Jiang Yao felt that this wasn’t a matter of “getting used to it after the first time”—she doubted whether Qin Mu even had that kind of awareness.
What if she said she was cold, and Qin Mu told her to wear a thick padded coat to sleep?
Xiao Hei: 【Sister Yao, your imagination is really something else.】
In the end, the blanket still wasn’t extended. It remained two meters long and two meters wide.
However, Jiang Yao was relieved that Qin Mu wouldn’t be back for at least a week, so she wouldn’t feel guilty in the short term.
Over the next few days, Jiang Yao studied hard using the recipes Xiao Hei had exchanged from other systems. She finally learned two or three dishes, and they tasted pretty good.
After the bean sprouts were ready, Song Yulan took Jiang Yao around the family compound to visit neighbors and get familiar with the households nearby.
To the left of their house was Regiment Commander Wen’s family. His full name was Wen Zhongcheng, the commander of the First Regiment.
His wife was Chen Yuzhi—the kind-hearted Sister Chen that Qin Mu had mentioned. She worked as a staff member in the Propaganda Department. Their son, Dazhuang, Wen Zhiyuan, was currently in first grade at the military district primary school.
To the right was Battalion Commander Liu’s family—Qin Mu’s subordinate, Liu Jianjun, the one who had interrogated Jiang Yao that day.
Their family had four members. His wife, Yang Erni, had given birth to twin sons. The couple were childhood sweethearts from Sichuan Province.
As for the other families, they were generally fine. However, Yang Erni specifically warned Jiang Yao to keep her distance from a family with the surname Tang.
Tang Zhen was the commander of the Third Battalion. His wife had died a few months ago, and their child was only three months old. At home, only his mother, Fan Linghua, was taking care of the baby.
At first, Jiang Yao and Song Yulan didn’t think much of it—until they heard the next part.
“His wife had a hard life. She got a fever during her postpartum confinement and died. The baby barely had any breast milk.”
As soon as Jiang Yao heard this, she knew something was wrong. How could someone develop a fatal fever during postpartum confinement?
Sure enough, it turned out she had been mistreated by her mother-in-law. Even during confinement, she had to cook and do laundry. Exhausted, she developed a fever. She also had to take care of the baby herself and still work during the day.
Even if a person were split into eight parts, they couldn’t handle that much work. Eventually, one night, she died.
“That morning, her mother-in-law called her to cook, but there was no response. The baby was crying from hunger. When she went in to check, the woman was already cold.”
Jiang Yao looked shocked. “What about her husband? Didn’t Battalion Commander Tang do anything?”
Yang Erni shook her head with a complicated expression. “No. According to the old lady, this daughter-in-law schemed to marry her son. They had already arranged another marriage before, but it fell through because of this.”
“Is that true?”
“Half true, half false. A few days after the young wife died, the old lady had Tang bury her in the wild. The baby wasn’t even a month old, and she refused to take care of it, so she brought in a ‘relative’ from her hometown to help.”
“She says it’s a relative, but really, she’s just finding a stepmother for the child.”
“That old lady loves to act innocent. She often carries the baby around asking for food. Since you’ve just moved in, you should be careful.”
After hearing so much gossip from Yang Erni, both Jiang Yao and Xiao Hei were quite shocked. Although she had learned a lot in the production team, she had never seen something like this.
On the other hand, Song Yulan’s expression remained unchanged, as if she had already seen through it all.
That night, Jiang Yao rolled around on the big bed, lying sprawled between two pillows, chatting with Xiao Hei.
Jiang Yao: 【There are so many interesting stories in this compound. I’ve really broadened my horizons.】
Xiao Hei: 【……】
Xiao Hei: 【Comrade Jiang Yao, can you stop applying every idiom to yourself like that?】
Jiang Yao didn’t care whether her wording was correct. She hummed a tune, crossed her legs, and said, “I’m just bored. Xiao Hei, can you tell if that den has been cleared out? If not, how about we sneak out tomorrow to take a look?”
She had been pretending to be well-behaved for three or four days and was getting tired of it. People needed some excitement—like digging up a tomb or redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor.
The next morning after breakfast, Jiang Yao found an excuse to leave the family compound.
Niuwei Mountain was two mountains away from the compound. Intentionally avoiding Qin Mu, she went toward another mountain to the southeast.
According to the map, it was the back mountain of Qianjin Production Team.
She found a hidden spot and changed her appearance. In an instant, she transformed into a rugged, bearded man—though a bit short.
Still, her height looked acceptable, since people in this era varied quite a bit.
Xiao Hei: 【Your disguise skills are impressive. I wonder if your husband would recognize you.】
Jiang Yao: 【No way!】
She confidently bit a stalk of foxtail grass and leisurely looked around.
After about half an hour, Jiang Yao reached the foot of the mountain near Qianjin Production Team.
At this time, most people were working in the fields, so the village entrance was empty.
Afraid of being seen, she took a side path toward the back mountain.
