I was dragged out of the house, and then I smelled a pungent gasoline smell. Soon, a big fire surrounded the whole house. Yes, they burned down the entire house. The big fire lasted for two or three hours, with a charred smell everywhere. Amidst the ruins, that bronze coffin was dug up again.

  Several large basins of cold water were poured onto the coffin one after another, "hiss, hiss" waves of blue smoke, those men used iron bars to strike the coffin with force, accompanied by the sound of "thud, thud, thud", followed by the sound of "ripping, ripping".

  The charred bronze coffin was placed in the open space, with several men holding crowbars standing on both sides. This type of coffin is sealed by pouring copper water after placing the deceased inside, making it almost impenetrable. The only way to open it is through thermal expansion and contraction, first heating the bronze with fire and then cooling it with cold water, taking advantage of the metals brittleness to crack it open.

  I want to sleep inside the master, its probably already ripe at this time, and it was burned by a big fire for three hours. Isnt this no different from being roasted on an iron plate?

  After a beating, the exquisite bronze artifact was already in pieces. To them, it was just a coffin. I was watched by several people and saw from afar that someone was using hook-like objects to constantly scoop things out of the coffin and then put them into black bags one by one.

  After all this, Yuan Xiaobai was escorted down the mountain by someone. I saw that when she passed in front of me, there were tears at the corners of her eyes. Before parting, she turned back to look at me, and her mouth moved slightly, perhaps she wanted to say something, but ultimately left me anyway.

  I was powerless, I watched helplessly as she almost died right in front of me...

  Many days later, I was here, who would have thought that in this deep mountain there would be such a modern building, from the swimming pool to the cinema, everything is available. There are many people here, they rush about every day, the people here do not have names, only codes, and my code is: 1982.

  The person who brought me here has a name, hes called "Crazy Wind". Its said that there are no more than ten people with Chinese code names here, and hes one of them. The person in charge of us, also known as the boss, code-named: Black Dragon, we call him Dragon Grandpa. But unlike the Qian family, I was assigned to live in the same dormitory as Crazy Wind, in his words, Im the one he found, and Im his person.

  The madman is a special case here, he can talk from morning till night without stopping, but Ive never heard him mention what he used to do. Every morning we would be gathered in the cafeteria for roll call, after breakfast everyone would go their separate ways, no conversation or incidents were allowed. All exits are guarded by personnel, and no one is allowed to leave the camp without Black Dragons approval.

  It was about half a month of idleness here, and finally I was named.

  "1982, Heilong wants to see you!" Then I was led by the guard through the layered fortified passageway, here is a Chinese-style garden, imitating the style of Suzhou, with fake mountains, ponds, corridors and pavilions.

  A man was sitting on the pavilion, enjoying his tea. In front of him was a Go board. It wasnt until I sat down that I truly saw this mans face for the first time.

  Ive never really understood the word "handsome", but I have to admit that this man in front of me is indeed very fitting for this word. His three-dimensional facial features, deep eye sockets, pointed chin with a hint of stubble, thin lips that are just the right width, and slightly pale skin all combine to give off an inexplicable sense of comfort.

  He looked up at me and made a "please" gesture.

  I shook my head, I wont play Go, my master once taught me: dont force yourself to do things youre not good at.

  He smiled and then stood up, turned around and said: "Do you know why I agreed to bring you back?"

  "I dont know." I replied honestly, actually I wanted to say: What choice did I have?

  He turned around and looked at me, then took out a photo and placed it on the table, saying: "Take a look at it first, then tell me your thoughts."

  The photo shows a circular object with characters on its surface, which are twisted and turned in four rows of four characters each. The form of the characters is similar to the symbols we use at home, but they dont belong to the category of insect or bird scripts. To be honest, the characters used by Taoist priests are heavenly script, which even I dont understand what they mean. Its just that certain symbols have to be written in a specific way, and its all passed down orally from master to apprentice. The total number of symbols used in our Tianzheng Dao is 108, and all the talismans and incantations are composed of these 108 characters. Each character has its own unique writing style and pronunciation, which has no relation to any written language, forming a distinct school of its own.

  I think that plate is also a bronze artifact. The size cant be discerned from the photo, but its certain that this thing is an antique.

  "Im not interested in it, so I dont have any ideas."

  "But Im very interested in it, and by 1982, I think youll understand it too. Ill give you time, three days later Ill come find you again." After that, I was already being carried away, Hei Long slipped the photo into my pocket and said to me: "Help me decipher these characters, I believe you can do it."

  Do I believe I can do it? Why should you believe me? Why am I going to interpret again?

  I was led back into that house again, and when I went in, the strong wind had already gone, leaving only an empty room with one person. The room had obviously been disturbed by someone, everything was gone except for a table and a stool, including the bed which had also disappeared without a trace. Fortunately, my own things were still there, these people were determined to force me.

  The worst thing about this room is that the light switch is controlled from outside, which means I have no say in whether the bulb is on or off. The 100-watt high-intensity white incandescent lamp above my head is piercing and makes my eyes ache, making it impossible for me to rest.

  On the table, I stared at that photo in a daze, these words I really couldnt recognize. Never mind, you wont let me sleep, so Ill just sit here.

  Every day, someone brings me food. I dont know what time it is outside, so I can only judge by the time they bring me food. Since this was the ninth time they brought me food, I estimated that it had been three days. In those three days, I hadnt slept at all, and my fatigue made everything appear double to me.

  Staring at the photo, I suddenly had a feeling of traveling back thousands of years. A scene appeared in my mind: a grand sacrificial altar, with a person wearing magnificent clothes but a mask standing at the top, holding a round object towards the sky and sighing, singing an unknown melody.

  Innumerable followers bowed their heads and knelt down, a sedan chair with thin silk curtains was slowly carried into the venue, wherever it went, people cheered endlessly. The sedan chair arrived under the altar, lifted the curtain, and a beautiful woman walked out of the sedan, unfortunately, her face was covered with a thin veil, making it impossible to see her face clearly. The woman stepped up the stairs, walked slowly to the front of the person in the magnificent clothes, and knelt down on one knee.

  A man in Chinese clothing handed a round object to a masked woman, who knelt down. At this moment, two muscular men with knives and axes approached. The man helped the woman up, while another mans large knife swept through the air like wind, catching her head as it left her body, and her body gushed out blood like a fountain.

  Her skull was sent to the front of that magnificent garment, I saw the mouth of that skull sticking to the ear of that magnificent man, opening and closing, exactly sixteen times. Then, the skull made no more noise, as if it had completed its mission, the magnificent man swung his arm and shouted "Ula" in his mouth, suddenly the crowd below was boiling, the whole scene fell into a kind of crazy state...

  Suddenly, a sharp pain pulled me out of my daze. I stared at the photo as the red hue slowly receded. I rubbed my eyes hard, figuring they must be bloodshot too...

  That woman? And what shes holding in her hand, I took a close look at the photo and they seem to be just that similar!

  Once again met with the black dragon, he still is a cup of tea, a chessboard.

  "He dropped a black chess piece and said: Faster than I expected, tell me what you see?"

  "A woman, a skull, a grand priestly scene, and that round disk." I felt no need to keep anything from him.

  "Women?" He frowned and said: "Are you sure thats a woman?"

  "It should be." I dont have a 100% answer because I didnt make any promises to him.

  "You have exceeded my imagination." He paused and said: "Follow me, Ill take you to see something."

  "Is it that plate?" I asked.

  "Very clever..."