Volume 4Chapter 1, New Message

I was unconscious for three days. When I woke up, I was already in the hospital. When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t remember anything. I felt dizzy and nauseous.

Two days later, my condition gradually improved, but I lost all my ability to speak. No matter what I wanted to say, all I could make was strange noises.

I thought my brain had been damaged, affecting the nerves of speech, and I was very scared. However, the doctor told me that this was just a consequence of a severe concussion, and told me not to worry.

I communicated with others using gestures like a mute until the fourth day, when I could barely ask the doctor where I was. He told me that I was in the Red Cross Hospital in Beilin District, Xi’an City, and that I had been brought back by several armed police. He couldn’t say exactly how I was found, but said that I had probably broken twelve bones in my body, probably from falling from a high cliff.

I had a cast on my chest and left hand, but I didn’t know how badly I was injured. I asked him when I could be discharged from the hospital, and he smiled at me and said that I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for at least ten days or half a month.

That night, the armed police who had brought me here heard that I could speak and brought a fruit basket to see me. I asked him the same question as the doctor, but he didn’t know how to answer me. He just said that a few villagers found me by a stream in Lantian. I was put on a bamboo raft, and the wounds on my body had been treated simply. The doctor said that if it weren’t for these treatments, I would have died long ago.

I was puzzled. My last memory was the moment I fell into the water. According to reason, I should have been washed up on the river bank at most. How could I have been put on a raft? Second, Lantian is 70 to 80 miles away from the Jiazi Valley. Could it be that we had walked such a long distance underground?

I made up a story about falling off a cliff while hiking, thanked the armed police and immediately called Wang Meng. I asked him to come to Xi’an, bring some money and my clothes. The next day, Wang Meng arrived. I paid off the medical bills and bought a new cell phone and laptop.

I asked Wang Meng how his business was going. He said that nothing important had happened, except that my father had called me many times. I didn’t expect it to take so long, and I was probably worried, so I called home to let them know I was safe, but my father wasn’t there. I spoke to my mother for a few minutes. I asked about my uncle, but there was still no news.

It seems that everything is still the same as when I came here. I sighed.

In the following days, I was bored and suddenly thought of Lao Yi. I felt sad and lay on my sickbed, turning over the mountain climbing clothes I wore when I fell off the mountain, which were completely torn. I read the diary for a while, barely able to make out the words. I couldn’t read anything else, so I called the hospital again and spent time online.

I looked up a lot of information, but there wasn’t much information about antiques on the internet. I only briefly described the bronze tree in my mind and sent it to some friends to see. Later, I received replies one after another. Most of them didn’t know what it was, and they didn’t believe my description. However, there were also a few letters that were quite enlightening to me.

One of them was from the United States, from a friend of my father, who I got along with. He wrote in the e-mail that this kind of bronze tree was called “chi zhu” (chi pillar), because it looked like a zither (ancient musical instrument). In 1984, a piece of it was found in a mine in Panzhihua, but it was nowhere near as big as the one I described.

Until now, there has been no literature that can explain what this thing is used for, but according to the Shanhaijing and some written records of minority epic poetry, this thing is indeed related to the ancient activity of catching “earth dragons (snakes).”

“Candle Nine Yin” should be a type of snake that lives in the very deep veins, because it has almost no opportunity to look straight up from the bottom of the steep rock crevices for many years, so its two eyes have mutated like a flatfish. The ancients used blood to lure it out of the deep veins, then shot it and made candles. It sounds very wronged, but at that time, a long-lasting light source was extremely precious, especially for people who were active at night or lived in caves in the dark.

I think his analysis makes some sense, but it still doesn’t explain why encountering the so-called “pillar” would produce such a wonderful and terrifying ability. I replied to him, asking if there had been anything similar in history.

He replied with a copy of a fragmentary scroll, a novel in the form of notes, which recorded an incident that occurred during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. It mentioned that a white stone box with a dragon pattern was unearthed from a mine in Xi’an. Emperor Qianlong opened it and that night secretly summoned several ministers to the palace for a secret discussion until midnight, after which there was a fire in the Qianqing Palace. Except for one famous one, all the other ministers did not have a good end, and they were all killed inexplicably in the end.

