“Grave Robbers’ Chronicles”

Chapter 8: The Water Vat

I also took out my snake skin bag, squatted down, and started stuffing bronze ware into it.

Those round and square tripods were really heavy, and it was quite a struggle for me to lift them. Third brother took care of me and told me to pick up the smaller ones to put in the bag.

I then loaded the bronze dou vessels and the small bronze jue vessels. It wasn't strange to see these bronze ware piled together because during the Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn periods, these things were kitchen utensils.

The bronze tripod was used for boiling meat, the jue was for drinking wine, and the bronze dou was for holding salt and seasonings. The function of the bronze dou was just like the vinegar dish we modern people use when eating dumplings dipped in vinegar.

This was what it meant to pick up money with a sack. I was literally picking up money with a sack at that moment.

I was rather thin and didn't have much strength. When I saw that my sack was almost full, I planned to send it up first.

I turned my head to the left and right. At this time, the light on my headlamp just shone on a corner of the side chamber.

"Huh? What's that? A water vat?"

"Second brother! Look! There's a vat!"

Sun Laoer was concentrating on stuffing the bronze tripods into his bag. My sudden loud shout startled him.

"Damn it, Yunfeng! Why are you yelling like that? You scared the hell out of me."

I told him that there was a big vat in the corner of the wall.

Without even looking up, he said, "That's coarse pottery. It's not as valuable as bronze ware. It's too big to be transported down the mountain. Even if we sold it for a thousand or eight hundred yuan, it wouldn't be worth the effort. We don't want that thing."

After hearing what Sun Laoer said and looking at the big water vat with a stone lid on it, I didn't go over there either.

With great effort, I carried the bag full of bronze ware and waded back through the water. At this time, a rope was lowered from the ceiling of the tomb passage.

Boss Wang's voice came from above, "Yunfeng, tie the snake skin bag onto the rope. Tie it tightly. Then go back and load more. Hurry up. We don't have much time left."

I twisted the snake skin bag full of bronze ware a few times and tied it to the rope. Then the snake skin bag was slowly lifted up. It was Boss Wang pulling it from above.

In the following more than an hour, we worked overtime and managed to transport a total of eight full bags of bronze ware out.

At this time, Boss Wang's urging voice came from the walkie-talkie, "You three, come up quickly. It's almost dawn. We need to go down the mountain quickly."

Do you know what a human pyramid is?

I was pushed up to the ceiling of the tomb passage by the Sun brothers using a human pyramid. Then Boss Wang lowered a section of rope from above and pulled me up.

The Sun brothers were even more amazing. After they climbed onto the ceiling of the tomb passage, they didn't even use the rope. They just climbed up the robbery hole by propping their feet against the sides.

After coming up, Sun Laoer couldn't hide the smile on his face.

He looked at the ground full of bulging snake skin bags and asked with a smile, "Boss, how many points do you think this is worth?"

Boss Wang shook his head and smiled, "Everyone has their own specialty. When it comes to estimating how many points it's worth, we still have to ask the eldest brother. He's more accurate at estimating this kind of thing."

Later, I learned that when they said "how many points," it meant tens of thousands. One point meant ten thousand yuan, and a hundred points meant a million yuan. Back in the year 2000, with the salary levels at that time, many people couldn't earn even one point in a year.

Sun Lao Da was in charge of keeping watch and selling the stolen goods.

As long as there was no trouble, he generally wouldn't speak on the walkie-talkie. On the contrary, if Sun Lao Da took the initiative to speak on the walkie-talkie while we were working, it must mean that strangers had come nearby.

"Boss, this is just the west side chamber. There's also the east side chamber. It's really strange. We haven't even seen the main tomb chamber yet. I think we need to set up a base here. Since we haven't found the main tomb chamber yet, God knows how many treasures are still inside. This job can't be done in less than ten days or eight days."

"Base" in the tomb raiding business specifically referred to a situation where a big tomb was encountered and couldn't be looted clean in a day or two, so a base had to be designed around this big tomb.

