The 1970s: Married First, Fell in Love Later-Chapter 102 - 101: Ruanruan’s Golden Finger

Zhang Hongjie was at a loss for words.

To be fair, there wasn’t anything he was truly dissatisfied with, but he just couldn’t shake this uncomfortable feeling.

Huang Ying knew her husband well.

She said with a smile, "Xiao Xue, don’t blame your master. He’s just not ready for this."

Xue Xingzhou chuckled. "I won’t. I understand."

"Hmph, understand my ass."

Zhang Hongjie stood up, not even glancing at him, and walked back into the house with his hands behind his back.

Only Huang Ying noticed that her husband’s eyes were red-rimmed.

Her heart ached a little too. "You two talk. I’ll go check on him."

Zhang Qian sat on the sofa, looking a little down. "Do you think my dad is really upset?"

Xue Xingzhou sat down next to her.

"If my daughter were stolen away by some guy, I’d be furious too. I might even actually break his legs. So I understand how Master feels."

Zhang Qian pouted. "But I was the one who stole you away."

Xue Xingzhou laughed.

For the next few days, Zhang Hongjie completely ignored Xue Xingzhou. Someone secretly asked him, "What did you do to piss off Captain Zhang?"

Xue Xingzhou shook his head.

"I didn’t do anything. So what’s with Captain Zhang? Is it that time of the month for old guys too, where they get moody for a few days?"

"Shh! Are you trying to get yourself killed? Daring to talk smack about Captain Zhang like that. Be careful, or he’ll put you on night duty for a month."

Xue Xingzhou couldn’t help but laugh. He couldn’t explain the situation, either. He could hardly tell people he’d stolen his master’s daughter and that the man couldn’t bear to let her go, could he?

However, this situation didn’t last long, because a gun suddenly went missing from the police station.

This was going to be a huge mess.

The entire station went on high alert. Everyone was searched coming in and out. Zhang Hongjie had no time to be angry anymore; he was organizing meetings at the station every day, and it had even alarmed the higher-ups.

It wasn’t just the police station in chaos; Xue Yue now felt like she was in a dream.

She had been playing with Ruanruan in the yard.

Ruanruan was over six months old and had recently been trying to sit up all the time.

The weather was nice today, so Xue Yue had spread a mat for her in the yard to let her roll around on it.

But in the time it took her to go back inside for a sip of water, she came out to see that her daughter had already rolled off the mat. The baby was lying tummy-down on a patch of dirt, her back to Xue Yue, doing who knows what.

Xue Yue’s first thought was that Ruanruan might be eating dirt, and she rushed over.

"Ruanruan."

Scooping her up, she saw that Ruanruan’s hands were covered in dirt, and a small hole had been dug in the ground.

Xue Yue breathed a sigh of relief. ’As long as she wasn’t eating dirt.’

"You little rascal, what are you doing?"

As if she understood, Ruanruan kept pointing at the small hole she had dug in the ground, "Ah, ah, ya~"

Xue Yue smiled. "You still want to play in the dirt?"

"Ah, ah~"

Xue Yue sighed resignedly. "Alright, you’re already filthy anyway."

Xue Yue put her down, figuring she would just give her a bath later.

Little Ruanruan kept digging at the hole in the ground.

Xue Yue squatted to the side, just watching her.

"Ruanruan, how about we play with something else? Your little hands will get sore if you keep digging."

Ruanruan ignored her completely, focused on digging her hole.

The land here had originally been an empty lot before they built their new house, so the soil in the yard wasn’t very compact. He Lang had even mentioned paving the yard with bricks after a while to make it easier to manage and reduce dust.

After a while, Xue Yue started to worry that Ruanruan would scrape her fingers raw. As she went to pick her up, she saw something peeking out from the hole Ruanruan had been digging.

Alarmed, Xue Yue quickly moved Ruanruan onto the mat, grabbed a small shovel, and started digging at the hole.

Soon, a small box with a little lock on it was uncovered.

Xue Yue pulled the box out. She tried shaking it, and it made a CLANKING sound. There was something inside.

Xue Yue stared blankly for a long time, looking from the box to her daughter.

She was a bit confused. ’What is even happening right now?’

’Does my daughter have some kind of divine power or something?’

Since the box was locked, Xue Yue couldn’t open it. So, she first gave Ruanruan a bath, and then the mother-daughter pair just stared at the box in a daze.

"Ruanruan, tell Mommy, how did you know there was something under there?"

Ruanruan pointed at the box. "Ah~, ya~"

She looked as if she were trying to tell Xue Yue something.

Finding her daughter absolutely adorable, Xue Yue planted a kiss on Ruanruan’s cheek.

That evening, when He Lang came home, Xue Yue showed him the box.

The moment He Lang saw the box, he knew it was an old artifact.

"Where did you get this?"

Xue Yue pointed to Ruanruan on the kang. "Your daughter dug it up in the yard."

He Lang was astonished. "Huh?"

Xue Yue had no choice but to explain the whole story to He Lang.

"Do you think our daughter has some kind of divine power?"

He Lang went over, picked up Ruanruan, and tossed her gently in the air.

"Sweetheart, let Daddy see. Are you a little fairy, hmm?"

Ruanruan giggled at being teased.

Xue Yue asked him, "What should we do with this box? It’s still locked. I shook it, and it made a noise. I didn’t dare smash it, in case it’s something dangerous."

He Lang examined the lock. "This is an old box. I’ll try to pick the lock in a bit. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just smash it."

"Okay, but be careful. Do it far away."

He Lang simply took the box out into the yard, while Xue Yue watched from the doorway, holding Ruanruan.

He Lang fiddled with a piece of metal for a long time but couldn’t get it open.

Left with no other choice, he had to grab a small hammer and smash the lock.

After a good while, he finally broke the lock open.

He opened the box, revealing a flash of yellow inside.

"Whoa!"

It was full of gold bars. He Lang counted them—fifteen in total.

Even though they were mentally prepared for something, the couple was still stunned by the sight of so many gold bars.

While Xue Yue was still in a daze, He Lang was already planting several more kisses on Ruanruan’s face.

"Oh, you’re Daddy’s little treasure, all right! With this, you’ve saved Daddy so many years of hard work!"

Ruanruan laughed and waved her little hands.

Xue Yue mumbled, "He Lang, how much do you think all these gold bars are worth?"

"Around ten thousand yuan, I’d guess. The price of gold isn’t very high right now, so they wouldn’t sell for much. Our family doesn’t need the money urgently anyway. We can wait for the price to go up."

Controls have been tight these past few years. People rarely deal in things like gold bars. Even if you sell them, you have to do it secretly on the black market. It’s a murky business, and the black market dealers take a huge cut of the profit.

Xue Yue nodded. "Then let’s just hold onto them for now. But where should we put so many gold bars? With this much money, I feel like nowhere is safe."

He Lang thought for a moment. "If we have to, we can just rebury it. Who knows how long that box was in the ground, but it didn’t rot, so it must be decay-proof."

"That could work."

The thought of having so many gold bars in her house made Xue Yue feel terribly anxious about even leaving home. Burying them back in the ground seemed safer. ’If it weren’t for our daughter,’ she thought, ’who would have ever guessed there was something like this in our yard?’

He Lang dug a new hole under the eaves, reburied the box, and covered it up. That way, they wouldn’t even need to make a marker.