016 Lights off

Extinguished Light (1/2)

Chenzhong Robber Setting Sun 1013 Characters 6 Months Ago

"Hello, it's me, Guangting."

"I know it's you. What made you decide to call me?"

From the phone came the unbearable sounds, with Chen Laoda emitting satisfied groans of "uhh, yeah" and faint voices of two women asking, "Boss, is this pressure okay?"

"What are you up to? Why is it so noisy?"

"My back hurts. I got two girls to walk on it. Want to join? Oh, be gentle, you oaf."

"Forget it. I need your help with something. Here's what happened..."

After explaining the situation, Chen Laoda cursed directly over the phone.

"Damn it! Daring to mess with my woman, my brother's woman. Guangting, tell me, should we break their arms or legs?"

I gritted my teeth and said two words.

"Extinguish light!"

That night, my phone rang, and seeing it was from Chen Laoda, I quickly answered. He instructed me to turn on the TV and watch the live coverage on the urban channel.

Turning on the TV, I saw police cars, ambulances, and flashing lights, striking the night sky like sticks.

The scene was cordoned off, bustling with people. Police were investigating, and medical staff were tending to the injured.

A very beautiful female reporter held a microphone and reported, "Our city has just experienced a vicious assault. The eyes of three victims were all gouged out. The suspect stuffed garlic into their eye sockets. Fortunately, the victims are currently not in life-threatening condition. The suspect's methods were extremely cruel. We urge the public to remain vigilant. Our station will continue to track the progress of the case."

To my surprise, the Chen brothers acted so swiftly. What made me even more nervous was that, while the female reporter was speaking, I saw Chen Duoyu among the crowd, gesturing "OK" toward the camera.

"Brother, leave now! Are you out of your mind?"

I was so nervous that I found myself talking to Chen Duoyu on the television screen. Looking at my palms, they were already sweating.

Afterward, I made inquiries from various sources, but there was still no news of Shi Jingxia and her daughter. Lin Canghai, upon learning of this, advised me that a true man need not worry about lacking a wife, for there are plenty of virtuous women in the world. He urged me not to let my spirits wane.

Little did he know, my feelings for Shi Jingxia were not mere romantic love, but rather a mutual understanding and sympathy between two souls that had endured hardship since childhood.

Lin Canghai gave me a new task, suggesting it would help me clear my mind and also because we hadn't yet opened the main tomb chamber. The matter was far from over.

Since Duan Huairen could no longer show himself openly, the decision was made for me and Zhang Wenjie to disguise ourselves as melon farmers to lease land and discreetly gather information.

I found Zhang Wenjie and learned that after much thought and consultation with a sage, he finally understood the meaning of the stone carvings in the right ear chamber of the Yong Tomb.

It all started with a man named Fan Zhen, an outstanding atheist in ancient China. Despite being poor and orphaned, he was an extremely diligent scholar who pursued truth without wavering, refusing to follow the crowd. He was a top student at the time.

Fàn Zhěn authored "The Demise of Gods," a spirited masterpiece of materialism, challenging the absurd doctrines of theists, particularly the Buddhist theory of "immortal gods," in a series of dialogues.

The murals in the right ear chamber of the Yong Tomb depict a classic tale from that era.

During the Qi Dynasty, Fàn Zhěn engaged in a heated debate with the Buddhist King Xiaozilang about the existence of karma.

Xiaozilang questioned Fàn Zhěn, "If you don't believe in karma, why do some people in the world thrive while others languish in poverty?"

Fàn Zhěn replied emphatically, "Life is like a flower on a tree, blown away by the wind. Some fall onto lush grass, while others into the depths of a pit. Life is no different. There's no predetermined cause-and-effect relationship."

As for why the left and right ear chambers of the Yong Tomb exhibit starkly different and even opposing styles, this may be closely related to the complex social relations of that time.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism experienced numerous ups and downs. The poem by the Tang poet Du Mu, "Four hundred and eighty temples in the Southern Dynasties, how many pavilions in the mist and rain," reflects its glorious period. Yet, there were also large-scale anti-Buddhist movements, with blood flowing like rivers and corpses strewn across the fields.

Based on the current understanding, "The Demise of Gods," this extraordinary book, is likely hidden within the Yong Tomb. If it were to resurface, it would undoubtedly cause a sensation.

The day before departure, Zhang Wenjie and I went to see the Chen brothers. Chen Laoda said he had been worrying about this matter in recent days.

At that time, they looked at the tomb door of the main chamber. It was estimated that there might be a self-sealing door inside, which would be extremely difficult to open.

Previously, Chen Duoyu boasted to me about how well they were doing, not in the crude sense, of course. Using a crook to open a self-sealing door would be child's play for them, he claimed.

Now, Chen Laoda was in a dilemma. Upon further inquiry, it was learned that, after their on-site investigation, the self-sealing stones in the Yong Tomb were not traditional pillars but a type of stone sphere mentioned only in historical records, also known as Yin-Yang spheres.

Specifically, inside the tomb door were two chutes set according to the opening arc, similar to the chicken feather on Sun Wukong's head.

On the outermost side of the chute, right next to the tomb door, were two carved grooves. When the tomb door closed, the stone spheres would move accordingly. The tomb door would be sealed shut, and the stone spheres would fall into the grooves, sealing it completely.

The security of this anti-theft mechanism far exceeded that of the self-sealing stones, with no successful precedents in the industry so far.

However, tomb robbing is not as easy as chopping vegetables. It's always a process of encountering and overcoming difficulties. As long as our resolve remains firm, solutions will always outnumber difficulties. The Chen brothers pledged that as long as we pave the way in advance, they, as brothers, would definitely enable us to see the true face of Mount Lu.

Zhang Wenjie managed to find a semi-old motorcycle, and he took me to Dazhong Village.

It was already December, and the weather was freezing cold. The granaries had long been filled with harvested crops, and vast fields of winter wheat had been planted.

From afar, it looked like a thick carpet had been laid out, magnificent in its scale.

Several villagers were gathered by a canal, smoking cigarettes and boasting. Some said their son would bring his wife home this Spring Festival, while others claimed their child had found a fortune and earned money in the big city. Still others bragged that their son could poke a hole in the sky if he took off his pants.

In the mouths of these people, there was not a coward among them, all as steadfast as iron rods.

Zhang Wenjie disengaged the clutch, tapped the gear lever with his toe, and the motorcycle came to a halt.