NR | Chapter 17

The Wenbilu has survived to this day, and over the long river of time, many branches have sprung up from it. The He Yu family belongs to the branch that still sticks to old-fashioned customs. The old-school Wenbilu people still think very much like jianghu folk, and they do not allow direct descendants to take civil service exams or work in upper-level clerical positions.

As a direct descendant in the great-grandson generation, He Yu naturally could not do that kind of work either. Since he was little, he had studied the old-school Wenbilu note-taking method with his uncles and elder male relatives.

By the time he got to this point, He Yu had already written a lot of symbols on my notebook. Yes, to me, those “characters” were all symbols. They were nothing like Morse code, with no discernible pattern at all and nothing to compare them against. The only way to memorize them was to cram them the way you would learn a special language from childhood.

He Yu also told me that none of these symbols were repeated, and none of them were meaningless. Their old-school Wenbilu people only used this kind of symbol to record things, except at special moments when they needed to transmit signals.

I’ve always been curious about strange things, so I looked at those symbols and said, “Can you teach me? I promise I won’t spread it around. I’ll just write it for fun myself.”

He Yu snorted proudly. “No way. This is our family’s secret script. I heard it was used in ancient times to send messages for the army, so even if enemy troops intercepted it, they still wouldn’t be able to read it.”

I felt a little disappointed, but I also knew there were plenty of things in this line of work that, just like He Yu’s family, were never passed on to outsiders. His family being like this wasn’t actually surprising. After all, they were a traditional old family too.

We chatted in the tent for another half hour, and then word came back from outside that when the fiftieth shovel hit the ground, the shovel head struck something, just as Lu Ayao had said. Tian Yuqing didn’t come to call us, and He Yu and I didn’t dare go out either, so we stayed in the tent for another half hour.

It wasn’t until the sun was almost setting that someone finally came to get us. But this time, it wasn’t Tian Yuqing or Lu Ayao. It was Tian Tinghan, the quietest person in the whole team.

He lifted the tent flap and stuck his head in, scaring the hell out of He Yu, who immediately cursed out loud. Tian Tinghan was actually quite short, and his face wasn’t as handsome as his older brother’s. His pupils were darker than most people’s, and his eyes always looked fiercely murderous.

I had no dealings with him and wasn’t familiar with him at all. Seeing the huge scythe strapped behind his back made me shudder, so the two of us obediently followed behind him like a pair of sheep, terrified that if he got irritated, he’d turn around and chop our heads off.

Only after we reached the crowded area did I finally relax a little.

The spot where Lu Ayao had driven in the Luoyang shovel that afternoon had now been dug into a deep pit. The pit had been dug very neatly, and simple reinforcement had been done around the edges with a lot of wooden supports. There was no spoil piled outside the pit, and I immediately realized what kind of people Tian Yuqing had brought into the team.

This was a specialty of the tomb-robbing trade among the outside circles. After the shovel goes down, you only see the hole deepen, but you never see soil being brought up. Usually, the hole they dig only needs one hit in a certain spot to collapse completely. In earlier years, this was extremely useful for avoiding capture.

Twenty or thirty archaeologists were standing on the supports looking down into the pit. I was squeezed outside the crowd and could barely see the opening. This place was remote, with a lot of grass, so a crane definitely couldn’t get in. If the crane couldn’t get in, then it had to be done by hand, which meant tying someone to a rope and lowering them down one by one.

Who went down first was crucial.

Soon, I heard a chanting call, and then saw Lu Ayao being hauled up from the pit by a rope. His hands and body were covered in mud, and his hair had been stuck into muddy clumps. The archaeologists immediately made space for him, and Wu Yili also stepped forward to ask about the situation.

“No problem. There’s plenty of oxygen at the entrance, and the void below is very large. See who you want to send down first,” Lu Ayao said as he shook the mud off his hands and walked out. He already looked exhausted, but Wu Yili was still relentless.

“Damn it, we’ve been busy all day. Can’t even let people rest for a bit?” He Yu cursed. “That damn Tian Yuqing doesn’t even say anything. Just because he’s older, he thinks he can be a total asshole.”

At that moment, an idea struck me, and I whispered a few words to He Yu.

After hearing me out, He Yu praised me. “You’ve got a brain on you. That was quick.”

Then He Yu straightened his clothes and, without much hesitation, walked forward. He very naturally positioned himself in front of Wu Yili, instantly separating Lu Ayao from Wu Yili.

He said, “Professor Wu, I understand you’re eager to investigate. We also want the work to move forward quickly, but at least let our people get some rest. They’ve been running up and down all day. You can’t treat them like mules.”

I hurried over to the tent area and grabbed a random towel, then ran back. I gave Lu Ayao a look, and while He Yu was tangled up with Wu Yili, he quietly slipped over to me behind the bushes.

I handed him the towel so he could wipe his face, then led him toward the Tian family’s tent. Lu Ayao still seemed a little uneasy about He Yu’s side, so I told him not to worry. I said He Yu was still very measured, and at worst, if he got angry enough, he’d just fight Wu Yili. He Yu was young and full of energy. If it came to a real fight, he definitely wouldn’t be the one getting the short end of the stick.

“Do you want to rest in the tent? I can go tell Tian Yuqing. Tan Qiu said it’s dangerous down there, and I can see you’re not in good shape. Maybe you shouldn’t go down after all,” I suggested.

“Precisely because it’s dangerous, I have to go down with them,” Lu Ayao said, glancing at me. Then he took a basin and a water jug that a helper handed him. He casually pulled over a folding stool and started using the water from the jug to rinse the mud off his head little by little into the basin.

I noticed the porcelain shards on his face, the ones marked with symbols in cinnabar. Those shards had completely fused with the muscles of his face. Lu Ayao’s washing didn’t seem gentle at all either, and I watched from the side, my mouth twitching in sympathy. My face hurt just looking at it.

I couldn’t help asking, “You’re moving so hard. Doesn’t your face hurt?”

Lu Ayao stopped washing his hair. He turned back to look at me, puzzlement hidden in his eyes. We stared at each other for a moment, then he smiled and asked, “Why would you ask that?”

My head was full of question marks. “Isn’t that what any normal person would ask?”

Lu Ayao smiled and shook his head. “The people I’ve met wouldn’t. They only care about what they care about. People like Wu Yili and Tian Yuqing, actually, they’re pretty normal. The people around me are all like them. They care too much about the result. People like you will suffer for it someday.”

I held back the urge to roll my eyes, cursing him a hundred times in my head. Damn right I was asking for it. Keep worrying about you, and someday I’ll write my own name backward!

With that thought, I stood up from the grass and turned straight toward the pit. He Yu came running back in three quick steps, his face bright with delight, obviously having gained the upper hand in that earlier exchange. He grabbed me, and I shook him off.

“Huh? What’s wrong? Huh? Hey? Weren’t we just fine a minute ago?”