Chapter 269: Chapter 269

After Erya entered a large room, she was dumbfounded; there were so many books. How long would it take to pick them out?

Gong Ruini gave Erya a push, how could she be dazed here, "Quickly pick something, it doesn’t matter if you buy it or not, put what you like aside and sort through them later."

If she came with Zhao Guangran and the others, they would definitely rush in to choose things and then slowly sort them out later.

"I’ll go this way, you go that way." Gong Ruini didn’t want to pick books together with Erya.

Even when going out with Gong Ruwen, Gong Ruini was used to picking books leisurely on her own, and they had adapted to this, too. With so many things to choose from, it wasn’t practical for everyone to huddle together, making it much more convenient for Gong Ruini to stash things into her own space.

The problem was that Erya wasn’t used to this. She tightly held onto Gong Ruini’s hand, "Can I stay with you?"

Ugh, there are no man-eating animals here, is there a need to be scared ? "Let’s start from both ends and meet in the middle so we can cover more ground."

"Don’t worry, once you come with us to pick books often, you’ll get the hang of it."

After a lot of persuasion, Gong Ruini managed to nudge Erya, this little tagalong, to one side, exhausting herself in the process.

"Taking a novice along is just making trouble for myself," Gong Ruini sighed before starting her big book sweep.

She put anything with collectible value into her space. Now Gong Ruini had no hesitation since their family already had a lot of books at home. Even the kids who were the main force in sweeping up books might not know exactly what books are in the house.

Especially after returning home, Gong Ruini would sneak out these books while organizing them, and it would be done without anyone noticing.

At first, Erya was all sorts of anxious, always worrying about whether someone would come in and shoo them away. But as time went on, she had already picked out many books, leaving her with mixed feelings.

Although she knew these books were not expensive, she had picked so many that it would cost a lot of money, but she couldn’t bear not having them.

Buy or not to buy, Erya thought for a long time and finally decided to buy them. After all, she could work harder to gather more herbs later for money, but if she missed out on these books, they would be gone forever.

Erya knew that Zhao Gang and the others often went to the county town, but she felt embarrassed to always tag along.

Thinking about it, Erya took on the demeanor of her last trip to the county town, choosing books in a frenzy.

"Huh, why is there a wooden box here?" Gong Ruini was hit by a wooden box while taking a book. Fortunately, it wasn’t heavy.

Gong Ruini picked up the lightweight box but wasn’t interested. If it had some weight, she might have been curious about whether there were treasures inside. The problem was it was so light that Gong Ruini couldn’t care less.

More importantly, the box was just a plain, dark, unremarkable box, with no carved marks intentionally removed by someone. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ Nove1Fire.net

In one word, even if placed right in front of her eyes, Gong Ruini wouldn’t care.

Ugh, she thought it would be heaven-sent treasure, but it turned out to be an unexpected misfortune.

Gong Ruini carelessly tossed the wooden box to the floor.

But with that toss, Gong Ruini noticed something, "It seems there’s a hidden compartment."

As Gong Ruini moved, the lid of the box happened to open, and the opening faced her, making Gong Ruini notice that the box’s interior and exterior seemed to have different heights.

"Could there really be something good?" Gong Ruini was excited, thinking even though the box was light, there might just be a treasure map inside after all.

If it were truly a treasure map, they would hit the jackpot; the loot this time would be huge, and Gong Ruini was thrilled.

She walked over gently, then carefully picked up the box, cautiously looking around. To prevent Erya from suddenly popping up, Gong Ruini even glanced her way.

Good, no problem, Erya was engrossed in her book exploration, making it a perfect chance.

Gong Ruini quickly tapped and poked at the box’s interior, and indeed, she managed to open the box’s secret compartment.

Gong Ruini took a deep breath, "Please let me hit the jackpot."

Gong Ruini opened her eyes and was stunned; there was nothing inside.

Gong Ruini was dumbfounded because it was utterly empty inside. What was going on? Was there never anything in it, or had it already been taken?

Gong Ruini was disappointed; earlier, she had been so excited and couldn’t have imagined this would happen.

"People shouldn’t have too many expectations; otherwise, when you’re disappointed, the feeling will be all the more intense." Gong Ruini mocked herself with this statement before putting the box aside.

Since there was nothing valuable, there was no need to dwell on it. Moreover, just looking at the box reminded Gong Ruini of the frustration of being tricked by it.

Humph, since the box couldn’t fulfill the treasure hunt, I’d search for treasures in these books instead. Gong Ruini directed her finger at the piles of books; finding something from them would be better compared to some elusive treasure.

If she managed to find a complete ancient book, Gong Ruini felt she would really hit it big.

"People can only get rich step by step by practically choosing books." Given all the recent setbacks, Gong Ruini had built up a strong resistance, so it was easy to let go of these things.

Gong Ruini considered herself quick at adjusting her mindset, but she wondered if her luck had been genuinely bad recently, as her thorough search hadn’t unearthed any books with potential for appreciation in value.

No ancient texts, fine, but she hadn’t even found any comic books, which made Gong Ruini quite annoyed.

Without ancient texts or comics, even some envelopes would do. Gong Ruini was hoping to find some valuable stamps on them.

But none of those were present, which made Gong Ruini conclude she hadn’t prayed properly for good luck before going out, resulting in such unfortunate circumstances.

Although there were no valuable books, she still managed to collect some books related to agriculture. Even though she didn’t understand agriculture much, buying them for her parents and Uncle Zhao to read was the same.

Gently placing these books aside, after setting aside the idea of striking it rich, Gong Ruini discovered there were actually quite a few books on agriculture.

"Could this be overturned from some agricultural expert’s home?" Gong Ruini kept mumbling.

Ugh, carefully opening these books, she could see they had annotations inside, specifying the date and place where they were acquired. Seeing the grand handwriting, Gong Ruini felt the person must have been an open-hearted Northeasterner, though she didn’t know what happened to them later on.

For someone to have treated these books with such care and attention, Gong Ruini didn’t think they would have easily sold them.

It was truly a pity, Gong Ruini sighed inwardly, but in this era, they were not the only family to experience difficulties.

However, with so many agricultural books, taking them home for her dad to research, she wondered how he would react with a tearful face. Thinking of her father’s expression teetering on the verge of tears made Gong Ruini chuckle inwardly.