Chapter 30: Addiction to Hiding Things

  The old man continued: "In the past, we could still go into the mountains to hunt and gather some things, and then exchange them for money. Now the mountains are also closed off. Although it's a good thing, leaving something for our descendants, so that future generations won't criticize us, but these days are really tough."

  "Ah!" Jin Guangfu sighed, put his tobacco pouch into his pocket and said to Jin Hu: "Give me your tobacco." Jin Hu took out the tobacco from his own pocket and handed it over to his father. Jin Guangfu took one out, lit it up, and put the rest into his own pocket. He took a puff and said, "This tobacco is a bit weak."

  "Are you still smoking your dry tobacco?" Jin Hu said with a smile to Jin Guangfu.

  Jin Guangfu listened to his son's words and glared at him: "From now on, just smoke this brand of cigarettes!"

  Old Master Shan looked at Jin Guangfu and said: "Let's choose a day, worship the mountain god. I think tomorrow is not bad, what do you think, Guangfu?"

  "Then it's tomorrow, Uncle San said, or else find a few kids to go down the mountain today and buy a few piglets back?" Jin Guangfu said.

  Old Master nodded and turned around, shouting towards the neighboring yard: "Lao San! Bring me the calendar!"

  After hearing the old man's response, within two minutes a forty-year-old man brought a calendar to the yard and handed it over: "Dad, what do you want this for?"

  The old man pointed at Jin Guangfu and said, "Your brother is going to take the master's seat, find a good day."

  Jin Hu stood up from the chair: "Third Uncle!" He was about to give up his seat. The strong man waved his hand: "Tiger, you sit!" Then he said to Jin Guangfu: "Big brother, have you figured it out?" Looking at Jin Guangfu nodding, he said: "It's been a long time coming, and it'll let my dad take it easy for two years."

  The old man looked at his son and said, "Am I getting old and need you to take care of me?" Looking at his son shrinking his neck, he continued, "Bao'er is 19 this year, right? When we went down the mountain today, someone brought him a letter. He's going out with Huer, the two brothers will have each other's backs outside. I don't quite trust others."

  Jintiger hastily stood up and said: "This time there's no trouble, let Bao'er read for two more years before coming to help me, isn't that better?"

  The old man glanced at Jin Hu and said, "I'm not senile yet, do you believe what you're saying? He was only in high school at the age of 19, does he look like college material to you?"

  Jin Hu listened and scratched his head, sitting down awkwardly.

  The old man flipped through the calendar and said, "Then it's five days later, a good day." Looking at Jin Guangfu nodding, he turned to his son and said, "Go under my bed and take out that big drum and cymbal."

  Jin Hu's interest was piqued as soon as he heard about it, having long heard that the village had these two things, but never having seen them before. It turned out that Old Master had hidden them under his bed all along.

  Four people entered the old man's room, an old-fashioned wooden bed with two wooden steps to climb up. The old man pointed to both sides of the headboard and said "pull out the two wooden pegs". Jin Hu and San Shu each took one side, searched for a bit, and finally found the wooden pegs. With a pull, the front panel with the steps could be removed, and when they pulled open the bed board, they saw a large wooden chest at the bottom of the bed that was as wide as two outstretched arms.

  The old man pulled out the large wooden box, walked to the side of the box and squatted down, blew off the dust on the surface with his mouth, then wiped it twice with his hand, and opened the box.

  Jin Hu stretched his neck to look inside, and first saw a large bronze gong, as big as the large cauldron in rural households. In the center was a red heart. Seeing Old Master Shan take out the gong, he then looked down and saw a large drum below. The dark body of the drum had a fierce tiger descending pattern on its surface, with the tiger still outlined in black lines, without any coloring.

  "Guangfu, take Huer to the mountain hall tonight and play the drum. I'll make a list of things that need to be done, and you can have someone go down the mountain to buy them later. Now all of you get out." The old man said with his wrinkled hands touching the big drum, without even turning his head to face Jin Hu and the others.

  Jintiger followed Laozi to bid farewell to Lao Yezi. Seeing Lao Yezi waving his hand at the two, he finally came out of the house.

  Just back home, Jin Guangfu said to Jin Hu: "You take a shovel and come with me".

  Jin Hu listened and picked up an iron shovel leaning against the wall root, carrying it on his shoulder, following behind his old father. Jin Guangfu took his son to a old willow tree at the back of the house, touched the trunk of the willow tree, retreated two steps and knelt down facing the willow tree.

  "Father! What are you doing!" Jin Hu asked, looking at Lao Zi's movements.

  Jin Guangfu turned to face Jin Hu and said, "You come too, thinking of the kindness of our ancestors." After finishing speaking, he faced the willow tree and respectfully kowtowed several times. Jin Hu put down his iron hoe and also knelt down.

  The two men knocked their heads together, and Jin Guangfu pointed to the shaded area behind the willow tree and said to Jin Hu: "Dig down along this way!"

  Jin Hu listened to the iron shovel and started digging. Jin Guangfu watched his son dig for five or six minutes: "Your handwork is still not put down."

  "Haha!" Jin Hu smiled at his old man and continued digging. After digging nearly half a meter deep, he heard his old man say, "Slow down!" He slowed down his pace and dug for a while longer, and the mouth of a gray urn appeared. Jin Hu took one look and knew what was probably inside - silver!

  Jin Hu lifted the jar out of the ground and felt that it was not light in his hands. He hugged the jar and followed behind Lao Zi, walking into the house.

