Chronicle of the 70s
Chapter 163 - 159 Copper Coins at the Second Watch

Chapter 163: 159 Copper Coins at the Second Watch

Entering the mid-August, the capital’s weather remained sweltering. The electronics and clothes fabrics had arrived three days earlier, and Li Xianglu had cleared out a room in the backyard to store everything, but food and edible items, as well as Trauma Wine, were all stored in the Storage Ring.

Qin Xi inspected the courtyard’s power supply and found it unsuitable for so many appliances to operate simultaneously, so a large workforce was brought in to reinforce the interior of the houses and to rebury the wiring, rerouting the whole electrical system.

They had no choice but all of them moved to the last courtyard at the back, which had three rooms; Qin Xi and his brother shared one, while Grandpa Li and Li Xianglu each had their own room.

Since the interior of the houses was to be reinforced, old bricks and tiles were needed to match the original building materials, though stronger modern materials could be used inside.

The first task was to reinforce the foundation to prevent the structure from being top-heavy.

With many people working, the job was done quickly. In two days, they had dug up the foundations of the two courtyards. The agreement made with the construction workers entailed digging out the entire foundation, inserting rebar, pouring concrete, and connecting the extended part of the rebar with the later stages of the house reinforcement to strengthen the overall structure.

Hiring workers required a daily payment of 50 cents per person, along with four jin of two-mixed flour buns, which was considered exceptionally good food and wage conditions. Normally, workers were given food but no money. Qin Xi wanted to speed up the process as they would start school in mid-September, and he aimed to tidy up the place before school commenced.

Steaming the buns was handed over to the spouse of a worker. The man worked in construction; his wife, from the countryside, hadn’t received housing allocation in the capital. Her household registration hadn’t been transferred, so only the man received rationed grain. Thus, Qin Xi had hired her to steam the buns.

This woman, being from Beihai, was adept at steaming buns, kneading the dough for a long time which resulted in firm and chewy buns. She, too, was paid 50 cents for four buns and was very grateful and worked diligently.

In the afternoon, after all the workers had left, Li Xianglu saw that there was still half a pot of buns left. She cooked a large pot of red bean congee, prepared some cold dishes, and boiled then sliced pig’s lungs, stir-frying them with chili and onions.

The family sat under the pergola to eat, Qin Zhen sitting on the edge, eating hearty mouthfuls of congee, soft buns, and lung slices, swallowing with satisfaction. Xianglu’s cooking was getting tastier by the day.

Li Xianglu picked out the sharp ends of the lung slices for Grandpa Li, who, being elderly, should eat less offal.

As they were eating, Qin Zhen, about to get up to refill his congee, noticed a round button under his foot. Bending over to pick it up, he realized, upon closer inspection, that it was a square-hole Copper Coin. Stunned, he foolishly asked, "Can this coin still be used?"

Li Xianglu also got up to serve more congee for Grandpa Li, but then saw Qin Zhen muttering with the object in hand. She took it over and her expression changed, "Where did you find this?"

Qin Zhen pointed to the ground, and Qin Xi, seeing this, walked over too. He watched as Li Xianglu, with a complex expression, passed the Copper Coin over for inspection, and he too was taken aback.

Not long after, no one had the appetite to eat anymore, and everyone started searching along the foundations of the house.

Li Xianglu first used a flashlight to carefully inspect the area—there were no traces of a graveyard, so it must be buried items.

Finally, a group of people dug up a large wooden chest at the corner. The wood was of poor quality, with its edges already rotted, which is why some Copper Coins ended up piled with the soil on both sides of the foundation.

Qin Zhen was wildly excited, constantly asking if they could sell for money, and if so, to buy him delicious treats, or else he would make a big fuss.

Li Xianglu looked at the fuming Qin Zhen with a complex expression. It seemed that fools have their own kind of luck; how else could he have stumbled upon this? The Copper Coins were coated in mud, and the chest was buried deep. If it hadn’t been discovered today, it might have remained hidden forever with the pouring of concrete tomorrow, unless the area was being demolished.

After a brief tidying up of pots and pans, they found several baskets, moved out the contents of the chest, and took them to the backyard for a simple cleaning.

A large chest, one meter long and half a meter deep, was filled with items. The Copper Coins had leaked out because they were lining the bottom of the chest, but the items above were far more valuable. There were at least ten jin of gold and silver ingots of various denominations, and there was also a wooden box containing some jewelry, which Li Xianglu recognized as likely to be from the late Qing, not belonging to the previous owner.

Qin Zhen was flipping through the jewelry in the box, taking them out one by one, and like stacking blocks, he arranged a shape. In the end, he even pulled out a thick piece of paper from the bottom.

The paper had not been preserved properly and was somewhat decayed, but the handwriting on it was still fairly clear.

Li Xianglu understood traditional characters, as this was a mandatory course for archaeology students. She took a glance before handing it to Grandpa Li.

Grandpa Li took it and was also momentarily stunned. Qin Xi raised an eyebrow; he couldn’t recognize many traditional characters and mostly guessed their meaning by their radicals. Fortunately, there weren’t many words on the paper.

After taking a look, Qin Zhen snatched it to read, but after staring at it for a while, his eyes widened: "Bro, why are there so many mistakes on this..."

Almost no one wanted to entertain his question, and Li Xianglu asked, "Grandpa, what do you think we should do?"

Mr. Li played with a paperweight in the shape of a leopard and sighed, "Keep them for now. According to the content of this letter, we should set aside one-third of the items based on their value, just keep it. If it’s fated, we’ll return them to the rightful owners. After all, it was the ancestral decision of someone else. Besides, they didn’t ask for half but just hope that the person who obtains this wealth will have kind intentions."

Li Xianglu nodded her head, and the baffled Qin Zhen asked, "What are you talking about? One-third of what?"

Qin Xi sat his brother down before explaining, "The items in this chest aren’t unclaimed, but the owner stated that if the descendants didn’t find the items, then whoever does find them should, out of consideration for the origin of these items, give one-third to his descendants. The letter also listed the positions and names in their ancestral hall, very detailed."

Upon hearing this, Qin Zhen immediately became upset: "Why should we? We found them, whoever finds them should keep them. How can you just return them? Oh, by that logic, I could leave a note in my wallet saying if someone finds it, remember to return it to this address; do you think anyone would?"

For a moment, silence fell upon everyone, until Mr. Li spoke first: "Qin Zhen is right, but when it comes to unexpected wealth, one has to consider the element of fate; we can’t forcefully keep it. If we do meet the descendants of the original owner of this wealth, we must return one-third according to the letter, and we can’t let the other party know about this letter." People are greedy, and knowing such a fact might lead to desires for the remaining two-thirds.

Finally, Mr. Li decided that they would all share the remaining two-thirds. Qin Zhen’s share would be exchanged as soon as possible so that he could buy a house early, as per Qin Xi’s suggestion. Li Xianglu agreed that buying a house sooner was better.

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