Incidentes misteriosos que involucran a estudiantes universitarias

Capítulo 2

He then remained silent.

"What do you think?" I asked him.

Empress Wei shrugged: "My attitude towards things I can't understand is to not think about them."

I was stunned and said, "It's rare to see someone as uncurious as you."

Empress Wei said calmly, "Curiosity killed the cat. In a dangerous profession like mine, curiosity is even more of a no-no." Then she laughed, "Actually, it's not that I'm without curiosity. This matter is indeed strange, but I have no clue what to do. No matter how much I think about it, it's useless."

Although Queen Wei said that, I couldn't stop my mind from working. It's not that easy to just stop thinking about things I can't understand; this tsunami killed 300,000 people. Besides, what Queen Wei couldn't understand, I might understand too. It sounds arrogant, but all the events I've experienced, no matter how bizarre they seemed at the beginning, I eventually found the answers to. Of course, sometimes the answers came to me.

I've decided to thoroughly investigate this site during my time in Mahabalipuram. We still know too little; starting tomorrow, I hope to find more clues to support my deductions. I've been thinking about this since earlier—it really resembles the Great Flood in the Bible. The words left by this ancient Indian god seem at first glance to foreshadow a tsunami two thousand years later, but conversely, what if he wasn't prophesying anything? Did Jehovah send down a flood to cleanse humanity of sin, and is he using a tsunami to let people see the world clearly?

Perhaps to make up for his earlier rudeness, Queen Wei extended an invitation to me: if he could find the location of the divine artifact during my stay, we could go on an expedition together; it was likely underwater. I readily agreed, of course. I thought that the god, his temple, and the artifact he created would be the key to solving the mystery.

Although I still had some questions about the records left by that great figure from ancient India, I sensed that Queen Vesso seemed to have other things he wanted to do. We exchanged contact information, and I tactfully took my leave to return to my hotel. Queen Vesso only invited me to accompany him at the end; before that, he clearly wanted to act alone.

The death toll in Mahabalipuram was at least 99. Under normal circumstances, this would be a staggering number, but compared to the total number of tsunami victims, it's insignificant. For the entire morning, Nikolai tirelessly described the post-disaster reconstruction: how many trees had been replanted, which hotels had been renovated, and how the tourist shops near the coastal temples had been completely transformed… Azure seas, blue skies, sandy beaches, and pebbles—what I saw was the kind of tourist paradise I had always dreamed of. The traces of the tsunami seemed to have truly been wiped clean. Nikolai even told us that the garbage accumulated from years of tourism had been washed away by the sea, and the beaches had now returned to their pristine, cleanest state.

The open-air bas-reliefs, the orderly array of temples, and the man-made caves—even at our fastest pace, Wang Qiang and I couldn't stop snapping photos. The ancient Indian civilization and the beauty of the Bay of Bengal intertwined; it was the best combination of cultural and natural landscapes I'd ever seen. I believe that even without that mysterious new ruin, every day here would have been incredibly fulfilling.

In the afternoon, I asked Nikolai to take us to the new ruins, and Wang Qiang was also very interested. These ruins will certainly become a new tourist attraction in the near future, so despite the perplexing inscriptions, Nikolai had no grounds to refuse our request. I believe that soon, the Pali inscriptions carved in the rocks will become a popular topic of explanation for tour guides.

The car arrived at its destination in no more than twenty minutes. The beach, exposed by the receding tide, was still open to the public. I only saw one or two Indians who looked like archaeologists surveying and recording, while the rest were ordinary local residents.

There were more than a dozen rock sculptures and bas-reliefs in sight, far more than in the news photos I had seen online. They must have been exposed by the receding seawater in recent days. Some were traditional Indian religious themes, such as elephants, lions, and winged horses, while others were the remains of stone structures. Although the sculptures had been eroded by the sea for a long time, their outlines still revealed how exquisite they were in their original form.

