In the eyes of mainstream scholars of history, my father Fan Jiyun is definitely an outlier, and many of his later views and theories have been rejected and criticized by other historians. Still, my father's standing and prestige in academia remained unassailable, largely due to his profound historiography and his scholarly dedication to fieldwork.

In fact, when my father was young, he was favored by many historians, believing that he would be a generation of historians in the future. However, an incident happened thirty years ago that led my father to determine the direction of his lifelong academic research.

Thirty years ago, my father was in the prime of life, and many of the major archaeological activities in China were carried out by my father, some of which were assigned to him by his superiors, and some of which he conducted in his personal capacity. At that time, my father's academic research direction was not yet finalized, and he was very enthusiastic about any archaeological and fieldwork activities, because he had always adhered to the concept of "hearing is false, seeing is believing".

That year, my father and a few close friends met together as scholars to go to Shizhai Mountain in Jinning, Yunnan Province, to investigate the ruins of the Dian Kingdom, a slave empire established by Yunnan's ancient ethnic minorities.

After returning to my hometown in Liaoning, I heard my mother's recollection that my father seemed to have a serious illness and his face was very haggard. After he came out of this state, he unbelievably delved into the so-called witch culture. This puzzled many colleagues, because my father's research did not seem to be as simple as studying folklore or sacrificial rituals, but really studied witchcraft as a science, and some outsiders even directly said that my father's research had shifted to the field of metaphysics.

However, I listened to my father's own explanation that his research was to explore the relationship between the origin of Chinese civilization and the rise and fall of Wu culture. After more than ten years of intensive research, my father began to make his views and remarks public. Obviously, many of his views have too much metaphysical content in them, which has led to a siege by many scholars. However, what really surprised my father was that at that time, the state was already vigorously advocating so-called academic freedom of speech, but he was almost banned by the academic community because of that set of views.

Since then, my father has remained silent, never attending any academic seminars again, and refusing to write for any academic journals. Fortunately, my father was free and easy by nature, and he didn't think so, but he still carried out his research secretly. But life at home had to be maintained, so after a few years of silence, my father was introduced by a friend to become a professor at a university in Shenyang, and our family settled here. Although he also carried out several archaeological activities outside the province in the future, most of them went with the attitude of coping with errands, and it seems that after returning from an expedition in Yunnan, he lost his interest in many archaeological activities.

Although my father is in his sixties this year, I am still young because I am my father's old son, and I had an older brother before, but more than ten years ago, he mysteriously disappeared. As for how he disappeared, I was not sensible at that time, so naturally I had no way of knowing, and my father kept it secret, and I thought he didn't want to evoke sad memories, so I didn't pay much attention to it.

I learned from my mother that my father loved my brother very much, because my brother was very smart, and in comparison, I didn't get my father's excellent genes, and since I was a child, my studies have been very poor, and I was only admitted to a very ordinary university in the end.

It was also because I was not good at my studies that I never found a job after graduation. I had no choice but to borrow a sum of money from my father to open a bookstore with a good buddy of mine, it is said that books are not a good deal, but my buddy is a rare business genius, plus that guy has loved books since he was a child, and he also has a deep study of the rare book market, so although the bookstore is not big, the business has always been very good. So, I was relieved to hand over the business to him to manage, and within a year's effort, the capital was recovered and returned to my father. On the day my father received the money, he smiled at me and said, "Your boy is also lucky, and you have a good friend to help you, and it seems that you will not be starved to death for a while." ”

This is my father's temperament, perhaps because he worked hard outside all the year round when he was young, so he didn't have any gentlemanly spirit at all, and he often talked to me like this. However, my mother was very uncomfortable with me. According to her old man's concept, I must have a stable job to make her feel at ease. To put it bluntly, she just wanted me to apply for the civil service exam. Of course, I also tried, but unfortunately, the joint entrance examination was unsuccessful for two years, and in the end, my father sent a message to let me do business with peace of mind.

Originally, life was just plain and slightly warm. However, one day, my father received a letter. At that time, I happened to be at home to have lunch, my father read the letter, his face showed a strange expression, looking worried and excited, I saw that the situation was not right, sure enough, my father's blood pressure went up all of a sudden, almost fainted.

When I asked him afterwards what was written in the letter, he didn't answer, looking worried.

