The laborers instinctively lowered their heads to look.
In truth, it was nothing more than rust in the mud. However, under the heavy weight of psychological suggestion and the flickering, unstable torchlight, the red spots seemed to writhe, transforming into bloodshot ghostly eyes.
"Mother of God!"
Someone shrieked.
The men who had been itching to snatch the gold just moments ago now scrambled back several paces as if their feet had been scalded, terrified that even a speck of the stuff might touch them.
Standing in the back, Xu Youde watched his daughter’s performance as if she were possessed by a grand mystic. If he hadn't known the truth of the matter, he might have knelt down himself to beg for some holy water.
"Then... County Mistress, what... what do we do about this?" Old Man Yang looked like he was about to cry. He was the one who had touched the thing with his own hands, and now he felt a bone-chilling cold seeping through his palms.
"What else can we do? Consider it my bad luck!"
Xu Qinghuan waved her hand with a look of utter disgust. "Uncle Li, go to the accounting office and draw some silver. Give each man ten taels... no, twenty taels!"
The laborers froze.
"This money isn't a reward." Xu Qinghuan glared at them fiercely. "This is for your coffins... bah, I mean for your medicine! Take this money and get yourselves to the City God Temple immediately to burn some incense! Clear out the yin energy from your bodies! And remember, if anyone dares to utter a single word about tonight..."
She narrowed her eyes and made a sharp slicing motion across her throat, her voice turning deathly cold:
"That would break the sealing formation. When the vengeful spirits come for your lives, not even the Great Immortals will be able to save you!"
"Take the money and get out!"
That final "get out" was shouted with such resounding force that it echoed through the yard.
The laborers felt as if they had received a divine pardon.
In this era, the fear of ghosts and gods was etched into their very bones. Coupled with the cold, hard reality of twenty taels of silver in their hands—a very substantial hush-money payment—who would dare touch that lethal, sinister gold?
"Thank you for saving our lives, County Mistress! Thank you!"
"We didn't see a thing! Truly!"
Clutching their silver, the group scrambled out of the backyard, running faster than rabbits, wishing they had been born with an extra pair of legs.
In the blink of an eye, the backyard fell silent.
Only the rustling of wind through the leaves remained.
Xu Qinghuan lowered the silk handkerchief she had been using to cover her nose. The terror on her face vanished instantly, replaced by a look of cool indifference and a hint of mockery.
"Uncle Li, lock the gate."
"Yes."
The gate clicked shut.
This corner of the world now belonged entirely to the Xu family.
Only then did Xu Youde dare to take a deep breath. Rubbing his hands together, he leaned toward the well with glowing eyes, even tempted to reach out and touch the "exorcism gold." "Daughter, are there... are there really ghosts?"
"There are." Xu Qinghuan kicked the gold brick and rolled her eyes. "Poor ghosts. They're scarier than vengeful ones."
She pointed toward the pitch-black mouth of the well.
"Come on, let’s go down and see what kind of greeting gift the former dynasty's richest man left for us."
...
The bottom of the dry well held a hidden world.
There was a secret door on one side of the well wall; the "click" from earlier had been Old Man Yang accidentally triggering the mechanism.
The three of them held torches aloft as they descended the slick stone steps.
The air was thick with the smell of stale mold and an unidentifiable chill. This was a secret room converted from an ice cellar; its concealment was so perfect that even the soldiers who had confiscated the estate years ago hadn't found it.
The torch flames flickered.
Then, they illuminated the world before them.
"Ugh..."
A strange sound escaped Xu Youde’s throat, as if he were being strangled.
He froze in place, his eyes bulging as if they might pop out of their sockets, looking for all the world like someone who had been hit with a freezing spell.
Gold.
Gold everywhere.
It wasn't just a single piece, or even a single chest.
Instead, it was piled haphazardly across half the secret chamber like common trash.
These were the "Yuanbao Gold" ingots specially minted by the previous dynasty, each weighing a full ten taels. They were stacked into a glittering mountain. When the torchlight hit them, the reflected golden rays nearly turned the dark basement into broad daylight.
"My dear ancestors and lords above..."
Xu Youde let out a strangled cry and threw himself onto the pile like a ball of flesh.
He buried himself in the gold, grabbing one piece to bite and another to rub against his face. He looked more affectionate toward the metal than he ever had toward his late father, acting like a mouse that had fallen into a grain bin.
"We’re rich! Daughter! We’ve struck it rich!"
Xu Youde’s tears and snot flowed together, his voice cracking with excitement. "There must be at least thirty thousand taels of gold here! Thirty thousand! Let’s see who dares call us 'nouveau riche' now! We’re a Great House! Top-tier nobility! From now on, I can use gold bricks as coasters!"
Xu Qinghuan felt a surge of adrenaline as she looked at the mountain of gold.
Although the system had given her five million in retirement funds, that was in RMB, which was useless in this world. This gold was the real lever she could use to establish herself in Jiangning—and perhaps even shift the entire economic landscape of the South.
"Uncle Li, count it and log it into the inventory," Xu Qinghuan said, quickly regaining her composure. "Remember, move it out in small batches. Don't let anyone notice. Making a fortune in silence is the only way to go."
"Understood." Uncle Li's voice was trembling, showing just how shaken he was.
While Xu Youde was still rolling around in the gold, Xu Qinghuan took a torch and walked toward the corner of the room.
There, a massive object was covered by a large tarpaulin.
She had noticed it the moment they entered.
In this vulgar secret room filled with gold and silver, it stood out—cold, hard, and carrying an aura that didn't seem to belong to this era.
"What's this?" Xu Youde poked his head out from the gold. "Another treasure? A golden Buddha, maybe?"
"Maybe."
Xu Qinghuan reached out and grabbed a corner of the cloth.
It felt coarse and was thick with dust.
*Whoosh.*
The cloth was pulled away.
Dust swirled in the air, choking them and stinging their eyes.
When the dust finally settled, the object revealed its true form.
It was a machine.
Made of pure wood, its main body was a massive wheel connected to a complex drive shaft. Below, instead of the single spindle found on a traditional spinning wheel, there were rows of neatly arranged spindles—eight... no, sixteen vertical spindles!
Then there was the sliding shuttle groove and the unique foot-pedal structure.
Xu Youde scrambled over, took one look, and immediately made a face of disgust.
"Psh, I thought it was something special. It’s just a broken spinning wheel. It's weird-looking and looks like a hassle to use."
He waved it off dismissively. "This kind of junk isn't even worth the effort of chopping up for firewood. Daughter, stop looking at that. Come help me count the gold! This is the real treasure!"
However, Xu Qinghuan didn't move.
The torch in her hand was shaking violently, casting flickering shadows across her face.
Her gaze was locked onto the "piece of junk," her heart skipping a beat. The shock she felt now was far more intense than the sight of the gold mountain.
As a modern person who had gone through nine years of compulsory education and studied history extensively, she recognized this thing all too well.
This was the very thing from the history textbooks that marked the transition from handicraft to large-scale industrial machinery—a divine tool that had, to a certain extent, altered the course of human civilization.
Xu Qinghuan swallowed hard, her scalp tingling. A modern curse escaped her lips:
"Holy sh*t... is that a freaking Spinning Jenny?!"
