It has been nearly half a year since I came to the scholar, and the injuries of the scholar and Lao Xu have completely recovered. I also joined his research group under the introduction of Lao Xu, and even obtained an enviable "identity" - the personal assistant of archaeologist Professor Xu Yang. The scholar said: "Oh, Mr. Xia, you are good this time, with such a name, you don't even need a ticket to go to the museum, how much money do you have to save." "I'm too lazy to quarrel with this kid, I just talk about money when I open and close my mouth, which seems very tasteless. But with this identity, I really took advantage of it, I went to Lao Xu's office when I had nothing to do, learned a lot of historical knowledge and archaeological knowledge, and I was able to receive a considerable salary from Lao Xu every month. Later, I learned that the money I took was divided by Lao Xu from his personal income, and it did not occupy the archaeological research funds. I feel that Lao Xu is really good, and I would rather suffer a loss than let the country be cheated. I also feel guilty for eating and drinking for nothing, and I usually always run before and after Lao Xu, doing some chores, and I think I am working for him. On this day, Lao Xu received a notice from his superiors that a farmer in a small village on the outskirts of Zhengzhou had found an ancient tomb while digging the foundation, and asked Lao Xu's scientific research team to immediately arrive and verify it. Lao Xu took seven or eight people in the group to take a look there, and thought that it was indeed an ancient tomb, but the scale was not large, but the structure of the tomb had been damaged to a certain extent, and it had lost its ability to protect itself, and it was necessary to take rescue excavations to protect it. Several members of the archaeological team hired some farmers in the local village to help with the earthworks, and I also visited the site a few times. At first, I thought it was very interesting, and I watched back and forth as the people of the archaeological team took the farmers to dig the soil. After a few days, I was aesthetically tired and felt bored.

Lao Xu said that this tomb is not big, and according to the characteristics of the tomb, it should be the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The tombs of the Qin and Han dynasties were mostly covered bucket type, like a rice bucket buckled over, similar to the pyramids in the ancient Mayan civilization; Most of the ancient tombs in the Tang and Song dynasties were built on the mountain, and the royal family even opened the mountain as a mausoleum, which was enough to demonstrate the strong national strength at that time; The Yuan Dynasty was a dynasty established by ethnic minorities, still maintaining the characteristics of nomadic people, the authorities and nobles generally dug the ground on the grassland to form a tomb after death, and planted grass after entering the soil to restore the original state, and it is difficult for future generations to find clues; In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the country was in full swing and its national strength was declining, so the construction of tombs focused more on above-ground facilities, combining mausoleums with sacrificial gardens, and using them for two purposes. The tomb found now should have been built in the Ming and Qing dynasties according to the layout, but the specifications are not high, at best it is a tomb of a middle-level nobleman.

As soon as I heard that this was just the tomb of an ordinary scholar, I was even less interested. For the next few days, I nested in the scholar's residence and watched TV dramas to pass the time. Lao Xu was conscientious, set up a tent near the ancient tomb, built a camp, and either excavated at the site every day, or wrote a scientific expedition log in the tent. About a week later, at noon, I was eating takeout at home, watching a TV series, and my phone rang. It turned out that Lao Xu called. Recently, he said, the archaeological team members and the hired farmers have caught a cold, coughing incessantly, and some have even started to have a fever. Let me buy a mask and sanitizer and send it over. As soon as I heard Lao Xu's voice, I was very anxious, so I immediately changed my clothes and went straight to the supermarket. The house rented by the scholar is in the city, and there is a supermarket not far from home, which takes less than ten minutes on foot.

