frightfiction Chapter 343 Seeing Chen Xiangqian Again
Chapter 343 Seeing Chen Xiangqian Again
When the group thought about the mine craters around them and the stories of the mine warfare in 1937 told by the village elders, a subtle and different feeling arose in their hearts regarding this small hole.
Lu Zhiqiang took the lead, turning on his flashlight to illuminate the dim light, pushing aside the dead branches blocking the cave entrance, and then ducking into the small hole.
The cave was deep and cramped, so narrow that only one person could pass at a time. The four of them stepped on each other, one after the other. Although there was light from the electric lamp, the complex and interconnected cave system frightened Lu Zhiqiang, who was leading the way. He started cursing and shouting in fear.
"What the hell is this?! Who dug this hole? Look at his skills, how is he so capable?"
As Lu Zhiqiang continued cursing, he finally realized he was lost, and the three people behind him had also been led astray. At this moment, darkness and fear enveloped him.
Li Ju'an's voice came from behind, saying, "It should be a cave left over from the tunnel warfare in the past. There are no landmines in this cave, so you can leave without worry."
Song Desheng was also trembling with fear. He opened his mouth and cursed, "It's a good thing Sun Weimin ran into us, otherwise it would have been too unfair for him to die at the cave entrance! It's better to come in here and let him see what it means to be pitch black and slippery." He touched the cave wall and found it very wet and slippery. He didn't know where the water from the ditch was flowing down. He could only cheer himself up like this.
In the endless darkness, the four staggered forward, leaving only the rhythm of their footsteps and heartbeats. Lu Zhiqiang stretched out his trembling hand and groped ahead. His fingertips inadvertently touched a cool piece of wood—a half-open wooden door.
He mustered all his courage and gave it a hard push. The door hinges creaked open, a sound he hadn't heard in a long time.
Stepping into this unknown land, Lu Zhiqiang's flashlight flickered, its beam growing weaker as the battery nearly depleted. He could only fumble in his pocket, his hands trembling, carefully striking a match. Miraculously, his fingertips touched warmth. The flame danced gently in his palm, illuminating everything around him.
As the light reached, Li Ju'an's gaze settled on a corner of the room, where stacks of rustic wooden boxes stood silently, waiting. On the boxes, the words "Compressed Biscuits" stood out prominently in the dim light.
Seeing so many supplies, Song Desheng and Lu Zhiqiang were invigorated. They had been searching the mountains for days, subsisting on cornbread and sticky rice cakes, and hadn't had anything good to eat. Even in the city, compressed biscuits required ration coupons, so they decided to open the box, take out the biscuits, and eat them.
Li Ju'an watched them tear open the packaging and suddenly said, "This must be past its expiration date."
Song Desheng and Lu Zhiqiang muttered to themselves, "What's the big deal? Brother Li, you're a grown man, how come you're more talkative than my wife?" "Exactly, what kind of situation is this? So what if it's past its expiration date? Just tear it open and eat it, it won't cause diarrhea."
The two had just torn open the biscuit when they stared at the moldy, unrecognizable ashes in their hands and fell silent. Neither of them spoke.
Li Ju'an examined the remaining old items around him and said, "I estimate that no one will live here for another 37 years. The compressed biscuits are probably about 50 years old."
Lu Zhiqiang quickly spat twice on the ground, cursing his bad luck.
50-year-old compressed biscuits? That's older than his mother, almost as old as the Lu family patriarch.
Lu Jinyang suddenly said, "When I was a child, my grandfather told me that there were treasures in the mountains. There was a cave that was hundreds of meters deep. Some people said that there were many treasures such as gold and silver in the cave, and some people said that there were wild men in the cave and that it was very dangerous."
Upon hearing this, Lu Zhiqiang couldn't help but chuckle and said, "How old were we back then? We were so young that even dogs wouldn't dare to go into the mountains. Grandpa deliberately made up these stories to scare us and prevent us from going into the mountains. Where did these wild men come from?"
