Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 922 921 This is huge!
Director Zhu exchanged a few polite words and then hurried off to work, leaving behind a group of energetic repairmen.

Tang Zhitong didn't leave in a hurry. He first took out two packs of economical cigarettes from the flour bag and placed them on the windowsill below the main room.

There's no rush for the cornbread. Zhang Guifang steamed several batches last night, and she had already started preparing tomorrow's cornbread when Tang Zhitong left today. If she goes back now, she won't have enough, but she'll get some later.

After walking around the courtyard twice, Tang Zhitong paid special attention to the drainage system and the west wing.

The west wing room is about the same size as my own bathroom, so it would be just the right size to take a shower.

However, Tang Zhitong doesn't plan to build another bathtub. Those things don't retain heat well and cool down very quickly. He'll buy one from outside or have one custom-made.

With a bathroom comes the issue of drainage. Since the drainage system used in Dashizuo Hutong is a seepage well, it is not as convenient as using an iron pulley. Tang Zhitong observed the situation and planned to build a hidden channel under the courtyard using the city wall bricks he had previously collected, so that the bathwater could be drained directly outside.

"Comrade Tang, there's a heated kang bed in the main room, but the surface is worn out. Should we rebuild it?" Tang Zhitong was staring at the drainage outlet in the yard, pondering the path of the secret passage, when he heard Wan Shan call him.

"Okay, thank you for your help." Tang Zhitong nodded readily in agreement. A heated kang bed is great. They have plenty of firewood at home. Once it's lit in winter, his mother can get a good night's sleep.

"No trouble at all. The kang here used to be connected to the stove, which is in the east wing. Shall we rebuild the stove for you as well?" Wan Shan waved his hand kindly. Director Zhu had personally made two trips to repair it, so he didn't find it troublesome at all. He was only worried that the service might not be up to par.

"Oh? I'll go take a look." Tang Zhitong had seen the kang (heated brick bed) at his uncle's house before. The main room was connected to the stove, while the side room had firewood burning directly from under the kang. He planned to see how to arrange it properly, because in the winter in Beijing, people usually burn firewood in the main room, so there seemed to be no need to leave a stove in the east side room.

Tang Zhitong arrived at the east wing. The stove was still intact, but the pot was gone. The stove opening was very large, about 1.2 meters in diameter. It would be difficult to find a replacement for such an iron pot. No wonder Wan Shan said that it should be rebuilt.

"Comrade Wan, could we dismantle this stove and convert it into a kang (heated brick bed) that can be heated directly indoors?" Since that was the case, Tang Zhitong felt there was no need to continue using the stove.

“Sure, why not? This house was built with care, and the chimney is still in good condition. We can just readjust the chimney when we build the kang (heated brick bed) later.” Wan Shan agreed readily, as it would be easier not to build a stove.

“Then let’s do it this way.” Tang Zhitong nodded, his gaze drawn to a wooden door next to the stove.

The wooden door wasn't upright; it lay on the ground, flush with the floor, clearly the entrance to the cellar.

Wan Shan went out to call people to dismantle the kang (a heated brick bed), while Tang Zhitong lifted the wooden door and looked down. It was pitch black inside, but electrical wires could be seen on the stone wall at the entrance to the cellar.

Tang Zhitong looked up and found a pull tab on the wall of the side room. Pulling it made the cellar floor seem to light up a little.

With the wooden door wide open, Tang Zhitong sat on the edge of the cellar, examining the ladder. One side of the ladder was leaning against the wall, while the other side was firmly blocked by a ten-centimeter square wooden stick.

The wooden stick is flanked by bluestone slabs at the entrance to the cellar, with notches pre-drilled at the top to accommodate the stick.

The ladder is very steep, and this design can minimize the risk of people falling over due to instability while on the ladder.

"The design is quite ingenious," Tang Zhitong said sincerely.

Then, Tang Zhitong stepped on the vertical ladder to make sure it was secure before turning around and going down.

At first, this section wasn't long, only about two and a half meters. Tang Zhitong climbed down the ladder, and the cold air gave him goosebumps. It felt incredibly refreshing.

Using the faint light coming from inside, Tang Zhitong scanned the stone slab where the ladder touched the ground. There were grooves carved into the stone slab, which were just right to hold the ladder firmly in place.

Seeing this design, Tang Zhitong became excited about the cellar. With such attention to detail, it must be quite nice inside.
Before continuing forward, Tang Zhitong noticed a musty smell in the air, so he used a hanging object to replace it.

The air in the cellar is not circulating, and the oxygen inside is inevitably consumed by microorganisms. If you go in without replacing the air, you may suffocate.

Only after the musty smell subsided did Tang Zhitong begin to walk.

The cellar was well-made; the staff at the chemical raw materials company hadn't lied to me—it was entirely built of bluestone.

Further ahead, there were steps made of bluestone, and the top of the cellar extended downwards along with the steps.

