Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2289 Sure enough, there is something 5.0

Shen Cha wiped her nose with a handkerchief. She felt as if she was blown for a moment, but she didn't care. Unexpectedly, her body began to resist. However, it was not advisable to stay outside for too long when the dew was so heavy.

"Okay, let's go back."

She was just about to follow Shen Haolin away when she inadvertently saw the only tree in the backyard. The tree was very tall and sturdy, and looked to be quite old.

"what happened?"

"Where did this tree come from?"

"It was originally here. When we renovated the yard, we expanded it directly. The old craftsman in charge of renovating the yard once said that this tree is a hundred years old and it would be a pity to cut it down." Shen Haolin looked at Shen Cha and found that she was frowning. He reached out and gently helped her to open her brows. "Don't frown at your young age."

"A century-old tree does need to be well protected, but..." Shen Cha tilted his head and looked at the tree, "Brother, do you think this tree is weird? It seems weird no matter how you look at it, but I can't really say exactly how it is weird."

"Go over and have a look!"

Shen Haolin took Shen Cha's hand and walked to the ancient tree. The two of them walked around the ancient tree several times but couldn't see anything strange.

"Touch it and try it!"

Shen Cha reached out and touched the trunk of the tree. The trunk was very thick. The two of them held hands and barely surrounded the trunk in the middle.

"Wait a minute, brother, look here."

Shen Cha touched the bottom of the tree trunk and suddenly felt something was wrong. She waved to Shen Haolin and asked him to come over and touch it as well.

Shen Haolin squatted beside Shen Cha, reached out and touched the place Shen Cha mentioned. After touching it for a while, his eyes lit up.

"Knife!"

"It's not small, but there is a dagger." Shen Cha pulled out a dagger from the interlayer of the boot and handed it to Shen Haolin, "Is there a secret compartment?"

"Well, the trunk was tampered with."

Shen Haolin handed the lantern he was holding to Shen Cha, and with the dagger in his hand, he gently cut twice along the very abrupt gap, and shook his head at Shen Cha.

"It doesn't seem to work." He sighed and said, "It's been too long. This piece has grown together with the original trunk."

"Merged into one?" Shen Cha thought for a moment, then took out a small cloth bag from his sleeve, took out a small shovel and handed it to Shen Haolin, "Use this, it's already sharpened, it's better than a dagger."

"How come you have this too?" Shen Haolin smiled helplessly and said, "Second brother gave it to me, right?"

"Yeah!" Shen Cha nodded, "He said that knives and the like are not very convenient, and daggers are sometimes too big, so this is better."

Shen Haolin smiled and took the small shovel to slowly cut along the gap in the tree trunk. Sure enough, this special small shovel was easy to use. After a short while, the piece of wood that served as the secret door and was originally connected to the main trunk was completely cut off.

"It looks like," Shen Haolin took out the block of wood and looked at it carefully, "it's not completely dead, it's just connected a little bit." Shen Cha shone the lantern on the secret compartment they found and saw a rectangular object wrapped in oil paper inside.

"This house really has something special, right?"

Shen Haolin looked at her, then at the thing inside, and took out a pair of gloves from his arms. These gloves were given to him by Jin Miaomiao. Almost everyone in their group had a pair, specially used for poison protection.

After putting on gloves, Shen Haolin reached out to take out the oil paper bag and put the wooden block back.

"Open it and have a look?" Shen Cha covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief, and took a clean one to cover Shen Haolin's, and nodded at him. "Brother, it's okay."

Shen Haolin opened the oil paper package, revealing a rectangular rosewood box inside. The box looked familiar. Many years ago, this style of wooden box was popular in Xijing City for a while, and almost every young lady and lady from a wealthy family had one.

"This one." Shen Cha frowned slightly, "Looks a little familiar."

"Of course, they look familiar. From the ladies in the palace to the ladies and young ladies of the merchants in Xijing City, almost everyone has one."

"Why?" Shen Cha looked disgusted. "This style isn't new, and it doesn't look good either."

"It was quite nice back then, but now it doesn't seem that novel or pretty anymore." Shen Haolin looked at the wooden box and chuckled, "Do you see the pattern?"

"The totem of the Xuanyuan family." Shen Cha nodded gently. "They are very smart. They didn't hide the things at home, but in an ancient tree. Even if the people from the Qinglian Sect come to cause trouble, they won't find anything in the house, and they won't think that the thing they are thinking about is in such a big tree." She snorted coldly, "But, how can they have such a box?"

"As members of the Xuanyuan family, it's not surprising for them to have this. Many ladies use this box to store jewelry, and some use it to store more valuable gold, silver, etc."

Shen Haolin smiled at Shen Cha, pulled out the soft sword from Shen Cha's waist, and made a gesture to her.

Shen Cha nodded, held Shen Haolin's arm and stood up, watching him kick the box away, and use his sword to open the lock on it, and also open the lid. He thought there would be some mechanism inside, but in fact there was nothing.

"Is it empty?" Shen Cha looked at Shen Haolin and tried to take a few steps forward, but was caught by Shen Haolin. "What's wrong?"

"Let's go in later. Although there is no mechanism in here, it has been in this tree hole for so long that it still has a musty smell, which is not good for your health. Let's get rid of the smell first, and then it won't be too late to go in."

As Shen Haolin spoke, he wiped the soft sword clean, wrapped it around Shen Cha's waist again, and tidied her cloak.

The two men waited for a while, and when they felt that the smell had almost dissipated, they walked over to the box and shone the lanterns in their hands into the box. Seeing the thick stack of silver bills inside, both of them were extremely shocked.

"Is it so thick?" Shen Cha squatted down, put on the gloves, picked up the top one, saw the amount of the banknote, and was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth. "Brother, this one is one hundred thousand taels."

"Yes, that's normal. The things they brought out from the ancient tomb should be worth more than 100,000 taels."

"No, you misunderstood." Shen Cha flipped through the bottom again. "The least amount of these banknotes is 5,000 taels, and this 100,000 taels should be the most." She sighed softly. "Conservatively speaking, there should be more than 1 million taels of banknotes in this box."