Volume 2Chapter 19: The Big Pot
Corpse wax is generally found on corpses that have been immersed in water or buried in moist soil. The so-called wax is actually the fat and minerals in the body that have congealed.
I followed the footprints all the way and found that they led to the back of a large blue-and-white porcelain jar in the corner of the room. I felt a chill in my heart.
They say that the King of Hell is easy to send, but the little devils are hard to deal with. Could it be that there is an underage zongzi here? I said to the fat man, “Look at the footprints. Only the ones that went there and didn’t come back. Could it be…”
Before I could finish my sentence, the fat man waved his hand and told me to be quiet. I turned around and saw that it was the big porcelain jar. It suddenly shook itself.
The fat man whispered, “That thing is still hiding behind it.”
Zhang Tuo had only half of his equipment off. The belt around his waist was still on. Now he didn’t bother to take it off. He took the oxygen tank and came over. He asked the fat man, “What is it?”
The fat man saw that he was most annoyed and shouted, “Zongzi!”
He was stunned: “Zongzi? Zongzi from Jiaxing Wufangzhai?”
The fat man shook his head and ignored him. I asked the fat man: “Are you sure I’ve never seen such a small zongzi before?”
The fat man said, “I’m not sure either, but whether it’s a zongzi or not, we still have to go and take a look, otherwise it’s a disaster. I’m not going to do it,” I thought to myself, shaking my head.
The fat man sighed and had to call Zhang Tuo over. Zhang Tuo was excited to be in the pit for the first time and immediately followed the fat man’s lead. The two of them formed a flanking movement and walked towards the large blue and white porcelain jar.
Although I was scared, I couldn’t show weakness in front of a woman, so I pretended to be following Zhang Tuo and looked carefully around.
We walked very slowly, afraid that something would suddenly jump out. The fat guy first used a flashlight to shine on it. The big porcelain jar was too big to see anything, so he poked it with a gas gun. He looked like he was doing the same thing I did when I was a kid, catching a weasel. I couldn’t help but laugh. He poked it five or six times, and after listening to it, it seemed that there was nothing behind it, so he plucked up his courage and walked over. As soon as he saw it, he exclaimed, “Damn it, there’s only an empty wooden box, making me nervous.”
We followed him over. I saw that it was a double-phoenix-carved baby coffin the size of a violin box. The lid had been opened and was lying on one side. The white coffin bottom inside was still well preserved, but the corpse was gone. No wonder the fat guy thought it was just a box. I said, “This is not a box, it’s a coffin.”
The fat guy didn’t believe it at first, but he soon realized and asked, “Are you saying that this is the coffin of the little dumpling?”
I nodded and looked carefully again. I found that there were several holes in the coffin, and a black trail extended from the hole to the ground. It seemed that something had once flowed out of the hole. This scene seemed to have been mentioned in Grandpa’s notes.
The fat man looked inside and out with a flashlight, sighing sadly: “Judging from the specifications of the coffin, I know that the child must have had a lot of good things on him. It’s a pity that I don’t know where the body went. Otherwise, if I press it a few times, I might be able to press out a few beads.”
I nodded. Children who died young or were buried with their parents always had a lot of things in their coffins, and most of them were carried on their bodies.
We looked around to see where the corpse had gone, but after searching everywhere, we didn’t find a trace of it. It looked like it had been taken out by the tomb robbers.
The fat guy was unwilling to give up and wanted to go back to the coffin. I thought it was inappropriate and stopped him, saying, “This coffin is different from the others. It definitely doesn’t just contain a dead body.
The fat guy laughed and said, ‘The corpse is gone. What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that the coffin will jump up and bite me?’
A-Ning said, ”Our purpose here is not to take out the grave goods. Let’s go to the main tomb room quickly. Don’t waste time.
The fat guy knew he was in the wrong and had no choice. We went back and tidied up the diving equipment. The fat man picked up his backpack and suddenly looked at me. He moved his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but was a little embarrassed to say it. I sighed and scolded, “If you have something to say, just say it. What is it?”
The fat man said, “You guys said that the little rice dumplings might have climbed into the big porcelain jar on the side, right?”
I looked at the big porcelain jar and thought, “That’s possible.”
The fat guy blushed a little and said, “I just heard a sound coming from that direction, and it sounded like it was coming from inside the jar. I thought the dumplings weren’t mice, so how could they crawl into the jar by themselves? I thought I heard it wrong, and I was just mentioning it casually. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
I knew he was still thinking about the treasure on the corpse, so I wanted to mock him a little. At this time, the big porcelain jar suddenly clattered and fell to the ground. I was stunned, and I thought to myself, “He’s not going to be right about this, is he?”
The four of us all stopped talking and nervously looked at the jar. The jar first spun around a few times in place, and then it rolled toward us, “gurgling” as it did.