In the early years, when acquaintances in the tomb raiding business met, they often asked, "Hey, I heard you managed to set up two big bases last year?"

The person would reply, "Oh, not really. I was just lucky and set up two small bases."

Setting up a base was risky because it was easy to be discovered. If an old man or an old woman happened to take a walk up the mountain in the morning and accidentally fell into our robbery hole, we would be doomed.

So, the benefits were proportional to the risks. If you wanted high returns, you had to take risks.

After considering and weighing the pros and cons, Boss Wang nodded and said, "The price of Western Zhou antiques in the black market has been skyrocketing in recent years. I think it's worth taking this risk. Let's set up a base here."

Knowing that we had succeeded, Sun Lao Da immediately contacted Yi Ke Zhi and asked her to send people over to move the things and help cover up the robbery hole by the way.

This Yi Ke Zhi was also an extraordinary woman. Through several contacts later, I learned that most of the sworn brothers and younger brothers she knew had powerful backgrounds. Not only did she serve as the logistics coordinator for Boss Wang, but she was also said to be working part-time as the logistics coordinator for other gangs.

Logically speaking, doing this definitely violated the rules, but Yi Ke Zhi was so capable that Boss Wang just pretended not to see it and turned a blind eye on purpose.

It was just like those professional managers in big companies who often held important positions in multiple companies at the same time.

Yi Ke Zhi had a few young guys under her. They were willing to follow her wholeheartedly. It was these young guys under her who delivered generators and water pumps to us at night and helped us hide the robbery hole.

Our gang really couldn't have operated smoothly without Yi Ke Zhi back then.

The ceiling soil with blue clay on it was too conspicuous. We didn't dare to throw it away casually due to the urgency of time, so they brought it back as well.

This kind of soil was like a time bomb. I don't know how many people in our business had stumbled because of this soil. In those days, the tomb raiding gang in Beijing's Babaoshan was wiped out because they left a small pile of blue-white soil in the mountain, which was discovered by an old woman taking a walk. As a result, the whole gang was arrested and served more than ten years in prison.

The next day.

When I returned to the small inn in Shunde, I squatted by the pool to brush my teeth, thinking about where to dispose of that blue-white soil later.

Just then.

"Smack!" Someone slapped my butt hard from behind.

While I was brushing my teeth, being slapped like this, I hadn't spat out the mouthwash yet, and I swallowed it all directly.

I turned around angrily and saw Yi Ke Zhi wearing a halter top, laughing.

Although Yi Ke Zhi was twelve years older than me, she took good care of her figure. Also, because she was wealthy, she used the best skin care products at that time. The thighs exposed under her pink halter top were snow-white, and it made my throat go dry just looking at them.

"Hehe..." Yi Ke Zhi said to me in a flirtatious way, "Little Yunfeng, I heard from Laoer yesterday that you haven't even held a girl's hand? Is that true?"

I blushed and said at that time, "None of your business."

Seeing that I was shy, Yi Ke Zhi immediately burst out laughing, her body shaking with laughter and her chest heaving.

She hooked her finger at me and said, "Little Yunfeng, do you want to be sister's forty-fifth man..."

I was still young at that time and didn't understand worldly affairs, so I casually said, "I don't want to. When you're forty, I'll have to wear ninety-nine green hats. You're such a shameless woman. Don't even think about harming me, Xiang Yunfeng!"

Being scolded by me, Yi Ke Zhi got angry immediately. She raised the mop in the inn high and chased me all around the yard.

At noon, taking advantage of the lunchtime, I put on my black schoolbag, dressed up like a high school student, and wandered around in Shunde city.

The schoolbag was full of blue-white soil. I needed to find a suitable place to dispose of this soil.

As I walked, there was one thing constantly on my mind.

I didn't know why, but I always felt that something was wrong with that big water vat with a lid in the corner of the west side chamber of the tomb last night.