A few days later, he suddenly called me to his home and said to me very seriously: "Peixi, you have to go to Yunnan." ”

"Huh?" This is a normal person's reaction, not to mention that Liaoning is thousands of miles away from Yunnan, that is, the two provinces are next to each other, and my father's words are abrupt enough. I asked, "To Yunnan?" For what? ”

My father closed his eyes and thought about it, took a sip of the tea I poured for him, and said lightly: "You go and pick someone up." ”

"Pick up someone? Who? ”

"The descendants of the benefactor who saved lives."

This time, I was even more confused. A lifesaver? Could it be that my father suffered some kind of murder when he was young? Even if there is, how did this murderous disaster run to Yunnan? It was only after my repeated inquiries that my father told me. He said that when he was young, he once went to Yunnan to investigate, but there he encountered a gang of robbers and was kidnapped, but fortunately he was rescued by a man named Ashuna, and he was able to return to the northeast. Now, the life-saving benefactor has little time to live, and he is lonely, so he has to entrust his descendants to my father.

My heart says, Azina? This is obviously a woman's name, how could she be hijacked by a gang of robbers but saved by a woman? However, when I asked my father again, he said to me, "Why are you a mother-in-law, and what do you care about so much?" How? Don't even listen to your dad? ”

I smiled and said, "Gotta get it, I'll just go, who made you Lao Tzu." ”

My mom was very upset and said, "How can you talk to your dad!" ”

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Father said as he waved his hand. Since I was a child, I have been deeply aware of my father's genetics of lifting the bar and Kan Dashan, and I usually always talk to my father about Dashan. My mother was always worried that someone like me, who was neither big nor small, would learn not to take the old man seriously and not follow filial piety. Actually, she didn't have to worry about it.

I said to my father, "Of course, there is nothing wrong with going to Yunnan, but how do I find that Ajuna there?" ”

"People have arrangements, when you arrive in Kunming, someone will naturally pick you up." Father said.

"Let Peixi go to such a far place by herself, and she is not familiar with the place, can you do it?" My mom was worried.

My father pouted at my mother and said, "When I was in my twenties, I had already run all over the country. ”

In this way, I set off from Shenyang and headed for Kunming, Yunnan.

Originally, I planned to come here to have some fun, but before leaving, my father seemed to see my thoughts and asked me to travel lightly, go early and return early, and not be greedy for too long. So, I didn't take any suitcases, just a change of clothes, of course, I brought a lot of money, thinking that I could bring some souvenirs back to my dad when I went back.

At this time, it is the summer vacation, and there are many people who come to Yunnan, but most of them are tourists, and many children come with their parents.

After dozens of hours of driving, the train finally entered the station. I walked off the train with the crowd, a little worried about whether the person who answered me would find me. First, this is my first time in Yunnan, and secondly, I have never met the person who answered me, so how can he recognize me?

I thought it would be like a netizen meeting, a bouquet of flowers or a pen on my ear or something to make a code, but my father told me that I didn't need to prepare anything, and someone would naturally find me when I arrived at the station.

Although my father seems to be informal in his daily life, he is actually very thoughtful, and I don't worry too much. But this time, I really mistrusted him.

I walked around the Kunming train station for nearly half an hour without seeing anyone answering me. The train station was crowded with people, pushing and shoving, and I was really annoyed, so I walked out of the train station. As soon as I walked out of the train station, I was confronted by a little boy begging, not that I had no compassion, but anyone with a little common sense knew that most of the begging children at the train station were fake. I was about to shout out at the little boy, but I was surprised to find that he had not come to beg, but had reached out and handed me a small note. I turned out a small note, opened it, and there were three words written on it - "Go to Wenshan." ”

I asked the little boy, "Who handed you the note?" ”

The little boy looked back, but he didn't point out who was coming for a long time, and said suspiciously, "Huh? It's strange, it was still there. ”

When I looked back, there was a surge of people in the train station, and I couldn't see anyone suspicious.

I haven't been to Yunnan, and I don't know where Wenshan is in Ludao, so I called a few taxis, but people didn't want to pull them. Later, I used my mobile phone to check the map and realized that Wenshan is a Miao Autonomous Prefecture, and it is more than four hours away from Kunming, no wonder no one wants to pull me.

When I was at a loss, a black car driver who was nearly 50 years old suddenly came and asked me if I wanted to take the car, I said that I wanted to go to Wenshan, he didn't even object, and when I asked the price, it was also very fair, so I happily got into his dilapidated Santana.

