Volume 7 Chapter 12 Wenjin’s Notes

When I saw this line, I took a deep breath and was overwhelmed with shock.

The content of this text was not the most surprising thing to me. To be honest, when I first saw the notebook, I thought I might see something like this. What took my breath away was the signature.

“Chen Wenjin!”

Oh my god, I really didn’t expect that this thing would be left by her. So, the person who sent me the video and led me here is her?

This is really a twist of events, and it’s hard to figure out. Although Uncle San didn’t say anything about her, in my mind, she must have died somewhere. How could she suddenly appear at this time, and lead me here?

And there is so much information in this short passage. What three people? Which three? What is it? Who are we referring to? Could it be the people in Xisha? What research? What secrets?

Countless thoughts flashed through my mind, but I didn’t have time to think about any of them. I calmed down and immediately opened the notebook and looked down at the back.

This is a very thick notebook, with 26 or 27 pages full of words, all densely written and extremely neat, and there are many drawings, as if it were a work notebook.

I put my lighter on the edge of the drawer and sat down on the floor. I immediately calmed down and began to read.

As soon as I opened the first page, the page after the title page, I was immediately shocked. I saw a strange picture on it, drawn very carefully.

The picture was made up of only seven lines, six curved lines and an irregular circle. I only had to think about it for a moment before I realized that it was the same picture that Uncle San had described to me and that had been translated from the Warring States silk book.

I was surprised. It seems that Wenjin and the others were quite capable, and it was very difficult to obtain this picture.

However, unlike the sketch that Uncle San had drawn for me, this time the picture had annotations, and I broke out in a cold sweat as soon as I saw it. I saw that there was a black dot on each of the six curved lines, and it seemed that they were the six stars that my uncle and I had selected by aligning the star chart with the straight line. However, on four of the black dots, I saw a few small characters.

From top to bottom, they were:

Changbai Mountain – Yunding Palace

Gua Zi Temple – Qixing Luwang Palace

Wo Fo Ling – Tian Guan Temple Pagoda

Sha Tou Jiao – Sunken Ship Tomb

I was shocked, and after a few seconds of confusion, it suddenly dawned on me what I was looking at.

I was stunned. Could it be that the curves in this diagram were the trend of each mountain in the great dragon vein that Wang Zanghai had identified?

I looked at the curves carefully and found that they were indeed like that. Because I wasn’t looking at it on a map, the six lines didn’t remind me of anything at all. I only felt that they were like the veins of a leaf or the distribution of a river. However, now that I looked at it, I immediately saw that it was actually a “dragon.” The six lines are the dragon’s head, tail, and limbs! Each line is a mountain range, and the dots on the lines are the treasure eyes on the mountains.

This is not a star map at all, as Jude Kao said!

I immediately felt cold all over, realizing what was going on. Damn, either Jude Kao was misled, or the old demon tricked Uncle San!

I looked at the two lines that had no writing on them. I immediately noticed that there were also black dots on them, but the ones on the sides were all question marks. Obviously, these should also be the dragon veins of the great geomancy, but the situation of the dragon eyes on them was not clear.

This sudden shock almost left me at a loss. I really didn’t expect to be so subverted when I opened my notebook. I immediately closed my notebook and took a deep breath, but my hands still trembled. I thought of the sentence on the front page: The content inside involves some huge secrets. You didn’t have to shock me like that on the first page!

However, this shock was quickly replaced by ecstasy. I clenched my teeth and patted my chest to get rid of the feeling of suffocation, and then opened the notebook again.

I looked at the diagram carefully, and this time I saw something even more crucial.

I saw that outside the six lines, in the blank space surrounded by six curved lines, there was also a black dot on the inside of the circle. This black dot is not on any of the lines, but is alone and isolated in the middle of the entire figure.

And next to this black dot, there is also a line of small characters: Qaidam-Tamudu.

I couldn’t read this, but below this line of small characters, there were several deep lines and two or three question marks. Obviously, this dot is the most important part of this picture. And when he was drawing the picture, Wenjin had some questions, so he drew these question marks while thinking.

