Volume 5 Chapter 23 Boring code

“Xuanwu rejects the corpse.” Bullshit “Xuanwu rejects the corpse”!

After I figured it out, everything became clear, and I couldn’t help but laugh. This was a complete misunderstanding. The four characters that Uncle San said were not those four characters at all. Because of our preconceived notions about the burial scriptures, as soon as we heard four characters with similar pronunciations, we put them assigned to it. And just as I expected, this code is actually not a code at all. Uncle San used a very clever method to make his almost straightforward words conveyable in front of others, but the true meaning can only be known by me.

It seems that Uncle San had already thought of this. The people who may have come to the imperial tomb with me may not all be people he arranged.

Several people saw my face change dramatically and immediately knew that I had come to some realization. They hurriedly asked what I had thought of.

I explained, “We really thought wrong. The most important reason why Uncle San said that I could understand this sentence is not because of the things we have in common, but because I grew up in Hangzhou.”

Several people still didn’t understand. The fat man asked, “So, does this have something to do with the scenery of Hangzhou? No, I’ve been to Hangzhou, and I’ve never heard of a scenic spot called “Xuanwu Refusing the Corpse.”

Pan Zi shook his head and said, “You’re talking nonsense. It definitely has nothing to do with the scenery. People who grew up in Hangzhou don’t necessarily know the famous scenic spots in Hangzhou. Look at our third uncle. He’s lived in Hangzhou for almost ten years, and he only knows about the West Lake. Last time he took us to Baoshi Mountain for tea, and he even got us lost. When we finally got there at night, we were at Yuquan.

I nodded. Indeed, I am also like this. Who says that people who deal in antiques must like ancient sites? I haven’t visited many scenic spots either.

The fat guy frowned and said to me, “It has nothing to do with the scenery? What the hell is it then? Just tell me, I’m dying of curiosity.” He wiped his sweat.

I didn’t want to keep him in suspense either, so I said to him, “It’s very simple. People who grew up in Hangzhou may not necessarily be familiar with the scenery, but they absolutely—can understand Hangzhou dialect.

Everyone was stunned for a long time, and they obviously had some feelings, but they still didn’t understand. The fat guy asked, “Is it pronunciation?”

I nodded. Of the several people here, I was the only one who was proficient in Hangzhou dialect. Pan Zi had lived in Changsha for many years, and he could speak and understand a little Hangzhou dialect, but if you went deep into it, he couldn’t. The fat guy’s Beijing dialect was obvious from the first listen, and Shunzi didn’t need to be mentioned. If Uncle San said a sentence in Hangzhou dialect, only I could understand it.

Unfortunately, because Shunzi’s Chinese was not good, he only remembered the pronunciation, and did not hear the changes in the tone of the words before and after, so when he read it out with his mouth, it became a completely unintelligible sentence.

Pan Zi patted his head and said, “Fuck, I really didn’t think of that. What does ‘Xuanwu refuses the corpse’ mean in Hangzhou dialect? It seems difficult to pronounce it as well.”

I laughed and said, “Just listen to my analysis. In fact, Uncle San’s secret code is not four characters, but ‘Xuanwu Jushi Zhi Di,’ which is six characters. The first character ‘Xuan’ is pronounced the same as ‘Yuan’ in Hangzhou dialect, and is similar to the pronunciation of ‘Yan.’ The pronunciation of ‘Wu’ is the same as the pronunciation of ‘Hu,’ but in In Hangzhou, the pronunciation of ‘hu’ can be said to be lake or river, ‘ju’ and ‘qu’ have the same pronunciation, ‘shi’ and ‘shui’ have the same pronunciation, ‘zhi’ and ‘zhi’ have the same pronunciation, ‘di’ and ‘di’ have the same pronunciation, and when put together, it is – along the river, through the canal, to the bottom!

After I finished explaining, several people let out a “ah” and all looked as if they had suddenly realized something. The fat man nodded, obviously agreeing that my translation was very reasonable and had no flaws.

Pan Zi said, “Tsk, tsk,” and muttered, “Third Master is Third Master. If Chen Pi’er heard this, he would never have thought it meant this. He would definitely rack his brains to figure out the meaning of ‘Xuanwu River rejects corpses.’

