The Lost Tomb Vol. 8

Chapter 52: The Meaning of the Name Zhang Qiling

After reading a few lines, I knew what was going on because I saw two key words: chosen as.

This person was chosen as "Zhang Qilin" at the age of 19. I paused and realized that Zhang Qilin was not a simple name, but a title.

However, this title obviously became this person's name, just like Genghis Khan— he was originally named Temüjin.

"Damn it!" Fatty said, "Then this Zhang Qilin is an official title!"

"Qiling, if seen alone, is indeed a word with other meanings. It means to remove the dead and transport the coffin to be interred. The Zhang family was a family of tomb robbers, and this Zhang Qilin may just be another name for a very important position." I said.

"If the coffin was transported to be buried, it shouldn't be the work of grave robbers, but the work of a funeral procession. The post of Zhang Qilin may be the person who was in charge of the funerals of Zhang Jialou."

I nodded. This was a great discovery, and judging from the size of the tomb, Zhang Qilin was indeed a very important position. That was why this place was so luxurious and huge.

We looked into the coffin. Since the bones inside were exposed to the air outside the coffin, many parts had become powder. There was still some cotton wadding and Fatty set it aside so we could see the sacrificial objects in the coffin.

They were under the body, and the quilt the body lay on looked very neat with only one corner turned over. We put the corpse's broken bones aside, lifted the decaying quilt, and saw a dozen sacrificial objects neatly arranged there. There were various kinds of jade pendants, two pieces of leather products that had rotted beyond recognition, and so on. In three other places, we saw the traces of where things had been placed, but they had already been taken away.

"It was really a tomb robbery." I said, picking up a string of beeswax bracelets. The gold-rimmed beeswax was old and blackened. As soon as I looked at it, I knew it was from Tibet and was worth a fortune. "But, why only take some of it? This string of old beeswax was at least worth a state-of-the-art SUV!"

Fatty took it, looked at it, and put it directly on his wrist: "Some people have no appreciate for valuable goods!" With a kiss he said, "Ah lovely, leave your grievances! Those people don't know what's good. This Fat Master won't hurt you."

"Can you be any more disgusting?" I said.

I picked out another agate necklace from the neat sacrificial objects. Every three agates in the necklace were separated by an old coral, which was also something from Tibet. It seemed that this Zhang Qilin had exchanged gifts with some people from there before—these were all quite valuable gifts at that time.

Fatty took it as usual. I said, "This string of beads, depending on the quantity and quality of agate on it, is also quite valuable. And you see, these corals are inscribed in Tibetan, which indicates that the beads probably have a history, and the actual value may be even higher! If these things weren't taken away, what did they take?"

"As I said, there must not have been many people who knew the value of these goods like our buddies. Or, the value of the three things they took was much higher than these things, and they could eat for a few lifetimes by taking them." Fatty said.

I saw the marks left on the quilt by the three sacrificial objects that had been taken away. Two of them, I noticed, were from two rings.

One was big and the other one was small. The big one was the size of a dish, and the small one was like an ashtray. Fatty compared the two: "Is it jade?"