A jade seal, countless amounts of pure gold and silver, a jade pendant worn by an emperor's family, and a few ashen corpses.
Lu Zhe and Shen Bing looked at each other.
Shen Bing asked, "What do you make of this?"
Lu Zhe pondered for a moment, "In the long river of history, some things can only turn to dust! Everything has a scientific explanation, so there's no need to worry about the unclear origins of this gold and silver. But... to be frank, these things aren't much use to us now!"
"We could at least make some farming tools out of them."
Lu Zhe hefted a gold bar in his hand, "Well, it's prestigious, but it's too soft and not durable enough, not as practical as copper and iron."
Shen Bing thought for a moment, "So you're saying, this huge treasure... is no different from finding a cave full of granite for us?"
Lu Zhe nodded, "For now, it seems that way, far less significant than those two cows we found."
"Alright, since it's a gift from our ancestors, let's not be too picky!"
"Not at all!" Lu Zhe pondered, "However... compared to the melting points of copper and iron, the melting points of gold and silver are relatively lower. Perhaps we could use charcoal and a kiln to melt them, then use sand as a mold to make some bowls and utensils. Their practicality can be debated, but the prestige would be there."
Shen Bing imagined eating out of a two or three-pound gold bowl and couldn't help but sigh, "Ah, we should focus on how to get out of here."
"Good point!"
Lu Zhe stood up and looked around with Shen Bing again, finding some small holes but no exit they could squeeze through.
"Looks like we'll have to go out through the top."
"Hmm..."
"You can step on my shoulders and try!"
"Can you support me?"
"No problem, go ahead!"
Lu Zhe hoisted Shen Bing up on his shoulders, gripping her ankles and lifting her up.
Several times she lost her balance and fell, but Lu Zhe reacted quickly, catching the beautiful woman each time.
"Still can't reach!"
"Hmm!"
The two sat down to rest for a bit.
"Hey, I hope we don't become the seventh and eighth corpses here."
"We won't, it hasn't come to that yet..." Lu Zhe glanced at the body prints on the ground, "It would be great if these old fellows could lend a hand... ah!"
Suddenly, Lu Zhe seemed to have an idea.
"There's so much gold and silver here, we can stack it all up, then use the piles as steps to climb out..."
"Good idea, but there might be some issues putting it into practice," Shen Bing pondered. "Would it be stable enough to stand on?"
"Watch this!"
Lu Zhe jumped up on a pile of gold ingots, but the ingots didn't scatter or scrape, and Lu Zhe stood firmly on top of them.
"These gold bars have been stored here for so long, the crevices are filled with moss and algae. When they died, they became breeding grounds for bacteria, which bonded the gold and silver together over time, preventing any sliding."
"But a big chunk would be difficult to move."
"We can break the large pieces into smaller and medium-sized chunks to stack!"
Shen Bing was about to say that even the smaller pieces would be too heavy to move, but then she remembered Lu Zhe's exceptional physical abilities, so she thought it was worth a try.
"Shall we start now?"
"We need to wait a bit!" Lu Zhe took off his shorts and underwear.
Even in the dim lighting of the cave, Shen Bing could see, "Hey, what are you doing, young man?"
"We don't have any water, and after searching this area, I couldn't find any water source. But on our way here, we were drenched by the rain. Although we got dirty from all the climbing and mixed with some sweat, it's still freshwater! We should try to collect as much of the water from our clothes as possible."
Lu Zhe took out a plastic bag, put his clothes in it, then bit off a corner and used a bottle to catch the draining water.
Sure enough, water trickled down into the bottle.
"Bing Jie..."
"I..." Shen Bing blushed, not wanting to do it, but knowing Lu Zhe's intention was to preserve more water.
The sooner they took off their clothes, the more water they could save.
Shen Bing hesitated for a moment, "But you promised not to look at me!"
"Hey, have you made a mistake? We're practically married, and you're still concerned about that..."
"That's not okay!"
Lu Zhe shook his head candidly, "Sorry, I can't control that!"
"You..." Shen Bing sighed helplessly. On the surface she refused, but deep down there was a small sense of anticipation.
It was just that her dirty appearance wasn't her best side, which made her somewhat resistant.
In the end, she still took off her clothes and put them in the plastic bag.
"Alright!"
"..."
"Lu Zhe!?"
"..."
"Hey, where are you looking!"
Lu Zhe snapped out of it, "Oh, I remember you have a birthmark somewhere!"
"You naughty boy, when did you find out about that?"
"The last time we were at the hot spring with Shen Qian, I accidentally saw it..."
"Ah, so that's when you knew that someone was tricking Shen Qian into thinking the forest scorpion was some kind of red venom scorpion to take advantage of her?"
"Would I do such a thing!" Lu Zhe took everything out of his backpack and rolled it up to put in the plastic bag too.
It had retained a lot of water as well.
"Not only were you constantly looking there, but look at you..." Shen Bing pointed at Lu Zhe's lower abdomen, blushing, "It's so indecent!"
"This... just wait, I'll recite the Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion!"
Lu Zhe sat cross-legged and began reciting, "In the fourth year of the Keng Yen era of the Liang dynasty, I, your humble subject, was banished and made Governor of Kuang-ling. At the beginning of the following year, when all was peaceful..."
"Hey hey hey, don't mock my lack of education. Is that really the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion you're reciting?"
"You're too distracting, that's why I got it wrong!"
Lu Zhe adjusted his state of mind, "Hmm... how did the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion go? Oh right: The former Emperor ascended the throne when the regime was beset by ceaseless insurrections. He pacified the nation and reformed the laws..."
Seeing Lu Zhe immersed like an old monk in meditation, his breath gradually calming, she blushed and pursed her lips, "Hey, does this really work?"
"Yeah, if it weren't for the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion when I'm with you five girls, I'd be dead long ago."
Shen Bing nodded and even began reciting it herself.
After a while, both their breathing had calmed down, "Time to get to work!"
"Mmhmm!"
Shen Bing took the infantry sword, while Lu Zhe wielded the Type 30 Bayonet, and they began chipping away at the gold chunks. Then Lu Zhe moved the large chunks over and stacked them at an angle on the ground.
After a while, Lu Zhe noticed Shen Bing was getting tired, and her stomach was growling.
"Take a break and catch your breath?"
"Mmhmm!"
"We need to find something to eat. It'd be great if we could catch a Pangolin to eat..."
As he spoke, they both noticed a Pangolin had wandered over and was happily eating something from the small bag Lu Zhe had left on a rock!