appartement abandonné du village

Chapitre 7

The secret hidden underground (8)

If this is a human sculpture of the Sun brothers...

Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind.

Sun Quan, the Sun brothers...

Historical records describe Sun Quan as having blue eyes and a purple beard, and when the Sun brothers first arrived in Zhabei, they were mistaken for foreigners...

Could it be that Sun Yaozu and his family were actually descendants of Sun Quan?

So, does this mean that the things hidden in the underground of the "three-story building" are related to Sun Quan, the ruler of Wu two thousand years ago?

Sun Quan's tomb? They want to enter Sun Quan's tomb? Is Sun Quan's tomb located underground in the "three-story building"?

The thought lingered in my mind for a moment before I dismissed it. How could descendants rob the tombs of their ancestors? If they were capable of such a heinous act, they wouldn't have erected statues of their ancestors in the Zhabei Garden.

So, does Qian Liu's line, "He died before his mission was accomplished, which often brings tears to the eyes of heroes," originally a poem commemorating Zhuge Liang, allude to this statue?

However, it's a bit of a stretch to say that. Although Sun Quan's Wu Kingdom was eventually destroyed, Sun Quan lived a very long life, so he doesn't deserve the description of "dying before achieving his goal".

I looked at the statue of Sun Quan in front of me, and slowly turned my head, following the direction of his outstretched hand.

There is a large tree about thirty meters away in that direction.

It was a camphor tree that took two people to encircle, and it was at least several hundred years old. But how did this tree end up here? This place was a stinking pond a hundred years ago. Such a large tree must have been transplanted later.

I walked up to the camphor tree and looked up. I saw a large hole in the tree more than three meters above the ground. This tree had survived an insect infestation many years ago.

The hole in the tree is big enough for a person to crawl into. Could it be that the meaning of the point that Sun Quan's statue is pointing to is that there is a passage under this hole that leads to the "three-story building" a kilometer away?

I looked around, but there was no one there. Just as I was considering where to step and use as a foothold to climb into the tree hole, I heard a rustling of branches above me, and a person poked their head out of the hole.

The young man in his twenties was covered in dust and dirt, with withered leaves stuck to his cheeks. He spat out a mouthful of crumbs, looking quite resentful. But then our eyes met, and we both froze.

The man hesitated for a moment, then crawled out of the tree hole, touched the tree trunk with his hand, and landed lightly on the ground.

"You..." This encounter was quite awkward, but if I'm not mistaken...

"Your head doesn't hurt anymore, right? That stuff doesn't have many side effects, but you'll feel dizzy for a long time after you wake up." The young man brushed the leaves off his face and extended his hand to me. "Hello, I'm Wei Xian."

I reached out and shook his hand, secretly surprised by the thief's directness, but since he had said so, I had to maintain some decorum: "Well, you already know."

"But why did you admit it so readily?" I asked with a smile. But inside I was quite annoyed. I found myself in a passive position, so I had to pretend to be in complete control, not wanting this little thief to gain the upper hand.

“Even if I didn’t admit it, you would have guessed it, right? Actually, I should have said that the fact that you found this place so quickly shows that you are capable of working with me.”

I snorted and offered no comment.

“But actually…” Wei Xian punched the tree trunk, “there’s nothing in there, just a shallow tree hole. We both went in the wrong direction. To be honest, I was misled by your notes. If we want to find the entrance to the tomb as soon as possible, I think we should cooperate.” As he spoke, he took out the notebook he had stolen, “I’ll borrow it for a moment, now it’s back to its rightful owner.”

"Nothing at all?" I could no longer pretend to be calm and could no longer hide my shock.

King of Tomb Raiders (1)

The statue is just a statue; the direction its finger points has no particular meaning. The ancient tree was indeed transplanted later, but it has nothing to do with the Sun brothers. It was moved here three years ago by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Parks and Forestry for municipal engineering projects.

Wei Xian stayed at the Hilton Hotel, and my doubts about his financial situation were answered after he frankly revealed his profession.

Therefore, I must correct my mistaken view: he is not a petty thief, he is a master thief.

“I am a witness to history.” Wei Xian leisurely poured me a cup of tea, using a silver-bodied, polychrome-glazed crane-beak teapot and a gilded bronze chrysanthemum cup, exuding an antique charm. In fact, these were indeed incredibly valuable antiques.

"Last time I went to Xuzhou, the hillsides there had been turned into honeycomb briquettes by the Luoyang shovel. Is this how you witness history?" I sneered.

