Chapter 6

Since there wasn’t a direct bus from the airport to X University, he must change buses twice in order to reach the campus. However, once he remembered that Li Guoxian must have something important to discuss with him, Qin Cheng decided to take a taxi right after he got out of the airport.

The taxi driver was in his mid-forties, and he had some gray silver hairs between his temples. He was also very talkative. When Qin Cheng got into the car, before his butt could get warm, the taxi driver was already speaking nonstop.

“So, are you studying Archeology?” The taxi driver squinted in amusement: “Hey, it just so happens that my son-in-law spent 50.000 yuan ¹ on something a while ago, he said that it was a Han Dynasty drinking cup. I don’t remember what its name was. But hey, I have a photo on my phone, please take a look at it and see if it’s genuine.” After saying that, the taxi driver didn’t care about the traffic rules, and while still driving, he pulled out his phone from his pocket, swiped a few times, and then pointed out the said photo.

“Look at it and tell me if he was scammed.”

When the taxi driver put it that way, Qin Cheng, who was thinking about something else, didn’t refuse and took his phone to look at the said picture.

As far as Qin Cheng knows, there are very few bronze cups handed down from the Han Dynasty in the present day. Basically, the current market was made of pure modern imitations. If he really bought it for 50.000 yuan when it might originally cost one-third of that, then he was clearly scammed.

However, when Qin Cheng saw the picture at first glance, he held his glasses up to have a better look at it. Then he looked at the taxi driver, who was expecting his verdict, and whispered: “Where did he get this?”

“From where? My son-in-law said that he met a man on a business trip to Shanxi by accident. At that time, he said that the cup looked very beautiful, and the salesman said that it was from the Han Dynasty, but no one believed him. They all said that this particular pattern has not been seen before, so it must be a fake. But my son-in-law bought it as if he was possessed by a ghost. Ah… I guess that 80% of what he was told was a lie?”

Qin Cheng slid the screen and flipped to the next picture: “Indeed, this isn’t the Han Dynasty’s floral styling. It definitely won’t sell at a good price even if you take it out to auction at this time, probably not even for 10.000 yuan ² .”

After listening to Qin Cheng’s words, the taxi driver couldn’t help but feel lost: “Ah…. that 50.000 yuan were spent for nothing?”

Shaking his head, Qin Cheng frowned slightly: “This thing is similar to a bronze Jue ³ from the Han Dynasty. But at the same time, it’s not. Judging from the picture alone, the cup has signs of ancient work, the encrustation is thick, the rust color is natural and the shape is exquisite. This could be considered as an upper-level work of Jue’s style pattern…. It’s estimated to be at least a thousand years old. However, the specific age can only be judged by seeing the actual object….”

“A thousand years?!” The taxi driver was completely surprised, after calming down a little, he said: “Then why isn’t it valuable?”

Qin Cheng looked at the puzzled taxi driver and chuckled. Without explaining anything, he just said: “He must take care of it well, it’s not worth that much money now, but in a few years, I guess….it will be worth a lot.”

Yes, it will be worth a fortune. The pattern of this Jue is quite similar to the pattern of the Han Dynasty, but there are some parts that are different. That part is actually very similar to the wild goose-broke branch pattern that became popular during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. This pattern was simple, elegant, and clean, and until now, such a kind of decoration has only been found in another place by Qin Cheng himself….From the objects that were excavated not long ago from the unknown Imperial Mausoleum in Ninghua Village….

A mysterious Mausoleum that had too many buried secrets….and now, this Jue obtained in Shanxi.

‘ Maybe there’s something hidden in Shanxi too? It would be nice to get in touch with the driver’s son-in-law to get to know exactly where he got the Jue at that time…. ’

Thinking more about it, Qin Cheng asked some more inquiries about the Jue. However, the old taxi driver only knew what he already mentioned, as for the rest, he wasn’t sure. In the end, Qin Cheng didn’t have any other choice than to exchange contact information with the taxi driver so that he could ask more about the Jue later.

After talking a little bit more with the taxi driver about how to identify cultural relics, they talked about trivial matters.

As time passed by, the light from the sunset in the west was spilling through the roadside parasol, and as the car moved, the stars twinkled in the sky, showing an extraordinarily beautiful scene….

For some reason, Qin Cheng suddenly thought of something that Jiang Bo, who had once been a graduate student, said: “Instead of wasting time admiring the sunset and the stars, it’s better to do more research and get efficient results. It’s much more comfortable to make great achievements than to withstand those romantic scenarios.” Jiang Bo’s obsession with archeology was well-known throughout their entire department, however, what happened to him this time… It could also be linked with that obsession.

When he thought about the state of Jiang Bo’s dead body, Qin Cheng couldn’t help but feel a chill running through his spine. He didn’t believe in strange forces, and after living for so many years, he had seen many horror movies and read many supernatural novels, but he never thought that any of that could be real. Even after he experienced something like this, Qin Cheng still couldn’t help but wonder if he had fallen prey to Lin Hongxing’s scheme. Perhaps, Jiang Bo was actually killed by Lin Hongxing, and he was just dragged down in the mess….

