You, a living person, are telling me I've served in the underworld for ten years?

Chapter 69: Dowry, Treasure Hunt!
Is Yang Shuai dead?

And he's been dead for three days?
Who sent the invitations in that group chat?
Even though Gu Jinghui had seen his share of "big scenes" with Chen Yang, the thought of this made his scalp tingle and goosebumps rise on his arms!
He quickly took out his phone, only to find that his classmates were chatting enthusiastically in the group chat.

Yang Shuai not only sent out invitations, but also wedding photos and a 200 yuan red envelope.

Chen Yang also saw the red envelope.

He clicked the button quickly...

I snagged it! 8.8 yuan, a very auspicious number!

Chen Yang: @Yang Shuai, thank you so much for the generous red envelope, Boss Yang! I've got my breakfast money for tomorrow!

"???"

Gu Jinghui suddenly turned to look at Chen Yang: "It's not Old Chen... Yang Shuai is already dead. We don't even know if he's alive or a ghost. You stole the red envelope he sent?"

Chen Yang: "But the red envelopes are real."

"........."

It seems to make sense.

Gu Jinghui also rushed to grab the red envelopes, but they had all been claimed, which made his heart bleed and feel like he had "missed out on a fortune".

Chen Yang put away his phone and asked, "President Zhou, please tell me in detail what exactly happened?"

Zhou Qiang recounted everything he knew in detail.

“My uncle’s family lives in Tufeng Village, Yuzhen Town, Tongxin County, the same village as Yang Shuai… Last month when I went to my uncle’s house, I contacted Yang Shuai. At that time, he was going on blind dates everywhere.”

“We went to town together for a barbecue that night. Yang Shuai said he had his eye on a girl, but unfortunately her family was asking for too much dowry, 48 yuan!”

"How many?"

Gu Jinghui thought he had misheard: "18?"

"48."

Zhou Qiang said, "Yang Shuai is a Hui. The bride price in southern Xixia is already high these days, especially for the Hui people... A couple of years ago, the bride price was generally over 35 yuan, plus 100 grams of gold jewelry. Clothes, bags, and cosmetics are extra!"

"Yes, that's it."

Chen Yang knew more about the customs of the Hui people. He said, "When a Hui man and woman meet and fall in love, the man has to go to the woman's home to propose marriage. They call this 'ding cha' (定茶), while the Hui people in our Xixia region usually call it 'saying salam' (说赛拉目)."

"The groom must slaughter a sheep, buy rice, flour, oil, as well as various fruit gift boxes, dried fruit and candy as wedding gifts, and a gold ring to propose marriage to the bride's family... This gold ring is not included in the 100-gram gold jewelry required by the bride's family."

"Besides that, there's another custom called 'flower arrangement,' which is actually our engagement ceremony. At that time, we have to slaughter a sheep and send all sorts of things again, in double portions. I heard that the custom among the Hui people is that after sending double portions, the woman's family will return one portion, which is similar to the betrothal gifts."

"Mr. Chen is right."

Zhou Qiang said, "However, in recent years, many places have emphasized simplification... In reality, it means the woman is asking the man to directly convert the gifts into cash, and on that day, the woman usually asks the man for a gift. In the past, it might have been a bag or a few hundred yuan, but now it's all about iPhone 15 or 16..."

Gu Jinghui complained, "Isn't this just exploiting someone to the point of exhaustion? But what does this have to do with Yang Shuai?"

Zhou Qiang: "What I'm talking about is all from Yang Shuai's experience..."

"After he successfully found a wife through a blind date, he spent nearly 60 yuan on dowry, gold jewelry, salamanders, and flower arrangements... But just before the wedding, his fiancée ran off with someone else!"

“Yang Shuai was unaware of the situation at the time. He didn’t reply to messages or answer phone calls for two consecutive days, so he called the matchmaker.”

"The matchmaker was a relative of the woman's family, so he refused to tell Yang Shuai the truth and lied, saying that there was another custom on the woman's side... that the man's family had to give a sum of money called 'nurturing fee' before the woman got married, which is the money for leaving her mother... They wanted 10 yuan!"

"........."

