Tomb Raider: I Can Hear Antiques Talk

Chapter 151

Xu Er swaggered ahead, as if he brought not three strangers from other places, but three leaders from the city.

What the bridge passers-by were thinking about was all those porcelain bowls and altars just now.This trip to sweep the soil originally only collected some old things from the Qing Dynasty.Seeing the Song and Yuan porcelains in the courtyard in the hands of these villagers, the three of them discussed quietly behind Xu Er, and decided to stay here for one more day and find a way to get some objects of better quality to go back.

Xu Er led the three of them on a road that was in the opposite direction from the way they came, and passed the threshing mill in the center of the village. The bridge passers-by saw a pile of black things on the ground, which seemed to be burnt soot.Judging from the amount of coal ash, they burned a lot of coal.

Seeing that the three were curious, Xu Er said with a smile: "Build a fire, the higher the fire, the more prosperous it will be, the less grandma will not dare to come, and the children will live more peacefully."

Thinking of yesterday's monster called the granny, the three of them understood in their hearts. It seems that these villagers often deal with that thing.Grasshopper is not something the village head said the adults made up at all, otherwise there would be no need to light a fire to drive it away.

After making seven turns and eight turns along the road in the village, the three of them followed Xu Er to a dilapidated dirt yard.Xu Er opened the door and went in, only to see a woman in her 50s sweeping the yard.

"Mom, there are guests!" Xu Er shouted.

The old woman looked up at the three of them, nodded expressionlessly, and pointed to an empty house.

Xu Er led the three of them into the empty house. There was a large earthen kang inside, but it seemed that no one had lived in it for a long time, and it was full of dust and cold air.

Xu Er took a broom and cleaned, making more dust inside and outside the house.The bridge passers stopped him from coughing, and asked him to bring some bedding and pillows, and then set the kang on fire.After a lot of tossing around last night, the few of them were quite tired, and they just wanted to sleep well, after all, they still had things to do at night.

Xu Er stuffed the firewood, dead branches and some broken charcoal into the kang hole, and lit the fire with flint.As soon as the kang was burned, the whole room became warm.The bridge passengers lay on the bed sideways, and they all started snoring after a while.

In the dimness, a bridge traveler seemed to hear the voice of a whisper.He opened his eyes, and with the light from the window, he saw two children standing by the bed and looking at them. One was about ten years old, and the other was about seven or eight years old.

Xu Er's mother came in in a hurry, pulled the two children and went out, whispering: "Hiding quietly, who told you to run out, be careful that grandma will catch you."

The movement of Xu Erma taking the two children out also alarmed the other two.Since entering the village, this is the first time that the bridge travelers have seen a child appear, and it seems that they are hiding the child.But the sky is bright and bright, why should you be afraid of becoming like this?

The few people were so disturbed that they lost sleepiness, so they got up and went out.Only then did they realize that they had slept until evening after the sleep just now.

Early winter is short, and the sun has already set, so it is estimated that it is about five o'clock now.Seeing a few people getting up, Xu Er put a table on the kang with a smile, and busily carried things with his mother.After a while, cornmeal batter, miscellaneous grain steamed buns, and a few pickles were put on the table, with a plate of scrambled eggs in the middle.

After finishing the meal, Second Mama Xu left in a hurry, went back to her room and closed the door.Xu Erben also wanted to leave, but Qiaoke stayed behind and asked him to eat with him.

Xu Er is always smiling hey hey, giving people a feeling of lack of heart.He sat on the kang without moving his chopsticks, just watching the three bridge passers-by slurping their mouthfuls.

"Xu Er, we are from Zhaojing. Archaeologists, yes, scientists. We saw bowls and jars in some houses in your village. They are all for learning. Can you Find some good ones for us? We promise not to treat you badly and give you money."

The leading bridgeman said, and took out two cards of Great Unity.

Xu Er looked at the two large-denomination banknotes for a moment, then sniffed and said, "Hey, give me the money, and I will marry a wife!"

"Hey! Yes, marry a wife. As long as you bring us those things, I will give you more money to marry a beautiful wife."

Xu Er nodded repeatedly, and said, "Eat white steamed buns and scrambled eggs."

As he spoke, he stared at the scrambled eggs on the plate. Qiao Ke quickly put the eggs in front of him and handed him a pair of chopsticks.In difficult times, scrambled eggs had to be mixed with water to add starch. The starch in this plate was a bit too much, and it tasted bitter.

Xu Er was not polite, picked up the plate and stuffed all the eggs into his mouth, then wiped his mouth and walked out.Not long after, he pushed the door open again and came in, holding a bulging snakeskin bag in his hand.

The bridge passengers opened their pockets and took a look, their eyes lit up and they were overjoyed.Looking at the things inside, there are no gaps and smooth glazed porcelain, which seems to have been prepared a long time ago.

Before they could take a closer look, there was a sudden knock on the door, and they quickly tied up their pockets and hid them under the quilt.

Xu Er opened the door, only to see the village chief standing at the door with a few people.Qiao Ke was startled, wondering if the village chief had discovered that Xu Er had given them the things in the village so quickly?Or is it a trap at all, and while they are taking things, these villagers plan to catch them?
But the village chief didn't look at them, but lowered his voice and said to Xu Er: "Is it all done? It's your family's turn today, so hurry up and get ready."

After saying that, the village head took the people away.Xu Erdui smiled and held out his hand to Qiao Ke.Bridger understood what he meant, so he pointed out ten cards of Great Unity and stuffed them into his hand.Compared with the things in the bag, the money is not worth a penny, but it is enough for villagers like Xu Er to marry their wives.

Xu Er smiled and stuffed the money into his arms, cleaned up the kang table and bowls and chopsticks, and said to several people: "There is a fire in the village, don't look at it, there are grandma's flies."

The Bridgers nodded repeatedly, but murmurs arose in their hearts.After collecting so many things, if Xu Er doesn't leave quickly today, if Xu Er repents or is discovered by other people in the village, then it will be too late to run away.

They didn't look at the contents of the bag anymore, but tied the bag tightly, extinguished the oil lamp, and opened the door carefully.

At this time, the sun had already set, and the courtyard without electric lights was pitch black, only the dim yellow oil lamp was still shining in Erma Xu's room.Several people saw that there was no one in the courtyard, so they climbed up the wall carefully in order not to disturb Second Mama Xu.

As soon as the few people reached the wall, they saw a strange scene at the wheat threshing mill in the village.In the places where coal ash was piled up during the day, a two-meter-high object had already been erected at this time.

That thing looks like a stone tower, but it is made of large pieces of coal, about two meters high.There was still white paper hanging on the coal tower, and some words were written with red paint, but I couldn't make out what was written on it.

Under the leadership of the village chief, the villagers walked silently and quickly around the pillar, like a group of walking dead.

(End of this chapter)