Due to the nature of the exchange meeting, the schedule was not packed, allowing Liang En and his companions to handle some of their own affairs, such as dealing with their local businesses in the area.
"Why is this land so desolate?" Liang En asked as he arrived at the piece of land that had been used to settle debts. The scene before him was extremely barren.
The entire area was enclosed by a brick wall, but the wall was dilapidated, with some sections completely collapsed, revealing the empty land inside.
The ground was uneven, with only a few dilapidated buildings still standing, their walls crumbling. The land was overgrown with weeds, exuding a sense of desolation.
"It might be because it hasn't been developed for decades," Jeanne said, standing beside him after getting out of the car. "But Elizabeth said that the exploration work had already begun. Why is there no one here?"
"I think we might have come to the wrong place. This land spans over a hundred acres, so it's not surprising that we missed the exploration team," Liang En explained, pointing to the barren land before them.
In truth, they were lucky to acquire this piece of land. It was purchased decades ago when land prices were not as high. Otherwise, even on the outskirts of the city, it would be impossible to obtain several hundred acres of land at once.
Elizabeth was eager to start construction because, with the changing times, leaving the land undeveloped for too long would result in its confiscation. Starting work quickly would prevent this from happening.
As they each rode a bicycle around the enclosed land, they discovered a construction site with some machinery and workers.
Judging by their work, these people were conducting basic exploratory operations. The use of excavators was merely to speed up the process.
After some simple communication, Liang En and Jeanne were allowed into the site and were received by the workers.
The construction site was not much different from others, except that it was rather simple and the prefabricated houses were newly built.
The tour of the site was quite dull, especially since it was lunchtime and there were few people around. Liang En let the workers go for lunch and decided to explore on his own.
"Do you understand anything about construction?" Jeanne asked curiously as they walked to the excavation site. "I remember you have a skill from the famous architect GaudÃ, right?"
"No, although my ability comes from him, it's more about appreciating natural beauty, not architectural knowledge," Liang En replied, shaking his head.
"But you know, Sichuan is a city with thousands of years of history, so I want to see if there are any ancient relics or antiques here."
As he stood there, memories from another world, where he had visited the same area, resurfaced in Liang En's mind. He suddenly realized that there might be something very important beneath this land.
"You might be right. Let's take a thorough look," Jeanne agreed, and they walked to the large pit to begin their inspection.
The first thing they checked was the pile of excavated dirt. Like many ancient cities, the soil here contained many traces of human activity.
There were various fragments of tiles scattered throughout the pile, some dating back hundreds of years, while others were modern red bricks with cement.
"Look at this," Jeanne suddenly called out to Liang En, lowering her voice as she glanced at the people eating in the distance.
"What did you find?" Liang En asked, walking around the pile to her side and lowering his voice as well.
"A small item, but it looks different from the others," Jeanne said, carefully extracting a palm-sized stone fragment from the dirt.
It was a thin, leaf-shaped piece of stone. After cleaning it with a small tool from his space, they discovered it was jade.
Detailed measurements and observations revealed it to be a jade spear from the Shang or Zhou Dynasty, 24.6 centimeters long, 4.65 centimeters wide, and 0.68 centimeters thick. It was made of nephrite, with a warm, ivory-white color and transparency.
The overall shape was slender and leaf-like, with a narrow body, sharp point, straight surface, and beveled edges. The cross-section was hexagonal with a flat top, polished and well-crafted.
Clearly, this exquisite jade spear was not a practical weapon but a ritual object. Jade was too precious to be used for consumable weapons.
"It seems there are indeed some very valuable items, possibly even an ancient site, beneath this area," Liang En said, recalling the terrain and realizing its significance.
The site was not far from a river and situated on a small highland, making it an ideal settlement spot for ancient people.
The surrounding terrain, though slightly uneven, was suitable for cultivating farmland to provide food for the settlement.
For modern people, building a city in an agriculturally unsuitable area was not impossible, as seen in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula. However, in ancient times, the vicinity of a city needed ample farmland, even if external supplies were necessary.
In other words, to build a city, one needed a suitable location for construction and plenty of irrigable, flat land. Such areas were rare.
But the land Liang En and Jeanne stood on met all these criteria, making it ideal for both construction and agriculture.
As they continued to excavate, they found more artifacts, including a palm-sized stone turtle and several ancient pottery shards.
"It seems there's indeed a significant site here, and it's of a high level," Liang En concluded, examining the artifacts. "This might be the Golden Sands site from the other world."
"There should be a major discovery here," he told Jeanne, pointing to the pile of dirt. "We might be busy for a while."
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