Volume 6Chapter 8: The Prelude to Xisha

At the time, there was a wave of archaeological and tomb-robbing expeditions, with a large number of foreign expeditions coming to Asia to get a piece of the pie in this second major archaeological discovery.

At the time, China’s maritime archaeology was almost non-existent, and seeing as how a large number of national treasures were being stolen and plundered, how could the Chinese archaeological community not be anxious? Several old professors wrote a letter to the central government, requesting that measures be taken. Later, under the pressure of the situation, and with no money or people to spare, they finally put together a few “expedition teams,” one of which was sent to the Xisha Islands, which was the team that Wen Jin was in charge of.

The unexpected thing that happened to Uncle San was about a month before the expedition team set off.

At the time, Uncle San was helping Wen Jin prepare some equipment, such as pumps and diving equipment, which the team was not responsible for, and Uncle San took care of it all. That day at noon, Uncle San was busy debugging the equipment when a student suddenly came in and said that someone was looking for him outside.

The man’s name was Xie Lianhuan, probably taken from the words “unable to express my feelings, lamenting the loss of my lover, the sound of my letter is distant. Even the most skillful hand cannot unravel the chain of events.” This man was Uncle San’s brother-in-law, which is equivalent to my distant cousin. Because they lived in Changsha together, they had contact with each other on a daily basis, but not too much.

In those days, when it came to socializing, Uncle San and his friends were okay, but the older generation only visited during the New Year and other holidays, and the emphasis was on being as casual as possible. This kind of relative suddenly came looking for him, which was a bit of a surprise for Uncle San.

But when a relative came, you naturally couldn’t neglect them, and it wasn’t good to ask them what they were doing right away, so Uncle San stopped what he was doing, exchanged pleasantries, and took him to a restaurant to eat.

The Xie family was also a wealthy family with six brothers, more than the grandfather’s family. Generally speaking, they would not lack money. They must have come to Uncle San for help, and the matter might be quite special, otherwise they would not have been unable to resolve it themselves.

Xie Lianhuan twisted and turned for a long time before telling Uncle San that it was actually not a big deal. He just wanted to use Uncle San’s connections to get a position on Wenjin’s expedition team. He wanted to go to sea and take a look.

When Uncle San heard this, he felt something was wrong. Wen Jin is a lovely girl, everyone likes her, and the Xie family has seen her because they are relatives, but Wen Jin has a very good sense of propriety. Although they have met, they have not become close friends, let alone contact each other on a daily basis. Xie Lianhuan inexplicably made such an unreasonable request, which must be an attempt. He shook his head and asked, “What do you want to see when you go to sea? Can’t you go to Hangzhou to see it?”

Xie Lianhuan was embarrassed and scratching his head, saying that he couldn’t say, if he really wanted to know, he would say that he had a business there. He was also entrusted by others.

Uncle San asked him why he didn’t think of a way to hire a fishing boat, which wasn’t very expensive. He explained that China was currently engaged in a military confrontation with Vietnam, and the Xisha area was very sensitive. Without the permission of the coast guard, ordinary ships could not enter, so he asked Uncle San to help him. It would be easier to act in the guise of a survey team, and this would absolutely have no impact on Wenjin.

The more Uncle San listened, the more strange it sounded. The grave-digger and Xisha were so incongruous together. He said there was a business deal, but what kind of business could there be in Xisha? There is really only water and sand there, and if there is anything else, it is sunken ships. If you are going to go to the sunken ships, why go to Xisha? Ningbo and the Bohai Sea are already there. Moreover, the Xie family was a well-known family at that time, a family with a history of several hundred years. It was impossible that they would suddenly become so poor that they had to go digging for sea products.

Xie Lianhuan saw that his uncle was a bit embarrassed, so he said that if it didn’t work out, he would think of another way.

If it had been me, I would have been relieved to hear that, and I would have said yes. But Uncle San didn’t think that way. He thought to himself, “Something’s fishy about this. If I say no, the kid will really think of another way. This business is not good. If he does something out of the ordinary, it’s hard to guard against it. Since he’s already involved with Wen Jin, I can’t let him do whatever he wants. I have to find out what he’s up to.

