Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Nineteen first inspected the courtyard to make sure there was no danger before letting Changyun and Shen Luo enter. It was a very small courtyard with two main rooms facing south. To the west of the main rooms were two smaller rooms, which were obviously kitchens and storage rooms.

Da Niu opened all the doors. Xia Yu and the others went inside to check. They found the house even simpler than expected, and Xia Yu felt something was off, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. While pondering this...

"Xiaxia, this house doesn't feel like it's been lived in for a long time. It's so lifeless," Changyun said.

One sentence perfectly captured Xia Yu's feeling: there was no one around.

As they talked, the group entered another room. A kang (heated brick bed) was covered with bedding, and several pieces of clothing and two bundles were scattered on the kang against the wall. On the square table were leftover food and half a pot of wine.

After looking around and finding nothing special, just as the group was about to leave, Xia Yu's eyes suddenly fell on the floor tiles under the table.

"Big Girl, move the table!" Xia Yu ordered.

"Okay," Da Niu replied, effortlessly moving the table away.

Xia Yu looked around the room, trying to find a suitable tool, but couldn't find what she wanted after searching for a while.

"Luo'er, lend me your sword for a moment," Xia Yu said.

Although Shen Luo didn't know what Xia Yu wanted the sword for, she obediently handed it over.

Holding the sword, Xia Yu squatted down next to the unusual floor tiles and tapped them with the hilt of the sword. Sure enough, she heard a hollow sound.

“It’s hollow down there!” Da Niu, Shi Jiu, Chang Yun, and Xia Yu said almost simultaneously.

"Find something to pry this brick open," Xia Yu instructed, looking at the brick on the ground.

Da Niu found an iron shovel in the yard and pried open the brick Xia Yu had mentioned, revealing a dark hole.

Xia Yu wanted to jump, but Shi Jiu stopped her with a hand.

"Miss, I'll go down and take a look first."

"Wait!" Xia Yu stopped Nineteen again, took out a tinderbox from his pocket, lit it, tied it with a rope, and lowered it into the cave. Only after making sure the fire wouldn't go out did he let Nineteen go down.

No sooner had Nineteen gone down than a short, startled cry rang out. Hearing Nineteen's voice, Xia Yu and Da Niu quickly jumped down as well. Before going down, Xia Yu told Chang Yun and Shen Luo to wait for them in the courtyard.

Changyun knew that his sister was protecting him and Shen Luo, since he, Shen Luo, and Xiao Shitou were the weakest fighters in the group, and even Gou Dan had studied martial arts with Uncle Ma for two years.

After Xia Yu went downstairs, Gou Dan escorted the group to the courtyard and opened the gate. This was so they could escape immediately if anything happened. The two people tied to the tree were not a concern for him.

At this moment, Xia Yu and Da Niu, inside the cave, were also horrified upon seeing the scene inside. The cave wasn't large, only about two meters wide and long, but in this small space lay two corpses. Xia Yu covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve and approached the two bodies, discovering they were an old man and an old woman, both with white hair. Because of the cold, the bodies hadn't decomposed yet, and it was impossible to immediately determine the time of death.

"Let's report this to the authorities. This is beyond our ability to handle," Xia Yu said to the other two after examining the body.

After the group came up, they sent Gou Dan and Da Niu to report to the authorities. The others waited there.

"Hey, who are you people? What are you doing in this yard?" An old woman passing by the gate couldn't help but ask when she saw the open gate and the group of people in the yard.

"Auntie, do you know the owner of this house?" Xia Yu asked the old woman.

"Of course I know them! We've lived around here for decades, we've been neighbors for decades." After recognizing Xia Yu and his companions, the old lady forgot her earlier worries and greeted Xia Yu warmly.

"How many people are in this family?" Changyun asked.

"Just the Zhu family, the two of them. No, wait, later his nephew also moved in, so it's three people!" the old woman said after thinking for a moment.

"This family doesn't have a son?" Xia Yu asked again.

"No, there's only one daughter, but she married far away and doesn't come back often. We only see her during the New Year," the old woman sighed.

"Have you met this family's nephew?" Xia Yu continued.

"I've seen him, of course I've seen him. Those triangular eyes are unsettling. I don't know how Old Zhu could have a nephew like that. Just seeing him gives me goosebumps; he doesn't seem like a good person. Hey, young lady, do you know his nephew? Has he gotten into trouble outside?"

The old lady was a talkative woman; you only needed to ask her one question, and she would spill everything she knew. This saved Xia Yu a lot of trouble.

"Yes, he stole our money. We only caught two of his accomplices." Xia Yu didn't say the rest, but the old lady already knew: they came to our house because they couldn't catch anyone.

"I think you've come all this way for nothing. I haven't seen Old Zhu and his wife for over ten days. I heard from his nephew that he missed his daughter and went to see her." The old woman sighed again. She knew that nephew was no good, and she was right; he turned out to be a thief.

"Auntie, thank you. We've already reported it to the authorities. We'll see if we can bring him back when they arrive. You should go home now; it's quite cold here. Besides, it wouldn't be good for his nephew to see you here talking to us when he comes back, would it?" Xia Yu advised, without mentioning the dead person in the cave, afraid it would frighten the old woman.

"Okay, I'll head back now." Hearing Xia Yu say that, the old lady was afraid that Old Zhu's nephew would hold a grudge against her, so she hurriedly left.

The two men tied to the tree heard that Xia Yu and the others had reported them to the authorities, and they begged Xia Yu to release them.

"There's a hole in the floor inside the house, and there are dead people inside," Xia Yu said coolly, glancing at them.

"What...what dead...people?" Hearing Xia Yu's words, the two of them were so frightened that their legs went weak. Suddenly, the shorter man felt a warm flow running down his leg.

The temperature here is below minus twenty degrees Celsius. When they saw smoke coming from the short man's pants, everyone was stunned for a moment before realizing that he had wet his pants in fright.

Looking at the bearded man and the short guy's cowardly appearance, Xia Yu found it somewhat amusing, but he also knew that this matter probably had nothing to do with them.

"Have you ever stayed here?" Xia Yu suddenly asked.

“I…I…I lived there. I lived in that house. Ah…!” The bearded man answered tremblingly and then burst into tears.

"Heroine, heroine, please, you must plead with the magistrate! We really didn't know anything about this! If I had known there was a dead person in this house, I wouldn't have dared to eat or sleep here, even if you beat me to death!" the short man said, his voice trembling with tears. Little did anyone know, he himself was also on the verge of tears!