Chapter 10 Black-Haired Lacquered Coffin

At the same time, Zhang Qishan was also thinking about the ins and outs of this matter, his mood even more complicated. His gut told him that there definitely wasn’t anything simple about it, especially considering that the Japanese were fast approaching.

During the time that Qi Tiezui was resting, all the coffins and bodies on the train had been unloaded. The coffins were placed in the Zhang family’s warehouse, while the bodies were sent to the military hospital. Lieutenant Zhang was the one who had arranged everything in the half hour Qi Tiezui had been asleep. Now that things were running smoothly, Zhang Qishan couldn’t help but feel at ease.

Since he had drifted all the way from the northeast, he was afraid things would have been more difficult to handle if he didn’t have these people around to help him. Whether it was fortunate or not to be born into the Zhang family, it was all due to this surname.

When he had put his hand into the coffin at that time and found that the corpse was lying face down, he twisted its head and reached in. He found that thirty-seven fine steel needles had been placed inside the corpse’s throat.

The two-fingered probing technique involved taking out the burial jewels from the corpse’s mouth as quickly as possible so as to avoid being bitten in case the corpse changed into a zombie. The substance placed on these needles in the corpse’s throat were generally highly toxic, which was why it was considered a special anti-theft measure.

This corpse may have shown signs of transforming in its early years, but now it had “dried up”. After the young soldier touched the corpse, he must have hooked his finger into the corpse’s mouth and felt something. He was so nervous that he mistook these steel needles as black hairs growing out of the corpse and got poisoned. But the soldier wouldn’t admit it, and said there was something moving in the corpse’s throat that had bitten him.

Few tomb owners were so afraid of others stealing the ancient jade from their mouths that they would resort to setting up steel needles in their throats—it was too cruel and blasphemous to the corpse. If anything, it was more likely that the fine steel needles were to prevent something from crawling out of their esophagus, which was why the young soldier’s words had Zhang Qishan a little concerned.

Zhang Qishan pressed his three fingers against the steel needle, while the other two fingers went deep into the corpse’s throat. He felt the shell fragment, which was caught on one of the needles inside, but didn’t feel what the young soldier said had bitten him. He did feel that something was strange, however, so he broke the corpse’s jaw, snapped its neck, and waited for the coffin to be opened so he could see what had happened. The only clue now was this scale-shell fragment.

In ancient times, there was a difference between scales and shells. If one side was thin and the other was thick, then it was a scale. If the piece was the thickest in the middle, and the outer edges were slightly thin, then it was a shell.  This particular fragment was slightly thicker in the middle and on one side, while the other side was slightly thinner. It also had a strange fishy odor. The fragment was black and white, and had a pattern on it that looked like the inscriptions on oracle bones. The characters were so faded, however, that the meaning couldn’t be distinguished. The doubts in his heart kept increasing. What surprised him the most was that although this scale-shell had dried up, it seemed to be new and not like a fossil at all.

As he was pondering over it, Qi Tiezui came up and quietly stood behind him. He had been bothering this guy all day, but he had no other choice given the situation. There were only a handful of people in the Nine Gates who could help him, after all. Old Ba had a meek temperament and was quick-witted, so Zhang Qishan could only continue to bug him.

He asked: “Did you sleep well? If you’ve slept enough, then come help me take a look at this thing. What the hell is it?”

“I had a lot of nightmares.” Qi Tiezui said truthfully. “I’m afraid I’ll have even more for the rest of the month.” With that said, he picked up the fragment: “Fo Ye, out of all the Nine Gates, your eyesight is the best. Isn’t it a joke for me to help you take a look?”

“No matter how many beautiful words you spout, I can’t see it if I can’t see it. Now quit your useless chattering.” Zhang Qishan got up and went to the window, looking down at where the soldiers were opening the coffin behind the curtains in the courtyard. He could see the flame from the gas cutter flare up from time to time. The iron that had been melted onto the whistle coffin had fused into the coffin fiber, making it very strong. It appeared opening the coffin would take some time.

“It looks like an oracle bone, but also like a natural pattern? I’ve heard that some turtles have natural Luoshu (1) patterns on their backs, but their origins are unknown. This kind of scale-shell doesn’t belong to a tortoise, nor is it an animal bone.” Qi Tiezui took the fragment and looked at it for a long time, but ended up shaking his head: “The oldest qualified person in the oracle bone sciences is Luo Xuetang from Huai’an, Jiangsu Province. Old Luo is holding an honorary position in Manchuria now, but he’s following the Japanese. Luo Xuetang runs the East Literature Society, and one of his students, Wang Guowei, was also a master of oracle bones. In the sixteenth year of the Republic, however, he jumped into the lake at the Summer Palace and drowned himself. Old Luo held the funeral for him. If you are looking for someone now, there’s also Mr. Dong Zuobin, who’s now in Changsha. I had a batch of oracle bones that I sold to him not that long ago, but he’s leaving for Kunming soon. He doesn’t like soldiers, though, so I could pay him a visit in your stead.”

