Chapter 33

The bus ride from Ninghua Village towards the campus took about one hour and a half, but Zhang Jun and Qin Cheng were traveling with a motorbike, going as fast as they could. When they finally arrived at campus, they took a quick shower, changed their clothes, and finally, left the campus again by 21:00.

The restaurants in downtown areas tend to close late at night, and naturally, the shopkeepers were happy to welcome customers this late. However, Zhang Jun’s girlfriend, who has been waiting there for a long time, didn’t look as happy as the shopkeeper.

“Two hours. You really let two women wait for two whole hours.”

“Don’t be angry, I’m really sorry ah.” Zhang Jun hurried to apologize: “We came from a long distance, didn’t we? Besides, after rolling at the bottom of the tomb all day, surrounded by soil, you have to let us take a shower first, right?”

Zhang Jun spoke loudly, and the sentence ‘rolling at the bottom of the tomb’ made the uninformed customers in the restaurant look back at them.

After seeing this, Qin Cheng said to the two girls in a hurry: “The study of archeology is like this. Most of the time, we don’t act like sholars, but like construction workers. There’s never a time in which we can work without getting dirty.”

“It’s fine. You guys have been working all day and didn’t even have time to rest before rushing over here… you two must be very hungry, then, let’s order food quickly.”

The one who spoke was Zhang Jun’s girlfriend’s friend, who looked a little introverted and shy, and just like Qin Cheng, she was wearing a pair of glasses. Her shoulder-length hair looked clean and straight, and she was wearing a beige dress, which made her skin look snow-white.

She wasn’t outstandly beautiful, she was more on the smart-cute side.

‘ She must be the girl that Zhang Jun asked his girlfriend to find for me. ’ Qin Cheng, who didn’t know the inside story, thought as he stared at the strange girl. Then, he just smiled and replied: “Sorry, yes, I’m really hungry.”

However, because of his handsome smile, the girl turned her head away, not daring to look at him again. At this, Qin Cheng couldn’t help but get stunned, but in the end he just thought that the girl must be too shy to say anything else.

They sat at a table with four sofa-chairs, two chairs in front of the other two; and since Zhang Jun had coaxed his girlfriend to sit next to him, Qin Cheng could only sit next to the shy girl.

This was the so-called ‘Hongmen Banquet ¹ ’ that Qin Cheng didn’t know about, which was intended to let Qin Cheng ‘fall into the net’. Zhang Jun’s girlfriend was naturally paying close attention to the state of their interactions.

When she saw Qin Cheng sitting down next to her friend, He Yalan coughed lightly: “Oh, right, Zhang Jun, you forgot to introduce us.”

Zhang Jun, who just heard his girlfriend’s silent instructions, smiled knowingly and said: “Ah that’s right, I forgot that you two don’t know each other.” After saying that, Zhang Jun spread his hands pointing at Qin Cheng: “This is my Xiongdi ² , he’s the top student of our X University and a young talent in archeology.”

“Qin Cheng, the girl next to you is my girlfriend’s best friend, and she’s a postgraduate student just like us. Her name is Xia Tong.”

After Zhang Jun said this, Qin Cheng naturally looked at the girl beside him and saluted: “Nice to meet you, my name is Qin Cheng. Qin with the combinations of ‘east’ and ‘morning’ ³ , and it’s pronounced like ‘Qin’ of the Qin Dynasty. While Cheng comes from the idiom: The Peng bird can fly ten thousand Li ⁴ .”

Probably because the girl was feeling a little nervous, when she looked back at Qin Cheng, she turned around in a hurried panic, which made her accidentally knock down a tea cup, spilling the tea on the table.

When Qin Cheng saw this, he hurriedly pulled a paper towel to dry the table, so as to avoid the spilled tea from falling over the girl.

At this, the girl’s face suddenly turned bright red.

‘ If she’s a postgraduate, then she must be around her 20s, and she seems to be very shy too. ‘ While Qin Cheng observed the girl’s bright blushed face, he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle: “Xia Tong?”

“Hmm? Ah, y-yes?”

“Xia as ‘summer’ and Tong as ‘bright red’ ⁵ ?” The word ‘bright red’ was especially suitable for the girl’s cheek at this moment. For fear that the girl would feel even more embarrassed, Qin Cheng immediately added: “It’s a lovely name.”

