At the foot of Tashan Mountain stood a dilapidated courtyard. It had once been a grand estate, but after the years of catastrophe, it had long since been ransacked and battered beyond recognition.
Lin Ran remembered that this family had once been the greatest landlords for hundreds of miles around. However, their family had later been ruined and their lives lost; it was said that not even a single descendant remained.
Now, the courtyard didn’t even have a proper wall. Rumors had circulated previously that the place was haunted, and the people of the production brigade considered it bad luck, so everyone did their best to avoid the area and take the long way around.
When Lin Ran and Sanya had come over earlier, they had also taken a detour.
But why would Lin Meng come to a place like this?
Out of curiosity, Lin Ran moved forward a bit to see what she was trying to do.
Because the walls of the courtyard were mostly broken into large gaps, Lin Ran could see at a glance that Lin Meng was rummaging through the yard, searching everywhere.
This made Lin Ran even more puzzled. What was she looking for in a place like this?
“Looking for treasure, obviously!”
It turned out that Lin Ran had been so lost in thought that she had unconsciously murmured her question aloud.
Just as Zheng Sanya finished packing the mushrooms and was about to call Lin Ran to head back, she saw Lin Ran craning her neck to look at something. She looked over curiously as well and answered her casually.
“What treasure?”
Their brigade actually had treasure? How did she not know?
Perhaps because the skepticism in Lin Ran’s eyes was too obvious, Zheng Sanya—in order to prove she wasn’t lying—hurriedly recounted the words she had overheard.
It turned out that Zheng Sanya’s grandmother had once been a maid in the landlord’s house, so she knew a bit about the family’s affairs.
When that group of people came to raid the house back then, she had been present. Seeing them only haul out a few dozen crates of property and goods, she had been suspicious at the time. Based on her understanding, it was impossible for the landlord’s family to have only that much, but she had remained silent.
Later, she must have gone to look for it secretly herself, but she had found nothing.
After that, when she was confined to her sickbed and nearing the end of her life, she told this matter to her son—Zheng Sanya’s father, Accountant Zheng.
At that time, Zheng Sanya happened to be preparing to go and wipe down her grandmother’s body. When she reached the door, she happened to hear it.
Because she heard her grandmother repeatedly urging and charging her father not to tell anyone and to go look for it secretly himself, Zheng Sanya was afraid they would hit her again if they knew she had heard. So, she had hurriedly and quietly slipped away.
Hearing this, Lin Ran understood. So the so-called haunting was completely fake; it was likely something Accountant Zheng had done on purpose. On one hand, it was to scare others away to prevent anyone else from discovering the treasure. On the other hand, it was possible that when Grandma Zheng or Accountant Zheng had come to look for the treasure, their sneaky behavior had been mistaken for a ghost by others.
However, based on what Sanya said, the other villagers shouldn’t know about the treasure. So how did Lin Meng know?
Recalling her cousin’s strange behavior last time, combined with this incident, Lin Ran became thoughtful.
However, she wasn’t interested in the so-called treasure. It was just a landlord; even if his family was worth ten thousand pieces of gold, could it possibly compare to what was in her Space?
Not to mention that her ancestor had collected an entire national treasury and several estates, even a single Dingyuan Marquis Mansion would likely be incomparable. Thus, she didn’t take this treasure seriously.
If Lin Meng wanted to look for it, she could look. If she truly found it, that would be her luck.
As for the secrets Lin Meng carried, she didn’t want to delve into them either.
In short: if people don’t provoke me, I won’t provoke them.
In this life, she only wanted to lead her family to live a good life. So as long as others didn’t come to disturb her, she couldn’t be bothered to care about them.
However, while she wasn’t interested in the treasure itself, wasn’t this a perfect, ready-made opportunity?
Originally, she had been fretting over how to improve her family’s meals. Although her Space had all kinds of food, relying solely on “smuggling” things out wasn’t a long-term solution.
As for the idea of exposing the Space, she had never considered it. If such a miraculous thing were discovered, she would likely be treated as a demon or monster and burned at the stake.
