Stealing Heavenly Secrets from Shading the Heavens - Part 3

Then Li Zhi drove off in his Grand Cherokee.

After leaving the parking lot, the vehicle didn't head toward the neighborhood where he lived.

Instead, it drove toward his hometown outside the city.

By evening, Li Zhi finally arrived back at Da Li Village, two hundred kilometers away.

Having been away from home for years, the house was covered in dust everywhere.

But Li Zhi had no intention of cleaning. He went straight to Li Daqiang's bedroom and took a strangely shaped bronze key from the cabinet.

The key was a full half-foot long.

Holding the key, Li Zhi went to the backyard.

Under the pomegranate tree, he pinpointed a spot, picked up a shovel, and began digging downward.

Fortunately, the soil under the pomegranate tree was loose. In just two hours, he had dug a pit a meter deep.

And at the bottom of the pit, he hit something hard.

Experience from his past life told Li Zhi that he had probably struck a stone slab.

Sure enough, after clearing away the dirt at the bottom, a stone slab covered with plastic sheeting appeared before Li Zhi.

Experience told him this was a specially designed tunnel entrance.

And on the stone slab laid flat at the bottom of the pit were three small holes filled with motor oil, seemingly keyholes.

Seeing these things, Li Zhi seemed to understand something.

No wonder Li Daqiang, an honest and simple farmer, had accumulated such substantial wealth.

So he had also profited from the dead while alive.

Although Li Zhi hadn't inherited Li Daqiang's trade, the memories from his past life indirectly passed down Li Daqiang's skills.

"It really is a cellar that shouldn't be opened unless there's no other way out," Li Zhi thought to himself.

Profiting from the dead damages the living's fortune.

No wonder Li Daqiang had died so young.

He must have dug up something extraordinary during his lifetime.

Li Zhi was very eager to see what huge surprise opening the stone slab would bring him.

But after checking the sky, he didn't lift the slab on the spot.

Instead, he returned to the front yard.

He planned to rest well for the night and open the "treasure chest" tomorrow.

His mind had been on a roller coaster all day, and he really needed to adjust through sleep.

"Xiao Zhi, when did you get back?"

When the first rays of morning sunlight bathed the earth, Li Zhi opened the courtyard gate carrying a large bag of trash and happened to run into his neighbor Li Zhong, who was also taking out the garbage.

"Uncle Zhong, good morning. I came back last night," Li Zhi greeted Li Zhong warmly. Li Zhong was of the same generation as his father Li Daqiang and held considerable prestige in Da Li Village.

"It's good to come back and stay more often, otherwise the house will easily fall into disrepair," Li Zhong said.

"Uncle Zhong, I got back late last night, so I didn't have time to visit you at home. How about I come over to your place for breakfast later?" Li Zhi said to Li Zhong without any pretense.

Li Zhong seemed to appreciate Li Zhi's casual attitude and laughed, "Your aunt will be very happy to see you back. I'll have her make a few extra dishes."

"Is Brother Peng not home?" After throwing away the trash, Li Zhi asked again on the way back.

"Don't mention your Brother Peng. Ever since he married your sister-in-law, he's been away from home all year round. Even when he comes back, it's just for a meal before he leaves again. I don't know what he's so busy with all day. Xiao Zhi, if you marry a wife, make sure you find a girl willing to live with you in the countryside." Li Zhong seemed very dissatisfied with his son.

As they passed Li Zhi's doorstep, Li Zhi said, "Uncle Zhong, wait a moment. I brought back quite a few things last night. I can't carry them all myself. Let me give you some to take over first."

Li Zhong said, "Just come eat. It's not like we're short on food for you. Why bring gifts?"

Though he said that, when he saw the large bag of cigarettes, alcohol, and snacks Li Zhi pulled out, he accepted every single item without exception.

Then Li Zhi smiled and said, "Uncle Zhong, I'll sweep and clean the house first. In a little while, I'll just show up with my mouth and eat a ready-made meal at your place."

Uncle Zhong glanced at the two bottles of good liquor in the big plastic bag and said with a bright smile, "Then I'll go back and have your aunt fry us some dishes to go with the drinks. We haven't seen each other in over half a year. Let's have a good chat, you and me."

Li Zhi laughed, "Then I'll make sure to eat plenty."

After seeing Li Zhong off, Li Zhi began cleaning the house.

It took him a full two hours to clean every corner inside and out.