Gu Jinghui angrily cursed, "Isn't this a rip-off?" "So what if it's a rip-off?"

"Yang Shuai's family had already invited relatives and set a date, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and pay the money..."

"What does his family do? How can they be so rich?"

“Yang Shuai’s family is well-off in the village. I heard that a few years ago they dug up some kind of treasure from underground and sold it for a lot of money… The year before last, they also built a three-story villa, which I hired a construction team to build.”

Only after Yang Shuai's family paid the "bestowal of filial piety" did they find out that his fiancée had run off with someone else...

In fact, this kind of thing is not uncommon among the Hui people in the southern mountainous area of ​​Western Xia.

The Hui people here marry young. If a girl doesn't get into university after graduating from high school, the matchmakers who came back that year will wear down her doorstep. In addition, some parents have outdated ideas and completely disregard their daughters' wishes. In recent years, it has even evolved into a situation where whoever offers the highest dowry will be the one to marry her...

Girls at this age are still in their rebellious phase, and they might even have boyfriends. They're capable of anything for "love."

Some women with strong personalities threaten suicide, while others with greater audacity elope before marriage or simply leave after the wedding—there are countless examples of this!

"Wait... I think I've heard about this before."

Gu Jinghui suddenly woke up with a start: "When I was on the phone with my colleagues in the team a couple of days ago, he said that a big case had occurred in Tongxin County... Because of a problem with the bride price, the woman's family of four and the matchmaker were all killed. Could it be Yang Shuai?"

Zhou Qiang said with a wry smile, "It's Yang Shuai... His fiancée ran away with someone else. He went to demand an explanation and wanted to break off the engagement. The whole village knew about it. In the end, the girl's parents found their daughter and said that if she wanted him, they would marry him back and they wouldn't return a single penny of the betrothal gifts."

"But now that this news has spread, Yang Shuai naturally doesn't want to marry a woman who eloped with someone else before marriage."

"That evening, Yang Shuai found the matchmaker and went to the woman's house again to demand an explanation. I don't know how the argument started... which led to this tragedy!"

"How did Yang Shuai die?"

"He committed suicide... he hanged himself from an elm tree in front of the woman's house."

Inside the funeral home, three unmarried men remained silent for a long time.

After a long while, Gu Jinghui finally complained, "What kind of marriage is this? Not only will we lose everything, but we'll also risk our lives. I might as well just die now!"

Chen Yang: "If you really want to die now, I can find someone to help you choose a burial site with strong yin energy and heavy evil energy..."

Gu Jinghui: "..."

Zhou Qiang hesitated for a moment before saying, "Boss Chen, I came to see you today... there's something else I'd like to ask for your help with."

"Didn't I just say that Yang Shuai's family dug up some things from underground a few years ago and sold them for a lot of money?"

"Actually, treasure hunting was very popular in their area a few years ago... Didn't they unearth dozens of tons of ancient coins in a village called Jiasuojiacha back then?"

Chen Yang exclaimed in surprise, "Is that so? Dozens of tons?"

Gu Jinghui: "I heard about this from the seniors in the team. It seems to have happened around 2013. At that time, a lot of police force was deployed to Wucheng to maintain stability. In fact, before the government intervened, the people had already dug up a lot of the land. These tens of tons are just what the people had dug up."

Zhou Qiang: "At that time, many people in my uncle's village were digging for treasure... After Yang Shuai's family dug something up, many people in the village went there, and my uncle also dug some things up."

"He sold most of the things he dug up, keeping only a bronze cat sculpture... But recently, every day after he wakes up, that bronze sculpture will run to his kang (heated brick bed)."

"And dead rats always seem to appear in the house for no reason. Mr. Chen... do you think it's possible that the bronze sculpture has come to life?"

Chen Yang's heart stirred.

Perhaps the fact that the deceased Yang Shuai could send out invitations in the group chat... is also related to this matter?
…………

P.S.: Treasure hunting was indeed very popular in our area a few years ago, and many people in my hometown made a fortune by digging up good stuff. Let me state upfront that I have never done any treasure hunting, as it is illegal, so please don't get any bad ideas.

(End of this chapter)