Ancient tomb excavation traces

Ge San's house looks very ordinary from the outside, similar to a typical village house, but the inside is much better than Wang Laohan's house. There are dried cured meats and all kinds of pottery jars in the house. If you think about it, these things would be treasures in the 21st century!

My gaze remained fixed on the alluring flesh, and I couldn't help but think: if I could eat a piece today, even if I, Feng Liu, went to the underworld, I could die a full-bodied ghost.

Perhaps sensing how hungry Bao Cai and I were, Ge San took down some dried cured meat and brought out a jar of aged wine from the inner room, asking us to sit and wait a while. After smelling the aroma of the meat, Bao Cai and I were practically drooling on the table.

Watching Ge San's busy figure, I felt grateful. The aroma of meat made my stomach rumble. To distract myself from my hunger, I stood up and examined the tiger skin and the broadsword hanging on the wall, while Bao Cai stood very seriously in front of the corner of the wall by the door.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, walking up to him with a puzzled look.

Bao Cai frowned slightly, rubbing his chin, and said, "Don't you think the wax on this lamp is a bit unusual?"

After listening to him, I sniffed it carefully and nodded. To be honest, I don't know anything about candles, but seeing this lamp piqued my interest. It was a bronze lamp shaped like a bean with water ripples. Judging from its simple appearance and color, it didn't seem to be from the late Eastern Han Dynasty; it must be earlier. I searched my memory for some old pictures my grandfather had shown me, trying to compare it with the antiques unearthed today. Finally, I confidently said, "Wow, this thing is from the Warring States period! If it were in our time, it would be worth a lot of money!"

"Really?" Bao Cai's eyes lit up when I said that. He always reacted very strongly when the word "valuable" was mentioned.

"By the way, what did you mean by the wax you mentioned earlier?" I asked Bao Cai, looking at the bronze lamp.

Bao Cai pointed to the wax in the bronze lamp: "I studied entomology back in university. Looking closely, this is a type of insect wax used in ancient times, made from high-quality beeswax." Bao Cai pinched a small amount with his fingertips and continued, "This kind is whitish and quite pure; it should be very valuable. How come something so valuable is in an ordinary villager's house?"

"Don't forget, Ge San's brother is a tomb raider. These things might have come from underground," I whispered a reminder.

"Good eye. That bronze lamp was indeed brought up from underground, but the beeswax wasn't; I made it myself." Suddenly, a deep male voice rang out behind us. I jumped and immediately turned around. Ge San looked at us, his eyes devoid of any emotion, and said coldly, "I didn't expect you two to know so much."

I nodded awkwardly. He looked at us with a hint of wariness: "Your accents don't sound like you're from around here. Where are you from, and what do you do?" Ge San's tone was questioning, suggesting that he didn't trust us two complete strangers.

Where did it come from? This question really stumped me, since I was born in modern times, and I can't exactly say I run a shop in Hangzhou.

After thinking for a moment, I gave my answer: "I'm just a woodcarver, and he's my subordinate. We were just trying to settle things when Grandpa Wang saved us. I've told you everything else. In short, we want to see your brother so he can take us to the underworld, fulfill the old man's wish, and let him rest in peace." Although I was forcing a smile, even I felt it was a little fake.

Ge San glanced at my hands, probably to confirm whether I had done any woodworking. After a moment, he turned around, walked to the table, put down the cured meat and a bowl of beef he was carrying, and said with his back to us, "My brother can't take you there."

Hearing that he didn't press further, I breathed a sigh of relief, but noticing a hint of heaviness in his voice, I quickly asked, "Why? Is it because the underground is terrifying, so..."

Ge San sighed, his tone tinged with sorrow, "No... In our line of work, we're always looking for a way to survive in the dead, so we'll go down into even the most dangerous burial sites. But my brother can no longer go."

"Us? Are you a tomb raider too?" I asked, puzzled.

Ge San nodded: "In a time when people are devouring each other, what other way is there to survive? We can only ask the dead for money!" There was a hint of helplessness in Ge San's expression. He sneered: "Heh, maybe it's just bad karma. After my brother came out of the underworld, he didn't say a word. The only thing he asked me to do was to inform the Wang family about Wang Yu's death. A few days later, he suddenly went mad."

"Gone mad?" Bao Cai exclaimed in astonishment. "One's dead, the other's insane—isn't that a very dangerous acupoint?"

Ge San looked at us and said, "Four people lost their lives underground, plus my brother, the only one who escaped, making a total of five dead."

