Lao Liu Tou said that Professor Sun and they had just been there for a long time, and the stele shop was not far from Gutian County, but that place was very back, and people who had not been there might not be able to find it, so I would find someone to take you there. So he called over a ten-year-old boy on the street, who was his grandson, who was usually in Henan with his parents, and came to Gutian County to play every year during the school summer vacation. The stele shop is very close to the county seat, and this kid often goes there to play.

Old man Liu beckoned to the child: "Erxiao, don't play tricks, take your uncle and your aunt to the stele shop, they want to find Professor Sun of the archaeological team." ”

The second little one's head was shaved with a melon skin, and he may have just finished a fight with other children, and his body was covered with dirt, dragging a line of green snot that was about to flow into a river; Seeing that Old Man Liu asked him to show us the way, he led me and Shirley Yang to the stele shop.

The road to the stele shop is indeed very difficult, and it is full of rugged paths. The second child told us that it was not far away, but the road was not easy to walk, and we arrived at the highest hill in front of us.

Shirley Yang saw that the kid was too dirty to look at, so he took out a handkerchief and wiped his nose, and asked him with a pleasant face: "Your name is Erxiao?" What's the last name? ”

Erxiao wiped his nose and replied: "The nickname is Erxiao, the surname is Wang, and Wang Erxiao." ”

As soon as I heard the child's name interesting, I joked with him: "Your baby's name is Wang Erxiao? You kid aren't going to lead us into an ambush circle like devils, are you? ”

Wang Erxiao said to me stupidly: "Uncle, what is the ambush circle? By the way, who are you? Why do you look good? ”

I peeked at Shirley Yang walking behind, and whispered to Er Xiao: "What's good-looking or not?" You little brat, why don't you learn well at such a young age? She's my wife, she has a bad temper, and she won't be allowed to see anyone but me, so you'd better not mess with her. ”

Shirley Yang walked behind, although I spoke in a small voice, she still heard the second half of my sentence and asked, "Old Hu, you just said don't mess with anyone?" ”

I quickly patted Wang Erxiao's head and said to Shirley Yang: "I just said that this little ghost is very naughty, and he knows that the flower girl is good-looking at work at such a young age." These children now, don't mention it, there are few who were like me when I was a child, and they have been so ambitious and resourceful since they were young......"

Before I could finish speaking, suddenly from behind the hillside came a strong man from the countryside with a white sheep's belly towel on his head, a belt tied around his waist, and a stick in his hand, and shouted to us: "Stop! What does the flower girl do? Are you Japanese? ”

I was taken aback by him, although this is in a ravine, but is there still a strongman who cuts the path in broad daylight? hurriedly blocked Er Xiao and Shirley Yang behind him, and said to the man: "Fellow, don't get me wrong, they are all your own people." We are not the Japanese army, we are the Eighth Route Army. ”

The fellow with a white towel on his head looked the three of us up and down: "What is the Eighth Route Army, I don't think you seem to be good people." Then he drove us with sticks, saying that the militia was under martial law and that we were not allowed to enter.

I thought to myself that this martial law is strict without disasters and wars, and I haven't heard that the militia has such a thing as martial law with wooden sticks, so why is this grandson crazy. So he rolled up his sleeves, intending to snatch the stick from his hand, lest the reckless peasant hurt anyone.

I was about to go over and put it right, but I didn't expect that this villager who claimed to be the platoon leader of the militia platoon of Shibeidian actually knew the second of the three of us. It turned out that the second little boss was playing with his son, so that the two sides stopped moving and stood still to speak.

The militia platoon commander had a clumsy mouth and a strong local accent, and he talked to us for a long time before I could roughly understand what was going on. It turns out that the name of this stele shop comes from an unknown stele nearby, which is very tall and stands up to the sky, and I don't know which dynasty and which generation left it; The wind and rain are blowing, and the handwriting on the stele has long been blurred.

When it comes to the stele shop, the most famous thing is not the broken stele, but a time-honored coffin shop in the village. There is only this coffin shop in the nearby ten miles and eight villages, including Gutian County, because the rest of the coffin sales business is not as good as him. Legend has it that in the earliest days of this old coffin shop, the shopkeeper was a carpenter, and the first thing to do was a carpentry workshop.

On one occasion the master carpenter had made a coffin for a family, which had not yet been painted—according to the rules, he had to walk eighteen coats of lacquer—and the half-finished coffin was in his carpenter's shop. In the evening, the master carpenter sat in the middle hall, drank a few glasses of old wine, and thought that the business was not good, and took over this job for more than half a month, and his heart was inevitably a little depressed; So he patted the coffin and sighed for a long time, had a drunken seizure, and fell asleep on the coffin unconsciously.

