Chapter 3 Stealing the Secret

"Xiao Zhi, when did you come back?"

When the first rays of sunlight in the early morning shone across the earth, Li Zhi opened the gate of the yard carrying a large bag of garbage and happened to meet his neighbor Li Zhong who was out taking out the garbage.

"Uncle Zhong, good morning. I came back last night." Li Zhi greeted Li Zhong warmly. Li Zhong and his father Li Daqiang were from the same generation and were quite prestigious in Dali Village.

"It's better to come back and live here more often, otherwise the house at home will easily deteriorate." Li Zhong said.

"Uncle Zhong, I came back late last night and didn't go to your house to see you. How about I go to your house for breakfast later?" Li Zhi said to Li Zhong very rudely.

Li Zhong seemed to appreciate Li Zhi's impolite attitude, so he smiled and said, "Your aunt will be very happy to see you back. I'll ask her to cook a few more dishes."

"Isn't my brother Peng at home?" Li Zhi asked again on the way back after throwing away the garbage.

"Don't mention your brother Peng. Since he married your sister-in-law, he hasn't been home for many years. Even if he comes back, he leaves after having a meal. I really don't know what he is busy with all day. Xiaozhi, if you get married, you must marry a girl who is willing to live with you in your hometown." Li Zhong seemed very dissatisfied with his son.

When passing by Li Zhi's house, Li Zhi said, "Uncle Zhong, please wait a moment. I brought back a lot of things last night. I can't carry them all by myself. Please take some of them for me first."

Li Zhong said, "Just eat. We don't need your food at home. Why do you need to bring us gifts?"

Although he said this, when he saw Li Zhi took out a large bag of cigarettes, alcohol and snacks, he accepted them all.

Then, Li Zhi said with a smile: "Uncle Zhong, I will clean the house first. I will come to your place with a mouth to feed and eat a ready-made meal later."

Uncle Zhong glanced at the two bottles of fine wine in the big plastic bag and said with a bright smile, "Then I'll go back and ask your aunt to cook us some appetizers. We haven't seen each other for more than half a year, so let's have a good chat."

Li Zhi smiled and said, "Then I have to eat more."

After seeing Li Zhong off, Li Zhi began to clean the house.

It took more than two hours to clean the house inside and out.

Then I took a hot bath, changed my clothes, and went to Li Zhong's house next door. Although they were next door, the two houses were not adjacent to each other, and there was a wide open space of several dozen meters in between.

When Li Zhi arrived, Aunt Zhong had already prepared six dishes and a soup for them.

It is a very rich breakfast.

At the dinner table, Li Zhi first drank half a catty of wine with Li Zhong, and then asked, "Uncle Zhong, can you tell me about you and my father when we were young?"

Li Zhong, who was almost sixty years old, was asked by a younger generation about his glorious days in his youth. Under the influence of alcohol, he started to speak at length, first talking about his glorious days and finally mentioned Li Daqiang.

Li Zhong said, "Your father is an honest man who likes reading. When we were young, we went out together. We all liked to drink and hang out in circles, but your father always read some ancient books bought from the second-hand book stall. We would get sleepy after reading some weird things, but your father could read them with relish. Later, your father married your mother and had you. As the family expenses increased, he went out to work alone and worked outside for another three or four years before coming back. It was at that time that your father made money. Not only did he renovate your old house, he also bought a shop in the city. Unfortunately, your mother was not blessed and passed away before she could enjoy a few days of good life. Since your mother passed away, your father has never gone out to work again. Even if he went out, he would only work temporarily for three or two months and then come back."

As far as Li Zhi can remember, he started living on campus when he was in junior high school. Sometimes he lived there for a whole semester. So he didn't know what Li Daqiang was busy with at home during the time he lived on campus.

Li Daqiang never told Li Zhi what his job was, but he never reduced his living expenses.

The living expenses at that time were not that much, and were on the same level as most of my classmates.

After listening to Li Zhong's story, Li Zhi finally had a perfect picture of Li Daqiang's life in his mind: an honest man in the village, but a talented person who secretly engaged in the business of imprisonment.

No wonder the villagers didn’t know he had so much money and kept it a secret all his life.

During the meal, Li Zhong drank one and a half catties, while Li Zhi only drank half a catty.

Finally, Li Zhong fell asleep again in a daze after drinking too much.

Li Zhi returned home and started to do what he had not finished last night.

After locking the gate from the inside, he went to the backyard under the scorching sun.

At this time, the midday sun was already very dazzling, but Li Zhi did not seem to feel the slightest bit of the sun's heat.

Taking the half-foot-long key, he went down into the pit.

After some groping, I heard a "click" sound coming from inside the stone slab, as if a spring had popped open.

