In the seventh year of the Republic of China, in 1918 in the Western calendar, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival.

The flower market lights are like day, the willow tips on the moon, and people are about after dusk. In ancient times, boys and girls were claustrophobic at home, and only the Lantern Festival of Shangyuan Festival every year had the opportunity to come out to play. However, in the morning bell and dusk drum in Biyun Temple, there are only good men and women who come to burn incense. Qin Beiyang naturally remembered a pair of glass-colored eyes, not the nine-colored tomb beast of the town in front of him, but Ouyang Anna who was far away in the sky.

In the middle of the night, on the north edge of the King Kong Throne Tower, the old place where the assassination was carried out on a snowy night two years ago, a few black figures came and dug a big earth hole at night.

In addition to repairing the temple, Qin Beiyang took the nine-color running exercises. Passing by the Sumeru seat of the Vajra Throne Tower, he quietly approached the guys. It's a group of tomb robbers, carrying treasures.

Qin Beiyang relied on the nine colors by his side and shouted: "Bah! Who's coming? ”

Xiangshan is a treasure of feng shui in Beijing, and dignitaries like to be buried here, especially Manchu nobles. The Qing Dynasty died, and there was no one to guard these tombs anymore, and the tomb robbers were emboldened, and there were even broken households among the Xishan Banner people.

In the moonlight, he drew his Tang knife, frightening the tomb robbers and fled, it seemed that he was still a junior thief.

Walking to the mouth of the dug hole, I saw the entrance of the tomb that was opened, and the stone carving style looked like the Ming Dynasty. He sealed the entrance to the cave with mud and ran back to Biyun Temple to inform the great monk. After all, this cave is near the Vajra Throne Tower, and it would be a big deal if the foundation of the mandala was dug up.

Early the next morning, just after the rooster crowed, the monks organized an expedition. Qin Beiyang volunteered to take the lead, and was about to enter the tomb of the Ming Dynasty, when the great monk hurried over with a guest.

The great monk panted and introduced: "This is Professor Wang of the Department of History of Peking University, and he is also a layman who practices at home. ”

"Elder father, the protégé Wang Jiawei is so polite."

This Peking University professor bowed with his palms folded, looked quite pious, was about forty years old, taller than ordinary people, wearing a simple homespun robe, wearing a fur hat to protect against the cold, and his eyes were very energetic, not like an ordinary teacher.

Everyone leaned into the tomb, and Qin Beiyang held a torch in front of him and struck the void with an iron pickaxe. The door of the burial chamber had been opened, and with an eerie atmosphere, the floor was littered with scattered funerary goods, some of which were worthless artifacts, others horseshoe gold and jewelry. Wang Jiawei picked it up and examined it carefully, and confirmed that they were all antiquities of the Ming Dynasty.

"Strange, this big tomb has many specifications of emperors' tombs!"

Wang Jiawei pointed out that the diamond wall, the stone five offerings, the throne of white marble, and the blue and white porcelain vat in the Wanli period, filled with sesame oil for lighting the lantern, are all recorded in ancient books. At that time, the Ming Tombs had not been excavated by archaeology, and no one knew what was really under the Ming Dynasty Emperor's Tombs except for tomb robbers? The professor carried a pen and paper with him, sketched the shape of the tomb, as well as the shape of the cultural relics, and took the camera on behalf of the right.

The monks were more concerned about the Vajra Throne Tower, and they measured the size and orientation to confirm that the underground palace was not under the Vajra Throne Tower, and would not cause substantial harm.

"This place is also a dragon's lair, and the one who can point out the golden well here should be a master."

Qin Beiyang couldn't help but blurt out, Wang Jiawei turned his head and stared at the face of the eighteen-year-old boy: "Little brother, you are ......"

"I'm a craftsman hired by Biyun Temple, and last night, I found the tomb robbers."

Although what he said was true, Qin Beiyang avoided the professor's eyes, not wanting to reveal his identity.

Wang Jiawei pointed to the front and back of the underground palace: "Which one do you think the coffin of the tomb owner is?" ”

"Backrooms!"

Qin Beiyang felt that there was nothing to hide, anyway, the Qing Dynasty Imperial Tomb Underground Palace was also like this.

