After returning to the camp area, the researchers left first.
Ling Xue told Jiang Yao that the matter of digging nitrate should be put on hold for now. If the military decided to open the mine, the family compound would only need to request a portion later, and Jiang Yao would not be troubled anymore.
Jiang Yao was happy to have nothing to do.
【I’m just going to sit back and wait to collect money!】
Xiao Hei: 【Remember to buy me a big pork knuckle when you earn money.】
Thinking of pork knuckles, Jiang Yao suddenly remembered that the pile of calligraphy, paintings, and gold she had brought back could also be exchanged for money.
【How much are those things worth? Go ask other systems.】
Xiao Hei: 【You really don’t plan to keep them? Those paintings and calligraphy are all antiques. Their value will definitely be higher in the future than the money you get now.】
Jiang Yao replied seriously: 【But if we don’t exchange them now, you won’t even get a pork knuckle to eat.】
【I didn’t tell you to exchange everything. Do it depending on the situation. If one item can be exchanged for hundreds of thousands, then we can keep the rest.】
Xiao Hei contacted a system from the 21st century. After communicating with the other host, they agreed to exchange an authentic Tang Dynasty work by a certain poet for 800,000 yuan.
The other host quickly transferred the money.
Looking at the six-digit number on the screen, Jiang Yao’s lips stayed curved all day.
“Are you that happy today?”
After dinner, Qin Mu came in and saw Jiang Yao sitting there with smiling eyes while writing something.
Jiang Yao stopped her pen, bit the end of it lightly, and turned to look at him. She told him about Ling Xue bringing researchers to the back mountain nitrate site.
“There’s money to be made?”
Qin Mu immediately guessed what could make her so happy.
“Mm.” In her view, money was the most important thing—only with money could one live a good life.
Qin Mu took a paper bag from his pocket and handed it to her.
Jiang Yao opened it curiously. When she saw the thick stack of cash, her mouth almost didn’t close.
“More money again? What is it this time?” she asked while counting it.
“Reward from the Bulltail Mountain spy case. One hundred yuan.”
Jiang Yao added a line in her notebook. “Mm… at this rate, the money we’ve spent will be earned back soon.”
Qin Mu: Little money fan!
…
In the next few days, Qin Mu was extremely busy, leaving early and returning late.
Lin Yuanchao reported the discovery of the nitrate mine overnight. Beijing’s response was to immediately establish a military geological research institute there and send a full battalion to guard the area.
This meant there was even more work to do.
First, they needed to build housing and expand the camp area. With another battalion arriving, the family compound would not be enough to accommodate everyone.
Second, the mining operation at Bulltail Mountain was urgent. The underground situation was still unclear, and they had to decide who would go down into the mine.
Besides the researchers, they also needed personnel for protection.
“Qin Mu, pick a few sharp ones to go down with you and the researchers.”
After thinking it over, Lin Yuanchao still felt Qin Mu was the most suitable choice. Qin Mu was the best fighter in the camp, and he felt reassured having him protect the researchers.
Qin Mu naturally executed the order strictly.
“Then we’ll go tomorrow morning with the researchers.”
“Yes.”
When Jiang Yao found out Qin Mu was going down into the mine, her first reaction was that she would finally get some free time to wander around again.
Xiao Hei: 【Don’t you want to go down and take a look?】
Jiang Yao: 【I do want to, but I’m not qualified. I can’t go. Besides, there’s nothing good down there anyway, right?】
【The tomb below has already been destroyed and turned into a secret laboratory. There’s no treasure for me to find.】
Xiao Hei: 【You really don’t want to go?】
【I—】
“Hmm?”
Jiang Yao felt her finger being pinched. She turned to look at the man beside her. “What is it?”
Qin Mu leaned slightly toward her. “When I met the researchers today, Researcher Huo said you once met an old man. That old man taught you the method of making ice with nitrate?”
Jiang Yao blinked. “Yes.”
“Did he teach you anything else?”
Jiang Yao licked her lips and was about to say no when Xiao Hei quickly stopped her.
【This is a good chance to go with them. Just say he taught you more.】
【I found something. Before the original Jiang Yao got married, she secretly went to the cattle shed to see an old man. That old man was Old Master Song, a well-known archaeologist. He was denounced by his own son and sent down.
He had a chronic illness and once fainted on the roadside after work. The original Jiang Yao saved him, and they gradually developed contact. He accepted her as his student and taught her many things.
Later, her family found out she had been going to the cattle shed and beat her severely. In the end, she shockingly forgot this memory.
After Jiang Yao married into the Qin family, Old Master Song heard about it and never met her again. He eventually passed away on the night you married into the Qin family.】
Jiang Yao fell silent for a long time.
【Are you sure this is real? Not something you made up just to get me into the underground site?】
Xiao Hei: 【Sister Yao, why would I lie about something related to you and the original host? What would I even gain from lying?】
【To… get access to what’s underground.】
Jiang Yao quickly thought it through.
If she claimed she was Old Master Song’s student, the researchers might allow her to join them. That way, her reason for going underground would become legitimate.
But she didn’t want to say it for now.
Jiang Yao answered Qin Mu’s question. “He didn’t teach me anything else. I only met him once. I helped him, and he gave me that method.”
Xiao Hei: 【You really don’t plan to go? Even if your husband might be in danger?】
【Stop scaring me. Qin Mu’s life is tough. At most he’ll get a little injured.】
After saying that, Jiang Yao blocked Xiao Hei.
She looked at Qin Mu. “Do you have anything else to ask?”
Qin Mu: “No.”
He lay down, thinking about what he had just heard from Jiang Yao and Xiao Hei.
So Jiang Yao actually had such an experience, but it was cut off by her parents.
He felt it was a pity, but also understood that her parents acted out of fear—after all, any connection with people from the cattle shed could bring disaster to the family.
But her parents were also extremely heartless, even using their daughter’s innocence to extort money.
…..
Explanation of the money conversion rule:
In the 1970s, one yuan was roughly equivalent to 100 yuan in later generations.
All antiques Jiang Yao exchanges through the system are valued in modern currency.
Modern money can be used in the spatial department store. If it needs to be used in the 1970s, it must be converted in reverse.
For example: 1,000 modern yuan can be exchanged for a “big unity” (10-yuan bill of the era).