Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 286 Big Surprise
Yan Jiekuang opened the wooden cover, which was only nearly ten centimeters thick. He opened it and shone a light inside, only to see that the pit was full of gold ingots. The walls of the pit were tightly covered with oilcloth. Yan Jiekuang leaned over and picked up one, only to see that it was written on it, "In the 42nd year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Chengtian Prefecture collected 20 taels of gold from the Yuhengsi. Goldsmith Shen Yun."

Yan Jiekuang was watching when three little heads appeared next to him. Little Fatty asked, "Dad, what is this?"

Yan Jiekuang said, "This is ancient money. Come on, go and take a rest. Your faces are dirty. Go wash them."

Big Fatty said, "We're not going to dig anymore?"

Yan Jiekuang said, "Let's not dig yet. We need to eat first. Only when we are full and satisfied can we have strength."

Yan Jiekuang didn't want the child to know too much. If someone asked about it, the child wouldn't be able to keep it secret. Yan Jiekuang planned to do it himself at night.

Yan Jiekuang closed the lid, put the tools aside, and took the three children back to the yard. He first helped them wash and then asked them what they wanted to eat. The three children had worked hard.

Big Fatty said he wanted to eat noodles with soybean paste, Little Fatty said he wanted to eat chicken drumsticks, Shi Li asked for noodles with soybean paste and chicken drumsticks, Yan Jiekuang smiled and said, "Today I will reward you with chicken drumsticks."

Yan Jiekuang went to the kitchen in the front yard to cook. The three children were playing under the tree in the front yard. Yan Jiekuang braised the chicken legs first, and then chopped the meat filling himself. When Yan Jiekuang finished cooking the chicken legs, sauce and vegetables, and was about to start cooking, Ji Lian came back.

Yan Jiekuang opened the door. Ji Lian was very surprised because usually when Yan Jiekuang was at home, the door was just closed and never locked. But she didn't ask. Yan Jiekuang closed the door and locked it again.

Yan Jiekuang smiled mysteriously at Ji Lian and said, "Wash your hands and eat first. I'll give you a surprise later."

Although Ji Lian was curious, she still went to wash her hands. Yan Jiekuang put the noodles in the water, and brought a large bowl to the table. Then he brought the chicken legs, sauces, and vegetables to the table and shouted, "It's time to eat!"

Ji Lian came in with the children, and everyone started to eat together. Yan Jiekuang said, "Thank you for your hard work today, three children. I'll give each of you a big chicken drumstick."

Ji Lian smiled and said, "Why is there no chicken leg for me?"

Yan Jiekuang said, "Yes, all of them."

As Dapang ate, he said, "Today we helped Dad with his work."

When Ji Lian heard this, she became more curious about what Yan Jiekuang was doing with the child. It seemed that the child was also very tired.

After dinner, Yan Jiekuang let the children take a nap. The children were so tired that they fell asleep on the bed.

Yan Jiekuang brought Ji Lian to the backyard wall. Ji Lian was surprised to see a big hole in the wall. Yan Jiekuang walked in first and came to the square he had cleaned before. Ji Lian was very surprised to see this yard.

Ji Lian followed Yan Jiekuang to the side of the square. Yan Jiekuang opened the lid. Ji Lian stared at the things in the pit and asked, "This is a gold ingot. How did you find it? Who hid it?"

Yan Jiekuang said: "I don't know who hid it. I found it when I was looking at the yard over there with Wang Xuan. I thought there must be some secret here, so I cleared one compartment and the others are still not cleared."

Ji Lian was also curious. She also wanted to know what was in the other boxes, so she said, "What are you waiting for? Clean it up quickly." Then she started to roll up her sleeves.

When Yan Jiekuang saw this, he realized that the man was even more anxious than himself, so the couple started working on it.

When the three children woke up, they had cleared out ten grids. Five of them were filled with gold ingots, all from the Ming Dynasty. The remaining five grids each had five red lacquer boxes. Yan Jiekuang opened one and found exquisite jewelry inside. There were three pieces of jewelry in this lacquer box: a hairpin, a pair of bracelets, and a pair of earrings.

