In the mountains, a fox's wild cries resounded. The mountain rats originally proliferating in the tea fields scattered and fled to their burrows in panic.
"Xia Dong rats, watch as I, Ansheng, dig out your grandpa—"
As one of nature's top digging experts, a fox unable to construct an underground villa loses all mating and choosing rights in its group.
As a fox, Ansheng naturally inherited the talent for digging, but Ansheng found it dirty and generally avoided burrowing.
Given the complex current situation, Ansheng had no choice but to activate his hidden talent.
Ansheng sniffed out the trail left by the burrowing mountain rats, furiously scratching the mountain soil with his forelimbs to carve out a passageway wide enough for himself to dive into the rat's burrow.
Ansheng was young yet robust, digging rapidly and disappearing into the tea fields in no time.
However, just as Ansheng entered the burrow, he quickly retreated within ten minutes.
Standing upright with a pale and weak expression, Ansheng leaned against a tea tree and vomited out his recent midnight snack.
The smell... an indescribable stench wafted from the burrow he had just dug.
That dense odor was like sweat-soaked socks encased in sneakers during midsummer, drenched by a rainstorm, materializing into a pungent stench.
The putrid, rotten smell nearly asphyxiated Ansheng; it was even stronger than the cesspool by the village fish pond!
Had someone claimed there was a decomposing corpse buried on the downhill of the tea fields, Ansheng would have believed them.
After catching his breath, Ansheng cautiously approached the burrow entrance, sniffed carefully, and confirmed the stink had dissipated. He re-entered the burrow, pursuing the escape routes of the mountain rats.
A meter deep into the earth, Ansheng could still see the roots of the tea trees.
However, the roots were haphazardly lined with teeth marks; some moisture-seeking roots had been completely gnawed away by the mountain rats.
Nearing four meters beneath the surface, Ansheng's paw struck an extremely solid brick.
The intense pain made Ansheng inhale sharply.
In the pitch-dark burrow, a fox's night vision wasn't very useful; Ansheng primarily relied on scent and sound to pursue his targets while digging.
"Did I... hit a rock? Something's not right."
Ansheng shook his fox paw, suspiciously tapping the rock-like surface, guided by the scents of the mountain rats and the rotten odor.
He could sense the mountain rats and the repulsive smell were concealed behind this stone.
Puzzled, Ansheng tunneled sideways, touching the underground rock, and felt the artificial grooves etched in it.
"This isn't stone... it's brick!"
Furious upon uncovering the contours of the object before him, Ansheng's paw pain was akin to a toe striking solid furniture.
If it were just a rock injury, he'd curse his luck; but here, evidence of human carving showed the injury wasn't accidental but intentional!
Ansheng gathered his strength, concentrating it on his forelimbs' pads, and delivered a powerful strike to the "rock."
Amidst bricks and stones shattering, the rock-like surface fragmented and fell, echoing emptily as it collided with the underground brickwork.
Ansheng spread his legs, bracing against the burrow walls, suspended in mid-air without falling.
After a moment of silence, Ansheng murmured, "This is obviously a grand tomb! My paw just now won't land me in a women's prison, right? Although the criminal law doesn't affect foxes, guardians are liable..."
"Before heading home, I need to consult Lin Ying Company's legal department about risks."
Ansheng's words were cautious, yet if the burrow had light, you'd see his shiny, seductive eyes glimmering.
His gaze was filled with anticipation of the grand scene and curiosity for the spectacle itself.
Ansheng quickly turned around, exited the burrow, and returned to the tea fields. He kicked the King Cobra attempting to escape from a burlap sack.
Ansheng hurried down the mountain to the tea farmers' home, borrowing a headlamp from the locals.
Donning the headlamp, Ansheng tunneled back to the location from earlier.
But as he illuminated the "ancient tomb,"
Ansheng's nosiness completely vanished, and his charming eyes almost bulged from their sockets.
"Whoa—Maxim machine guns with wheels!"
Head poking through the ceiling's broken parts, Ansheng surveyed the room, spotting three two-wheeled Maxim machine guns and several wheeled artillery pieces within the tomb chamber.
Near the tomb walls lay numerous moldy wooden crates.
Through the damaged crates, Ansheng vaguely saw tarnished brass bullets peeking out.
Moreover, Ansheng finally realized the source of the pervasive stench: this supposedly ancient tomb under the tea fields was actually a historical armory.
There were machine guns, artillery, ammunition, unidentified medications, and ancient canned food.
Those aged cans, rendered corrosive over time, leaked meat juices all over. The rats Ansheng previously encountered were all gathered in this old armory, vigilantly scanning their surroundings.
"Wow! I haven't tasted caviar, but the rats are feasting on beef stew!"
Whether the bullet-laden crates or rusted cans, they all bore foreign inscriptions, clearly imported goods.
But what Ansheng realized was that the diverse English letters all conveyed the same message:
"The Uphill Mountain Armory Storage Room, all contents herein belong to Ansheng."
Wearing the headlamp, Ansheng flipped and entered the storage room, confronted by a swarm of rats.
"The rat infestation source turns out to be these cans."
"Corroded cans leaked, attracting all the mountain rats here, gradually forming the infestation..."
Ansheng swatted away the anxious rats attempting to bite him, circling the armory.
Yet he found no papers or any information regarding the place; here, everything stored was wartime supplies.
Ansheng even discovered dozens of broken penicillin aluminum boxes.
Apparently, the aggressive, greedy rats had wrought considerable damage here.
"Now that I know the infestation root, I'll disperse them!"
Displaying a peculiar expression, Ansheng returned to the tea fields along the original path, untied the burlap sack containing the King Cobra, and tossed it into the rats' nest.
Then, Ansheng busily gathered in the mountains, filling a burlap sack with spicy snacks and tossing it inside.
"Now... those rats won't remain ratty."
Ansheng covered the hole he dug, grabbed a few hefty mountain rats, tossed them into the burlap sack, and headed toward Changxi Town dragging the rat-filled sack.
"Rat infestation wish fulfilled, Yu Xueqing dreamed of you on Uphill Mountain, brandishing a Fang Tian Halberd against Xia Dong's rat army, your figure imposing and extraordinary, yet regrettably, with a fox head, the mighty shout meant to intimidate Xia Dong's rats became a whimpering cry, thoroughly amusing Yu Xueqing."
"However, Xia Dong rats instinctively feared the fox's cries."
"Seriously wielding a Fang Tian Halberd against Xia Dong's rats...?"
"Cooking congee with the Fang Tian Halberd, I'm certainly no slave with three surnames!"
Dragging a sack of plump mountain rats, Ansheng saw the text in his mind and couldn't help but make a quip.