WuxiaWorldEU

Chapter 51

“Oh… that must have been a long time ago.” Qin Cheng looked at Tang Jie and asked tentatively.

“That’s right. As far as I know, our Tang family’s genealogy has been written for two or three hundred years. It should be on the other side, but I heard an old man say that a fire happened a long time ago here, leaving no evidence behind.”

Wu Hai then asked: “Then, Tang-dage, you must be familiar with the area, right? We’d like to, ah, we want to take another walk and investigate. I wanted to ask you to be our guide and show us the way, otherwise, we might get lost in the mountain.”

“This… I’m familiar with the road, but…”

Seeing that Tang Jie was hesitant, Wu Hai thought that he was afraid of them delaying his work, so he added: “Then we’ll give Tang-dage some guide fees. We don’t want to make you waste your work day.”

As soon as he heard Wu Hai say this, Tang Jie smiled happily and replied: “What guide fee, ah? This, ah…. alright, I’ll do it.”

Seeing Tang Jie agreeing with this, the three of them clinked the glass. After taking a sip of wine to express their gratitude, they chatted for a while. Then, Qin Cheng asked inadvertently: “I just looked at the village and found that the mountains are still so beautiful. Is the air here good? How come no one comes here to tour?”

“Yeah, it’s true that the mountains are nice, the air is really good too. But there are many villages like this one, it’s not our turn to develop here, ah.”

Hearing Tang Jie’s words, Qin Cheng nodded: “Also, nowadays, the development of tourism projects are either those very characteristic natural scenery, or ancient cities, palaces, mausoleums, and so on.”

Tang Jie looked at Qin Cheng, and sighed: “Isn’t that right? We have nothing here, and the landscape is quite ordinary.”

“Yes, the landscape must have distinctive characteristics. If only there were any distinctive peaks here.”

“Yes…” Tang Jie drank more wine and his eyes were drowsy squinted: “It isn’t that there’s none, but it’s not special. There are a few more mountains along the river at the back of our village, and there’s this one that looks like a big cat. But, this kind of mountain can be found everywhere, so I don’t think what will be so special about it?”

As soon as he said this, Qin Cheng’s eyes almost lit up: “Now that you mention it, I’m kind of interested to give it a look.” When he looked at his watch, Qin Cheng saw that it was almost 4 o’clock, so it was late to go now. “Tomorrow, could you show us?”

Tang Jie shook his dizzy head and blined hard: “Do you want to go there? It’s far away from here, and you can only get there by foot.”

“Yes, I want to see it. Anyways, it’s a long holiday.”

Tang Jie looked at Qin Cheng, and then cheerfully said: “Alright then, come tomorrow morning and I’ll take you both there.”

After making a deal, Qin Cheng and Wu Hai left after finishing the meal, and returned to the hotel in Pingyao County.

Once the two of them left, Tang Jie’s wife came out of the room, and said to him: “Do you really want to take those two to the mountain tomorrow? It’s not like you don’t know….”

“Ah?! They’re the ones who want to go, don’t they? They’ll also give me a guide fee, so how can I not do it?” Tang Jie, who just said this, still had his face blushed, but he didn’t sound so drunk as a while ago….

…

People in the countryside get up early, so when Qin Cheng and Wu Hai arrived at the village, Tang Jie had long been up, waiting for the two of them.

“It’s a bit far away, and it’s going to take us 3 or 4 hours to arrive. I don’t know if you have brought something to eat, but if you didn’t, I’ll ask my wife to cook something for you two.”

“Thanks, but there’s no need. We brought some biscuits and bread with us.”

“Really? Then I won’t mention it again.” After Tang Jie said this, he took the food handed over by his wife, and put it inside a plastic bag. “Then let’s go, so that you can come back early.”

When Tang Jie said that it was far away, he wasn’t lying. As they followed the course of the river, they crossed over two mountains. When they arrived there, Tang Jie told the already tired two men that they were only halfway.

Archeologists are considered as half of the heavy physical labourers. Qin Cheng and Wu Hai’s physical strength is quite good, but the complicated road in a mountain, coupled with the hot weather, was really difficult for these two, who were born in the city.

This undeveloped mountain forest, where there’s no cement or stone stairs, and there are only uneven stones and dirt, in addition to the fact that not many people came here, making the precious road covered with overgrown wild weeds and vines really difficult to walk by as well.

They were climbing the mountain, and then descending the mountain, climbing and descending…. over and over again. After 2 or 3 hours of this, the two of them couldn’t stand it anymore.

Holding up a tree with one hand, Wu Hai gasped: “How long will it take to get there? It’s going to be noon soon.”

Qin Cheng looked back at the road covered by weeds again. After walking so far, the village has long been out of sight. “I think we should be close.”

“Those who study are so weak.” Tang Jie said with a smile: “If you can’t walk anymore, let’s take a rest. There’s no need to rush, we’re almost there.”

As he said that, he sat down on the ground, and took out the food he had brought with him and chewed it twice.

Qin Cheng ate something and looked at the bad weather appearing in the sky. The sky over them was bright, but in the distance, he could see dark clouds. Qin Cheng was afraid that it would rain soon.

“We’d better hurry, I don’t think today is a good day.”

When they heard Qin Cheng say this, the two men sitting on the ground looked at the distance and nodded in agreement.

Tang Jie led the way, Wu Hai walked behind him, and Qin Cheng followed last. As Qin Cheng looked down, he noticed that something had dropped from Tang Jie when they were sitting a moment ago. As he picked it up, Qin Cheng, who was ready to call Tang Jie, stopped himself after seeing what it was.

It was a red and yellow cord strung with a copper coin. At the backside of the copper coin, there were four words engraved, ‘nothing is a taboo’. The moment he saw this, Qin Cheng felt a chill running through his body, and his heart stopped for a second….