Ji Lian took one look at it and went to her room without opening it. She planned to clean it up and then look at it slowly. It was like opening a blind box.

When Ji Lian moved the last few boxes to her room, the children in the opposite room woke up, so Ji Lian didn't go to the back. Yan Jiekuang didn't care about Ji Lian either. He found a few wooden boxes and put them in the study. Then he started to move gold ingots into the study, packing them one box at a time.

There were one hundred gold ingots in one grid, all from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, a total of five hundred gold ingots. Of course, he didn't know if there were any more in other pits.

In the afternoon, Yan Jiekuang continued to open the blind boxes, cleaning them one by one. The remaining pits gave him a bigger surprise. One of the pits contained calligraphy and paintings. Each roll was wrapped in many layers of oil paper, tightly wrapped. Yan Jiekuang did not open it because he was afraid that it would be exposed to air and damage the painting.

Most of the remaining ones are porcelain, all from the Ming Dynasty, and most of them are from the Wanli period. The most important point is that they are all complete sets, with one set placed in one pit.

Finally, there are jade and bronze wares. Most of the jade wares are belt hooks and pendants, and there are also a few ornaments and screens. The bronze wares all have inscriptions, but they must be from before the Ming Dynasty.

Yan Jiekuang suspected that this secret treasure was buried in the Ming Dynasty. Yan Jiekuang kept rummaging around until dinner time, when he moved all the things to the basement in his yard. There happened to be an empty wall of the basement that was used as a display cabinet. The display cabinet was collected by Wang Qing and placed in the basement, where it had never been used.

Ji Lian made dinner in the evening. The three little ones were a little unhappy, but Ji Lian said, "Your dad is busy and doesn't have time. Just make a meal for now, but you can add chicken legs."

Yan Jiekuang was also exhausted, so he sat down and started eating. Ji Lian asked, "How do you deal with these things?"

Yan Jiekuang said nonchalantly: "Those are all mine. Didn't you notice that these things are from the Ming Dynasty? That means they haven't appeared since the Qing Dynasty. We can open a private museum in the future, which will just be a good opportunity to increase our collections."

Ji Lian said, "Greedy ghost."

Yan Jiekuang teased Ji Lian and said, "How about handing over the jewelry you collected?"

Ji Lian rolled her eyes at him and said, "Don't even think about it. That's mine. I'll give it to Shi Li as a dowry in the future."

When Shi Li heard Ji Lian talking about her, she gave Ji Lian a big smile while biting a chicken leg.

Yan Jiekuang laughed heartily. He was in a very happy mood now.

Ji Lian suddenly thought of the pair of gold bracelets and said, "Give the pair of gold bracelets I saw at the beginning to my mother and let her keep them in the bottom of the box. I saw the words inside. They are from the palace. They should belong to a certain lady."

Yan Jiekuang ate his meal while saying vaguely, "That's all yours, you can do whatever you want."

Ji Lian said, "Eat quickly. I'll go check the other boxes. You can take care of the children first after you finish eating." The two of them ate quickly. The three children looked at them a little strangely. Big Fatty asked, "Dad, did you forget to pick up Brother Lei?"

Yan Jiekuang slapped his head, he really had forgotten, and said, "Hurry up and eat, after eating we will go to pick it up together."

After dinner, Yan Jiekuang took the children out to pick up Shi Lei and digest the food at the same time. Before leaving, he did not forget to remind Ji Lian to lock the door.

When they reached Yard No. 95, they ran into Yi Jun, who was returning home from get off work at the steel mill, looking dejected. Yan Jiekuang approached him, greeted him, and said, "Brother Yi, what happened to you?"

When Yi Jun saw that it was Yan Jiekuang with the child, he said, "Oh, don't mention it. My father-in-law and his family are going to the south. They said there is a factory in a joint venture and they need management personnel. So they want us to go together."

Yan Jiekuang asked: "In Shenzhen?"

Yi Jun asked, "How do you know?"

Yan Jiekuang said: "Now all the large-scale joint ventures are in Shenzhen. This is a good thing. Why are you still so depressed?"

Yi Jun looked at Yan Jiekuang suspiciously and asked, "Do you think I should go and give up this iron rice bowl?"

