I looked at the printed copy of the silk manuscript filled with text, then glanced at my uncle’s expression. He didn’t seem to be joking. Could it be that my uncle had reached a level of enlightenment where he could read maps from words? How could someone who usually indulged in drinking, gambling, and other vices have any celestial roots?

My uncle was trembling with excitement, muttering to himself, “Where did these people find such good stuff? How come I’ve never come across it? This time, it’s really a stroke of luck. It seems they still don’t understand what this is. We can get ahead of them and sift through this batch of sand.”

I was greatly puzzled. “Uncle, maybe I’m a bit slow, but can you really see a map from such tiny characters?”

“You don’t understand. This is called ‘word painting,’ which means the geographical location of that place is detailed in writing. If it were someone else, they really wouldn’t understand it. Fortunately, your uncle has some experience. In this world, besides me, there are probably no more than ten people who can comprehend this.”

My uncle may not have many other skills, but he has studied peculiar and unorthodox ancient scripts and codes since childhood. To sum it up, he researches anything that is obscure, like the Xi Xia’s Five Wood Book Diagram or the earliest Jurchen characters. So, I wasn’t surprised that he could recognize this so-called ‘word painting.’

However, he was the type who would take advantage of others and then pretend to be clever, so I had to play dumb in front of him, or he would dismiss me with a single sentence. I put on a foolish expression and asked him, “Oh, does it say to walk left and then right, turn right when you see a big tree, and then go down a well? Like that?”

My uncle sighed, “A Confucian child cannot be taught. Your comprehension is so poor that it seems our family will end with your generation.”

Seeing him like this, sighing so sincerely as if speaking from the heart, I couldn’t help but find it amusing. “Then what do you think it says? My dad doesn’t teach me, and this isn’t something you’re born with.”

He smugly clicked his tongue and said, “This kind of word painting is actually a form of code. It has a strict format. As long as you draw what’s written inside according to its format, it becomes a complete map. So don’t underestimate these few characters on the silk manuscript; you don’t know how complex the information inside is. It might even specify how many bricks were used.”

I became interested upon hearing this. I thought to myself that I had never been allowed to go out and experience anything in my life, so this time, I must get my uncle to take me to see it, and maybe I could touch some treasures to get through my financial crisis. While thinking this, I asked him, “Can you tell whose tomb it is from the writing inside, or whether it belongs to someone of significance?”

My uncle smiled proudly, “I can’t fully understand it yet, but this tomb should belong to a noble from the State of Lu during the Warring States period. The fact that this tomb’s location is recorded in such a secretive word painting on this silk manuscript indicates that the person’s status must be quite high, and this burial site is surely very secretive and valuable, definitely worth a visit.”

Seeing the sparkle in his eyes, I found it quite strange. This old guy usually doesn’t even bother to step out of his door; could it be that he actually wants to take matters into his own hands this time? That would truly be a remarkable event. I hurriedly asked him, “What’s going on? Uncle San, are you really planning to go and sift through this batch of sand yourself?”

He patted me on the shoulder and said, “You don’t understand, do you? Let me tell you, during the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, there were treasures in those containers, but they could only be described as exquisite craftsmanship. However, during the Warring States period, the ancient royal tombs from that time are far too old; you can never guess what might be inside. Those Warring States tombs are places where artifacts are found—things that don’t exist in the world! Don’t you think I want to see them?”

“Are you so sure? What if there’s nothing in there?”

“Impossible! Didn’t you see this pattern?” He pointed to the strange fox face on the paper. “This is a mask used in sacrifices during the earliest human sacrifice period in the State of Lu. Whoever is buried in this tomb must have had a very special identity, possibly even more noble than the emperor of that time.”

I blurted out, “The emperor’s father.”

Uncle San shot me a glare and tried to take the printed paper back. I pressed down on it and smiled at him, “Uncle San, don’t be in such a hurry to put it away. After all, I was the one who got this. You have to take me along to see it this time.”

