Chapter Twenty-Three: The Dead Village

I nodded, and said yes. Mike continued www.biquge.info "My father wasn't unaware of the problem at that time. It's just that he—" Mike paused as he said this, and smiled apologetically at me, "At that time, my father thought the Chinese were stupid, and thought that he could completely control the grave robbers. ”

I heard a clue: "Then it failed, didn't it?" ”

Mike nodded, "That's right. My father agreed to the terms offered by the tomb robbers, provided them with the best tools and equipment they could find at the time, and allowed them to proceed with the tomb robbery. But those grave robbers at that time—"

"I'm sorry, the tomb robber you are talking about, we are now called Tufuzi. The high-end one is called the Captain of the Touching Gold. "I just can't take it anymore. If it had been before, the tomb robber would have been a tomb robber. But I'm also doing this with the fat guys now, so the name sounds a bit harsh.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Mike also remembered and apologized again and again: "Tufuzi." ”

"At that time, the Tufuzi told my father that the ancient tomb they found was not located in Jilin in the north. Rather, in the south of China. At that time, it seemed to be called Katsura. That is, now Guangxi. ”

"Isn't that right?" I asked. "A few native sons from the north traveled thousands of miles to the south to rob tombs. What is this statement? ”

Mike shook his head, "I don't know. But they did come back from the south. And when I came back, I took the parts of those mechanisms with me. ”

"Go on." I can vaguely guess something. However, this feeling is still very ethereal, and we will have to wait for Mike to finish speaking.

"My father was extremely reluctant to go to southern China." Mike said. "My father finally opened a channel for goods in Jilin, and he didn't want to give up just like that." After Mike finished speaking, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and handed me one: "I've been in China for too long, and I'm a little unaccustomed to smoking cigars." I fell in love with this kind of leaf in China. ”

I took it and pinned it to my ear. Motioned for Mike to continue. Seeing that I wasn't smoking, Mike lit a cigarette and took another puff. Only then did he continue: "But the value of those parts is too high. If you think about it, just a part of a mechanism can sell for such a high price. What if you get those things from the tomb? ”

"In the eyes of businessmen, there is only profit." I say. "So your father followed those native sons to the south."

"That's right." Mike nodded in agreement. "When I first came to the south, my father fell seriously ill because he didn't adapt to the southern climate, and he almost died here. But in the end, it was up to those few Tufuzi to save him with some herbs. To be honest, I admire your Chinese TCM skills—"

If you have something to say, just say it's okay or not, how can you talk about it and always like to go off topic. I cursed in my heart and had to correct the direction of his topic again.

"My father came here." Mike said. "He came to Guangxi. Deep in the mountains of Guangxi, he saw with his own eyes the entrance to that ancient tomb. ”

I nodded. Guangxi is known as 100,000 mountains, and there are many deep mountains and old forests. In addition, the geological conditions of Guangxi are quite stable, and the mountains are not easy to collapse and landslides. So generally speaking, important tombs, such as the patriarch of the previous family, like to bury themselves in the mountains. And this is why there are so many hanging coffins in the south.

"My father saw the entrance and saw a problem. That's a lot of blood at the entrance. My father asked the people if there were dead people at the entrance. But those people said that it was not human blood, but chicken blood. ”

I don't know if there is a custom of sprinkling chicken blood in front of the grave in the north, but in the south, at least until now. sprinkled with chicken blood, the purpose is to be able to suppress the deceased and prevent him from returning to the yang. And this kind of chicken blood can't be ordinary chicken blood. What chicken blood needs is the kind of chicken that is particularly strong. Forget about the old hen, let's keep it for myself to make soup. It has to be a rooster, a particularly strong rooster.

After those people explained it to Old Mac again, Old Mac was relieved. However, foreigners are still afraid of ancient China when it comes to entering ancient tombs. After all, the civilization of ancient China was too good, and all kinds of strange and ingenious tricks at that time, not to mention Westerners. It's just that we still have a lot of things that we can't understand.

"Dead, the people who went in were dead in despite the best equipment of the time." Mike didn't tell me the details of the time, just the final result.

"How did you die?" I asked.

"I don't know." Mike said. "After those people came in, they never came out. According to the general common sense, I really can't think of any reason for them to die in it other than to die inside. ”

I laughed when Mike said this. Foreigners are foreigners, and this scheming method is still not clever enough. Since there is no corpse seen, it means that the person who entered it did not necessarily die inside. And there are too many reasons for this to be explained. The first is that the tomb has other exits, and those who go in sneak out through other exits. And old Mike was still waiting at the entrance like a stupid fork. Again, Chinese. If it were me, after seeing countless priceless things in it, my first thought was to want to keep it to myself. And the way to monopolize it is to kill the people outside. But at that time, it was absolutely impossible for Old Mike to come to Guangxi alone. So if you are no longer sure that you can kill him, the best way is to make Old Mac think that all the people who entered the tomb are dead inside. In this way, Old Mike will know the difficulties and retreat. And when old Mac was gone, those who went in came out again and sold the contents out.

It's all too simple. I shook my head secretly, and said in my heart that this foreigner's IQ is really not as good as my 5,000-year-old civilization in China.

"My father waited for three days at the entrance to the tomb." Mike said. "On the fourth day, he finally gave up, believing that this operation had failed."

"So he chose to go back?" I asked.

"No, he didn't." "My dad was a paranoid. Since he failed the first time, he will be looking for a second chance. ”

"So he found a few more Tufuzi, gave them the best equipment, and then let them in?" I asked. At the same time, he was secretly amused, and said that the things inside must have been removed. Assemble another team and go in and have a fart.