Judging from the experience on the side, this point should also represent a place, Qaidam? Tamuduo? Could it also be an ancient tomb? I thought to myself, why is this point outside the lines?

Suddenly, I suddenly realized that Wenjin knew a lot more than we did. It seems that this notebook can tell me a lot of questions. Thinking, I immediately turned the notebook over and began to read the back content.

The content of the latter part was a mixture of text and pictures. The handwriting was very neat and orderly, but the font was very small, and it was very difficult to read under the dim light of the lighter.

I gathered my thoughts and looked at it attentively. As I read, I became more and more puzzled and disappointed. After reading it, my confusion and disappointment reached a climax. I stayed there, and the feeling in my heart was indescribable.

The content of the entire notebook can be roughly divided into three parts, with more than 100,000 words. It is similar to a diary, recording the details of the work.

The first part is from April 2, 1990 to March 6, 1991. I cannot transcribe the entire notebook here, so I can only abbreviate it and select the most critical chapters to make it easier to understand. The content of the first part is as follows: [April 2, 1990]

We numbered and organized most of the porcelain in the underwater tomb, copied almost all of the porcelain, and compared it with the murals in the hope of finding Wang Zanghai’s life trajectory. Through this comparison, we did find some patterns. What was recorded in the murals was his life experience, while the content of the porcelain paintings was the process of his construction projects. This is evident in the series we have compiled, such as entering the Dongxia Kingdom and building the Yunding Palace, and being rewarded by Zhu Yuanzhang for designing the Ming Palace.

According to this method of inference, these murals all record the achievements of Wang Zanghai, the eminent master of geomancy. The content recorded is all related to his work, and there is no record of anything important to others, such as marriage or hunting. I call this the “Wang Theory of Relativity.”〗 [September 6, 1990]

Today, the “Wang’s Theory of Relativity” encountered a problem. In the last mural of Wang Zanghai, we found this passage: (The following is a sketch, which is probably a copy of the mural. When I saw it, I thought of the things that looked like children’s sketches when I turned over the table.

The sketch is difficult to describe because it is badly drawn, but I can see that it seems to be a scene of a dignitary bidding farewell to another person. In the background is a large palace gate, and neatly arranged around it are animals such as “camels and horses,” which of course look exactly like dogs and rats. I am familiar with ancient landscape paintings and paintings of animals, and I have received rigorous training in this area, so I can guess from the brushstrokes and shapes that these strange-looking animals should actually be horses or camels. Behind the palace gate, there are a large number of servants, forming a ceremonial procession.

I skipped over the next two or three pages, which I wasn’t interested in, and went straight to the content of the back.

(These murals should be from after Wang Zanghai was 68 years old. At that time, he had already completed his last project, and the content of these murals probably describes him accepting the emperor’s order to set off to a place, similar to an activity such as a diplomatic mission. The composition of this mural is obviously modeled after the Tang Dynasty murals of Xuanzang’s journey to the Western Regions, which is very peculiar. However, after checking all the porcelain, we still haven’t found any porcelain paintings that correspond to this.

Some people say that it may be the last time he experienced this, and he didn’t have any architectural works to correspond to it. However, others insist that someone like Wang Zanghai would not make such an exception. There may be some special meaning or reason for the lack of a porcelain painting.

Indeed, further research has revealed that the last few years of Wang Zanghai’s life are very mysterious, with no historical records whatsoever.

Where was he during those years, and what was he doing? This is a big question. 〖December 6, 1990〗

〖For several months, we have been investigating the whereabouts of Wang Zanghai during his last few years, and finally have a clue. We found that after the last project, Wang Zanghai accompanied the emperor on a mountain worshiping activity in Changbai Mountain, and then there was no more written record.

Changbai Mountain, does it mean that he went into the mountains? We are very suspicious. [December 7, 1990]

We couldn’t find anything here, so we changed our direction and started with the emperor. There are detailed records of the diplomatic exchanges and grand ceremonies in the Ming Zhi, and we wanted to find the grand ceremony depicted in Wang Zanghai’s mural, or his records of diplomatic missions to other countries.

