Chapter 41 News

I was unconscious for three days, and when I woke up, I found that I had been sent to the hospital. The moment I opened my eyes, I couldn’t remember anything, but I felt like the world was spinning around me, and I was unbearably nauseous and dizzy.

After two days, my situation improved little by little, but my ability to speak was completely lost. No matter what I wanted to say, the only sound that would come out was a strange squawking noise.

I felt terrified, thinking my brain had been injured to the point my speech patterns were affected, but the doctor told me not to worry; it was just a residual effect of a severe concussion.

Like a mute, I had to use gestures to communicate with others. It wasn’t until the fourth day that I was able to open my mouth and ask the doctor where I was, albeit with some difficulty. He told me that this was the Red Cross Hospital in the Beilin District of Xi’an, Shaanxi. I had been brought back by several armed policemen. He couldn’t tell me exactly how they found me, but he did say that I had about twenty broken bones all over my body, which should have been the result of falling from a great height.

I could see that my chest and left hand were in casts, but I didn’t know how badly I was injured. After listening to what he said, however, I suddenly realized how lucky I was. I asked him when I could be discharged from the hospital, but he just laughed and said that I wouldn’t even be able to get out of bed for about two weeks.

That evening, one of the armed policemen who brought me to the hospital heard that I could speak and came to visit me with a fruit basket. I asked him the same thing I asked the doctor, but he didn’t know the answer either. He only said that several villagers found me by a stream in Lantian County. I was lying on a bamboo raft and injured so they gave me first aid. The doctor said that if not for this, I would have died long ago.

I found it a little odd considering how my last memory was the moment I fell into the water. Logically speaking, at most, my body should have washed ashore. So how exactly did I end up on the bamboo raft? And second, Lantian County was about thirty or forty kilometers away from Narrow Ravine. Was it possible that the underground route we took covered such a long distance and we just didn’t know it?

I made up a lie about being a mountain climber and said that I fell while trying to climb a cliff. I then thanked the armed policeman and sent him on his way. Once he was gone, I immediately called Wang Meng and told him to come to Xi’an and bring me some money and clothes. When he arrived the next day, I paid off my medical bills and then bought a new phone and laptop.

I asked Wang Meng how the shop’s business was doing recently. He said that nothing major had happened, except that my father had called a bunch of times looking for me. I didn’t expect this trip to take so long, I thought to myself. Knowing that he was probably worried, I called my family to let them know that I was fine. My father wasn’t there, but I talked with my mother for a bit. I also asked about my Uncle Three, but there was still no news of him.

I sighed. It seemed that everything was the same as when I first started this whole thing.

Over the next few days, I was so bored that I suddenly started thinking about Lao Yang. Feeling bitter in my heart, I lay in my hospital bed and searched through the tattered clothes I had been wearing when I fell down the mountain, looking for Lao Yang’s diary. It was still there, but it was so waterlogged that I couldn’t see any of the words clearly. I tried to read it for a while in hopes that I could make something out, but it was useless. Feeling frustrated, I connected to the hospital’s internet and went online to pass the time.

I did a lot of research, but there wasn’t much information about antiques on the internet. In the end, all I could do was vaguely describe the scene of the bronze tree from my memory and send it to some of my friends to see if they knew anything. I soon received replies one right after another—most of them didn’t know what it was and didn’t even believe my description, but a few were enlightening.

One of them came from the United States, from a friend of my father whom I got along with quite well. He wrote in his email that this kind of bronze tree was called a “chizhu” because it was shaped like a “chi” (an ancient musical instrument).⁽¹⁾ In 1984, one was found in a mine in Panzhihua, Sichuan but it wasn’t as big as the one I described. There was only one part, and it was embedded deep underground and completely rusted.

Up to this point in time, there weren’t any written sources that could explain what this thing was used for, but according to the “Classic of Mountains and Seas”⁽²⁾ and some recorded narrative poems of ethnic minorities, this thing really did have something to do with catching “earth dragons” (i.e., snakes) in ancient times.