I looked at the time, and it was probably around the time that Li Pipa wrote about the incident in his “He Mu Ji,” so there should be a connection. It seems that the person who finally dug up the white stone dragon box and the person who knew about it were both killed. The emperor was so determined to keep a secret, so what was actually in the white stone dragon box? Could it be the origin of this ancient bronze tree?

I wrote back to him again to ask for his opinion, and he only replied with one sentence, saying that we would only know if we dug down.

I smiled wryly, knowing that this was unlikely. Who knows how deep it is? Maybe they spent centuries casting this thing. Even if someone is willing to dig, I definitely won’t be able to see it when it’s dug up.

There were a few more letters from my uncle, who said that at that time, the minority ethnic groups had inherited the decorative style of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but at that time, ethnic exchanges were limited, and transportation and communication were extremely underdeveloped, so there should be a time lag.

At that time, almost all activities were related to the construction of the mausoleum by Qin Shi Huang. They hunted for the nine yin, probably to refine “dragon oil.” They were probably refining “dragon oil” for the emperor or similar activities. And according to geological exploration, there are also huge metal objects at the bottom of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum. Surrounding the entire mausoleum, according to reason, the metallurgical technology at the time should not be able to complete such a huge project. The builders of this part should be an ethnic group with particularly advanced metallurgical technology.

My uncle is a big fan of Qin Shi Huang, and he can always bring up that period.

A month later, I was discharged from the hospital and returned home. After tidying up, I began to gather my thoughts. I got back to my life. I sorted out my almost bursting mailbox, and after sorting out some magazines and newspapers, I found an unsigned express letter.

“Old Wu:

Do you know who I am?

Yes, I’m not dead, or rather, I’m alive again.

I’m sorry to have dragged you into this, but after all, you’re the only person I can trust, and I have no other choice.

Now that the whole thing is over, our relationship must end here. I’m glad I was able to be your friend, but now it doesn’t matter anymore.

Do you want to know what happened three years ago?

Three years ago, I went with a group of Liaobian to the Qinling Mountains to look for a plate. According to the local legend, we found a tree hole in the banyan forest at the top of the mountain. We considered it carefully and were ready to take the risk. You know the rest. Later, I got stuck in the stone cave.

At that time, I was already desperate. Although I would not die so quickly, living was even more terrifying to me. Living forever in the depths of a dark mountain, never seeing the light of day, that kind of pain, you should have experienced it too.

I spent four months in the dark, and it was hell. But during that time, I kept thinking, and I realized that this ability has to do with the subconscious. For example, if I want to open a door in a stone, I have to convince myself that there is a door in the stone itself. Otherwise, even if you rack your brains, the door won’t appear.

You can’t trick your subconscious, so you have to guide it. It’s very difficult. I told you before, if you fail to guide it or if you make a mistake, you don’t know what you’ll materialize.

I kept doing things and gradually got the hang of it, but at this point I realized that this ability would gradually disappear as time went on. It was very obvious, just like when you feel tired little by little. I realized that if I didn’t do something to get out, I might starve to death here.

I had no choice but to try using that ability to copy myself. I didn’t think it would work, and I was surprised when it suddenly worked. All of a sudden, I found myself outside the cave.

At that time, I didn’t realize that I was a copy. All of my memories with the original me were exactly the same, so when he called me, I didn’t agree that I was a copy. He started to scold me, saying that I wanted to replace him in this world and wanted to make me disappear. I was scared, I thought the one in the cave was a monster, so I didn’t care how my original self was screaming in the cave, I still found some explosives and blew the whole cave up.

In fact, I did know that I was a copy, but my subconscious mind didn’t want to believe it, so I chose a state of destruction. I killed my original self and told myself that I had only killed a replacement.

