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Once Upon a Time in a Foreign Land
Chapter 056 : Duanmu Shanquan

Chapter 056 : Duanmu Shanquan

Once inside the house, Shanquan went into his bedroom. He approached his desk. Shanquan opened a drawer and took out a small notebook with a dark blue cover. He glanced at the bed for a moment. Yingyue was still sleeping soundly. True to the girl's name, Shanquan felt like he was looking at the reflection of the moonlight.

He then walked out of the room. In order not to wake Yingyue, he tried to move meticulously. Shanquan tried his best not to make a sound. After his business was done, Shanquan opened the door. He was ready to walk out of the room.

"Is it morning now?" A voice sounded from behind Shanquan. Apparently, Shanquan wasn't careful enough in his steps, so Yingyue woke up. Shanquan turned his body. Now he was facing Yingyue. He could see that the girl was already in a sitting position on the bed.

"Depends on what your definition of morning is," said Shanquan. "But by definition in general, it is not yet morning. I suggest that you just continue your sleep. I'll wake you up before sunrise."

Yingyue laughed. The sound of her laughter sounded so sweet to Shanquan's ears. The girl got out of bed instead. She stood up right away.

"Once I wake up, it's hard for me to go back to sleep again. What if now Uncle took this opportunity to get rest? Yesterday, Uncle didn't sleep well."

Shanquan smiled at the girl's words.

"Let's just say it's Uncle's turn."

Shanquan shook his head slowly. "I can't. I still have important things to do."

"What is the important thing? Is there anything I can help with?"

Shanquan said nothing more. As before, he just smiled. He then walked out of the room. Yingyue followed him. They both walked towards the kitchen.

It is fine if Xiaotian wants to stay on guard until morning. Maybe that's even better.

"Are you hungry?" Shanquan opened the fridge.

"I am not. But it's okay if there are some snacks."

Inside the refrigerator, there was still Jianrui Ice. Shanquan didn't know the drink was still good or not. As Shanquan recalled, Xinxiu bought the drink a few days ago. He tasted a little. It turned out to be still fit for consumption.

Shanquan took out the basin containing Jianrui Ice and placed it on the table in the kitchen. He took two bowls and filled them with Jianrui ice. After that, he put the basin back in the fridge. He took two soup spoons and put them in both bowls. He handed one bowl to Yingyue.

Yingyue looked at the drink curiously. After stirring the drink, she smiled. "Oh, I know. This is Jianrui Ice. An iced sweet dessert that contains droplets of green rice flour jelly. Hmm… It tastes so sweet."

Shanquan laughed when he saw Yingyue's radiant face. The girl looked so cheerful.

This kind of atmosphere did not frighten this girl at all. I can calm down.

They walked into the living room. Shanquan now intended to stand guard in the living room, as Xinxiu had done earlier. Unlike Xinxiu, Shanquan was not alone. There was Yingyue, who accompanied him, sitting there while enjoying the Jianrui Ice. After that, they watched television for some time. Late at night like that, television shows were less interesting. Despite that, they tried to enjoy it.

Shanquan didn't know how long they had been watching television when Yiren came from the kitchen. His face was so bright. He seemed to have brought some good news.

"Xinxiu and Yixiong found something!"

"Ah!" Shanquan smirked. "I'm going down there now."

"Can I come with you?" Yingyue asked.

Shanquan thought for a moment. "You're afraid of the dark, aren't you?"

"Of course not!" Yingyue answered quickly.

Shanquan tilted his head while looking at Yingyue. "Is that true? Aren't you the least bit afraid?""

"Okay, maybe a little. But that's if I'm alone. In a crowd, of course, I won't be afraid." The girl's voice was steadfast.

"Okay then. You can come down there. But remember! You must always be by my side."

"Okay. Uncle, you don't have to worry!" Yingyue spoke loudly. She smiled so widely.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

This girl thinks that this is some kind of game.

The three of them then walked towards the backyard. In one corner of the backyard, Zhengyi was already standing by the side of the hole. Yingyue came down first, then Shanquan followed her. Before descending into the hole, Shanquan ordered that after he was down there, Yiren should directly head to the living room to guard there. He asked Zhengyi to stay at the edge of the hole. After that, Shanquan went into the hole.

Having previously gone down and up the hole, Shanquan had gotten a little used. He could move faster. What was surprising was Yingyue. At first, Shanquan, Yiren, and Zhengyi thought it would take Yingyue a long time to get to the bottom. Turned out they were all wrong. From the moment they tied the rope to Yingyue's body to the moment they lowered the girl to the bottom of the hole, everything happened so fast. Shanquan was under the impression that it was not the first time Yingyue had done such a thing. He had only known Yingyue yesterday. Of course, there were many things he didn't know about the girl.