So he said that it wasn’t impossible, but that he was in a difficult position because he wasn’t the only one who could make the decision. He had to ask Wen Jin first, and he couldn’t make a decision on the matter, so he asked him to wait for a while.

Xie Lianhuan hurriedly thanked him and took out a bunch of foreign goods that were in short supply at the time, asking Uncle San to give them to Wen Jin.

The two men had different motives and talked about other things for a while before Xie Lianhuan left. Uncle San immediately went to find a few local thugs he knew, gave them some money, and asked them to follow him around and find out what he had been up to recently.

At that time, the local thugs were the most well-informed group of people, and soon there was news that they had been following him for several days and found that he was just a second-generation scion who had no hobbies and only liked to listen to flower opera. His friends were also a motley group A group of very ordinary people. If there is anything strange about them, it is only that in the recent period, for some reason, he has been closely associated with a foreigner. He often goes to a teahouse to meet a foreigner every other day, and they don’t talk for long, only ten minutes.

When Uncle San heard this, he was puzzled. It was common for people in his line of work to do business with foreigners. But Xie Lianhuan was different. He was basically no longer involved in the family business. His job at home was to spend money. How could he suddenly be dealing with foreigners again? Uncle San felt that there was something fishy going on and immediately decided to go and see for himself.

He asked Xie Lianhuan about the general rules for meeting the foreigner, and then chose a time for himself. On that day, he changed into an inconspicuous outfit and waited for him to come out early in the morning. After waiting for an hour, Xie Lianhuan came out of the door. Uncle San approached him, followed him from a distance, and followed him for half of Changsha City. When they arrived at the old rice market, a teahouse appeared in front of them. Xie Lianhuan looked behind him warily, but didn’t see Uncle San, so he picked the curtain and walked in.

Uncle San was overjoyed, and he jumped up in three steps. When he looked out the window, he saw Xie Lianhuan sitting down in a position, and on the opposite side of the position, there was indeed a foreigner sitting.

The foreigner had white hair and a muscular build, and it was impossible to tell which country he was from, but he looked extremely healthy. He was sitting in the teahouse like a bear, and now he was drinking tea in a very natural manner, wearing slippers. Judging from his self-assured manner, he must have been in China for a long time and was already accustomed to the life of the streets in Changsha.

Uncle San took a look at the foreigner and found that the man looked a bit familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere, and he couldn’t help but wonder.

He had done business with so many foreigners that he could count them on one hand, and there was definitely no one like this one. This person must not be one of his customers, but in those days, the chances of seeing a foreigner in Changsha were slim, and it definitely wasn’t one of the ones he usually saw.

He tried to recall the occasions he had seen foreigners in the past few years, and suddenly he had a flash of inspiration. He immediately remembered: this foreigner was actually one of the group of foreigners he had seen at Baozi Ridge a year ago! The experience of that year was so shocking that Uncle San still remembered it vividly. As soon as he pulled out the thread, he immediately remembered everything.

Uncle San felt a chill run down his spine. He looked at the two people in the teahouse and suddenly felt that he had realized something, but he couldn’t grasp it. An ominous premonition rose from his heart.

At this point, I raised my hand to interrupt Uncle San and asked him to stop for a moment. I had to think about it before I could continue listening.

Listening to Uncle San’s account so far, it’s already very clear. There’s no doubt that Xie Lianhuan wanted to go to Xisha to help this mysterious foreigner with something, and it was a relatively special thing, because ordinary business with foreigners is something everyone does, and there’s no need to make it so mysterious.

This foreigner was one of the group that wanted to excavate the Bloody Corpse Tomb outside of Daziling a year ago. At that time, Uncle San already felt very strange, because Daziling is deep in the mountains of inland China, and it is not the kind of place where foreigners should be. Now, this group of people obviously wanted to send someone to the Xisha waters of China, which is also a place where foreigners should not be, because there was a war going on at that time.

At that time, Uncle San did not know that there was an ancient tomb under Xisha, so many things were just confusing and impossible to speculate. But now I know what happened later. According to these deductions, the foreigner’s request to Xie Lianhuan should be related to the Ming Dynasty underwater tomb.

In that case, the first person to know about the existence of the underwater tomb was most likely the foreigner, who in turn told Xie Lianhuan.