Then he took a hot shower, changed clothes, and headed to the neighbor Li Zhong's house. Although it was next door, the two houses weren't adjacent—there was a gap of several dozen meters of open ground between them.

When Li Zhi arrived, Aunt Zhong had already prepared six dishes and a soup for them.

A truly sumptuous breakfast.

At the table, Li Zhi first drank a few ounces with Li Zhong, then asked, "Uncle Zhong, can you tell me about the times when you and my father were young?"

Nearly sixty, Li Zhong was asked by a younger generation about his glorious youthful days. Fueled by the alcohol, he launched into a long-winded tale, first boasting about his own exploits before finally bringing up Li Daqiang.

Li Zhong said, "Your father was an honest man who loved reading. When we went out to make our way in the world when we were young, everyone liked to drink and carouse, but your father was always holding some old books he bought from secondhand book stalls. Strange, superstitious stuff—we'd get drowsy after a couple of glances, but your father could read them with great interest. Later, your father married your mother and had you. With the household expenses increasing, he went out alone to work, wandering outside for another three or four years before coming back. That was when your father made his money. Not only did he renovate your old house, but he also bought a shop in the city. Unfortunately, your mother was unlucky—she passed away before she could enjoy the good life for long. After your mother died, your father never went out to work again. Even if he did go out, it was only for a temporary job of two or three months before he'd come back."

In Li Zhi's memory, he had lived at school since starting middle school. Sometimes he'd stay an entire semester at a time. So he never knew what Li Daqiang was busy with at home during those stretches.

Li Daqiang never told Li Zhi what his work was, but he never once shorted him on living expenses.

The allowance back then wasn't much, just about the same level as most of his classmates.

After hearing Li Zhong's account, Li Zhi finally pieced together a perfect picture of Li Daqiang's life. A man who played the honest villager on the surface, but secretly dealt in trades that could land a man in prison.

No wonder the villagers didn't know he had that much money. He'd hidden his light, hidden it his whole life.

Over that bottle of liquor, Li Zhong drank a catty and a half, while Li Zhi only managed half a catty.

In the end, Li Zhong stumbled off in a daze to sleep again.

As for Li Zhi, he went home and picked up where he'd left off the night before.

After locking the courtyard gate from the inside, he braved the blazing sun and headed to the backyard.

The noon sun was already blinding, yet Li Zhi seemed not to feel the heat at all.

Clutching the half-foot-long key, he climbed down into the pit.

After some fumbling, he heard a click as a spring mechanism released from within the stone slab.

Then, using an iron hook meant for stoking the fire, he pried the slab up like a manhole cover.

A pitch-black square opening, eighty centimeters across, appeared before Li Zhi's eyes.

After blowing fresh air into the hole with a hair dryer for ten minutes, Li Zhi grabbed the grooves in the wall and descended into the tunnel.

He went down five meters before hitting the bottom.

Then he entered a passageway over ten meters long.

At the end of the passage was a security door with a keypad.

Li Zhi knew the code for that door. It was the same as the password for the bank card Li Daqiang had used while alive.

Because Li Daqiang had once told him that every place in the house that needed a password used the same one.

Setting his miner's lamp on a niche in the wall, Li Zhi approached the security door.

His heart thumped wildly in his chest.

Even his hands were trembling slightly.

Whatever treasure Li Daqiang had gone to such lengths to hide had to be priceless, or something with astonishing effects.

Maybe because his nerves made his hands shake, he entered the wrong password on the first try.

After taking a deep breath, Li Zhi keyed in the correct code.

He opened the security door, but inside wasn't the treasure vault he'd imagined.

It was just a room less than ten square meters.

Calling it a room wasn't quite right. It was more like a cellar for storing sweet potatoes.

There were no high-end safes in the room, no impenetrable concrete walls.

The walls were clearly built from red bricks, and between the bricks, yellow earth served as the mortar.

It really did look like a converted sweet potato cellar.

A single old wooden table sat alone in the room.

On the table was a set of items Li Zhi knew all too well.

A complete set of archaeological tools, including a Luoyang Shovel, a brush, an oil lamp, a small flat shovel, a Feng Shui Compass, and other odds and ends.

Seeing these things, Li Zhi felt like he was about to vomit blood. This was the cellar Li Daqiang had drilled into him over and over, the one he wasn't supposed to open unless absolutely necessary?

So that was what he meant. When he was at his wit's end, he could inherit the family trade.

Still, disappointed as he was, Li Zhi packed everything into a Snakeskin Bag hanging from one of the table legs.