Speaking of this, Lao Lu slowly put his hand into the inner pocket of his jacket and carefully took out a piece of something from it. His old face looked heavy and worried. This thing was tightly wrapped, and Lao Lu Li slowly dismantled it in three layers and three layers outside, and finally revealed a black stone inside. No matter how stupid I was, I guessed what this thing was, and immediately exclaimed, "This is the Jade of the Living Dead?" ”

Lao Lu nodded.

I said, "Can I pick it up and see?" ”

Lao Lu nodded.

I carefully held the black stone in my hand, and the hairs on my nervous body stood on end. But the more I looked at it, the more I wondered, this thing was just an ordinary stone flake, nothing special, just as Lao Lu said at the beginning.

Although I don't dare to say that I know anything about antiques, I at least know some basic concepts. As the so-called porcelain looks at the glaze, jade looks at the water, copper looks at the skin, and wood looks at the grain. As long as it's really good, it's definitely going to be a sight to behold. But at this time, the piece of living dead jade in my hand, I just looked through my eyes and didn't see what was good.

In fact, I really wanted to curse in my heart: "What the is this?" ”

I took the Living Dead Jade in my hand and weighed it, it wasn't very heavy, and it didn't seem to be some heavy metal. It's all black, and the surface is very rough because of its age, but in fact, what puzzles me the most is its "unique" shape. I kept asking myself, what shape is this thing? The most annoying thing is that if you say it's square, he can be square. What kind of thing is this? The logo of the latest season of the Variety Show? Doesn't this?

Lao Lu saw me glaring and frowning, knowing that I couldn't understand the wonder of this artifact at all. So he waved at me and told me to give him the Living Dead Jade. I handed it to him in a daze, but he smiled bitterly and asked me, "How much do you think this thing is worth?" ”

When Lao Lu asked, he really stopped me.

In fact, to tell you the truth, if there was no story from Lao Lu's past, this broken stone would be worthless in my heart. However, considering that this living dead jade had been identified as genuine by the great god of the old man, and was regarded as a god-level artifact, I still combined the valuable opinions of comrades from all walks of life and guessed the conservative price of 50,000 yuan.

But Lao Lu's next sentence almost didn't scare the person who scared me on his back.

He said: "The value of this jade of the living dead is equal to three pieces and a bi. ”

As I said before, although I don't dare to say that I know anything about antiques, I at least know the basic concepts. I think even if you've never been exposed to antiques at all, when you hear the name of Wajibi, everyone knows what it means.

When we were in elementary school, we read the story of returning to Zhao, and there were two world-famous treasures during the Warring States Period, one was called Suihou Zhu, and the other was He's Bi. At that time, the king of Qin offered a sky-high price and wanted to exchange fifteen cities, which shows how much it has valued.

And Lao Lu actually said that the value of the living dead jade in front of me was worth three pieces of He's bi, and I listened to his tone, which may still be a conservative statement. So I asked him suspiciously, "What is the origin of this thing, and how can it be so valuable?" ”

Lao Lu only said one sentence: "This piece of living dead jade can unlock one of the biggest secrets in this world." ”

After he finished speaking, he took a heavy sip of the old tea in the cup. I saw that his cloudy eyes were filled with an intriguing melancholy and sadness. Lao Lu has fallen from a mentor of a provincial cultural relics and archaeology research institute to such a field now, what happened to him, and where did the old man who was a brother and sister to him go, I guess all this may be related to the living dead jade they got by chance.

After being silent for a long time, Lao Lu finally told me his story again:

Five years ago, the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology stumbled upon a strange sand dune with obvious traces of man-made carving through a group of selfies taken by a group of travelers in the depths of the Wusu Desert south of Lop Nur. After careful organization and investigation, a ruins of an ancient country about 2,400 years ago emerged in front of the world's eyes.

When the archaeologists saw the mottled word "鋮軃" on the stele, a topic that had been debated in the archaeological community for 40 years finally came to a successful end. The existence of the "Elephantless Kingdom" recorded in the "Tang Western Regions Volume" has finally been confirmed. The entire archaeological community was in an uproar, and no one expected that the country that was called the most incredible country in the world actually existed.

More than 2,000 years ago, mankind knew nothing about science. Therefore, in that era, any phenomenon that they could not understand would be explained by the theory of "gods and Buddhas". It was a time when religious thought was at its peak. Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia and, of course, the Central Plains. From birth, children are constantly indoctrinated with various religious ideas. Unlike modern society, if people born in that era did not believe in ghosts, gods, Buddhas and demons, and did not believe in the reincarnation of yin and yang, they became an outlier that everyone avoided.

And the "Elephantless Country" was the only country that did not believe in gods and Buddhas in that era when religion was greater than imperial power.

Therefore, in the description of the Elephantless Kingdom in the "Tang Western Regions Volume", you can think of the most vicious words in the world. This book describes its Elephantless Kingdom as: a purgatory on earth, a place of demons, and a different country. Of course, these three words are still the "most civilized words" that I have picked out among countless vicious metaphors, and as for the others, they are not at all.

In fact, from the perspective of our modern people, the country of no elephant is not only not an alien country, but it is an unimaginable clear stream in that ignorant era at that time.

They may have been the first country in Chinese history to pursue only science and truth. The people of the Elephant Country only believe in things that can be repeatedly demonstrated, and people here tend to laugh at certain theories such as the Buddha's way that is preached. It seems that to discuss these ethereal things is as if to be an insult to their knowledge.

After translating a large number of ancient books excavated from the ancient ruins of Wuxiang Kingdom, the archaeologists of Lao Lao and Lao Lu were all amazed that more than 2,000 years ago, there was such an unimaginable "divine domain" in China.

If these "scientists" of Wuxiang Country had not been labeled as "infidels" by fanatical religious believers, they would have left an incomparably brilliant chapter in Chinese history in the future.

But in such a country where science and truth are so rational that people are in awe, there is only one thing that makes people puzzled. Their historical inscriptions, which can be deduced and argued word by word, actually record a strange object that only theology can explain: the jade of the living dead.