What pleased Grandpa Xiao the most was the bathroom in the southwest corner.
Yes, a bathroom, not the outhouse of an old quadrangle house.
The bathroom was divided into two rooms. The westernmost room had an inner and outer section, with the inner being the toilet and the outer the washroom.
The toilet was a squat toilet made of cement and brick. Thick bamboo, with its nodes punched out, was used as a drainpipe, leading to an underground septic tank.
Cement was poured around the bamboo to ensure it wouldn't break, the joints wouldn't slip, and the bamboo itself wouldn't be cut by malicious villagers.
The room immediately to the east of the toilet was the shower room, much more convenient to use than Li's shower room.
These were all conceived and developed by Li Zhengguo with the help of a few workers.
…
After Li Zhengguo settled the final wages with the master craftsmen, he arranged for them to rest.
"You all rest for now. Tomorrow, I'll go to the provincial capital to buy your tickets for the day after tomorrow or the day after that, sleeper tickets."
"You've been here for over a year, and you still haven't taken the time to truly see our mountains and rivers.
And the gardens and parks you built yourselves, go explore them."
The master craftsman, worried about the cost of sleeper tickets, said, "It's too expensive. We can just buy seats."
"That won't do. You have so many sacks; they won't fit in the seating area."
The master craftsman felt a bit embarrassed again. "You really prepared so many dried vegetables for me?"
"More than that. There's also pickled vegetables and sour pickles, and I'll even bring you the jars. In Kyoto, I'll send a telegram to my comrade, asking him to find a car to pick you up and send you home. Don't worry."
"Oh, you've really gone to a lot of trouble for me."
"It's no trouble, no trouble. You've worked hard for over a year. The courtyard, we're very satisfied."
On the third day, they sent the master craftsmen off.
Bags upon bags, jars upon jars, and dried wild game tied with hemp rope, as well as freshly picked, easily stored eggplants and radishes.
It made the master craftsman so embarrassed, it was like moving house.
Once the master craftsmen left, the village became truly quiet.
However, the autumn harvest began.
Faced with a harvest similar to last autumn, and with the wheat yield in the summer harvest being twenty percent lower than last year,
rumors began to circulate in the village that Tian Jing was a jinx.
Li Zhengguo asked Chen Suozhu and Li Liguo to pay the public grain tax. Except for the village chief and Party secretary's families, and the Wang and Niu families, no one else's public grain was to be carried along.
He intended to accompany his wife up the mountain.
His reason was to take the three children up the mountain to soak in the hot springs.
With such a compelling reason, Tian Jing couldn't refuse.
When Tian Jing arrived later, Xiao Song busied himself telling her about an idea he had.
"What idea?"
"Your ancestors created the bloodline and the formation. They wouldn't have prevented you from entering without leaving a way to access it. So, the only way is to try with blood."
"Oh? That's a good idea. I'll go try it right away."
Li Zhengguo, who was preparing to take the children to soak in the hot springs, watched his wife fly away.
"Wife, why don't you take us down too? It's too cold up here."
Xiao Song laughed happily.
Unfortunately, Li Zhengguo couldn't understand and only saw the branches shaking wildly.
He took the children back to the cave to hide and wait for his wife to remember them.
Halfway there, Tian Jing remembered. Thinking of the disappointment of her two sons when she had forgotten them last time, she quickly returned.
After leaving her husband and children in the hot spring valley, Tian Jing flew away again.
Li Zhengguo was speechless.
A mistake. He really shouldn't have used the children as an excuse.
Standing at the edge of the valley, Tian Jing used her power to grow a long needle from a rose.
She had the needle, but how should she use it?
Prick a hole and let a drop fall at a time?
Or prick a patch and spray it?
She decided to try dripping a drop at a time.
She pricked, and a drop appeared. Then another drop appeared.
Tian Jing poked a door-shaped opening, but as she prepared to tear it open, she was repelled again.
If she hadn't reacted quickly, she would have been embedded in the mountainside as a fossil.
