Chapter 006: Cave

Having buried the copper figure, Zhang Lianyi finally let out a sigh of relief. He clapped his hands and stood up, when suddenly a white shadow appeared in the corner of his eye. Startled, he shouted, "Who is it?!" Turning around quickly, he saw his wife, dressed in a white long gown, gazing at him with a serene expression: "It's me, dear. What are you afraid of?"

While speaking, with lowered brows and a bowed head, the fingertips, however, are pointing to the newly demarcated residential land.

He hesitated to think further, as if in a fleeting moment, Zhang Lianyi suddenly shouted: "Who exactly are you?!"

The ground seemed not as hard as imagined, and in just a few strokes, a large portion was dug out. Zhang Lianyi felt pleased in his heart and began to hum a little tune. However, after humming just a couple of notes, Zhang Lianyi felt that the shovel in his hand had hit something, and he could no longer dig.

Zhang Lianyi did not have time to think much and stepped forward to embrace the woman in his arms. When he looked up, he saw dark clouds covering the moonlight in the sky, and the surroundings quickly darkened. A gust of wind blew by, and Zhang Lianyi felt a chill and tension throughout his body, as if something had suddenly appeared around him

... ...

In just over ten days, a brand new farmhouse courtyard has been completed. Following this, the painter was invited to paint the walls, the carpenter was engaged to make the doors and windows, and to craft the furniture. By autumn, everything was finished, with only one step remaining: to install the kang.

The woman is not angry, but merely smiles faintly

This method received unanimous consent from the family. Therefore, while the master of the stove was busy in the southern room, Zhang Lianyi began to dig a pit at the head of the kang—a place to hold the ash beneath the small earthen stove.

Unlike most of the villagers, the declining Zhang family still had some assets, and at this time, they needed to foster good relations with their neighbors even more. Therefore, at the beginning of the project, the wife invited four or five local women to help out. There was an ample supply of steamed buns, pork, and vermicelli stewed with cabbage, and the villagers who came to help were, of course, numerous, working with great enthusiasm.

A scream suddenly came from behind Zhang Lianyi. When he turned around, he saw his wife staring blankly at the unexpected opening, her eyes rolled back, and she fell backward, looking up at the sky.

Zhang Lianyi became even angrier, raising his hand to point in the direction of the ancestral home and said: "Get lost! Hurry up and go back home!"

In the past, the Zhang family naturally looked down upon such practices; they slept on a carved wooden bed, and their room was heated by a dedicated charcoal stove. However, now that their family has fallen on hard times, they have no choice but to lower their status and use a heated kang for warmth.

The voice of a woman seems to resonate from a distant place, yet it feels as if it is right beside me: "Under the moonlight, the bamboo flowers sway in the wind, the clear autumn stretches for thousands of miles..."

When the woman's eyes turned red, tears suddenly streamed down her face: "Head of the household, where am I supposed to go? This... this is our home, isn't it?"

Three days later, the construction of the new house belonging to Old Zhang finally commenced

At that time, in the northern rural areas, it was common for families not to sleep in beds for warmth. They would create a large heated kang using thin clay bricks in the main room. One end of the kang was used for a large cooking pot. The flue from the stove under the pot passed through the kang and vented outside, so that during cooking, the excess heat would make the kang extremely hot, ensuring not only that the temperature in the entire room was maintained, but also that the warmth in the bedding would be preserved throughout the night.

At that moment, a gentle breeze blew, causing the woman's flowing long hair to flutter slightly, revealing a beautiful cheek. In the hazy moonlight, she appeared extraordinarily charming, and her eyes, glimmering with emotion, possessed an enchanting allure. Zhang Lianyi initially felt a surge of warmth in his heart, and his anger dissipated instantly. However, he soon felt a chill in his heart: the woman before him was clearly his wife, yet why did she seem so unfamiliar? ... Could it be ...

Before finishing the sentence, suddenly the body went limp and slowly fell down

He bent down and used his hands to loosen the soil, revealing a piece of blue brick underneath. Zhang Lianyi did not think much of it and casually took a shovel to pry up the blue brick. As he pulled the blue brick upward, a loud rumble echoed, and the loose soil in the pit fell down, revealing a dark, deep hole before him. A bone-chilling cold air, accompanied by a strong musty smell, rushed towards him. Caught off guard, Zhang Lianyi was choked and began to cough, covering his mouth. He pulled the blue brick upward, and unexpectedly, with a loud rumble, the loose soil in the pit fell down, revealing a dark, deep hole before him. A bone-chilling cold air, accompanied by a strong musty smell, rushed towards him. Caught off guard, Zhang Lianyi was choked and began to cough, covering his mouth.

The woman was caught off guard, seemingly startled, and instinctively replied, "I am Feng Zhu ... ... "

However, a wealthy family is still a wealthy family. The women in the household are quite reluctant to place the large stove in the main room, as the firewood and flames during cooking would create a mess with smoke and ash flying everywhere, which would be very dirty! Moreover, it would be hot in the summer. Therefore, Zhang Lianyi devised a compromise: the large stove would be set up in the southern side room, while a small earthen stove for burning coal would be placed at the head of the kang in the main room. This way, not only could they frequently boil water for tea or even cook meals, but it would also provide warmth. When the weather turned hot, they could stop using the small stove and cook in the large stove in the southern room, achieving two objectives with one solution.

Zhang Lianyi was both shocked and angry, unable to restrain himself from shouting loudly: "Why are you, you filthy woman, not staying at home properly in the middle of the night? What are you doing out here?!"