Unfortunately…
Xiao Hei: 【Sister Yao, real-life adult film demonstration! Want to record it?】
With her sharp eyesight, Jiang Yao had already spotted two people—one dark, one pale; one fat, one thin—entangled together.
The scene was truly unpleasant to look at.
She glanced for a second and immediately turned her head away.
【No thanks. I might lose all interest in that kind of thing.】
Qin Mu had a good physique—why would she look at that instead of the real thing?
Ridiculous.
But since she had run into them, she couldn’t just walk away empty-handed, right?
Instead of them spending money on that, they might as well “help the poor”—namely, her.
So she quietly approached, kicked them apart, and pulled out a large machete.
“Robbery. Hand over all the money in your pockets.”
The two people on the ground stared at the sudden appearance in shock. They had wanted to argue, but the gleaming machete made them tremble. They scrambled around, searching for money.
After gathering it, they shakily placed it in front of Jiang Yao.
She clicked her tongue. One glance was enough to tell they hadn’t handed over everything.
Thirty cents? Were they treating her like a beggar?
Without a word, Jiang Yao swung the machete to the side. A nearby tree shook and fell over.
“Spare us, sir! Spare us!” Terrified, they hurriedly pulled out more money from their underwear and shoe soles—thirty yuan in total.
Jiang Yao looked slightly disgusted. Holding a piece of paper between her fingers, she took the money, planning to spend it quickly later—it was too dirty.
Satisfied, she snorted and walked away.
Not long after, several villagers followed the sound of the falling tree.
“Someone’s having an affair!”
As Jiang Yao headed up the mountain, she listened to the commotion in the village and smiled leisurely, the foxtail grass still in her mouth.
Xiao Hei: 【Sister Yao, you’re really cunning.】
Jiang Yao shrugged. 【If they had handed over all the money at once, I wouldn’t have done that. People should be honest—especially when facing a ‘bad person.’】
Xiao Hei: 【……】
Continuing up the mountain, Jiang Yao quickly reached the designated location.
She took out her tools from Xiao Hei and found a suitable spot, just about to start digging when Xiao Hei suddenly stopped her.
【What’s wrong?】
Xiao Hei: 【Hide first.】
As soon as it spoke, both Jiang Yao and her tools disappeared on the spot.
A gentle breeze passed, rustling the leaves.
Soon, hurried footsteps approached.
Jiang Yao sat cross-legged inside her space, watching the outside. Beside her was a small black dog—Xiao Hei.
She grabbed it by the scruff and lifted it up. “What are those two doing, sneaking around like that?”
Xiao Hei flailed its paws. “Can you put me down first?”
Once freed, Xiao Hei sat upright and said seriously, “They’re digging a pit to receive people. Your husband is clearing out a den—the people in that cave escaped through a passage.”
Jiang Yao smacked its black head. “Do you think I’m stupid? How far is Niuwei Mountain from here? There’s another mountain in between. How could they escape all the way here—unless this place has also been tunneled out.”
A map appeared in front of Xiao Hei. It pointed with its paw.
“This is the distance between the two mountains. Normally, fugitives wouldn’t run in this direction… If my guess is correct, this mountain isn’t their final destination—it’s a transit point.”
“The two tombs are probably connected.”
Jiang Yao blinked. “Was it this frequent back then?”
Xiao Hei knew a bit about history. It stood up and stretched its legs. “This is nothing—there were even cases of digging up graves and whipping bones.”
Compared to that, this was minor.
“So what do you think they’re doing down there?”
Jiang Yao wasn’t worried at all. She even took out some sunflower seeds and started snacking.
Xiao Hei gnawed on a bone. “Who knows? If there’s something valuable, you can just ‘redistribute the wealth’ later.”
Jiang Yao spat out a seed shell onto a piece of paper. “Seems like I should benefit from that.”
She had been tomb raiding for years. While she wasn’t from a major school, she had spent three or four months underground before.
If there wasn’t something valuable, those people wouldn’t have spent so much time.
She was determined to get whatever treasure was down there.
While they were analyzing, the two men had already started digging at the exact spot Jiang Yao had planned to excavate. Soon, several people climbed out of the hole. Among them were a few wearing white coats, each carrying a box.
“Could those boxes contain treasures?” Jiang Yao’s eyes lit up as she rubbed her hands.
She could already imagine rare and precious artifacts inside.
“Xiao Hei, get me the tools—tranquilizer gun. I’ll go biu biu biu and take them all down.”
Xiao Hei: “……”
Though hesitant, it complied.
A few minutes later, Jiang Yao stepped out of her space, looking at more than twenty people lying unconscious from the tranquilizer.
She casually kicked aside a bulky man blocking her path and strode toward the people in white coats.
Her gaze swept over their faces before landing on the boxes on the ground.
Just as she was about to open them, Xiao Hei warned her that someone else was coming.
Jiang Yao: …Why are there so many people?!
With a wave of her hand, she stored everything in her space and disappeared again.
Ignoring whoever had arrived outside, she entered her space and immediately opened the boxes, eager to see what was inside.