I was hurrying forward, when suddenly someone on the side of the road said, "Little brother, take a slow step, and see what I am." I glanced to the side with the voice, it turned out to be a fortune teller, the age had to be five open, a wisp of goatee was a little gray, a pair of cardigans were dirty, and even more funny was wearing a pair of black sunglasses, which was incompatible with the surrounding environment. I have met many people in Beijing, usually old men in their fifties and sixties, who set up a small table, moved a horse, and shook their heads and abducted them. I was going to walk away without answering. But the fortune teller suddenly said: "I don't have a pole, you come and listen to me, if what you say is wrong, I won't accept a big word." The little brother has a musty smell on his body, unlucky! "When I heard this, I was immediately upset, isn't this damn curse on me? I was just about to get angry, but the old fortune teller raised his hand and arched his hand, and then said: "Don't be angry, the old man is really not a fool, I know a little bit about the Five Elements Bagua, Qimen Dunjia, and Hetuluoshu." The little brother is indeed very mildew, you have to be careful in everything, listen to the old man's words, 'People go to high places, don't stay in low places'. If you need it in the future, you can find me here. I didn't bother to talk to him, I looked at the fortune teller smiling sheepishly, I was angry, I glared at him viciously, turned around and left, after all, I still have important things to do.

I bought disinfectant and masks at the supermarket, and I took a taxi to Lao Xu's camp without stopping. I haven't seen him for a few days, and Lao Xu has become a lot haggard. As soon as we met, Lao Xu immediately asked me anxiously: "Lao Xia, did you bring something?" "I gave him a box of masks and disinfectant, and Lao Xu immediately took out the mask and gave one to himself and me. I saw that he looked anxious and knew that the situation was not good. Putting on a mask, Lao Xu pulled me down into the tent, and then I began to tell the ins and outs. It turned out that the archaeological excavation of this ancient tomb was going smoothly and orderly, and the ear chamber had been cleared out. Lao Xu deduced from experience that he would be able to successfully complete this scientific expedition in more than ten days. As a result, there was an accident in the middle, it was noon that day, the archaeological team and the hired villagers had just eaten, and the three groups were smoking and resting together, and Lao Xu and a few students were studying the unearthed cultural relics. There are two people in the archaeological team, one named Wang Pengyi and the other named Xu Mingyuan, both graduate students of Lao Xu, discussing the identity of the tomb owner and his status during his lifetime. Wang Pengyi said that the tomb owner's funeral goods were too thin, and according to this situation, it can be inferred that the tomb owner's social status was not too high during his lifetime, and he should be a low-level scholar, or even a rich man or a landlord. Xu Minghua believes that the tomb owner must at least be a middle-level ruling class, because the tomb structure is very complete, with a front room, a back room, an ear room and a main room, which is by no means something that ordinary merchants and landlords can enjoy. The two started a normal academic discussion, but for some reason their voices became louder and louder, they both moved, and even had a physical altercation. When the two pushed each other, they didn't know whether they didn't stand still or what, and they both fell from the ground into the restored cemetery. Although the height from the ground to the bottom of the tomb is only a few meters, the tomb road has not yet been calmed down, and there are even a few shovels and pickaxes inserted in a miscellaneous, which can also hurt people a lot.

Wang Pengyi and Xu Mingyuan fell into the tomb at the same time, but they didn't move. Lao Xu hurriedly went down and carried the two out. Both of them fell into a coma, some of the team members pinched people, some called 120 first aid, and the surrounding onlookers were also busy saving people. Lao Xu scolded the two of them while organizing rescue. Later, 120 came and sent both of them to the hospital for emergency treatment. Lao Xu assigned the scientific expedition task to the deputy and went to the hospital to deal with it.

According to Lao Xu, the two people have been unconscious, and the doctor has not detected any abnormalities, so they can only be treated as concussion coma. Lao Xu was in a mess here, and there was an unexpected situation at the archaeological site over there. After Wang Pengyi and Xu Mingyuan were admitted to the hospital, the archaeological team, under the leadership of the deputy, began to continue to work step by step, but the next morning, the team members and hired villagers began to have fever, vomiting, and weakness. These patients were examined at the hospital, and the blood test results showed very high white blood cells, which was suspected to be a severe infectious flu. Lao Xu asked me to buy masks and disinfectant.