Wang Qiang was slightly disappointed; compared to the coastal temples she had seen that morning, these ruins were far inferior. She did, however, ask Nikolai where the inscriptions he had mentioned were.

Nikolai pointed to the relief and said, "Almost all the sculptures have that Pali text, only that one. No other records have been found, so the symbols you see on it are the text."

Wang Qiang and I immediately ran to the nearest sleeping lion sculpture to take a closer look, and sure enough, we saw a line of text symbols at the feet of the sleeping lion.

I took some photos and then asked Nicola, "These carvings are so badly eroded, how come the writing is still legible?"

Nikolai summoned an archaeologist and relayed my question to him.

"Generally speaking, this level of erosion would be enough to completely blur the text on the relief. The reason it is still so clear now is because it was carved very deep at the time. This is a very peculiar situation. Considering the content of these words, the one who said this was a Brahmanical god. Legend has it that the god descended to this tribe for a long time. Perhaps the god wanted us to be able to see this sentence today, so the god ordered the people of the tribe to carve it so deeply."

He spoke of "god" with a completely natural expression, while Nikolai seemed somewhat embarrassed. I wondered if this archaeologist was a Hindu. He wasn't entirely ignorant about this tribe. That god is now classified as a Brahmanical deity; I wonder where he got that from. From what I know of Brahmanism, it worships a vast and diverse array of gods, forming a truly enormous family.

"Wasn't it supposed to be one of the seven temples during the Pallava period? What tribe are you talking about?" Nikolai asked, clearly unaware of the latest developments.

The archaeologists then looked embarrassed and said, "We originally thought so because the themes of the sculptures were similar, but judging from the new remains exposed by the receding sea in the past few days, it dates back to a period earlier than Parawa. It is at least two thousand to two thousand five hundred years old, maybe even longer."

Nikolai exclaimed in surprise, "People lived here so long ago? I've never heard of this in my history."

"We suspect it's a tribe that originally existed only in legends and was closely associated with a deity in Brahmanism. There's very little information about it, and we're working hard to find clues in the documents. We also hope to make more discoveries after the sea recedes completely. You know, the coastline changes every day."

I photographed each of the carvings, including a close-up of a strange pattern on one of them. These patterns are what most distinguish the animal carvings from those of the Parawa period; they appear on the heads or backs of the animals. The archaeologists speculate that these might be totems unique to this tribe, but what doesn't make sense is that the patterns aren't entirely identical; some are indeed repeated, but overall there are at least three different patterns. Unfortunately, most of the patterns are no longer legible, except for one faintly discernible image on the forehead of an elephant, where I took the close-up photo.

It was a pattern consisting of a line and nine different symbols on either side of the line. The archaeologists admitted that they had never seen similar writing or symbols before, but it should be meaningful.

Throughout the visit to the ruins, there were always some elderly people or women standing or kneeling in front of the carvings, muttering incantations, with solemn and devout expressions.

That evening, I found an internet cafe in town and uploaded this close-up photo to a BBS.

It was originally a fairly professional English website for decoding symbology, and it was quite deserted a little over a year ago. But ever since "The Da Vinci Code" became a global bestseller, the website has become popular, and many laymen have also gotten involved, including myself. There's never a shortage of professionals in this kind of place, and hopefully someone can decipher this diagram.

Wei didn't contact me, not even the next day. He gave me a phone number that day, but I thought it would be better to wait for his message, since we weren't very close.

That passage of Pali text haunted me. For the next few days, I spent my days sightseeing and my evenings chatting with locals in various bars; I could sense their anxiety. That text amplified the shadow of the tsunami tenfold, weighing heavily on their hearts. More and more people began praying on that beach, believing they must have done something wrong to deserve such punishment from the gods. But they didn't know if this was the end or the beginning, or what price they would have to pay to achieve what God meant by "seeing the world clearly."

