Ye Guo Village was closed off, and the news here was also closed off. Since we three carried a tiger down the mountain, no one has underestimated us again. Moreover, with Miao Laos words being law, our status naturally rose with the tide.

  Fatso is proficient in mechanics, and theres an old generator in the village that he also fixed, suddenly making the whole village bright. Cha Wenbin has a lot of poetry, occasionally giving someones kid a glance at eight characters, with some meaning like a young master. As for me, although I seem to be just a spare tire, my mouth is good at talking, and when I see older people, I keep calling them uncle or aunt. In short, in the Wild Man Village, our reputation and interpersonal relationships among the educated youth are not bad, so Fatso started borrowing ropes from door to door with a thick face. By now, the villagers also think its strange, who doesnt want to know whats at the bottom of that deep water tank? Moreover, Fatso said this is a treasure cave, and if the treasures inside are found, they will belong to the collective, great! As soon as he said this, the team secretary immediately started mobilizing on the loudspeaker.

  Almost all the usable ropes from house to house have been collected, except for the waistbands of the old mens trousers that havent been taken off. Miao Lan led a group of women in charge of weaving soft ladders. Because this pond is really too deep, below ten or twenty meters, the terrain is completely dark and murky. The team secretary made an exception and gave us all the few miners lamps in the commune to collect. To prevent accidents, Pangzi also borrowed a hunting rifle from Miao Lao. By the time they were busy with these things, it was already noon again.

  The weather that day wasnt great, the sky was gloomy and overcast. Not just us, but also several other young people from the village wanted to follow along. Fatso yelled and scolded them into leaving. The entire pond bank was crowded with people, a few water pumps were still working, occasionally able to pump up some water, but it wasnt full anymore. Either the depth was too great or they had already reached the bottom. We were like soldiers on a long expedition, Fatso waved goodbye to the villagers by the pond, and I followed after him with Cha Wenbin.

  No safety rope, no protective measures, to be honest, doing this job just for a few fish, its enough to show how simple we were back then. There was a fish basket on my back, and Cha Wenbin had a scoop net on his back, after climbing down for more than half an hour, we finally saw the bottom, looking up, there was only a bright light the size of a bowl above our heads, at this moment I finally understood what it meant to be a frog at the bottom of a well.

  Its completely different from what I imagined, the silt at the bottom is only a thin layer and cant even cover the sole of my shoe. The water level has dropped to just above my ankle. The drainage pipe is still submerged in the water, occasionally bubbling up with air. We turned on our headlamps and explored around, this underground world isnt much worse than what we imagined, but its also not that big, only about 20 square meters or so, you can see the edges at a glance.

  Fatso suddenly shouted at Cha Wenbin to hand over the net, and with a miners lamp, he searched around under his feet. After searching for a while, Fatso was thoroughly disappointed.

  Facing such a small space, the three of us didnt have any problem with our eyesight. Let alone those few big fish that often popped up to the water surface, weighing 7 or 8 kilograms each, we couldnt even see a small fish fry. It seemed that all our efforts were just for nothing, like sitting at the bottom of a well and looking up at the sky.

  The fat guy waved the net in the water, but except for a thin layer of mud, there was nothing. The little guy hung his head and muttered: "Damn it, where did the fish go?"

  I pointed to several mouths in the corner that were still gushing out water and said, "Weve entered the cave, whats there to think about?"

  The fat man squatted at the several cavities and gestured with his hands, saying: "You guys say where this water comes from? Will it be a river leading to the outside? If we drain the water here, those fish will drill into the river along these channels again?"

  It seems weve been wasting our time these past few days. "Theres also that possibility," I said to Fatty, "otherwise how can you explain where those fish went?"

  Zha Wenbin suddenly said, "Do you think those eighteen ponds are all connected?"

  Fatso was taken aback for a moment, then immediately said: "Who knows, if theyre really connected together, well take them all out one by one, and the fish wont have anywhere to run, right?"

  "Ive always thought that this place was man-made. Look at the patterns on these stones, they have varying depths, and no matter how you look at it, it doesnt seem like it was formed by water flow. Also, the layout of this place looks just like a room."

  After Wen Bins reminder, I noticed that there are indeed some similarities. On the east side, there are two neatly cut stones that resemble a stool, and the long stone in the middle looks like a bed. However, apart from these, everything else is gone. Logically speaking, if this were a man-made excavation project of such a large scale, it should have left behind some graphic documentation, but after searching every inch of this place, we didnt find anything.

