Chapter 50: Snake and Mouse in the Same Nest (2)

  Seeking support...

  To be honest, I can understand Zhang Yu's behavior, but I'm still a bit angry in my heart... Actually, this time coming to the old house has nothing to do with him. Subconsciously, it seems that Wen Fei still wants to bother him!

  "It's all right, we're quits!" Wen Fei said.

  "Haha, that's good." Zhang Yu chuckled a few times, then reacted: "What now? The things inside were all killed by you?"

  Wen Fei hesitated for a moment and said, "I should be!" It was only then that he remembered, quickly walking over to pick up the Lei Yin he had thrown away.

  Fortunately, at that time, his hands and feet were soft, his breathing was not smooth, and he had no strength at all. He didn't throw it far away. Otherwise, in the extremely messy old house, it would be really hard to find.

  Picking up that seal, I took a look and found that it had slightly charred signs, as if it had been roasted over fire, or struck by lightning.

  "It's all over." Wen Fei shook his head, still unclear about what had just happened.

  But then Zhang Yu suddenly called out: "It seems like there's really nothing wrong here after all! Did you notice that the temperature appears to have returned to normal?"

  Wen Fei only then felt that it was probably so, but didn't know when. The eerie and gloomy feeling that originally always existed had actually disappeared.

  "Go take a look." Zhang Yu said, lifting his foot and walking in, as if he had forgotten the lesson from just now. Wen Fei was startled, wanting to pull him back, but thinking about it, it seemed like... there shouldn't be any problem inside, right?

  The Jinshang Guild Hall was once a grand building that occupied several acres of land, but it has long since disappeared. Over the decades, more than a dozen families have lived here, and with all the random demolitions and constructions, this old house has lost its original layout.

  The two of them turned around inside for a few rounds and didn't see anything that obstructed their view. Just as they were about to push it out, they heard a loud crash, as if something had fallen down.

  Both of them became startled birds now, hearing an unusual noise, they both jumped up together. But except for this noise, there was no other sound anymore.

  "Want to go take a look?" Zhang Yu asked Wen Fei. Wen Fei, relying on having Lei Yin backing him up, stiffened his scalp and said: "Just take a look, what's there to be afraid of?"

  Now that you mention it, Zhang Yu seems to have gained confidence, and at this time he really regarded Wen Fei as a superior person.

  Two men walked towards the place with a commotion, and saw that the outer wall of a house had collapsed. It was clear that this wall was very old, with old-fashioned green bricks on top, built with lime mortar, and it was unknown how many years of history it had. However, this was not the point, the point was that a large pile of silver coins spilled all over the ground as the wall collapsed.

  On top of this silver coin, however, there was a snake as thick as an adult's arm, coiled and lying on it, seemingly lifeless.

  The huge snake made people's legs feel weak, but after the two of them saw it, they clearly let out a sigh of relief. The snake was crimson red and had lived for many years, its color deepening to a purplish hue. Most importantly, this kind of snake was one that both of them recognized - a harmless house snake.

  This city is an old city. There are many old houses, especially in the past. Every household lives in this kind of old house, most of which have been preserved since the Republic of China or even earlier during the Ming and Qing dynasties. From the mouths of the elderly or from personal experience, they have all seen this snake.

  According to the old folks' rules, it's not allowed to hit this kind of snake when you see it, because this house snake will bless the home with safety and prosperity. On the contrary, if a family kills this house snake, they'll be waiting for bad luck! What's even stranger is that this snake doesn't harm people, neither Wen Fei nor Zhang Yu saw less of this snake when they were young, but it never hurts anyone. Nor has anyone ever heard of someone being bitten by this house snake.

  "Is this the snake's lair?" Zhang Yu said, visibly letting out a sigh of relief.

  "It seems to be," Wen Fei was also unsure, having never seen such a large snake before. It stretched out to at least four or five meters long, with the thickest part as thick as an arm, looking quite frightening!

  "Is it dead?" Wen Fei said: "Just now it seemed like this snake was causing trouble again, growing so big, maybe it's become a spirit."

  Wen Fei had just said this, when he saw the snake move. The two of them were startled and both took a step back. Although the snake was harmless to humans, it was clear that it had become a spirit, so who knew if it would still harm people or not?

  As the snake moved, it exposed what was being pressed under its body. Apart from the silver dollar, there seemed to be something else wrapped in oil paper, which couldn't be seen clearly.

  "Look over there..." Zhang Yu pointed to the broken wall, and Wen Fei followed his finger to look over, and saw a glint of gold light, which seemed to be a gold bar inside.

  "It seems like a treasure trove, could this snake be guarding the treasure?" Zhang Yu asked.

  Wen Fei also thought so, and this situation has an 80-90% chance of happening.

  "There seem to be a lot of gold bars inside, all big yellow fish!" With a gulp, Zhang Yu swallowed his saliva: "It looks like this is a treasure from the Republic of China era, maybe it was hidden by those Shanxi merchants back then."

  Wen Fei hummed in response, and if it weren't for the fact that he had traveled through time before, seeing so many gold bars would have excited him greatly. However, after experiencing all these things, he had become indifferent to such things.

  "Big Yellow Fish" refers to a gold bar weighing 10 taels. According to the old system, 1 jin = 16 taels, and 1 tael = 500/16 = 31.25 grams, which is roughly equivalent to today's 1 ounce of gold. Therefore, the "Big Yellow Fish" gold bar weighs approximately 312.5 grams in today's terms.

  During the Republic of China, the currency was unstable, and those legal tender notes such as gold yuan certificates were falling in value every three to five days. The warlords who controlled different regions were also constantly fighting each other, never stopping. Rich families all hid gold and silver at home, or silver coins with high silver content, not believing in paper money. This must have been the wealth that rich households hid inside their walls back then.

  "Is this snake dead?" Zhang Yu thought of finding something to pry open the snake's mouth.

  "Don't move!" Wen Fei shouted: "Be careful!"

  The snake seemed to understand what the two were saying, and it struggled to get up, scaring them back a few steps. Then the snake seemed to be seriously injured, twisting its body, as if it was dying. But it couldn't muster the strength to coil into a threatening pose!

  "It looks like the snake is done for!" Zhang Yu said: "Snake brother, snake brother. We two brothers only wanted to take the money below, but we didn't expect to hurt you. Looking at your appearance, you're also almost done for, why don't you give us the money? When you die, we can bury you properly too, isn't that a good deed? That's called doing a good deed, it's good for you and good for everyone!"

  Wen Fei suddenly burst out laughing and scolded: "You fat head, are you crazy? Is this snake your friend? Maybe he's been alive since the Republic of China era, you should call him Grandpa Snake..."