So, everyone opened the door of the backroom, only to find the two stone beasts crouching in front of them.

"Tomb Beast?"

As soon as the professor's voice fell, Qin Beiyang would knock him down and shout for everyone to hurry up and escape.

There was a mess in the palace, but he found that the two stone beasts were motionless, not like the reaction of the tomb beasts. Qin Beiyang threw a torch at the stone beast again, only to confirm that it was really just two stone sculptures.

After waiting for a while, he blushed and dragged the professor up and said, "I'm sorry, I'm a soldier of all grass and trees, this is a fake and shoddy tomb beast!" ”

"How?"

Wang Jiawei was not angry, but carefully observed these two stone beasts, like pigs and not pigs, like lions and not lions, that is, there are two big ears connected to the body, and there is a pair of big wings behind them, and the style is quite simple. Many stone lions can tell the gender, but these two stone beasts are very strange, the underneath is bare, more like they have been gelding.

"The real tomb beast must be made by royal craftsmen, if it is an ordinary folk stonemason, no matter how good the craftsmanship is, it can only be made by a pile of stones or pottery, and it can't play the role of guarding the tomb at all, the so-called 'pseudo tomb beast'." Qin Beiyang coughed dryly twice, "I am an ancestral craftsman, this is what my father told me." ”

"You're an interesting craftsman!"

Wang Jiawei checked into the tomb again, and found that there was not even a coffin, only an empty coffin bed, and a porcelain bottle from Jingdezhen was placed, could it be an ash bottle? The professor believed in Buddhism and did not dare to act rashly, but they removed the coffin bed and found that the golden well underneath was indeed full of earthly energy. He used tweezers to take out a pile of clothes in the golden well, and it turned out to be a bright yellow twelve-chapter dragon robe, which was really surprising. But the emperors of the Ming Dynasty buried in Beijing are all lying in the Ming Tombs, how can they be under this Xiangshan?

Qin Beiyang also racked his brains and remembered the mausoleum of Emperor Jianwen under the cliff of Dharma Mountain.

Suddenly, an old monk said: "I heard the master of the poor monk say that there was a big man buried in our Biyun Temple in the past, that is, Wei Zhongxian, the great eunuch of the Ming Dynasty." ”

"Wei Zhongxian?" Wang Jiawei glanced at the dragon robe in his hand, "Nine thousand years old? ”

"Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch who plagued the world at the end of the Ming Dynasty?" Qin Beiyang spat and looked at the porcelain vase on the coffin bed and said, "It is said that after the eunuchs die, they want to be buried with their own life, so that they can see their ancestors with a whole corpse." ”

"Well, when they were young, they put their things in the lime jar." The professor looked at the little craftsman with admiration, "Wei Zhongxian is leaning towards the government and the opposition, known as "nine thousand nine hundred years old", and he is only one hundred years away from the emperor's long live. He "fed" with the nurse of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, controlled the emperor through her, persecuted the Donglin party, and spies all over the country, so that many flattering magistrates established a 'living shrine' for him. After Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, Wei Zhongxian was demoted from the capital, committed suicide in fear of crime, and was killed, and there was no body to bury at all. ”

"If what the old monk said is correct, this is the tomb that Wei Zhongxian built for himself before his death, so there are many transgressions, such as dragon-shaped carvings, and in the end, the only thing that can be buried here is the root of life."

"We are not tomb robbers, nor are we greedy for Wei Zhongxian's treasures, and I have drawn a picture of the situation of this tomb."

Wang Jiawei gave an order, everyone withdrew from the underground palace, and no one secretly took even a piece of silver. They sealed the entrance to the tomb with earth and stones, built a brick wall, and gathered branches and thorns to hide their eyes.

Qin Beiyang was about to return to Biyun Temple, when the professor called out to him: "Little brother, I see that you are hidden deeply, can I hire you to do craftsman work?" ”

"Where do you go to work?"

"National Peking University."

(Today's Tanabata!) And the story of this chapter takes place in the Lantern Festival, although the fifteenth day of the first month "the willow tops on the moon, people about after dusk" is the real Chinese Valentine's Day, but I still want to wish everyone a happy Chinese Valentine's Day! ）