Chapter 128

After learning that the ancient tomb was built inside a mountain from the tomb robbers, the local Pingyao archaeologists went to explore it. Upon arrival, they noticed that the southern part of the mountain had collapsed, thereby bringing down part of the tomb. The archaeologists then realized that this collapse appeared to have occurred not long ago.

Furthermore, the archaeological team found several tomb robber tunnels. However, due to the collapse of the mountain, the archaeologists didn’t dare to rush into the tomb, as they were also unsure whether the interior of the collapsed tomb was in good or bad condition.

Since the meeting was held in such a hurry, Qin Cheng and Professor Zhu had to rush to Pingyao as soon as possible. By the time they arrived, the conference room was already packed with archaeologists, and they were already busily having discussions.

“This is definitely an Imperial Family Mausoleum. Didn’t the police say that this group of grave robbers tend to excavate the tombs of Emperors?”

“No, that’s impossible! If this was the Mausoleum of an Emperor’s Imperial Family, which Dynasty would build a Mausoleum in this place during the Wei and Jin Dynasties?” An archaeologist disapprovingly frowned and added: “It might be possible that this is the Mausoleum of a noble family. After all, not every expensive Mausoleum had been built for an Emperor.”

“No matter how magnificent, this tomb couldn’t have been built according to the structure of an Emperor’s Mausoleum!”

“Didn’t the tomb robbers mention that the tomb built inside the mountain was built according to the Imperial Mausoleums of that time period?”

“Do you, do you really believe the words of some tomb robbers?!”

From one moment to the next, the group of archaeologists began to argue amongst themselves, creating a very chaotic environment. The person in charge of the meeting was so angry that he couldn’t help, but slammed his hands on the table, making a loud ‘bang’ sound and shouted in annoyance: “Calm down! I said calm down, didn’t you hear me or something?! You are all highly educated and qualified people, yet you can’t even show some discipline during a meeting?!”

Seeing that the archaeologists had finally calmed down, the host angrily said: “What is our priority now? Arguing about whether or not this tomb is the Mausoleum of an Imperial Family? Didn’t you all see that part of that great tomb has collapsed! Would you rather wait until the tomb is fully collapsed before we gather again to decide whether we should submit the application for excavation or not?!”

When Zhu Jianmin saw his old friend gasping in anger, he helplessly shook his head and patted him on the shoulder. After waiting for his friend to catch his breath, Zhu Jianmin faced the archaeological team members and said: “We really can’t delay an excavation at this time. I can see from the photos taken of the collapse, that the situation is quite serious. If we don’t hurry to take precautionary measures, we may end up with the tomb fully collapsing tomorrow.”

Naturally, everyone present at the meeting were adults, not children, so they all could understand this principle.

“But, if we set out to salvage the tomb now, I’m afraid it won’t be an easy task. To begin with, the tomb is located in a place that is too remote, and can only be accessed through mountain roads. It will be quite difficult, if not impossible, to transport machinery to that location, even if it is a small piece of machinery.”

A young man, who must have personally gone to explore the situation of the tomb, said as he held a photo in hand: “Not only will it be impossible to transport machinery to the tomb, but the mountain roads are also very difficult to travel on foot. What I mean, is that it’s basically impossible to salvage the tomb and our efforts will be in vain.”

Qin Cheng looked at the photo and became lost in thought. For some reason, Qin Cheng began to feel that this place looked familiar. But he simply couldn’t remember, or understand, where he had seen it before….

The meeting proceeded with more arguing, but Qin Cheng was no longer paying attention to what was going on around him. Instead, he determinedly stared at the photo in his hand.

When an archaeologist beside him nudged him with his elbow, Qin Cheng realized that Zhu Jianmin had called him a couple of times.

Seeing that Qin Cheng still looked a bit disconcerted, Zhu Jianmin didn’t get upset. Instead, he smiled and asked: “I just asked you, what do you think that could be done to salvage the tomb as quickly as possible?”