Arriving at the bottom, Yixiong and Xinxiu greeted them happily. While sitting on the stone bench, the two men took turns telling stories. Shanquan and Yingyue listened to their stories while occasionally asking something. After that, Shanquan checked the carvings that Xinxiu and Yixiong had found.

Shanquan kneeled down. He groped the stone benches. The bench was rectangular, each side measuring fifty centimeters. He asked Yingyue to help shine a flashlight on the areas he was examining. They had inspected the entire surface of the stone bench. The part that hadn't been checked was the underside of the stone benches.

"Shall we try to move this stool a little bit?" Shanquan pointed to the stool containing the "heaven" engraving.

"This rock must be very heavy." Yingyue stared at the stone.

Shanquan patted Yingyue's shoulder. "You don't have to move this rock. You just stand on the table holding a flashlight and shining a light on this bench."

Yingyue nodded. He used the stone bench as a foothold to climb onto the table. Without a second thought, the girl actually did exactly as Shanquan said. She stood upright on the table.

Shanquan and his two friends tried to move the stool away from the table. It turned out that the bench was very heavy.

"Should we call Zhengyi here?" Yixiong took a deep breath.

"No need. There must be at least two people upstairs." Shanquan answered firmly. "I think we can move this rock. It might take a little longer, but I'm sure we can."

They then tried again. Indeed, Shanquan and his friends managed to move the stone bench inch by inch. After shifting about twenty centimeters, they should rest. Shanquan felt his back slightly uncomfortable. He guessed that his hands and back would be sore a few hours later.

After resting for about ten minutes, they began to shift the bench again. This time, they could shift about fifteen centimeters. Shanquan quickly used his flashlight to illuminate the floor previously covered by the stone bench. In the section that had been right in the middle of the rectangle at the bottom of the bench, there was a small rectangular section. The rectangular surface was still covered by a small wooden plank. Shanquan guessed that there was a hollow behind the small wooden plank. He straight away kneeled down to scrape the wooden plank. He wished he could pry open the board to see what was in the hollow.

Yixiong and Xinxiu were also very excited. They also kneeled beside Shanquan to help him pry the plank out. Yingyue, who had gotten off the table, then joined them. Finally, they made it. Shanquan and his two friends shouted with joy. Behind the small board, there was indeed a hollow. And in that hollow was a box. The wooden box fitted perfectly into the hollow in the floor, so they had a hard time picking it up.

"Let me try," Yingyue said. With her tiny and slender fingers, Yingyue tried to pry the wooden box out. She failed. Just like the three men there, the girl also couldn't get the wooden box out of the hollow.

"How about we just punch a hole in this wooden box?" Yixiong said.

"Don't do that!" Xinxiu shook his head quickly. "We don't know what's in it. Don't let our actions ruin the contents of this box."

"What if we slightly wet the sides of this wooden box, so that the surface of the sides becomes a bit slippery? Maybe after that, it's easier for us to pry it out." Yingyue pointed at the box.

"I don't think water is enough. Maybe we need water with a little soap," Yixiong said.

"Or maybe we need some oil. Something we smear with oil usually gets slicker. It's much slicker than just soaking it in water." Xinxiu let out those words while nodding.

"But we have to go up first if we want to get those things," Yixiong said.

"We don't have to go up, we can just ask Yige or Renge to get the things. They'll just have to lower them down with a rope," said Xinxiu.

"Your backpacks over there." Yingyue pointed at the two backpacks sitting in the corner where they had come from. "Is there nothing inside it anymore?"

"Inside the backpack, there was drinking water, but no soap or oil," Shanquan said. "But let's try it with the water first."

"We have drunk the water." There was a hint of regret in Yixiong's voice.

"Did you drink all of it?" Shanquan was a little surprised.

"Each backpack only has one bottle of water. So we both drank one each," said Xinxiu.

"Well then, we'll ask Zhengyi to get her some water, soap and some cooking oil," said Shanquan.

"Shall we try it with the oil first?" Yingyue asked.

"We'll have to wait for Yige or Renge to get some oil up there," said Xinxiu.

"Can we use medicated oil as a lubricant?" Yingyue held out a bottle of medicated oil towards Shanquan. It turned out that the girl had a small bottle of medicated oil in her pocket. Shanquan checked the mini bottle. It was a very popular and trendy brand. The image of two green axes crossing each other was the symbol of the brand.

"Actually, medicated oil is not really made of oil. Most of the composition is actually water. But let's try it first." Shanquan smiled. "Thank you."