”River water?” After a while, the fat man said, ”But… there’s no river here, is there? Will there be a river in the imperial tomb?“

I said, ‘There certainly won’t be a river in the tomb, but there could be a spring. But there shouldn’t be a river, because the water level of a river is uncontrollable. The water is too high and will flood, and too low and will break the momentum. And the river will expose the location of the ancient tomb. The river here may be referring to this moat.’

Pan Zi’s face was shaking with excitement, saying, ‘So we’ve stumbled upon it and taken the right path?’

”It’s hard to say.” I shook my head. After all, I had never been to the imperial tomb, so I didn’t know what was inside. But based on the current signs and all the information I had seen before, my analysis still made sense.

“If the river is the moat, then the canal, by God, couldn’t it be the one we just saw…” The fat man stood up and looked at the burial ditch full of stone figurines. It was just like the code that fit Uncle San’s description. We all turned our heads away and our hearts began to race.

“But,” Pan Zi was a little unsure, ‘there was no water in the canal.’

I shook my head and said, ”Uncle San hadn’t entered the imperial tomb yet, so the sentence he said should just be a hint he got from somewhere else, possibly an ancient book or map. The person who made this kind of map or ancient book probably never imagined that one day there would be no water in the moat.

There are traces of corrosion on the rocks piled up on the river wall. There must have been water in this river before, but after thousands of years, the source of the river water, or the underground river, or the hot springs, may have dried up. The river water was not replenished and gradually seeped into the ground, leaving nothing at all.

Fatty couldn’t stand it any longer, clicked the bolt and said to us, “Comrades, it’s rare that our personal interests and revolutionary interests are so highly unified. What are we waiting for? Let’s go together!”

This time, we couldn’t find any reason to refute Fatty’s proposal. But he was obviously too eager to leave right away, so Pan Zi pulled him down and said, “Since we have a plan, there’s no hurry now. Look at Little Master San, he’s been injured so badly and hasn’t recovered yet. Do you want to go alone, or do you want us to leave him here to die?”

The fat man was stunned, and thought it was reasonable, but he was really burning with desire. He patted Shunzi and said, “Then let’s go and take a look first. The diligent bird eats the first dish. Let them rest here and I guarantee that they will get no less than the third master gave you.”

Who knew that Shunzi also shook his head and said, “Boss, my task is to bring him,” pointing to me, “to your third master, and after that, your life or death is none of my business, but now I have to watch him.”

I laughed and said to the fat man, “Now you know who the big shot is here, right?”

The fat man spat and said unhappily, “Fine, you all rest here, and I’ll go by myself. When I come back with a few treasures, see if you’re jealous. I’ll say it in advance, whatever I find is mine, and no one else gets a share!” He said this and walked away with his gun.

But after a few steps, he suddenly stopped, paused, turned around and came back. We all laughed heartily and asked him what he was doing, and he was afraid again?

The fat man huffed and puffed, kicked his backpack aside, sat down across from the lantern, and said, “What are you afraid of? You really want me to go? Fat Master, I’m not that stupid. Wait a minute, I’ll get my stuff out, and you three will come up and grab it. I’m no match for a pack of wolves. I’ll give you an advantage, and I might even give you the opportunity to rob and kill me. I’m not going to do this stupid business.”

Pan Zi saw that the fat man was unhappy, so he took the opportunity to taunt him: “You’re being petty. You think we’re all like you.”

I was afraid that he would get serious, so I interrupted them: “Okay, stop talking. It’s already midnight. Although we can’t see the sky here, we still have to hurry and get some rest.”

Pan Zi looked at the watch and nodded, turning up the wind lamp. Suddenly it was warm all around, and then he pulled out the inflatable sleeping bag, blew it up, and everyone fell asleep.

The fat man lit a cigarette and said he couldn’t sleep, so he would be on the first watch. I looked at him and said, “Don’t go out in the middle of the night to look for things. Go into the palace and take whatever you want.

The fat guy was furious and said, “Am I such a person? He’s on guard duty, keeping us safe.

We were tired from the journey, and it was already evening when we reached the top of the snow-capped mountain. It took us almost 10 hours to get to the palace in the ice cap, which was equivalent to a day and night of hard labor, including rock climbing, running, long jump, and a failed long jump that caused me to fall off the building. I was exhausted just thinking about it, and I fell asleep in my sleeping bag soon after I got in.