Qin Cheng had already seen the photos and read the research report of the local archaeological team, but he didn’t have an answer in mind. After nodding his head to Zhu Jianmin, letting him know that he had heard him, Qin Cheng spoke slowly: “The part that collapsed is the southern part of the mountain. But according to the photos, I can see that there’s a grave robber’s tunnel to the north of the mountain. The north of the mountain is still intact, so we could start digging a trench from that side.”

Zhu Jianmin nodded, but didn’t respond. However, a middle-aged man interjected: “I’m afraid that by the time we start working, the mountain will finish collapsing. After all, the south of the mountain has already collapsed and part of the tomb has already been destroyed.”

“But other than that, there’s nothing else we can do.” A woman close to Qin Cheng said. “We can’t go in with big machinery, and if we want to dig out the roof or the collapsed side, we’ll have to clear the road first.”

Actually, building a road to speed up the process can be fairly quick as long as the ‘higher-ups’ were willing. But a job that would take barely half a year, without their agreement, could take several years.

The meeting lasted almost five hours until they finally came to an agreement. First, they would have to apply for the excavation permit, obtain some small equipment and adopt more conservative excavation methods. Above all, the most important task was to save as much of the tomb as possible, and wait for the road to be built so that they could begin the full excavation process.

A month later, the excavation request was approved. During that period, Qin Cheng followed the Pingyao archaeological team to explore the tomb a couple of times. In those explorations, he discovered that, except for the collapse of the south side of the mountain, the rest of the tomb had suffered relatively minor collapse damage.

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Even so, it was feared that not much of the tomb’s internal structure might have been preserved.

Excavation formally began in mid-August. During the month that they had to wait for approval of the excavation, the road to the tomb was repaired and significantly widened to facilitate access. During that time, cattle and horses were hired from local farmers to move equipment into the open space near the tomb, as well as to install electricity deep into the tomb within the mountain.

For nearly half a month, a dozen workers and eleven archaeologists worked tirelessly around the clock in the collapsed area to the south of the mountain. During that time, a large amount of debris and soil was removed before finally clearing a cube-shaped pit, which appeared secure enough. From there, fragments of a funerary vessel were discovered for the first time.

Upon seeing the fragment, most of the archaeological team cheered. All except Qin Cheng.

If Qin Cheng had never seen any of the excavated objects from the tomb in Ninghua Village, he would have assumed just like his teammates that this fragment belonged to the Tang Dynasty. But Qin Cheng had seen what was excavated there…. Noticing that pattern, which was so identical to those he observed in Ninghua Village, Qin Cheng was unable to join in the cheering.

The pain that Qin Cheng hadn’t felt for the past six months resurfaced inside him again, and his face became pale. Qin Cheng silently covered his chest, which was beginning to intensely ache, to try to ease the pain, even by a little. Qin Cheng’s breathing became chaotic as well.

Qin Cheng thought that this inexplicable pain had finally disappeared after not making an appearance in six months. But he never thought that this feeling would strike his heart again six months later, and would even be more painful than it usually was. Due to this, it became almost impossible for him to breathe.

A teammate, upon noticing how unstable Qin Cheng was, rushed to help him: “What’s wrong? Your face suddenly turned pale.”

When the others heard this, they turned to have a look, finding that Qin Cheng’s breathing was uneven and his face looked dangerously pale. In addition, it was noticeable that Qin Cheng had become unable to say anything, having gone into a panic attack.

“Quickly! Let him sit down, now! Give him some sugary water!”

The middle-aged man holding Qin Cheng hurriedly lowered him to the ground, took the sugary water brought by a team member, and handed it to Qin Cheng for him to drink.

After waiting a few seconds, Qin Cheng appeared to have gotten better. The man then said: “Someone should send him back so he can rest. I’ve seen that he’s been too busy lately. So much so that he hasn’t had time to rest.”

Hearing this, Qin Cheng smiled and shook his head: “I’m fine. It’s just that I’d been squatting for such a long time, that by the time I wanted to stand up, I suddenly felt dizzy.”

Qin Cheng knew that he hadn’t become like this due to lack of rest, so when he felt better, he tried to stand up. However, the moment he stood up, Qin Cheng looked out at the scenery beyond the mountain. All of a sudden, that scenery overlapped with a memory, and Qin Cheng’s heart skipped a beat.

