The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 153: Find Clues

So Li Cu spent the whole afternoon helping the merchant receive customers, discuss prices, and then pack up the goods. The customers were really strange, and there were all sorts of people. By the end of the day, Li Cu felt that anyone who passed by the doors of this small hotel would come up and say, "Where are the goods?"

It appeared they had been doing this kind of business for more than a day or two, as both the buyers and sellers were familiar with it.

All the people knew the rules very well, and they all paid in cash that was placed in three big traveling bags. The money had to be sorted into bundles before it could be put in, and Li Cu somewhat understood why Wu Xie had paid so readily before. In their industry, it seemed that money wasn't a rare thing.

The total amount was a hundred and ten thousand more than the merchant had expected, so they decisively changed to a better hotel that night, where each person had his own room.

Out of all the burial objects, there were only three things left, which were exactly the same. They were iron incense burners, each one the size of a KFC family sized bucket.

Li Cu looked at them curiously, but there didn't seem to be anything strange about them compared to the other items that had been sold. "How did you determine that out of all the things to guide you to this tomb, only these three things were useful? They look the least valuable."

No one laughed at Li Cu this time, as if his question finally got to the point.

"Listen, kid, I don't know what your relationship with them is, but since you're here, I'll teach you something practical as your senior!"

The merchant paused, as if considering what expression could be used to make Li Cu, a layman, understand him.

"Well, first of all, we know that this kind of iron incense burner isn't a portable burial object, so it definitely wouldn't be buried in the coffin, but outside.

"Second, judging from the burial objects we've seen here, the standard of this old tomb isn't very high, so it's unlikely that there will be a tomb chamber. The three incense burners were probably buried in the coffin pit.

"In this area of Changsha, the chances of a wooden coffin decaying and collapsing are very high. These incense burners must have been dug up from the soil when they were stolen, because the gold, silver, and jewelry were also stolen at the same time. The fact that these three incense burners weren't left behind shows that it wasn't an intentional theft. Grave robbers wouldn't have been interested in iron at that time.

"It's likely that the iron was accidentally dug up while they were digging a grave robbers' tunnel. They must have been used by the artisans to worship when the tomb was sealed."

The merchant called Li Cu over to take a closer look at the incense burners. "See? There are many fine, hollowed-out carvings on these incense burners, which are very exquisite. The iron materials used aren't extremely precious, but the carvings are very good. This shows that the people who built this tomb didn't have much wealth, but were of noble status.

"There's a lot of jewelry among the burial objects, and although the quantity is large, they aren't very precious. This shows that these things were gathered bit by bit over a long period of time."

The merchant flipped through some of the information. "The earliest county records here are from the Ming Dynasty, but not in the early or late periods. There was a big landlord here in the late Ming Dynasty. He wasn't a dignitary, but he had a good relationship with the ethnic minorities, and had a very good position. According to these, the owner of this tomb is probably related to this landlord. In addition, the carvings on these three incense burners also have some traces of ethnic minorities."

Because the tiny hollows were compacted by the soil for a long time, the soil embedded in them was quite deep. People who cleaned these kinds of things would know immediately that the dirt couldn't be washed out no matter how hard they tried. This kind of dirt was called old mud.

They would have to use a very slender syringe to penetrate deeply into the hollowed-out interior, sucking out the old mud inside. It would probably only be about as much as a thumbnail.

"The soil in each place has a different smell due to the different natural conditions. We'll start looking tomorrow, and slowly find something with a similar smell."

Li Cu wanted to smell it, but was pushed away: "There are only so many clues, and it'll be gone as soon as you inhale it." The merchant said.

Li Cu asked, "Isn't this a very large area? The soil formed by the same natural conditions may cover hundreds and hundreds of acres [1]. Even if you found that area, it'll probably still be very hard to find."

The young man laughed, "You never forget the smell of packed earth once you smell it."

Li Cu was skeptical, but the explanation given by the merchant today made him more interested in the tomb robbing industry, and gave him the feeling that he was born for this. Maybe there would be more interesting stories coming soon.

That night, Li Cu practically fell asleep with a smile on his face, and had a very sweet sleep.

When he woke up early the next morning and turned over, he saw a strange uniform at the head of his bed. He picked it up, but before he could get a good look at it, a man dressed in sky blue opened the door and walked in.

"I locked the door last night, how did you get in?" Li Cu was dumbfounded.

"It's just a lock, it's no big deal." The other party smiled. "Stop talking nonsense, and change into those clothes quickly. We have to go."

"This is really ugly!" Li Cu changed his clothes and pointed to the big characters on his chest.

"This is the uniform for a mobile maintenance service. It's safer to use this identity."

Li Cu nodded without asking any more questions. He felt that things were getting more and more interesting.

To complete the act, the group even got a maintenance service van. As soon as he got in, someone told him that what had happened last night must have been revealed, so they couldn't be too conspicuous.

But the car just started wandering around, and didn't enter the mountain.

After the past few days of repeating the same things over and over again, Li Cu was travel-worn and felt as if his drive was gone. He felt comfortable following these people around everywhere as they bathed and ate pork. He knew that they were waiting for things to die down. Since they seldom went down to the tombs themselves, they were probably waiting for another group of grave robbers to join them.

After a week of just hanging out, he got up one day and found that everyone was dressed neatly, no longer wearing any slippers or pajamas. He knew that the person they were waiting for should be here.

After following everyone to the parking lot downstairs, he saw a person in the distance sitting on a pile of luggage behind their car, waiting for them.

The person was dressed in casual clothes and sweatpants, hair tied up in a ponytail. Li Cu could see that under the loose sportswear was a very thin waist and a not-so-big chest, but there were still obvious curves.

It was a woman.

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Note:

[1] The term is actually "mu" but considering he's being broad and saying hundreds, I took the liberty of just using acre. Note: 1 mu = 0.16473692097811 acres.