Chapter 52 Happy

I nodded, and Uncle Two lit another cigarette before saying, “You read as many books as I do. Have you read Qin Shihuang’s book?”

I nodded. “Historical Records” was a compulsory text for antique dealers, so I had naturally read it. He continued: “What about Han Shu?”

I nodded again, and he said: “Did you notice that these emperors in ancient China had a common practice? No matter whether they were big or small emperors, or grassroots or orthodox royal families, after they had achieved success and were at peace with the world, they would all start seeking immortality.”

“The pursuit of eternal life was the emperor’s ultimate dream. I don’t think it’s strange. If I never had to worry about money, could kill whoever I wanted, and marry whoever I wanted, then my only pursuit would probably be to continue this kind of life.” I agreed.

Uncle Two completely ignored my words, but continued: “If you open the history books, you’ll find that this kind of practice was too difficult to break, and the founding emperors became obsessed. Take Qin Shi Huang and Tang Taizong for example.” He paused, “From generation to generation, even if the country’s name changed, the title changed, and there was no longer a need for an emperor, this practice has never been broken.”

I nodded; it was true. Human nature remained unchanged no matter where you stood, and everyone saw death approaching at some point in time.

“But the so-called secrets and legends of immortality became more and more vague as they got closer to the modern age. Many emperors believed that there would be clues to immortality in ancient alchemists’ tombs. Naturally, there would be some troops to help these emperors carry out on-the-spot exploration, but they often did bad deeds while using the existing establishment for cover.” He looked at me and smiled, “And the people in these troops were said to be the most skilled at moving at night. Since ancient times, many of these Mojin Xiaowei (1) had been recruited from the north and south with the promise of food. And in some cases, they couldn’t help but be loyal under the pressure of power. For the sake of their family’s elders, they had to bow their heads.

“But it was a pity that this kind of thing was always kept hidden, so in the end, all these people came to bad ends. There were always people in these troops who wanted to get rid of the pervasive control. And immortality was also a great temptation, not only to those emperors and princes, but also to those searching. When they really found some clues, it was inevitable that they would start getting ideas.

“And they would often tell these ideas to their brothers or family. These people had seen the wind and waves, and lived on the blade’s edge, so they were very bold. They created some plans in order to implement these ideas. Some failed, some succeeded, and some had unknown results, but what was certain was that once they were discovered, it would be the end of them.”

He stopped, grabbed me by the shoulder, and said: “But some plans could be kept secret for a long time, even after a change of government. At this time, the two sides had reached a certain agreement, and no one wanted to break it.” When he said this, he looked right at me, “Especially ‘it’.”

I didn’t dare say that I fully understood Uncle Two’s story, but I understood what he wanted to say.

Truthfully, I didn’t think there would be something of this caliber. No wonder Brother Chu told me not to look into it further. I silently connected what Uncle Two said with some of my previous speculations, and actually found that many things made sense.

I asked, “So, whatever happened here is also one of the activities carried out by ‘it’?”

Uncle Two nodded: “I’m afraid so. I knew of this village’s existence long ago, and when I heard Pan Zi say that you came here, I felt like something was off. I immediately asked Pan Zi to bring people here. Any place those people went to would be extremely dangerous.”

“Do you know what’s going on here, and what those things are?” I asked him.

Uncle Two thought for a moment, and said, “Those may be Miluotuo.”

“Miluotuo? What the hell is that?”

“Miluotuo are the Yao people’s ancestors. In their mythology, their first goddess came from the mountain. I think this monster is the prototype of Miluotuo.” He took out a piece of iron from his pocket. “The first thing this goddess made was a man. The thing she made was an iron man, but the iron and goddess’ divine power clashed, so it didn’t succeed. The miners had used iron to seal the stone people back then, so they were obviously Yao people who had heard the legend. Your theory should be consistent.”

I nodded, and Uncle Two continued, “As for how this thing came into being, I’m afraid no one knows. Based on your description, what you went through was very much like a religious ceremony, and you all were waiting as sacrifices. Those things exist deep in the bottom of the mountain, so it would take a long time to get down there. I feel like what you experienced may have been arranged by others.”

