Rebirth in a Courtyard: I Am a Little Hunter

"Time to go back," Wei Chen muttered to himself. He put his slightly dried work shirt back on and straightened himself up. As his thoughts shifted, the scene before him receded like the tide.

In an instant, the sweltering heat of the corner of the small garden, the noise of the city, and the roar of passing cars, like an invisible wave, suddenly enveloped him again.

The stark contrast made him slightly dizzy, and his nasal cavity was once again filled with a mixed, less pleasant smell.

He steadied himself, pushed his bicycle, and rejoined the bustling streets of Beijing. The brief rest gave him the energy and spirit to continue exploring. The hunter's cabin was like an inexhaustible spring deep within his soul.

He pedaled aimlessly, yet with the focused attention of an observer, continuing his journey northward. Along the way, he saw several steel mills of varying sizes, some in front of government compounds, others in abandoned yards, billowing black smoke and bustling with noise, forming an unmissable backdrop to Beijing this summer.

Unbeknownst to him, he had ridden to the vicinity of Beihai Park. The white pagoda on Qionghua Island stood out prominently amidst the green trees. However, the scene at the park entrance was somewhat unusual.

A group of people dressed in white shirts and blue trousers, wearing glasses and clearly looking like intellectuals, were diligently sweeping the roads and flower beds under the direction of park staff, carrying brooms and shovels.

Their movements weren't very skillful, but they were focused, and beads of sweat glistened on their foreheads. Several large trucks were parked nearby, their cargo beds open, revealing bundles of books and documents inside.

Wei Chen recognized one of them; he seemed to be a university lecturer he had seen in the newspaper before. He slowed down and overheard two middle-aged women watching the commotion whispering among themselves:

"See? This is all in response to the call; intellectuals also need to undergo labor reform and take the path of integrating with workers and peasants!"

"That's right! I heard they're also going to help organize the library's books and move them to the countryside to support the commune's cultural center!"

Wei Chen watched silently without stopping. These scenes, along with the smoke from the blast furnaces, the long queues at the grain stores, the sounds of the alleyways, and the undercurrents of the ghost market, together constituted the complex and real face of this ancient capital in the summer of 1958.

It is boiling, it is restless, it is troubled, it is resilient; it gropes its way forward under the weight of an unprecedented collective passion and daily life.

The golden rays of the setting sun began to bathe the ancient city walls and rooftops in a warm hue. Wei Chen felt a pang of hunger and a slight fatigue, so he found a place to go back to his hut and cook.

Night fell like ink, staining the city of Beijing with a deep darkness. The bustling sounds of the daytime city, the roar of the blast furnaces, and the chants of steelworkers had all sunk to the bottom of the dream, leaving only the occasional bark of a dog, the distant whistle of a train, and the mournful sound of the night wind blowing through the dilapidated eaves.

Wei Chen ate dinner at the hunter's cabin, rested for a while, and then slipped out of the game world at midnight. He rode his bicycle like a silent phantom through the alleys where moonlight and shadow intertwined.

He was not aimless. His mental energy, like an invisible spider web, quietly spread outwards from him, penetrating bricks, mud, and sleeping houses, meticulously scanning everything within a radius of twenty-one meters.

This was a new habit he had developed. Before, his mental detection range was too short and meaningless; it was much more convenient to channel his energy into his ears and rely on hearing. Since reaching level 5 and being able to detect at 15 meters, Wei Chen had found mental detection very useful. Now, after the upgrade, he could detect at 21 meters, and he kept it on at all times when he went out at night, using it for all-around detection.

Tonight's target is a small ghost market in the southern part of the city that he recently heard about. It's said that you can occasionally find some unexpected "old items." Wei Chen has nothing better to do than wander around various ghost markets at night these past few days, so he naturally won't miss this one. He plans to check it out tonight.

The wheels rolled over the uneven cobblestone path, making a faint "thump" sound that was particularly clear in the silence. He turned into the depths of a dead-end alley called "Locust Tree Alley".

This place had long been abandoned. The doors and windows of the houses on both sides were rotten, the walls were crumbling, and weeds grew rampant under the moonlight, casting twisted and swaying shadows. The chirping of insects rose and fell among the ruins. The air was filled with the damp smell of dust, rotting wood, and years of accumulated water. My mental energy habitually swept over this desolate area, intending to just pass through it.

However, just as his spiritual power reached the bottom of the main building of the dilapidated courtyard house at the deepest point, Wei Chen suddenly stopped in his tracks!

It felt as if it had encountered an invisible barrier, and its mental energy returned a strange sense of emptiness. After penetrating about three meters of soil and a layer of stone slabs that was clearly the top of a basement, it did not reach the bottom, but instead continued to extend downwards!

"There's... another layer below?" Wei Chen's heart skipped a beat. He held his breath, concentrated all his mental energy, and pierced into the deeper darkness like a probe.

That's right! Deeper down in that abandoned, almost empty basement, about five meters below, there exists another tightly hidden space! The feedback from mental energy outlined the contours of a relatively small, brick-built secret room.