However, Qin Cheng was still unable to explain that strange force. As well as the suffocation that was clearly made without anyone touching him, but almost killed him for sure….

Slowly recalling what happened that night, Qin Cheng was searching for any clue that could prove that everything was done by a human being. But when he thought of those green eyes….

At that moment, his heartbeat couldn’t help but speed up, because Qin Cheng didn’t realize that…while he was in a trance looking up at the sunset, at some point, the sun turned into a bloody-red wheel setting at the far side of an old city wall. The black tiles and red walls were gilded in a purple-brown smear under the setting sun’s rays, painting the skyline and the clouds near the sun in a bloody-red color…. Looking at the gray city walls and the red clouds, Qin Cheng could almost see countless soldiers lying on the wall. The bloody-red water invaded every crack of the wall, and then, this red water seemed to flow like a torrent, staining the entire world….as well as Qin Cheng’s eyes, with a bloody-red color….

“….-man! Young man!”

Suddenly, Qin Cheng woke up from a trance in a cold sweat.

‘ What was that illusion just now?! ’

With a hint of fear in his eyes, Qin Cheng glanced outside the window of the car at the ancient city wall of Xi’an, which was far away from him. The burning clouds, which were dyed red by the afterglow of the sun, were actually quite beautiful, and the pedestrians outside the window of the car were walking slowly and peacefully as usual. They weren’t just a piece of blood-red like before.

However…. Qin Cheng didn’t know why his heart was feeling vaguely uneasy….

“Young man, what happened to you? You don’t seem to be feeling well…” The taxi driver glanced at the young man, who seemed to be short of breath sitting behind him, and turned the steering wheel around a corner: “Are you feeling sick? How about I take you to the Hospital?”

Qin Cheng, who was trying to calm his breath, shook his head: “I’m fine.” After a pause, he continued: “May I ask, how long will it take to arrive at campus?”

”According to the usual road, it should take an hour and a half, I just took a shortcut, so I guess this alley over there should save us fifteen minutes… Let’s see, it should take another ten minutes or so to get to your college.”

“That’s great.”

However, after a long time, the original ten minutes became almost half an hour, and they hadn’t arrived yet to the campus. Qin Cheng frowned and asked the taxi driver again: “Is this really a shortcut?”

Qin Cheng’s tone of voice clearly carried a hint of displeasure, which made the taxi driver feel embarrassed: “This is a shortcut indeed, I’ve taken it no less than a hundred times….”

“Then why haven’t we arrived there yet?”

“This, this, I’m not so sure. It seems that I took the wrong way.” Afraid that Qin Cheng would think that he was scamming him for more money, the taxi driver hurriedly said: “I won’t charge you more than the original hour and fifteen minutes ride.”

Looking at the sky, which had begun to darken, Qin Cheng, who was in a hurry, could only sigh in defeat. He took his own cellphone to look for the GPS app and instructed the taxi driver to follow the right path.

It took almost another twenty minutes to get out of the alley and reach the main gate of the campus. Qin Cheng then gave the taxi driver the money according to the meter, however, the taxi driver didn’t take it all. He simply collected the original price for the hour and fifteen minutes ride, gave back the rest, and then drove away.

Without looking at his watch, Qin Cheng knew that it must be past eight o’clock. Qin Cheng hurriedly ran to the research room where Li Guoxian wanted to have a talk with him.

When he swiped the electronic card on the door, he walked straight to the small conference room in the research lab. When he arrived, there were already several professors and colleagues who were currently participating in the examination of Tomb Nº1 in Ninghua Village.

“Here you are, we’ve been waiting for you all this time.” It was Zhang Jun that spoke first. After moving a chair for Qin Cheng, who was standing behind the door, to sit on, he touched the chair at his side and sat down as well.

“I’m sorry, something happened on the way here.”

“Alright, sit down first.” Li Guoxian took a cup of tea and continued: “Since Qin Cheng has arrived, we’ll let him tell us what happened that day so that we can understand this situation better.”

Seeing Li Guoxian’s eyes motioning to himself, Qin Cheng nodded and briefly recounted the events of that day.

When he finished speaking, the dozen or so people present fell silent. Qin Cheng glanced at their faces and laughed coldly in his heart. Besides Zhang Jun and Li Guoxian, there were two friends of his from the same class. The rest of them either didn’t believe him or didn’t care about the matter at all. There were some that were just frowning, and Qin Cheng wasn’t able to know what they were thinking.

While Qin Cheng looked at the faces of the people present, Li Guoxian also looked at them. He could see that everyone was thinking about the issue, but none of them dared to speak. After a long time, Li Guoxian asked Qin Cheng: “Everything you said, is it really the truth?”

Qin Cheng has a lot of respect for Li Guoxian. When he saw that Li Guoxian had asked him that, and even though Qin Cheng didn’t think that it was necessary to explain anything to these people, he still nodded regardless: “It’s all true.”

