My Promotion Story Through Time Travel

Chapter 95 Darkroom (2)

Lin Ziping searched the main room and the bedroom several times, but still found nothing. He even crouched down on the wall and searched inch by inch, but still couldn't find any useful clues.

He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, and even began to doubt himself. Could it be that there was no secret room, and the walls were just thicker?

Lin Ziping came out dejectedly and saw the horse tied up in the yard pawing the ground restlessly, making dust fly everywhere.

The sun was blazing, and the shadows on the ground were short, suggesting that the midday heat was causing the horses to become restless.

Lin Ziping went to the backyard, fetched a bucket of water, let it sit for a while, then found another bucket and poured out the clear water from it. He then placed the bucket in front of the horse, and the horse immediately stretched its head over and began to drink heartily from the bucket.

This is a white horse, smaller than the one I had in Qingyang, but with a gentler temperament.

Lin Ziping's curiosity was completely piqued by the dark room inside. It felt like a treasure hunt game he had played before, and he was like a cat scratching at his heart if he couldn't figure it out.

Leaning against the door, he absentmindedly watched the horse while kicking pebbles at his feet, pondering how to get into the dark room.

I was momentarily lost in thought, and when I came to my senses, there was already a shallow pit under my feet.

Looking at the pit under his feet, Lin Ziping suddenly had a flash of inspiration. The building materials for houses nowadays weren't concrete. If he couldn't find the door to open normally, he could use unconventional methods to force it open. If he really couldn't open it, he could just spend some money to buy the house and figure out a way later.

Lin Ziping found a shovel in the storage room and took it to the main room. He moved the altar and chairs aside and examined the wall closely. The wall was covered with a layer of lime, forming a hard shell. Lin Ziping took the shovel and smashed it against the wall. The hard shell of lime began to crack in that spot. He continued to smash it, and soon it began to fall off with a rustling sound. He quickly cleaned it off with the shovel.

Lin Ziping squatted down and looked at the patch of lime that had fallen. Sure enough, it was filled with soil mixed with some grass. He was immediately filled with energy. He picked up a shovel and started digging into the wall. He then found a hoe and started smashing the area he had dug. Fortunately, since he came to this era, he had been strengthening his physical fitness. If he were still in his old, unhealthy state, unable to lift anything, and riddled with ailments, he wouldn't have been able to smash a wall. Even sitting in a car for a long time would have made him feel uncomfortable.

"Eighty...eighty...eighty..."

With a powerful swing of his hoe, the gaps at the edge of the pickaxe grew wider and wider, and chunks of mud began to slide down. Lin Ziping then used a shovel to clear the gaps, which continued to widen. Looking through the gaps, it was clear that although it was pitch black inside, there was indeed a small space!

Lin Ziping was overjoyed and increased the force and frequency. In no time, he had chiseled open a rectangular opening, large enough for him to bend over and enter. He cleaned away the mud around the opening and the larger cracks in the wall. Seeing that there was no risk of the wall collapsing, he ventilated the area for a while and then lit a candle and put it inside.

He pulled a simple mask out of his pocket. He had sewn it himself during his break. He learned the skill of sewing masks from his mother when he was quarantined at home because he couldn't buy masks for a while. He never thought he would still be able to use it in this day and age.

Lin Ziping put on his mask and gestured with his hand to indicate that the wall of the darkroom was about 10 centimeters thick, thinner than the outside wall.

After waiting for a while, seeing that the candles inside were still burning and showed no signs of going out, he bent down and carefully peeked inside. In the candlelight, he saw some boxes piled up on one side of the dark room and two tables of different heights on the other side.

After finding some more candles, Lin Ziping took a shovel and went into the dark room.

Once inside, I cautiously straightened up and carefully examined the room. It was about 6 meters long, 1 meter wide, and the height was similar to that of the main room.

He walked towards the boxes, tucked the shovel under the arm of the hand holding the candle, and carefully opened the box closest to him with his other hand wrapped in a handkerchief. After waiting for a while, nothing strange happened.

These seem to be books?! Thinking of the scenes where the protagonist encountered fortuitous opportunities, his heart began to pound. Could this be the golden finger that granted him this belated but timely arrival? Was it a martial arts manual left behind by some powerful figure? Lin Ziping brought the candle closer, carefully picked up the top book, and flipped through a few pages. This…this seems to be an account book?! He flipped through a few more books, but they were still account books. He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

He opened several other boxes, which contained books and clothes. The books were poems, essays, biographies, and novels, most of which he had read while at Moshan Academy. The clothes were for spring, summer, autumn, and winter, in both men's and women's styles, and were folded together separately, but were covered in dust because no one had worn them for a long time.

Holding the candle, he walked to the other side, where two tables, one taller than the other, stood. Both tables were badly worn, especially the shorter one, which held writing brushes, ink, paper, and some scattered sheets of paper. Lin Ziping picked up a piece of paper; the writing was somewhat blurred, but he could vaguely make out that the old paper's characters were written with straight lines and a touch of elegance. The newer-looking paper had crooked, distorted characters, similar to those on the pages when he first started learning to write.

On the other side of the wall, at the bottom, there was a hole covered by a wooden board. The hole wasn't very big, but it was still difficult to get through, and one could easily get stuck. Lin Ziping lay on the ground and tried to push the board. Luckily, he could move it. As he moved, slivers of light shone through. Looking through the gaps in the board, he could see that the opposite side was a small storage room, filled with pots and pans, and some firewood piled up in the corner.

Standing up, Lin Ziping looked around the dark room. Apart from the box containing the ledger, the other boxes were basically useless. The table was probably where Dai Qin and her daughter studied. Lin Ziping couldn't help but wonder, if it was just to store those boxes and place two tables, there was no need to build such a dark room. What was this place used for?

Holding a candle, he carefully examined the surrounding walls. The walls were plastered with whitewash, and after looking at them once, he couldn't see anything special. Remembering that martial arts manuals were carved on the walls in TV dramas, he still wanted to touch them with his hands, unwilling to give up.

As the saying goes, perseverance pays off. Lin Ziping finally discovered the problem on the wall behind the table. About 1 meter from the ground, there was a spot that felt noticeably different from the rest of the area!

He raised the shovel and thrust it into the spot. It went in without much effort. Lin Ziping leaned closer and discovered that he could actually see into the adjacent bedroom through the small hole.

This discovery greatly encouraged Lin Ziping, who persevered and didn't overlook any corner. Leaning on his shovel, he examined the bricks one by one, and finally found a small box under the floor tiles where the boxes had been, and several notebooks on the wall behind the table.