“Zhu Jiuyin” was probably a type of snake that lived deep underground. Because it lived for a long time in steep rock crevices, it basically never had the chance to look at something head-on, so its two eyes mutated like a flounder’s eyes.⁽³⁾ The ancients used fresh blood to draw the Zhu Jiuyins out of the deep underground rock veins, killed them, and then made candles out of them. It sounded cruel, but at that time, long-lasting light sources were extremely precious, especially for some people who were active at night or lived in dark caves.

I felt like his analysis did make some sense, but it still couldn’t explain why the so-called “chizhu” could produce that amazing yet terrifying ability. I wrote back and asked him if any similar incidents had happened throughout history.

His response was to send a portion of an ancient novel that had been written in notebook-style. It recorded an event that happened during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.⁽⁴⁾ It mentioned that a light jade-colored stone box with a dragon pattern on it had been dug out of a Xi’an mine. Emperor Qianlong opened it, and later that night secretly summoned several ministers to the palace. They talked long into the night, but then a fire broke out in Qianqing Palace.⁽⁵⁾ All the ministers who had been summoned—with the exception of one, the most famous of them—came to horrible ends. They had all been inexplicably killed.

I looked at the dates and found that this probably occurred around the same time as the incident written in Li Pipa’s “A Collection of Rivers and Trees”. In other words, they should be related. It seemed that the person who dug up the light jade-colored stone box with a dragon pattern on it and those who knew about it were eventually silenced. If the emperor was willing to make such a big decision to keep a secret, what exactly was in that stone box? Was it the origin of this ancient bronze tree?

I wrote back again to ask for his opinion, but he only replied with one sentence: You have to dig deeper if you want to find out.

I smiled bitterly, knowing all too well that this was impossible. Who knew how deep underground this thing went? It might have taken them centuries to cast this thing, so even if someone was willing to dig it up, I definitely wouldn’t be able to see it in my lifetime.

I also received several emails from my Uncle Two. He said that at that time, ethnic minorities inherited the culture and decorative style of the Western Zhou Dynasty,⁽⁶⁾ but communication between the Yi people was limited back then, and their transportation and communication systems were extremely underdeveloped, so there was probably a time lag. In other words, I estimated that this time period was too early compared to the events I was thinking of. According to this logic, during the time when the ethnic minorities imitated the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Central Plain had long since changed to the late Qin Dynasty.⁽⁷⁾

At that time, almost all activities were related to building Qin Shi Huang’s tomb. Zhu Jiuyins were probably hunted so that their “dragon oil” could be extracted and used to pay tribute to the emperor, who needed it to concoct pills of immortality and do similar activities. Moreover, according to the geological surveys, there was a huge metal object at the lowest level of Qin Shi Huang’s tomb, which seemed to surround the whole tomb. Logically speaking, the metallurgical technology at that time shouldn’t have been developed enough for them to complete such a huge project, which meant that the builders of this part of the tomb must have been foreign nationals with advanced metallurgical technology.

Uncle Two was a loyal fan of Qin Shi Huang, so he tended to trace everything back to that time period. Because of this, I didn’t bother taking his speculation too seriously.

A month later, I was discharged from the hospital and returned home. After getting everything sorted out, I focused on pulling myself together and resuming my normal life. I was clearing out my overstuffed mailbox, sorting through some magazines and newspapers, when I found an unsigned express envelope.

Old Wu,

Can you guess who I am?

That’s right, I’m not dead. Or rather, I’m alive again.

I’m sorry I got you involved in this matter, but you’re the only one I can trust. I had no other choice.

Now that the whole thing is done, our relationship must also come to an end. I’m glad we were friends, but it doesn’t matter now.

Do you really want to know what happened three years ago?

Three years ago, me and a group of Liaodong guys went to the Qinling Mountains to try our hand at grave robbing. After talking with the locals and hearing the legends, we went to the banyan forest at the top of the mountain and found a hole hidden among a cluster of aerial roots. We had thought through everything again and again, so we were prepared to take the risk and go down. You know what happened after that. Then, I got stuck in that cave.

At that time, I had already given up all hope. Although I wouldn’t die that quickly, the thought of living was even more terrifying for me. Living forever in the dark, narrow depths of the mountain, never to see the light of day again…I think you can imagine how horrible that kind of suffering would be.