After hearing this from Qin Cheng, Li Guoxian also pondered for a while before saying with a hint of a smile: “The forensic pathologist couldn’t find anything after dissecting Jiang Bo’s corpse. He could only confirm that the cause of death was due to asphyxiation, but he couldn’t find the cause of that asphyxiation… However, Jiang Bo was holding a bronze mirror in his hand.”

“Bronze mirror?” Hearing this, Qin Cheng thought of the jade pendant he had brought out of the tunnel, the one he has been holding tightly in his hand, and couldn’t help but ask: “What’s wrong with the bronze mirror?”

“The ancients used bronze mirrors in burials as a tool to suppress ghosts, so if it was moved, then it would release the ghosts trapped in it.”

“That’s just a superstition. How can we believe in something like that? Professor, you can’t possibly suggest that it was a ghost who harmed Jiang Bo, right?”

Looking at Wu Hai, the one who spoke just now, Qin Cheng sneered: “I was the one who said that the ghosts harmed Jiang Bo. Were you perhaps playing with your cell phone instead of paying attention?”

As soon as Qin Cheng said this, Wu Hai roared: “Bah, do you think that I want to listen to you speaking such nonsense, about strange forces attacking? As far as I’m concerned, you’re the one that’s the more suspicious of all!”

“Wu Hai!” Li Guoxian angrily pointed at the door: “If you refuse to listen, then get out!”

Wu Hai was a graduate student under Li Guoxian, and also a classmate of Qin Cheng. Because Qin Cheng’s talent has been favored by Li Guoxian from the beginning, Wu Hai has been feeling very unhappy since a long time ago. However, it didn’t matter how unhappy he felt, he still couldn’t contradict an archeological figure such as Li Guoxian.

After exhaling and sitting down, Wu Hai said: “Professor, I didn’t mean that. I just want to know if anyone here believes what Qin Cheng just said is true. Harmed by a ghost? Did the soul of the tomb’s master get angry and decided to kill Jiang Bo? Isn’t that just pure nonsense?!”

Qin Cheng looked at Wu Hai and said nothing more since what he had mentioned about Jiang Bo was the truth. Qin Cheng had no need to mention something that people who haven’t experienced it themselves wouldn’t believe. Even himself, who had experienced such a strange situation, still wondered whether such a situation had been orchestrated by a living person.

Li Guoxian closed his eyes and sighed: “There are many things you wouldn’t believe exists until you see them with your own eyes. In all my years as an archeologist, I’ve never come across a situation like that, however….”

“In reality, I wanted to ask everyone’s opinions regarding the excavation method. You all should be aware that we are short in funds, and that tunnel….even if Jiang Bo is no longer here with us, I know that he’s the one who dug it. After all, he constantly showed his dissatisfaction with our excavation method… Professor Liu, what’s your opinion on this?”

Liu Mingquan shook off the ash from the cigarette in his hand, narrowed his eyes, and said: “According to Professor Li’s method, of course, the most important thing is to preserve the cultural relics and the Mausoleum itself. However, we can’t go on like this without funds….”

“I agree with old Liu, we haven’t figured out who’s the tomb owner, even after all this time. If the State doesn’t provide us with enough funds, it will be very difficult for us to carry out our work. It’s just that the stone blocking the entrance is too complicated to move, and we don’t have cranes or heavy machinery to move it. This tomb is very big, and that’s fine for the time being, however, the shed we’re working on is not big enough. Do you want these cultural relics to soak in the rain?”

“Yes, Professor Li, we should find out the identity of the owner of the tomb first, and then we can slowly discover more about the tomb from scratch.”

There were many people talking one after another. Who knew that this all started with just a few words, causing the entire room to no longer be submerged in silence.

Li Guoxian looked at Qin Cheng, who seemed to be thinking about something, and asked: “Qin Cheng, how about you? Do you agree on identifying the identity of the owner of the tomb first?”

After hearing everyone talk about the owner of the tomb, Qin Cheng’s heart trembled. For some reason, he remembered the jade pendant with a name engraved on it.

‘ Su Jingmo…. Could he be….? ’

Slightly frowning, Qin Cheng shook his head: “I’m not sure.”

He didn’t know if it was a good idea to even keep excavating the tomb, because he didn’t know if these strange events would happen again.

“Professor Li, you mentioned that the bronze mirror has a calming effect on the soul, but, what about a jade pendant?”

“A jade pendant?”

“Yes.”

Li Guoxian looked at Qin Cheng, who didn’t have a specific expression on his face, and said: “The jade pendants were used in ancient times to pray for peace and good fortune, but they were also used to ward off evil spirits and ghosts.”

“Ward off evil spirits and ghosts….?”

Li Guoxian didn’t know what sudden thought came to Qin Cheng’s mind, but he was able to see that Qin Cheng’s eyes had flickered imperceptibly.

That illusion was scaaaary!!!

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(´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

Footnotes

<ol>About USD$ 7.200 current year (2020). About USD$ 1.400 current year (2020). <b>爵</b> <b>jué</b> ; It’s an ancient Chinese drinking container, used to pour and heat the wine. This bronze drinking container was primarily used by the aristocracy; in alliances, meetings, divisions, triumphs, celebrations, and banquets. Looks something like <b>THIS</b> .</ol>