The group fell silent for a while before Boss Li spoke up, “Well, normally I wouldn’t tell anyone about such things, but since you’ve been with me for so long, I consider you all like family. Since you want to know, I’ll share a bit with you.”
The young man immediately perked up and said, “That’s great! To be honest, we’ve been guessing whether you have some special skill that allows you to find the location of ancient tombs with ease.”
Boss Li paused again, sounding somewhat reluctant to share. He said, “It’s not that magical, really. It’s not a secret; it has to do with my ancestors. There’s something in my genealogy that relates to this, so let me tell you about it.”
As Boss Li spoke, he recounted a very interesting story:
It happened during the Northern Wei period, a time of chaos and warfare, where battles were fought countless times in a single day, and all the adults had perished. His ancestor, not yet six years old, had to go out to herd cattle to support the family.
That year, a riot broke out near their village, and soldiers came to suppress it. The villagers all fled, but his family didn’t have time to escape and ended up trapped inside their home. The outside world was filled with bloodshed and chaos, and it wasn’t until the third day that things calmed down.
His ancestor, trembling with fear, sneaked out to take a look and found corpses everywhere, with many still clinging to life. He was so frightened that he stood there in a daze. He hurried to find his cattle, but when he entered the barn, the cows were gone, and lying in the straw was a wounded soldier.
The soldier was mute and unable to speak, gravely injured. At that young age, his ancestor couldn’t tell whether the soldier was from the government forces or a rebel; he just felt pity for him, so he fetched some water for him to drink and used a cloth to stop the bleeding. However, the mute soldier was too severely wounded and didn’t last long.
Before dying, he handed a scroll of written cloth to Boss Li’s ancestor and gestured for him to keep it safe. Unfortunately, his ancestor’s family was illiterate and had no idea what was written on it. Later, during a harsh winter, many people froze to death, and his family used that cloth as material to make cotton clothing.
When he grew up, his ancestor was conscripted into the army and achieved many merits during the wars of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Eventually, he was promoted to the rank of cavalry commander. However, due to the dynasty’s instability and rapid changes, by the time his ancestor reached old age, the family’s fortunes had declined. When he died, the only burial item left was that cotton clothing.
After several cycles of rise and fall, their family became a local landlord during the late Qing Dynasty. One time, while relocating their ancestral grave, several elders accidentally tilted the coffin, causing the bones inside to spill out onto the ground. While cleaning up the remains, his grandfather discovered that everything inside had decayed, except for that piece of cloth from the burial cotton clothing, which remained perfectly preserved.
His grandfather found it very strange and handed the cloth to a relative who dealt in antiques. Upon examination, the relative discovered that the cloth was quite significant; the writing on it was called “mute script,” a type of writing said to be understood only by the mute.
At this point, Boss Li asked them, “Do you know what this piece of cloth was used for?”
Everyone fell silent for a moment, and a voice that had not been heard before said, “I have indeed heard a bit about this. At that time, there was an army in Northern Wei composed entirely of mute soldiers. This thing was used for transmitting secret messages, with words written in ‘mute script’ that ordinary people could not understand. I heard about it from my uncle.”
Boss Li nodded and said, “As expected of a knowledgeable advisor. But do you know what this army was actually doing?”
The advisor smiled and replied, “I’m not too sure about that, but I heard that this Northern Wei army inherited the practice of Cao Cao’s tomb raiders. On the surface, they were the emperor’s guards, but secretly, they were also engaged in tomb raiding… Because they were mute and used a script only they understood, the ancient tombs they raided were known only to them and the emperor, making their activities very mysterious.”
At this point, the advisor paused, as if he thought of something, and asked, “Boss Li, could it be that the piece of cloth you mentioned is the ‘He Mu Ji’?”
Boss Li suddenly burst into laughter, nodding proudly, and said, “Impressive, impressive! With you around, I can’t even keep a secret. Yes, that’s it!”