  The three of us returned empty-handed, and the onlookers gazed at Fatsos mud-caked appearance and joked: "General Shi, it looks like youve been planting rice in the fish pond!"

  Who can match that fat guys eloquence? "How could I plant rice, Im telling you, there really is a treasure down here, but the treasure has grown legs and can walk, it ran all over the place and slipped into the pond next door."

  Someone curiously asked: "Whats up?"

  The fat man secretly pulled the person to his ear, moved his mouth a few times, looked around for a while, then patted his shoulder heavily and said loudly: "Brother, you can keep this secret, its not good if too many people know."

  Then we two swaggered away from the scene, leaving only that guy surrounded by a group of fellow villagers inquiring about the news.

  That kid who stayed on the scene was really good at talking nonsense. In fact, Fatso didnt say anything to him, but after an entire afternoon, the whole village was talking about a dragon with golden horns on its back and a treasure basin on its back. The kid said that Fatso threw a dime into the basin and when he took it out, it became two dimes, but unfortunately, it slipped away. What he said sounded so real, I ended up going to ask Fatso for confirmation. Unexpectedly, the kid came up with a sentence: "I didnt say anything to him, just moved my lips twice to avoid being surrounded. You have to know that diesel in our village isnt free, if we cant come up with something to report to the secretary, its likely that our work points for the second half of the year will be wasted."

  I gave him a white eye: "Isnt this all your stupid idea? Can we still expect that little bit of work points to be alive?"

  Fatso looked at Yuan Xiaobai with an innocent expression and said, "Xiaobai, you have to say something fair. We brothers are doing this for you, and I was thinking that when the time comes, you can eat fish and Ill make some soup to drink..."

  Yuan Xiaobai was amused by the fatty and laughed, saying: "Then how do you explain this? Now its all spread out. Can you change magic? One coin becomes two coins?"

  Fatso spread his two hands: "The proletarian revolution is thorough, and the sleeves are clean without bringing any steel!"

  I saw they all looked depressed and suggested: "Why dont we have another draw from the hookah to try?"

  Fatso gave me a glance and said, "You think diesel is free? Just these few days of using that book would make my grandmas family feel the pinch. This place isnt like outside, that bit of oil is an annual agricultural production subsidy, Ive been too stingy to use it, just letting us few waste it away. If you have the guts, go ask him for some, I wouldnt mind taking another drag from the pond."

  Zha Wenbin stood up and said to the fat man: "Ill go open the door, youre in charge of smoking."

  "Look, you?" Fatso shook his head and said: "I know that Master Cha, youre not an ordinary person, even the fox spirit has to kowtow when it sees you, but our villages branch secretary is a money-worshiping, people-disregarding master, so youd better give up."

  Pangzi is not unreasonable, indeed, Cha Wenbin has already had a kind of "leader" feeling among our group, this feeling is default, its everyones gradual recognition in their hearts. But in the eyes of those old villagers from Ye Ren Tun, Cha Wenbin is just a silent and taciturn outsider, let alone communicate with them, hes not as good as me, not to mention Xiao Bai and Pangzi.

  "Dont worry, Ill make him agree for sure. But let me say the ugly words first, if we find something under the water later, no one is allowed to have any private thoughts and well all share it together."

  Fatty chuckled and said: "Its just a few fish, Ill eat the tail at most, and give the fish head and meat to Xiaobai, you two drink soup..."

  Zha Wenbin quietly walked to the door and looked outside for a few moments, making sure no one was there before closing all the doors and windows. Then he said to us: "Come over here, I want to show you something. Xiaobai, light up the kerosene lamp."

  Seeing him making a mysterious appearance, we surrounded him. The four of us climbed onto the table and Cha Wenbin took out something from his pocket and threw it onto the table with a "bang". We were all stunned at once.

  A round yellow metal, slightly larger than the silver coins of the past, under the light of the kerosene lamp, its surface rippled with a layer of dazzling golden light.

  "Where did it come from?" the fat boy asked in a low voice.

  "Under the pond, just this piece of land, Im afraid if you two come up and make a fuss, no one will dare to say anything."

  "Is it gold?" I asked.

  Yuan Xiaobai picked it up, looked at us, put it in her mouth and gently bit down. She took it out, saw a faint tooth mark on it, and calmly said: "Its gold!"