The result was very surprising. We found that two years before the emperor died, there were seven ceremonies in total, six of which were normal, but one was very strange. The record was very simple, without any side notes: “In the twenty-ninth year of Hongwu, forty-six guards, twelve scholars, one hundred and twenty-six horses, ten buckets of pearls, thirty catties of gold, etc., were sent to Tamuduo.”

The only two conditions that were met were the grand ceremony and the diplomatic mission. However, this record does not mention the officials who went on the diplomatic mission. But the strangest thing is, what is Tamuda?

Is it a country? There is no record of it in the official history, but it is very likely that there were countless small countries in the two regions of Southeast Asia and the Western Regions surrounding the Ming Dynasty. Perhaps this was one of the small countries. However, it is a bit strange that Wang Zanghai went on a diplomatic mission with a small country. He was too old to be traveling such a long distance. 〖February 11, 1991〗

〖The investigation continued, and we had two discussions.〗 (There are ten pages of nonsense in the middle, all about discussions and speculations, but they were all proven wrong later, so they were deleted.)

〖Because the Ming Dynasty experienced a catastrophe during the Qing Dynasty, this investigation was very difficult. We compared the items carried on the mission to “Tamuda” and found that the types of gifts indicated that it should be a country in the Western Regions, and the number of gifts was very small for gifts. However, there were many horses, which seemed to be a caravan rather than a diplomatic delegation. This is the first paragraph. Obviously, there should be more content in the previous paragraph, but there is no trace of a torn page. It seems that this should not be a separate notebook, but one of a series of notebooks.

The content described in the first paragraph is that they were researching Wang Zanghai, discovered Tamuduo, then researched Tamuduo, and finally the research stalled. From this passage, we can see that they were studying the murals and porcelain in the underwater tomb, and it seems that their research was very orthodox and systematic, following the classic archaeological process (the process of checking information seems very boring, but it is the main way that archaeologists study every day. However, when Uncle San and the others went there, it was impossible to have such conditions. The tomb of Wang Zanghai was so big, and there were only a few people. How long would it take to record everything in the tomb? So when did they do this work?

This is a big clue, but I didn’t have time to think about it, so I continued to read on. At the time, I thought that the process would continue like this, but after this section on March 6, 1991, a phenomenon that puzzled me appeared.

After this section, there are about six pages of statements collecting information, which I will skip. After flipping through, the next section of the work diary jumps to January 19, 1993.

Then, if you look at the content of the record, you will find that it is quite different from the previous one. This section covers the period from January 19, 1993 to February 8, 1995, which is longer than the previous section, but there is not much to record. The content is as follows: [January 19, 1993]

After the last discussion, Wang Zanghai’s story became clear. It seems that his journey to Tamuduo was indeed related to the emperor’s sacrifice on Changbai Mountain. He should have returned to the Cloud Palace, and then set off for Tamuduo. This Tamuduo must be related to the situation in Changbai Mountain. 〗 [April 18, 1993]

〖From the murals, we have compiled three routes to the Cloud Palace. We decided to go to Changbai Mountain to find out what was going on. 〗 May 30, 1993

〖The weather was terrible as we entered the area of Changbai Mountain.〗

(After that, there are about ten pages of travel records that are like adventure novels. They are similar to the content of our entry into the Cloud Palace. Until we entered.)

June 15, 1993

〖We lost contact with them, and the two of us continued on.〗 June 17, 1993

We reached the bottom of the heavenly palace. The situation was very bad. The others might be in grave danger. We had no time to hesitate. We decided to enter the bronze gate and see what was inside. June 18, 1993

It seems that I have seen the ultimate!

(The entry ends here. There is no content after this. The next entry is the last one. Apparently she didn’t record anything for nearly a year and a half.

The last entry was on February 8, 1995, when we began planning to find Tamudu. I must figure out what’s going on.

