Chapter 183: Hidden Treasure Part Two

Chapter 183: The Hidden Treasure, Part 2

Song Xilan remembered clearly that when she first saw the wooden carving on the round disk, it depicted two cranes—one with wings spread wide, its neck outstretched as if calling, and the other with wings folded against its body, lowering its head to drink.

The carving was incredibly detailed, with every feather on the cranes rendered in fine detail. She had even thought that if they had to dismantle the cabinet, she would carefully remove this disk and hang it on the wall as decoration.

But now, there was no trace of the cranes. The entire disk was a jumbled mess of lines, making it impossible to discern any coherent image.

Had her random twisting earlier caused this?

Song Xilan tried turning the bases again, her eyes fixed on the disk. She noticed that as she rotated the bases, several lines of the wooden carving on the disk also shifted.

After studying it for a while, she realized that each base controlled different sections of the disk, with some areas even being influenced by two separate bases. Her earlier haphazard twisting had naturally scrambled the patterns beyond recognition—not even a god could recognize it now.

She attempted to restore the image, but she couldn’t remember how she had twisted them in the first place, let alone reverse the process. The more she tried, the messier it became, rendering restoration impossible.

Some protagonist luck I’ve got!

Song Xilan quickly gave up. Before leaving, she made sure to lock the room and went to find Jiang Chengxiao.

Coincidentally, the next day was the weekend. The workers were diligent, working till they couldn’t see their hands before finally calling it a day. After seeing off all the workers, they headed back to the courtyard, ceremoniously shut the main gate, and entered the room with the cabinet.

“Should we close this door?” Song Xilan asked, then answered herself, “Never mind, let’s leave it open. No one else can come in anyway, and who knows if there’s something dangerous inside?”

An open door would at least make it easier to escape.

The house still had no electricity. Inside, the room was pitch black. Song Xilan carried two high-powered emergency lights—one placed a short distance away for general illumination, the other aimed directly at the disk. “Look, this is it. There were originally two cranes here, but now you can’t see them at all.”

Jiang Chengxiao nodded and began examining it. Song Xilan, clueless herself, simply held the light for him.

Her heart pounded wildly, like she was committing a crime, the excitement made her hands shake a little from holding up the heavy light. “But isn’t this our own home? Why are we sneaking around at night? Couldn’t we have come during the day? At least then we wouldn’t have to hold these lights.”

Jiang Chengxiao replied, “Weren’t you the one who said there might be hidden treasure? We can’t let others find out.”

“Oh, right. Keep riches under wraps. What do you think is inside? Old paintings? Gold and silver treasures?”

Ever since discovering the altered disk, Song Xilan had been convinced there was some kind of mechanism here. Otherwise, who’d bother with this otherwise? It’s not some hobbyist’s puzzle game!

“What would you prefer?” Jiang Chengxiao asked, continuously rotating the different bases while carefully observing the changes on the disk, still managing to chat with her.

Song Xilan thought for a moment. “Cold hard cash beats antiques. Old paintings are pretty useless—we can’t sell them, and people would grill us about their origin. Too much trouble.”

Like the Mi Fei calligraphy they owned. Though they knew it would be worth a fortune someday, neither of them truly appreciated it. It wasn’t food or clothing—totally pointless, she figured.

She sighed again. “If there really is gold and jewelry inside, we’d hit the jackpot! But what’s the point of having so much money? We’d never eat and drink that much in a lifetime!”

As they spoke, her mental chatter kept running nonstop.

Just as excited and nervous as they were, speculating about what might be hidden inside.

Some even debated how to crack the mechanism—stuff way over Song Xilan’s head.

“Food, food, food—that’s all she cares about.”

“What’s life without good food?”

“If you strike it rich, buy property! Prices will explode—you’ll cash in big!”

“So you’re rich—then what? Can’t spend it all—what’s the use?”

"Buy a house?" Song Xilan thought. Renovating one courtyard house was already exhausting enough—buying several more would just kill her.

Besides, they couldn’t possibly live in so many houses. If they bought them just to leave them empty, wouldn’t that be a waste?

And there were so many families crammed into tiny homes, generations living together, hoping their employers would assign them housing. If they bought up too many properties, wouldn’t that leave even more people without a place to live? That wouldn’t be right—it’d make them look like greedy landlords.

As Song Xilan’s mind wandered, she saw the jumbled carvings on the disc now aligning, faintly revealing the outline of a pattern.

She squealed excitedly, “Ah! Yes, yes, that’s it! Oh my, you’re amazing!”

At any time, a man being praised by the woman he loves feels amazing, and Jiang Chengxiao was no exception. Still, he tried hard not to grin. “It’s nothing, really. Once you figure out the pattern, it’s quite easy.”

“Maybe for you. If it were me, I’d probably never solve it in my lifetime.”

Then, she frowned slightly as she studied the disc. As more of the lines smoothed into place, the pattern gradually became clearer. “Huh? That doesn’t seem right. The image I saw before wasn’t like this.”

“This crane was clearly spreading its wings with its head raised—why is it bowing now? And this one…” Her voice trailed off as Jiang Chengxiao completed the remaining sections, revealing two cranes so lifelike, each in a different pose.

She rubbed her eyes, doubting herself. Had she misremembered? Maybe the original pattern had always looked like this.

Otherwise, how could the same carvings form two entirely different images, fitting together so seamlessly?

Just then, the two suddenly heard a nails-on-a-chalkboard screech—an old mechanism inside, creaky from disuse.