To ensure safety, Tang Zhitong braced himself on both sides of the passageway and descended step by step.

Once you actually step onto it, you realize it's not as dangerous as you think, because there's a light bulb at the end of the passageway that's enough for people going down to see the steps clearly.

As Tang Zhitong descended, he counted the levels in his mind. It took him a full fifteen levels to reach the bottom, and the cellar extended about three meters deeper.

Upon reaching this point, the passageway bends, and the space opens up to the right, leading into the actual cellar.

"Damn, that's incredibly extravagant!" Tang Zhitong stood in the passageway, staring in disbelief.

Tang Zhitong thought that building a cellar with city wall bricks was luxurious enough, but the cellar in front of him was not only made entirely of bluestone, but also had something like hitching posts on top. Tang Zhitong didn't know what it was for. You wouldn't need so many to hang an oil lamp, would you?

Moreover, the area is not small; it is estimated to be about four meters wide and six or seven meters long.

The cellar floor was covered with a layer of cement, which clashed somewhat with the style of the bluestone.

Tang Zhitong went inside, touching this and looking around.

On the wall directly opposite the passageway, there is a square stone hole. There are gaps in the bluestone below the hole, as if they were pried open. It looks very old, and we don't know what treasures were stored there before.

The other bluestones were all covered with lime mortar, making them look perfectly fitted, with very good attention to detail.

"This is really great! Even if we collect ice in winter and store it here, it can last until summer, right?" Tang Zhitong liked it more and more as he looked at it, even more than the houses on the ground.

It's unlikely that you can store ice; those things weigh several hundred pounds each, and one person simply can't handle them. But storing some cabbage is possible; at a temperature similar to that of a refrigerator, it should last for more than half a year without any problems.

"That's strange, there's not a drop of water." Tang Zhitong was delighted, but at the same time, he noticed something was amiss.

Dashizuo Hutong is close to Beihai Park, which is full of water. Given the proximity and the depth of the cellar, even if there was some water seepage, the cellar should be damp, right?
Driven by curiosity, Tang Zhitong used his cheat code to probe the outside of the cellar. This probe revealed something that made Tang Zhitong exclaim in awe: "This is fucking extravagant!"

Dashizuo Hutong has been a place for storing and processing stone materials since the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. It is understandable that it was built with bluestone, after all, being close to the water tower gives you a head start.

But what about that thick layer of blue clay around the cellar? It's a full fifty centimeters thick!
Except for the topmost side, the other five sides were even made of a mixture of clay, sand, and lime!

Is this the kind of treatment even the emperor's tomb gets?

"Who the hell used to own this house?!" Tang Zhitong was extremely curious, but he quickly found the answer. During his exploration, Tang Zhitong discovered two unusual places: one behind the wall with the square stone hole, and the other below the cellar.

The two places looked perfectly normal, but Tang Zhitong's cheat code revealed them.

The stone wall was very thick. For an ordinary person, it would take at least a lot of effort to smash a hole in the wall to get to the hidden room behind it. But with Tang Zhitong's special ability, taking things out of the hidden room was as easy as taking something out of a bag.

With a single thought, not only were all the items inside pulled into the space, but the items inside were also identified and analyzed.

A small box of gold ingots, two large boxes of silver ingots, and a box of silks and land deeds.

Although the cellar was well waterproofed, it was not completely oxygen-free. Not only were the chests rotten, but the silks and satins were also tattered and worn out, making it too wasteful to even burn them as fuel.

Tang Zhitong took out the land deed and examined it carefully by the light of the lamp. The date on the deed was the tenth year of the Chongzhen reign.

Of course, this cannot determine whether the tenth year of Chongzhen's reign was the time the cellar was built, but it is certain that the treasure was placed in the cellar after the tenth year of Chongzhen's reign.

These gold and silver deeds were no small sum, yet no one had come to claim them for so many years. Considering the pry marks on the stone cave, Tang Zhitong figured that after the rebel leader entered Beijing, his soldiers had played a game of tag with the family, only taking the gold and silver valuables from the cellar and the stone cave.

"Tsk tsk, it really knows how to deceive people! If it weren't for the cheat code, I probably wouldn't have discovered it." Tang Zhitong looked at the stone wall again. It was a perfect whole, and the bluestone was all the same color. No one would have thought that there was a secret room here.

However, upon closer inspection, it can be seen that this stone wall was built later, because it is not embedded in the stone wall from the top, bottom, left, and right, but most people would not notice this.

After storing the land deed in his spatial storage, Tang Zhitong took out gold and silver ingots to play with.

The gold ingots are very large; one piece weighs about three and a half pounds.

Tang Zhitong was overjoyed; he had struck it rich!
If this happened during a year when gold prices were soaring, these gold ingots alone would have easily made him financially independent, right?
But another problem arose in front of Tang Zhitong: how should he spend the money?

Nokia in the left hand, Motorola in the right?