Mike nodded, "Yes." But my father was not familiar with the region of Guangxi, or even such a large area as the south. If he wanted to find someone, there was no way to do it. In addition, he put almost all the money he earned on that operation - there is an old Chinese saying called all-or-nothing. It's my father at that time. ”

Foolish. Force. I briefly summarized it and let Mike continue.

"My father couldn't go back then. He went from being rich to being poor again overnight. He began to wander, wandering in various places in Guangxi. Try to use wandering methods to find some Tufuzi and help him return to the old life. ”

"Just?" I asked. Stories like this usually have a twist. I've been used to it for a long time.

"Yes, it didn't go so well for my father." Mack did not express any dissatisfaction with my attitude, but continued: "It's just that Guangxi is too backward. The Chinese dialect my father learned didn't work here at all. ”

It's not that the people of Guangxi at that time didn't know Mandarin. I said in my heart, but your father may not have understood it at the time. And I conclude that your father must have been very blue and skinny at the time, and he must have been very shiitake mushrooms. Because this is the Zhuang version of Mandarin.

"But after a long, long time, about ten years, my father also began to understand the language of Guangxi slowly. I was able to understand and communicate. Mike said. It was at that time that my father wandered to a village. Mike stopped as he said this, looking at me with a serious face. said: "Mr. Xiao Wei, the next thing I am going to talk about may make you feel a little uncomfortable. But I hope you'll keep listening. ”

I was stunned for a moment, a little bit unclear. But it doesn't matter. Just let him go on.

Mike nodded and sat down on the bench. Let's start with this:

Old Mike came to the village on a rainy evening. Hungry, Mike wanted to go into the village to beg for a bowl of rice to eat, and then find a roof to sleep in for the night. But just as Old Mac was about to descend the hillside into the village, Old Mac suddenly sensed that the atmosphere in the village was wrong.

The usual small village, quiet and quiet, at least does not reflect a sense of dead silence. It's like there's no one in the village. Not even a dog or a rooster barked, Old Mike could not hear it.

Old Mac felt something strange, but the five visceral temples in his stomach began to disobey the call. So Old Mac couldn't care so much, and walked directly to the village down the hillside.

No one. This was Old Mike's first impression of the village.

Old Mike stood at the entrance of the village and shouted many times, but no one answered him. Not even the guard dog made a symbolic few calls.

When no one agreed, Old Michael went to the village on his own. But as soon as he left, Old Mac felt that something was completely wrong.

There wasn't a single thing in the village that could move. In other words, all the people in this village are gone. Not only that, but even the livestock are gone. Empty fences, open doors. Old Mac even saw a smoking chimney.

Did all the people in this village go out to work? But no, with such heavy rain, farmers usually stop working and rest at home. But even if you go out to work, it's impossible not to see even a child at home, right? What about the elderly? What about women? Is this a dead village? But what about the smoke coming out of those chimneys?

Everything in front of him made even the old Mike, who had been wandering in the mountains of Guangxi for more than ten years, couldn't help but feel a chill all over his body. The myth of ghosts and ghosts has been prevalent in China since ancient times. Old Mike has been in China for so long, and it is impossible that he has not heard of it.

Thinking of this, Old Mac was in a cold war, and he hadn't eaten for a day. His body went limp, and he almost fell to the ground.

However, because he was so hungry, Old Mac finally mustered up the courage and walked into a house with smoke on the roof.

The structure of the house in the countryside is simple. So Old Mac found the location of the kitchen very easily. In the kitchen, Old Mac saw a pot. In the stove under the pot, there is a charcoal fire that has not been burned.

When the lid of the pot was lifted, a smell of meat instantly diffused.

It's meat. What a big pot of meat.

Old Mike was ecstatic. After so many years of wandering, I can hardly remember what meat tastes like. With a pot full of meat in front of him now, Old Mac almost burst into tears. But Old Mac still maintained the Western gentleman's set. After asking again politely and very loudly if there was anyone in the room, he folded his hands and prayed. (I don't think Old Michael should have thanked God at that time, he should have thanked Buddha.) After all, Old Mac is in China, and the distance is too far away, God his old man may not be able to sense it)

Old Mike had been so thoroughly attracted by the large pot of meat in front of him that he had forgotten his previous fears at all. He took a bowl from the stove and a spoon. He began to eat in front of the cauldron in front of him.

It's really binge eating. Old Mike couldn't feel the temperature of the broth in the pot anymore. Even if the corners of his mouth and tongue were blistered, it couldn't stop him. Old Mike's mania for meat has completely fallen into madness. Worst of all, they even gnawed desperately at a bone in the bowl, but they refused to let go.

As his belly gradually became bigger, Old Mike's mood slowly calmed down. And at this moment, the cauldron in front of him was about to bottom out.

Old Mike maintained the image of a gentleman, tried to endure a few full burps and then couldn't hold back any longer, and spit out the contents of his stomach with a "vomit". But even so, Old Mac laughed contentedly.

This is the first time in more than ten years that he has eaten meat and vomited. Really eat until you vomit.

Old Mac wiped his mouth with satisfaction, and at the same time glanced at the cauldron in front of him. Decided to stay in this village for the night tonight. I'll go again tomorrow. And the leftover meat in this pot in front of him, Mingtai will turn into a delicious breakfast in the morning.

But when Old Mac looked at the cauldron in front of him, his originally satisfied expression instantly stiffened. Suddenly, a large piece of goosebump began to appear on his back. At the same time, the stomach is also overturned.

In the cauldron in front of him, on the soup noodles at the bottom of the pot, there was the head of a child who had been boiled. (To be continued.) )