Chapter 99: Diamonds Unearthed at the Construction Site

Zhaodi worked alongside the others, digging away.

With the memories of the original owner, she didn’t find it difficult to dig at all.

The hoe swung up and down with rhythmic precision, occasionally bending down to pick up the corn stalks and shake off the dirt.

The women worked energetically, and their speed was impressive.

Everyone understood that Hu Zhaodi paid them wages every month, and not just any wages—they were quite generous. Moreover, Hu Zhaodi always tried to help them whenever possible, doing her best to improve their lives.

So, when it came time to work, they gave it their all.

Hu Zhaodi worked with great enthusiasm, and she was the fastest of them all.

By mid-morning, Aunt Ji went back to prepare lunch, while the others continued working.

Those working on the site were given an hour’s break for lunch, but they worked for a total of four hours a day.

Of course, for the Ji family, Hu Zhaodi had no demands at all.

But the Ji family worked the hardest, not only doing the labor but also overseeing the work.

Hu Zhaodi trusted them completely.

By noon, the entire plot of land belonging to the Old Scholar had been planted with radishes.

To help the radishes sprout and grow quickly, Hu Zhaodi planned to water them with some Spirit Spring water.

If ordinary crops could grow quickly with Spirit Spring water, it would solve the problem of not having enough food to feed livestock in the future.

However, with so many people around, she couldn’t use the Spirit Spring water in front of them.

Hu Zhaodi spoke up, “Sister Chunhua, you take the others back first. I’ll go take care of something.”

Ji Sister Chunhua nodded with a smile. “Okay, we’ll go ahead. Give me your hoe, and go quickly!”

Hu Zhaodi handed her hoe to Ji Chunhua and turned to head into the nearby forest.

She waited until she saw Ji Chunhua and the others walk out of sight before making her way out of the forest. Suddenly, a faint cramp in her lower abdomen caught her off guard. She quickly retreated into her space.

Having been in the ancient world for four months, this sensation clearly indicated her first menstruation.

Inside her suite, Hu Zhaodi retrieved some sanitary pads and went to the bathroom to use them.

The next moment, her period arrived right on time.

That was a close call!

Thankfully, she had sanitary pads in her space; otherwise, she would have been embarrassed today.

After leaving the space, Hu Zhaodi used Spirit Spring water to water the radish field and then headed back to the village.

After lunch, Hu Zhaodi went to the small pine forest with the Ji family.

Just as everyone was working energetically, one of the villagers shouted, “Zhaodi, Zhaodi, come quick, we’ve found something!”

Hu Zhaodi immediately ran over, and to her surprise, the villager had unearthed a jewelry box. The surface was covered in rust, and its material was unidentifiable.

The box had a small lock on it, and the entire lock was green, likely made of copper.

The villager who found the jewelry box was Liu Erzhu, who was usually quite honest and simple.

“Brother Liu, let me see the box,” Hu Zhaodi said.

Liu Erzhu handed her the box, which was surprisingly heavy.

Hu Zhaodi cleaned off the dirt from the surface of the box but still couldn’t tell what it was made of.

Liu Erzhu had shouted for Hu Zhaodi when he found the box, attracting the attention of other villagers.

Curious villagers gathered around and asked, “Zhaodi, open it and see what’s inside!”

With so many people watching, if Hu Zhaodi didn’t open the box for everyone to see, they might think she was greedy or selfish.

Hu Zhaodi gave a slight nod, her small hand gripping the lock on the jewelry box. Secretly, she channeled her inner strength and, with a “click,” the lock opened easily.

The villagers held their breath, staring intently at the jewelry box without blinking.

Hu Zhaodi slowly opened the box, and the dazzling light that burst out made the villagers squint their eyes.

Only Hu Zhaodi had a look of shock on her face, her eyes wide open in disbelief.

Inside the box were dozens of sparkling diamonds, each about the size of a pigeon egg.

Joy and excitement immediately filled Hu Zhaodi’s heart.

She picked up one of the diamonds, inspecting it closely. After confirming it was a real diamond, she was so excited that she couldn’t speak for a long while.

She’d struck it rich!

If she could find a way back home and bring these diamonds with her, she would never have to worry about food and drink for the rest of her life.

Uncle Ji looked at the glittering diamonds and asked, “Zhaodi, what is this?”

Hu Zhaodi quickly snapped back to her senses, tucked the diamond away, and smiled, “Uncle, this is something that can be used as a decoration for jewelry, but it’s hard to work with. Not easy to do.”

Uncle Ji chuckled, “Then you keep it, and when you find a good family for marriage, you can use it as your dowry.”

Other villagers chimed in agreement.

“That’s right, Zhaodi, keep it. When you marry, you can use it as your dowry. It was found on your land, so it should be yours.”

“Exactly. This land was bought by Zhaodi, so whatever is found here belongs to her.”

Some villagers whispered, “It looks so shiny—could it be worth a lot of money? I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“Who knows? But whether it’s valuable or not, it belongs to Zhaodi. She spent a hundred taels of silver to buy this small pine forest.”

“I think Liu Erzhu is a fool, not realizing he could have kept it secretly—what if it’s worth something?”

“You’re wrong. What if one day someone digs up a lump of silver in your yard and takes it? Wouldn’t you be upset?”

“……”

Uncle Ji, the eldest son of the Ji family, spoke loudly, “Fellow villagers, this entire small pine forest was bought by Zhaodi with a hundred taels of silver. No matter what is found here, I hope everyone will give it to Zhaodi willingly.”

“Zhaodi will be able to help all of us live better in the future. If any of you try to pull anything behind her back, don’t expect her to help you out when something good comes along.”

The villagers who had harbored private intentions paused upon hearing Uncle Ji words.

If they lost favor with Hu Zhaodi over something trivial now, they wouldn’t be able to count on her in the future. That would be a huge loss.

Hu Zhaodi smiled and replied, “Uncle Ji you can’t say that. Although I bought this land, anything found here will be handed over to me. But I will reward those who turn it over. If something is found and kept by someone else, then it belongs to them.”

With that, Hu Zhaodi took out a silver ingot—ten taels of silver.

She handed the silver to the villager who found the diamonds, smiling as she said, “This is your reward. Take it.”

The villager was overjoyed, thanking her profusely as he accepted the silver.

It felt heavy in his pocket, as though it weighed a ton.

In truth, it wasn’t that Hu Zhaodi was being stingy, only giving ten taels of silver for so many diamonds the size of pigeon eggs.

Diamonds weren’t that precious in ancient times. People in the ancient world preferred colored gemstones like turquoise and rubies.

The people of Lingxiao Country were no different.

For the villagers, ten taels of silver was a huge sum of money.

Rather than take a few pretty but worthless stones, they’d much rather have the silver, which was much more practical.

Liu Erzhu carefully dug around the spot where the jewelry box had been found. After confirming that there was nothing else, he suppressed his excitement and continued digging the foundation.

The other villagers looked on with envious expressions. After all, that was ten taels of silver—equivalent to five months’ worth of wages.

Liu Erzhu really was damn lucky.

As envious as they were, the villagers also hoped to find something themselves, so they worked even harder.

However, apart from the jewelry box, nothing else was found.

Hu Zhaodi was busy every day. In addition to her daytime tasks, she also worked in her space every evening.

In the blink of an eye, the New Year was just over a month away.

The wild boars and chickens in her space had grown very well, and she allowed the chickens to breed freely without collecting eggs.

She also had a few ducks and geese in the space, though there weren’t many.

Meanwhile in Mo Jinnan pov he found something about Zhaodi.

“……..”