Chapter 1 Blood Corpse
50 years ago, in Biaoziling, Changsha, four gravediggers were squatting on a mound, all of them were silent, staring at the Luoyang shovels on the ground.
The shovel still contained old soil that had just been dug out of the ground. The strange thing was that this cup of soil was constantly oozing out bright red liquid, as if it had just been dipped in blood.
"This is going to be a big problem," Old Cigarette Butt knocked his pipe on the ground, "There's a bloody corpse underneath. If we're not careful, we'll all be killed."
"Can't go down? Yes or no, in a word, don't go any further!" The one-eyed young man said, "You said that you are an old man with inconvenient legs and feet, so don't go down. My brother and I will go down and shoot him directly without caring about what he is."
The old man laughed instead of getting angry, and said to a bearded man beside him: "The second boy in your room is so arrogant that he might get kicked out at any time. You need to teach him a lesson. Our business cannot be solved with just a box gun, Hexitian."
The bearded man glared at the young man and said, "How dare you talk to an old man like that? When the old man was digging dirt, you were still eating shit in your mother's stomach."
"What did I say ... I was wrong. Didn't our ancestors say that the blood corpse was a good thing? There must be a lot of treasures underneath. If we don't go down, we'll just have to make a pot of soup."
"How dare you talk back!" The bearded man raised his hand to hit him, but the old man blocked it with his pipe.
"You can't hit me. You were still the same when you were a child. This is called the top beam is not straight and the bottom beam is crooked!"
The one-eyed young man lowered his head and snickered when he saw his father being scolded. Old Cigarette Butt coughed and hit the one-eyed young man on the head again, "What are you laughing at? Encountering a blood corpse can be a big deal or a small one. Last time, your second uncle dug up this thing in Luoyang, and now he's still crazy. He doesn't know what happened to him. Wait a minute, I'll go down first, you follow me, second boy, you take a rat to cover the rear, third boy, don't go down. There are four of us, and it's too late to retreat. You just hold the rat's tail, and when we shout from inside, you pull the thing out."
The youngest boy was not convinced: "I don't agree, you are biased, I will tell my mother!"
Old Cigarette Butt laughed loudly: "Look, look, San Yazi is still afraid of it. Stop it, I will give you a golden knife later."
"I don't want you to touch me, I can touch myself."
The one-eyed second brother got angry and grabbed the third brother's ear and said, "You bastard, you are looking for trouble with me. Are you asking me to show off my power?"
The youngest boy saw that his second brother was really angry. It seemed that he had been beaten many times before. He was too scared to say anything. He looked to his father for help, but his father had gone to clean up the mess. His second brother was proud: "Why are you so disrespectful? This time, the old man will not help you. If you shout again, I will beat you up!"
Old Cigarette Butt patted Old Two on the shoulder and yelled, "Boys, get your weapons!", and then he started waving a whirlwind shovel.
Half an hour later, the tunnel was so deep that the bottom could no longer be seen. Apart from the second brother coming up from time to time to breathe, no sound could be heard clearly in the tunnel. The third brother became impatient and shouted into the tunnel, "Grandpa, have you dug through it?"
After several seconds, a vague voice came from inside: "I don't know...you...stay up there and pull the...rope tight!"
It was his second brother's voice, and then he heard his old cigarette butt cough: "Be quiet... Listen! There's movement!"
Then there was deathly silence. The third brother knew that something must have happened down there and was too scared to speak. Suddenly, he heard a creepy gurgling sound, like the croaking of a toad, coming from the cave.
Then his second brother yelled from below: "Third boy, pull!"
He did not dare to delay. As soon as he landed, he grabbed the rat's tail and pulled it out. After just a few pulls, it seemed as if something was biting the rope from below. There was a reaction force that pulled the rope into the hole. The third brother had never thought that such a situation would happen and was almost pulled into the hole. He thought quickly and tied the tail around his waist. Then he fell backwards with his back almost at a 30-degree angle to the ground. This was the trick he used when playing tug-of-war with other boys in the village. In this way, all his weight was on the rope, and he could even push against a mule.
