Entering the Valley
"Uncle Li, thank you for your protection." Gulan thanked the old man Li earnestly while walking.
"Why thank me? I didn't do anything. Like you said, I just feel sorry for the money. You are also stupid. It is not your responsibility in the first place. Why do you want to take it on yourself? Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. We leaving tomorrow. You should go back and pack your things." Old man Li patted Gulan's shoulder.
"Indeed, I shouldn't be polite to my uncle. We are relatives!" Gulan smiled and said the last sentence sincerely.
"Good, good boy." Old man Li was very pleased. He was right about Gulan. He was a good boy who knew how to be grateful, even though he was just stating a fact.
While chatting and laughing, they each returned to their own tents. Looking at Gulan walking into the tent, Li Da gave his father a thumbs up in admiration. He learned it from Gulan. It means very good, extremely good.
"Dad, what you said today was so good that I felt ashamed," Li Da flattered his father excitedly.
"Go, go away. We're leaving early tomorrow morning. Don't you have anything to prepare?" Old man Li glared at his eldest son. If he wasn't old, he really wanted to kick this frivolous eldest son away.
On the other side, Village Chief Li also had a lot of feelings and sighed with his family.
"You're back," Xiang Yunjin, who was reading a book with AnAn in the tent, looked up and glanced at Gulan and said naturally.
Gulan's mouth twitched when she heard this and nodded, "Well, we can leave tomorrow."
After saying that, she walked towards AnAn and touched her son's little head,
"Why did you wake up so early?" He hadn't even slept for half an hour.
"It's too noisy." AnAn closed the book and subconsciously snuggled into his mother's arms, still wanting to sleep.
"Then sleep a little longer." As she spoke, she held her son on her lap and patted him gently.
Lying in the familiar arms, the child fell asleep soon. Gulan carefully put the child in the bed in the corner. She tucked the quilt carefully for het son and then stood in front of Xiang Yunjin.
"Brother Jin, we're leaving tomorrow. I want to go up the mountain again. I'm sorry to trouble you with my child." Gulan felt a little embarrassed.
Hearing this, Xiang Yunjin was not surprised at all. He nodded immediately and only reminded him, "Be careful."
But he really felt that there was no need for Gulan to go up the mountain again, as they actually still had a lot of meat.
"Thank you, I'll be back soon." Gulan smiled back, then without further delay, picked up the backpack and other things by the door and left the tent.
But when she walked deep into the mountains, she changed direction and did not go up the mountain, but went in another direction. The Panshan bandit den that I had been to before.
As soon as Gulan left, a few people came out from the foot of the mountain and looked in her direction for a long time before looking away.
"Boss, isn't that the man who saved our prince?" The handsome man standing next to Wang Yun asked, "Should we follow him?"
"No need, protecting the prince is what's important." Wang Yun shook his head.
When Gulan reached a deserted place, he completely let go of himself. He rushed towards Panshan at a speed as fast as a shadow and reached the mountain in just a quarter of an hour. After confirming that the mark she left was correct, Gulan went up the mountain.
After leaving that night, Gulan had the idea of trying again. Although the bandits' den was full of ill-gotten gains, Gulan knew clearly that even if these things were returned to the government, they would still not be of use to the people. In this case, it would be better to lend it to her, so that it can be used for the people.
The journey up the mountain was smooth and nothing unusual was found, and soon she arrived outside the hidden cave. She touched the mark she had made that night and found that the plants at the entrance of the cave showed no signs of having been touched, so she felt relieved.
Carefully create an exit for only her, then restore it. Turning on the flashlight that she had prepared long ago, Gulan walked towards the valley. Although it seems unlikely that there is anyone here, we still have to be careful and cautious, so the path through the valley actually takes just as much time as climbing the mountain. Everything went smoothly until we reached the valley. We found nothing unusual and didn't even see a mouse.
Looking at the valley where it is like spring all year round and feeling the different aspects of the birdsong and flowers, Gulan once again lamented the luck of this group of bandits. They actually found such a good place. Now that autumn has arrived, the valley is still full of flowers, and it looks like spring all year round. It would be a great place to live in seclusion if no one knew about it. What a pity.
After quickly walking around the valley and finding nothing else, Gulan went to the warehouse where the silver and money were stored with peace of mind. The lock on the door was fine, but this was not a problem for her. Gulan took out her lock-picking artifact from the space. If Gulan wasn't afraid of breaking the lock violently and arousing suspicion when the authorities came, he really wanted to click directly.
The warehouse is still the same as before, and the temptation of those big boxes is too great. I really want to take them all away. Gulan took one-third of each of the three boxes of copper coins. As for the big box of silver, Gulan took it all first, then went out for a walk and collected a lot of stones, poured them all into the box, and then took out a quarter of it and spread it on top. Don't underestimate this quarter, it is really not a small amount. The box is very large, more than half a person's height and more than one meter wide. As for the small box of gold, Gulan kept half of it. She couldn't let the government officials make their trip in vain.
Then she went to the granary and collected half of the fine grain. Then it was the boss's house. The search at dusk that night was not very thorough, so perhaps something was missed.
After all, as a bandit leader who has been entrenched here for so many years, Gulan doesn't believe that there is only this silver in the warehouse. As a bandit who has killed so many people, he must have felt very uneasy even in his own territory and had very low trust in people. He probably wouldn't put all his eggs in one basket.
Looking at the messy room, Gulan searched carefully. The wooden box was found in the secret compartment at the head of the bed that day. Could there be another secret compartment? In addition to the bed, the room is filled with an antique display cabinet, a wooden box, and a solid wood round table. These are all possibilities and are the targets that Gulan focuses on. It was unlikely that there was a secret compartment on the bed, because this bed was the one that was searched most carefully that day, and almost every part was knocked on. Even so, she checked it again personally and found that except for the secret compartment in the hidden place at the head of the bed, there was indeed no secret compartment anywhere else.
Next was the antique display cabinet, on which were piled some porcelains. Gulan was not interested in them. They did not look exquisite and were probably just for decoration. She did not find anything unusual about them either. The same is true in the wooden box, there is no place to hide anything except bedding and clothes. There is only one wooden table left. If there is no more, it means there is really no more.It was a wooden table of medium size with a set of tea sets placed on it. There looked nothing wrong with it to the naked eye.
After checking, there was indeed no problem. It seemed that she was wrong. There was nothing to find, and there was no need to stay here any longer. She was thinking about leaving, but somehow she stopped when passing by the antique display shelf and stood next to it again.
I was thinking of a possibility in my mind: maybe there was a dark room or something behind the antique display cabinet? Isn't that how it is shown on TV?