Reality and what you originally thought are often vastly different, there is no gold everywhere, nor are there fish everywhere, the first time seeing such a scene, it exceeded our hearts capacity to bear.

  Bleached bones, countless bleached bones, brittle and easily broken. The dense, tangled mess of bones and animal carcasses was overwhelming. Humans have an innate fear of death, and these bones were a stark reminder of mortality. I didnt want to stay there for another moment.

  "Come on." I pulled at Zhang Wenbins sleeve and kept saying: "Lets go, lets go."

  Fatso picked up a bone from the ground, unsure whether it was a femur or tibia, and rummaged through the pile of bones, muttering to himself: "How come theres no gold? It doesnt make sense."

  Cha Wenbin was holding a headlamp, shining it everywhere, seemingly searching for something. The fatty also found something, which was a lump of iron wrapped in rusty water.

  "Damn it, after all the hard work, its just a broken hoe. We didnt even make enough to cover the cost of diesel fuel. Master Zhang, that gold you found must have been picked up from the bottom of a well, youre not cheating us, are you?"

  "Hoe?" Cha Wenbin hesitated for a moment, then said something that none of us could understand: "Mm, thats right."

  "Right?" The fat man was unhappy: "So lets come down and find a hoe?"

  Zha Wenbin patted the shoulder of Pangzi and said: "Go up, this place will be re-arranged tomorrow."

  "What does it mean?"

  Zha Wenbin didnt explain, he just said: "Lets go back first, this pond is of no use to us. Xiao Yi, lets go, if Pangzi wants to stay here, let him continue to stay."

  As soon as I heard this, I immediately grabbed the rope and climbed up. Who would be happy to stay here? I came to find gold, not to look at dead bones. Theres no need to ask Wenbin Cui, climbing up is much faster than going down. Using both hands and feet, the ladder shook back and forth, and several times it was unstable, almost falling over.

  Fatso kept yelling from below: "Slow down, steady on, damn it, Im going to be shaken off by you!"

  I was too lazy to care about him, that soft rope ladder was originally unstable, the fat guy tried several times but couldnt grab it, this little guy was deliberately trying to tease me, he simply stopped climbing and stood at the bottom with both hands grasping the rope and pulled hard to the left. This guy shook me like a swing, almost falling off, the fat guy didnt give up, probably got addicted to playing, he pulled the rope again to the right, I was dragged to that side once more.

  "Fatty, Im going to kill you!" I could only shout at the top of my lungs, unable to do anything else, clinging tightly to the ropes on both sides like an ant, trying my best not to let go. But the more I scolded, the happier Fatty became as he shook me around, and just when he was shaking me with the greatest amplitude for the last time, my eyes seemed to see a big black hole on the wall.

  "Stop! Stop!" I shouted, but Fatso continued. I was getting anxious: "If you shake again, Ill jump off!"

  Its still better to ask Wen Bin, I heard him say to the fatty: "Alright alright, stop playing, or else something will really happen."

  Fatso was probably deliberate, and followed that poor mouth: "Nothing, this is just a little higher, even if he falls down I can catch it."

  I was really fed up with that fatty, taking advantage of him not shaking yet, I put one hand on the hole and flashed my body to drill in, thinking that staying here for a while is better than being really done by you.

  Baozi finished talking to Zha Wenbin and looked up, but there was no shadow of mine on the rope. It was empty and nothing was left. He panicked and searched all over the ground.

  "Hey, wheres Xiao Yi?"

  I swung my headlamp downwards and said, "Hey, Im over here."

  Zha Wenbin looked up and asked me: "Why did you run there?"

  "Theres a hole." I didnt forget to turn back and take a look: "Its very deep, cant see the bottom!"

  Zha Wenbin glanced at him and said to the fat man, "Quickly, fatty, stop messing around. Hold this angle steady, Ill go up and take a look."

  Chubby was somewhat unhappy: "What can I do?"

  "You wait for us downstairs, otherwise when we put down the ladder and move it again, the two of us will have nowhere to get down."

  The cave is quite wide and can barely accommodate two people crouching, the four walls of the cave have obvious artificial excavation marks, I feel a bit cool on my back, as if there is a gust of wind blowing out.

  We plucked up the courage to walk a few more steps inside, and found that the cave spiralled upwards. Zhang Wenbin stuck out his tongue and took a light lick: "Theres corpse energy here, its very heavy."

  "Huh?"

  Zha Wenbin pulled me and ran out quickly, saying "Lets hurry up, this place is not clean."

