I looked at the printed copy of the silk book with words on it, and then looked at Uncle San's expression. It didn't seem like he was joking. Could it be that Uncle San had transcended to the point where he could see the painting from the words? How could this old man who usually ate, drank, whored and gambled not have any immortal roots?
Uncle San was shaking with excitement, muttering to himself, "Where did these people get such good stuff? Why have I never come across it before? This time I am really lucky. It seems that they still don't know what this is. We can get it before they do."
I was very confused. "Uncle San, maybe I'm a little stupid, but can you really tell the map from these tiny words?"
"What do you know? This is called calligraphy. It is to write the detailed geographical location of that place in words. If it were someone else, they would really not be able to understand it. Fortunately, your uncle and I have some experience. In this world, there are probably no more than 10 people who can understand this thing besides me."
My uncle didn't have any other special talents, but he had been very interested in those strange and unorthodox ancient characters and secret codes since he was a child. In a word, he would study anything that was obscure, such as the five wood books of the Western Xia Dynasty and the earliest tooth characters of the Jurchens. So I was not surprised at all that he knew about the calligraphy and paintings of Laozi.
But he is the type who will act cute when he gets an advantage. You have to act dumb in front of him, otherwise he will dismiss you with just one sentence. So I pretended to be very stupid and asked him, "Oh, does it say on it that you should turn left and then right, turn right when you see a big tree in front of you, and then go down when you see a well? Like this?"
Uncle San sighed, "Confucian scholars cannot be taught. Your understanding is so poor. It seems that our family will be finished with your generation."
Seeing him sighing so sincerely, as if speaking from the heart, I couldn't help but laugh: "So what do you think it is? My father didn't teach me, and this thing is not innate."
He chuckled proudly and said, "This kind of calligraphy is actually a code. It has a strict format. As long as you draw what is written in it according to the format, it will become a complete map. So don't underestimate this silk book with only a few words. You don't know how complicated the information inside is. Maybe it even clearly marks where and how many bricks were used."
I became interested the moment I heard this. I thought to myself that my family had never allowed me to go out to rob real money since I was a child. This time, I must ask Uncle San to take me to see it and find some treasures to tide me over my financial crisis. I asked him while thinking, "Then can you tell whose tomb is marked inside? Is it someone with a more prominent background?"
Uncle San smiled proudly, "I can't fully understand it now, but this tomb should belong to a noble of the State of Lu during the Warring States Period. You see, the location of his tomb was recorded on a piece of silk book with calligraphy and painting, which shows that this person's status should be quite high, and this cemetery must be very secretive. It is worth a visit."
I saw his eyes sparkling, and I was surprised. This old guy was usually too lazy to go out, so could he be planning to go out in person this time? That would be a rare event, so I asked him, "Why? Uncle San, are you really planning to go and pan for this pile of sand yourself?"
He patted my shoulder and said, "You don't understand this, right? Let me tell you, in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, there were treasures in the bowls, but they were just exquisite works. But in the Warring States period, the royal tombs of that period were too old, and you could never guess what was inside. The tombs of the Warring States period were where divine artifacts were found, and they were things that didn't exist in the world! How could I not want to see them?"
"Are you so sure? Maybe there's nothing in there?"
"No, didn't you see the pattern?" He pointed at the strange fox face. "This is the mask worn during the earliest human sacrifices in Lu. The person buried in this tomb must be someone of special status, perhaps even more noble than the emperor at the time."
I blurted out "The Emperor's father"
Uncle San glared at me and wanted to put the printed paper away. I held it down and smiled at him: "Uncle San, don't be in a hurry to put it away. After all, I got this thing. You have to take me to see it this time."
He yelled, "No, it's not that easy to dig up a tomb. There's no air conditioning in that place, and it's full of traps. It could break down at any time. You are your father's only child. If anything happens to you, I will skin your father alive."
I also shouted, "Forget it! Just pretend I've never been here!" and yanked the paper out of his hand. He turned and walked away. My uncle has no principles when he sees something he likes. He does this with antiques and women. I was sure of this. Sure enough, he surrendered after just a few steps. He caught up with me and grabbed the paper in my hand: "Okay, okay, you're awesome, but let's make a deal. When we go down the tunnel, you have to stay up there. Is that okay?"
I was immediately overjoyed, thinking: When I want to go down, can you still stop me? I nodded quickly, "One word! When I go out, I will listen to you. I will do whatever you tell me to do."
Uncle San sighed helplessly and said, "The two of us are not enough. I will call a few experienced guys over tomorrow. I will explain this calligraphy and painting in the next few days, and you can help me make some things." As he said that, he quickly wrote me a note and said to me, "Don't buy fakes. Also, prepare your travel clothes, otherwise we will detain you before you even get to the place." I nodded in agreement, and we each went our separate ways.
The things that Uncle San wanted were quite tricky. I think he wanted to embarrass me. The things on this list were not available in most stores, such as split waterproof mining lamps, threaded steel pipes, soil shovel heads, multi-purpose sabers, folding shovels, short-handled hammers, bandages, nylon ropes, etc. I spent nearly 10,000 yuan just to buy 1/2 of the items. I felt so bad. I cursed that old fox in my heart. He was so rich but still so stingy.
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Three days later, I, two of my uncle's old sand panning buddies, and the young man who bought my uncle's dragon back that day, the five of us arrived at a place more than 100 kilometers west of Guazimiao, Shandong. That place, how can I describe it, can only be described as a place with nothing. We first took a long-distance bus, then a long-distance minibus, then a long-distance motorcycle, and then a cow. When we finally got off the cow cart, we looked around and still saw nothing. Then we saw a dog running in front of us. My third uncle patted the guide we invited and said, "Grandpa, let's ride this dog for the next leg. I'm afraid this dog is tough!"