Buy two bowls of soy milk, drink one, and pour the other away?
Poverty limited Tang Zhitong's imagination, and he was unsure how to handle such a large sum of money.

At this point, Tang Zhitong's moral bottom line was infinitely close to zero.

It's impossible to hand it over. This is all the hard-earned money that Chongzhen's good ministers plundered from the people. Who knows, maybe a small portion of it belongs to my ancestors. I want to enjoy the blessings for my ancestors!
Besides, all you might get in return for handing over the insurance is ten yuan and a banner, which seems reasonable no matter how you look at it.

Tang Zhitong also couldn't tell Xiao Wang, because based on her understanding of Xiao Wang, she would definitely insist on handing it over if she were told.

Why should I hand over what I found in my own home? Moreover, handing it over might have another consequence—my yard might be replaced again, and then the place might be dug up to see if there are any other treasures.

Are we going to sell it?

This thing should be considered an antique, right? Selling it directly seems a bit inappropriate, Tang Zhitong was a little worried.

But it's not that inappropriate, because these days, if you exchange this stuff at a bank, it will most likely end up being melted down and turned into gold bars to exchange for foreign exchange...

The gold ingot was a bit heavy, so Tang Zhitong put it back into his spatial storage, intending to put it aside for the time being. It wasn't time to sell it yet; he would hoard it as his child's dowry for now.

Putting it back is out of the question. Not only will he not put it back, Tang Zhitong will also clean the dark room, intending to store things that cannot be seen in the light and must ferment slowly over time, such as wine.

After dealing with the dark room, Tang Zhitong pulled out the small box from the bottom of the cellar.

Having a cheat code is great; you can easily take things out without damaging the surface.

Tang Zhitong looked at the box with delight. The box was not very old and was in good condition. Inside were ten large yellow croakers and twenty small yellow croakers, and the yellow croakers had a stamp from the Republic of China period.

After carefully storing the yellow goods, Tang Zhitong took a closer look at where the small boxes were stored.

The workmanship here is very rough. They simply and crudely pried open a stone brick, then took out some clay, put the box inside, and then laid the stone brick back on. They didn't even apply any lime mortar.

Perhaps the owner of the yellow bricks felt that this was too obvious, so he applied another layer of cement to cover up the marks that the bricks had been pried open.

Tang Zhitong estimated that this batch of yellow goods had been stored there for at least ten years, and no one had come to retrieve them all these years. Could they have run away? Tang Zhitong planned to ask about the origin of the house later.

To prevent the blue clay from sinking and causing the stone bricks to sink, Tang Zhitong used an external device to move some of the blue clay from the top to where the small box was placed, filling the gaps before clapping his hands in satisfaction and leaving the cellar.

"Comrade Wan, who owned this house before the chemical raw materials company? I just went down to the cellar and took a look; they put a lot of effort into it." After leaving the cellar, Tang Zhitong approached Wan Shan again.

"It seems to be enemy property. The original owner fled to the other side of the river before liberation," Wan Shan said, wiping away his sweat.

Tang Zhitong nodded. Regardless of whether he built the cellar or not, he had to give a stern critique first: "This is utterly extravagant! To spend so much money building a cellar! This shows how far he can go; his downfall is inevitable!"

In 49, the Public Property Management Bureau was established in Beijing to investigate the properties of puppet troops, Eight Banners military personnel, war criminals, spies, senior military and political personnel of the Blue Army, bureaucratic capitalists, and reactionary secret societies.

Depending on their nature, properties were classified as enemy property, rebel property, and pseudo property, with enemy property being the most serious and subject to direct confiscation.

Besides confiscation, there is another type of property called "property under trusteeship," which refers to the real estate of military and government personnel who have fled but whose actions were not particularly egregious. The state will issue a public notice, and if they do not return to handle the matter within a certain period, the property will be transferred to the state.

This period usually lasts a year, but things changed after the wind stopped, with many people on the other side clamoring for the return of their ancestral homes.

Although the cellars are expensive to build, people nowadays prioritize basic living conditions, so the estimated score is not high, and there is no behind-the-scenes manipulation involved.

After chatting with Wan Shan for a few minutes, Tang Zhitong took the flour bag off his bicycle, turned the bicycle around, and went home to get some dry food. The host family, who could afford to spend ten catties of dry food to provide meals every day, didn't mind spending another ten catties or so every day, since they would only provide lunch for the next two days.

On her way home, Tang Zhitong hummed a little tune. People are in high spirits when they have good news. Today she had a large sum of money, especially since it was a reverse delivery, so she had no psychological burden when spending it.

Of course, Tang Zhitong did not think this was a sign of his lack of awareness.

They certainly have the awareness to do so. If they found the Imperial Seal of the State in their own cellar, they would definitely hand it over. As for gold and silver, those money-grubbing things, they shouldn't sully the eyes of the nobles. They should just work hard and improve their own lives.

With these yellow croakers, we'll have more confidence to go out and exchange them for grain in a while.

(End of this chapter)