After that, my conversation with Old Man Panma lasted for more than three hours. I kept asking questions, trying to piece together the events while probing for that secret. The discussion was quite scattered; Old Man Panma spoke, and Ah Gui translated, often needing to explain concepts to each other, which took a lot of time. Moreover, Old Man Panma wasn’t very cooperative with my questions, and perhaps there were some discrepancies in Ah Gui’s translations. So after the conversation, my mind was filled with fragmented images.

The year when Wenjin and the others entered the mountains was around 1976, but the old man couldn’t pinpoint the exact time. Wenjin was likely the one leading the team, but when I showed Old Man Panma the group photo from Xisha, he couldn’t identify the other people. It had been too long and there were too many people; in that environment, everyone had the same hairstyle and clothing, so it was reasonable that he only remembered the one who led the group.

The earlier events were quite mundane. At that time, border conflicts were frequent, and it was common for troops to appear in the village. It’s worth noting that around 1978, the area around Angsi was almost entirely populated by the People’s Liberation Army. Most of the mountain paths were dug out during the counter-offensive against Vietnam, and if the troops needed to go into the mountains to find a guide, it was part of a military mission.

Panma received allowances from the military. At that time, he was still in his prime, and when hunting, he ventured the farthest and deepest, making him the most suitable candidate as a guide. They set out early that morning. He didn’t inquire much about the details of the military mission, only guiding the troops to Yangjiao Mountain and then following them. His focus was on remembering the route; he hadn’t been to Yangjiao Mountain many times, and he had to ensure he could return safely.

They traveled for quite a long time, spent a night in the mountains, and arrived at a lake. Panma had only been to that place once before, when he was thirty-one years old. He had gone there to hunt a few deer to invite his uncle. That year, the mountains were quite unsettled, and wild animals had retreated deep into the forest. He had brought his dog along to search and found this lake, lying in ambush by the lakeside for a day, and managed to hunt a wild boar. After that, he never ventured deeper into that area again.

That kind of lake naturally had no name; perhaps apart from Panma, no one in the village knew there was a lake there. It was a dead lake with no streams or tributaries, and he didn’t know if it connected to anywhere else. The troops set up camp and pitched tents by the lake, and after that, Panma’s task was complete.

Next, he was responsible for delivering supplies to the troops every few days. The military’s own supplies were quite sufficient, so each time he entered the mountains, he only brought some rice or salt. The strange incident that Ah Gui mentioned occurred during one of these trips. During this time, no one knew what that troop was stationed there for.

Throughout this process, Panma was very curious, but he also knew that in those years, the cost of prying into such matters was too high, so he suppressed his curiosity. Later, when the team moved out, there were many more boxes, about thirty in total, each the size of a shoebox. The soldiers were very careful when carrying them out.

He was curious and once thought about taking one, but a soldier gently stopped him. The soldier said that the things inside the box were very dangerous. He found an opportunity to handle one and felt it was very heavy, but he didn’t know what was inside.

I heard this and had some impressions in my mind. This box, about the size of a shoebox, is called a storage box, nicknamed the antique box. It is used by archaeological teams to store fragments of unearthed artifacts after they have been organized. These boxes are generally strictly numbered, and they come in various sizes, but most are about the size of a shoebox (as the unearthed artifacts are generally quite heavy, the shoebox size is most suitable for transport).

Pan Ma was very puzzled because there was nothing particularly special by the edge of the lake. Where did the contents of the box come from? At that time, he thought that the box must contain stones, as there were large areas of stone beach by the lake, with many, many stones.

However, he soon realized something was wrong, because after traveling in the mountains for a while, the box began to emit a strange smell, which was very unpleasant and indescribable.