People who have been nurtured by civilization for many years would not so easily turn to a nihilistic deity for everything. However, in the tsunami zone, many people who experienced it firsthand even suffered mental breakdowns. People's minds have become extremely fragile. The enormous waves that this suddenly appearing relic and this text have created in the hearts of the tsunami victims are unimaginable to ordinary people.

Wherever the tsunami passed, the beaches, without exception, reverted to their undeveloped state from decades ago. Yet, modern civilization stubbornly replanted its flag in a short time. If God's statement about recognizing the world refers to the unnatural aspects of modern civilization, could this tsunami really just be a prelude? What will happen next?

Lying in the comfortable king-size bed at the Quality Inn Mgm Beach Resort, I boldly imagined various possibilities based on my prior knowledge. Do gods exist? What is the concept of gods? Although I am well aware of the limitations of modern science,

I have never believed in the existence of an absolute will like a creator, so if that god is some kind of creature with a highly advanced civilization (I actually find this idea very boring, despite my colorful experiences, I have never seen an alien so far), it is more likely that he has the ability to cause an explosion on the earth's crust at a specific time to generate a tsunami than to believe that he can accurately predict events more than two thousand years ago across the dimensions of time.

Over the next few days, I visited the ruins beach several more times, but there was no new development on the beach, only a few more statues. Wang Qiang had lost interest in it, and she showed little enthusiasm for the seaside temples and the large group of reliefs; I sensed she was still in a tourist mindset rather than a vacation. After thoroughly exploring the small commodity market in Mahabalipuram, she began to miss Madras, complaining that she hadn't spent enough time there. Our host, Nicola, who had been staying with us at the Quality Inn Mgm Beach Resort, was very responsible. After discussing it with me, he decided to accompany Wang Qiang back to Madras for a few days, while I continued my vacation in Mahabalipuram.

My post on the BBS didn't get many replies. Some kind people said that it was impossible to decipher the story with just one picture because there were too many possibilities. I hadn't explained the background clearly (although there are many bizarre stories online, I don't like to believe everything I hear, and I'm used to keeping quiet about supernatural events, so the post only contained one picture and a request for deciphering). It didn't pique people's curiosity, and the post quickly sank to the back.

The night after Wang Qiang returned to Madras, which was also the fifth night I had been in Mahabalipuram, I received a call from the Queen.

“There’s been a new discovery on that beach today. I think you’ll be interested. You can go check it out tomorrow if you have time,” he said.

"Thank you. Do you have any leads?" I didn't ask what the discovery was. International calls are expensive, and it's impossible to explain things clearly over the phone. I'll find out when I go tomorrow.

"Um, when are you leaving?"

I did the math: "I'll be going back to Madras the day after tomorrow."

"Perhaps if we are in a hurry, I will need to bring over some more equipment."

When I arrived at the ruins early the next morning, there were several times more archaeologists than in the previous two days. They were gathered around a spot very close to the sea, where a large, newly exposed rock was located.

I hurried over there, and upon closer inspection, I discovered it was a natural rectangular boulder. If I wasn't mistaken, one side of it should have a relief carving. The part of the boulder buried in sand had been excavated, clearly to reveal the full content of the relief. Given this special attention, the relief must be quite different from the one I had just passed.

Jenny saw me and greeted me. He was the same archaeologist I met on my first visit here. I had run into him on my previous visits and we were quite familiar with each other.

“Hey, I think you’ll be interested in this. It’s an amazing discovery. It looks like a set of reliefs depicting the daily life of the Brahman god who descended upon the tribe. There are six in total. I think this is one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in India this year. It’s very valuable and very mysterious,” Jenny told me. This theist, who talks about gods all the time, was very happy about the discovery of these reliefs because they provide evidence for the existence of gods.

I smiled and nodded at him, still thinking about what he meant by "very mysterious," and quickened my pace to the side facing the sea, focusing my gaze on the relief. Several people were carefully brushing away the sand embedded in the relief with small brushes, while others were cleaning the base.