These words struck me like a thunderbolt, making my heart skip a beat. So Ge San's brother was dead too! I bit my lip, thinking: Wasn't that a total annihilation? Holy crap, that's too much! From the Republic of China era to modern times, countless people have wielded shovels to plunder tombs, but I've never heard of anything this tragic. Many even made a fortune from it. However, quite a few archaeologists studying the Egyptian pyramids have died, and the causes of their deaths are shrouded in mystery and speculation—all sounding both frightening and unbelievable.

I swallowed hard, calming myself down, and asked Ge San, "Whose acupoint is that? How could it be so dangerous?"

"My brother told me it was a Chu tomb from the Warring States period, but I don't know whose it was. However, knowing my brother's personality, the tomb he went to certainly wasn't an ordinary one."

Hearing about the Chu tombs from the Warring States period, I couldn't help but think of the silk in Chen Yi's hand and the stone door that the thieves brought up from underground. These things seemed preordained, filling me with curiosity and making me want to explore them more deeply. The image of the woman playing the zither resurfaced in my mind, but I didn't understand why I was seeing these things. Could this woman be connected to all the strange events that had occurred?

A chill ran down my spine as my thoughts raced, and I forgot all about my hunger. The air was silent for a while before Ge San broke the silence by inviting us to take our seats. He then said, "Nine out of ten tombs are dangerous. Although you are sincere to the Wang family, if you haven't done tomb raiding before, I advise you not to go and risk your lives." He opened a bottle of aged wine, which reminded me of Lao Jiu. He loved to drink fine wines. Now, only Bao Cai and I depend on each other for survival in this era, while their fate is unknown. Thinking of this, my heart ached.

Upon hearing this, Bao Cai grabbed a piece of cured meat and stuffed it into his mouth, then smacked his lips and said, "This guy's right. If it's so fierce down there, we'd better not go!"

In fact, I was a little hesitant, but I hadn't tasted meat in a long time, and my morals were completely shattered. I couldn't stop eating, and after a meal, Bao Cai and I were already quite drunk. In my daze, Ge San left a message: "Five days. If you two want to think it over, I will take you to that place."

So those words lingered in my mind for five whole days. To be honest, I'm a fairly decent person; I don't like disturbing the peace of the dead, nor do I want to lose face. It was only because I promised my benefactor that I wanted to find Ge San's younger brother to lead the way to find Wang Yu's remains. But for those five days, Bao Cai and I wandered around the area near the village in front, eating and sleeping in the open, barely getting enough to eat. The following days were practically starving.

Lately, I've been thinking: if other people time-traveled, they'd either be living the high life as nobles in ancient times, or be heartthrobs surrounded by beautiful women. What kind of misery have I, Feng Liu, suffered? I'm living worse than a beggar. And I have absolutely no way to succeed; I don't know what I can do. In this era, who's going to buy my art? Besides, the craftsmanship of the ancients was far superior to mine. I'm thinking of joining the army. I could barely manage, but Bao Cai is so skinny; if he went, he'd probably be blown to bits in no time.

After days of torment from hunger, I suddenly realized the deeper meaning of the phrase "forced by circumstances," and the ethics and morals buried deep within me inadvertently wavered in the face of survival. I comforted myself: one must be honest; since I promised Old Man Wang, I must keep my promise. Once I'm underground, I'll take one or two usable funerary objects; after all, I still need to return to the modern world. To prevent my family from weeping over my permanent disappearance, I must survive in this era. Besides, connecting the series of bizarre events related to the Chu tombs in the modern world might provide the answer, and perhaps allow me to return to the modern world.

Having made this decision, I went to see Ge San. He was a sensible man. Although he had acquired the artifacts and made some money, he wasn't greedy. As he said, in this world, flaunting wealth is tantamount to courting death; it's enough to just barely make ends meet.

This idea basically coincided with mine. He told me that the reason he went underground was not just to dispose of a few funerary objects, but to soothe the guilt in his heart.

It turned out that Ge San had been ill and recuperating at home for a long time, so he was unable to go to the Chu Tomb with his younger brother. This time, he wanted to find out the reason why his brother suddenly went mad and died.

Before going, Ge San prepared a lot of things, such as iron chisels, steel knives, and saws. To be honest, I couldn't use these things. If it were my era, I would only need a gun. Those things are fast and powerful, and there are professional tools for mountaineering and burrowing, providing more protection. But exploring caves in ancient times is much more difficult than in the scientific age. While Ge San was choosing lighting tools, I took out my bicycle light from my down jacket and demonstrated how to use it. Seeing Ge San's astonished look, I didn't explain much, since he wouldn't understand even if I did.