  I dont understand why he would say that, but I still remember what happened when I was a kid. He clearly predicted my grandfathers death. He is different from us in some ways, the way he speaks, the way he looks at people, always so inscrutable.

  Back on the ground, Pangzi told Yuan Xiaobai about todays events, and Xiaobai was also startled. So many bones, at least over a hundred people, this would be a big event in any era. We hesitated whether to report it to the village tomorrow. In the end, Cha Wenbin decided not to say anything for now, his reason being that in his opinion, it was a burial pit.

  "Today we were unlucky and chose a burial pit, those bones were all used for human sacrifice. As long as we find the real burial pit, the gold underneath will definitely not be a problem."

  "What does it mean?"

  "From the first day, I suspected that this was not a pond at all. Those stones originally had traces of artificial carving. Its unlikely to have such a large project for digging a pond. I always feel that these eighteen ponds are connected together, as for what purpose, I dont know yet, but one thing is certain, the place we went today is a tomb pit."

  A girls heart should always be a little softer, Yuan Xiaobai furrowed her brow and asked: "Buried with the dead?"

  Fatso nodded and said, "Ive carefully examined those bones, and most of them are fractured at the cervical vertebrae position. The fracture surfaces are very flat, which is consistent with beheading. Wen Bins guess shouldnt be far off."

  Zha Wenbin continued: "The place Xiao Yi found today is very dangerous. Tomorrow, you and Xiao Bai go to the village to ask around, find some people who have lived here since childhood, and see if there are any rumors about this place." Then he said to Pangzi: "General Shi will go hiking with me tomorrow."

  "Climb a mountain?"

  I dont even know what kind of medicine hes selling in his gourd, this guy wont explain and thats final, everything can only be said tomorrow.

  The next day at noon, we met up and Fatso came in panting and said: "Theres a major discovery! Xiao Yi, I really admire Zha Ye now, he actually thought of this, guess what we saw?"

  "We also have some news, you go first."

  "Its really not knowing the true face of Lushan, only because we are in this mountain. Cha Ye and I climbed to the top of that mountain opposite, we looked down and saw the whole village at a glance, those ponds connected together is actually a pattern of a human face! Fatso took a sip of water handed over by Xiao Bai, wiped his mouth and said: "You dont know, our first pond was exactly one eye, the previous days one was just above the bridge of the nose, Im almost stunned, how can there be such a coincidence?"

  Cha Wenbin interrupted him and turned to ask me: "Not a coincidence, but intentional. Xiao Yi, what about you, any discoveries?"

  "The oldest one in our village is Old Qiu from the east end of the village, who is 87 years old this year. When I and Xiao Bai went there at first, we were completely ignored. Its said that he doesnt like to deal with anyone in the village, just like a loner. Later, when we were about to leave, Xiao Bai asked me in the yard when we planned to draw water from the third well again. Unexpectedly, Old Qiu suddenly rushed out of the house with his cane and shouted at us: Have you gone to draw water?"

  Yuan Xiaobai took over my words and said: "At that time, I was scared to death. Qiu Dajies eyes were staring straight at me, as if he wanted to kill someone. I quickly explained that we were pumping water for irrigation, but unexpectedly, the old man asked us if we had found anything in the water. Isnt it strange?"

  "Did you tell him that we found the gold?"

  "No, I said nothing was there, not even fish, then he got impatient and drove us out. His expression seemed to be worried that we found something, after asking around the villagers, most of them were family members of loggers who came one after another, only that Old Qi has been living in Ye Ren Tun for generations. This is what Miao Dajie said, but he also said that old man was very eccentric and didnt socialize with people in the village. Its said that he had a daughter before, but dont know how she died, leaving him alone, the villagers took care of him, not letting him work, still giving him his share."

  Cha Wenbin thought for a moment and said: "Lets eat first, after eating, take me to see that old man."

  Qius house is a two-story flat house, he is indeed different from others in the village, his home is not in the village, but on the outskirts. The yard is surrounded by bamboo fences, and there are two snow pines at the door. I and Pàngzi tried to hug them together, just right for two people, like a pair of door gods, one on the left and one on the right.

  Pushing open the courtyard gate, in the empty space there was a black cat with a very big belly. The black cat glanced at us and then turned around and ran back into the house like an arrow.

  "Look at the kind of livestock a person raises, and youll know what kind of person they are. This sly old cat must have been raised by a sly person. Its so inhospitable, its really not welcoming."

  No sooner had the fat man finished speaking than I heard an old mans voice from inside the house, scolding: "What a bunch of rascals! Get out of my house!"