Looking back, the door-shaped opening had disappeared.
Was it displeased, thinking the blood was insufficient?
Then she would try a spray.
She pricked her palm with a handful of needles and used her power to spray a patch of blood.
When she reached out to tear it again, she remained vigilant, but was still sent flying.
Tian Jing thought, "Can I curse my ancestors?"
She used her power to close the wound and returned to the hot spring valley.
Li Zhengguo asked, "How was it?"
Tian Jing shook her head, unwilling to tell her husband that her efforts with blood hadn't opened the formation.
Upon reaching Qing Song Rock, Xiao Song asked, "How was it?"
Tian Jing told it.
Xiao Song helped analyze, "Your blood can make the formation appear, but there must be something missing."
"Missing what?" Tian Jing casually said, "Is it too old? Is the bloodline not pure enough? Should I burn it to refine it?"
Xiao Song was displeased. "Don't interrupt my thoughts."
"Then take your time thinking. I need to go back and rest my blood. I'm afraid your solution will be to splash a basin of blood."
"Don't talk nonsense. A basin of blood, would you still be alive? That's completely unreasonable."
…
Tian Jing took her husband and children down the mountain, carrying two live wild chickens.
She was once again confronted by villagers.
Of course, they didn't dare to confront her directly, so they indirectly approached the village chief.
The village chief waved his hand. "There are no more work points. The things on the mountain still belong to the collective. We're talking about big things, like rocks, trees, and large wild beasts."
"As for these small things, if you can hunt them, it's your skill. If you hunt them, you can eat them yourselves. Go on, go hunting on the mountain."
After the villagers left, the village chief sighed. These people were truly becoming more and more unreasonable.
Their previous enthusiasm and hard work had dissipated as they watched the Li family make money.
Their previous open-mindedness and generosity had been corrupted by the instigation of the Huang and Zhang families.
How foolish. Why would the Huang and Zhang families instigate them? Wasn't it to drag everyone down into poverty with them?
They deserved to be poor if they were this stupid.
…
A light snow fell. Li Zhengguo urged his elder brother to go to the provincial capital to buy coal from Zeng Shengchun.
He and his wife left the three children with his mother, who had moved back in, and went up the mountain again.
If they didn't go up the mountain soon, the year would pass by again.
Tian Jing's first stop was naturally to ask Xiao Song on Qing Song Rock.
Xiao Song had been deep in thought for two or three days. "I believe what's missing must be an object."
An object?
A flash of inspiration struck Tian Jing. "A golden key?"
"It should be. Wasn't the golden key passed down from your ancestors?"
"Wait, I'll try again."
By the hot spring valley, at Xiao Feng's feet, Tian Jing used her power to stimulate the roots of Xiao Feng, who had lost its consciousness.
Soon, she retrieved the Tian family's jar.
Taking out the authentic golden key, and after burying the jar back, Tian Jing eagerly pulled her husband to the location of the formation.
…
She sprinkled hot blood again, this time using the golden key to poke at the tangible substance that had appeared.
She tensed her body, ready at any moment to save herself from being repelled.
To her surprise, the tangible substance was poked open.
Did the golden key open the formation?
She swiped the golden key up and down, and a slit appeared.
This golden key might even be cast from bronze. What was inside?
How could it be able to slice open a formation that had repelled her for over a year?
While contemplating, she widened the slit and, with both hands, pulled at the opening.
"Zheng Ge, come down quickly."
Li Zhengguo, who had been placed halfway up the mountain by his wife, watched in astonishment as the formation that had blocked them for so long was so crudely torn open by his wife.
Hearing his wife call him, he quickly slid down.
As soon as they entered the formation, they found that the slit they had entered through had quickly closed.
Turning around, a damp smell wafted towards them. Looking up, they saw a thick, lush white mist.
This must be the misty valley that Xiao Song had mentioned.
But the fog was so thick, it obscured all vision. How were they supposed to find the private treasury?
Since there was no path left or right, their only option was to enter the mist.