I stayed in the dark for four full months. These four months were complete and utter hell, but during this time, I kept thinking nonstop. That was when I realized that this ability was related to the subconscious mind. For example, if I wanted to open a door in the rock, I had to convince myself that there was already a door in the rock; otherwise, the door wouldn’t appear even if I beat my head in.

It’s impossible to deceive your subconscious mind, so in order to use this ability, you have to guide it. This is very difficult to do. As I told you before, once the guidance fails or there’s some kind of deviation in your thought process, anything can materialize, which is very scary.

I kept practicing until I gradually mastered a few tricks, but at this time, I found that this ability would gradually disappear as time passed. This feeling was very obvious, just like how people’s fatigue gradually built up little by little. I realized that if I didn’t try to get out now, I may starve to death here.

Feeling desperate, I tried to use this ability to clone myself. I honestly didn’t expect it to succeed, so I was surprised when I suddenly found myself outside the cave.

At that time, I didn’t realize that I was a clone since all of my memories were exactly the same as those of my original self. That was why, when he called me, I refused to admit that I was a clone. He began swearing at me, saying that I wanted to replace him in this world and that he would make me disappear. I suddenly felt scared; it seemed like the one trapped in that cave was a monster. So, regardless of his cries, I found some explosives and blew the cave up.

In fact, I did know that I was a clone, but subconsciously, I didn’t want to believe it. So, I chose destruction instead. I killed the original me and told myself that I had merely killed a substitute.

The ability given by the bronze tree only lasted for a short period of time, so I broke off a bronze branch and then went out through the secret passage at the bottom of the tree, hoping that bringing a part of the bronze tree with me would make my ability last a little longer so that I could escape to the outside. As it turned out, my theory was correct—I made it back outside and dug up the things we had buried before we got here. Fearing that the bronze branch would be too conspicuous, I buried it there and then returned to Xi’an, trying to find a place to sell the goods I had on me.

Unfortunately, when I was trying to conduct business, I was arrested by a plainclothes officer at an antique stall. Later, as you know, I came home and found that my mother had already passed away.

I definitely didn’t lie to you about these things, but there is something else you must know: having this ability comes with a cost. My memory is very poor now, and many things have to be written down before I can remember them. That is the side effect of using my ability. Along the way, I could have made things easy and kept you in the dark so that you could help me complete this expedition without knowing the full story, but unfortunately, I’ve forgotten many things over the past three years. I can’t even remember how I got out at that time. That was why the journey was so rough. I guess in another two or three years, I may completely lose the ability to remember.  

You also have that strange power now. I don’t know if it will affect you, but be sure to take care of yourself. Based on my calculations, this power may remain with you for several years, but it’s so weak that you can hardly feel it.

Lao Yang

I finished reading the whole letter and took a deep breath, not quite sure what to say. Inside the envelope was a photo of him and his mother sitting on a boat, with the sea in the background. They must have gone abroad. His mother was very young and beautiful standing beside him, but they almost looked like a couple instead of a mother and son. I carefully examined the photo, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that his mother’s face looked sinister. Maybe it was just a psychological effect after everything I had gone through.

Before I knew it, winter arrived. I stayed cooped up in my air-conditioned room,⁽⁸⁾ so lazy that I didn’t even have the strength to doze off all afternoon. I was lying on the couch in the inner hall of Xiling Seal Art Society, my feet absolutely freezing. I didn’t know what to do with myself, but as I lay there in that half-awake, half-asleep state, Wang Meng walked in and said to me, “Boss, someone’s looking for you.”

I struggled to react, letting out a big yawn as I thought to myself, there are people still visiting antique shops during the coldest days of the year?⁽⁹⁾ This person is quite energetic. But it was still business after all, so I got up, patted my face, and then went out in good spirits.

The air conditioner in the outer hall was small, so the person was left shivering every time the cold wind blew. It only took one glance for me to realize that this person shivering from the cold was the young girl working under Lao Hai in Jinan. My first thought was that she was bringing me a check, and I immediately felt my heart warm. I told Wang Meng to make us some tea and then asked her, “Did Uncle Hai ask you to come?”