She cherished this chance to reunite with her mother in this life, so even without using the Space, she would not take such a risk.
Now, with the treasure as an excuse, she could take the chance to bring out some gold and silver. As long as their family had money, what food could they not buy?
With this thought, Lin Ran could no longer sit still, wishing she could immediately bring a pile of gold home.
But she quickly calmed down. Not today. Today she was out with Sanya and had no chance to go look, and Lin Meng was still searching over there. She would have to find another chance to circle around that courtyard and put on a show of searching.
Although the problem wasn’t solved yet, she had an idea, so Lin Ran’s mood was very beautiful at this moment as she prepared to carry the mushrooms back.
But when she looked closely, she realized that Sanya had actually given more than half of the mushrooms to her. Her basket was stuffed full, while Sanya’s side had only a basket full of wild vegetables with just a few mushrooms scattered on top.
Lin Ran immediately went to pour the mushrooms back.
“Sanya, you take all of these back. I’ll just take a few to try them for the novelty.”
“How can I do that!”
Sanya became anxious. She had just eaten such a precious piece of cake from Sister Ranran, and she had no other good things to give her; all she had were these mushrooms.
Seeing that Sanya refused to take them no matter what, Lin Ran had a headache. Sanya herself couldn’t fill her belly every day and was as thin as skin and bones; how could she have the heart to take so many mushrooms from her?
Thinking of this, Lin Ran suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
“Sanya, how about this: I’ll take a few mushrooms back, and we’ll hide the rest here. In the future, whoever is hungry can come here and roast them to eat, how about that?”
That way, if Sanya was hungry in the future, she could come here to fill her stomach. This idea of hers was simply wonderful!
But unexpectedly, when Sanya heard this, she instinctively shuddered, her voice even beginning to tremble.
“But… but that’s stealing food. If my parents find out, they’ll beat me to death.”
As she spoke, as if thinking of something terrifying, Sanya’s whole body began to shake. Cold sweat even began to break out on her forehead, and her mouth kept trembling.
“I don’t dare anymore, I’ll never dare again… don’t hit me, it hurts, it hurts so much…”
Seeing this, Lin Ran immediately guessed that Sanya must have been unable to bear the hunger in the past and had been caught stealing food, resulting in a severe beating from her parents, to the point that she still had a psychological shadow now.
At this thought, Lin Ran hurried to pat her back gently to comfort her.
“Don’t be afraid, Sanya. Didn’t you say all these mushrooms were given to me?”
“Since they are all mine, it has nothing to do with you if I hide them.”
“Even if we ‘steal’ a bite, we are eating my things. It has nothing to do with your family or your parents, see?”
Perhaps Lin Ran’s words worked; Sanya’s emotions slowly stabilized, and her body stopped shaking so violently.
After another moment of recovery, Sanya finally returned to normal. She lowered her head somewhat embarrassedly, not daring to look up at Lin Ran, afraid that Lin Ran would find her repulsive.
To be honest, seeing her like this made Lin Ran feel a bit of heartache. She was such a well-behaved little girl; how could her parents have the heart to be so cruel?
Lin Ran took a handkerchief and gently wiped away her cold sweat, comforting her with a few more words before the girl was finally soothed.
Afterward, the two of them dug a hole together, lined it with dry grass, and hid more than half of the mushrooms inside.
Although Lin Ran emphasized several times that she was hiding these herself and it had nothing to do with Sanya, Sanya still couldn’t help but tremble with fear.
Watching her, Lin Ran couldn’t help but sigh. Under these circumstances, would she even be able to get her to eat these mushrooms?
After hiding them, the two redistributed the remaining wild vegetables and mushrooms. Lin Ran took only a small portion of each; regardless, she was just taking them back for her family to try for the novelty.
Having divided them, the two then slung their baskets over their arms and began to walk back.
Because she had thought of a way to completely improve her family’s meals, the plan Lin Ran had made before coming out to “smuggle” some meat back was discarded.
However, just as the two of them reached the foot of the mountain, they saw a man and a woman standing nearby, talking.