‘ I….was I here before? ’

Before Qin Cheng even had time to think about it, a sudden shout came from the distance, accompanied by a creaking noise and the sound of something sliding.

“The mountain is collapsing!!!”

“Ke Zhiwei is down there! Hurry up and go save him!”

Upon hearing those words, a dozen people rushed to the rescue. However, the first fellow members of the excavation team to see the collapse stopped dead in their tracks, hesitating on whether they should take another step forward.

When Qin Cheng saw the young migrant workers calling for help, as they did their best to remove the debris and earth, he rushed to help them without a second thought. Qin Cheng bypassed the few teammates who didn’t dare to move forward, and joined the rescue team.

The few who didn’t dare to move forward due to the dangerous situation were a bit ashamed. However, after noticing that the mountain didn’t collapse again after some time had passed, they decided to move forward to help.

The collapse hadn’t been that bad, and since there were several people working together, it was easier to dig through the debris. While some were digging rocks and dirt, others were shouting Ke Zhiwei’s name. However, they got no response, and their hearts were filled with worry.

A dozen people dug for almost two hours, until they realized that something was wrong. According to logic, after going through everything they had excavated so far, they should have found Ke Zhiwei by now, yet they couldn’t find him.

As the sun was about to set, the locals living around this mountain didn’t want to stay any longer. After all, the area around the mountain wasn’t rural, so it wasn’t safe if they didn’t know whether or not there were wild beasts around. Qin Cheng looked at the scenery around him, unable to stop himself from feeling that everything was becoming increasingly familiar the more he looked. By the time he spotted some stone steps covered by undergrowth not far from the plane, Qin Cheng’s eyes widened and his hands began to tremble slightly.

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Right at that moment….Qin Cheng seemed to distinctly remember the same scene. The only difference was that there should be a stone plaque above the stone staircase…..

‘ Around here, there should be a well-hidden…. ’

Qin Cheng, with some uncertainty, looked in the direction of the collapse in front of him. After taking a deep breath, Qin Cheng raised his mattock and hit the ground with force.

“Clang—-Dong—-” The sound of rocks rolling down followed, startling the people around who hurriedly moved away.

The only one not to move away was Qin Cheng.

Ignoring his teammates’ scoldings, Qin Cheng stubbornly glared at a crevice that opened up in the ground. The dust caused by the falling stones scattered, and a hole slowly appeared in front of everyone’s eyes.

At that instant Qin Cheng’s heart beat violently….

‘ Indeed, there was a grave robber tunnel here…. ’

‘ I seem to have really been here. ’

“What’s going on? How can there be an entrance to the tomb in this place? We didn’t find one when we searched the area.”

“No, this doesn’t appear to be a natural entrance! This is a grave robber’s tunnel!”

“Is it possible that Ke Zhiwei fell down here when the mountain collapsed?”

“Then shouldn’t we go down and save him?”

“It’s getting late….”

Qin Cheng looked at the people who began to argue around him, took a deep breath, ran to the hole and shouted out loud.

After a while, he seemed to hear something. It was just that Qin Cheng couldn’t decipher whether it was the echo of his own voice, or something else. After all, the people around him wouldn’t stop arguing and were way too loud, meaning Qin Cheng was unable to hear clearly. Feeling somewhat exasperated, Qin Cheng snapped: “Stop fighting! I think I heard a voice.”

“A voice? Where?”

“Everyone be quiet. I heard a sound inside the hole, but you guys are making too much noise for me to hear clearly.”

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone quieted down and kept silent. Qin Cheng then shouted again, and before long he received a reply. Although it was very low, it was understandable enough for everyone to recognize that the voice belonged to Ke Zhiwei.

“It’s Ke Zhiwei! He’s fine!!!”

“But how do we save him?!”

“If we can hear his voice, then this hole must not be that deep.” A worker said. “Why don’t we try throwing a lantern with a rope tied to it? Ke Zhiwei might catch it when he sees it.”

“We don’t know if this hole is big enough. If it isn’t, the flashlight could get stuck in the middle.”