The advisor gasped and replied, “That’s truly remarkable! Different people have different fates. With this thing, the Li family should strike it rich.”
The young man, not understanding, asked the advisor, “What is the He Mu Ji? What does it have to do with ancient tombs?”
The advisor explained, “Legend has it that after the mute army found an ancient tomb, they usually didn’t rush to excavate it. Instead, they recorded the location, flattened it with horses, and poured in iron paste. When needed, they would refer back to the records to find it again. This record of the tomb’s location is called the ‘He Mu Ji,’ meaning ‘where there is a grave.'”
The young man exclaimed, “Wow, so you’re saying that the last few tombs we raided were based on information from that? Boss Li, you really should have shared more with us about this treasure!”
Boss Li chuckled, “Not entirely. Our ancestors’ treasures aren’t limitless. The white cloth in my ancestor’s coffin recorded the locations of twenty-four ancient tombs. The one we are going to now is the last one, but it should be the best among all the tombs.”
The young man asked, “Does it say what treasures are inside?”
Boss Li frowned and replied, “It doesn’t provide detailed records, but the white cloth mentions that the treasures in this tomb are beyond the grasp of mortals, the best of the best, even three times better than the tomb of Emperor Qin. You can trust me on this.”
Hearing this, I and Lao Yang realized that they had indeed come here with a specific goal, but we didn’t expect these individuals to have such a significant background. Lao Yang asked me, “Do you—do you think what this Li is saying is true? Is there really a tomb better than the tomb of Emperor Qin in this world?”
I shook my head and replied, “I can’t say for sure, but look at how confidently he speaks; it must be at least somewhat credible. They will definitely cross the mountain tomorrow, so we just need to follow them.”
Lao Yang said, “Then let’s just go all the way. Their target this time should be quite substantial. Even if we only scavenge what they leave behind, we can at least fill our stomachs a bit. Let’s skip that damn burial pit, shall we?” His words were particularly stuttered due to his nervousness, with some words coming out especially loudly. I immediately thought it was bad and quickly covered his mouth, urging him to stay calm while I strained to listen for any reactions from the other side, but it was too late. Suddenly, everything went silent over there, clearly indicating they had noticed something unusual nearby.
Lao Yang and I held our breath, trying our best not to make a sound, our hearts pounding like drums. They also fell silent, seemingly straining to listen to the surrounding sounds. Both sides remained quiet, and after several minutes of this standoff, Lao Tai couldn’t hold it any longer and whispered, “Ermazi (that young man), it seems like there’s some movement behind us. Go check what it is.”
Upon hearing this, I immediately heard the unmistakable sound of two handguns being cocked, and I broke out in a cold sweat. It seemed we were indeed dealing with ruthless bandits, and Lao Yang was likely going to get us both killed.
I turned to look at my surroundings. If I ran away right now, I had an 80% chance of escaping, but tracking them later would be a problem. If I didn’t run now, I really wasn’t sure I could hide right under their noses.
As I hesitated, a sudden commotion erupted from a distance. I looked toward the source of the noise and saw a line of four or five flashlights moving closer to us— the mountain patrol was coming. At this moment, I heard Uncle Tai whisper, “Damn it, let’s get out of here.” After saying this, a few of them hurriedly extinguished their fire and shouldered their gear, running deeper into the forest.
Lao Yang, who had just been scared half to death, now saw that people were fleeing and became anxious again, hurriedly asking me, “What—what should we do? Should we chase—chase after them?”
I cautiously peeked out and noticed that the group had turned off their flashlights, and the forest was pitch black; they had already vanished from sight. I said, “No way. Look at this darkness; we might end up running ahead of them if we chase like this. Let’s rest for now. Tomorrow we’ll follow their footprints. I believe they won’t go too far and will have to stop to rest.”
Lao Yang was anxious but had no other options. By this time, the patrol members were already very close to us. If we didn’t leave, we would probably get caught. I urged the talkative Lao Yang to be quiet and hurriedly pulled him in the opposite direction into the depths of the forest.
