The more he spoke, the angrier Second Brother Sun became. The veins on his forehead bulged, and it looked like he was about to throw a punch at any moment.
Third Brother Sun shook his head and sighed, then pressed the intercom and said, "Boss, there's a new situation down here. The pit's already been looted."
There was a minute of silence on the other end of the intercom before Boss Wang responded coldly, "When was it hit? Did you make it into the main burial chamber?"
"No, we're still in the tomb passage. Just now, a towel washed over with the water. It's obvious—it must've been robbed not long ago. Boss, you know how those folks from the south operate. When they hit a tomb, they rarely leave anything valuable behind."
Boss Wang thought for a moment and said, "Second Brother, here's what you do: check the main burial chamber. If there's nothing left there, don't bother with the side chambers. Just pack up the gear and come back up."
"Got it, Boss," Second Brother Sun replied, putting down the intercom.
I don't smoke, so my sense of smell is pretty sharp. Right then, I suddenly caught a faint whiff of fragrance, a subtle scent of incense.
"Second Brother… why does it smell like incense?" I asked, puzzled.
Hearing this, Second Brother Sun exaggeratedly sniffed the air ahead of us.
Then he turned to Third Brother Sun, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.
"You're right. We didn't notice it earlier. It's nanmu incense," he said, his expression suddenly turning serious.
"Second Brother, Third Brother, what's wrong? Is there something unusual about this nanmu scent?" Seeing their grave expressions, I was confused.
Here's what I was thinking: In the past, wealthy people were often buried in nanmu coffins. Isn't it normal for nanmu wood to have this distinctive fragrance?
The relaxed expressions on the faces of the Sun brothers vanished.
"Yunfeng, give me your hand."
"Huh? What do you need my hand for?" I reached out my hand, puzzled.
"Second Brother, what are you doing?" A sharp pain shot through my finger, and I couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
It turned out he had used a sharp dagger to slice my finger in one swift motion.
Crimson blood flowed out, and the Sun brothers, one after the other, smeared some of my blood onto their wrists.
"Second Brother, Third Brother, why are you smearing my blood?" I sucked on my injured finger and complained.
This is what Second Brother Sun said to me at the time:
"Yunfeng, in our line of work—tomb raiding—we fear encountering the 'Four Great Evils' and the 'Six Minor Evils.'"
"A cross-eyed tomb-guarding beast, aloeswood fragrance light as a flower, a black lacquer coffin that never rots, and an eternal lamp whose oil never dries—these are the Four Great Evils. This is the rule passed down by our ancestors: fresh blood breaks evil."
He made it sound mysterious, but I didn't take it seriously. Was he trying to scare me like a child?
I said softly, feeling wronged, "Then... then why didn't you cut your own fingers? Why cut mine?"
Second Brother Sun patted my head and smirked slyly, "Our blood won't work. We need the blood of a virgin. Yunfeng, don't tell me you've never even held a girl's hand?"
I stammered, unable to respond.
Then, deliberately changing the subject, I retorted, "Then what are the Six Minor Evils?"
Third Brother Sun shook his head and said to me, "Yunfeng, you've just entered this line of work and haven't seen much yet. You don't know—these are traditions passed down by the older generation in the trade."
"Quicksand tombs, heavenly fire pouring from above, an incorruptible tomb owner, gems stuffed in the orifices, an outer coffin larger than the inner coffin, and rats nesting in the coffin—these are what tomb raiders in the old society referred to as the Six Minor Evils."
"Among the 360 trades, which one doesn't have its own secrets? In the old society, our tomb-raiding trade was called one of the 'Eight Deviant Gates.' Now, in the new society, we're called criminals. The orthodox eight gates are the upper nine streams, while the deviant eight gates are the lower nine streams. Besides, there are also the 'Seven Yin Gates,' which deal with the dead."
Third Brother Sun continued, "Yunfeng, now that you're in this trade, you'll need to learn all this eventually, so you don't embarrass yourself or our Northern faction when others ask you. The so-called Seven Yin Gates are: the corpse stitcher, the executioner, the corpse driver, the grave blower, the paper figure maker, the bone collector, and the minor coffin maker (who specializes in making coffins for deceased children). These are the Seven Yin Gates. Yunfeng, you must remember this when you venture out into the world in the future."
At the time, I really couldn't remember all these乱七八糟 things. I just felt like he was talking about a jumble of stuff—something about seven gates and eight gates—and I had no idea what he was going on about.
"Alright, Third Brother, he's still young. There's no use telling him all this. Let's go check out the main burial chamber up ahead," Second Brother Sun shook his wrist and said, "We've got Yunfeng's virgin blood on us now—it wards off evil!"
We waded through the water along the tomb passage for another two or three minutes, but the main burial chamber still hadn't appeared. As we got closer, we saw by the light of our headlamps that it was a stone wall blocking the way, not the main chamber.
Just then, a gust of wind blew in from somewhere. My feet were soaked in the murky water, and a cold shiver ran through me.
Walking to the base of the stone wall, Sun Laoer looked up. Above, on the vaulted roof of the tomb passage, a large black hole was clearly visible. The cool breeze was blowing in through that black hole.
The hole was irregularly shaped. Sun Laosan frowned at it and said, "This was done by the previous group. The section of the vault we passed earlier wasn't blown open, so it seems they changed the spot and blasted through here instead. Judging by the shape of the hole, they probably used detonators."
Sun Laosan keyed the walkie-talkie: "Boss, straight ahead is a stone wall. It's not the main burial chamber as we expected, and so far, we haven't seen any burial goods."
The walkie-talkie's red light lit up as Boss Wang directed remotely: "A tomb with blue clay paste must have a main burial chamber. Keep looking. Head left and check the western side chamber."
"Copy that, Boss. How much time do we have left?"
"Two hours and forty-five minutes until the safe window closes at dawn. Try to pick up the pace."
"Got it." Sun Laoer released the talk button and led me and Sun Laosan around the stone wall, moving cautiously toward the western side chamber.
It was my first time seeing a tomb's side chamber. Essentially, it was a small hollowed-out room. Judging by the waterline marks on the walls, it had once been completely submerged underwater.
And what did I see then?
At first glance, I saw piles of bronze vessels—large quantities of them—haphazardly strewn across the floor of the western side chamber. Some were broken, some intact: small round ding, square ding, bronze he, bronze dou, bronze jue. At a rough glance, there were dozens of pieces!
"We've hit the jackpot, we've hit the jackpot!"
Sun Laoer's eyes turned red with excitement. He stammered into the walkie-talkie: "B-Boss! We've struck it rich! There are dozens of bronze vessels in the western side chamber! Patinated with black lacquer and mercury corrosion! Genuine Western Zhou water-logged tomb artifacts!"
Boss Wang, having seen his share of storms, replied calmly through the walkie-talkie: "Transport them in batches. Get every last one of them out."
"Right away." Sun Laoer pulled out a carrying sack and muttered offhandedly, "Have those southern rats turned vegetarian? How could they leave so much loot for us? I thank their ancestors eight generations back on my mother's behalf!"
Sun Laosan, more cautious by nature, frowned and said gravely, "Second Brother, something doesn't feel right. Those southern rats have noses as sharp as ours. There's no way they couldn't smell this much loot. It doesn't add up..."
Sun Laoer didn't seem to mind the toxic mercury patina. He picked up a small square bronze ding and kissed it. "Haha, treasure, you're coming home with me!"
He couldn't resist taunting, "Third Brother, I think you're getting more timid by the day. Why overthink it? Let me ask you, if a bunch of female college students were lying on the ground naked, what would you do?"
"Obviously, deal with it after the fact."