“It should be big enough, right? Otherwise how could Ke Zhiwei fall down?”

When a female team member heard what her teammates said, she couldn’t help, but frown: “There’s nothing else we can do now. Hurry up and get the rope down with the lantern! Or somebody go down and rescue him!”

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone shut their mouths and went to fetch a long hemp rope. Fearing that the lantern would be too light, and end up getting stuck in the middle of the path, they tied an unopened bucket of mechanical lubricant alongside the lantern.

Then, they lowered the rope bit by bit.

Fortunately, the hole had been sturdily excavated, and had a good slope, so the rope slid down smoothly.

When he felt the bucket landing on the ground, Qin Cheng lowered another piece of rope to make it easier for Ke Zhiwei to tie himself. After waiting for a bit, the rope was pulled by someone, so several of the men stepped forward to help Qin Cheng pull up the rope.

Although the tunnel wasn’t that long, they all feared that the rope might snap, so they carefully pulled it. It took almost an hour to pull Ke Zhiwei out of the tunnel.

Ke Zhiwei was quite lucky. Except for a few scratches, and getting dirty with soil, he was fine.

Having escaped death, Ke Zhiwei lay down on the ground and sighed: “I was standing right here when the top collapsed. I tried to dodge the rocks and dirt, but in a flash, I ended up falling down this tunnel. I was lucky not to have been crushed by the collapse. I could have died.”

“What did you find down there?”

“Since I fell, I didn’t dare move, so I just sat there waiting to be rescued. Later, when the lantern came down, I was able to look around at random and almost had a heart attack. Oh my God, I realized I was inside the tomb! It also looked like the depths of the tomb had been burned by a big fire. Everything is dark down there, it’s creepy!” Ke Zhiwei explained, feeling mortified.

“Fire?” Qin Cheng approached Ke Zhiwei and asked. But at that moment, Qin Cheng noticed that Ke Zhiwei had been holding a notebook all this time, so he asked, “Why do you have a notebook in your hands?”

“This notebook? I found it under the entrance to the hole. Maybe it was left by one of the grave robbers?” As Ke Zhiwei spoke, he opened the notebook.

Although the cover of the small notebook was worn and covered with mud, the inside was clean.

“Hmm? A suicide note? The signature is….” Since Ke Zhiwei had opened the notebook upside down, he turned the notebook over and read the two large characters at the end of the suicide letter. Upon seeing who the signature belonged to, Ke Zhiwei froze and unconsciously turned his head to look at the person beside him. Ke Zhiwei incredulously said: “….Qin Cheng?”

As soon as he said these words, everyone’s gazes fell onto Qin Cheng. However, Qin Cheng had already become stunned a long while ago.

Qin Cheng, who was next to Ke Zhiwei, had read what was written in the notebook before everyone else….. Which was why he was able to realize that not only those words in the letter were his own, but that this notebook was his….

However, even though the suicide note wasn’t lengthy, there was one name that was repeated several times.

‘ Su Jingmo….. ’

Qin Cheng read that name in his mind, repeating it over and over again like a mantra, as he intently stared at those three characters. Qin Cheng opened his mouth, but was unable to utter a single word. Instead, tears began to fall from his eyes with no warning. All of a sudden, he had found the owner of that blurry dream that had tormented him so much.

At that instant, Qin Cheng’s memories came back to him like a tidal wave, and the pain it brought with it overwhelmed Qin Cheng to the extreme. An intense pain grew inside Qin Cheng’s chest. So intense that Qin Cheng had to squeeze his chest tightly with his right hand, in hopes that it would ease the pain. Qin Cheng slowly bent over until he ended up with his head resting against the ground, and like a dying beast that could no longer contain its pain, Qin Cheng roared a heart-rending cry from deep in his throat.

‘ How could I forget…..? How could I forget that name engraved on my soul? ’

‘ How could I even try to forget…..? ’

“Ah——!”

‘ In the end, I lost him….. ’

⭐🌟💫✨Extra Chapter thanks to the Ko-fi Goal✨💫🌟⭐ [2/2]

Ko-fi Goal for Extra Chapters ~~ (´｡• ω •｡`)