Sure enough, he was in a standoff with the thing in the hole. Both sides were trying hard, but neither could pull it any further. After a stalemate of more than 10 seconds, he heard a box gun fire in the hole, and then heard his father yelling, "San Yazi, run!!!!!!!" He felt the rope loosen, and the earth mouse jumped out of the hole with a whoosh, as if there was something hanging on it! At that time, the third brother didn't care about so much. He knew that something must have happened below, so he caught the earth mouse and ran away!
He ran for more than two miles before he dared to stop. He took out the rat in his arms and screamed in fear. It turned out that there was nothing hooked on the rat, only a bloody severed hand. He recognized the hand and couldn't help crying. It was clearly his second brother's hand. It seemed that his second brother was crippled even if he didn't die. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but want to go back to save his second brother and father. As soon as he turned around, he saw a blood-red thing squatting behind him, staring at him.
The third brother is not a second-rate guy either, he has seen a lot of bizarre things with his father during his daily life, and he knows that anything can happen underground, the most important thing is not to make a fuss, but to be able to adapt to circumstances, you know, no matter how ferocious a ghost is, it cannot be stronger than a living person, no matter how vicious the ghost is, it has to obey the laws of physics, and there is nothing to be afraid of if it is smashed to pieces by a volley of bullets.
Thinking of this, he made up his mind, retreated, and fired a burst of shots with the box gun in his hand. As long as the blood-red thing made any movement, he would hit it with a torrential rain of pear blossoms. Who knew that the blood-red thing actually stood up? The third brother took a closer look and felt his scalp tingling and his stomach churning. It was clearly a person who had been skinned! The whole body was covered in blood, as if he had been squeezed out of the human skin. But such a person could still walk, which was really a miracle. Could this be the true appearance of the blood corpse?
As he was thinking, the bloody corpse suddenly leaned forward and rushed over. The third brother met his eyes. The bloody face suddenly touched his nose. A sour smell rushed to his face. The third brother fell back. At the same time, the whole magazine of bullets from the box gun hit the chest of the thing at close range. The distance was too close, and all the bullets went through, making the thing splatter blood and retreat several steps. The third brother was secretly happy. He turned his hand and aimed at the head of the thing and pulled the trigger. There was a click, and it jammed!
This old oil box gun was dug out from a warlord's tomb by his second grandfather. It must have been used for many years. Unfortunately, he had been running around with his father for the past few years and had no time to maintain it. He had few opportunities to shoot it. The barrel jammed when it got hot. The third brother was really not simple. When he saw that the gun was not working well, he used all his strength to smash the gun. He didn't care whether he hit it or not, and turned around and ran. This time he didn't even dare to turn his head. He saw a big tree in front of him and ran towards it. He thought that no matter how he tried to attack it, it wouldn't be able to climb a tree. Suddenly, he tripped and hit his face on a tree stump. His nose and mouth were full of blood.
The third brother slapped his palm on the ground, feeling so angry. He wondered why he was so unlucky. At this time, he heard the sound of wind coming from behind. He knew that the King of Hell had come to call his name. He made up his mind and decided to die. He simply lay on the ground and refused to get up. Unexpectedly, the corpse seemed to have not seen him and stepped over him. The bloody sole immediately left a mark on his back. The bloody corpse was surprisingly heavy. After one step, the third brother felt a sweetness in his throat. He vomited bile and felt a strange itch on the place on his back where he was stepped on. His vision immediately became blurry. He immediately realized that he might have been poisoned, and the poison was very strong. In the blur, he saw that his second brother seemed to be holding something in his hand not far away.
He blinked hard and took a closer look. It turned out to be a piece of silk. The third brother thought, the thing that his second brother tried so hard to steal must not be an ordinary thing. Now I don't know what happened to them. I have to keep the thing. If I really die, they can find my body and find it from me. Then the second brother's death will not be in vain, and I will not die in vain. Thinking of this, he struggled to crawl over, dug the silk handkerchief out of the broken hand, and stuffed it into his sleeve.
