"Big bro, what is Jiehou Daizi? Is it some kind of seaweed?"
Sun, the eldest brother, didn't laugh. He looked at me and said, "It's not seaweed—it's a person's name. There are only fragmentary records about this person in the archives. Who would've thought we'd stumble upon it by accident? So, Boss, are we still making our move tonight? It looks like Second Brother and Third Brother are already prepared."
Boss Wang looked at him seriously and asked, "No issues on the outpost side, right?"
Sun, the eldest brother, nodded. "None. The young guys under 'Moley' are pretty sharp."
"Eldest Brother, let's not move this batch of goods just yet, especially this bronze dou. If word gets out in Shunde, there's a good chance it'll attract wolves."
"Wolves from the south?" The eldest brother's face darkened.
"I'm afraid it's not just wolves from the south. These days, there are too many wolves and too little meat to go around—everyone's just picking at bones. If we don't keep the lid on this tight, the smell of meat might lure wild wolves to us."
"Eldest Brother, I've made a decision," Boss Wang said, raising a hand with all five fingers spread. "Five days—we cut the time down to five days. Get everything dug out for me. Once we have it, we'll leave Shunde as quickly as possible and find a place to lay low for a while."
From this exchange between Boss Wang and Sun, the eldest brother, I could tell they were both a bit tense, as if they were wary of something.
The hour of Zi had passed, and on Fei'e Mountain, Second Brother Sun was squatting on the ground smoking, while Third Brother Sun was counting the burlap sacks.
"All quiet. Let's begin," came Old Sun's voice over the walkie-talkie.
"Yunfeng, how many sacks do you have left?"
"Second Brother, I still have four."
"Hmm, that should be enough," Second Brother Sun said, stamping out his cigarette butt.
Just then, strange bird calls echoed from Fei'e Mountain. The cries were unsettling to hear in the dead of night.
"What an ill omen," Old Wang cursed twice, glaring at the pitch-black mountain behind him. He said the bird was a "death-omen bird," nothing good.
The death-omen bird was an owl, known in ancient times as a "night owl." These creatures were most commonly seen in mass graves, hence the name.
"Pah, pah, pah! Damn bird," Second Brother Sun spat several times toward the mountain.
Once the owl stopped calling, we started our work.
The previously dug tomb-raiding tunnel had been well concealed by Mole's subordinates. The entrance was covered with intact yellow turf, supported by four wooden sticks beneath. From the outside alone, it was nearly impossible to detect any flaws.
After clearing these coverings and securing our headlamps, the Sun brothers slid down the tunnel, bracing their legs against the sides. I struggled quite a bit and was the last to descend.
The murky, stagnant water at the bottom of the tomb pit had receded significantly, no longer deep enough to submerge one's feet. However, the ground was muddy, making each step feel sticky.
The tomb passage was dark, damp, and noticeably colder than above ground.
Adjusting his headlamp, Second Brother Sun said to me, "The boss is right. We need to speed things up. Yunfeng, go check the western side chamber from yesterday. See if there's anything left on the ground in the corners. If there's nothing, come help us on the eastern side."
With these instructions, I temporarily parted ways with the Sun brothers. They headed right toward the eastern side chamber, while I turned left toward the western one.
Alone in the tomb in the middle of the night, I grew more fearful with every step.
Holding my headlamp, I muttered silently, "No offense, no offense. I'm just here for a small fortune. Amitabha."
"Light a candle for humans, blow it out for ghosts." I once asked Old Wang, "Boss, isn't there a rule about not touching gold after the rooster crows? Even if we're not official tomb raiders, for safety's sake, shouldn't we light a white candle in the tomb chamber? I've heard that if the candle goes out, it means the tomb owner is displeased, and we should leave immediately. Otherwise, we might encounter ghosts."
Old Wang laughed heartily at the time and said, "Yunfeng, you've watched too many movies and TV shows. If the candle goes out, it means the tomb owner is unhappy? And if it stays lit, does that mean the tomb owner is happy? What, is the tomb owner gladly welcoming us to dig up his grave? That's ridiculous."
"Besides, Yunfeng, think about it. It's true that ancient tomb raiders would light a white candle in the tomb chamber, but that was for illumination. How else could they see in the pitch black? It wasn't that they wanted to light a candle—it was because they had no electricity. Without light, they couldn't see!"
"Now we have headlamps and flashlights. Why would we need candles? Some tombs have methane gas from decomposed bodies. If we're not careful, an open flame could cause an explosion. Understand, Yunfeng?" These were Old Wang's exact words at the time. Though they sounded like a joke, upon later reflection, they made a lot of sense.
After walking for a few minutes without incident, I reached the western side chamber.
The chamber floor was bare. Scanning the area under my headlamp, I found nothing left behind. The dozens of bronze artifacts we had previously taken were already gone.
In the northwest corner of the chamber, the large vat covered with a stone slab still stood there, lonely and untouched.
"Huh? Second Brother said the vat itself isn't valuable, but… could there be any burial goods inside it?"
With that thought, I decided to go take a look.
"Indeed, as Second Brother said, it wasn't until I got close that I realized this thing was actually fired from clay. The earliest porcelain appeared during the Eastern Han Dynasty, which was primitive celadon. Before that, rough pottery and bronze vessels were commonly used in earlier dynasties, and this point does align. However, what puzzled me was how something this large was fired. The surface of this large vat showed no signs of segmented joints or seams, clearly indicating it was shaped and fired in one go. How large must the sagger have been to accommodate such a huge vat? This was something I truly couldn't figure out.
The stone slab covering the large vat was made of bluestone. I tried pushing it with one hand first, but it didn't budge—it was quite heavy. Knowing its weight now, I used both hands this time. The slab scraped against the vat, producing a harsh grating sound as I slowly pushed the bluestone slab aside.
'Why is there a foul smell?' I hadn't noticed it much when the slab was covering the vat, but now it was unmistakable. At that moment, I found this Western Zhou tomb rather peculiar. When I first descended, I had caught a faint scent of fragrance, and now there was this foul odor—it smelled like a boiled egg gone bad in the heat of midsummer.
I adjusted my headlamp and leaned in closer to peer inside the large vat. At the bottom, there was a hole less than twenty centimeters wide, and nothing else. I could tell that this rotten-egg-like smell was coming from that hole. Even with the headlamp shining into it, I couldn't see what was below the hole—it was pitch black.
Feeling somewhat suspicious, I leaned over the edge of the vat, stretched out my right hand, and reached into the black hole at the bottom. 'Huh? What's this?' After fumbling around for a while, my hand met something hard. It felt like a long, solid object. I thought to myself, 'Could it be... could it be a gold bar?'"
"No, no, this gold bar feels way too light."
I tightened my grip on the object, adjusted my angle a few times, and slowly pulled it out bit by bit.
It was something white. After pulling it out, I lowered my head to inspect it under my headlamp.
It was a human thigh bone!
"Ah!"
I screamed in terror and immediately threw the bone away.
"Is this... the skeleton of the tomb owner? How could it not have decomposed into dust after all this time, from the Western Zhou Dynasty to now?"
I had overlooked one thing, partly because I was too panicked.
At that moment, I completely missed the fact that the thigh bone still had marrow inside.