After listening to my words, Lao Qi laughed: "Lao Chang, at this age, what else is there to be afraid of? Officer Duan, hurry up and drive, it's not easy to walk at night in the mountains if you delay it any longer. ”

Xiao Duan shook his head, let out a long sigh, and rekindled the fire, and the jeep burrowed into the thick night again.

When I was drowsy by the jolts of the jeep, Lao Qi patted me on the knee. I opened my sleepy eyes and saw that his expression was very solemn, so I quickly straightened up and asked, "Old Qi, what's the matter, what new clues did you remember?"

"Hey, Lao Chang, you must wonder why I followed you to Chengjialing Mine?" Director Qi seemed to be chatting with me, and seemed to be talking to himself.

"Lao Qi, I have always felt that you have specialized in the study of the Chengjialing mine, and you have studied it very deeply. In a sense, you're guiding me to discover new clues, right?" I took out a cigarette from my bag, handed it to Lao Qi, and threw it to Xiao Duan.

"You're right, there's no special research, but it's certainly more than you know, but what I'm struggling with right now is that the deaths of the dozen miners have something to do with me. Lao Qi spoke this paragraph very slowly, almost word by word.

"How could it be? Lao Qi, the Chengjialing Mine and the Museum of Culture and History can't be beaten, what does what happened in the mine have anything to do with you?" I really can't figure out Lao Qi's thoughts, but obviously he wasn't joking.

The most difficult thing for a person is to start, after breaking through the defense line in his heart, Lao Qi's words have become much more coherent.

"Chang, that was five years ago. You may not know that the current No. 17 mine should actually be called No. 18 mine. About six or seven years ago, after the exploration of the Chengjialing mine, there has been controversy in the county about the resumption of production of the mine, mainly because the coal quality of the Chengjialing mine is not high, and it needs to go through a set of sorting, refining and primary processing processes to produce products that can be accepted by the market. Guangling is a small county, financial funds are tight, so so much money is invested in the back-end processing plant, and the profit of the coal itself is not high, which is a bit more than worth the loss, which is the focus of the debate. ”

But in addition to the deputy county magistrate in charge of industry and finance, the most active advocate of resuming the mine is the current mine director Dai, who was only the director of the Chengjialing Mine Preparatory Committee, but because of his personal friendship with some county leaders, he sought this errand, of course, from his point of view, if the mine cannot be rebuilt, then he is nothing, and there is nothing wrong with his private operation. I was not a member of the county team, but Secretary An of the county party committee at that time was my student when I was teaching in the provincial town in the 60s, and I was a cadre on assignment. ”

He opened a test well more than 300 meters south of the No. 17 mine, ostensibly to dig out some coal to test the quality of the coal, but in fact he planned to make a fait accompli first, mined it in batches, and then grinded it slowly, so as not to worry that the funds for building a sub-inspection plant in the county were not in place. When Secretary An knew about this, coal had already come out of the mine, dozens of miners, and hundreds of family members were begging for a living in the mine. ”

"What everyone can't imagine is that the trial mining called No. 17 mine at that time, only five months of production, there was a major accident in which three miners died due to fire, and the situation at that time was almost exactly the same as now, except that the miners' accommodation conditions were poor, and it was a collective dormitory of six people and one room, so two miners were burned to death in the underground and one burned to death in the toilet. ”

"As soon as the accident happened, the mine naturally stopped production. But that's when Mr. Dai approached me. The coal essence jade you see today is the one he gave me back then. Dai told me that mining coal is not his real goal, but that the coal and jade in the mine are the real valuable things. It's just that at that time, China had just solved the problem of food and clothing, and few people realized the collection value of coal jade. But overseas and coastal areas that opened up earlier, people have different understandings. ”

He had already contacted a middleman in Guangzhou to sell coal and jade to Hong Kong, which could make a lot of real money for the mine. He knew that the cultural center was a poor place, and I went to Hua County to allocate 20,000 yuan a year with a careful budget, and I couldn't get back many old doors, windows, and old furniture every year. As long as I help him do something, he donates 200,000 yuan from the mine to the cultural center every year, and he will never ask where I use it. ”

"Chang Chang, I was also confused at that time, and I often saw old doors, windows, and old furniture being chopped up by the villagers for firewood, and the dealers of cultural relics from other places carried away the old objects they collected in carts, who knows where they went? An old thing left the place where it appeared, and we don't know how much time and energy it will take to re-examine it and look for it. My heart hurts, my heart is anxious, this year's 200,000 funds, there are too many things that can be done. So I asked Mr. Dai what he could do to him. ”

