Lao Liu Tou said that Professor Sun and they had just gone to the stele shop for half a day, not far from Gulan 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 Gulan 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 man had a shaved head, probably just finished fighting with other children, his body was full of dirt, and he was dragging a line of green snot that was about to flow across the river, and when he saw 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 really very difficult, it is full of rugged sheep intestine paths, and we said that it is not far away, but the road is not easy to walk, and we will arrive at the highest hill in front of us.

Shirley Yang saw that the child was too dirty to look at, so he took out a handkerchief and wiped his nose for him, 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 shouldn't treat us like devils and lead us into an ambush circle, right? ”

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 Sù Erxiao: "What's not good-looking?" 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 like me when I was a child, 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 handkerchief, with a belt tied around his waist and a stick in his hand, and shouted to us: "Stop, what is the work of the flower girl?" Are you Japanese? ”

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

The fellow with a white towel on his head looked the three of us up and down: "What the Eighth Route Army, I don't think you are like a good person." 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 arts without disaster or war is strict, and besides, I haven't heard of any militia using wooden sticks to impose martial law, what is wrong with this grandson going 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 leader of the militia platoon of Shibeidian, actually knew the second of the three of us, and it turned out that the second child was always 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 stone stele nearby. The stele is very tall, standing up to the sky and the earth, 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 is not the broken stele, but a time-honored coffin shop in the village, and there is only this coffin shop in the nearby ten miles and eight villages, including Gulan County, because the rest of the coffin business is not as good as it.

Legend has it that in the earliest days of this old coffin shop, the shopkeeper was a carpenter, and he first ran a carpentry workshop.

Once, the master carpenter gave a coffin to a family, and the coffin had not yet been painted, and according to the rules, he had to take eighteen coats of lacquer for the family, and this half-finished coffin was placed in his carpenter's shop.

In the evening, the master carpenter sat in the middle hall, drank a few glasses of old wine, thought that the business was not good, and took 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, and the alcohol attacked, and he 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 quick knock on the door woke him up, and when he opened the door, he saw that someone from a family in the same village had passed away at night, and he came to order a coffin.

It's rare to have a new job immediately after the job is not over, and the carpenter master is very happy, but it is not easy to show it, after all, it is to do white things for others to make longevity materials, and on the surface, he has to show a little sadness. In order to express his grief over the death of his neighbor, the master carpenter patted the half-finished coffin again, then collected the deposit and began to get busy.

The sun has just risen overhead, the master carpenter is rushing to make longevity timber, and suddenly someone comes to order the coffin, which is really strange, the village only dies about a dozen people a year, and two people die in a row at 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, and before it was 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 carpentry master is a poor and afraid master, how can he care about the life and death of others at this time, is it because of those people who have nothing to do with each other, and they don't go on the road to getting rich? Of course not, the carpenter saw that he couldn't do too much work, so he went to another coffin shop overnight and bought a few ready-made longevity timbers back.

Since then, the carpenter's shop has completely become a coffin shop, and he has also discovered a secret, when he shoots this coffin, the harder he pats, the farther away the place of the dead will be. 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 leaked by him, but there is no impermeable wall, these things are still known by everyone, but this kind of chasing after the wind and shadows, it is difficult to say, and there is no evidence, so there is no way to take him to the official, but everyone sees him as if he is avoiding the plague, hiding far away, and he has not even married a daughter-in-law until he is old.

Not long ago, this former little carpenter, now the old shopkeeper of the coffin shop, died in his own home, and when people found his body, it was already 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 that time, the concept of burial in the countryside was still deeply rooted, so the village chief found a few brave militiamen and carried the corpses in woven bags to be buried in coffins.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I moved the coffin, I found that there was a crack in the ground under the coffin, this gap was very deep, and I put my hand on the side, and I felt a cool breeze swishing out, and it seemed to be a big hole underneath. 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, and had him hang him in a basket. This trip was so frightened that I almost peed my pants, saying that the bottom is paved with big evergreen bricks, there is a stone bed below, and there is a stone box on it, this stone box is not big, flat and flat, and there are a lot of strange words engraved on it. The militia platoon commander took the 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 Gulan County.

In this kind of rural place, there are no major events all year round, so the news spreads quickly, and even people from the county town come 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 still unclear, and once it is destroyed, the loss 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 I couldn't force myself to deal with small peasants like them, but I had to say something nice and give him some benefits, so I said to the militia platoon commander: "Comrade company commander, we are all acquaintances of Professor Sun, and there is indeed an urgent matter 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.