Around the Spring and Autumn period, my hometown, this small county town in northwest Zhejiang, began to build a city wall. This place was also called Dang, which once served as the capital of the State of Yue, so there are many aristocratic tombs from the Spring and Autumn period in this area.

  A Fa's grandfather was good at digging up this kind of noble tomb, the bronze ware inside is heavy and not easy to carry or sell, so he specifically picked some jade utensils.

  One day, the old man went up the mountain to tap some points and found himself at the bottom of a mountain stream. He saw a large group of bats flying into a cave in the mountain. This was not unusual for the area, but what he found strange was that there were many artificially excavated waste stones scattered around the foot of the mountain.

  Look at the momentum, it doesn't seem like a small project. With these things, it's clear that there must be ancient ruins nearby. The old man who wanted to make more money for his descendants finally focused his attention on the mountain cave where bats flew in and out every day after searching for over a month.

  Made a soft ladder with rattan, this old guy actually crawled down from the top and entered this hole. The old man didn't have any tools in his hand, only a few protective charms passed down from above were brought along, and soon after entering the cave, he discovered that this was a huge tomb with a mountain as its coffin, and there had been predecessors who came to visit before.

  This place is located at the intersection of several large mountains, and the mountain trend is divided into ridges without curves or edges. According to geographical terms, this place has a dragon, and it's a fierce one.

  The old man relied on himself to set foot in countless places, trampling on the corpses of his predecessors and lighting torches as he entered. But what made him greatly disappointed was that except for two coffins with exceptionally exquisite workmanship, there wasn't even a broken pot here.

  At first, he thought this was an empty tomb, and someone had already been fooled several times. Otherwise, how could such a large project have no burial objects at all? Look at that coffin, it's made of high-quality golden nanmu wood. You know, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region doesn't produce this kind of wood. During the heyday of lavish burials, one good piece of nanmu wood could be exchanged for a small town.

  Put on a mask, take out the iron shovel used to open the museum, and after prying open the edges smoothly, use hemp rope to pass through the bottom of the coffin board and tie a dead knot. There is a saying that when opening a coffin, you can't let the living touch the dead, in case the corpse touches the yang energy and rises from the dead. The hemp rope lying in the middle is to prevent the corpse from jumping up, playing a blocking role, it is said that the corpse will not bend its waist, but will rise straight up.

  The old man was very excited, because the coffin was well preserved, indicating that no one had touched it yet. Generally, the most valuable things in a tomb were inside the coffin. In the past, peasants who robbed tombs would often hold an axe and chop at the coffin randomly, then drag out the corpse to strip it bare. But he did this line of work with more refinement, his attention to detail extending to which side to touch first.

  Prying open the coffin board, I took a look with the torch and found that inside was a woman. Why did I say it was a woman? Because the corpse had not rotted at all, except for being a bit pale, everything else looked like she was just sleeping, and one glance could tell that it was a woman.

  The old man thought he had seen many corpses in his lifetime, but never one as well-preserved as this. The face was smooth and clean, like that of a young bride, without even a single spot of decay. However, the lure of wealth made him forget his fear, for the coffin was filled with gold, silver, and precious jewels, enough to sustain his descendants for many generations.

  Just as he was about to search him, he inadvertently glanced at the female corpse again and muttered unconsciously: "Why does this person look so familiar?"

  As soon as he said this, his hands stopped immediately. Why? When he moved his gaze from the jewelry to the woman's face again, his calf suddenly started trembling violently, and cold sweat poured down his back.

  He knew that this was an impossible thing, it was too absurd. Because the person sleeping in the coffin was not someone else, but his wife who gave birth to a child for him, also known as Ah Fa's grandmother!

  The old man still understood a bit of the way, but he used it less in his daily life and listened more. At critical moments, he couldn't make use of it. He knew what might have happened to him, and his hand trembled as he pulled it back from the coffin, his body already leaning sideways, ready to turn around and run at any moment.

  His hand hadn't even had time to fully withdraw when he felt a sharp pain on his wrist, and a pale, unlikable hand grasped him tightly. The old man said that although he was normally quite brave, but when faced with such a situation, he became flustered in his heart.