This set of reliefs consists of six images in two rows. The stone appears to be quite dense, and despite being soaked in seawater for so many years, the main elements of the six images are still easily discernible.

The first image perfectly illustrates why Jenny described it as "very mysterious." The sculptor is highly skilled and effectively conveys the intended message. It's precisely because the carving is so easily understood that I exclaimed "What is this?" upon first glance.

In this image, a group of people prostrate themselves on the ground, their heads tilted back, mouths agape, some in surprise, others in devotion. Their object of worship is a figure flying in mid-air. Calling it human is a stretch; it has no face, no feet below the waist, appearing as if only a wisp of smoke, its hands also appearing as shadows. Ancient Indian deities were generally depicted as unusually human, so this one is not particularly ferocious in comparison. Although the deity's image is mystical, the overall style of the relief is realistic, meaning such a scene actually existed before it was carved. The first image represents the beginning, perhaps depicting the scene of this Brahmanical god's first descent.

I examined every detail of the picture carefully, but I didn't find anything like a flying saucer. The deity didn't seem to be wearing a personal flying device either. The scene in the picture is somewhat similar to the Buddhist story carvings in some temples today, where the gods and Buddhas fly in the air without any means of propriety.

The first image was so striking that I stared at it for a long time. But when I shifted my gaze to the second image, I noticed that the image of the god had changed, even if the central figure in the painting was the same. This god's image began to resemble a human, with hands and feet, though the face remained indistinct. The god seemed to be directing people to build houses and move statues, but the people in the painting all possessed immense strength; several people were lifting a stone that appeared to weigh a ton, while another stone hung suspended in mid-air in front of the god without any support.

The third picture only shows a god, who seems to be drawing something on the ground. The fourth picture seems to connect to the previous one; the god is squatting on the ground, still faceless, but giving the impression of deep thought. I noticed that the archaeologists were brushing away the areas outside the images in these two pictures.

“Oh, we thought there should be four smaller images there, which seem to be supplements to the third and fourth main images. They were probably drawn or pondered by God often, but unfortunately the smaller images are not as deeply engraved as the larger ones, and they are no longer visible,” Jenny said as he walked up to me.

Sure enough, even upon closer inspection, without Jenny's reminder, I would have had difficulty discerning whether there had been any carvings on it or if it was just the natural unevenness of the stone. However, upon closer inspection, one of the blurry traces seemed somewhat familiar to me.

I picked up my digital camera, pulled up the close-up photo I took a few days ago—the one I uploaded online—and started comparing them.

"What's wrong?" Jenny asked.

“Look, isn’t this the same one?” I asked him, pointing to a close-up photo on the digital camera’s screen.

Jenny squinted and compared the images several times, then suddenly slapped my shoulder hard, almost knocking my digital camera to the ground.

"This is the one. You've been a huge help. How come we didn't notice it?"

He shouted a few words to his companions quickly, but I couldn't quite understand them; he didn't speak that fast when he was talking to me. Immediately, two people followed him back, seemingly to compare the images that had been previously thought to be totems.

The fifth picture shows God indoors with some people, as if they are having a meeting or discussing something. In the sixth picture, God is clearly very happy, with his mouth curving upwards and his eyes narrowing for the first time, but none of the people around him have a similar expression; instead, they all look sad.

What do these images represent? The god comes from the sky, which fits the definition of a god. I've heard of ancient stone carvings depicting gods wearing what appear to be flying devices, or even UFOs, but none of these are present here. The second image shows a small act of kindness towards the locals, which is plausible from theistic or extraterrestrial perspectives on a backward Earth. However, the later images are quite strange. They show the god troubled by something for a long time. If the god has been in this tribe for over a hundred years, and these images are a general depiction of the god's actions during those years, then the time the god has been troubled is astonishingly long. If the sixth image represents the end of the trouble, then has the god been troubled for over a hundred years? As for the sadness of the people in the sixth image, we can speculate by connecting it to what Queen Wei said: the god resolved the trouble, but he himself is about to die, hence the believers' sorrow.