We didn’t dare to go too far, fearing we wouldn’t be able to find our way back the next day. The two of us hid behind a bush, watching the distant flashlights gradually fade away before finally feeling relieved.
After thinking for a moment, I said to Lao Yang, “Along the way, the locals said that this season is the peak time for tomb raiding. I’m afraid there won’t be a shortage of patrols tonight. I reckon we won’t get a good night’s sleep. Let’s find a place to hunker down for the night. Tomorrow we need to hurry deeper inside. Otherwise, if two outsiders like us get caught here, we won’t have a way to explain ourselves.”
Lao Yang nodded in agreement. I shook him a bit, and to my surprise, he was already half asleep. I sighed quietly, wrapped my clothes around me, and thought to myself that it seemed I would have to keep watch for the first half of the night. But as I leaned against a tree, I gradually dozed off without realizing it.
The next day, we woke up early. Since we had slept under a tree, we were covered in bird droppings, which made me feel nauseous. Lao Yang didn’t care about that; he scooped some of it off with his hands and insisted we hurry to find that group of people. I couldn’t stand running around the forest with bird droppings on me, so I sacrificed half a flask of water to wash it off.
I hurriedly followed Lao Yang back to the place we had been yesterday, praying in my heart that there would be some clues left on the ground. However, after going around in circles, we couldn’t even find the remnants of yesterday’s bonfire. Lao Yang was quite critical of me, constantly nagging in my ear, “See? I told you to follow them yesterday. Look at what happened now; the cooked duck has flown away.”
I was furious: “Damn it, why do you have so many opinions? Look, there’s only one mountain path here; where could they have gone? We just keep moving forward; I refuse to believe we can’t find them.”
We quickly followed the mountain path, walking for the entire morning. By the time we reached the end of the road, there was still no sign of them. Ahead lay an extremely dense forest, with towering trees and thick underbrush, completely devoid of any trail markers. I felt a bit uneasy; this indicated that the path ahead was one that even the patrol teams wouldn’t venture into. We had truly entered the heart of Snake Head Mountain, deep in the wilderness. From here on, it was real mountain terrain, and I didn’t know how many cliffs awaited us to climb.
Throughout this journey, we hadn’t seen any traces of bonfires. My heart sank; these people might have been scared off by the patrol team last night and hadn’t rested, continuing through the night. If that were the case, our chances of catching up to them were almost zero.
I hesitated at the end of the mountain path for a moment before making a decision. Human energy is limited, and if these people had traveled all night, they would definitely need to rest during the day. Moreover, traveling at night is much slower than during the day; they must still be not far ahead of us. We still had hope of catching up, but we needed to be careful not to be discovered by them.
We took out military knives from our backpacks and strapped them to our waists. Each of us broke a large tree branch to use as a walking stick. There are many wild animals in the Qinling Mountains; the larger ones include tigers and bears, while the smaller ones are wolves and wild boars. If we were unlucky enough to encounter one or two, Lao Yang and I would be enough for them to have several meals.
Lao Yang asked me what we would do if I was wrong and we couldn’t catch up to them. I thought about it for a moment and told him that according to the information I had checked before coming, there were quite a few temporary shelters built by herbalists in the mountains, equipped with cooking utensils, firewood, and dried meats. If we could find one, we could rest well tonight and then make further plans.
Lao Yang said, “You need to be sure about this. If we turn back now, we still have a chance. If we go further in—look around; there’s not even a ghost in sight. It’ll be too late if we get lost in the woods. The Shu Road is difficult, harder than ascending to the heavens. Since ancient times, countless people have died in these mountains spanning hundreds of miles, and we don’t even know if there are ghosts at night.”
I mocked him, saying, “Where did that ambition go when you first arrived? I told you you’re just a paper tiger. You haven’t even gotten into the mountains yet, and you’re already talking about how difficult it is to travel the Shu road. If you’re too scared to go in, then let’s just go back.”