Yan Jiekuang nodded and said, "What's your iron rice bowl? I've been to Hong Kong Island and I know a little bit about Shenzhen. The treatment there is much better than your iron rice bowl. Not only are they given houses, but the salary is also high. It's so high that you can't imagine."

Yi Jun thought for a moment and said, "Is it really as good as you say?"

"Didn't your father-in-law tell you about the treatment? Once you know the treatment there, you will not be like this now. Go to your father-in-law's house and ask." Yan Jiekuang said.

Yi Jun immediately turned around and went straight to his father-in-law's house. Yan Jiekuang looked at Yi Jun's back, smiled and shook his head. Yi Jun was still the same character, making blind guesses about everything.

Yan Jiekuang brought the children into the yard and went straight to his parents' house. Yang Ruiping and Shi Xiaoya were knitting sweaters, and several children were sitting around a round table doing their homework.

Shi Lei looked up and saw Yan Jiekuang coming, revealing a wronged look. Yan Jiekuang quickly said, "Sorry, sorry, I was so busy that I forgot."

Shi Lei lowered his head and started doing his homework again. Yang Ruiping asked, "What are you busy with? Did you go to the restaurant?"

Yan Jiekuang said: "No, I was working at home."

At this time, Xiaopang said, "Grandma, we also helped with the work."

"You're so good. You know how to help with housework at such a young age. Don't get tired." Yang Ruiping smiled and picked up Xiaopang.

Yan Jiekuang didn't want to bring up the topic, so he asked Shi Xiaoya, "Where's my second brother? He's not at home?"

Shi Xiaoya said: "He went to see his comrades and said he would be back in the evening."

"My second brother is really something. He doesn't even go home when he just got back." Yan Jiekuang said.

Yang Ruiping was unhappy when he heard this and said, "Why don't you go home? You only come back once in a few days."

When Yan Jiekuang heard this, he realized that he had gotten into trouble, so he stopped talking and said, "I'll go see my dad."

"Go ahead. Your dad is drinking with Liu Haizhong in the backyard. You have no memory." Yang Ruiping said unhappily.

"Well, I won't go. I'll go see Mr. Ji." After saying that, Yan Jiekuang went out. Yan Jiekuang felt that he should not have come today. Isn't this just asking for trouble?

Yan Jiekuang arrived at Grandpa Ji's room. Grandpa Ji was lying on a recliner with a pot of tea beside him. The old man was resting with his eyes closed.

Yan Jiekuang said, "Grandpa, I'm here to see you."

Master Ji opened his eyes and said, "Are you hiding from someone? Otherwise, you wouldn't come to me for this reason."

Yan Jiekuang thought to himself, this old man is really a wise man, but he said, "Old man, I am here to ask you for advice, old man, how much do you know about Ming Wanli?"

Mr. Ji was stunned and said, "As for Wanli, we know very little. Most of the records in the books are about Zhang Juzheng. Wanli did not attend court either, so there are very few records about him. But it was a prosperous era anyway."

Yan Jiekuang took out a jade pendant from his pocket. The jade pendant had a signature on it. The word "Gong" was engraved on the front, and a line of small characters underneath read "The twelfth year of Wanli".

Yan Jiekuang handed the jade pendant to Mr. Ji. Mr. Ji put on his reading glasses, looked at the jade pendant carefully, and exclaimed: "It was from the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, or from the palace. Let me think, yes, Concubine Wang Gong, yes, it must be, where did it come from?"

Yan Jiekuang sat down and said, "I picked it up."

Mr. Ji almost spitted at him and said, "Why can't I pick it up? Tell me quickly."

Yan Jiekuang told the old man about the treasure he had dug up. The old man stared after hearing this and wanted to go to Yan Jiekuang immediately to see it. These things are hard to come by, and he had got so many of them.

Yan Jiekuang quickly stopped the old man and said, "Don't worry, I'll pick you up tomorrow and you can take your time to look around."

Grandpa Ji also knew that it was a little late, so he told Yan Jiekuang to pick him up early tomorrow. Yan Jiekuang agreed and sat with the old man for a while. Then Yan Jiekuang left and picked up the children from the front yard and went back to Yuer Hutong.

(End of this chapter)