At this time, his ears also began to buzz, his eyes were like covered with a layer of veil, his hands and feet began to feel cold. According to his past experience, there must be a lot of urine and feces in his crotch. People who are poisoned by corpses die in a very ugly way. I hope the second girl from the next village will not see it. He was confused and his mind began to lose control. At this time, he began to hear the strange gurgling sound he heard in the tunnel more and more.
The third brother felt something was wrong. He had been fighting with the blood corpse for so long, but he hadn't heard him scream. Why was he screaming again? Wasn't it the blood corpse? What was he seeing? Unfortunately, he couldn't think at all. He raised his head reflexively, only to see a huge strange face leaning down to look at him. There was no life in the two pupil-less eyes.
Chapter 2 50 Years Later
50 years later, at the Xiling Seal Society in Hangzhou, my thoughts were interrupted by an old man. I closed my grandfather's notes and looked at the other person.
"Do you accept rubbings?" he asked, and it seemed like he was just asking casually. I have a talent for this business, so I just answered him perfunctorily: "Yes, but the price won't be high." What I meant was, if you don't have anything good, just get out of here and don't bother me while I'm reading.
In our business, we don't open for three years, but we make a living for three years after opening. We are used to having a leisurely life on weekdays, and we hate serving those half-knowledgeable customers. Later on, when we see those passers-by, we just play funeral music to drive them away. But recently, I have been too idle. Seeing that the peak season is almost over, and there are no good things coming in, so I am a little impatient.
"Then I'd like to ask, is there any rubbing of the Warring States silk book here? The one that was stolen by those local robbers in Changsha 50 years ago and then swindled away by an American?" The man asked while looking at the collection on my counter.
"You said it was stolen by the Americans, how can it still be there?" I got angry when I heard it. "Of course you can go to the market to look for rubbings, but how can you find a specific one?"
He lowered his voice: "I heard you have connections. I was introduced by Lao Yang?"
I became alert and was shocked. Wasn't Lao Yang in jail two years ago? How come he betrayed me? I was so anxious that I broke out in a cold sweat. "Who... who is Lao Yang? I don't know him."
"I understand, I understand," he laughed and took out a watch from his pocket, "Look, Lao Yang said you will understand it once you see this . "
The watch was given to Lao Yang by his first love when he was in Northeast China. He treated the watch as if it were his life. When he was drunk, he would take out the watch and look at it while calling "Juan, Li". I asked him what his wife's name was. He thought for a long time and burst into tears, saying that he had forgotten it. Lao Yang was willing to give the watch to this person, which showed that this person was indeed of some importance.
But no matter how I looked at him, I felt that he looked hateful. But since he had come to my house, I should talk to him directly, so I raised my hand and said, "Even if you are Lao Yang's friend, what do you want from me?"
He grinned, revealing a big gold tooth: "A friend of mine brought back something from Shanxi, and I want you to take a look at it to see if it's real."
"Look at your Beijing accent. You are a big shot from Beijing. You come to the south to consult me. You are flattering me. There are so many good people in Beijing. I am afraid you have other intentions!"
He chuckled, "They say southerners are smart, and it's true. Although you're not very old, you're very insightful. To be honest, I'm not here to see you. I want to meet your old man."
My expression changed immediately: "Looking for my grandfather, what are you thinking?"
"After your grandfather stole the Warring States silk book from Biaoziling in Changsha, did he leave behind one or two rubbings? My friend just wants to know if the scroll we have is the same as the one we have."
Before he finished speaking, I yelled to the guy who was dozing off beside me, "Wang Meng, get him out!"
The old man with the gold teeth was anxious: "Why are you chasing me away in the middle of a conversation?"
"You are right, but unfortunately you came too late. My father traveled to the west last year. If you want to find him, go back and slit his wrists!" I thought to myself, "That incident back then even alarmed the central government. It was a big deal. If I dig up old accounts for you, how can my family be safe?"