Qin Cheng had heard that grave robbers are divided into sects. The Mojin sect 1 was an official grave robber organization, set up by Cao Cao 2 , during the Three Kingdoms period 3 . The group of grave robbers that were arrested by the police some time ago belonged to this sect. This copper coin, which had the words ‘nothing is a taboo’ engraved in it…. was another grave robbing sect. The Faqiu sect 4 ….

His heart began to beat fiercely. If Tang Jie was really just an ordinary farmer, then he wouldn’t notice anything when they asked to see the mountain that looked like a cat. However, if Tang Jie was a grave robber, this couldn’t be the case…. Tang Jie certainly saw right through them…. he knew, but he still brought the two of them over. Qin Cheng doesn’t think that these grave robbers would have such ‘kindness’.

The Faqiu sect pay attention to the team, and it’s said that they’re good at disguising their identity to cover up their grave robbing activities. Qin Cheng and Wu Hai…. seemed to have stepped into a den of thieves….

Qin Cheng went to Wu Hai feeling like his brain was numb, and whispered: “Wu Hai, don’t make any sound and listen to me…. we… we have to escape.”

…

After being in Sichuan for so many days, Jiang Ping finally realized that he fell into the trap of the two grave robbers that escaped a while ago. But, at the time, he couldn’t understand how the two of them disappeared into thin air. If it weren’t for Qu Zhiwen’s help, he wouldn’t have known that this was actually a cover, and that they had, in fact, deceived him again. Because they stopped midway, and turned north to Shanxi.

Jiang Ping stayed in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, for half a year before coming to Xi’an Public Security Bureau, and he had a good colleague there. After knowing that the grave robbers went to Shanxi, he contacted his friend and asked him to help him find out where the two grave robbers may be. Fortunately, during this period of time, Jiang Ping’s friend has been closely checking the resellers of cultural relics in Shanxi, because an item was stolen, so he was able to help Jiang Ping in what he needed.

After Jiang Ping provided his friend with information about the two grave robbers, his colleague found a lot of useful information.

“Are you really not letting this go?” At Xiyang airport, Xi’an, when he heard that the Air China ca1206 from Xi’an to Beijing was about to take off, Qu Zhiwen rushed to see Jiang Ping off. “Sometimes, you don’t have to work so hard to be a policeman. I think that it’s better to not pursue this matter.”

Jiang Ping didn’t answer this, and he simply smiled as he said: “The plane is about to take off. Thank you very much about everything you’ve been helping me with recently, but I’m afraid that I’ll have to still trouble you in the future.”

Seeing Jiang Ping being stubbornly persistent, Qu Zhiwen looked coldly at him. Then, he sighed: “This will be the last advice I’ll give you. I’m sure that if you don’t stop this matter, the next time I see you, I’ll only see you as a corpse.”

“Then I’ll—”

‘ding ding ding—’

Before Jiang Ping could finish his words, his phone rang. When he saw that it was an unfamiliar number, Jiang Ping picked it up, and asked: “Hellos, who is-….”

As soon as he spoke, a woman’s heartbreaking cry interrupted him.

“Officer Jiang! Officer Jiang—- my son was killed by someone, aahh! He didn’t die by accident! He was killed, aah…. I beg you, please give him justice, wahhhh—–”

The voice was hoarse and pained, and Jiang Ping couldn’t help but tremble at the crying. After calming her with some words, Jiang Ping asked: “Excuse me, who are you? And what happened to your son?”

“I… I’m-I’m Jiang Bo’s mother! Just now, I was tidying up the house…. and I-I found a diary on the bookshelf of Jiang Bo’s room! The diary was written before the accident! He was killed! Murdered!”

Jiang Bo’s mother’s voice was so loud that even Qu Zhiwen, who was on his side, could hear her. As he looked at Jiang Ping, he asked in a low voice: “What’s going on?”

Jiang Ping looked at Qu Zhiwen’s eyes while he heard Jiang Bo’s mother’s words. “Don’t worry, I’ll go to your house right away. Put the diary away, I’ll go there right now.”

After saying that, Jiang Ping hung up and thought about what just happened. Then, he said to Qu Zhiwen: “I guess I’ll have to trouble you this time. Could you not go back for now?”

“What happened?”

“Jiang Bo’s mother found his diary, which was written before the accident, and it mentions some strange things. I don’t know the details, I’ll have to read it to know.”

“But….” Qu Zhiwen chuckled: “I have to go back.”

Looking at Qu Zhiwen, Jiang Ping stood upright and bowed: “Please, I really need your help this time. This really isn’t just a paranormal case!”

✨Extra Chapter thanks to Ko-fi✨ [2/4]

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Footnotes

<ol>摸金派 mō jīn pài ; One of the four major grave robbery sects. It’s said that Cao Cao, who was a dominant force in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, formed a military unit specialized in tomb robbing, in order to raise funds for his military. 曹操 cáo cāo ; [155-220], was a famous statesman and general at the end of the Han Dynasty [202 BC-220 AD]. Noted poet and calligrapher, later warlord. Founder and first King of Cao Wei ( 曹魏 cáo wèi ; [220-265] the most powerful of the Three Kingdoms, established as a Dynasty in 220 by Cao Pi, his second son). 三国 sān guó ; Three Kingdoms period [220-280]. 发丘派 fā qiū pài ; One of the four major grave robbery sects. The Faqiu sect appeared later than the Mojiu sect, and didn’t exist until the Eastern Han Dynasty. It’s disciples called themselves General Faqiue. There’s no much difference between the Faqiu sect and the Mojiu sect in terms of grave robbing methods. They mainly used astrology and Feng Shui to determine the location of graves before excavating, it’s just that their technology was a bit inferior.</ol>