The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 2: Old Archives

Even though the chain had been broken, there was a layer of old rust and it was covered in spider webs. Obviously, this hadn't been a recent event.

"Hey," Du Juan Shan was also surprised. "What's going on?"

"It's okay. It just means you're wrong. Someone has been in there sometime during the past thirty years." I said, shining my flashlight through the iron gate to get a better view down below. The stairs were piled with debris, and in addition to the dust, there was an old musty smell permeating the air.

"You don't want to go down, do you? Look how dirty it is." He said.

I was also hesitating on whether it was necessary to continue or not. It didn't seem to have anything to do with my purpose for coming here. There could be a million reasons why the chain was broken, or maybe it hadn't been locked at all. But even if there were extraordinary reasons, it was none of my business. When I thought of this, I gave up.

Just as I was about to leave, I reflexively swung the light one last time, and illuminated the seal on the gate.

It may have been the residual effects left by the rubbings we saw back in the jade mine, but I had to take one last look. It may have also been the fact that the position of the seal was a bit odd. It was too low and a bit conspicuous, so I inadvertently glanced at it.

Whatever the reason, I froze as soon as I saw it. The old seal was firmly attached to the door and hadn't been broken.

"Strange, look." I said to Du Juan Shan. "It looks like this seal was pasted on later."

He leaned over to look at it and agreed that it was strange: "Maybe the institute discovered that this iron chain was cut so they sealed it."

"That's even stranger. Why not just replace the lock and chain? What's the use of the seal?" As I said this, I went to look at the words on the seal. "Do you think anyone brave enough to break the chain would be afraid of some seal?"

"There's nothing valuable down there. Maybe they thought the contents down there weren't worth the cost of buying a new chain."

"It makes sense." I thought it was a little funny. There was a truth that owning something didn't necessarily mean owning the value of it. Not only did these old files not hold any value to people in the present, but they might also require a lot of money to deal with them, which was why they were still lying here.

The words on the seal were "July 6, 1990, XX University Institute of Archaeology Sealed." I had dealt with rubbings before and had good instincts when it came to handwriting. The calligraphy on the seal was well written, but must have imitated a common calligrapher, because I felt like it was very familiar.

Looking at the above date, the seal should have been placed in 1990 during the time Wen-Jin had disappeared, and shouldn't have anything to do with them. I sighed and thought to myself, well, my hopes are completely shattered. I'll have to go back and start over.

I told Du Juan Shan to lead the way. He didn't want to stay here too long since it wasn't a good thing, so he was relieved to hear me say we should leave.

The two of us left the same way we had come and everything went well. The civilized world was much easier than ancient tombs, and I wasn't worried about being seen at all. A hundred guards weren't as tough as zombies.

When I returned to the hotel, I felt very uncomfortable. After all that work, the road ahead of me was much narrower. If I couldn't find any clues in the files, what else could I do?

It was a bit inconceivable the more I thought about it. Why wasn't there a file? Was it really as Du Juan Shan had said? But it was so unlikely. In fact, if the Xisha incident had happened, the files would certainly be there. They couldn't be packed into a single portfolio, so if they had been destroyed, then half a row of file racks would be empty. But the files had been tightly packed and didn't look like any had been removed.

I suddenly thought that maybe my presumptions were wrong. There were students in the archaeological team, yes, but they may not have been related to that university. The students may have been working as interns, so maybe Wen-Jin wasn't from that institute.

I felt much better once I thought this. I turned on the computer again and started to look for information from other research institutes before the merger had occurred. I copied them down one by one, ready to find someone to ask tomorrow. I had plenty of time anyways, so it was better to check one by one, lest I regret it.

After making my list, I lay on the bed and ran through it again, wondering what my next step should be. Some of the divisions were strict and some were lax, so I had to start with the easiest.

Looking at the information I had copied down, I suddenly felt a sense of unease. It was as if I cared a little too much about the information in this notebook. I carefully skimmed it and found that the word "research institute" appeared repeatedly, which made me feel a little off. Even after thinking about it carefully, I still couldn't figure it out.

Was it OCD? I laughed, then suddenly started shaking all over as the seal flashed through my mind.

Institute... research institute... research institute...

Seal: XX University, Institute of Archaeology.

Fuck. I suddenly realized why the words on the seal looked so familiar just now.

It turned out to be my own fucking handwriting.