I thought to myself, “What civilization was there in the pre-Qin period that I couldn’t recite with one hand? The obscure things at that time were all in tribal forms, making it hard to call them civilizations.” Moreover, the time span of the pre-Qin period is quite broad; in terms of chronological divisions, it roughly covers the period from when we were still monkeys to 221 BC. During this time, some places were not deserts at the beginning, but only became deserts towards the end, just before the establishment of the Qin Dynasty.

“You can’t be serious,” I questioned. “What’s the point of saying such nonsense at this time?”

“When have I ever spouted nonsense? The civilization I’m talking about, you’ve definitely never heard of, but its continuation will be familiar to you. This part comes from a secret report by a Japanese scholar named Torii Ryuzan.”

Torii Ryuzan was an ethnologist from Japan, and his report was significant for the discovery of many ancient sites in the Liao West region. He conducted his research as an advisor to the Mongolian royal family and was one of the few scholars interested in the ancient Miao people of China, having studied the customs and ethnic groups of the Yi and Miao in the Xiang, Qian, and Dian regions.

“What is the name of this civilization?” I asked.

The fat man shook his head. “It doesn’t have a name, but they believe this civilization is the predecessor of the ancient kingdom of Juyan. In fact, it is a scattered type of social structure. Let’s just call it Juyan.”

“That’s not right. Isn’t the civilization that Torii Ryuzan discovered in Liao West the Hongshan culture?” I asked. “Hongshan and the ancient city of Juyan are far apart, and the dynasty is not even pre-Qin. What are you talking about? Have you been fooled?”

The fat man got angry. “If you understand, then speak up! I haven’t even gotten to the main point yet, so stop babbling nonsense!”

I immediately apologized, and the short guy, Feng, interjected, “In China, that civilization doesn’t have a name because it can’t have a name. We have clear records on our side. I understand what Mr. Wang is saying now.”

“Don’t you understand Chinese traditions?” I wanted to scold him, but I held back and smiled, “Shorty, no, Teacher Feng, what do you have to say?”

“Feng is not my name, but whatever. Here’s the thing: actually, between Hongshan and Juyan, in the entire area from Heishui City to Hongshan, there exists a massive civilization that cannot be dated. This civilization has very strange archaeological clues, and in your country, it is considered unrecognized and has a certain degree of confidentiality.” Shorty Feng said, “There are three factors contributing to this confidentiality. The first is that the traces of this civilization appear in various different chronological periods. This means that up until the Yuan Dynasty, this civilization seemed to exist, and all signs indicate that there were not many significant changes. However, there are no records of this civilization in any of the surrounding civilizations that coexisted with it. This civilization is distributed throughout the vast deserts of Liao West, yet it seems that no one has ever seen or even come into contact with it.

The second factor is that all the materials regarding this civilization seem to have been taken to Japan during the invasion of China. There isn’t much evidence of this civilization because Torii didn’t disclose too much information about it. It is said that the characteristics of this civilization’s system are difficult to rediscover.

“So later on, no one in China was willing to conduct a second round of archaeology with almost no information, which would be equivalent to a carpet search. The third point is that many fundamental characteristics of this civilization are somewhat revolutionary.” He stroked his chin: “The religion of this civilization is very similar to Buddhism, but the details are completely different. If we assume that Indian Buddhism originated from a ‘key factor’, then this civilization also has a very similar ‘key factor’, but the religion that ultimately formed is completely different.”