Chapter 5: Mysterious Village in the Mountains

  The person selling the painting thought it was already broken and could only sell for around 1,000 yuan. Unexpectedly, Boss Zhou offered 5,000 yuan, thinking he had made a profit, so he invited Boss Zhou to dinner. His name is Li Liang, from Guizhou's Mangyuan Mountain area, Lijiagou Village. He has been making coffins with traditional craftsmanship passed down through his family. Whenever someone in the village dies, he helps others carry the dragon pole, which is used for carrying coffins. Carrying the dragon pole means carrying the dead, and the host family naturally gives some compensation.

  Li Liang said it was August 17th, the power supply in that place couldn't keep up, although there were power lines, they couldn't even turn on the TV, and the lights were also dim. He went to bed early, but at midnight, a loud noise suddenly woke them up. They had gotten used to living in this place, and the sound was very familiar - it was a mudslide explosion. Fortunately, they were in a high place, and there was a valley between their village and the Yin Peak Mountain, which often had mudslides. Although this place often had mudslides, none of them had ever threatened their village, so they weren't too tense. They just turned over and continued sleeping. But then something strange happened - the coffin he hadn't finished making suddenly started creaking loudly, and the sound got louder and louder. He became scared, thinking that some wild animal had gotten into his house. But when he opened the light and walked over, there was nothing. The noise also disappeared. When he went back to bed, the coffin started creaking again.

  One night, the family was tossed about repeatedly, and eventually no one dared to sleep. They huddled in the corner with the lights on, but before long, his six-year-old daughter suddenly burst into tears. When asked what was wrong, she said that several people were fighting over a coffin. When he looked over, there was still nothing, but cold sweat had already formed. The coffin continued to make noise throughout the night, and the six-year-old daughter cried non-stop, talking nonsense all night about how several people were fighting over the coffin, and someone wanted to exchange a treasure for it. After the rooster crowed, the coffin's noise suddenly stopped, and his daughter said one last sentence: "If you want the treasure, use the coffin to trade." As soon as she finished speaking, her eyes rolled back and she fainted.

  The next day, he walked out of the house and heard someone shouting loudly at the village entrance. He rushed over to take a look and found that the mudslide had surged into the village entrance, leaving behind seven corpses, or rather, seven mummified corpses. They must have been dead for some years, but why they hadn't rotted away was beyond him. The village chief soon arrived, and upon seeing the mummies, his face changed color. There were also some other things scattered around the mummies. Li Liang suddenly remembered what his daughter had said the night before and quickly told the village chief about it. The chief replied that these mummies wanted to be buried in coffins, so he ordered all the villagers to gather together to make coffins under Li Liang's leadership. Strangely enough, nothing unusual happened that night.

  On the third day, seven simple coffins were ready. When all the villagers carried the coffins to the village entrance, they found that the things scattered next to the mummy had been taken away by someone. Only this painting, which had been soaked in mud and water, was left behind. Perhaps it was also because the painting was dirty and couldn't be sold for a good price. Finally, the old village chief ordered that all the mummies be buried at the foot of Yinfeng Mountain. The village chief gave the only remaining painting to Li Liang, thinking that this matter would be settled.

  But unexpectedly, on the fourth day in the morning, someone discovered that Sun Liehu's family of five had died in their beds, with their internal organs hollowed out. Some gold, silver, and copper utensils were scattered on the ground, all of which had been picked up from next to the mummy. The corpses after death had even grown some fine fluff.

  The village chief led Li Liang and others to hurry to Yinfeng Mountain. When they saw the seven graves that had been buried, one of the tombs was opened, and it was empty inside. Finally, the village chief ordered that Sun Liehu's family be burned with fire, and then buried. They also lit incense and bowed to the seven mummies.

  Li Liang thought of the painting in his hand and began to feel afraid. Although he had exchanged it for a coffin, he couldn't help but worry about being haunted by the mummy, so he hurriedly rushed out of the mountain and sold the painting.

  After listening to Old Zhou's words, I took a deep breath and thought to myself: What he said was mostly true, but the part about the little girl seeing the coffin must be fabricated. He only said that to tell me that there are still many treasures scattered around the village, but what I care about is not these things, it's enough to prove that Yin Feng Mountain has a large tomb, and I must go there now.

  I extinguished the cigarette in my hand and said to Old Zhou, "Alright, I've decided to go."

  "Haha," Old Zhou laughed and patted me on the shoulder, saying "Alright then, if you find any treasures, be sure to give them to me first!"

  I smiled and said, "Don't worry, we're all set." After that, I was about to leave, and Old Zhou didn't stop me. He just told me, "This time you helped me appraise the painting, I'll transfer the money to your bank account."

  As I walked out of the Holiday Inn Hotel, I turned around and said to Shi Tou, "Shi Tou, we have to make a trip to Guizhou."

  The stone nodded silently, I took out a piece of paper from my pocket and wrote down the things we needed to buy, handed it over to him and said "Let's split up to buy things, get the best ones."

  The stone came over, took a look, and turned around to leave. I also lit a cigarette and turned around to leave.

  One day's time, the basic things were all bought, just the black donkey hoof was hard to get, two military shovels, emergency medicine, a V125 ground-penetrating radar that can detect up to 15 meters underground, weighing 13 pounds. Several iron pipes, an electric saw and drill powered by a rechargeable battery pack, two helmets with headlights, several flashlights, and many other items, except for the Dinema rope I wanted which was out of stock, they said it would take three days to get me 20 meters. The Dinema rope is also called high-performance polyethylene fiber, its strength is the highest in the world, can reach 15 times that of steel wire.

  After tidying up this big pile, I lay down on the bed and said to the stone, "Four days later, let's set off!"

  The stone nodded slightly and put on its outer garment before leaving.

  I opened the drawer, took out half of the jade pendant, played with it for a while, and fell asleep. Four days later, I brought back two pieces of Dini hemp rope with Shi Tou, each about 10 meters long, and went to Zhang Ye's house to dig up some fire starters, Luoyang shovel, etc., and drove the Jeep straight to Guizhou.

  On the road, a stone was playing with V125 ground-penetrating radar, and asked "Is this thing useful?"

  "Don't worry, it's just a mouse hole, he can detect it for you."

  The stone laughed dryly and said, "Isn't that detecting whether there's a hole at the bottom? We'll have to dig."

  "Haha," I chuckled and said to Shi Tou, "You really think I don't know anything! When a coffin is buried and the soil is filled in, special soil is often used. Even if the original soil from the surface is refilled on top of the grave, it will still be different due to the mixing of soil from different layers during excavation, resulting in a different color. This type of soil has a term called 'hua tu' or 'wu hua tu', also known as 'da hua tu'. If you find this 'hua tu', you can find clues to an ancient tomb. The Qin Gong No. 1 large tomb was discovered precisely because of the appearance of 'hua tu'."

  "Yawn," said Shi Tou, stretching his waist and leaning on the seat, "You do the brain work, I'll do the manual labor."