Chapter 49 Nine Dragons Carrying the Lord

The bald man’s plan for us was to take a tourist route from Changsha to Shanhaiguan, and then transfer to Dunhua. The whole journey would take about two days and pass through nearly three thousand kilometers. During this time, there was nothing to do but play on our cell phones and flip through a few magazines we had brought.

I gave Fatty the check for that fish-eye stone he had sold, which suddenly made him very happy to see me. Seeing that he was in a good mood now, I secretly asked him why he was here.

Fatty told me that in this business, some things just needed to be done as a group. For example, there were some big tombs deep in the mountains and old forests that could never be tackled alone. First, it was impossible to carry all the necessary equipment by yourself, and second, you wouldn’t be able to bring out a lot of treasures on your own. The general environment of these kinds of ancient tombs was extremely dangerous, so getting in and out alive was considered a lucky feat. But if you had to go back in two or three more times to get the rest of the treasure…well, no one would be willing to take such a risk. So, once this kind of tomb was found, someone would come out to take the lead. In ancient times, this person was called “ladle holder”, but during the Republic era, the slang term for them was “lama mediator”.⁽¹⁾

Nowadays, it was basically the same as a general contractor with a project in hand helping you to find a plumber and electrician. The archaeological teams in the early days of liberation also used similar tricks to find talented people.

This time, the “lama mediator” was the bald man. He had a wide network of connections and found Fatty through a local friend in Beijing. This friend usually set up Fatty’s jobs for him, so that’s how he ended up in our train compartment. As for the specific situation, as a general rule, the “lama mediator” wouldn’t disclose any information until everyone reached the appointed destination. This was because if others knew in advance, it might cause internal strife.

I asked Fatty if he knew that my Uncle Three was the one who planned this job, but he shook his head and said, “Shit, why even ask? If I knew this job had something to do with your Uncle Three, I wouldn’t do it no matter how much money you offered.”

I sighed to myself, thinking that Poker-Face must have also been contacted by the bald man. It looked like I wouldn’t be able to find out anything from him either. The one who knew the most about the situation here—besides me and Pan Zi—was Chen Pi Ah Si.

Poker-Face was as silent as ever, and didn’t even say hello to me; all he did was sleep the whole time. Pretending to be courteous, I tried to say a few words and catch up with him, but I found that he wasn’t listening at all. Fatty told me not to bother, saying that he had been sleeping ever since he got on the train.

Once the train started moving, I played Big Two⁽²⁾ with Fatty and Pan Zi to kill some time. As I was playing, I couldn’t help thinking about this Chen Pi Ah Si. The old man hadn’t spoken since we first got in the car back at Pan Zi’s place, and when Pan Zi tried to greet him, all he did was give a small nod in acknowledgment. Then, as soon as the train started moving, he left the compartment and hadn’t come back since. Fatty turned and asked me in a low voice, “Who’s the skinny old man? He seems rude and arrogant.”

Pan Zi quietly told Fatty what he knew about Chen Pi Ah Si. Upon hearing that the old man was in his nineties, Fatty’s face turned green and he said, “Don’t tell me this old man is going up the mountain with us? If that’s the case, when we reach a place without any people, I’ll put him out of his misery. I won’t let any of you stop me. It’s not like he’ll survive even if he makes it in that place anyways.”

Pan Zi quickly covered his mouth and whispered, “Stop fucking talking. The old man is very clever. If he hears you talking like that, he’ll kill you before we ever reach that place.”

I recalled my first encounter with Chen Pi Ah Si at the teahouse. At that time, surrounded by a group of eager listeners, he gave off the air of an unfathomable master of ancient Chinese studies. As someone who held such power and attainments, coupled with his advanced age, how could he possibly be hired by a “lama mediator”? Was he really not afraid of death?