The power given by the bronze tree was short-lived, so I took a bronze branch and went out through the secret passage at the bottom of the tree, hoping to take a part of the tree with me to make my power last a little longer, so that I could escape to the outside. Later, it turned out that my idea was correct. I returned to the outside, dug up the things we had dug up before we got here, and buried the bronze branch in case it was too distracting. Then I returned to Xi’an and tried to find a place to sell the things I had in my hand.

Unfortunately, when I was doing business, I was caught by plainclothes officers at an antique stall. Later, as you know, I returned home, and my mother had already left. I’m not lying to you about these things.

There are also some things I have to tell you. Having this ability is not without its price. My memory is very poor, and I have to write things down in advance to remember them. That is the after-effect of using my ability. Along the way, I could have settled you down very well and let you help me complete this adventure without you knowing it. But unfortunately, in the past three years, I have forgotten a lot of things. I don’t remember clearly how I got out, so there are many flaws. I estimate that in another two or three years, I may completely lose my ability to remember.

You also have that strange energy, I don’t know if it will affect you, you have to take care of yourself, according to my calculations, this power may remain in you for several years, but it is very weak and almost undetectable.

Old itch

I read the whole letter and let out a sigh. I didn’t know what to say. Inside the envelope, there was also a photo of him and his mother sitting on a boat. In the background was the sea. They must have been traveling abroad. His mother was very beautiful and young. Standing next to him, she looked like a couple. I looked at her carefully, but I always felt that there was a kind of evil aura on her mother’s face, an indescribable ferocity. Maybe it was a psychological effect.

Before I knew it, winter had come. I was lounging in the air-conditioned room, so lazy that I didn’t even have the energy to doze off. I was lying on a recliner in the inner hall of the Xiling Seal Society, my feet cold and I didn’t know what to do. I was half asleep when Wang Meng walked in and said to me, “Boss, someone’s looking for you.”

I barely reacted, yawning, thinking to myself that it was the 39th day of winter, and yet someone was still visiting the antique shop. This person was considered active, but after all, it was still business. I got up, patted my face, and went out with a spring in my step.

The air conditioner was not strong enough outside, and the cold wind made me shiver. I looked and saw that it was the little girl under Uncle Hai’s command from Jinan. She was shivering from the cold. I thought she must have come to bring me a check. I was so excited that I hurriedly asked Wang Meng to make tea, and then asked her, “What’s the matter, girl? Did Uncle Hai send you here?”

The little girl, Qin Haiting, is a relative of Uncle Hai. She is only 17 years old, but she is already an old hand in the antiques world. She nodded and said, “Oh my goodness, how can Hangzhou be colder than our north?”

Wang Meng smiled and said, “The weather in the south is dry and cold, and it feels a little bit more piercing.

I saw Qin Haiting just biting her teeth, so I hurriedly took her to the inner hall. It was warm inside with the air conditioner on. I handed her a hot water bag and asked, “You’re too afraid of the cold. Is it warmer like this?”

She drank a few sips of hot tea to warm up, but she was still shaking her feet in the room. “It’s a little better. People say that Hangzhou is beautiful, but my uncle didn’t let me come here, and I still rushed to come. Who knew it was so cold. Oh, I won’t come again next time.”

I asked, “What did your uncle ask you to come for? Why didn’t he call to tell you?”

Qin Haiting took off her scarf and took something out of her bag, saying, “Of course it’s business. Here, a cashier’s check, for the money for the fish eye stone.”

I took it and glanced at it. The price was good, so I put it in my pocket and said, “Thank him for me.”

She took out another invitation and handed it to me: “My uncle Hai is also coming to Hangzhou the day after tomorrow to attend an antique appraisal meeting. He said to ask you to go too, because he has something important to discuss with you.”

I asked, “The day after tomorrow? I don’t know if I have time. Why didn’t you say so on the phone? It’s so mysterious!” Actually, I didn’t want to go. Antique appraisal is a very boring thing. To people in the industry, it’s just a bunch of old men chatting there. In fact, there are not so many allusions. It’s true or false. You can tell in a few seconds.

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