“With the Japanese?” Zhang Qishan hesitated for a moment. “You don’t know oracle bones, but you seem to be quite familiar with the experts.”

Qi Tiezui stared at the oracle bone and murmured, “Fo Ye, stop joking. Oracle bone divination is part of what my family does. I receive no fewer oracle bones than you do Buddha statues. But Fo Ye, we can’t get caught up with whatever is in this coffin right now. Based on the coffins on the train, do you think the Japanese are trying to steal treasure?”

Zhang Qishan frowned. This was also his concern. As he had made his way south and started robbing tombs, Zhang Da Fo Ye quickly became familiar with a lot of strange things. These coffins had all come from a big tomb, and if the Japanese were making a move on a problematic tomb, it would cause a big headache for him. With the Japanese at the gates, ready for war, it was obvious their purpose was to obtain the minerals here. That wouldn’t stop their rampant plundering of cultural relics, but robbing tombs seemed like a very inconsistent thing to do at a time like this. It made him feel like there was something going on behind the scenes.

As the two of them sat on the sofa for a long time, Qi Tiezui advised him to rest several times. Suddenly, the report finally came from outside that the iron sheet on the outer coffin had finally been cut off. The two of them immediately went out to watch.

Several soldiers went up and placed crowbars into the gaps of the outer coffin before yanking hard. The huge outer coffin lid made a sound like wood cracking.

Both Qi Tiezui and Zhang Qishan had experienced this kind of scene many times before, but they still held their breath as the outer coffin lid was pried up, and pushed aside with difficulty. It took half an hour before the sarcophagus inside was revealed. Its lid had already rotted in a way that it was stuck to the outer coffin lid, so they were uncovered together. When the gap appeared, Qi Tiezui’s heart began to beat violently.

The coffin was red and black, just like the skin of a poisonous snake, and had many human figures carved onto it. The outer coffin lid was pushed to the side and finally fell to the ground with a loud crash. Everyone covered their mouths and noses as all the dust in the coffin flew up into the air.

Lieutenant beckoned for those holding the gas lamps nearby to place them around the coffin so that the inside would be illuminated. As he looked at the lines on the old coffin, Qi Tiezui roughly determined that it must have come from the Northern and Southern Dynasties. There were two portraits of human figures on the coffin, and he could see that one had an animal face while the other had a human face. These vivid decorations were common to the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Judging from the size of the outer coffin, this person must have been a high-ranking official or a noble. There had been ongoing years of war and chaos at that time, so this kind of extravagant burial system meant they must have had a high status. Since all the clothes were rotten, however, it was impossible to determine the details.

Since the whistle hole had been created, the inside of the coffin was very dry. Qi Tiezui leaned forward and noticed that the inside was full of the same kind of cobwebs they had seen on the train. They were covering the body and funerary objects in the coffin like a quilt.

Zhang Qishan and Qi Tiezui glanced at each other. Then, Zhang Qishan took one of the soldiers’ rifles and picked up the cobwebs. There were black and dry asphalt-like stains hidden underneath all the cobwebs, which must have come from the mummified corpse, quilts, silks, and other decayed things. The mummy was wrapped in these stains and lying face down. The angle of its head was very unnatural, which must have occurred when Zhang Qishan forcibly twisted it and shattered its jaw. The corpse’s expression looked very ferocious without its jaw. They could see that the corpse was tall and covered in a thin layer of black hair.

The soldiers were used to taking out the funerary objects, but Zhang Qishan looked at them coldly and said, “Don’t move anything. Let’s see what’s in its throat first.”

<Chapter 9> <Table of Contents><Chapter 11>

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TN Notes:

(1) Also known as the “Nine Halls Diagram”. It played a role in ancient Chinese mathematical and divinatory traditions. It’s basically a three-by-three box which each box representing a direction. Inside the box there is a specific number which represents certain attributes. And there are also Elements (earth, fire, water, wood, metal). Here’s the Wikipedia article, but I felt like this one was easier to understand lol

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Tiffany’s extra (hope you got your history britches on):

• Wu Xie’s Private Notes: Chapter 32 Ancient Countries In Shandong