This is the second part. There are about 30 pages of content here. Obviously, there is a gap of several years between the first and second parts. In this second part, they immediately began their journey to the Palace of the Celestial Emperor. After reading this, a question in my heart became clear. It seems that the people who died in the Palace of the Celestial Emperor were from their group, and judging from the things they carried, the people we are talking about here should be the group from Xisha.

In that case, it seems that they didn’t have any other special difficulties, and they seemed to be living quite comfortably? But these are secondary. What shocked me most was that Wen Jin had apparently discovered the bronze door and had gone inside.

“I saw the ultimate!” I saw a cold sweat break out all over my body. I thought to myself, what does this ultimate mean?

Looking at the time of the record, after she went in, there was almost no diary for a year and a half, which was inconsistent with her personality. I felt that she had probably seen something in the bronze door that was so shocking that she had no time to think about taking notes.

Throughout the second part, my biggest feeling is that Tamudo should have a great relationship with the Bronze Gate. After Wenjin entered the Bronze Gate, she began to think about finding this “Tamudo.”

After that, there is the third part, which is very long, but the time span is very short, from February 8, 1995 to June 8, 1995.

[February 8, 1995]

〖According to that map of the dragon vein, we can already determine the location of Tamudu. We will conduct an exploration, hoping to discover the answers to that series of mysteries in this exploration. To be honest, I really didn’t expect there to be so much behind this. If what I saw in the Bronze Gate is true, then this whole thing is too terrible.〗 After that, it was all about their journey to the place called “Tamuda.” From the description, it seems that “Tamuda” was an oasis in the Gobi Desert. Wenjin followed a caravan of camels and set out from Dunhuang in early 1995, traveling deep into the Qaidam Basin for this journey.

They were led into the Gobi Desert by a female guide named Dingzhu Zhuoma, and then they parted with her at a rocky mountain and entered the place called “Tamuda.” The oasis seemed very dangerous, and many people died along the way. They also saw many dangerous signs on the map in the notes. In the end, they reached Tamuduo, but she and the other person had a disagreement, and in the end she didn’t continue on and came back.

I read this very quickly, and didn’t look closely. After this content, there is a blank, with no content. This part of the content is about thirty pages long, and is very detailed, with a large number of maps and descriptions of equipment defects, weather, and so on.

Throughout the entire notebook, there is no mention of how they obtained the information or how they investigated, nor is there any mention of the disappearance of Xisha or the events in the sanatorium. All the information in it is related to this “Tamuda,” and almost half of the content is an analysis of the things left behind by Wang Zanghai, and a connection to “Tamuda” was discovered from it. What’s more, I was very concerned that there were obvious breaks in the middle of these three sections, and it felt as if the notes had been bound or copied.

I pulled hard on the gaps between the pages, but found no traces of re-binding or page-tearing. That is to say, this notebook may have been copied by Wenjin. It seems that she selected the contents of several notebooks about Tamuduo, copied them down, and put them together in one notebook.

Why did she do this? This is another thing that is hard to understand. Why do these people always do things in such a mysterious way? Could it be that there is something in the other parts of the notes that she doesn’t want others to know?

Moreover, looking at the notes, it is obvious that she wants me to know that the place “Tamudu” is very important, as if she wants me to go there.

I rubbed my temples and turned the notebook to the beginning, ready to read it carefully from the beginning and see if I could get some clues. However, at this time, the lighter in front of me had already dimmed. The flame had shrunk and the light was quite dim.

I remembered that the lighter had been used for a long time and might soon run out of gas, so I wanted to light the newspapers and drawers together to make a bonfire, so that I wouldn’t have to fumble around in the dark when the lighter didn’t work. So I stood up with the lighter and stretched my muscles.

At this moment, I felt that something was wrong, that there was something different here. I simply held up the lighter to see if it was an illusion. I was almost scared to death when I looked. I saw a “person” sitting in the chair I had just sat in, looking at the mirror and combing his hair.