Old Yang laughed and said, “I raised the difficulties first to see if your determination would waver. It seems our little classmate Wu has indeed discarded his scholarly demeanor and is aligning himself with us rogues. Don’t worry, my brother, I am definitely not a paper tiger. I’m not afraid of the Shu road, nor of the dog road.”
As we struck the bushes ahead with sticks, we entered the jungle, heading towards a distant peak, trudging along without a path. The “mountain path” was extremely difficult to navigate, with grass and vines covering the ground, while dense tree canopies above made it hard for sunlight to filter through. After walking for an unknown period, it felt like the sky was darkening, and everything seemed familiar. Just as I began to doubt whether we were going in circles, the terrain steepened, and a cliff appeared ahead, with a rickety plank road built on top that looked like it had been there for ages.
The plank road was in disrepair, showing a dark green, damp color, entwined with a lot of spring flowers and pigweed, as if it hadn’t been traversed in a long time. Just as we were about to climb up, we suddenly heard someone call from the nearby woods, “Hey! What are you doing?”
Old Yang and I were startled and turned to see a group of people approaching from a distance. They looked like locals, both men and women, and seemed to be heading to the village on the other side of the mountain, just like us.
I didn’t know whether to feel happy or scared. I quickly signaled Old Yang to hide the dagger at his waist, then stepped forward, pretending to be sincere, and asked them, “Hey there, I’m a tourist from out of town. I want to get to the village on the other side of the mountain. Could you tell me how much more mountain road there is ahead?”
A woman in a red coat sized me up and said, “Are you talking about our village? Why did you come all the way to our little village?”
I noticed that the women here were quite vigilant. I made up a story, saying, “I came to find someone. I visited your village two years ago, and an old man there hosted me. I’m back to see him, but I’ve forgotten the way after two years.”
The middle-aged woman glared at me and scolded, “Hmph! With that sneaky look of yours, who knows what your intentions are? I’ve seen plenty of people like you—either grave robbers or poachers. You think you can fool me? You’re not good enough.”
I was left speechless by her scolding and didn’t know how to respond. Old Yang suddenly pushed me aside and slapped a hundred-yuan bill in front of the middle-aged woman, saying, “Now—now, enough of the nonsense. Which of your eyes saw us digging graves? Answer the question politely. This—this—this hundred bucks is yours. Damn it, if you dare to chatter on for another second, I’ll slap you!”
There are several strong men in this group. When I heard what Lao Yang said, I thought to myself that we were in trouble. Mountain people are tough, and you dare to say that? I took a step back, ready to make a run for it. Who would have thought that a man behind the middle-aged woman would see the money and immediately smile as he took it, saying, “Don’t be angry, don’t be angry. My wife is just joking with you. If you want to go to our village, you need to walk to the left, go around this mountain, and there’s a waterfall. Just follow the water from the waterfall straight ahead; that’s the quickest shortcut through the mountains. As long as you follow the mountain stream, you’ll definitely reach our village.”
Lao Yang grinned and asked, “Are you lying? Isn’t taking this plank road faster?”
The man replied, “This plank road, who knows how long ago it was built? It has never been reinforced, and now no one dares to walk on it.”
Hearing this, I was taken aback, thinking how lucky we were to encounter them. Just a moment ago, we were confused and almost went up there. If we had gotten stuck up there, I really wouldn’t have known what to do.
The man looked at the sky and said, “Oh, I see you won’t make it tonight. You’ll have to spend the night in these mountains. There are several tributaries to that mountain stream. If you’re not familiar with the paths, you’ll definitely end up going the wrong way. How about this: we’re going over there to gather pig fodder. If you don’t mind waiting for us, we’ll head back to the village tomorrow, and you can come with us. That way, you won’t have any problems.” Saying this, he came over to help me carry my gear.