  Jin Guangfu patted the mud off the mouth of the jar, opened the lid, and reached inside to pull out an object, which he placed on the table. The first thing he took out was not silver, but a gold bar.

  Jin Hu picked up a coin with the number of ounces and weight written on it in traditional characters, followed by a group of numbers and the words "ten taels", as well as the words "Central Mint" in traditional characters.

  After looking at these, Jin Hu looked at the table again, and there were already a dozen or so gold bars on his hands, as well as several gold coins, and some small gold blocks of various sizes.

  "Is there really so much of this at home?" Jin Hu rubbed his eyes, hardly daring to believe that his family could have such things.

  Jin Guangfu looked at Jin Hu and said, "You think our ancestors just wanted to indulge themselves, having some money to eat and drink?" After finishing, he looked at the things on the table: "Your grandfather's greatest regret before his death was that he didn't have any skills to add anything to this! He said it was for you younger generations to have fewer things to rely on when you're in trouble. According to the old rules, I shouldn't take them out unless I'm desperate. If your brother were still here, I would keep these until my death, or if you had taken a proper path, I would use these things to buy you a house in the city so you could get married. Now that you're taking these away, you must think of a way to return them. When the time comes, put them back under the old tree."

  "Dad! I really don't need these things, let's bury them again." Jin Hu said to his old man.

  "Remember! You have to remember one sentence. Jin Guangfu looked at Jin Hu's eyes and said without blinking: "What my grandfather told me before he died, what is righteous is not something that a master should think about. When encountering things, you must be ruthless and keep your eyes open to see around you! If there is anything that you can't support, you must take action immediately, no matter what method you use, you must settle it before it grows into a tree!"

  Jin Hu was taken aback: "Settled?"

  "As long as you're alive, if you recall your mistakes and have time to spare, you'll feel a little remorseful. If you don't live to old age, then there's no need for remorse either." Jin Guangfu said to Jin Hu, word by word.

  Looking into his father's eyes and seeing the cold glint in them, Jin Hu finally knew where his own bravery and ruthlessness came from.

  "Taiye once said those words." Jin Hu asked with his mouth agape.

  Jin Guangfu nodded: "Your grandfather and your uncle did something together that made them feel guilty for the rest of their lives, but before your grandfather died, he said that if given another chance, he would still do it. When Uncle Shan passed away, I asked him too, and he also said he was guilty but had no regrets."

  "What's going on?" Jin Hu heard it like a cat catching something.

  Jin Guangfu shook his head: "Neither of us mentioned it, nor did I ask."

  "It's better if you just stay at home, it's also useful at home," Jin Hu said, pointing to the thing on the table.

  Jin Guangfu looked at his son and smiled, "Do you think the village really has no money?" Seeing his son's puzzled face, he continued, "If our ancestors thought of this, wouldn't they have left something for the people in the village?"

  Jin Hu listened and thought for a moment before understanding. The ancestors of the bandits were like pirates, having an addiction to hiding private money, stashing it away here and there.

  "Listen to your old man," he continued, "In times of peace and prosperity, 180 catties of grain are sold to the imperial family. But when chaos erupts, they grab their gear and go out to plunder. Where did this guy come from? Do you think people eat for free and horses chew on nothing? Not just our village, but all the villages in these mountains, the headmen, the resistance fighters, and the descendants of the landlords - do you think they're all just waiting around to die?"

  "Why live such a bitter life when you have money?" Jin Hu said, "Why not go out and do business, set up a factory or something? Why stay in the mountains and suffer?"

  "How many of those who came out from this mountain have the potential to do business? Once they run outside, others just need to give them a few cups of cat's urine and they'll be calling each other brothers, getting sold out and even helping others count the money."

  Jin Hu listened to Lao Zi's words and thought for a moment, his face turned sour. What the old man said was indeed not much wrong.

  "But this money can't be moved around, it has to wait until the money from your place arrives. You, San Ye and Lao Gan Ye have to have a bottom line. Of course, it's best if nothing goes out." Jin Guangfu said with a smile as he looked at Jin Hu.

  Jin Hu smiled and said: "You're all gluttons!" Then he asked Lao Zi: "How much money is in this stronghold?"

  "You ask this for what? Wait until I'm on my deathbed and I'll tell you," said Jin Guangfu to his son.

  "I guess I was wrong," Jin Hu said with a shake of his head to his father. Jin Guangfu smiled upon hearing his son's words.

  "Gold!" Looking at his father shaking his head, Jin Hu said: "Silver!".

  He looked at Laozi and smiled, saying: "Silver ingot?" Then he said: "Yuan Datou?" "Silver bar" "Silver gourd" He guessed for half a day but didn't see Laozi nodding, and really couldn't think of it.

  Jin Guangfu smiled and tapped his foot on the brick floor. Jin Hu looked at him and knew what he was thinking: "Shan Tang?" Looking at his father's smile, Jin Hu sighed and said, "This old man still says that life is hard? Isn't it just holding a golden bowl to beg for food?" The main hall of Shan Tang was paved with bluestone slabs, which two strong men couldn't lift. When Jin Hu was young, he had seen the workers replace a stone slab at Shan Tang - they would remove the old slab and put down a new one, underneath which were layers of gray bricks.

  "Now it's not worth much money, silver is cheap." Jin Guangfu sighed and said: "Now we have food and drink, and we haven't reached the point where we can't open the pot. What's the use of these things?"

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