That would create an inexplicable circle, an unimaginable problem: Where did the foreigner know about the existence of the ancient tomb at Daziling and the underwater tomb at Xisha? The rarity of these two tombs is such that even someone like my grandfather would only have heard of them. How could a foreigner like him be so knowledgeable?

I also thought about the snake-eyed bronze fish that Xie Lianquan was holding when he died. This was the first snake-eyed bronze fish to appear in the world. Obviously, this thing should have been brought out of the underwater tomb by him. So can we say that the mysterious foreigner wanted Xie Lianquan to do was to bring out this bronze fish from the tomb?

In other words, the foreigner not only knew in advance that there was an ancient tomb in Meidi, but also knew what was inside the tomb. This is too much in line with the American principle of intelligence first.

Even when Uncle San went to the Baozi Ridge, which was recorded in Grandpa’s notes, he had to rely on the local mountain people to find it after much effort. Not to mention the ancient tomb at the bottom of the Xisha Sea. I think that except for Wang Zanghai, no one else would know about its existence.

Thinking about this, I suddenly had a chill, and I thought to myself, “No way! People say that when there is no answer, the most unlikely answer is the correct one.

Since these things don’t exist, then the only answer is: Could it be that what Uncle San just said was nonsense?

This person has a criminal record, and I immediately felt guilty. I looked at him immediately to see if his expression was wrong.

Uncle San saw that my face was uncertain, and he didn’t know what I was thinking. When he saw me looking at him, he asked me what was wrong.

I said tentatively, “Uncle, you can’t lie to me anymore. You’ve said it all, and it would be really mean of you to lie to me.”

Uncle looked at my expression and asked me why I thought that. I told him my concerns, and after he heard me, he suddenly frowned and looked at me.

When I finished, it seemed that I had been exposed, and I didn’t know what to say. My heart sank.

I didn’t expect him to look at me a few times and suddenly say, “You’re thinking too absolutely. In fact, those foreigners didn’t know what was under the Xisha at the time. They just knew that there must be something under that place.

I asked, “Where did you learn this?”

Uncle San said, “They told me later. In fact, those foreigners are the owners of the company where Ning is now working. Do you know who the founder of this company is?”

I shook my head. Uncle San said, “It’s the American who swindled the Warring States Silk Book from your grandfather.

I almost dropped my jaw when I heard this.

Uncle San nodded and said, “I saw him once before he went to Xisha. He was already dying and now he’s on life support. He told me himself the purpose of his decades of investment in China.”

“What was that?” I asked.

Uncle San said, “The whole thing started with the silk scroll he stole. He was a high school teacher in a church and occasionally sold stolen antiques. That year, he used the name of charity to deceive the original Warring States silk book from my grandfather. At that time, this person was already very proficient in Chinese culture, and in order to increase the value of this silk book, he decided to decipher the information on it.” Uncle San paused, ‘But it took him two years, and what he deciphered was a big surprise.’

I was moved, and said, ”This American was able to decipher the Warring States silk book that we haven’t been able to do for so many years?”

Uncle San nodded: “Because he is an American, he was able to decipher it. Because the arrangement of the hidden characters in this silk book uses a mathematical principle, people like us, even if we are proficient, cannot decipher it from a mathematical perspective.”

“What is written on the silk book?” I asked curiously.

Uncle San said, “The information recorded in the silk book is something you would never guess if I didn’t tell you.”

Uncle San was in the middle of telling me the story when someone knocked on the door. I was wondering if someone else had come to see the doctor. Everyone who could have come had already come. Who the hell was bothering me with a story? I turned around and saw a deliveryman.

He came in and asked, “Who is Mr. Wu Xie?”

I nodded and said, “It’s me.”

He took a large package out of his bag and said, “Your express delivery.”

Uncle San was also very surprised. He asked me, “Who sent it?”

I looked at the envelope and saw that it was addressed to Zhang Qiling. I was suddenly very worried. I thought to myself, “How could he send me a package?” I looked at the date and realized that it was not long ago. Could it be that he had come out of the crevice in the ground? I hurriedly opened the envelope and saw two black objects inside—they were two videotapes.