I saw he was quite enthusiastic and didn’t seem like a bad person. I quickly calculated in my mind. The place we wanted to go was in the canyon on the other side of Snake Head Mountain. It had already taken us nearly three days to cross this mountain, and we couldn’t carry more than ten days’ worth of food. After crossing this mountain, we would definitely need to buy some supplies in their village. The five people ahead of us were now nowhere to be seen, and they might have taken a wrong turn. It was rare to encounter people like this, so we didn’t want to risk getting lost.
I exchanged glances with Lao Yang, nodded quickly, and said, “Thank you, big brother. Here, here,” as I took out some cigarettes and handed one to each of the men.
The middle-aged woman still wanted to say something, but the man shot her a glare, and she didn’t dare to say anything further.
In the mountains, the general atmosphere is that men are the heads of households, and women don’t have much say. As long as you maintain good relationships with a few men, these village girls shouldn’t pose much of a threat to us. I couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly at the expression on the middle-aged woman’s face.
We joined their group, and the oldest man seemed to have to do less work. Lao Yang focused his energy on getting close to him. The man told us he was the village secretary. The village was very backward; although they had electricity, transportation was inconvenient, and development was stagnant. Now, young people were all leaving, and there was no one to do the farming. These cadres had to walk dozens of miles through the mountains just to gather pig fodder. However, he had a back problem and couldn’t work for long before needing to rest.
I responded while feeling a sense of sympathy; it wasn’t easy for these people either.
We walked with them for a while until we reached a place where they started working. We stood aside to survey the terrain, but the mountains here were relatively low, and we couldn’t see the full view of the scenery on the other side. All we could see was one mountain after another, lush and green. I still didn’t know where the burial pit that Lao Yang mentioned was located in the Guang’ao Mountain Range.
After finishing gathering pigweed, it was already evening. We helped carry a large bundle of grass that was almost as big as my own body, walking back under the setting sun for about an hour. The sky gradually darkened, and as we walked, I suddenly noticed that Lao Yang’s expression changed; his eyes were darting around, scanning the surroundings.
I asked him what was going on. He whispered, “I’ve been here before. If I remember correctly, there should be a resting place if we go a bit further.”
Sure enough, not long after, a wooden shelter used by herbalists appeared ahead. Lao Yang’s expression became excited, and he gave me a knowing glance, as if to say, “I was right, wasn’t I?” The man at the shelter pushed the door open and turned to me, saying, “We’ll spend the night here. There’s a stove, and if you want, you can cook something yourself.”
I followed them inside and found it was a two-story shelter connected by a ladder. The upper level was an attic, and there was no furniture, just a few large wooden planks laid out. In the center of the room was a dirt pit filled with charcoal ash, likely used for heating. We dropped our gear and hurried outside to gather some firewood, quickly starting a fire to warm ourselves. Then we took out our rations and roasted them to eat. By the time we finished eating, it was pitch dark outside, and the sounds of wild animals echoed around us.
Lao Yang lit a cigarette and asked the village chief what those sounds were. The chief couldn’t say for sure; the hunters in the area had long since passed away, and only the older villagers would know. He added, “At night, each of us men can only sleep for half the night; someone has to keep an eye on the fire to make sure it doesn’t go out, or the wild animals might come in.”
I didn’t respond. I was exhausted from the day’s journey and thought about how I might have to live like this for several weeks to come. I couldn’t help but feel a bit regretful for agreeing to accompany Lao Yang. I told him, “I’ll take the last watch. I’ll just take a quick nap, and you wake me up in the middle of the night to switch shifts.” As soon as I finished speaking, he protested loudly, but I was already too groggy to understand what he was saying, and before long, I fell into a deep sleep.
I didn’t sleep very soundly. I tossed and turned, and in the middle of the night, I suddenly felt someone shaking me. I opened my eyes to see that everyone else was asleep. Lao Yang was looking around while gently pushing me, whispering, “Get up, hurry up!”