When I mentioned this to Pan Zi, he just laughed and said, “You don’t understand. Right now, we are all ‘lamas’ hired by Master Three. Whether it’s a young novice monk or an abbot, they can all be hired by Master Three. It’s one of the rules in this business. If Chen Pi Ah Si wants a cut of the pie, he has to follow the rules. No matter how powerful he is, there’s nothing he can do.” He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before adding, “But we damn well need to be careful when it comes to this old man. On the surface, it might look like he’s here alone, but in fact, people like him usually have their own people hanging around close by.”

After hearing this, Fatty cursed, “I don’t understand. What’s your Master Three doing with such a person? Won’t this just cause more trouble? If this person is really that dangerous, I think we should act first and either tie him up or kill him.”

Pan Zi furtively glanced at the door and said, “I’m warning you, don’t mess around. Master Three definitely has a purpose in hiring this man, so let’s give him some face. In any case, he’s so old now that he’s probably not as good as he was when he was younger. When the time comes, we’ll…ah!”

Before he finished speaking, Poker-Face’s hand suddenly dropped down from the top bunk and squeezed Pan Zi’s shoulder so hard that he almost cried out.

Pan Zi clenched his teeth in pain but didn’t finish the second half of his sentence. We all sat there frozen for a moment. Pan Zi didn’t like Poker-Face very much and was just about to say something to him when the door suddenly creaked open and Chen Pi Ah Si walked in.

We all looked at each other, bowed our heads, and continued playing cards, as if we were students who had almost got caught cheating by the teacher.

The old man looked at us without saying a word and then went back to his bunk.

I wasn’t sure if he fell asleep or was just lying there, but with him now in the compartment, we didn’t dare continue our discussion. As a result, we had no other choice but to concentrate on playing cards. In this way, the time passed by little by little until midnight the next day, when the train arrived in Shanhaiguan.

Shanhaiguan was known as the “First Pass Under Heaven”,⁽³⁾ but it was really nothing more than a man-made tourist attraction that had been rebuilt in 1986. Since the next train we were supposed to transfer to wouldn’t arrive for two hours, Fatty asked if we wanted to go and see the sights. I quickly reminded him that it was midnight and there was no moon—what was there to see? So, our small group followed a large number of people who were also transferring trains to the station’s waiting room.

It was the eve of the Spring Festival,⁽⁴⁾ so there were already a lot of people, and the smell inside the station was unpleasant. Many of them were staying in the station overnight as they waited for their next train, either sleeping sitting up or using their luggage as a pillow to sleep on the ground. We carefully followed the stream of people, watching our footing for fear of stepping on someone.

There were a lot of people, and they were all walking around in a very chaotic manner so it only took a few minutes for our small group to get separated. Poker-Face and Chen Pi Ah Si got swept far away from us, while Fatty was somewhere off to the side, being stepped on by several people and cursing up a storm. Wanting to tell them to stick together, I moved to raise my hand to show them where I was, but Pan Zi suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled me down into a squat.

Just as I was about to ask what he was doing, I heard him say, “The police are here! Stay quiet.”

As soon as I heard this, I stopped resisting and sat on the ground. There were people to my left and right, so I used them as cover to take a look around. At the entrance, several uniformed officers and auxiliary policemen were checking ID cards.

I lowered my head and whispered to Pan Zi in the Hangzhou dialect, “It’s fine, this happens in Hangzhou all the time. They’re just checking IDs. We don’t have any equipment on us, and we’re not wanted. What are you so afraid of?”

Pan Zi pointed his chin at some unremarkable men in the crowd and said, “There are uniforms at the entrance and plainclothes mixed in the crowd, which means they’re clearly looking for someone. Keep your head down. You don’t want to be recognized.”

I looked up and happened to catch a glimpse of a familiar person—he was sandwiched between those people and looking straight in our direction. Just as I was trying to figure out where I had seen him before, the man violently struggled free, pointed at me, and shouted, “There!”

Noticing that the man was wearing handcuffs, I immediately felt my heart clench. Then I took a closer look at him. Fuck me, isn’t that Brother Chu? It’s only been two days since we saw you, and you’ve already been arrested?!

