"Hehe, young man, you're so young. What could be so troubling?"
I wiped my tears and turned around, stunned. Wasn't this the old man who gave me directions yesterday at Panjiayuan? The same one who told me that the stalls at Baoguosi Temple were free.
"Son, I noticed you the moment you came to Panjiayuan to sell your things yesterday. If I had to guess, were you robbed?"
The old man was dressed in casual clothes, with streaks of white at his temples, but he looked energetic.
Without thinking too much, I nodded, my eyes red, and told him the money I'd made from selling my goods had been stolen—I didn't want to live anymore.
He shook his head and chuckled lightly. "How much did you lose, son?"
I said it was over four thousand yuan.
"Hehe," he laughed, raising one finger. "You call four thousand yuan money? Work with me, and in this same amount of time, I can help you earn twenty thousand."
Staring blankly at his single raised finger, I asked, "How long? A year?"
The old man shook his head.
"A month?"
He shook his head again.
"A week???"
"Haha, I'll stop teasing you—one minute! As long as you catch on quickly, earning a few thousand is a matter of minutes!"
I found it unbelievable. I had thought he was a trafficker trying to get me to sell my kidney.
If it were about selling my kidney, I wouldn't do it. Dying would be one thing, but if I survived after selling a kidney, I'd heard people say you could never have kids for the rest of your life, and even your wife might end up cheating on you.
He left me with one sentence before turning to leave.
"Young man, if you want to make a name for yourself and return home gloriously in a luxury car, then follow me. But if you're still hung up on dying over such a trivial amount of money, then don't bother. It'll prove I misjudged you."
Yes, 4,000 yuan was an astronomical figure for my impoverished family, but to him, it was mere chicken feed.
This man was the one who brought me into the trade—my master.
His path to fortune was through tomb raiding.
Seek the dragon through countless winding hills, each fold a barrier, each gate a lock; if the doors are sealed with a thousand locks, a king or lord surely rests within.
From the moment I followed him down the overpass, I was in the game.
Not long after I entered the industry, I came to understand that what the old man said was true—a few thousand yuan is really just chicken feathers, something you can earn in minutes.
Have you all often heard about the four major sects of tomb raiding?
The Touch Gold Lieutenant, the Mountain Moving Taoist, the Ridge Removing Strongman, and the Grave Digging General.
The reality is not like this. These sects have long disappeared into the river of history. Nowadays, those in the trade are roughly divided into two factions:
the Northern faction and the Southern faction.
Some also jokingly refer to them as the "Bold faction" and the "Cautious faction."
The northern school is bold and unconventional; with a Luoyang shovel in hand, they'll dig up anything. However, there's one thing they're not good at: tackling waterlogged tombs, especially those in southern regions like Hunan, Guizhou, and Zhejiang. As the saying goes, "A dry tomb lasts a thousand years, a waterlogged one ten thousand, but one that's half-dry, half-wet lasts only half a year." Waterlogged tombs are extremely challenging. They require the diver to have the skills of an aquatic expert, and for particularly deep ones, professional diving equipment with air tanks is necessary.
To be fair, most of the northern school are not adept in water—they excel on land but are truly out of their element underwater.
The southern school often operates as a family business, with fathers bringing sons and grandfathers bringing grandsons into the trade. They rarely team up with outsiders, which is why they're sometimes mockingly called the "cautious school." Of course, this approach is to prevent betrayal within the group.
This line of work is a mixed bag, with all sorts of characters. The skilled are truly exceptional—people who can recite the "Burial Classic" backwards and identify a tomb's location at a glance, and that's no exaggeration. Then there are the amateurs who try to bluff their way through, the kind who grab a hoe and think they can just go dig up a grave. Those are the ones who end up dead the quickest, and they're also the ones most often caught.
Those who operate like a professional team are rarely caught.
Let me give you a rough idea.
In a six-person tomb-raiding team, the one who earns the most is the "Spotter." The Spotter's role is to locate and assess tombs—it's a highly technical job. A skilled Spotter is in high demand no matter where they go.
There's also the "rice seller"—this is an industry code name, where "rice" refers to money. In some regions, they are also called "goods sellers." This person is responsible for converting the stolen items into cash. This role particularly requires strong connections. Those coming from the south or heading north all have their own networks and circles. One crucial requirement is that the sold items must not be traceable.
Then there's the tunnel digger, a role that values experience. With a single strike of the Luoyang shovel, they can determine the era of the tomb by examining the soil layers brought up.
