Chapter 41: Treasure

  The goal was set, the direction was determined, and Uncle, Feng Bo, Da Ge, and Yang Heng's ox cart were all busy. The big construction of these few families had officially begun. This time, men, women, children, and everyone worked together. However, this time they didn't need people to pull the ox cart anymore, as there was an ox that could be used to pull the cart instead. But one ox was not enough, so on the way back, a few people still had to push the cart from the side.

  What are they doing? Naturally, they are quarrying. This time, they didn't continue to quarry from that valley. Firstly, the stones in this valley are all round and rolling shapes. Secondly, the stones in this valley also need to block outsiders' footsteps. So, this time they adopted the method of quarrying stones from the mountain on the edge of the valley.

  The mountain on the south side is also unknown how it was formed, the mountain is not high, but inside there are blocks of stones mixed with mud, and some big trees grow inside.

  Uncles just need to dig out a piece of land, clear the trees on the ground, and then they can dig out stones. The stones here are not round and rolling, although the shape is still irregular, but these stones are suitable in size, just right for use in masonry, directly building walls. Maybe in the middle, they will encounter some large stones, and Uncles won't need Yang Heng's help. Because Yang Heng and his father had already made some tools, such as chisels, small wedges, and some suitable large hammers. If Uncles can't open the stone with a hammer, they will use a chisel to chisel a row of holes on the stone, then put small wedges inside, and use a hammer to tap, this stone will be opened.

  Although it's a bit of a hassle to get started, this is also a skill, isn't it? Yang Heng's plan was to let his uncles learn more skills, so that whether they were local tyrants or officials, they would have another skill to fall back on in case of difficulties.

  At this time, Yang Heng was picking up some small pebbles in a nearby valley with several children. His goal was to use these pebbles to pave the floor of the corridor in the courtyard. Although his family's courtyard was already big enough, didn't four uncles still need to build houses? Yang Heng planned that during this year's Spring Festival, all four uncles would move into their new homes with their families. If they spent the Spring Festival together again, it would be even more intimate.

  "Uncle, does anyone of you know how this small hill was formed? Are there any legends about this place?" Yang Heng suddenly asked his uncle.

  Why is there such a question? Because Yang Heng found that in this environment for the past week, only this small mountain and the place in the village are suspicious. To know that when a mountain undergoes geological changes over many years, the rocks on top may be weathered or fragmented due to rapid geological changes, but inside it will definitely become a solid rock. This mountain occasionally being blown apart by immortals (if there were any) during battle still requires roots. Obviously, this mountain has no roots. Looking at the village next door, those lands seem to be formed by mud and sand from the mountain washed down by rainwater, then forming a small intermountain plain. This is exactly what makes Yang Heng puzzled, unless...

  Could it be that this place was hit by a meteorite, but this can explain everything clearly. The impact of the meteorite can create a large crater, and the splashed mud and stones formed this small mountain. As for other directions, they are either high mountains or highlands, and the splashed stones may roll back quickly.

  "There's no legend, nothing at all." The uncles unanimously denied it. "But uncles, you say there's no legend here, this should be impossible, any place will have a beautiful or terrifying legend, how can this place not have one?"

  "This, really doesn't exist, nephew." An aunt chimed in from the side, "Your Yang family's ancestors moved here from elsewhere, they're not locals, so it's natural that you wouldn't know about the legend. But the villagers from outside aren't locals either, they were brought by officials or wealthy families as tenants, and some of them haven't even been here as long as the people in this village. It's all because of war." The aunt sighed, she was married into this place from elsewhere, just like all the women in this family, who are all surnamed Yang, which is a single surname, you know that people with the same surname aren't allowed to get married.

  "Oh, forget it then, I won't ask anymore. I thought there would be some legend or something." Yang Heng said dejectedly. "Ah, right, nephew, there's still one thing at my place, not sure if it'll be useful to you. Brothers, let me go back with the nephew first and give him that thing, you all continue on your own." "Alright, alright, you go ahead, we know you've been thinking about what that thing is, maybe the nephew will figure it out." It seems like Uncle's house really does have something, but he just hasn't figured out what it is, and neither have the other uncles.

  "Little uncle, what are you talking about?" "Big nephew, you'll know when you see it. I can hardly describe it myself. It's just a square object, and I thought it was a box that might contain some treasure. Maybe I'm not destined to have those treasures after all. No matter how hard I try, I couldn't open the box. Perhaps it really is just a meteorite as others say." The little uncle said dejectedly.

  "Little uncle, where did you get this thing from?" "Where did I get it from? I knew you'd ask that. You don't often go to the village, so you haven't seen the well in the middle of the village, have you? That was during a severe drought one year, and our whole village came out to dig the well. Especially us kids, we had to dig into the bottom of the well to excavate soil. When it wasn't my turn, I dug up this thing. At the time, we agreed that no matter who dug up what, the thing belonged to the person who dug it up. That's how I got this thing, and nobody else found anything after that. Those years, we relied on that well to get through the drought."

  Young uncle explained the matter all the way, and came to his home. At this time, there was no one living in his home. Auntie and Niu Zi had already arrived at Yang Heng's home. Even after Xiaoshu returned, he didn't return to live here, but instead lived in the west wing of Yang Heng's house. Soon, this house would be given to Young Uncle's parents or brothers.

  "Look, nephew, it's this thing," said the uncle, pulling out a square object from under the bed in their home. This was a twenty-centimeter-square object, and if you were to call it a meteorite, it would be too light. To put that into perspective, Yang Heng had two large hammers made of meteorites in his hands, which were nearly ten times denser than regular iron. But this thing, when held in one's hand, was as light as a feather, and didn't even weigh as much as a stone of the same volume.

  Suddenly, Yang Heng's eyes lit up as he saw some text on this stone. Could it be... "Uncle, maybe this is just a useless thing or perhaps a light meteorite, what do you think?" Yang Heng didn't want his uncle to suspect that he knew this was something mysterious, besides, Yang Heng had only seen the text on top and wasn't really sure what it was. "Alright then, nephew, I'll give it to you. Whatever you research from it, I don't care anymore. For over a decade, I've been struggling with poverty in my hands, but after you all came, our days got better. Even if it's a treasure, I don't want it anymore. This shows that this treasure has nothing to do with me."

  This might be some kind of treasure, but Yang Heng didn't want to study it for the time being. If he knew what it was and it was indeed a treasure, if word got out, they wouldn't be able to keep it safe even now. So, Yang Heng simply took it over and brought it back to the quarry, only bringing it home at night and tossing it into his own room.