I slept soundly, because I was injured and didn’t have to keep watch. When I woke up, it was still dark, and the lantern was much dimmer. The person on watch had already changed, and he was leaning against a rock smoking, while the fat man’s snoring was like thunder.

I looked at the clock and realized that I had only slept for five hours. However, when you are seriously injured, the quality of sleep is generally very good because the body is repairing itself intensely, and the person is basically in a semi-coma. However, when you wake up, your mind is clear, but your body is even more tired, and your back and waist are aching.

I rubbed my face and climbed out of the sleeping bag. I moved my hands and feet while letting Pan Zi sleep for a while, saying that I would keep watch for a while. Pan Zi said that he didn’t need to, that he was used to it in Vietnam, and that he couldn’t sleep for more than three hours a day without being in bed.

I didn’t pay any attention to him, sat down on the other side of the stone, and lit a cigarette to wake up my brain.

The two of us were silent for a while, and then suddenly Pan Zi asked me if I could guess how Third Uncle was doing now. Would anything happen?

I saw his expression, which was truly concerned and worried, and I felt a bit of emotion in my heart. According to reason, someone like Pan Zi, who has been on the battlefield and is used to gunfire and death, should not have such deep feelings, but in fact, Pan Zi’s loyalty and trust in this old man make me, as a close nephew, feel ashamed. I don’t know what happened between Pan Zi and Uncle San, and I really want to ask him if I have the opportunity.

I comforted him, “Don’t worry, that old fox will never treat himself unfairly. People like him are hardy. If something were to happen, it wouldn’t be until now. We just have to take care of ourselves now. At this stage, we should be the ones worrying others, because we still don’t know anything.”

Pan Zi nodded and sighed, a little annoyed, “It’s a pity that my brain doesn’t work. I never understand what Third Uncle does. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have to do this dangerous thing myself. I would just go.”

I smiled bitterly to myself, thinking that what Uncle San was doing was not necessarily very dangerous. I felt that the most dangerous thing was us, always following behind Uncle San and guessing at his intentions, then being led by the nose by him. If this went on, even the luckiest person would get caught.

For example, this time, from the clues that Uncle San gave us in advance about the entrance to the underground palace, it seems that he had something on him that allowed him to know in advance the structure of the underground palace here. And what Shunzi said, Uncle San entered the snow mountain alone to look, obviously he did not fall into the hands of Ning and the others. If he successfully entered the crater, then he would probably already be in the underground palace of the imperial tomb.

It can be speculated that the “thing” that allowed him to know the structure of the underground palace in advance should be the purpose of his trip to Xisha a few months ago. It can also explain why A Ning’s company would appear here. Their goal should not be the underwater tomb, but the Yunding Palace here. Working with Uncle San to go to Xisha was just to find clues to the Changbai Mountain underground imperial tomb in the underwater tomb.

And in the ancient tomb at the bottom of the sea, Aning and we were separated for a long time. While we were running around, getting mad at the traps, what was this woman doing in the back hall? Did she also get the key to the underground imperial tomb here, just like Uncle San? We don’t know, but the well-equipped corpse we saw in the front hall just now proves that Aning’s team arrived here before us. According to Shunzi, their large team would never have been able to cross the border, but they came through unscathed, which shows that they must have known a secret route that no one else knew about.

This at least proves that Aning and his team knew something that we didn’t.

This is the absolute difference between us and them. We are completely ignorant of what awaits us in the underground palace, and we have no way of estimating it. This is actually the worst situation, but we still have to keep going. We can’t choose to retreat. This is the worst of all bad situations.

I didn’t tell them this because for Pan Zi, Uncle San was everything. He had to do whatever Uncle San told him to do, regardless of the motive. For Shun Zi, he was completely an outsider. It was a business deal, and he only cared about the final result. And Fatso was even simpler. He came for the “Lama,” and the things in the tomb were the key. Our Uncle San was just a synonym for trouble to him. These analyses seem to be useful only to myself, and I am the only one who is confused.

Everyone else lives so simply, and for the first time I feel a little envious.