That night, the master carpenter had a dream in which he saw a cloud of ice in the coffin, which made him shiver as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. Suddenly, a sharp knock on the door woke him up, and when he opened the door, he saw that someone from the same village had passed away at night, and he had come to order a coffin. It's rare to have a new job immediately after the end of the job, the carpenter master is very happy, but it is not easy to show it, after all, it is a life-beating material for others to do white things, and on the surface it has to show a little pain, in order to express deep sympathy for the death of the village neighbors. The master carpenter patted the half-finished coffin again, then took the deposit and began to get busy.

As soon as the sun rose overhead, the master carpenter was in a hurry to build longevity timber, and suddenly someone came to order the coffin. This is really strange, there are only about a dozen people in the village who die a year, and two people die in a row in this moment.

The more the carpenter thought about it, the more wrong it became, and he recalled the dream he had at night, could it be that those people died because he patted the coffin with his hand? So I tried to pat the half-finished coffin again. Before it got dark, someone died again.

The carpenter was surprised and delighted, and was surprised that he did not know what was going on, why when he slapped the coffin with his hand, someone died nearby; Happily, this time I don't have to worry about having no business to do. This carpenter master is a poor and afraid master, at this time, how can he care about the life and death of others, is it because those people who have nothing to do with each other do not leave the road to make a fortune? Of course not. The carpenter saw that he had too much work to do, so he went to another coffin shop overnight and bought a few ready-made longevity timbers and came back.

Since then, the master carpenter's shop has been completely transformed into a coffin shop. And he also discovered a secret, when he photographed this coffin, the harder he patted it, the farther away the place of the dead became. This dead man's money is very profitable, and the more he makes money, the darker his heart becomes, and he swallows up all the coffin shops in the vicinity, and just slaps the half-finished coffin twice and waits to count the money.

But I don't dare to finish the filming, who knows what's going on here. This secret has never been revealed by him; But there is no impermeable wall, and these things are still known to everyone. But this kind of chasing after the wind and shadows is difficult to say, and there is no evidence, so there is no way to show him to the official, but everyone sees him as if he is avoiding the plague, hiding far away.

When he was old, he didn't even marry a daughter-in-law, and not long ago, this former little carpenter, now the old shopkeeper of the coffin shop, died in his own home. When his body was found, it was rotten and stinking. There is only one coffin shop in the vicinity, and all the longevity materials in the store are sold out, only the half-finished coffin placed in the hall. The people in the village are also worried when they think of those rumors, but the village committee can't ignore it, and they can't let the old shopkeeper of the coffin shop rot at home. Although cremation was practiced at the time, the concept of burial in the countryside was still deeply entrenched. So the village chief found a few brave militiamen, pocketed the corpses in woven bags, and prepared to put them in the coffin for burial.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the coffin was removed, I found that there was a crack in the ground under the coffin. The gap is very deep, and when I put my hand on the side, I feel a cool breeze blowing out. It looks like a big hole down there. Those who were curious pried open the masonry of the ground and found that it was indeed a cave underneath, and it was very cold inside.

The militia platoon commander volunteered to go down to find out what was going on and had him hang him down in a basket. It didn't take long for him to shake the rope desperately to get people to pull him up, and this trip was so scared that he almost peed his pants. Said that the bottom is paved with long green bricks, there is a stone bed below, and there is a stone box on the top, this stone box is not big, flat and flat, and there are a lot of strange words engraved on it, and the militia platoon commander took this stone box with his hand. Everyone opened the stone box and saw that inside were six unknown jade beasts that were as red as blood. According to the militia platoon commander, there seemed to be another layer under the cave, but it was too dark and gloomy to go in again.

Due to the presence of village cadres, the villagers were very conscious and immediately notified the archaeological team of Gutian County. After hearing the news, Professor Sun knew that this discovery might be very important, so he didn't dare to delay for a moment, and immediately rushed over with someone.

In this kind of rural place, there are no major events all year round, so the news spreads quickly, and even people in the county town rush to see the excitement. In order to maintain order, Professor Sun asked the village militia to stop the idlers outside the village and prevent them from entering to watch. Because the scope and scale of the cave, as well as the background, are not yet known, once destroyed, the damage will be irreparable. Therefore, the militia platoon commander took chicken feathers as an arrow, and led people to set up checkpoints at various entrances, declaring that the village had entered a state of military martial law, and only then did Shirley Yang and I stop and interrogate.

I listened to the words of the militia platoon commander and knew that the small peasants who dealt with their forces could not force themselves to come, but had to say something good and give him some benefits, and then I could go in and find Professor Sun. So he said to the militia platoon commander: "Comrade company commander, we are all acquaintances of Professor Sun, and it is indeed urgent to find him, so you can make it convenient." "Saying that, he gave the militia platoon commander five dollars.

The militia platoon commander took the money, but before he could see the denomination clearly, suddenly someone from the village greeted him, saying that the old cadre who came with the archaeological team was dead.