met free Chapter 148 Mud for Gold Bricks
Chapter 148 Mud for Gold Bricks
Looking at the ores in the mine—golden, silvery-white, red, purple, and other colors—with their bright metallic luster and glowing in dim light,
Wen Yuxia lowered her voice and said, "Gold, brass, silver, zinc, lead, and other ores can all coexist in a mineral deposit. This mine probably has gold."
Gold ore is typically yellow or golden yellow, but the color may vary slightly if it contains other impurities. Gold ore feels heavy in the hand and has a bright metallic luster.
Gold ore is relatively soft. You can gently scratch the surface with a chisel and observe the scratches to determine if it is gold ore.
While mining, Wen Yuxia quietly explained to Xia Yichen and the others that the natural gold nuggets had smooth, rounded surfaces without sharp edges, honeycomb-like pits, and varied shapes such as round, ginger-shaped, or animal-shaped.
Others can't carry away the gold nugget, but she can. They were brought here to do hard labor, so it's not unreasonable for them to receive some gold as payment!
"Give me any nuggets of gold secretly," Wen Yuxia whispered to Xia Yichen and the others as she diligently dug the ore.
That evening, while resting, Xia Yichen whispered in Wen Yuxia's ear, "Could you take me to see Five Tiger Stronghold?" Wen Yuxia nodded, "Yes."
In the middle of the night, Wen Yuxia quietly left with Wen Yunhong and Xia Yichen. She brought Wen Yunhong along because Xia Yichen hadn't been drugged.
Xia Yichen, wearing an eye mask, sat on the sofa, with Wen Yunhong supervising him to prevent him from spying on what was happening inside the space.
"Young master, eat some grapes, spit the seeds into the plate," Wen Yunhong said, handing a bunch of grapes to Xia Yichen and then placing a fruit plate on his lap.
Wen Yunhong picked up a bunch of grapes and sat down opposite Xia Yichen. He started popping grapes into his mouth while keeping a close eye on Xia Yichen, diligently carrying out the surveillance task Wen Yuxia had assigned him.
Dressed in black, Wen Yuxia leaped out of the spatial dimension, landing and then quickly flashing back inside. Under Ye Mu's cover, her speed in and out of the spatial dimension was astounding.
The men in black guarding the valley's exit didn't even catch a glimpse of her before she had already disappeared from their sight.
Wen Yuxia waved her hand, moving Xia Yichen and Wen Yunhong out of the space, and said in a low voice, "We're out of the valley now, you can come out for some fresh air."
Before entering the space, Xia Yichen consciously took out a long strip of cloth to blindfold himself, but Wen Yuxia, finding it troublesome, simply put a hood over his head, so he couldn't see anything.
Xia Yichen removed the blindfold covering his eyes and asked curiously, "Mu Hua, what is this?"
Wen Yuxia explained, "An eye mask, wearing an eye mask can block out all light, which helps with sleep."
Xia Yichen had a lot of official business to handle every day, so his sleep was indeed poor; sometimes he couldn't sleep a wink all night.
Wen Yuxia said that eye masks help with sleep, so Xia Yichen wanted to ask for one, saying, "I don't sleep well, can you give me this eye mask?"
Wen Yuxia said with a faint smile, "This eye mask is the regular type. I also have a few boxes of disposable heated eye masks and health eye masks with added medicinal herbs..."
The health-care eye mask was made by Wen Yuxia herself. It has an extra layer of fleece compared to ordinary eye masks, and the fleece is inlaid with medicinal residue that helps with sleep.
Wen Yuxia took out a health care eye mask and handed it to Xia Yichen, promising to give him two boxes of disposable heated eye masks after returning to Beijing. Xia Yichen took the eye mask and carefully put it in his pocket.
They ran all the way to the hillside called the Magic Gourd. Wen Yuxia stopped first, and Xia Yichen put on his blindfold.
With Wen Yunhong's help, she returned to the sofa in the living room and waited patiently for news of Wen Yuxia's successful arrival at Wuhu Village after passing through various checkpoints.
About half an hour later, Wen Yuxia returned to her spatial dimension and told Xia Yichen that there were a total of five visible sentry posts and two hidden sentry posts from the foot of the mountain to the summit, as well as two watchtowers at the entrance of the stockade.
Xia Yichen said in a low voice, "It doesn't feel like a bandit's den; it's more like a regular army's den." A typical bandit's den wouldn't have so many sentries, let alone watchtowers.
Wen Yuxia chuckled softly, "Congratulations, you guessed right."
The bandits standing guard in the village displayed a resolute, courageous, and fierce expression on their faces. Wen Yuxia could tell at a quick glance that these men were definitely well-trained soldiers.
Xia Yichen remained silent in thought. To the north of the Jiulian Mountains lay Zhuzhou, the fiefdom of his second uncle, Prince Heng, Xia Yanheng.
To the northwest lies Jinji Pass, which borders the Qin state. Garrisoning Jinji Pass is Lord Xie, the husband of Princess Xia Wenxuan.
"Only Xia Yanheng and Lord Xie have the capability to stockpile troops and mine illegally nearby. Mu Hua, take me out to have a look," Xia Yichen said slowly.
As soon as Xia Yichen finished speaking, Wen Yuxia whispered, "You can take off the blindfold now."
Xia Yichen took off his blindfold, looked around at his surroundings, and asked in surprise, "Where is this?"
Wen Yuxia arrived at Five Tiger Village at just the right time. The bandits were drinking and chatting happily in the square, while she inspected the village alone.
She saw the ore-splitting workshop, and boxes of silver and brass piled up in the warehouse, but she didn't see any gold. Unwilling to give up, Wen Yuxia began to search carefully room by room.
Finally, they found a secret passage in the house. Following the stone steps down, they came to a large stone room containing thirty brass boxes.
Outside, she couldn't remove the copper lock on the chest, but inside the space, it was her domain. She took a chest into the space, used her mind to remove the copper lock, and opened the chest. The chest was filled with gold bricks, dazzling her eyes.
Without further ado, Wen Yuxia put all the boxes into her spatial storage, removed the gold bricks from the bottom layer of the boxes, filled the rest with soil, put the remaining gold bricks back into the boxes, locked them with copper locks, and returned the boxes to the stone house.
After doing all this, she went to the living room to tell Xia Yichen that she had arrived at Five Tiger Village.
Thinking of the more than one hundred gold bricks stored in the space, Wen Yuxia smiled brightly: "This is the only room in the entire village with a secret passage; it's probably the village chief's room."
To demonstrate the correctness of her analysis, Wen Yuxia gently pressed a button on the wall, which opened with a whoosh. In the dim light of the oil lamp, Xia Yichen could clearly see the stone steps.
"There's no danger down there. Would you like to go down and take a look?" Wen Yuxia said calmly.
Xia Yichen nodded slightly and walked down the stone steps. A moment later, he reappeared in front of Wen Yuxia. "Mu Hua, guess what's in the box?"
“Gold,” Wen Yuxia said without thinking, then realized it was inappropriate and chuckled awkwardly, “There are several storerooms over there, filled with brass and chests full of silver.”
"The chest full of silver wasn't locked, but you managed to pick it?" Xia Yichen smiled.
Wen Yuxia waved her hand: "Don't misunderstand, the chests full of silver are locked, but there's an unlocked chest in the storeroom. I opened it and checked; it's full of silver."
She couldn't admit that she could pick the copper lock; otherwise, Xia Yichen would definitely hold her responsible for the missing hundred-plus gold bricks in the secret room.
Xia Yichen, who originally intended to swap everything in the box, sighed in disappointment when Wen Yuxia told him that the copper lock couldn't be opened.