The girl’s name was Qin Haiting, and she was a relative of Lao Hai. She was only seventeen years old, but she was already considered a specialist in the antique industry. She nodded and said, “My God, why is Hangzhou so much colder than the north?”

Wang Meng smiled and said, “The weather in the south is cold and dry so it feels like it cuts right to the bone. Besides, you guys in Jinan aren’t too far north.”

I saw that Qin Haiting’s teeth were chattering, so I hurriedly pulled her into the inner hall where it was much warmer and handed her a hot water bottle. “You’re way too afraid of the cold. Do you feel any warmer now with the hot water bottle?” I asked her.

She took a few sips of hot tea and seemed to recover a little bit, but she still stomped her feet to try and get warm. “Whew, that’s a little better. People always say how beautiful Hangzhou is, but my uncle wouldn’t let me come. Then he needed a favor so I rushed to come here. Who knew it would be so cold? Oh, I definitely won’t come next time.”

“What did your uncle ask you to do?” I asked. “Why didn’t he just call me?”

Qin Haiting took off her scarf and pulled an envelope out of her purse while saying, “It’s business, obviously. Here, it’s a check for that fish-eye stone.”

As soon as I heard this, I took it and glanced at it—the price wasn’t bad—before immediately putting it in my pocket. “Then, please thank him for me,” I said.

She then pulled out an invitation card and handed it to me, “Uncle Hai will also be in Hangzhou the day after tomorrow to attend an antique appraisal meeting. He said that he would like you to attend as well. He has something important to talk to you about.”

“The day after tomorrow?” I asked. “I don’t know if I have time. Why didn’t he just call and tell me over the phone? Why be so mysterious?” In fact, I just didn’t want to go. Antique appraisals were too boring. For those in this industry, such events were just a bunch of old men prattling on together. It was ridiculous that they came up with so much background information when you only needed to take a few seconds to know whether the item was genuine or not.

Qin Haiting leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “My uncle said that it has something to do with the copper fish. If you don’t go, you’ll regret it.”

<Part I Chapter 40><Table of Contents><Chapter 42>

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TN Notes:

(1) Chi (篪)= bamboo flute with 7 or 8 holes. Zhu (柱)= pillar/post/column. Just to note, the author apparently only had the whole flute thing on his initial version and took it out of the versions on daomubiji.org and Amazon (I had to google around to find the missing character). He later just decided to use the “zhu” character (aka column/pillar).

(2) A Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed since the 4th century BCE, but the present form was not reached until the early Han dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD). More info here.

(3) Flounder evolved to have two eyes on one side of their head.

(4) Qing dynasty was from 1644-1911, and Qianlong period was from around 1736-1795 (basically when Qianlong Emperor reigned). According to the Russian DMBJ translation, each emperor of any dynasty, upon ascending the throne, announced the motto of his own reign. Often, a historical period in China is called not by the dates or names of emperors, but by the motto. It was with this motto—乾隆qiánlóng , literally “unshakable and glorious”—that Emperor Gaozong of Qing ruled as the Qianlong Emperor.

(5) The Palace of Heavenly Purity, or Qianqing Palace, is a palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. It’s the largest of the three halls of the Inner Court, located at the northern end of the Forbidden City. During the Qing dynasty, the palace often served as the Emperor’s audience hall, where he held council with the Grand Council.

(6) Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 1045 BC – 771 BC) was a royal dynasty of China and the first half of the Zhou dynasty.

(7) Qin Dynasty was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state, the Qin dynasty arose as a fief of the Western Zhou and endured for over five centuries until 221 BC when it founded its brief empire, which lasted only until 206 BC. Wu Xie should be referring to this (221 BC – 206 BC period).

(8) So this must be an air conditioner with a heating mode built into it.

(9) FYI, he’s talking about the twenty-seven days after the Winter Solstice, reputed to be the coldest days of the year.

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lmfao. I’m such an optimistic clown. Update every day? HA. I’ve literally spent all day on this and the next few chapters are pretty long too. Looks like updates will be every 2-3 days. It’s good to have a Wu Xie-centric story again though