“Damn it, run!” Pan Zi cursed, pulled me to my feet, and started running right as a group of plainclothes officers rushed over and shouted, “Stop!”

We rolled and crawled over several rows of seats, pushing our way through the crowd. Everyone immediately got out of the way as soon as Pan Zi approached, but when I did, they all gathered around and blocked me. What is this?! I shouted to myself. Do I look that easy to bully?

The path in front of me was blocked and the police were quickly closing in behind me. But at this time, a fluorescent lamp overhead suddenly shattered with a loud bang, startling everyone in the waiting room. Then, there was another loud bang, and another lamp shattered. I took the opportunity to slip in between two people, squeezing my way through the crowd as I made for the door.

But at this time, someone suddenly grabbed me and pulled me aside—it was Pan Zi. He shook his head, indicating that we should avoid the door and head towards the railroad tracks instead.

The fluorescent lamps overhead kept shattering continuously, causing the waiting room to get darker and darker. As the broken glass fell straight down on the crowd, children started crying and people started screaming. Amidst this sudden cacophony of noise, a lot of people crowded towards the entrance, enabling us to slip in among them and sneak out.

I saw Fatty gesturing at us from a distance, so we quickly headed towards him. I was about to ask him where Poker-Face was, but then the man himself suddenly appeared like a ghost. “Looks like your information broker got caught by the police and snitched,” Fatty said to Pan Zi. “What should we do now?”

Pan Zi cursed, “That son of a bitch gave us up so easily! People are so fucking unreliable nowadays. If there’s a chance in the future, I’ll beat him to death!”

“It’s not like that’ll help us right now,” Fatty said. “Now, what should we do?”

Pan Zi scratched his head, obviously unsure. He started to turn to me, but just as I was about to scold him, Poker-Face patted us on the shoulder and said, “Follow the old man.”

We followed his gaze and saw Chen Pi Ah Si looking at us from a short distance away. There were several middle-aged people standing beside him who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Poker-Face started walking towards them. Knowing that now wasn’t the time to discuss things, we bit the bullet and followed after him. Chen Pi Ah Si saw us approaching and gestured to the people beside him, who suddenly dispersed into the crowd. Then he turned and walked into the crowd himself.

Under the cover of the crowd and the darkness outside, we finally escaped from Shanhaiguan Station and headed towards a park. Once there, we all stopped and looked at each other—everyone’s faces were pale. This was a really bad start to our adventure. I thought that if we followed the bald man’s plan, we could reach our destination without having to think too much. But unexpectedly, within two days, the bald man was arrested and personally led the police right to us. Despite a thirty-year relationship, such flimsy loyalty made me think that Uncle Three wasn’t as good at reading people as he thought he was.

As we squatted in the grass and rested for a while, Chen Pi Ah Si suddenly looked at us, sneered, and said in a hoarse voice, “With skills like that, you guys still want to find the Eastern Xia Emperor’s Coffin Carried by Nine Dragons? Is Wu Sanxing crazy?”

<Chapter 48><Table of Contents><Chapter 50>

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TN Notes:

(1) Characters for “ladle holder” are 捉斗 (pinyin: zhuo dou) and characters for “lama mediator” are 夹喇嘛 (pinyin: jia lama). 斗 can mean any “cup or dipper shaped object” so the translation sites often say bucket but that sounds ridiculous in this context so ladle it is. If you couldn’t tell, lama in this context is code for grave robbers. It looks like in volume 6 I just used “information broker” instead of “lama mediator” so I might switch back to that if the context allows.

(2) Big Two is a Chinese card game. It’s similar to crazy eights.

(3) Shanhaiguan (Shanhai Pass) is called the “First Pass Under Heaven” because it’s the starting point of the eastern end of the Great Wall, and is the first barrier for guarding the frontier.

(4) Aka Chinese New Year. More info here.