Chapter 283: Dig Gold
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Early the next morning, before the sun had even started its shift, Jiang Xia had already gotten up and freshened herself.
She looked around to make sure everyone was still asleep and that no one would follow her. Only then did she confidently step outside.
The sky was just beginning to lighten with a dim blue, providing just enough brightness for her to barely see the road. Jiang Xia was worried she might get lost.
The place where she had dug for Fleece Flower Root the previous day was near the edge of the bamboo forest. However, there wasn’t much of it. Jiang Xia planned to check the boundary between the bamboo and the tree forest, hoping for a pleasant surprise.
Both forests were vast, and getting lost inside could mean never finding a way out. So, as Jiang Xia proceeded, she marked her way by scratching crosses onto the bamboo with rocks.
She noticed she wasn’t the only one making marks. Various scratches of different depths covered the bamboo, likely made by others to prevent themselves from getting lost.
Jiang Xia didn’t give it much thought. As long as she could find her way back, she confidently ventured deeper. By the time she reached the boundary between the two forests, daylight had fully broken, illuminating the ground.
This time, she wisely brought a shovel, ensuring her efforts wouldn’t be in vain.
To Jiang Xia’s disappointment, she hadn’t come across any Fleece Flower Root. She regretted not taking the one Su Zhen had found.
However, she soon made a new discovery. It had rained yesterday, and due to the moist air, many wild mushrooms had sprouted today!
She had read about these wild mushrooms in books. They tasted great, were good for the body, and crucially, were non-toxic when cooked. They usually grew in the Yun Nan region, and she hadn’t expected to find so many here.
If she couldn’t find Fleece Flower Root, wild mushrooms were a good consolation!
Jiang Xia immediately began picking them diligently. Once she had a handful of mushrooms, she threw them into her interspace.
Having become adept at the task, she couldn’t help but hum a tune as she went along, picking and tossing the mushrooms into her interspace without even looking.
Having gathered a substantial amount, Jiang Xia noticed it was getting late and everyone would probably be waking up. She decided to organize her interspace and head back.
Upon entering her interspace, she realized she had inadvertently gathered a pile of wild mushrooms, almost half her height. They were piled next to the cow pen, almost eaten by the milk cow. Luckily, she noticed in time, stopping the cow, otherwise, who knows if the wild mushrooms might have been toxic to it.
Jiang Xia patted her increasingly plump milk cow, feeling the satisfaction of successful breeding.
She carefully selected and picked the wild mountain mushrooms, placing them with green onions, ginger, and garlic. During the selection process, she suddenly noticed a glimmering golden substance within the pile of mushrooms. Upon closer examination, it turned out to be gold foil!
Such a large piece of gold foil surely had an owner. Given the value of gold these days, someone would be quite anxious if they lost this much!
Jiang Xia contemplated returning all the gold foil found among the mushrooms but then realized something. The gold foil must have been unearthed along with the mushrooms, suggesting it was buried. Could it be someone’s hidden stash?
She recalled that when Su Zhen went up the mountain, he mentioned that there were only seven or eight hunting families on the mountain, and only the Zhang family lived at such a high location.
So, did that mean the gold foil belonged to the Zhang family?
The Zhang family had three sons. Only Zhang Ping had a family of his own. The second and third sons, aged sixteen and thirteen respectively, where would they get gold foil from?
It must belong to Zhao Wan.
However, Jiang Xia soon dismissed this theory. She noticed the gold foils were irregular in shape, varied in size, and rough in texture. Zhao Wan was a refined individual and wouldn’t use such coarse gold foil.
The more Jiang Xia looked at the gold foil, the more she believed it seemed to have naturally grown from the earth. Could there be a gold mine in this mountain?
Her father once mentioned that the Zhang family’s location was strategically advantageous for both offense and defense. Could it be possible they were guarding a gold mine?
After sorting out all the gold foil, it wasn’t much – roughly two or three grams. Based on its distribution, Jiang Xia was increasingly convinced that there must be a gold mine here.
If that was the case, it was highly unlikely the Zhang family would agree to leave the mountain. Their hopes of bringing their sister back might be challenging.
Having ascertained the presence of a gold mine, Jiang Xia wasn’t in a rush to return the gold foil.
It wasn’t out of greed. The gold bars Jiang Xia took from the old Jiang family were far more abundant and of much better quality than these gold foils.
It was just that the distribution of the foil was too scattered. Jiang Xia couldn’t precisely return it, and given the small quantity, it wasn’t really necessary to do so..