They had grown up running and playing in the mountains, picking wild fruits, and naturally scoffed at the legends of the wild men in the mountains, never having witnessed any trace of the legendary wild men or snowmen. It was just like the legends of the weasel spirits and snow mountain monsters that the old folks in the mountains often talked about; if you believed in them, they existed, if you didn't, they didn't—it was all up to your mind.
In this hidden cave, Song Desheng unexpectedly unearthed many rare treasures. The pottery was dazzling, simple yet elegant; the wood carvings and lacquerware were exquisite and delicate, exuding the warmth of time. And the copperplate prints, each one seemingly telling a story of the past.
Li Ju'an examined them and found that these items looked quite different from those commonly seen in later generations, though he couldn't quite put his finger on why.
Song Desheng said excitedly, "Let's take these back and sell them!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Zhiqiang's eyes lit up, and the thought of "making a fortune" popped into his head.
Li Ju'an stared at the pottery, paintings, wood carvings, and lacquerware, then suddenly realized something, slapped his forehead, and said, "You're going to sell them? I'm afraid the moment you sell them, you'll be locked up in jail and won't get out for the rest of your life."
"What?"
"Are you crazy? You dare to sell foreign stuff? With your audacity, speculation is a minor offense."
The others were still skeptical, but Lu Jinyang and Li Ju'an examined the "lump of iron" and realized, "These things look so much like what the Japanese devils used!"
There used to be an old man in his eighties in the village who loved to chat with the children about how the Japanese devils had captured him and the things the Japanese devils liked to use. He would always sit among the children and leisurely recount how the Japanese devils had stirred up his life in the past, and about the strange and unusual objects that the devils had a particular fondness for.
The "lumps of iron" mentioned are actually the remains of bombs or grenades left over from that period of history. Time has etched mottled rust on their surface, but it cannot conceal the deadly threat hidden inside, as if they could explode again at any moment.
When Li Ju'an revealed this long-buried secret, Song Desheng and Lu Zhiqiang's faces turned deathly pale. They hurriedly tried to let go, but dared not let go immediately for fear that the iron lump would fall and explode. Their sweat-drenched, cautious, and pained expressions, like they were holding in a bowel movement, amused Li Ju'an greatly.
He said, "Don't worry, it's not that easy to explode, otherwise it would have exploded long ago."
Several people confirmed that hidden in the deep and winding mountain valley of Wild Boar Gully lies an ancient secret: a cave that was once a secret warehouse of the army half a century ago, storing a large amount of strategic materials, which was later occupied and used by the Japanese devils.
This past event inadvertently revealed itself in the daily lives of the mountain people. For decades, whenever the mountain people worked hard around Wild Boar Gully, hoeing and digging for vegetables, they would occasionally feel their hoes touch something hard, as if it were a "lump of iron" sleeping underground.
At first, the simple mountain people were overjoyed, believing it to be a precious treasure bestowed by heaven, and continued digging with high expectations. Unexpectedly, the "iron lump" turned into disaster in an instant, exploding with a loud bang.
And so, a long-forgotten history resurfaced in a cruel and unexpected way, allowing the world to glimpse the traces left by that era of war and turmoil.
Li Ju'an and his group successively discovered many similar "lumps of iron".
That day, they led the livestock, mules, and carried the wounded Sun Quande, Lao Qian, and Lao Zhang from the security department down the mountain. As soon as they delivered the wounded to the clinic, they hurriedly went to find the brigade leader, Yang Dezheng.
When Yang Dezheng saw the metal fragment in Li Ju'an's hand, he was so frightened that he jumped off the stool, his soul almost leaving his body. He shouted, "Don't bring this thing in here, my goodness!"
Captain Yang was originally quite relaxed, intending to take a nap and watch people play Pai Gow in the afternoon, but Li Ju'an's words startled him awake. He hurriedly called to report the situation to the division headquarters and later submitted an application.
The discovery of landmines in Wild Boar Gully was reported to the division headquarters.
The division headquarters paid close attention to the matter and established a special investigation team, dispatching professional staff to Yezhugou to conduct an on-site investigation.
The division commander led the dispatched work group into the family village to investigate the situation. He found Li Ju'an, who then realized that a familiar young man was with the division commander.
"Chen Xiangqian?"