If Uncle Two felt the same way, then that proved that my intuition was right, but I argued, “But there weren’t any exits from that mine.”

He thought for a moment, patted me, and then said: “I told you before, regardless of what you see, whatever has happened has happened. Since you arrived there, there had to be an entrance. Even if you couldn’t find it, you can’t say it doesn’t exist. The entrance had to be there.”

I gave a wry smile. I had said the same thing to Fatty before, but I still couldn’t find it.

Uncle Two’s walkie-talkie rang. Once he hung up a few minutes later, I continued to ask, “Why did you bring so many people to find me? It’s too excessive. What are they doing by the lake now?”

Uncle Two turned pale, and all he would say was: “There’s something here this time. If not for you, we still wouldn’t have been able to find it. But I can’t tell you our reason for coming here yet. When things are confirmed, you’ll naturally know.” He looked at his watch. “Things have just started here, and we don’t have much time.”

“Is it related to Uncle Three? Or, with ‘it’?” I asked.

Uncle Two smiled: “You’ll know soon, don’t worry. At that time, you’ll know how insignificant these things you’ve experienced really are. But don’t ask about it now, or even look into it. You can go find your little brother’s past, I won’t stop you. But what works with your Uncle Three won’t work with me. Don’t test me. I’m different from third brother. I won’t let you behave in such a way.”

Uncle Two didn’t say anything more to me, and unlike Uncle Three, it was totally useless to try to get him to talk. But I also knew that he would do what he said and tell me when things were confirmed.

He said that he would stay here for a period of time, and that I could wait here or go somewhere else, but I would have to report my whereabouts at all times in the future so that I wouldn’t run away again.

I had been thinking about Fatty and Poker-Face, so I left the village a week later and went to the hospital in Fangchenggang. Yun Cai and Agui took me to their ward, and I found that both of them were fine.

The doctor said that the injuries they had suffered weren’t fatal. They had just lost too much blood and ended up getting an infection. Fortunately, the two men were in very good health, and I had used the incense ashes to stop the bleeding. The ashes had isolated any bacteria, so the both of them had been saved after only losing blood. It turned out the incense ash had been a very critical factor, because if they had shed another ounce of blood, even the Daluo gods may not have been able to save them.

I had learned to use incense ash to stop bleeding after listening to Shan Tian Fang’s storytelling, but I didn’t expect it to actually work. It appeared I really needed to listen more.

When I saw Fatty, I almost burst into tears. I hadn’t seen him for several days, but now his body was fat again, and he didn’t look like he had just walked from the King of Hell’s palace.

Fatty saw Yun Cai coming and didn’t seem to know how to act, going so far as to get out of bed and claiming to be immortal.

They asked me what happened after they had passed out, and I told them how I had stuffed Fatty’s intestines back in, and how I had dragged them out of there. Fatty was stunned when he heard this. He said that it was no wonder he always felt like his intestines were out of order recently, and he ended up burping whenever he wanted to shit. He told me I shouldn’t have plugged them in upside down for him.

Once we started talking about it, we ended up discussing the whole thing, and I took out a piece of paper to show Fatty. I had drawn the ancient village’s layout based on what I could remember while I had been in Agui’s house recuperating.

But we didn’t get any results from our discussion, so Fatty made a fuss and told us to take him out for a recovery meal.

After waiting for a moment, Yun Cai still hadn’t moved. I looked back and found that she was staring at the ancient village’s layout I had drawn. She seemed to be in a daze and didn’t react at all. Something had obviously attracted her attention.

I was a little surprised, because the layout was very simple, and there really wasn’t anything to see. Fatty and I glanced at each other, and he asked her, “What’s the matter, Sister?”

Yun Cai looked up with a pout on her face and said, “You two, this village at the bottom of the lake that you drew looks like Banai.”

<Chapter 51 Uncle Two> <Table of Contents> <Chapter 53 A Very Similar Village>

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TN Notes:

(1) What grave robbers were called in the old days. They specialized in robbing tombs to obtain money to subsidize military pay.

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Updated 9/1/2020