"I say, little grandson, why are you talking so unpleasantly?" The old man with the big gold teeth said with a sly smile, "It doesn't matter that the old man is gone. I didn't say how bad it was. Anyway, you should at least take a look at the things I brought. Can't you give face to Lao Yang?"
I glanced at him. He was smiling but not really smiling. It seemed that he really wouldn't leave unless I looked at him. I thought I'd just give him some face so that he wouldn't complain when he came out. So I nodded and said, "Just take a look. I can't say if it's true or not."
In fact, this Warring States silk book has more than 20 volumes, and each volume is different. The one that my grandfather copied at that time was only a very short part of it, but it was extremely important. Now I have several copies of it as treasures in the bottom of the box, and you can't buy them even if you have money. I saw the old man with gold teeth took out a piece of white paper from his arms, and I got angry when I saw it. Damn, it's a photocopy.
"That's right. You can't carry that treasure around with you. It will break into pieces if you eat it with a bucket." He said, and lowered his voice to pretend to be mysterious: "If it weren't for my wide connections, this thing would have been sold abroad long ago. It can be considered as serving the people . "
I laughed and said, "From your looks, you look like a tomb robber. I don't think you dare to make a move. This is a national treasure. You don't want your head anymore!"
When I exposed his words, the old man's face turned green, but he had to endure it because he needed my help. He said, "You can't say that. Every profession has its own rules. When your father was a local thief in Changsha, he was also famous..."
My face must have looked very ugly, and I gritted my teeth and said, "If you mention my grandfather again, I won't watch it !!"
"Okay, let's stop. Take a look for me so I can run away quickly."
I unfolded the white paper and knew at a glance that this was a well-preserved silk book from the Warring States Period, but it was not the one my grandfather had stolen. Although this one was also quite old, it was probably a fake from later dynasties, in other words, an antique fake. This was something with an embarrassing identity, so I smiled and said, "This should be a fake from the Han Dynasty. How should I put it? You say it's fake, but it's not fake. You say it's real, but it's not real either. I don't know what to say."
"Is this the one your grandfather stole?"
"To tell you the truth, my grandfather didn't even have time to take a look at the stolen copy before he was tricked by the American. I really can't answer your question." I thought to myself, it's not easy to fool you, and I pretended to be very sincere. The old man with gold teeth actually believed it and sighed: "That's really unfortunate. It seems that if I don't go find that American, I'm afraid there is really no hope."
"Why, why do you care so much about this volume?" I asked. This is so strange. The collection of ancient books depends on fate. It would be too greedy to want to find a set of 20 volumes of ancient books from the Warring States Period.
"Little brother, to be honest with you, I'm not a tomb robber. Look at my body, it's been very hard. But my friend is indeed an expert. I don't know what he is trying to say. Anyway, he has his own reasons." He laughed and shook his head: "It's not good for us to ask too much, right? I'll leave first." After that, he left without looking back.
I looked down and saw that the copy was still in my hand. Suddenly, I found a pattern on the paper. It was a fox-like face with two pupil-less eyes that looked three-dimensional, as if they were sunken out of the paper. I gasped. I had never seen this silk book before. It must be a treasure. I thought, when Lao Yang comes out, I can make a few fake rubbings with this copy, which will be fun enough for me. I hurried out the door and saw the old man with gold teeth rushing back.
I thought he must have come back to get this thing, so I ran back, took a picture of it with my digital camera, and then walked out the door with the paper. I bumped into the nose of the old man with the big gold teeth: "You forgot something," I said.
My grandfather was a Changsha local robber, that is, a tomb robber. It was not surprising that my grandfather got into this business. In today's terms, it was hereditary. When my great-grandfather's great-grandfather was 13 years old, there was a drought in central China. In those days, whenever there was a drought, there would be a famine. Even if you had money, you couldn't buy anything to eat. At that time, there was nothing in the corners of Changsha except for the many ancient tombs. So they lived off the mountains and the tombs. The whole village worked together to rob tombs. I don't know how many people starved to death in those years, but no one in their village died. Everyone in their village was well fed, relying on the things they dug out to exchange for food from foreigners.