After chatting for a while, Pan Zi asked me if I was feeling better. I felt it myself. After sleeping, my body had improved a lot, and I could walk without help at this time, but obviously, I still couldn’t fight. Pan Zi said it would be better to rest a little longer. It was rare to find such a quiet place here, and it seemed very safe. I was afraid that after entering the underground palace, I would never have such an opportunity again.

I thought so too, and I wanted to go back to sleep in my sleeping bag, but I couldn’t sleep. The fat guy on the side kept talking in a dialect I didn’t understand, as if he was bargaining with someone. When he was most excited, Pan Zi threw a stone at him. The first stone made the fat guy behave, but he started again after a while, making a lot of noise. I couldn’t hear any of this when I was tired, but now I was trying to sleep, so it was really annoying.

I closed my eyes and endured it for another two hours. Pan Zi’s stone was too big and knocked the fat man awake. Now no one could sleep, and Shun Zi was also awakened by the noise.

After tidying up our things and eating some dry food, we walked back to the sacrificial ditch we had just seen. The decaying black stone figurines still stood silently there, forming a long queue that extended into the endless darkness on both sides.

I was helped to climb down the sacrificial ditch, and suddenly I was surrounded by the human figurines. Looking down on them from above, I didn’t feel very uneasy, but once I got down there, the human figurines were as tall as me, and the surrounding shadows made me feel very uneasy.

The fat man shone his flashlight in both directions and asked me, “Your third uncle told us to follow the water, but there is no water here now. Where should we go?”

I looked at Pan Zi. He had participated in the special warfare phase during the Self-Defense War against Vietnam and should have some research on this kind of thing.

Pan Zi approached a human figurine, touched the cracks on it, and pointed to the direction the human figurine was facing. “Look at the traces of water on the stone. That should be the downstream.”

The fat man leaned over, but couldn’t see anything, so he said, “Human life is at stake, so don’t talk nonsense.”

Pan Zi ignored him and said to be careful. A few people began to follow the ditch and walk towards the darkness of the moat.

I had no idea how long the moat was. When we looked at it from the cliff with a flare, the entire imperial city was a long view. We could only see the tops of the buildings, and the moat was hidden by the dense dead trees around it. When we were on the bridge, the light from the flashlight was not enough to illuminate the darkness. So we walked along the sacrificial canal for half an hour, but we still hadn’t reached the end of the bottom of the silent moat.

The sacrificial ditch was uneven and there were several sections where the human figurines were badly broken, as if they had been stepped on by something huge. The hard, unknown stone material was all cracked and shattered. I even found that at the bottom of the ditch, the heads and limbs of human figurines appeared from time to time, as if there was still a layer of such things buried in the soil at the bottom of the sacrificial ditch.

Or maybe it was originally meant to be buried, but for some reason the construction was halted, so there are still so many human figurines that have not been buried.

The further we walked, the darker it got. At first, the flashlight on the river wall on one side still reflected a little light, at least there was a reference. As we walked, we couldn’t even find the towering river wall on one side. We were surrounded by darkness, so we slowed down. Pan Zi reminded us to be alert and not to be distracted.

At this time, the fat man who was walking in front of us stopped. We were about to go up to him when we saw him make a gesture to stop us.

I walked up to him and looked along with his flashlight. I saw that the end of the sacrificial canal had arrived, the line of human figurines had disappeared, and in front of us was a huge stone river wall. It should be on the other side of the moat. There seemed to be something carved on the river wall as huge as the Leshan Buddha The same thing as the giant Buddha statue in Leshan, because the flashlight can’t show the whole picture, and I don’t know what it is. I only see a square hole covered with gravel at the bottom of the river wall. Now the stones have been moved away a lot, revealing a dark hole.

This is the same tunnel we came in through earlier. This hole was also one of the tunnels secretly dug by the craftsmen who built the tomb. This was the only way they could escape after the underground palace was sealed.

“Another anti-attack tunnel?” Pan Zi exclaimed in surprise. “How could the opening be here? This is impossible.”

“How is it impossible?” the fat man asked. “You didn’t build it.”

Pan Zi said, “This place was underwater back then. Do you think all the craftsmen were fish?”

I waved them off, and at that moment, Shunzi said, “Hey, come and look, there’s something here.”

He shone his flashlight over, and we saw that someone had carved some characters on the stone on one side of the square hole.