Then he took the iron hook used for fire and hooked up the stone slab like opening a manhole cover.

A dark square entrance with a diameter of 80 centimeters appeared in Li Zhi's eyes.

After using a hair dryer to blow fresh air into the cave for ten minutes, Li Zhi grabbed the grooves on the cave wall and went down into the tunnel.

I walked down five meters before I reached the bottom.

Then we entered a corridor that was more than ten meters long.

At the end of the corridor, there is a password-protected security door.

Li Zhi knew the password to the security door, which was the same as the bank card password Li Daqiang used before his death.

Because Li Daqiang once told him that the passwords were the same for all the places in the house where passwords might be used.

After placing the mining lamp on the niche next to him, Li Zhi came to the security door.

My heart was beating fast.

Even his hands were shaking a little.

The treasure that Li Daqiang collected so solemnly must be priceless or have amazing effects.

Maybe because of his restless mind and shaking hands, he entered the password incorrectly the first time. After taking a deep breath, Li Zhi finally entered the password correctly.

When he opened the security door, he found that the treasure house inside was not what he had imagined.

There is only one room less than ten square meters.

It’s not quite accurate to call it a room; it’s more like a cellar for storing sweet potatoes.

There was no fancy safe in the room, nor any indestructible concrete walls.

The walls around were obviously made of red bricks, and loess was used as adhesive between the bricks.

It seems that this place was really converted from a sweet potato cellar.

There was an old wooden table standing alone in the room.

On the table was a set of things that Li Zhi was very familiar with.

A complete set of archaeological tools, including Luoyang shovel, brush, oil lamp, small flat shovel, Feng Shui compass, and other items.

Seeing these things, Li Zhi felt like vomiting blood. Is this the cellar that Li Daqiang had repeatedly warned not to open unless absolutely necessary?
So that's what it meant, so that he could inherit the family tradition when he had no other options.

However, although Li Zhi was disappointed, he still put all those things into a snakeskin bag hanging on the table leg.

Then he saw that there was a drawer under the table.

Li Zhi, who originally had little expectation, subconsciously opened the drawer.

There was only an ancient book bound with unknown material.

The cover feels like it's made of leather.

Without even looking at it carefully, Li Zhi put the book into the snakeskin bag.

Then, he searched the cellar carefully again without giving up, but found nothing else.

Then he went out with the snakeskin bag.

After replacing the stone slab and filling up the big hole, Li Zhi returned to the front yard carrying the snakeskin bag.

He took a shower first, and then took the snakeskin bag to the living room.

Only then did he realize that the snakeskin bag in front of him was not simple.

It was not an ordinary plastic woven bag, but one made of some animal skin he did not recognize, except that the dark green pattern was very similar to that of a snakeskin bag.

The bag is one meter long and one foot wide, with a purple-black rope at the opening.

As for its specific appearance, Li Zhi thinks it is a bit like the human race bag in the hands of Maitreya Buddha in film and television dramas.

Take out everything from the bag.

Li Zhicai discovered that whether it was the Luoyang shovel, the oil lamp, the brush, the small flat shovel, or the Feng Shui compass, they were all made of unknown materials.

It is not only light, but also extremely strong. It is definitely not a tool made of ordinary steel.

Li Zhi even picked up a Luoyang shovel and gently tried it on the living room floor, and immediately left a small hole about an inch deep on the tile floor.

The hard tiles seemed to turn into soft sand in front of the Luoyang shovel.

It's not very laborious, just poke a hole.

The same goes for the small flat spatula. It doesn't look sharp at all, but when it is scratched on the tile, it is like a diamond cutter, leaving a very obvious scratch on the tile.

The Luoyang shovel and small flat shovel, which look rusty, are actually comparable to magical weapons.

Afterwards, Li Zhi knocked on other things.

Without exception, they were all very strong, even the brushes. Li Zhi tried his best but failed to cut off a single hair on the brush head.

Moreover, he was surprised to find that the rust on these things seemed impossible to remove.

No matter how hard he tried, it was of no use.

Even if he used a small flat shovel to scrape the rust off the Luoyang shovel, he couldn't do it.

"Baby, a real baby." Li Zhi shouted in his heart.

Then he turned his attention to the book bound with unknown animal skin.

There are three words on the cover, which seem to be written in oracle bone script.

Li Zhi barely recognized the word "天" in the middle.

Then he ran to Li Daqiang's study and after looking through a lot of information, he finally determined the meaning of the other two words.

"Stealing Heaven's Secrets" is the correct reading of the three words on the cover.

The moment he read those three words, Li Zhi felt a chill rising from his coccyx and rushing straight to his forehead, calming his already overheated head.

(End of this chapter)