"Dai Mine Manager's request is very simple, let me as a teacher, to persuade Secretary An, to make a big thing small, to conceal the fact of the mining disaster, and to approve the official production of Chengjialing Mine, at the same time, because I am an old man in Guangling County, several county Standing Committee members who hold opposing opinions have more respect for me, and ask me to persuade one by one. ”

"I didn't dare to say yes at the time, I was conflicted. Mine Manager Dai also assured me that he would seal the mine where the accident occurred, find another place to open a new shaft, and never save money on production safety equipment to ensure that there would be no more safety accidents. He also enlightened me, he did this, but also to protect Secretary An, he is a temporary cadre, in the local mistakes, the future is ruined, it is better for everyone to hide it, each has its own place, the mine has profits, the fiscal revenue has naturally gone up, and the number of jobs has increased, and the local economy has been invigorated, which is all political achievements. If you want to develop, how can there be no accidents? How can there be immortals? Hey, I thought that Dai Mine Manager had considered all aspects very thoroughly, and the main thing was the 200,000 yuan a year, so I agreed. One thought is wrong, and it becomes a big stone hanging in my heart forever. ”

"Later, I went to persuade Secretary An according to what Mine Chief Dai told me. It is estimated that Secretary An took care of my face on the one hand, after all, I have never opened my mouth to him and begged for someone, on the other hand, Mine Chief Dai must have entrusted other people, and Secretary An is not easy to offend the real power faction in the county, so this accident was covered up as Dai Mine Chief wished. ”

However, Mine Chief Dai is still a man of his word, he sealed the test shaft where the accident occurred, and chose another place to open the mine to the north, which is now the No. 17 well. He did spend a lot of money to buy a variety of advanced mine safety equipment, so it has been almost eight years, and there has never been any safety accidents. ”

"He allocated the funds of my Museum of Culture and History to me every year after the Spring Festival, six or seven years, not a single arrears, not a time less, ninety-four years Secretary An was transferred to Jiangsu, between me and him, are verbal promises, no written contract, he just find a reason not to give, what can I do? But over the years, the money has never been broken, it can be said that you see in the Museum of Culture and History, more than half of the belongings are Dai Mine Chief to keep down. ”

"However, I don't know why, since the No. 17 mine was drilled, I have been unsteady in my heart, I always feel that similar things will happen again, usually not too busy with work, so I took some time to study the Chengjialing mine, and study what the karmic fire that occurred in the Chengjialing mine, so when you find it, a lot of information is ready-made. But I'm sorry, I was hesitant to tell you the whole story, and I didn't make up my mind until you said that two more people had been burned to death in the mine, and even Dr. Chen was not spared. ”

Listening to Director Qi's intermittent story about the twists and turns of the mine, we had already smoked half a pack of cigarettes in the car, and I rolled down the window a little, and the fresh but bitter cold wind blew in, making me sleepy at all. Curator Qi's words did solve a lot of my previous confusion, and unrelated clues were strung together, but I could also feel that the truth that flickered like karmic fire was actually very little known to Curator Qi.

"Old Qi, listening to your description, is this Dai Mine Chief still a man who keeps his promises and is righteous and ambitious?" I asked again.

"It can be said that if you don't ask about the means and scheming of doing things, then Dai Mine's character is beyond reproach. But the Buddhist scriptures say, bad karma thoughts, ruin a lifetime of good deeds, so many years, I have been self-comforting, I was ignorant of the mine chief, not for personal gain, what has been preserved is the historical relics of the entire two courtyards of the Museum of Culture and History, I should be worthy of the white lie, but obviously, one wrong step, one wrong step, demolishing the east wall to make up the west wall can not get rid of the original sin in my heart, which is also the real reason why I insist on entering the mine with you. Director Qi said emotionally, and couldn't help choking up a little.

I patted his hand, "Lao Qi, it may not be as serious as you think, people are a drop in the ocean, compared with the beginning of all things, our ability is really not worth mentioning, you may not be able to stop things from happening, the same, things are like this, it is not not the destiny of heaven, people often say, when you are old, you know that you can't do it, all you want is a peace of mind, but I think, if you really do this, you may not have this peace of mind, what we do is the guidance of the heart, it doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, it's just sooner or later." ”

(He who speaks near and points to the distance is also kind to him; and he who keeps the covenant and gives is also good.) The words of a gentleman are also preserved without a lower belt, and the gentleman's guard is to cultivate his body and the world is peaceful. People who are sick give up their fields and the fields of people are heavy to others, and those who are responsible for themselves are light. --"Mencius: Devoted Heart")