Leather Bag was really a little kid. He was so young, in fact, that when the others were busy preparing, he went to go play by the lake. “Everyone in this line of work has their own equipment,” Pan Zi said. “He doesn’t have to go down, so naturally, he doesn’t have to prepare anything. Moreover, he must have a unique skill if he’s so arrogant; otherwise, he’d die immediately.”
Xiao Hua’s things were obviously very well organized, so he had been studying the “belly map”. I watched Pan Zi busying himself everywhere and felt upset when I thought back on his words.
Pan Zi’s words were an accusation, and although I was uncomfortable hearing them, I knew he was right. A true leader had to consider everyone equally.
But I wasn’t a real leader, I was just a fake. I had wanted to refute him at that time, but the last thing he said to me made me realize that I was being a coward.
Indeed, I had chosen this path myself and I didn’t have the right to use any excuses. Right now, no one would say “no, not yet” when I eagerly told them we needed to hurry down. Uncle Three was the only person who could say this sentence and he was no longer here. I had taken his place.
I could imagine what it looked like in the past and suddenly realized that when Uncle Three said “no” or nodded with a cold face and said “we can try,” his heart could never relax. I used to think that it was so simple to say those words, but it seemed that many things couldn’t be truly realized without experiencing them myself.
As Xiao Hua soon began to mobilize, I saw him clapping his hands to gather all those who were preparing their equipment.
In the process of building a team, all the core information would be disclosed to the members before they went underground. Iron chopsticks used this method to prevent their team members from getting greedy or divulging it to others.
Xiao Hua was a talented performer and obviously wasn’t worried like me. When I was still enjoying a simple life, he was already accustomed to the things that I was struggling with now. I watched him chatting with those people and arranging everything with ease. He was just like an actor before a performance and I couldn’t help but feel a little envious and sour.
“You can’t usually see the difference, but it’s very obvious when you look at it through the reflection.” I walked over to hear him better and saw him pointing across the lake.
Everything around the lake was shrouded in moonlight, but when I looked carefully at the reflection, I noticed that the cliffs around us were reversed. I could see the rise and fall of the mountain chain that ran opposite the lake.
“It’s amazing that there’s an extremely rare ancient building hidden in these mountains. It’s said to be the mass grave of the Zhang family. The feng shui here is quite special in that it shows a pattern of a group of immortals holding the moon, inhaling the wind, and drinking the dew. If you look at the mountains over there, the trees are swaying but the lake is calm. There isn’t a single ripple on the water’s surface. This shows that if the wind blows in the wrong direction, it can’t touch the lake. It’s been recorded in ancient books that there were probably dragons in the water. The mountains by the lake are the back of the dragon and the ancient building is built on that. It’s a bit ferocious.”
“The dragon definitely wasn’t there. We didn’t see so much as a fart when we dove down before. There was only a giant salamander,” I said. When the others saw me coming, they immediately made way and nodded at me while saying, “Hello, Master Three.”
I motioned for them to ignore me and let Xiao Hua continue, “According to the ancient books, there are two kinds of lakes that are likely to have dragons. The first one is calm because it’s bottomless and the second one is when the lake makes waves even though there’s no wind. It’s because it’s connected to the sea. In fact, if you think about it yourself, the calmness indicates that the lake is quiet and the absence of wind and waves indicates that the bottom of the lake is connected to underground rivers. These are all factors that allow the lake to have big fish. The so-called dragon may just be a very big fish.”
One of the guys asked, “Why is it ferocious? Is there bad feng shui here?”
“It’s not bad. Generally, feng shui pays particular attention to where it lies in relation to Qingyuan (1). Most are found on the ridge and rely on mountains, taking water veins as the spiritual breath in order to live forever. But if this ancient building really exists and is built on the back of a dragon that has a broken feng shui vein, then it’s equivalent to a tumor.”
