“Grave Robbers’ Chronicles”

Chapter 12: White Bones

Chapter 12: White Bones

"Brother, what's 'Jiehou Daizi'? Is it seaweed?"

Sun Lao Da didn't laugh. He looked at me and said, "It's not seaweed. It's a person's name. There have been a few scattered records about this person in the materials. Unexpectedly, we stumbled upon it by accident. What do you think, Boss? Are we still going to take action tonight? I think Laoer and Laosan are already ready."

Boss Wang asked with a somewhat serious look in his eyes, "Has there been any problem at the base?"

Sun Lao Da nodded, "No, those young guys under Yi Ke Zhi are quite clever."

"Boss, don't sell this batch of goods for now, especially this bronze dou vessel. Once the news spreads from Shunde, there's a high chance that we'll attract wolves."

"Wolves from the south?" Sun Lao Da asked with a gloomy face.

"I'm afraid it's not just the wolves from the south. Nowadays, there are more wolves than meat everywhere, and everyone is scrambling for a share. If our cover isn't tight enough, the smell of the meat might attract wild wolves."

"Boss, I've made a decision," Boss Wang held out his hand and said, "Five days. We'll shorten the time to five days. Get all the things out for me. After we succeed, we'll leave Shunde as soon as possible and find a place to lie low for a while."

From the conversation between Boss Wang and Sun Lao Da, I could tell that they were both a bit nervous, as if they were wary of something.

...

It was past midnight on Feimo Mountain.

Sun Laoer was squatting on the ground smoking a cigarette, and Sun Laosan was counting the sacks.

"All's calm. Let's start." Sun Lao Da's voice came from the walkie-talkie.

"Yunfeng, how many sacks do you have?"

"Second brother, I still have four."

"Okay, that should be enough," After saying that, Sun Laoer stubbed out the cigarette in his hand.

At this time, there were bursts of strange cries of birds coming from Feimo Mountain. Hearing these bird cries at night made people feel uncomfortable.

"Really bad luck," Boss Wang cursed twice when he looked at the dark Feimo Mountain behind him. He said that these birds were birds of ill omen and not good things.

Birds of ill omen are owls. In ancient times, people called them night owls. These things were often seen in mass graves in the past, so people called them birds of ill omen.

"Pah, pah, pah. Damn dead birds," Sun Laoer spat several times in the direction of the mountain.

When the owls stopped crying, we also started to take action.

The previously dug robbery hole had been covered up very well by the people under Yi Ke Zhi. The robbery hole was covered with intact yellow turf on top, and supported by four wooden sticks underneath. From the outside, it was almost impossible to see any flaws.

After clearing away these things and putting on our headlamps, the Sun brothers slid down the robbery hole by propping their feet against the sides. I had a lot of trouble and was the last one to go down.

The stagnant water in the tomb pit under the ceiling had decreased a lot. It couldn't cover people's feet anymore, but there was some muddy soil on the ground, and it felt a bit sticky when people walked on it.

The tomb passage was dark, damp, and the temperature was much lower than that above ground.

Adjusting my headlamp, Sun Laoer said to me, "Boss is right. We need to speed up. Yunfeng, go to the west side chamber we went to yesterday and see if there's anything left on the ground in the corner. If there's nothing left, come to the east side to help us."

After giving these instructions, I separated from the Sun brothers for the time being. They turned right to look for the east side chamber, while I turned left to go to the west side chamber.

There was no one around me. Now it was the middle of the night and I was in the tomb, and I gradually became scared as I walked.

I held my headlamp and silently recited in my heart, "Please don't blame me. Master of the tomb, please don't blame me. I'm just looking for a little fortune. Amitabha."

People used to light candles when tomb raiding in ancient times, and it was said that ghosts would blow out the candles. I once asked Boss Wang, "Boss, it's said that we can't rob tombs after the rooster crows. Even if we're not official tomb raiders, for safety's sake, shouldn't we light a white candle in the tomb chamber? I heard that if the candle goes out, it means the tomb owner is unhappy, and then we have to leave, or we'll encounter ghosts."

Boss Wang laughed loudly at that time. He said, "Yunfeng, you, you. You've watched too many movies and TV shows. The candle goes out, which means the tomb owner is unhappy? Then if the candle stays lit, does it mean the tomb owner is happy? What, is the tomb owner happy to welcome us to dig his grave? That's ridiculous."

"Besides, Yunfeng, think about it. Yes, ancient tomb raiders would light a white candle in the tomb chamber, but that was for lighting. Otherwise, how could they rob tombs in the dark? It's not that they wanted to light candles. It's because there was no electricity, and they couldn't see without lighting candles!"

"Now we have headlamps and flashlights. Why would we light candles? There's methane in some tombs where the corpses have decomposed completely. If we light an open flame, there might be an explosion. Do you understand, Yunfeng?" These were the exact words Boss Wang told me at that time. It sounded like a joke when I heard it, but when I thought about it carefully later, it made a lot of sense.

After walking for a few minutes and nothing happened, I arrived at the west side chamber.

The ground in the west side chamber was bare. I looked around a few times by the light of my headlamp and didn't find anything left. The dozens of pieces of bronze ware had already been taken away by us.

In the northwest corner of the side chamber, the big water vat with a stone slab covering it was still there, all alone.

"Eh? Second brother said the big vat wasn't valuable, but... are there any funerary objects in the big vat?"

Thinking about this, I decided to go and take a look.

Just as Second brother said, when I walked up to it, I found that it was indeed made of clay by firing.

The earliest porcelain appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it was primitive celadon at that time. Before that, coarse pottery and bronze ware were commonly used in previous dynasties, which matched this situation.

But what puzzled me was how such a big vat was fired.

There were no joint marks of segmented molds on the surface of the big vat. Obviously, it was shaped and fired in one go. I really couldn't figure out how big a sagger would be needed to hold such a big vat.

The stone slab covering the big vat was a bluestone slab. I first tried to push it with one hand, but it didn't move. It was a bit heavy.

Knowing its weight, I used both hands this time.

The stone slab rubbed against the big vat, making harsh sounds. Little by little, I pushed the bluestone slab aside.

"Why is there a stinky smell?"

I didn't smell it much when the stone slab was covering it just now, but now I could smell it clearly.

I felt that this Western Zhou tomb was a bit strange. When I first came down, I could smell a faint fragrance, and now I smelled a stinky smell, which was like a boiled egg that had gone bad in the dog days of summer.

I adjusted my headlamp and bent down to look into the big vat.

I saw that there was a hole less than twenty centimeters wide at the bottom of the big vat, and there was nothing else.

I could tell that the smell like rotten eggs was coming out of the hole.

I shone the headlamp, but it didn't work. I couldn't see what was under the hole. It was pitch black.

I felt a bit strange, so I leaned over the side of the big vat and stretched out my right hand to reach into the black hole at the bottom of the vat.

"Eh? What's this?" I groped with great effort for a long time. A hard touch came, and I felt that I had touched a long and hard object.

I thought to myself, "Could... could it be a gold bar?"

"No, no. There's no gold bar that's this light."

Feeling that I had grasped the object firmly, I adjusted the angle several times and slowly pulled the object out little by little.

It was a white thing. After I pulled it out, I lowered my head and shone the headlamp on it.

It was a thigh bone of a dead person!

"Ah!"

I screamed in fright and threw away the dead person's bone at once.

"Is this... is this the skeleton of the tomb owner? From the Western Zhou period until now, it hasn't decomposed into dust yet?"

I overlooked one thing, probably because I was too nervous.

I didn't notice at that time that the thigh bone still had marrow in it.