“Grave Robbers’ Chronicles”

Chapter 5 Digging with the Shovel

That night in the hotel, four more people came one after another, three men and one woman in total.

The woman was in charge of our logistics. She was in her thirties. She had a rather flirtatious smile and a black mole under her eye. She had a nickname in the business, which was "One Mole". Later, I heard from others that "One Mole" aimed to sleep with a hundred men before she turned forty.

"Oh, oh, oh, there's a new guy again. He's so young. I just don't know if he's small down there..." "One Mole" looked at me with a smile.

"Alright, alright, Xiaohong, don't scare him. This kid is young and has potential. Maybe he can become a talent after two years of training," Wang Captain helped me out of the awkward situation.

The three men were biological brothers, all surnamed Sun. Arranged in order of age, they were Sun the Elder, Sun the Second, and Sun the Third.

Wang Captain said that Sun the Second and Sun the Third were famous in the business. They could perform wonders with the Luoyang shovel and had a unique skill of probing the soil with flying needles. They were especially experienced in exploring deep pits.

Sun the Elder took on two jobs, keeping watch and sales. My first impression of this man was that he was calm and honest. It was only later that I realized that the more honest a person seemed on the surface, the smarter they were inside. They were observant and could handle emergencies if anything went wrong.

To the southwest of Shunfeng Mountain Park in Shunde, there was a small gully. The locals called it Feimo Mountain. Old Captain said that the big pit was halfway up Feimo Mountain.

I asked him at that time, "Captain, how do you know there's a big pit halfway up the mountain?"

Old Captain blew out a smoke ring and told me with narrowed eyes, "Yunfeng, barriers block and divide, clearly on both sides. Caves on high mountains or flat ground, big pits are buried in the middle."

I was completely confused at that time. I felt that Wang Captain was talking in tongue twisters and I couldn't understand it at all.

Later, after I recited the "Book of Burial" and Wang Captain passed on his experience in searching for dragon veins and acupoints to me, I then understood that these four short sentences of Wang Captain really described the feng shui advantages of Feimo Mountain vividly.

That night, at a little past one o'clock in the morning, several of us carried big bags and arrived halfway up Feimo Mountain.

Looking at an old fir tree, Old Captain stamped his foot excitedly and said, "Second, Third, right here. Take a sample first to test the waters. If there are stones, use the needles!"

Sun the Second nodded. He pressed the small walkie-talkie on his shoulder and said, "Elder, we're ready to 'cook'. Are there no 'guests' around?"

The red light on the walkie-talkie lit up, and Sun the Elder's deep voice came through, "It's calm. Start 'cooking'."

Knowing that there was no one around, a glint of excitement flashed in Sun the Second's eyes.

He took off his backpack, took out a short stick from it, and finally a curved half-round shovel.

Wang Captain said to me, "Yunfeng, this is our tool for making a living. Now that the times are advancing, we have to keep up with the times. The Luoyang shovel is made into sectional sleeves. Put it in the bag, and no one can tell."

Click, click, click. Sun the Second skillfully assembled the Luoyang shovel. The assembled Luoyang shovel was very long, over eight meters.

"Second Brother, this is a deep pit. Is this length enough? I have more in my bag if it's not," Sun the Third asked.

"Third, don't panic. It'll be hard to handle if it's any longer. We're just going to check the soil layer structure below first. Just test the waters."

"Yunfeng, come here and help me hold it," Sun the Second beckoned to me.

I quickly ran over to help him hold the Luoyang shovel upright. Then, Sun the Second unzipped his pants, took out his thing in front of me, and started to pee.

After peeing, he shivered and pulled up his pants.

Squatting down, Sun the Second stared at the place where he had peed for a while. Then he frowned and said, "No good. There are stones below. We need to change the spot to dig."

"Little Yunfeng, right where you're standing, you pee now."

Although I didn't understand why, I did as I was told and started to pee.

"Hehe," Sun the Second said with a smile, "This young guy is really energetic! Look at how yellow your pee is."

He stared at the ground where I had peed for two minutes. Sun the Second nodded and said, "This is the spot. There are fewer stones below. Let's start!"

He was extremely strong and could push the shovel down ten centimeters with one shove. The Luoyang shovel kept bringing up soil.

When the shovel had gone down more than half, I noticed that the color of the soil brought up had changed a bit and turned a bit black.

I asked, "Second Brother, look quickly. The soil has turned black. Have we reached the bottom?"

"Not yet. This kind of black soil is not what we want. It's the decomposed layer of rotten tree roots. It's useless."

The small hole got deeper and deeper.

"Damn it! That's amazing. The pole is not long enough. Third! Lengthen it!"

As the pole was lengthened, the Luoyang shovel continued to go deeper.

An hour later, the shovel brought up a layer of white soil, and there was a bit of blue soil connected below the white soil.

Sun the Second sniffed the soil and suddenly got extremely excited.

"Damn it! Captain Wang! Yunfeng is a lucky star! I haven't seen a pit like this in two years!"

"One shovel hit the rammed earth layer. White clay is connected to blue clay!"

"Either it's a nobleman from the Western Zhou Dynasty or a small prince or nobleman!"

"We're going to be rich!"

"Shh! Second Brother, keep your voice down," Sun the Third reminded with a frown.

Sun the Second, however, didn't care at all. He waved his hand and said, "It's mainly because I haven't seen blue with white for years. I hope it's a 'new pot'."

The meaning of "new pot" is that the tomb has never been robbed before and is fresh. Only then can we make a fortune from this operation.

At this time, Old Captain quietly said, "That all depends on luck. Even if it's a 'leftover pot', as long as there are still some valuable things inside, our trip won't be in vain."

"This is a Western Zhou pit. What if a Four Sheep Square Zun or a Bronze Xue Fang Lei comes out of it?"

"Haha, Captain Wang, you're really bold in thinking. If something like that really comes out, we wouldn't dare to sell it. We'd be investigated to death." After saying this, Sun the Second pressed the walkie-talkie again and said, "Elder, Captain Wang said there's a Four Sheep Square Zun in this tomb. Do you have a way to sell it?"

The red light on the walkie-talkie lit up, and a burst of electric noise came through.

"Square Zun, my ass! I don't want to get shot. Hurry up and work!"

The Sun brothers were famous in the business because of their real skills. Through the soil layer structure brought up by this shovel, they could roughly picture the situation of the big pit below in their minds.

Since the tomb was from too long ago, there were usually collapses inside this kind of tomb. If you wanted to dig a straight line all the way to the main tomb chamber with your eyes closed, it was basically a fantasy. Otherwise, you might dig further and further off course and eventually miss the funerary objects.

Therefore, digging along the top of the tomb passage and then choosing whether to go to the side chamber or the main chamber was the safest way.

Sun the Second and Sun the Third worked together. With the whirlwind shovel starting to dig, it was time for me to start working.

My job was to scatter the soil, but I couldn't scatter just any soil. Otherwise, the tomb robbery hole was more than ten meters deep. There was no way I could carry all that soil.

The soil that was the same color as the surrounding soil was basically scattered on the spot. It was basically indistinguishable. I was responsible for scattering the soil dug up from the rammed earth layer, that is, the white soil and the blue soil.

Because the blue clay and white clay mixed with the soil had a too obvious color difference, I needed to scatter this part of the soil around and couldn't leave any trace on the spot.

There were people farming everywhere in this mountain. The blue and white soil brought up by the whirlwind shovel couldn't be thrown around randomly. It could only be piled up on one side and dealt with when it was almost dawn.