I said, "Then go to the doctor for treatment." ”

Lao Xu said: "I have been on a drip since I started to seek medical treatment, but the effect is not obvious. At present, there are more than a dozen people in the working group, and more than 40 villagers are employed, and more than half of them are sick. The people were so panicked that the archaeological work had to be suspended. Now that the team members are in good health, I have arranged for them to take turns to guard the scene. Banlan root, disinfectant, and masks were also distributed. ”

"You're all in time for the SARS year. But how can your two students stay unconscious? It stands to reason that the two strong guys will not be unconscious even if they fall. ”

Lao Xu looked at me, looked out again, and said in a low voice: "Xia Nan, you just entered this circle, and you don't know a lot of things. Archaeology is a science, archaeology is a science. But science can explain many things, but not all. ”

"Not all? What do you mean? "I was confused.

"Supernatural. There are many things that cannot be explained by science, such as the supernatural. In layman's terms, it is the chaotic force and the gods, that is, the feudal superstition that the common people say. Some things are indeed superstitions, but some things cannot be generalized by superstition. At the University of Cambridge in England, there is a course called Psychics. In China, there is also a homework course in the Department of Architecture, called Architecture Kanyu, which talks about the relationship between architecture and feng shui. ”

I have also heard what Lao Xu told me, "You mean, there is something wrong with this ancient tomb?" ”

Lao Xu said: "I just doubt. Back then, when I was studying in the United States, I heard my tutor talk about a scientific expedition. A group of researchers, led by British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, successfully found the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. This is a milestone in the history of archaeology. But bad luck also began to bebefall these people. Starting with Lord Carnarvon, almost all the people who entered the pyramid of the pharaohs died mysteriously one after another. I am afraid that this cannot be explained by coincidence. ”

Lao Xu took off his mask, lit a cigarette, and continued: "I have also heard that in our China, many ancient tombs have supernatural spirits. For example, in the Qianling Tomb where Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were buried together, Huang Chao once led 400,000 peasant troops to dig the tomb, but almost half of the mountain was bulldozed, and the entrance to the mausoleum was not found. Later, when he came to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Wen Tao, the envoy of the Yaozhou Festival, also led a large army to rob the tomb. This kid is a professional tomb robber, he has dug more than a dozen Tang Dynasty tombs, and when he arrived at Qianling, when he dug the tomb three times in a row, there would be sudden wind and rain, but as soon as he withdrew, the sky immediately cleared. Scared the guy to stop. This is not the end, in the Republic of China period, the warlords divided the territory, and they also had the idea of robbing tombs. There was a warlord named Sun Lianzhong, who used the guise of a military exercise to forcibly open the Qianling Tomb Sealing Stone with explosives, and as a result, a puff of black smoke erupted from the tomb, and the sky immediately blew fiercely, and the ground flew sand and stones, and more than a dozen soldiers vomited blood and died. Therefore, the Qianling Tomb can still be well preserved. Do you think this is evil? In fact, in the archaeological circle, everyone silently accepts these, but they can't mention them on the surface, otherwise they will be labeled as the 'big hat' of feudal superstition. ”

I was dumbfounded, daring to feel that this archaeology is really a life-fighting job. But it's right to think about it, as the saying goes, "how can you stand by the river without getting your shoes wet", this often walks the night road to avoid ghosts, so I asked Lao Xu how to crack it.

Lao Xu took a hard puff of his cigarette and said, "Damn it, no, I'll leave for Beijing tomorrow." There is a great man in the field of archaeology, who is also my teacher, so I will consult him to see if there is any way. It's just that this coming and going will delay some time, and I'm afraid that there will be some accidents. ”

When Lao Xu said this, I suddenly remembered a person and patted my thigh: "Lao Xu, you don't have to go to Beijing." I know what to do! ”