"No," the old man laughed. "This dog is used to deliver messages. For this last leg, there are no cars, so we need a boat. The dog will bring the boat here."
"This dog can swim?"
"You are swimming well, you are swimming well." The old man looked at the dog and said, "Donkey Egg, go and swim for a try."
The dog was really smart, it really jumped into the river and swam around, then came up to shake its fur, and then lay on the ground and stuck out its tongue.
"It's too early now. The boatman must not have started working yet. Let's take a break and have a cigarette."
I looked at my watch and said, "It's 2pm and you haven't started working yet. What's your work schedule as a boatman?"
"He is the only boatman here, and he is the best. He starts working whenever he gets up. Sometimes he doesn't work for the whole day, which makes people anxious to death." The old man smiled and said, "There is no way. The river god only gives him face. Others, once they enter the cave, will never get out, but he will be fine. If you can ride a mule, we can climb over the mountain and arrive in one day. But you see you have so many things, and there are not enough mules in our village for you to use."
"Oh," Uncle San became excited when he heard the word cave, and took out the translated map. He always treated this map like a treasure and never let me even look at it. As soon as he took it out, we immediately leaned over to take a look, but the young man was the only one who sat aside without saying a word.
To be honest, my second uncle's two buddies are easy to get along with, they are all honest people, but this burden, he didn't say a word the whole way, just stared at the sky, as if the sky would fall down, so annoying! I said a few words to him at first, but later I just didn't bother to pay attention to him. I really don't understand why my third uncle brought him here.
"There is a cave, it really is a river cave, it's behind this mountain" Uncle San said, "How come old man, this cave can eat people?"
The old man chuckled, "These are all words passed down by previous generations. I can't remember clearly. When the river was not accessible, the villagers said there was a snake spirit in it, and no one who went in ever came out. Then one day, the great grandfather of the boatman paddled a small boat out of the cave, saying he was a peddler from outside. How could a peddler carry a boat around? Everyone said he was a snake spirit in disguise, so his great grandfather laughed and said he bought the boat from the next village. If you don't believe it, you can go to the next village to ask. When they went to ask, it turned out to be true. Then others believed it and thought the monster in the cave was gone. As a result, several brave young people went to explore the cave, but it didn't come out. From then on, only people from his family could go in and out directly. Don't you think it's weird? Later, his family has been doing this business until now."
"Is the dog okay?" I was surprised. "Isn't he used to deliver messages?"
"This dog is also his family's. If someone else's dog goes in, even a cow can't get out."
"No one in the government cares about such a weird thing?"
"That has to be said only if people believe it." The old man tapped his pipe on the ground.
Uncle San frowned and clapped his hands: "Donkey Egg, come here"
The dog was really obedient, running over happily. Uncle San picked him up and smelled it, his face changed: "No way, is there such a thing in that cave?"
I also picked it up and smelled it. The smell of dog odor made me cough all day. The owner of this dog is so lazy. I don't know how long it has been since he gave the dog a bath.
One of his buddies named Pan Zi laughed out loud: "You want to learn from your uncle, but you are still too young."
"Why is this damn dog so smelly!" I grimaced in disgust.
"This dog grew up eating dead human flesh when he was young," said Uncle San. "That's a corpse cave. No wonder it takes so long to get through. I'm afraid that boatman was also a -"
"No way!" I was so scared that my hair stood on end. As soon as I said this, even the silent boy's face changed.
Another of my uncle's buddies was a big guy. We called him Agui. He looked as big as the ox pulling the cart, but he was timid. He asked softly, "What on earth is that corpse cave? Will there be any trouble if we go in?"
"I don't know. A few years ago I found such a cave in Taiyuan, Shanxi. It was where the Japanese massacred people and piled up corpses. Wherever there is a cave with corpses, there must have been a massacre. That's for sure. At that time, I thought it was fun, so I did an experiment there. I put dogs and ducks on a bamboo raft, then set up a camera and pushed it in. The cave was at most a little over 1 kilometer long. I prepared a long enough cable, but when the cable was all pulled out, the bamboo raft didn't come out. It was pitch black inside. I didn't know where it drifted to. Later, I wanted to pull the bamboo raft out, but I pulled it. After a few flips, the raft suddenly flipped over, and then... "Uncle San spread his hands, "In the end, I only saw half of the face. The screen was too close to me and I couldn't tell whether it was a dog or something else. To pass through this kind of hole, in ancient times, a row of dead and living people would go through it at the same time. If it was a living thing, it would not be able to get out once it entered! However, I heard that there is a place in Shanxi where people feed their children with dead people's flesh since childhood, accumulating corpse qi in their bodies. When they grow up, they are no different from dead people, and even ghosts can't see them. Old man, is your boatman from Shanxi?"
The old man's expression changed slightly and he shook his head: "I don't know, that was the time of his great-grandfather, they were not from the same dynasty." Then he looked up at the sky and called to the dog: "Lu Dandan, go and get your boat!" The dog whined, jumped into the water and swam behind San.
At this time, I saw that the third uncle winked at Pan Zi, who secretly took out a backpack from the luggage and put it on his back. The young man sitting on the side also stood up and took out his bag from the luggage pile. When Pan Zi walked behind me, he whispered in Hangzhou dialect: "There is something wrong with this old man, be careful."