Courtyard House: Purchasing Agents' Comeback from the Great Famine

Wang Feng slowly slid down the well, and in just over a minute, he reached the bottom.

After carefully examining the bottom of the well, I found that there were no mechanisms or even cracks on any side of the well. No wonder Prince Qing's treasure had gone undiscovered for so many years.

Wang Feng extended his spiritual sense to explore the surrounding walls at the bottom of the well. Soon, he discovered a hidden door on his right.

With a gentle push against the right wall, the wall cracked, and the mud and debris fell off. As Wang Feng increased his strength, the stone door opened a crack instantly.

Wang Feng continued to increase his strength, and the portal was quickly opened completely. Behind the portal was a long passage, which even his spiritual sense could not penetrate to the bottom.

After using his spiritual sense to confirm that there were no traps or mechanisms, Wang Feng walked into the doorway.

After walking about ten meters, we arrived at the end of the passage, where we found a secret underground room of about ten square meters.

The secret room was filled with boxes of various sizes, roughly dozens at a glance, which instantly excited Wang Feng.

However, he did not rush up. He first used his spiritual sense to explore every corner and made sure there were no traps or mechanisms before reaching out and putting all the boxes into his spatial storage.

Back at the bottom of the well, Wang Feng closed the door again. Even if someone knew he was here, it would take three adults to open the door, but it was a piece of cake for him.

Having obtained the treasure, Wang Feng leaped five meters high. Just as he was about to land due to lack of strength, he braced himself against the walls with his hands and feet, thus preventing himself from falling.

Using the surrounding walls for leverage, Wang Feng jumped upwards and reached the bottom of the well in less than three minutes.

It seems he'll need to prepare some ropes in the future; if he didn't have such skill, he really wouldn't have been able to get the treasure today.

With a heart full of excitement, Wang Feng entered the space. Looking at the more than thirty boxes, Wang Feng was so excited that he trembled slightly.

If this box is full of gold, it must weigh at least tens of tons, right?

He didn't use his spiritual sense to explore the contents of the box; he wanted to slowly savor the thrill of opening a blind box.

Wang Feng used his mind to open the first large wooden box.

Upon seeing what was inside the wooden box, he immediately shook his head in disappointment.

The box was full of silver ingots, which were of no use to him now.

Opening the second box, there were still silver ingots inside.

When Wang Feng opened the third box, he thought it would contain more silver ingots, but to his surprise, it was a box full of porcelain.

However, he knew nothing about antiques and couldn't understand them, so he put them aside and opened the fourth box.

The moment he opened the fourth box, a bright yellow light blinded him; it was a box full of gold ingots.

Wang Feng looked excitedly at the whole box of gold ingots. This box of gold ingots weighed at least eight or nine hundred pounds. He was really going to strike it rich this time! There were still more than thirty boxes left to open.

The fifth box contained more silver ingots, and the sixth box was surprisingly filled with calligraphy and paintings.

The seventh, the eighth, the twenty-fourth, and the thirty-fifth.

After all the boxes were opened, he was somewhat disappointed to find only six boxes of gold ingots.

There were four boxes of porcelain, three boxes of calligraphy and paintings, one box of jade, and the rest were all silver ingots, totaling 21 boxes.

However, the six boxes of gold ingots totaled 5400 jin (2.7 tons), which Wang Feng felt seemed a bit low.

2.7 tons, equivalent to 86400 taels of gold in the Qing Dynasty. Considering the purchasing power at that time, it was not a small amount, after all, there was also a lot of silver and antique jade. Moreover, Prince Qing could not be compared with Heshen.

Thinking about this, Wang Feng felt relieved.

Wang Feng picked up a jade ornament and examined it. Judging from the color, it was probably a little inferior to imperial green.

However, the entire box here is mostly filled with jadeite of this quality, and there are three pieces of good quality, even slightly better than imperial green.

However, of these few pieces of jadeite of the highest quality, there are only three bracelets. Wang Feng doesn't plan to break them up; he intends to keep them and give them away as gifts later.

The remaining jadeite weighs about two hundred kilograms, and Wang Feng plans to break it down in a few days.

As for the gold, Wang Feng hasn't decided what to do with it yet. He currently has 143 acres of land, which is enough for now. Even if he used all the gold to expand his space, he wouldn't have that many seeds to plant.

Two days ago, he expanded his land by 113 mu (approximately 7.5 hectares), and he used up all his sweet potato vines. Now that he has expanded his space, there is nothing left to plant.

The space has been developing too fast lately, so fast that he's a little overwhelmed. He'll wait until the vines on the 120 acres of sweet potatoes have grown before deciding whether to continue planting them.

After leaving the space, Wang Feng looked towards the Prince Gong's Mansion, then shook his head.

Prince Gong's Mansion is too big. His spiritual sense is only six meters long right now. He should wait until his spiritual sense reaches ten meters before searching for treasure. That way, it will be much more efficient.

Back at No. 95 courtyard, I found the big locust tree that the deaf old lady had been looking at yesterday. Following the clues she provided, I took out a shovel and started digging in a corner under the locust tree.

After digging less than 30 centimeters deep, Wang Feng unearthed a small iron box. He put the box into his spatial storage, filled the hole with soil, and then climbed over the wall to enter courtyard number 95.

Back inside, Wang Feng quietly closed the door, took off his clothes and hood, and went to the living room.

They took out the metal box and opened it. Inside was a wooden box. Upon opening the wooden box, they found a photograph inside, but nothing else.

The photo shows Duan Zhengde, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Metallurgy, having tea with a junior military officer when he was young.

"Damn it, this traitor, what a load of bull!" Wang Feng cursed inwardly.

The deaf old woman didn't know what the relationship was between Duan Zhengde and the young officer. This photo of her was taken more than 20 years ago, at the risk of Xiao Liuzi's father's life.

At that time, Duan Zhengde accidentally learned that she had been Prince Qing's concubine and that she knew the whereabouts of Prince Qing's treasure. He threatened her and demanded that she hand over Prince Qing's treasure. But the treasure was left to her son, so how could she easily hand it over to Duan Zhengde?

This is why Xiao Liu's father risked his life to take a picture of Duan Zhengde drinking tea with the young military officer. With this evidence against Duan Zhengde, the deaf old woman was able to keep up with him for so many years without handing over the treasure.

Wang Feng carefully put the photo away. He was now wondering whether to hand it over quietly or to arrest this beast and let him experience the ten most brutal tortures of the Qing Dynasty.

Submitting the photos felt like too much trouble; they were just photos of him having tea with his girlfriend, and he wasn't sure if they could be used to convict him.

If Duan Zhengde tries to deny it by saying he was negotiating with the common people, there is no real evidence to prove that he colluded with the enemy and betrayed the country.

After much deliberation, Wang Feng decided that it would be best to find an opportunity to arrest the entire family, subject them to severe torture to extract all their secrets, and then seize all their assets.

Regardless of whether he colluded with the enemy or betrayed the country, he wasn't a good person anyway, otherwise he wouldn't have coveted Prince Qing's treasure without reporting it.