Chapter 1 Archaeological Excavation

  In front of a small shop on Shi Zi Street in Yongxing Town, Fuhai City, Dongnan Province.

  A young man in his early twenties pulled a long, flat wooden chair and placed it next to the square table under the Yangtou tree. The young man sat down with a plop, raised his legs, picked up the teapot on the table and poured tea into the cup.

  "What are you two doing?" A middle-aged man wearing a short-sleeved shirt who was passing by looked at the young man and shouted with a smile.

  "Gangzi uncle, having tea! Do you want to have some tea?" The young man hastily brought out a stool from the small shop and took out a new cup, inviting him to sit down.

  "No. Have you been busy with something recently?" The middle-aged man shook his head and sat down on a stool.

  "No big deal, just bored and killing time by drinking tea!" The young man smiled and replied, while refilling the teacup at the same time.

  The middle-aged man nodded and said, "Are you interested in making some extra money?"

  "Of course I'm interested," said the young man. "As long as it's not against the law."

  "Look what you're saying, will your uncle take you to break the law?" The middle-aged man said with feigned anger, "You are a university student, I'm afraid you think it's beneath you and don't want to do it."

  "Want to hear it?" The young man leaned forward, concentrating his mind to listen to what the other had to say.

  A middle-aged man picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip, saying: "It's the mountain slope outside the town. An ancient tomb was discovered there, and the town government is recruiting workers to participate in archaeological excavation, 150 yuan per day."

  "It's really great, if it's so good, why isn't everyone rushing to dig?" The young man said with some doubt.

  "Just looking at the price, it's certainly more generous, but you also know that the people in the town are quite superstitious, especially those in the village. Although that ancient tomb is not their ancestral grave, they still don't dare to mess with it! It's always unlucky, and they're afraid of having three long and two short (a Chinese idiom for 'something bad happening'). The middle-aged man sighed."

  "Why are you looking for me then! Isn't this harming me!" The young man said discontentedly.

  "What's wrong with you? You're an educated person, what's scary about these superstitions? Besides, this is a national archaeological activity led by experts, it has far-reaching significance for archaeology and historical appraisal!" the middle-aged man said.

  The young man thought for a moment and looked at the middle-aged man, saying: "Really one hundred and fifty yuan a day?"

  "Of course! I need twenty excavators, and I'd like to take them all myself," said the middle-aged man. "If you weren't a relative of mine, I might not have even looked for you."

  "Alright, it's settled then. When do we start?" The young man also nodded in agreement without hesitation.

  "Tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock, I'll come to find you. Also, you need to prepare a shovel by yourself." After finishing speaking, the middle-aged man picked up his tea cup again, drank it in one gulp, and stood up, "I'm leaving first, there are still people who haven't been found yet."

  "Alright, Uncle Gengzi, take care on your way," said the young man.

  Young Du, named Le, is a university graduate. After graduating, his father had an accident and was hospitalized. To take care of his bedridden father, Du Le did not stay in the city to find work after graduation, but instead returned home to take over the family's small business, alleviating some pressure on his mother. In addition to his parents, Du Le has a younger brother and sister who are both in high school.

  Du Le has been at home for five consecutive months, and with the New Year approaching, his father has returned home, but adding to the cost of medicine, the small grocery store's business is also difficult to maintain. Therefore, Du Le has always done some part-time jobs and odd jobs to supplement the family expenses.

  After drinking most of the tea, Du Le thought for a while, stood up and turned into the house behind the small shop to ask his father who was lying in the backyard where he could borrow a shovel.

  Borrowing a shovel wasn't a big deal, and in small towns there were always some households that bought tools but rarely used them all year round. It wasn't about renting with money either, everyone helped each other out, and days passed by like this. So Du Le easily borrowed one.

  The borrowed shovel was placed to one side, Du Le gazed at the sparse flow of pedestrians on the street and let out a faint sigh. Today wasn't market day, so there were hardly any customers at the small shop.

  Looking down at his own palm with increasingly more and deeper wrinkles, Du Le couldn't help but take a deep breath, hoping that tomorrow would be a good day.

  The next morning at eight o'clock, Du Le waited for Gangzi Uncle to arrive and didn't dare tell his parents that he was going to dig a grave. He only said that they were going to dig sand for construction and build a house. Under the sincere yet slightly guilty gaze of his parents, he climbed onto the small truck borrowed by Gangzi Uncle.

  On the small truck, several people had been standing for a while. Du Le took a look and found that they were all familiar faces, every single one of them was a relative. Du Le smiled and greeted everyone.

  Gangzi Uncle is the director of the town's cultural station, and for many years he has been a poor and downtrodden person. This time, the national archaeological activity that came down was undoubtedly an important event related to culture. Under the arrangement of the town mayor, he became the person in charge of reception and service, and naturally had to help his own people as much as possible.

  After exchanging greetings, Du Le didn't say much either, standing quietly on the side, listening to Gengzi Shu and the others' discussion.

  It is said that the ancient tomb discovered in Yongxing Town this time is the royal tomb of a certain dynasty over 1,000 years ago. The purpose of this archaeological excavation is to uncover some secrets of the dynasty under the cooperation of national and provincial archaeological experts.

  After listening for a while, Du Le couldn't hear any more information and shifted his thoughts to home. The money he earned this time should be enough for his younger brother and sister's tuition fees next semester.

  Thanks to the village-to-village highway network, the small truck arrived at its destination in half an hour, a deserted quarry.

  At the entrance of the quarry, there were rows and rows of cars. Du Le carefully counted them, and there were at least a dozen or so vehicles, big and small. Could this be a very large ancient tomb? Du Le couldn't help but think. Those archaeological programs on TV wouldn't even have such a grand scale.

  A small truck stopped nearby, Du Le followed the crowd and walked to the back, all the way to a large tent. In front of the tent, many people had already been standing there, waiting for Du Le's arrival, from inside the tent came out a middle-aged man wearing sunglasses, with a wide body and a fat figure.

  Gangzi Shu hastily signaled to everyone that this was the person in charge of the archaeological team, and everyone would do things under his command. The middle-aged fat man looked at the crowd, took off his sunglasses, and lectured the fifty or so people in front of the tent for a while. The main content was to protect cultural relics, excavate carefully, and pay attention to safety.

  The middle-aged fat man finished his speech and beckoned several foremen, took out a drawing, and divided the work area.

  Before long, Du Le and others were taken to a mound of earth. The person in charge was a young archaeology team member wearing a blue shirt, surnamed Qin. Under the guidance of the town leaders, Du Le and others addressed him as Mr. Qin. However, according to Du Le's observation, this Mr. Qin might not have graduated yet and was probably an undergraduate student, possibly majoring in archeology.

  Mr. Qin didn't say much, as soon as he arrived at the soil heap, he signaled everyone to start working. Du Le grasped the shovel in his hand tightly, without envying others or wanting to show off, for 150 yuan, he honestly started digging the yellow soil.