If all else fails, you could always open a Shaxian snack shop, an internet café, or a bookstore in the project. At the very least, you could claim it’s a gathering place for culture, integrating dining, leisure, and entertainment, letting people fully enjoy the urban prosperity.

And so...

People from the cultural relics department arrived. According to regulations, before the artifacts are cleared out, the project is not allowed to continue construction, so they could only keep idling and waiting.

James Bolton was anxious but had no solution, so he went to the archaeological site every day, trying to find out which heartless person had buried things in this godforsaken place.

Watching the archaeologists with their brushes, sweeping away layers of dust, revealing one artifact after another, James Bolton realized that what would have taken two excavators two days would take these archaeologists at least a year or more to finish.

He found out that this wasn’t an ancient tomb; the initial judgment was that it was a treasure stash of a high-ranking official from the Ming Dynasty.

But soon, this conclusion was overturned, because most of the gold, silver, and so-called treasures buried here were scattered, including weapons, decayed calligraphy and paintings, and porcelain vases. If it belonged to a high-ranking official, then this person’s interests were far too broad. In the end, several people from the archaeological institute concluded that it was likely a bandit’s treasure stash.

When James Bolton heard it wasn’t an ancient tomb, he was actually a bit disappointed, because even though there would be a grave nearby, it would be the legendary “tomb-view” apartment.

But to prepare for this kind of situation, the project had already drafted new copywriting, with slogans like “A land of great feng shui, listen to the voice of the soul,” tailored to the features of an ancient tomb.

Well, now they’d have to come up with new copy again.

However, gradually, James Bolton actually became interested in this treasure site and continued to consult the archaeologists.

Of course, the treasure site was just a hypothesis, but if you boldly assume it was bandits who hid the treasure, the scope could be narrowed!

Because most of the treasures here were produced before the Tianqi era of the Ming Dynasty, it could be inferred that the treasure was hidden between the late Wanli and the Chongzhen periods.

And during the Ming Dynasty, this area should have belonged to Northern Zhili. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, this was called “under the emperor’s feet.” Logically, there shouldn’t have been such large-scale bandit activity under the emperor’s nose.

Judging by the scale of the treasure site, this was definitely not the work of ordinary bandits. Eventually, someone dug up the county annals from that time and even checked many local family genealogies and clan records.

The target was finally locked in.

This should have been the work of a group of roaming bandits active near Beijing during the Tianqi era, led by a chief called William Carter, who was always active in Hebei and Shanxi. At their peak, they gathered tens of thousands of followers and even called himself the “Heavenly King,” but his real name is no longer known.

“William Carter...”

At the time, James Bolton was furious. How could he not be? It was this guy who caused his project to be delayed for so long. If you want to hide treasure, fine, but why hide it in his project?

But what James Bolton never expected was that just as he was still pondering how to turn misfortune into blessing, he transmigrated.

The process of transmigration seemed to have no warning. Looking back, it was probably just a process of the soul leaving the body.

When he woke up, after a huge upheaval, a massive crisis was now glaringly in front of him.

Hmm?

“Just now you said, inquire about who?”

This servant was quite young and very thin, but he had an enormous head, which wobbled on his neck, always making James Bolton worry that it might fall off.

At this moment, the servant looked at James Bolton strangely and said, “Inquire about who?”

“Didn’t you say that... no, my father was imprisoned because he made a mistake while inquiring about something?”

“Oh.” The servant nodded. Although his head was big, he didn’t seem very smart. He thought for a moment and then said, “William Carter...”

What a coincidence—could it really be that William Carter?

Chapter Two: Seeking Fortune Amidst Danger

James Bolton tried hard to suppress his inner shock. By now, his strength had mostly returned, so he slipped on his shoes and got up.

The servant said in surprise, “Young master, you’re feeling better?”

“Better, my ass,” James Bolton couldn’t help but complain inwardly. What did I do to deserve this!

But the servant said, “The two young masters are already waiting outside. They said that once you’re better, they’ll take you out of the city.”

“Two young masters?”

Only then did James Bolton realize that these two young masters were actually his father’s adopted sons. Back then, James Bolton’s father, Charles Bolton, took two Jinyiwei captains to Liaodong to gather military intelligence on the Later Jin, but in the end, only Charles Bolton returned; the other two captains died in Liaodong.

So, after returning to the capital, the first thing Charles Bolton did was adopt their sons and find ways to get both of them into the Jinyiwei as well.

By this calculation, these two were James Bolton’s sworn brothers. Now that Charles Bolton was in trouble, the two sworn brothers naturally shared both honor and loss with the Zhang family. Following Charles Bolton’s instructions, they were to protect James Bolton as he left the city.

“I’ll go take a look.”

James Bolton left the side room and saw that, sure enough, there were already two people in the courtyard preparing the carriage and horses. All of the Zhang family’s belongings were loaded onto the carriage, even the pots, bowls, and pans.