Chapter 13: A Treasure Map?

It took quite some effort, but Lu Chuan finally managed to clear out all the weeds and debris from inside the cave.

He looked around.

With a bit of resignation, he stepped outside again to gather more branches—

even grabbing a few thick logs.

He brought them back into the cave and lit a fire.

The cave needed to be dried out a bit,

and it also needed to be disinfected.

As the temperature inside the cave rose, the three little piglets ran in, seemingly full of curiosity and not the least bit afraid of having lost their mother.

By the faint light,

Lu Chuan noticed something strange.

On the northern wall of the cave, there was a drawing.

The drawing looked unusual—almost like a map.

“Huh…”

But the map was incomplete, with parts missing. It appeared to be only a corner or fragment of something larger.

Lu Chuan started forming a theory.

Perhaps someone had hidden something valuable and split the map into multiple pieces, drawing them separately in different caves across the mountains. Only by assembling all the pieces could the hidden item be found.

It seemed he had stumbled upon one of those pieces by accident.

But who could’ve done this?

Someone from Shuangshui Village?

This area was fairly remote. Besides the villagers of Shuangshui, very few people would come here.

That gave Lu Chuan pause.

Should he still turn this place into his hunting outpost?

If this cave wasn’t naturally dug out by wild boars or abandoned by some passerby, but was instead deliberately carved by someone with secrets to hide—then it might be risky.

After thinking it over for a long while,

Lu Chuan decided to drop the idea.

Still, he carefully memorized the map on the wall.

Once he was confident he could replicate it at home, he picked up a stone and deliberately destroyed the map on the wall.

Then, with the piglets in tow, he started heading home.

Along the way, he even made tracks to make it look like he had dragged the wild boar behind him. Near the house, he finally retrieved the boar from his spatial storage.

He then found a wooden board and a vine rope,

laid the boar on top,

and dragged it toward the house.

“Xiaobai! Su Ruan!”

Lu Chuan called out, “Come help me out here!”

“Coming!”

Su Ruan rushed out of the house at the sound of his voice. When she saw the wild boar Lu Chuan was dragging, her eyes widened in disbelief. She gasped and exclaimed, “You… you got a wild boar?”

“Yep. Got lucky,”

Lu Chuan replied with a smile, then plopped down onto the ground with exhaustion. “I’m completely wiped out.”

“Let’s get the boar into the courtyard first.”

“Everything okay at home?” he asked.

Su Ruan nodded. “Nothing happened. But Xiaobai taught me some needlework. I’m not very good, though—learning slowly.”

“That’s fine. First, let’s deal with the boar,”

Lu Chuan said. “Hurry and drain the blood. If the blood seeps into the meat, it’ll be hard to sell.”

“Got it!”

Su Ruan nodded.

After dragging the wild boar into the courtyard,

Lu Chuan laid it across the stone table, then placed a wooden basin beside it with great care.

Pig’s blood is valuable.

Prepared properly, it can taste just as good as meat.

“You’re amazing! How did you do it?” Su Ruan asked in awe.

Lu Chuan smiled, then pulled the three little piglets from his arms. Letting them follow him on their own wasn’t easy, and since they were still small, he had simply stuffed them into his coat for the journey home.

He planned to take them out once he got back.

“This wild boar—I’ll sell it. The money should be enough to cover this year’s food supplies.”

“As for the three piglets, I’ll raise them at home.”

At this, Su Ruan hesitated. “Raise them at home? I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“The estate tried raising wild boars before,” she explained.
“But the thing with wild boars is—when they’re small, it’s manageable. But once they grow bigger, their wild nature kicks in. If you keep them together, they’ll end up attacking each other. Sometimes they’ll even fight to the death!”

Lu Chuan laughed.

That was perfectly normal. In fact, raising wild boars came with more than just that one problem.

Wild boar meat had a strong gamey taste. It might be okay if you’re selling it, but if you’re eating it yourself, it might be fine once or twice—after that, it starts to become unpleasant.

“Don’t worry!”

Lu Chuan smiled and said, “That problem is actually pretty easy to solve. Just castrate the three boars.”

He chuckled and added, “Plus, wild boars are easy to feed. They can eat our leftovers—whatever we don’t finish. And as for drinking, just some dishwater will do.”

“Castrate them?”
Su Ruan was a little stunned.

Lu Chuan handed her the hatchet. “That’s right. So I’m officially assigning you this difficult and important task. I’ll start by bleeding the boar.”

With that,

Lu Chuan plunged his knife straight into the wild boar’s carotid artery.

Blood immediately flowed along the blade into the wooden basin. The dark red liquid kept dripping steadily.

Su Ruan, meanwhile, carried the three piglets into the house—presumably to figure out how one was supposed to castrate a pig.

As Lu Chuan bled the boar, he also began skinning it,

and butchering the meat.

To be honest, it was a pretty tedious job.

While he was still busy working,

a voice called out from beyond the courtyard.

“Hey! Lu Chuan, is that a wild boar you got there?”

Lu Chuan looked up when he recognized the familiar voice—it was the village chief.

Bai Siyu and Su Ruan both peeked outside but didn’t come out.
When the head of the household was speaking with outsiders, they were expected to keep their distance.

“Yes, Village Chief!”

Lu Chuan smiled, then added a little helplessly, “As you know, the tax collection is coming up. Things are tough at home, so I figured I’d try my luck up in the mountains. Turns out I actually managed to get one!”

“Is there something you need?”

Lu Chuan asked, a bit puzzled.

He lived quite far from the village, and the chief wouldn’t usually come all the way out unless it was important. Normally, any messages would just be shouted from the bottom of the hill.

This unexpected visit struck Lu Chuan as odd.

“Well, yes. There’s something,”
the village chief said, rubbing his hands a little awkwardly.

“You gave Widow Wang some meat yesterday, didn’t you?”

“I did,”
Lu Chuan replied without hesitation. “Ran into Chen Qingqing by chance and heard Widow Wang was sick, so I brought her a little.”

“I see.”

The village chief scratched his head, looking slightly embarrassed. “It’s just… my family hasn’t had meat in ages either. When I heard you caught something, I thought I’d stop by to see… if maybe we could have a small share too.”