"That's enough. Let's begin."
Gu Chaobei said to his daughter.
The two began to glide across the river.
They had chosen white helmets and white ice skates, which were less conspicuous.
At first, their movements were a bit clumsy, but they soon picked up speed.
The wind howled in their ears, and the biting cold stung their faces, making them numb. Gu Qingcheng suspected her snot had frozen, but her face was too numb to feel it, and it was inconvenient to wipe, so she let it be.
Professional athletes could skate 60 kilometers in an hour, at extremely high speeds. While they weren't professionals, their physical fitness had been enhanced by Hei Qiao, allowing them to reach a speed of 40 kilometers per hour.
Judging by Gu Qingcheng's athletic prowess, if an ice skating coach had passed by the river at that moment, they would have surely approached her and asked her to join the skating team.
While skating, Gu Qingcheng kept checking the map to avoid getting lost.
It was much more convenient than Gaox and BaiMap, appearing right before her eyes, with voice reminders and the ability to switch voices to any celebrity she wanted.
Gu Qingcheng remembered when her father had navigated to Qingcheng Mountain, choosing a "Dada Lin sister's" voice, which almost caused her to sprain her back.
So, learning from that experience, she chose the system's default voice.
It was pure and clear, devoid of any emotion.
Just like her at that moment, a ruthless ice skating "robot."
Jinsha Mountain was about 50 li from Jinsha City, so in less than an hour, the father and daughter saw Jinsha Mountain appear before them.
Upon reaching the foot of Jinsha Mountain, they took off their skates and helmets, put on ear-covering cotton hats, and followed the faint mountain path upwards.
This mountain path was trodden daily by the gold miners as they ascended and descended. The map had precisely marked their direction.
Seeing they were on the right path, Gu Qingcheng found the system's map to be quite reliable.
"This system is dependable!"
Jinsha Mountain, which they could only see from afar in the city before, now stood before them, snow-covered and breathtakingly beautiful.
Of course, this beauty was also deadly, as countless plants, animals, and people had sacrificed themselves for it.
Along the way, they saw donkey carts and ox carts frozen by the roadside, as well as laborers dressed in thin cotton clothes.
Gu Qingcheng had become accustomed to such frozen scenes within a single day due to their sheer number, and she hardened her heart to move forward.
As they ascended, they saw more and more huge caves, which were presumably where the laborers mined for gold.
On a flat area halfway up the mountain, a large stone residence suddenly appeared, its size and style suggesting it was a place for official business.
Seeing no one around, the father and daughter boldly entered.
Indeed, there were many "ice sculptures" of people dressed as officers and scholars in the courtyard, clearly those who managed the gold mining operations for Prince Xia.
The father and daughter circled the courtyard, finding only office supplies of no great value. However, Gu Qingcheng still scavenged all the writing materials.
Miguo needed to learn to read, so these would be useful.
As for official seals and the like, they held no value for them. Taking them might also cause trouble if revealed, so they were left behind.
Seeing no other supplies in the main courtyard, the two familarly walked into the kitchen.
As it was the official government's "canteen," the storage was quite abundant. Dozens of cured meats hung from the stove, a dozen large grass carp were in a large vat, and there was half a side of ribs on the chopping board. Gu Qingcheng collected it all.
She certainly wouldn't be polite about the oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar stored in the large vats, collecting them all.
Next to the kitchen, there should have been a storage room for provisions.
Gu Chaobei, having this experience, searched around and found a door on one wall that was not closed. They pushed it open and found, as expected, a storage room.
The reserves inside were plentiful, with hundreds of bags of rice and flour, and over a thousand catties of cured meat. There were six large vats each of oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, as well as over twenty jars of rice wine. Gu Qingcheng collected everything.
Prince Xia seemed very generous to these treasury officials, allowing unlimited food and drink, which now benefited Gu Qingcheng.
The storage room was emptied, but to their surprise, after the rice, flour, and oil were collected, a smaller, more concealed door was revealed behind the storage room.
However, this door was locked, but that didn't stump the father and daughter.
Gu Chaobei took a thick-backed meat cleaver he had bought at the blacksmith's shop and struck the brass lock forcefully.
He exerted immense strength, and the brass lock broke open with a clang.
The two successfully entered the room.
Upon entering, they both gasped in astonishment.
"Good heavens, this is a treasury!"
Stacks of cast gold bars were piled high in the vault, filling the entire room. There were at least 20 tons, the sight so dazzling it was almost blinding.
Twenty tons of gold, roughly calculated, would be worth 20 billion in modern society.
"Wow, we're rich."
Gu Chaobei also drew a sharp breath.
"Wealth moves the heart," as the saying goes, must refer to this moment.
Gu Qingcheng certainly wouldn't be polite and immediately stored all these dozens of tons of gold bars into the storage cabinet.
Regardless of the quantity or volume of items stored, the storage fee for a single retrieval was one "refresh point."
Seeing so much shining, suffocating gold, Gu Qingcheng had already gained 150 refresh points, so paying one refresh point for storage was nothing.
The gold vault was cleared.
Gu Chaobei clicked his tongue, "If we could return to modern society, our family would be millionaires, buying mansions, yachts, and private jets."
Gu Chaobei became more and more excited as he spoke.
Gu Qingcheng smiled and said, "Dad, ideals are full, but reality is lean. This gold is not as valuable as a pound of rice or a cotton coat right now."
Gu Chaobei was brought back to reality by his daughter's words and chuckled. Indeed, food and warm clothing were the most valuable things now.
Take Prince Xia, for example. If he didn't have warm clothes and food, would he be willing to exchange so much gold for a cotton coat and a pound of rice?
He certainly would!
The father and daughter sighed for a moment, then walked out of the vault without closing the door. The gold had been plundered, and Prince Xia would surely be furious!
This meant they had arrived at the perfect time.
If they had come a day or two later, Prince Xia's troops might have already returned.
With so much gold, it was no wonder Prince Xia would be concerned.
Since they had discovered the treasury and taken the gold bars, they figured the furnace used to make the gold bars must still have finished products. They didn't intend to let those go and searched everywhere.
As expected, less than five hundred meters ahead, they found the gold casting area, where there were still many semi-finished gold sands and bars. Gu Qingcheng collected them all.
Seeing that the time was about right and all the gold that could be produced here had been extracted, Gu Qingcheng said,
"Dad, let's go find some coal!"
"Okay."
With the map navigation guiding them, they wouldn't get lost.