He shouted, “No way! Sifting through this sand is not that simple. That place has no air conditioning and is full of traps; you could end up in serious trouble at any moment. You’re your father’s only child; if anything happens to you, I’ll make sure your father skins me alive!”

I shouted back, “Then forget it! Just pretend I never came!” With that, I yanked the paper from his hand and turned to leave. I knew Uncle San well; once he encountered something he liked, he had no principles. He was like this with antiques and women alike. I took advantage of this, and sure enough, after just a few steps, he surrendered, catching up to me and grabbing the paper from my hand. “Alright, alright, you’re impressive. But let’s make it clear: when we go down the hole, you have to stay above. Is that acceptable?”

My heart soared with joy. I thought, “When the time comes, how could you possibly stop me?” I quickly nodded and said, “Deal! When we’re out there, I’ll follow your lead. Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it!”

Uncle San sighed helplessly and said, “Just the two of us won’t get it done. I’ll bring a few experienced guys over tomorrow. For the next few days, I’ll decipher this painting, and you need to help me procure some supplies.” Saying this, he quickly wrote me a note and said, “Make sure you don’t buy any fakes. Also, prepare some travel gear; otherwise, before we even get there, we might get detained.”

I nodded in agreement, and we both went our separate ways to get busy.

The things Uncle San wanted were quite tricky to find. I felt he was probably trying to make things difficult for me because many of the items on the list were not commonly available in stores. For example, things like a separate waterproof mining lamp, threaded steel pipes, soil sampling shovels, multi-purpose military knives, folding shovels, short-handled hammers, bandages, nylon ropes, and so on. By the time I had bought only half of them, I had already spent nearly ten thousand yuan. I felt a sharp pain in my heart and cursed that old fox, thinking, “Damn it, he’s so rich yet so stingy!”

Three days later, my two old partners from my third uncle and the young man who bought my uncle’s dragon spine goods that day, five of us arrived at a place over 100 kilometers west of the Guazi Temple in Shandong.

How should I describe this place? I can only say it’s just a place with nothing at all. We first took a long-distance bus, then a long-distance minibus, followed by a long-distance motorcycle, and finally, a bullock cart. When we got off the cart, we looked around—front, back, left, right—and still saw nothing. Then a dog came running towards us. My third uncle patted the guide and said, “Old man, are we going to ride this dog for the next leg? I’m afraid this dog might be too much to handle!”

“It won’t,” the old man laughed heartily. “This dog is here to deliver messages. For this last leg, there’s no vehicle available; we’ll need to take a boat, and that dog will bring the boat over.”

“This dog can swim?”

“Swim very well, indeed,” the old man looked at the dog and said, “Donkey, go swim a lap and show us.”

The dog really did seem intelligent; it jumped into the river and swam a circle. When it came out, it shook off its fur and lay down, panting.

“It’s still too early; the boatman definitely hasn’t started working yet. Let’s take a break and smoke a cigarette.”

I looked at my watch: “It’s only 2 PM and he hasn’t started working? What kind of schedule does this boatman have?”

“There’s only him as the boatman here; he’s the best. He starts working whenever he feels like it. Sometimes he doesn’t work at all in a day, which can drive people crazy,” the old man chuckled. “There’s nothing we can do; the river god only shows him favor. Anyone else who enters that cave will definitely not come out, but he’s fine. If you could ride mules, we could go over the mountain, and we’d arrive in a day, but look at all your stuff; even all the mules in our village wouldn’t be enough for you.”

“Oh,” my third uncle perked up at the mention of the cave, pulling out a treasured map he had translated. He treated this map like a precious item, not letting me see it even once. As soon as he took it out, we all rushed over to look, except for the young man, who remained silent on the side.

To be honest, my second uncle’s two partners were easy to get along with; they were straightforward people. But this one person was like a damp squib, not having made a sound the entire way, just staring at the sky as if he were worried it might fall. It was really annoying! At first, I tried to talk to him a bit, but later I couldn’t be bothered to deal with him. I really didn’t understand why my third uncle brought him along.

