After breakfast, Li Haochen picked up his small hoe, shovel, and crowbar. Just as he reached the foot of the mountain, Chen He and the other three walked over.
"Haochen, where are you going?"
Li Haochen looked at the four of them. Ruan Shanshan and Zhang Qianqian were radiant and full of charm, while Liu Dehui and the other man looked dazed and walked with a light stride.
"I'm going up the mountain to find something. Do you want to come?"
"Uh... we have the will but not the strength. You go by yourself and be careful."
Li Haochen smiled, turned, and disappeared into the mountain forest. With his previous experience, he still vaguely remembered the route, so he made good speed. In half an hour, he arrived at the pool. After washing his face, he unexpectedly discovered a fresh and sweet delicacy.
"Eh, there are actually river snails. I didn't see them last time."
Greatly pleased, Li Haochen quickly found two taro leaves by the riverbank to make a collection pouch, then went into the water to search for river snails. He only took the larger ones. He followed the pool towards the source of the stream. In half an hour, he had a considerable harvest.
"Not bad, not bad. About two or three catties. I'll buy a free-range chicken to stew when I get back."
He took off his clothes, washed away the sticky sweat in the pool, picked up the river snails and tools, and continued upwards. When he passed the great writer tree, he recalled the large barrel of spoiled writer fruits from last time and felt a pang of regret.
"What a shame about those fruits last time. I'll have to come back next year."
Ten minutes later, Li Haochen reached the summit again. Standing on the peak, he looked down. A few dots on the beach were moving erratically, like in the game Snake.
Li Haochen took a deep breath and then let out a shout, "Ah..."
After shouting, Li Haochen stood against the wind on the peak, gazing into the distance. A few minutes later, he pursed his lips and smiled, then turned and walked down. In a few minutes, he reached his destination.
Beneath the Lingnan bamboo trees, many small saplings had grown, likely from fruits that had fallen last time. However, they were small, with only a few leaves.
He walked around the bamboo trees and down a steep little slope beside them. The small saplings, about two meters tall, at the bottom of the slope were his targets.
"Ptooey~"
Li Haochen spat some saliva on his hands and swung his hoe to dig. The soil was relatively soft, so it wasn't too difficult. In less than ten minutes, he dug out one sapling.
Looking at the sapling in his hand, Li Haochen had a whim and tried to see if he could bring it into his space. The result... not only the sapling, but even the soil couldn't be taken in. Only dry things could.
"The space still cannot accommodate non-marine life. Such a large island is such a waste. If it were planted with fruits, I could become rich. What a pity, what a pity. It seems I have to stick to catching fish and crabs."
"I'll dig up one more and then go back."
Li Haochen looked at the remaining saplings and finally chose one near the mountain that was easier to dig.
The soil by the mountain was even softer, and in just a few swings, he saw the main root.
"Clang~"
Suddenly, his hoe hit something hard, making a jarring sound that made his teeth ache.
Li Haochen thought he had hit a rock and swung his hoe to the side, trying to move the stone.
"Clang~~"
This time, it made an even more jarring sound, as if hitting metal. Li Haochen, puzzled, lifted his hoe.
"What the hell, can't even dig up a sapling? Watch me..."
"Bang~"
Just as he swung his hoe to continue, a hard object stuck to the dirt on the hoe dripped onto a rock on the ground, making a crisp metallic sound that attracted Li Haochen's attention. He squatted down and picked it up.
He brushed off the clinging dirt, revealing a metal object shaped like a compass. Li Haochen rubbed it clean on a small pile of grass on the ground. He picked it up and looked. "A Yuan Datou? Why is it only half?"
Li Haochen looked closely and saw the freshly broken surface in the middle, and then he remembered.
"Sigh, it seems the hoe broke it. What a shame, it was worth over a hundred yuan."
Li Haochen picked up his hoe and gently stirred the dug-up soil, trying to find the other half of the silver coin. He dug through the soil for a long time, but found no silver coin, only a lot of broken tiles.
Just as he was about to give up, a ray of sunlight penetrated the gaps in the trees. A cold glint flashed in the pit, but Li Haochen caught it.
"So it's still buried in the pit. Even though it's broken and not worth much, it's nice to keep it as a souvenir."
The pit was about fifty to sixty centimeters deep, so Li Haochen had to bend down and reach in to get it. He felt around a few times and pinched the silver coin between his fingers, taking it out.
At this moment, Li Haochen's gaze sharpened. He was startled by the few metal objects exposed at the corner of the pit. He immediately bent down and reached in to dig them out. But as he dug, it almost made Li Haochen's heart leap out of his chest.
"Holy cow... This... This is all Yuan Datou?"
Li Haochen suppressed his excitement and switched to his small shovel, slowly clearing away the dirt on both sides. The deeper he dug, the more astonished he became. After a little over an hour, Li Haochen moved a large pottery jar out.
Looking at the large pottery jar before him, he couldn't help but swallow. "My goodness, such a big jar of Yuan Datou, probably over a thousand pieces. At over a hundred each, this jar alone must be worth over a hundred thousand. It seems this camping trip has been incredibly profitable, hahaha!"
Looking at the broken neck of the jar, the relatively sharp edge was daunting. Li Haochen stopped himself from reaching in to grab the silver coins. He carefully circled the large jar, thought for a moment, then swung his crowbar and forcefully struck the middle several times. The originally fine cracks immediately widened.
"Crack~~"
The pottery jar immediately shattered into pieces, and Yuan Datou scattered all over the ground. "The sound is so beautiful, I could listen to it forever, hehe!"
Li Haochen scooped up a handful with both hands. Some silver coins slipped through his fingers. Listening to the crisp sound of the silver coins falling and colliding, he was excited and felt an urge to toss them up.
He picked out the broken pieces of the jar and threw them back into the pit. Li Haochen took off his long-sleeved shirt, tied the sleeves into a knot to form a makeshift bag, and scooped the silver coins into it with both hands. After a few trips, he lifted it to gauge the weight and then entered his space, dumping them beside the coconut trees.
He repeated this process, and in three trips, he had sent most of the silver coins into his space. Li Haochen then carefully collected the remaining scattered ones. He took another look, clapped his hands, and smiled with satisfaction.
"There shouldn't be anything missed."
Li Haochen picked up a few fragments from the bottom of the jar. Just as he was about to throw them back into the pit, a palm-sized black wooden box fell out.
"A box?"
He picked it up and shook it, confirming there was something inside. He became interested and studied it. After more than ten minutes, he still couldn't find a way to open it and lost interest. "Forget it, I'll fiddle with it later."
A few minutes later, Li Haochen dug out the sapling. After filling the hole, he threw all the tools into his space. He came out, picked up the bamboo sapling and the river snails, and walked down the mountain.
Half an hour later, Li Haochen, covered in mud, made everyone laugh.
"Haochen, you just dug up a tree, but you look like you've been mining gold!"
Li Haochen grinned, "I did indeed find a big gold mine, hehe!"