms and legs are quite nimble. Alright, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and go back to your room with your mother to change into some dry clothes."

Liu Ni'er rarely heard Wang Lixian praise her, so this one sentence made her grin from ear to ear as she followed Liu Yuzhi to change her clothes.

Wang Zhenzhen was looking around in the south courtyard, sometimes poking pigs' butts with a stick in the pigpen, and sometimes bleating at the sheep in the sheep pen.

Chen Ling scolded her, helped Wang Lixian tidy up the well area, and after finishing his work, he sat down in the front yard and then brought up the matter of Little Sheep coming to inform them.

Wang Lixian noticed that Sanni'er and the boy still looked grim, but after learning that a tomb raider had come to the village and was using various pretexts to trick the villagers into giving them what might be valuable items, he immediately became serious and cautious. "Your aunt said that Chunyuan brought that person to our house yesterday. Your sister-in-law and I were busy at the greenhouse, and your aunt said she was an old woman at home, so she didn't let them in..."

Wang Lixian frowned. "But I heard that Lishan traded two bowls from his house for two jin of fried dough sticks. It is said that the man also wanted the pig trough and the stone sheep behind his house."

I don't know if they gave it to me or not; I need to go check.

Wang Lixian became more and more anxious as he spoke, and he couldn't sit still any longer. He pulled Chen Ling and headed towards Wang Lishan's house.

Hearing what they were saying—about tomb raiding and treasures—Wang Zhenzhen and Liu Ni'er quickly followed behind them.

When they arrived at Wang Lishan's place and told him about it, Wang Lishan immediately flew into a rage: "That son of a bitch Chunyuan, how could his heart be so wicked? He actually helped outsiders cheat our fellow villagers! This traitor, I'll break his legs today..."

Then, after telling the neighbors about it, they realized they had been fooled. They were all annoyed, saying that there's no such thing as a free lunch. The person who gave them fried dough sticks and tofu pudding was just playing tricks to cheat them out of their food. They angrily picked up their weapons and were ready to go and fight.

Chenwangzhuang is a good place with a large population. For many years, no outsiders have dared to cause trouble in the village. Now, as soon as they heard about this incident, everyone was excited and their blood was boiling.

He also called his two brothers, Wang Lihui and Wang Limin, to join him on the way.

Upon hearing what they were saying, Wang Lihui immediately slapped his thigh in realization: "I was wondering why Chun Yuan was taking that outsider to wander around the eastern hill so late at night."

It turns out he was a tomb raider.

"There's no other reason than those two bastards searching for graves, trying to dig up treasure."

Wang Lihui and his wife are tailors who often go to the market to buy clothes. Yesterday, they came home late, and when they got home, they ran into Wang Chunyuan with that out-of-towner who was wearing an overcoat and carrying a hoe, walking towards Donggang.

He was wondering what he was doing so late at the time, but now that he's heard what everyone else is saying, he understands.

"Huh, does that mean there might actually be treasure buried here?"

Everyone was initially quite anxious and angry, thinking that it was outrageous for an outsider to come to the village to cheat and swindle. They even thought about going over there immediately to teach him a lesson. But after listening to Wang Lihui's words, most of them suddenly calmed down and whispered among themselves.

Even Wang Lishan sidled up to Wang Lixian and Chen Ling and said, "These grave-robbing thieves are convinced we have treasure here. What if we really do? Why don't we wait for them to dig around and find it, then we can settle accounts with them..."

Most people nowadays have this idea that there might be treasure near the village.

It's not really a case of the wicked eating the wicked.

This is, after all, their village, the place where their ancestors have lived for generations, and the outsider cheated them first, so it can only be said that they should retaliate in kind.

However, Chen Ling and Wang Lixian did not get involved in the matter. They only advised them that the outsider had managed to get to where he was now, so he must be no pushover. They should be careful.

……

After bringing Wang Zhenzhen back to the farm, Chen Ling talked about the matter with Wang Susu.

Wang Susu said, "I've heard the old folks in the village talk about this before. Everyone in the village knows that there are treasures buried around the small temple, but no one knows where they are, and no one dares to dig them up. It seems they're afraid that the old Taoist priests used to cast curses or something..."

“I’ve heard people talk about this before. They say that the old Taoist priest who lived there was very skilled. He left in a hurry when he had the accident, so he must have left behind some kind of treasure. But no one knows exactly what kind of treasure it was.”

Chen Ling smiled and said, "Anyway, everyone's eyes turned green when they heard about the treasure, so let them make a fuss. If we can really dig it out, I'd like to see what the treasure looks like."

He was simply driven by curiosity about whether there were any treasures in his area.

He wasn't particularly interested in these kinds of antiques, and he didn't want to bother with the effort of dealing with them, but if he found one that caught his eye, then that would be a different story, and he might consider collecting it.

Wang Susu didn't know much about this either, and didn't know how much profit there was in dealing in antiques, but when she heard about tomb raiding, she just said it was an immoral business.

The young couple didn't have any greedy thoughts about possessing the treasure; they just treated it as a rare occurrence happening around them and something to talk about.

Other villagers were different; they may have discussed it beforehand, but none of them told anyone.

Everyone was united as never before in their efforts to help that outsider find the treasure.

Even though they knew it was getting dark and Wang Chunyuan and his men would come out, they pretended not to see them.

But in reality, the villagers who knew about this were very vigilant, keeping an eye on Wang Chunyuan's new house and old house to see if the two of them brought anything with them when they returned home at night.

During the day, they would even take wheat to exchange for fried dough sticks and fried bread, as if everything was normal.

Even Wang Laishun remained silent after learning about this.

But after waiting expectantly for several days, nothing came of it. Suddenly, the outsider settled down, either selling fried dough sticks in the village or riding his old bicycle from village to village or to the market to sell his wares.

Whether this process involves scouting or gathering information, no one else knows.

But suddenly they settled down, no longer wandering around the village day or night, and seemed incredibly well-behaved.

Some impatient villagers couldn't wait.

Since they didn't find any treasure, they decided to cause trouble for him and settle the score. He had traded some old fried dough sticks for their family's old belongings, so they shouldn't ask for some money back.

Some more patient villagers wanted to wait and see.

Since this person didn't leave Chenwangzhuang, he must still have some ulterior motives. What if the treasure is hard to find or dig up?

This argument is not without merit.

So in the days after Chen Ling told Wang Lixian about this, even though everyone knew that this person was not a good person, they still pretended not to see it and seemed indifferent to everything about him.

The weather was lovely that morning, with warm sunshine. Chen Ling came from the farm and moved her bed out into the yard to bask in the sun.

I was even thinking about building a heated kang (traditional Chinese bed) this winter since we have a baby, so Rui Rui can play freely indoors.

"Wealth and honor reside at home."

As he was thinking about this, Wang Chunyuan noticed that Heiwa and Xiaojin were not in the courtyard, so he brought the outsider in.

"Do you still have your big millstone? My brother's millstone is broken, and I'd like to borrow it to grind some grain."

Chen Ling glanced at the two of them and thought to himself, "No one in the village has exposed you two. You two are really going to keep this up. You've even set your sights on my house."

(End of this chapter)