"Hey, don't be so hostile towards me. Now that we've decided to cooperate, don't hold a grudge," Wei Xian said with a grin.

You can't hit someone who's smiling, and Wei Xian has shown sincerity in cooperating so far, so I can't go too far.

"You're a journalist, but what about the one who drove Princess Diana to her death? Does that make you a journalist? Writers are supposed to be noble, but what about those who write erotic novels? Do they count as writers? There are different levels of expertise even within the same field, so don't equate a historical witness like me with tomb raiders in the mountains. They know nothing but destruction."

"Essentially, there's no difference. For journalists, it's all about conducting interviews; for writers, it's all about writing; and for you, it's just about taking the most valuable things out of the grave." Since he mentioned my profession, I couldn't help but retort a little.

"Haha, the essence of a journalist is to conduct interviews? The essence of a writer is to write? What a strange statement, but you don't really think that way, do you?" Wei Xian laughed heartily.

I realized I had said something stupid, and it would have been even more foolish to insist now, so I had no choice but to remain silent. In my heart, I had to admit that Wei Xian's level was beyond my expectations.

"Moreover, for us, 'extracting the most valuable things from underground' is not the most accurate way to put it. In fact, extracting the most valuable things from underground requires an exceptionally high level of expertise."

"Alright, stop bragging. You've got your eye on me because of the article I wrote in the Morning Star, haven't you? But how did you know about 'Three-Story Building'?"

“My family is very large, and most of its members are... in this field. In my grandfather’s generation, there was a remarkable figure who had an innate intuition for the underground world. This intuition helped him successfully find many legendary tombs. Many of those places originally only existed in ancient books; finding them was already difficult enough, and coming back alive was a miracle. But he did it one after another, and his fame was unparalleled at the time.” Wei Xian’s eyes showed admiration, clearly showing his boundless respect for this legendary figure.

"The greatest tomb raider in the world," I said.

Wei Xian nodded: "At that time, Wei Buhui was definitely worthy of such a title, but one day, he went to rob a tomb, and just like his name, he never came back."

“Three stories!” I blurted out.

Wei Xian didn't respond to me, but continued on his own: "At the time, his friends had no idea where he had gone. They only knew that he had been searching for this tomb long before he achieved those amazing accomplishments. So you can imagine how secretive and important this tomb was. He was used to being alone, so none of his friends knew the specifics about this tomb. They only knew that he seemed to have made great progress, then set off and never returned. In the years that followed, countless people wanted to find that tomb, because whoever found it would be the greatest in the world."

When he mentioned "the best in the world," something seemed to light up in Wei Xian's eyes.

Number one in the world. This seemingly mundane title, yet it forever possesses a fatal attraction.

"Is being the best in the world really that important?" I asked.

Wei Xian paused for a moment, then said, "I have a very outstanding younger brother."

"Empress Wei?" I blurted out.

Wei Xian smiled: "Yes, his name is Wei Hou. Wei Xian came out first, and Wei Hou came out next. Luckily there wasn't a third one, otherwise it would have been troublesome." At this moment, he regained his previous smile.

"It's not entirely about competing with my brother for something, but that tomb has become a myth, making people irresistibly fascinated by it. Among us, no one doesn't regard it as the ultimate goal."

King of Tomb Raiders (2)

“I understand. Just like as a journalist, if you really love this industry, there will inevitably be some fatal but irresistible things.” At that moment, I truly began to like the young man in front of me.

“As his grandson, I still have an advantage that others don’t have, and that is this piece of paper.” Wei Xian took out a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it.

This is a photocopy with a picture on it.

“I always thought it was a map, but I spent a long time comparing it with every city and county in China, and later even started comparing it with city maps of neighboring countries, but none of them matched.”

I examined the image closely. It consisted of two irregular shapes, one nested inside the other. The inner shape was very small, resting against the inner edge of the larger outer shape. I tried to recall some maps, but quickly gave up. Even Wei Xian couldn't find it by comparing it to other maps, so it was pointless for me to try. If this was a map, it looked completely unfamiliar.

“I finally understand what Shanghai is like now,” Wei Xian said with a smile.

"Shanghai?" I frowned and looked again. "How could this be Shanghai?"

"No, to be precise, it should be called Kuaiji Commandery."

"Kuaiji Commandery? Kuaiji Commandery during the Three Kingdoms period?" I've played a lot of Three Kingdoms games, so of course I know about this large commandery.