Below the tunnel digger is the lookout. As the name suggests, the lookout keeps watch. This role demands sharp vision and keen hearing. These individuals should not be underestimated, as keeping watch is crucial to the success of a major operation. Some lookouts even start their work a year in advance, blending in with local residents by opening businesses like supermarkets to gain their trust.
Another role is logistics support. This is usually handled by one person who does not enter the pits but is solely responsible for procuring and replacing equipment.
Rat suits, diamond shovels, small drills, gas masks, Luoyang shovels, fire starters, waterproof flashlights, walkie-talkies, tents and bedding, pots, pans, bowls, utensils, toothbrushes, and toothpaste—all must be procured by one person to minimize exposure and avoid revealing their identity.
Finally, there is the role of soil disperser.
When I first entered the industry, I worked as a soil disperser.
Soil dispersers earn the smallest share, but even that is far more than what an ordinary job pays.
For this role, the more ordinary-looking the person, the better. I was chosen precisely because of my average appearance.
Who would pay attention to a 16- or 17-year-old kid for no reason? Only someone with too much time on their hands.
On the other hand, if you're too handsome or too ugly, you can't do this job. You might be caught before even dispersing the soil in your pocket.
Carry a little at a time, pretending to take a walk and walk the dog, scatter the grave soil down the trouser legs without leaving a trace.
Afterward, secretly divide the money, and no one will notice us.
The old man who brought me into the business was named Wang Xiansheng. Everyone in the trade called him "Boss Wang." It's said that in his lifetime, he had explored over a thousand major tombs, ranging from the Warring States, Qin, and Han dynasties to the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties—he had basically handled them all.
In the trade, two types of tombs are the most favored: Han dynasty tombs and Western Zhou dynasty tombs.
The reason is simple: bronze artifacts and high-ancient jade are extremely valuable. As the saying goes, "Nine out of ten Han tombs are empty," and this is absolutely true.
Western Zhou tombs are even more remarkable.
During the era of "using beacon fires to amuse the feudal lords," feudal lords were everywhere, and the trend of lavish burials was prevalent. If you were lucky enough to find a deep pit filled with bronze artifacts—a tomb of a feudal lord from the Western Zhou dynasty—then congratulations, your descendants for three generations wouldn't need to work.
Similarly, Western Zhou tombs are buried deeper than those of any other dynasty. After Qin Shi Huang unified the six states and built the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, the practice of constructing burial mounds began to gain popularity.
Mountains shift and rivers change.
Typically, Western Zhou tombs lie more than 15 meters underground, with no burial mounds, making them difficult to find and even harder to excavate.
On the surface, relevant authorities prohibit the trade of bronze vessels, but everyone knows where the bronze vessels featured on TV appraisal shows come from.
Less than one percent of these artifacts have been passed down through generations—where do the rest come from? Do they just pop up out of nowhere?
They all come from the same place—they've been leaked out by people in our line of work.
Back then, Boss Wang took me away from Beijing and told me to avoid contact with the outside world for a while. The first job I did was in Shunde.
It was a tomb dating back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. They were severely short-handed, which was why Boss Wang recruited me to handle the soil scattering. I was the youngest member of the team at the time.
When we got to Shunde, Boss Wang straight up handed me 1,000 kuai. He said it was a rule—a red envelope for joining the trade. He told me to spend it freely, saying I could even use it to have fun with girls.
I was so young back then, how could I have dared to go find my sister? Besides, daily expenses like eating and drinking didn't cost much.
I tried Shunde's snake soup, four-cup chicken, fried fish cakes, Jun'an roasted suckling pig, and more—all of them were delicious.
After wandering around Shunde for two days, Boss Wang called me over and said, "Yunfeng, tonight's the time to get to work. So, are you ready? Did you remember everything I taught you?"
I nodded and said, "I remember: no scattering soil at dawn, no scattering soil when there are cars around, no scattering soil in parks, and no scattering soil in busy areas."
Boss Wang nodded with satisfaction and then asked me, "In that case, where do you plan to go?"
After thinking for a moment, I told him, "Boss, by construction sites, near demolition zones, in the woods, or in gardens."
"Haha, not bad! I haven't even taught you these yet. Well done, well done—you've got a knack for this."
"Stay sharp, follow us closely, and I'll make you the richest person in your village within two years. Got it?"
My face lit up with joy, and I immediately nodded in agreement.