The Lost Tomb : Extras & Special Stories

(Extra Story: 2016 Chinese New Year Special) Chapter 4: New Year's Celebration

We looked out at the rolling hills from the edge of the pine forest at the back of the mountain. I sighed deeply in my heart and thought, this is Fujian. I never thought that I would re-examine the landscape here with this mentality.

There were endless mountains and hills in Fujian, which really fit the saying that there were eight mountains, one river, and one field [1] here. We could see Fujian's topography clearly from where we were at, along with the Hengshan Mountains that stretched out before us with no end in sight. Most of these mountains were neither tall nor short, but they were all similar in shape and difficult to distinguish from one another. Other than the numerous mountains, the water system in Fujian was also amazing. Most of Fujian's water actually originated within its own borders. China's water system was closely related to Chinese dragon veins and feng shui, but Fujian's system often originated within its own mountain areas and directly flowed into the sea. Essentially, its feng shui had its own vein. I checked the information on the internet and found Xu Shen's Han Dynasty dictionary called "Shuowen Jiezi" [2], which said: "Fujian, Southeast region, snake species". It defined the Fujian people as snake-worshipers. I found it interesting that there were seven snake tribes here before, but there was no mention of any strange fish.

At this time of year, the snakes were also freezing to death.

I lit a cigarette and shivered. "Let's get to work."

Fatty pulled out the hammer drill, put on work gloves, and looked at the small forest behind him that was full of Chinese red pines. The mountains near here were covered in shrubs and small forests. These red pines had grown very well, and seemed to be more than twelve years old.

They had been artificially planted.

Twelve years ago, someone planted these trees here without any rhyme or reason. The reason I say this is because they were too close to the village. There had to be stone slabs in the ancient tomb under the forest, which needed to be drilled or blasted through. But you would be captured and killed if you were caught blasting directly at the back of the mountain. If this afforestation started more than ten years ago as a cover, then this wasn't an ordinary thief.

Without the proper equipment, Fatty had to rely on the silly drill. Fortunately, the forest covered up our activities so we weren't afraid to do it. Before long, Fatty found a place, shoveled away some of the soil, split through the fake soil covering the surface, and exposed the grave robbers' tunnel below.

I took a deep breath. The tunnel was old and had clearly been made a few years ago, so it was probably all empty.

It was a really crude job.

The three of us did rock-paper-scissors, and Fatty ended up losing. He cursed, took off his coat, and poked his cigarette lighter into the grave robbers' tunnel. I wanted to give Poker-Face a fist bump, but he looked at my fist and then at me again, not knowing why I wanted to continue playing since the winner had already been determined. In the end, he slowly made a "paper" gesture.

Fatty went down to open the coffin, and scolded the other party for not doing a good job. I dropped a lunch box down and then pulled it back up with a rope. The whole area immediately filled with an unbearable stench. I covered my mouth, noticing that the lunch box's lid wouldn't fit and there was a lot of yellow juice squeezing out of it. The dragon coffin fungus was inside, but I wasn't interested in opening it.

Fatty crawled back out and packed it in a plastic bag while I washed my hands with mineral water. The two of us had frustrated looks on our faces.

When we went back to the village, we saw that the old man had been preparing his fishing rod. He was carefully selecting the weapon he'd use for the final battle by swinging it and forcefully bending it to test the tension. I was intrigued by his focus, and went over to get a closer look. The old man had first chosen some conventional carbon and bamboo ones, and then I saw one that was made of steel.