  After a burst of wild ghostly cries, he wanted to break free, but the remaining hand no matter how hard it tried, could not pry open those slender fingers except for touching that icy skin.

  The old man was anxious, remembering that he still had some things passed down from his father on his body. He hastily tore off all the amulets and threw them into the coffin, then closed his eyes and shouted: "Ancestors save me!"

  Perhaps it was the amulet that worked, or perhaps his ancestors' spirits really did appear. The old man's hand relaxed slightly, and he quickly pulled it back and took off running. As he left, he saw that the dead woman's eyes had opened, and the resentful aura in them stayed with him until his death. From then on, the old man always kept a light on at night, and buying kerosene became their family's biggest expense during those times of scarcity.

  When the old man returned home, he found that his wife had disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a young son holding a broken bowl and crying at the door. The rice in the pot had gone bad for several days. He had been away from home digging graves for about a week, which means his wife must have left at least three days ago.

  Many people were mobilized, and many places were searched, but no one knew where Ah Fa's grandmother had gone. Some elderly villagers said she had run away with passing merchants, while others said she had been kidnapped by human traffickers. In short, after that, Ah Fa's grandfather became disheartened, and a purple bruise appeared on his arm, which remained until his death. It was as if only he knew the true whereabouts of his wife, but he never took another step to search for her again.

  A Fa's father, my dad, when they were young, called him Tu Er Ye because he was good at hunting and his most common prey was wild rabbits. This Tu Er Ye later married a woman from the neighboring province and gave birth to A Fa, but A Fa has been crippled since childhood, which is also related to the profession of their ancestors for three generations, suffering too much heavenly punishment.

  Tortoise Grandfather knew roughly where his mother had gone. The old man told his son about the experience in that cave, and with his skills, he didn't have the ability to enter the cave again. As for Taoist magic, it's passed down from generation to generation. Basic knowledge isn't difficult to learn, but those who become accomplished are relying on their own intuition.

  They were originally a rough and unorthodox lineage, with those spells and symbols passed down through oral tradition, so it's inevitable that there would be some mistakes. Rabbit's grandfather hadn't even had time to pass on the numbers when the Cultural Revolution started, and all the ancestral relics at home were confiscated in one go, plus the old man's previous stash of goods was also seized, and he almost got labeled a capitalist roader. From then on, this lineage was basically cut off, leaving only some superficial things passed down to Rabbit through word of mouth.

  The rabbit's grandfather had a big temper, since he knew there was a den there, his own mother might still be inside, he couldn't eat or sleep at night, and all day long he wanted to go there for a stroll. When the old man was alive, he could hold him back, but after the old man passed away, the rabbit's grandfather couldn't bear it anymore. Finally, after holding back for many days, he went alone to explore that cave.

  He's not like his dad, and he doesn't have any protective charms. All those things are gone. He's alone, with only a single sword, a hunting rifle, and a bunch of useless talismans he drew himself, claiming to be going to find his mom, but actually just wanting to dig up a nest.

  Why say "like father like son" if it's not true? These two entering the cave have the same goal, and they've encountered similar things.

  Tuzi Ye really saw the coffin in that cave, just as the old man had described. The coffin lid was still open, and after the old man had lifted it up, he got scared and his butt got wet with urine, and didn't even cover it back up, which made things convenient for Tuzi Ye.

  Tuzi's father is a novice in the business of digging burrows, and the old man, thinking of their family's incense, orders Tuzi to stop doing that kind of business from now on. Who would have thought that craftsmanship can also be inherited from one's mother's womb? Tuzi is self-taught!

  This guy isn't as particular as his old man, he just goes up with a black muzzle rifle, thinking that if you can jump out, even if it's your own mother inside, I'll still give you a shot. Times have changed, the old man used to say that power comes from the barrel of a gun, but nowadays these little masters aren't like the old men who climbed mountains with empty hands back then, we've got real stuff in our hands.

  According to my dad, Tuzi later had a problem, whenever he saw women wearing blue flowered cloth, he would pee in his pants. This problem started after that time when he entered the cave.

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