What made Wei Chen's pupils shrink the most was the dozen or so huge camphor wood chests, their surfaces covered with a thick layer of dust, neatly stacked in the secret room! They lay silently in absolute darkness, like the hearts of giant beasts buried underground.

A surge of electric excitement coursed through his body, completely washing away any thoughts of going to the ghost market! This was Beijing! The ancient capital, where countless nobles and wealthy merchants, countless upheavals, and countless secrets and fortunes that could not be taken away were hastily or carefully buried beneath this land!

He possessed a "divine sense" that could penetrate twenty-one meters. The underground of this entire city, which was unknown darkness to others, might be an unexplored treasure trove to him! Just by sweeping through those abandoned and neglected places, the harvest... Wei Chen dared not think too much about it. He only felt a surge of heat rush to his head, and his breathing became a little heavier.

He quickly glanced around. The moonlight was pale, and the alleyway was deathly silent; even the chirping of insects seemed to have held its breath. Confirming that no other eyes were watching, Wei Chen took a deep breath, and the mysterious power originating from the Hunter world within him quietly circulated.

He lightly touched the moss-covered broken bricks with his toes, and his body floated like a feather over the chest-high dilapidated courtyard wall, landing silently in the overgrown courtyard.

His mental energy acted like a highly efficient navigator, clearly outlining the path to the underground world for him. He avoided the rubble and collapsed pits on the ground, heading straight for an inconspicuous corner at the base of the back wall of the main house.

The area was concealed by a collapsed half-earth wall and overgrown thorns. Mental energy penetrated the ground, clearly revealing a thick stone slab beneath, covered with a thick layer of loose soil.

He carefully parted the withered branches, fallen leaves, and loose soil with his feet, revealing a square stone slab about one meter on each side. Its edges fit perfectly into the ground, making it extremely difficult to spot with the naked eye unless one used spiritual insight.

Wei Chen took out a sturdy short-handled crowbar he had found in the hunter's hut from his spatial storage. He found a tiny indentation on the edge of the stone slab as a fulcrum, tensed his arm muscles, and exerted force with all his might!

"Crunch... crunch..." A teeth-grinding scraping sound rang out in the quiet night. The stone slab was slowly pried open, and a strong, cold airflow mixed with the smell of mold, dust and rotten wood rushed out, making Wei Chen choke slightly.

He listened intently for a moment, making sure there was no unusual noise, before increasing his strength and completely lifting the heavy stone slab, pushing it aside. A narrow, downward-sloping stone staircase entrance, barely wide enough for one person to pass through, was revealed, dark and gaping, like the throat of a giant beast.

He took out a flashlight, the only household appliance he carried in his backpack. A bright beam of light pierced the darkness. The stone steps were steep and covered with slippery moss.

He carefully descended the steps, keeping his mental energy at maximum alert level at all times. After descending about twenty steps, a basement of about forty square meters came into view.

Just as the spiritual senses revealed, the place was almost completely empty, with only a few rotten and collapsed wooden frames scattered on the ground, and several thick iron chains, their former purpose unknown, lying quietly against the wall. In the corners, some broken pottery urns and earthenware jars were piled up, covered in a thick layer of dust. The air was icy cold and terrifyingly silent.

His gaze, or rather, the focus of his mental energy, was firmly locked on the floor near the inner wall. It was paved with blue bricks just like the rest of the floor. But in his mental vision, the "hollows" beneath a few of the bricks were exceptionally clear.

He walked over, squatted down, and carefully felt the cold, rough brick surface with his fingers. Soon, he found a brick with a slightly larger gap at the edge, which seemed movable. He gripped the edge with his fingers, and with a little force, the brick was lifted out.

Below was soft soil. He quickly cleared away the loose soil, revealing a square iron plate, slightly smaller than the one at the entrance but just as thick! In the center of the plate, a rusty iron ring was embedded.

"Just as I expected!" Wei Chen felt much more at ease. He gripped the cold iron ring and exerted his strength once more!

With a clang, the metal plate was pulled up, revealing a narrow opening just large enough for one person to squeeze through. A chilling, metallic scent, mixed with the smell of some kind of peculiar insect repellent powder, wafted out.

The beam of the flashlight shone downwards, revealing a small space of about ten square meters, only tall enough for one person. A dozen or so large, dark camphor wood chests, almost blending into the darkness, stood silently among them like loyal guards, their surfaces covered in a thick layer of dust.

Wealth was right before his eyes! Wei Chen's heart pounded, his blood surged. Without hesitation, his spiritual power instantly erupted, like an invisible giant hand, gently yet firmly enveloping the box closest to the cave entrance.

"receive!"

Wei Chen disappeared along with the box, then reappeared in the basement of the hunter's hut. —Not the small "backpack" he could collect with his mind, but the vast underground space directly beneath the hunter's hut, the one he had been using as a giant warehouse—one hundred meters long, eighty meters wide, and five meters high!

This space is like a giant vault. Its only "drawback" is that he has to physically enter the hunter's hut to store and retrieve items, unlike a backpack which can be controlled by thought. But at this moment, as a warehouse to store these heavy "loots," it is absolutely safe and has an astonishing capacity.