Later, as time went by, this thing had a cultural accumulation. By the time my grandfather came, there were already rules and schools. At that time, tomb robbers were divided into two schools, the southern and the northern. The southern school was my grandfather's school, which was good at exploring the soil with a Luoyang shovel and could determine the depth and dynasty with just one nose. Now many novels describe Luoyang shovels at every turn, but in fact the northern school does not use Luoyang shovels. They are good at accurately judging the location and structure of the mausoleum, which is the so-called dragon-finding and acupuncture point finding. But what do people from the northern school say? My grandfather said they were not honest, too many tricks, and they had so many tricks to rob a tomb. They went in and took the things and left, and they also knocked and knocked, which was bureaucratic. The southern school had few rules and never tabooed the dead. People from the northern school scolded the southern school as local dogs, who wasted cultural relics, and every overturned bucket collapsed, and even pulled out the dead to sell. The southern school scolded the northern school as hypocrites, who were obviously thieves but made a fool of themselves. Later on, it even came to the point of a bloody fight, and there was even a fight between corpses. Finally, the two factions split up along the Yangtze River. The northern faction was called tomb raiding, and the southern faction was called sand or soil panning. The Luoyang shovel was not invented until after the split, and the northerners simply didn't bother to use it.
My grandfather could not read and later he attended a literacy class. At that time he could only pan for sand, and learning to check a word was a very difficult task for him. Thanks to his education, he was able to record some of his experiences. The third man in Biaoziling, Changsha, was my grandfather. He recorded all these things word by word in his old notebook. My grandmother was an educated person and a lady from a noble family. She was attracted by his stories. Finally, my grandfather moved to Hangzhou and settled down here.
That notebook is a family heirloom. My grandfather's nose was completely ruined after that incident. Later, he trained a dog to smell the soil, and people nicknamed it "Dog King". This is a true story. The older generation who are now working as soil collectors in Changsha know this name.
As for how my grandfather survived, and what happened to my second uncle and great-grandfather, my grandfather never told me. In my memory, I have never seen a one-eyed and one-armed second uncle. I guess he was in great danger. When I mentioned this, my grandfather cried and said directly: "That is not a story for children." No matter how we asked or how we acted, he refused to reveal a word. Finally, as we grew older, we gradually lost the good unity of our childhood.
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In the evening, the shop closed. Another boring day had passed and nothing was brought in. I sent the guy away. At this time, a text message came in.
" 9 o'clock corns yellow sand"
It was sent by my uncle at home. This was a code word, which meant that new goods had arrived. Then, there was another message: "Dragon Back, come quickly."
My eyes lit up. Uncle San has surprisingly high vision. This dragon's back means there must be something good. Even he thinks it is a good thing. I really want to see it.
I closed the shop and drove my old Jinbei car straight to my uncle's place. On the one hand, I wanted to see what he called good things, and on the other hand, I also wanted him to see what the pattern on the silk book I took a picture of today was. After all, he was the only one of our generation who had contact with the tomb robbers.
As soon as I drove to the bottom of his building, I heard him shouting from above, "You little bastard, I told you to hurry up, you've been groping for so long, it's no use coming now!"
I leaned over and said, "No way, leave the good stuff for me too, you're selling it too fast."
As he was talking, I saw a young man walking out of his main door, carrying a long object on his back, tightly wrapped in cloth. I could tell at a glance that it was an ancient weapon. This thing was indeed valuable, and if it sold well, the price could increase more than ten times.
I pointed at the young man, and my third uncle nodded and made a helpless gesture. I felt sad and thought, is my stall really going to go bankrupt this year?
I went upstairs, got myself a cup of coffee, and told my third uncle about the old man with gold teeth who came to spy on me today. I thought he would share my hatred of the enemy, but he seemed like a different person. He remained silent and directly printed out the contents of my digital camera. When I looked at it under the light, I immediately saw that my third uncle's face changed.
"What's wrong?" I asked, "What's so strange about this thing?"
He frowned and said, "No way, this looks like a map of an ancient tomb!"