Furthermore, none of these commemorative illustrations are related to the prediction of a tsunami.

I stared at the relief for a while, lost in thought, when Jenny ran back and patted my shoulder again, but this time much more gently.

“You’re right, those are the images. That makes it much easier to understand. The patterns that God often draws have a certain sacredness to believers, which is similar to totems. They are naturally carved into the animal sculptures. To thank you for your help, I’ll tell you about some new discoveries we’ve made in the literature.”

"Oh?" I immediately stared at him with wide eyes.

"But don't get your hopes up too high. It's just a small amount of information, from the notes of an ascetic from over two thousand years ago. This tribe is called the Moro tribe, also known as the tribe of thinkers. Legend has it that a god lived here and often discussed things with the tribe's elders, inspiring their wisdom. Therefore, the Moro tribe produced many wise men. The most famous wise man discussed things with Buddha Shakyamuni during his ascetic practice, giving the Buddha many insights. It is said that the god was constantly pondering the secrets of this world, finally deciphering them and departing."

Yes.

The secrets of the world? I tapped my head, recalling that prophecy. The two things align: God pondered the secrets of the world, finally knew them, and wanted mortals to know as well, hence the message for posterity. So what is the connection between the secrets of the world and the tsunami? And if we define it as God, shouldn't God know the world best, just as Buddha attained enlightenment through understanding everything? For God to turn around and ponder the secrets of the world seems contradictory. And if it was some highly intelligent being, putting aside how they came to Earth and where their spacecraft is, why would they be on Earth pondering such philosophical questions?

I always felt that there should be great progress, but I couldn't quite pinpoint where the breakthrough point was.

"Actually, judging from the relief, what God was thinking about is the four images next to the relief that are no longer clearly visible. Oh, one of them is now certain, but if the secrets of the world are contained within them, it's truly..."

Those four pictures—I actually thought of them after Jenny's—are the key to connecting the tsunami and understanding the world! This is a truly surprising development, and I firmly believe that this deduction is correct.

The irony of life is that often, when you think something will happen, nothing actually does. We always overestimate our ability to control things. It seems I've made a big step forward in unraveling the mystery of the ruins, but what's the reality? I went back and stared at that strange pattern until my eyes ached, only to find that my efforts to find a breakthrough were futile. Whether that guy who died more than two thousand years ago was a god or not, if it took him more than a hundred years to figure it out, what makes me think I can figure it out?

The phone call from Wei Hou gave me a last glimmer of hope for deciphering the secret; it was the night before I left Mahabalipuram. The motorcycle Wei Hou had rented was waiting for me outside the hotel at 2 a.m.

Not far from the ruins beach, we boarded a motorboat. I had assumed the equipment the Queen was referring to was diving gear, but instead I saw a metal platform floating on the sea; it certainly wouldn't be here during the day.

There's a round hole in the middle of the platform, connected to a thick pipe. I think we're going to go down to the seabed from here. It seems that Queen Wei has made preparations in the short few hours after dark. The exit of this pipe should be the entrance to the temple that has been sealed since the god's death.

Queen Wei tied the motorboat to the side of the floating platform, took a remote control from her pocket, pressed the button, and the platform immediately vibrated. I couldn't help but chuckle; it turned out she was using brute force. Come to think of it, how could it be possible to connect this pipe leading to the seabed to the temple entrance in just a few hours? Over the years, who knows how deep the sand had buried that entrance.

“We’ll go down from the top of the temple. I’ve already blasted it a few times before you came. If it’s too intense, the equipment won’t be able to withstand it. This time, it should be blasted through.” He leaned out of the ship, clung to the platform, and shone his flashlight down. He added, “Luckily, it’s only ten meters deep from here to the seabed. Otherwise, this pipe wouldn’t be able to withstand the pressure. Okay, we can go down now.”