"It should be said that as early as 223 BC, after Qin destroyed Chu, it established Kuaiji Prefecture, which included most of today's Shanghai and Suzhou. I happened to see a historical atlas in a bookstore, and that's when I realized that I had missed such a big clue."

"And this one?" I asked, pointing to the small picture inside.

"This photocopy doesn't show it, but the original clearly shows that these two maps were drawn in two separate sessions. That is to say, at the very beginning, Wei Buhui only determined that the tomb he was looking for was in Kuaiji Commandery. Judging from this map, the tomb owner lived during the period of about seven or eight hundred years from the Qin to the Sui dynasties. After that, the jurisdiction of Kuaiji Commandery changed from time to time, and it was sometimes merged and separated from Shanyin County. Sometimes its jurisdiction was similar to that shown on this map, so it was still difficult to narrow down the scope. However, the map that was drawn later was drawn shortly before he left. He probably anticipated the possibility of something unexpected happening on this trip, so he gave a clue to those who came after him. I spent a lot of time looking through all the map materials I could find. Hey, I also looked at many ancient military maps, searching from the Qin Dynasty all the way to the present."

"How is it?" I asked anxiously.

"Actually, if I hadn't been influenced by my first experience, I wouldn't have spent so much time. The answer is simple: Wei Buhui drew it on the Zhabei map before he left."

"But how did you determine that it's a 'three-story building'?"

Wei Xian shrugged: "I didn't confirm it was a 'three-story building'."

"Why would you contact me if it wasn't confirmed to be a 'three-story building'? Isn't it because of that report I wrote..."

"Can't I contact you if I haven't read that report?" Wei Xian said with a smile.

I was stunned for a moment and didn't know what to say.

"It seems you have no idea how famous you are in the underworld. I've heard about you for a long time."

I was slightly taken aback: "What do you know?"

“People in the dark have their own channels for obtaining information.” Wei Xian stopped there, seemingly unwilling to say more about this.

"So you originally wanted to cooperate with me! But what happened last night?"

"I originally wanted to give you a special meeting, since we've never met before, although there are rumors... it's always good to be careful. But last night when I entered your house, I immediately saw that record. After flipping through it, I was almost certain that this was what I was looking for. Now that I've found my target, I've changed my mind and decided to take matters into my own hands."

"Having failed in their own endeavors, they now want to cooperate again?"

"Is it okay?" Wei Xian looked at me.

I suddenly laughed: "Didn't we already agree on this? Why are you asking again?"

I discovered that Wei Xian didn't seem like someone who lived in the shadows; he had a lot of kindness in him. The main reason he was willing to cooperate with me this time was probably because he had stolen something from me and felt guilty. So when he saw me again, he didn't try to avoid me or say anything deceiving. Since we weren't in the same field, there was no conflict of interest, so we decided to cooperate.

"Sigh, when I saw that tree I thought I had found the entrance. But thinking about it, it's not that easy for me to find it."

King of Tomb Raiders (3)

"However, at least that statue can help us confirm the identities of the Sun brothers."

"Identity? What identity?" Wei asked first.

I then told Wei Xian about my knowledge of the Sun brothers' appearance, my understanding of the Three Kingdoms period, and my speculation about the meaning behind the statue of Sun Quan in Zhabei Garden.

"It seems that cooperating with you was the right decision. This provides another clue." Wei Xian finished his tea in one gulp, very pleased.

"It's a pity that Qian Liu is dead, otherwise we could definitely have gotten some more information out of him."

Wei Xian already knew about Qian Liu's death, and it seems he had made many preparations.

"How about this, we investigate separately first, and notify each other as soon as we make any progress. Our ways of thinking and doing things are quite different. If we analyze and speculate together, we might be misled like we were today."

"You're still holding a grudge? You know, my work manual doesn't include my speculations; I'm just recording events. It's because you and I came to the same conclusion and have similar lines of thought that we bumped into each other today, not because I misled you. It's fine for us to act independently, but don't blame everything on me," I said with a smile.

Any skilled tomb raider will inevitably be accustomed to working alone, so even when cooperating with others, they will do it alone as long as things are clear.

As I was leaving, I ran into a waiter carrying a large stack of newspapers who was about to knock on the door.

"Sir, here is your newspaper."

"You read so many newspapers?" I was quite surprised.

"Hehe, just my daily routine. There might be some interesting news up there."

I shrugged and turned to leave.

I was still holding my breath, determined to find further clues before Wei Xian, but I didn't expect to receive a call from Wei Xian when I was still a few hundred meters from home.

"We've found a lead. Shall we go, or should we?"