“You mean this dragon vein…”
“Probably already dead,” Xiao Hua said. “It’s no wonder the Zhang family is in the habit of moving their graves. Their mass graves are placed on top of the dragon’s vein so the vein can tap the bones and absorb their essence. In exchange, they get to suck up the dragon’s qi.”
“Then why? What are the benefits of this pattern?”
Xiao Hua shook his head, “There aren’t many. There’s only one good thing I can think of, but if that’s the case, we have to strike with an exceedingly strong spirit.” He frowned and turned to ask me, “Master Three, is it too late to quit?”
I was speechless in the face of his strange joke and didn’t react. He started laughing and Pan Zi said, “Master Hua, where did you end the joke? Was it the first half? The brothers came here to make a fortune. You can’t scare us.”
Everyone burst out laughing. At this moment, Leather Bag came up from the lake and said to us, “Gentlemen, I was thinking about one thing when I was in the water just now. I think you should consider it before going down, because your speculation may be wrong.”
We paused and Xiao Hua asked, “Oh, young master, what did you think of?”
Leather Bag spread out his hands, which were full of small stones he had taken from the water. He obviously wanted to go back to play after he was finished speaking.
“You’re suggesting that the Zhang family is in the habit of mass burial and the tombs aren’t closed but open. Later generations can enter the tombs for burial many times after death, right?”
When we nodded, he continued, “Let’s assume that the Zhang family’s ancient building is in this mountain. Their ancient tombs were used many times and the family’s dead were buried in those tombs. Don’t you think this is actually quite a waste of resources? Carrying a coffin from far away and walking into the mountains once or twice is ok, but not just one or two people would die over a thousand years. Such a big family would have at least a dozen dead. If there were frequent and mysterious strangers in the village, there would certainly be some legends left behind. But in Banai, we haven’t heard any legends. It seems a little too unrealistic. Don’t you think it’s strange?”
“Do you mean to say that the Zhang family’s ancient building is an open tomb and we’re wrong to speculate that the dead were buried there?” One of the guys asked.
“No, we clearly saw evidence of open tombs in Sichuan. Such a sophisticated design definitely isn’t for fun, so the open tomb theory must be right,” Xiao Hua said.
“I didn’t say that the bosses were wrong. I just meant that it was very strange.”
I had to admit that what this boy was saying was very reasonable and I couldn’t help but be impressed with him. It was no wonder he was the most expensive one in the new generation.
“In fact, this might not necessarily be the case,” Xiao Hua said. “There may have been some legends over time, but they didn’t survive because this village is located in a disputed area that’s seen violence throughout history. There have been wars here. People in this village may have been slaughtered and died, and then people from other places filled in again.”
“Even so, the village has never been slaughtered in the past hundred years. From Agui’s generation to the present, there are at least four generations. In this period of time, it’s reasonable that the Zhang family would have gathered in the village.”
We all frowned. This really was strange, and I couldn’t help but wonder, did the Zhang family completely decline sometime during the past four generations? Or is it that no one died?
“We might not have heard any legends, but they still exist. The latest legend is still very recent and we’ve been discussing it,” Xiao Hua suddenly said after staying silent for a long time.
“What is it?”
“An archaeological team with iron blocks,” Xiao Hua said, “is just such a ‘legend’.”
I didn’t understand at first, but then I broke out in a cold sweat. I touched my chin and said, “Interesting. Is that so?”
Pan Zi didn’t understand, “Boss, I don’t read many books. Can you stop playing charades?”
“The legend of Banai that we’re most familiar with is about the archaeological team,” I said to him. “We’re thinking about it the wrong way. If we combine what Xiao Hua said with this strange area, the archaeological team may have come here for a totally different reason than what we had originally thought.”
<Chapter 16> <Table of Contents><Chapter 18>
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TN Notes:
(1) Prefecture level city in Guangdong. More than half the area is mountainous. More info here
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Updated 1/11/2021
MereBear's Translation 
Thank you for the chapter translation 🙏🏼
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