The pipe, made of some unknown material, had a rope ladder attached to it, leading to a semi-circular metal dome at the bottom. The explosion occurred inside the metal dome. The rubber seal at the bottom of the dome was very tight, preventing seawater from seeping in. The seawater that was originally inside the dome had all flowed into the large hole created by the explosion.

The rope ladder was lowered all the way into the cave, and from the top of the temple, two uninvited guests from more than two thousand years later stepped into the dwelling place of the gods.

The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. Even as I sat on the plane from New Delhi back to Shanghai with my eyes slightly closed, I could hardly believe that the flat, saucer-shaped temple I had gone through so much trouble to enter was completely empty.

I saw a skeleton, or perhaps I should call it a skeleton, because it was essentially just a skull. It resembled the skull of a primate, about the size of a human, except it lacked a nose and teeth. The skull lay flat in the center of the temple, nothing more. Was it a creature with only a head, or did its body lack bone? There were no written or pictorial inscriptions, no trace of advanced technology, not even a proper entrance. It was a completely sealed structure, impervious to seawater and sand for two thousand years.

What made me both laugh and cry was the fist-sized crystal ball placed next to the skull. Was this God's final work, or his way of seeing the world? From within the crystal ball? That was indeed one way; throughout history, human prophets have favored crystals, and this God could have done better. But if that was all, it was truly a disappointing result. Crystal balls can create quite unique force fields, something I'd heard of before.

The skull and the crystal ball were both taken away by the Queen. She wanted me to choose one, but I refused. The reason is simple: I couldn't...

I explained to airport security that they were unwilling to impolitely ask Wei to take it back to China and then return it to me.

Perhaps God saw this tsunami two thousand years later in the crystal ball. In any case, my trip to India was much more interesting than I had originally planned. I sighed, opened my eyes, and saw the flight attendant distributing Shanghai newspapers. I asked for a copy of our own newspaper, the Morning Star.

When I saw the international edition, a report made me think of something in a flash. I smacked my head hard, which made the flight attendant pouring drinks nearby give me a strange look.

The report is not actually new. The Maldives was flooded by the tsunami, and the seawater has not receded in most of the country. Even if the seawater recedes, the island nation will eventually be swallowed by the rising sea level. All low-lying island nations in the world face this problem. Current technology can even list the timeline for the disappearance of these countries.

Today, human technology can predict that certain places will be submerged by the sea in the near future. Regardless of the true identity of that god, he certainly knew that ancient Mahabalipuram would be swallowed by the sea; even a geologist could make a similar prediction. And if the places submerged by the sea ever reappear, it will undoubtedly be a result of tremendous change, a transformation of the landscape. This isn't some miraculous prophecy, but simply a simple deduction. The Pali text only mentions "a great catastrophe," not a tsunami. If it were a prophecy, why not clearly state the tsunami?

I tapped my forehead again. I'd overcomplicated things and misled myself. This guy, whom I'd tentatively call a god, wanted people to know of his existence thousands of years from now, so he just made a random prophecy—that's it. While it's a supernatural event, not every supernatural event I encounter is part of a conspiracy. The local residents were misled by the psychological stress caused by the tsunami, while I, due to past experiences, tended to overcomplicate things. Sigh.

However, the question that the god pondered back then will likely remain an eternal mystery. It is impossible to decipher it with just a picture. If a tribal elder, who could be casually trained, could inspire the wisdom of Buddha, then who knows what profound philosophical propositions are hidden in this picture.

Although I didn't bring the skullcap or the crystal ball, I have my own way of commemorating this experience.

The picture was printed out, framed, and hung on the wall of my study. I see it every day, and perhaps decades later I will gain some insight from it.

I used this as the final period, but soon after I drew the period, a new chapter began.

Less than a week after returning from India, Liang Yingwu's mysterious vacation ended, and he reappeared before me. This old classmate, who used his position as a university lecturer as a cover, often asked the school for long leave for various reasons. The reason he had not been dismissed so far was because of his other identity—a researcher at Agency X.