There was nothing to say all the way, I slept for a while, and when I arrived in Wenshan, it was already six o'clock in the evening, I was hungry and thirsty, and I had a bubble of urine for a long time, and I was desperate to find a place to relieve my hands. But as soon as the taxi stopped, something happened to me that surprised me. I saw that Master Duan, who was driving, suddenly took out a wallet from his trouser pocket and handed it to me, saying, "You stay at the Wuzhan Hotel, and I will pick you up early tomorrow morning." ”

I was a little confused by this sentence, but when I looked closely at the wallet in Master Duan's hand, I found that the wallet was so similar to mine, and when I touched my pocket, my wallet was gone.

Master Duan looked at my puzzled expression and said, "This is your wallet, I took it when you were asleep, although it is a bit rude to do so, but I must be sure that you are Fan Peixi." ”

"How do you know my name?" I was surprised.

"I'm the one who answered you, and I stole your wallet to check your ID to make sure you were Fan Peixi."

"You know me?"

"I had your picture before you left Tohoku."

Photo? I thought to myself, could it be that my father sent me a picture so that the person who answered me would recognize me? So, I said, "So, you know my father?" ”

Master Duan shook his head and said, "I'm just a person who answers, I received a photo confirming that you are Fan Peixi, taking you to Wenshan, this is my task, and I don't know anything else." ”

Ho, it's getting more and more mysterious. Although I was a little confused, I thought it was in line with my father's character. When I was a child, my father always liked to tell me all kinds of bizarre and strange stories, but every time he told the best part, he stopped abruptly and refused to continue telling anything. And the next day, he told me another unrelated story, which was also told about the most wonderful place and stopped, and my father's style made my childhood often accompanied by insomnia. Sometimes, I would complain to my father, but he would always tell me, "The beauty of a good story is that it has an open-ended ending, and you can form an infinite number of possible endings based on the little clues in the story. ”

Many of my father's good friends also have the same habits as him, and everyone who comes to my house will give me an anagram or something to ponder from time to time, and I don't know if their anagrams are too profound, or if my IQ since I was a child is a hard wound, I have never solved any of their riddles, and over time, I don't bother to guess those riddles, just symbolically pretending to think, it is all etiquette.

When I was a child, I saw a lot of people who pretended to be mysterious, so it was not surprising. I followed the instructions of the master, got off the bus and walked a few steps, and came to the Wuzhan Hotel. I entered the hotel and reported my name, and as I expected, Master Duan had already arranged a guest room for me. But I entered the hotel, I still feel a little dissatisfied, because the hotel is too small and too broken, this three-story small building looks like some years, as soon as I enter the house, a musty smell will come to my nose, the messy quilt has a disgusting smell of stinky feet, I thought it was too stingy, so I wanted to change a hotel, but it was late, I was tired and physically and mentally exhausted after a night of travel, smoked two cigarettes in the house to get rid of the musty smell, bought two boxes of instant noodles from the proprietress and went to bed after eating it in a hurry.

The sleep was sweeter than I expected, and I was probably tired. At about two o'clock in the evening, I got up at night to pee, although the toilet was in the house, which was very convenient, but the stench in the urinal was prohibitive. I covered my nose and peed, and just wanted to go back to bed and continue sleeping, but suddenly I heard someone talking outside the door, I didn't pay attention to it at first, but I suddenly heard the sentence "Fan Peixi is here". My curiosity was aroused at once, and I hurried to the door, put my ear on the door, and to my surprise, I first heard Master Duan's voice: "I was followed at the train station, but I should have been dumped by now." ”

Then a very nasal man's voice said, "In short, there is no time to delay, the time of the great witch is running out." ”

The sound that followed was so small that I couldn't hear it clearly. However, these two lines of dialogue still reveal a very important message.

Azuna Witch? If I'm not mistaken, it's probably Arona. So, the father's so-called savior, Ashuna, is a wizard? However, compared to that Ashina, I care more about Master Duan's words. Being tracked? The tone of that sentence must mean that I was being followed at the train station. Who's going to follow me?

I was thinking against the door as I heard a faint sound of footsteps fading away, thinking that the two had left. I looked back in confusion, but this time I turned around, but my heart was startled and my scalp tingled. Suddenly, I saw a strange human face appear on the glass window of the room, with a pale face, listening to me directly. I was so frightened that I almost cried out, but when I calmed down, I found that the figure in the window had disappeared.