“There is a cave, and it’s really a river cave, just behind this mountain,” my third uncle said. “So, old man, can this cave eat people?”

The old man chuckled, “Those are just words passed down from several generations; I can’t remember clearly. When the river was not connected, people in the village said there were snake spirits inside, and no one who went in ever came out. But one day, the boatman’s great-grandfather came out of that cave with a small boat, claiming to be a traveling merchant. Tell me, what kind of merchant carries a boat around? Everyone said he must be a transformed snake spirit. His great-grandfather laughed and said the boat was bought from the neighboring village; if they didn’t believe him, they could go ask over there. When they went and asked, they found it was true, and only then did people believe the monster in the cave was gone. But then, a few brave young people went to explore the cave and didn’t come back. Since then, only his family has been able to go in and out freely. Isn’t that strange? After that, their family has been in this business ever since.”

“Is that dog okay?” I asked, puzzled. “Isn’t it supposed to be the messenger?”

“This dog is also raised by his family. In other people’s homes, not even a cow would come out if it went in,” he replied.

“Such a strange thing, doesn’t the government do anything about it?”

“Well, it has to be believable for anyone to take action,” the old man said, tapping his pipe on the ground.

My uncle frowned and clapped his hands. “Donkey Eggs, come here.”

The dog really obeyed and trotted over happily. My uncle picked it up and sniffed it, his expression changing. “No way, could there be something like this in that hole?”

I picked it up and sniffed too, a strong dog smell made me cough. The dog’s owner was really lazy; I wondered how long it had been since the dog had a bath.

One of Panzi’s companions laughed heartily. “You think you can learn from your uncle? You’re still too young.”

“This damn dog, why does it stink so much?” I grimaced in disgust.

“This dog grew up eating human flesh,” my uncle said. “That was a corpse hole; no wonder it takes time to pass through. That boatman probably… when he was young…”

“No way!” I was so scared that my hair stood on end. As soon as this was said, even the usually quiet guy’s expression changed.

Another of my uncle’s companions was a big man we called A Kui, who was about the size of an ox used for pulling carts, but he was timid and asked softly, “What exactly is that corpse hole? Will something happen if we go in?”

“I don’t know. A few years ago, I found a similar hole in Taiyuan, Shanxi. It was a place where the Japanese massacred and piled up bodies. Wherever there are corpse holes, there must have been slaughter, that’s for sure. Back then, it seemed fun, so I did some experiments there. I put dogs and ducks on bamboo rafts, set up a camera, and pushed them in. The hole was just over a kilometer long. I prepared a long enough cable, but when I pulled the cable all the way, the bamboo raft didn’t come out. It was pitch black inside; I didn’t know where it drifted off to. Later, when I tried to pull the raft back, after just a few tugs, it suddenly flipped, and then…” My uncle spread his hands. “In the end, I only saw half a face. It was too close to the screen to tell if it was a dog or something else. To pass through such a hole in ancient times, it was always a line of dead and living people going together. If it’s a living thing, it won’t come out! However, I heard that in Shanxi, there are people who feed their children human flesh from a young age, accumulating the corpse energy in their bodies. When they grow up, they become just like the dead, and even ghosts can’t see them. Old man, is your boatman from Shanxi?”

The old man’s expression changed slightly, and he shook his head. “I don’t know; that was from his great-grandfather’s time, not even from the same era.” He looked up at the sky and called out to the dog, “Donkey Eggs, go fetch your boatman!”

The dog barked and jumped into the water, swimming toward the mountain behind.

At that moment, I saw my uncle give Panzi a look. Panzi secretly took a backpack from his luggage and put it on his back. The young man sitting next to us also stood up and took his own bag from the pile of luggage. As Panzi walked past me, he whispered in Hangzhou dialect, “This old man has a problem; be careful.”