The girl in front of him blushed even more, which meant that she liked that comparison very much.

Zhang Jun and He Yalan looked at each other, exchanging a playful glance. ‘ It seems… like watching a play? ’

The meal was quite enjoyable, and even though the girl at first looked very shy, she had a certain love for reading, so she knew a lot, which made her talk more openly as the time passed by. In the end, Qin Cheng and Xia Tong chatted for most of the night.

After dinner, the four of them went around laughing and joking for a while. When Zhang Jun saw that the right time was close, he bid his farewell, saying that he’ll send his girlfriend home, leaving Qin Cheng alone with Xia Tong to send her back to her campus.

On the way back to Xia Tong’s university, Qin Cheng didn’t know what to talk about, and Xia Tong also didn’t know what to say, so they could only walk ahead in complete silence.

When she saw that they were close to her university, Xia Tong naturally wasn’t willing to end this night like this, so she took a deep breath and asked: “Y-you and Zhang Jun are studying archeology, right? Hmm, what have you been researching recently?”

“I’m not really researching, rather, I’m just digging up cultural relics.”

“Is it a Mausoleum? I heard a while ago from Zhang Jun that you two came from a tomb…”

With a smile, Qin Cheng replied: “It’s an Imperial Mausoleum. Recently, I’ve been cleaning up the burial pits of the accompanying graves. The workload is a bit heavy.”

“An Imperial Mausoleum?” Xia Tong was a bit surprised: “Which Emperor is it? I only know that there’s an Imperial Mausoleum from the first Qin Emperor in Lintong, but I don’t know much about the others.”

“This tomb is not in Lintong, it’s in a village called Ninghua Village, and… we don’t know whose Emperor this tomb belongs to.”

In fact, Xia Tong wasn’t very much interested in these things, so after Qin Cheng said that they didn’t know who’s the Emperor that tomb belonged to, she didn’t continue to ask. However, she did hear some time ago that there were several homicide cases in Ninghua Village, but she didn’t quite know what the actual situation was.

“Ah, hmm, I also heard a few days ago some rumors about Ninghua Village, in which there seemed to be some murder cases around there. Is that true?”

“Uh… well yes, something happened. But apart from that, there hasn’t been any problem.” Qin Cheng knows that the news about the homicide cases were blocked by the police department, and since the police wasn’t willing to disclose it, it was even more impossible for Qin Cheng to reveal anything because he was related to them.

“Ah, aren’t you afraid? It’s a tomb, a place where the dead are buried. I get scared just by thinking about it.”

Fear? Yes, several people have died and every single moment he has to be on guard against those fierce ghosts. Everyone is afraid of losing their lives… no matter how curious they are about this tomb, no matter how much he wants to uncover the mystery around it… when it comes to his life, he should be afraid. Just like when he saw Jiang Bo’s dead body, or just like when he almost lost his life not long ago, he should be afraid…. but when Qin Cheng remembered Su Jingmo, with his curved eyebrows and his smiling peach blossom eyes, how could he feel afraid?

“You get used to it.” Qin Cheng replied as he shook his head.

Once they arrived at Xia Tong’s dormitory, he waited until Xia Tong walked upstairs. After he saw that Xia Tong was inside her bedroom, he turned around and went to take the bus back to X University.

After arriving at campus, and before he could even reach the dormitory, Qin Cheng saw that Zhang Jun was standing at the entrance.

“Why are you back? I thought that you were going to stay at your girlfriend’s place today.”

Zhang Jun, who had been waiting for Qin Cheng for a long time, saw that he had finally returned, so he quickly welcomed him: “I just wanted to know what happened between you two.”

It wasn’t that Zhang Jun didn’t want to stay with his girlfriend and be intimate with her, but He Yalan didn’t allow him to, so he had to come back to ask Qin Cheng about his feelings for Xia Tong, and whether he struck while the iron was still hot ⁶ .

“What about us?” Qin Cheng, who was about to walk upstairs, but was stopped by Zhang Jun, glanced back at him.

“Hey, don’t walk away. A while ago we didn’t get to drink too much because we were with the girls. Now I’m feeling a little bit greedy, so why don’t we go for another drink?”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. So, what happened?” Zhang Jun put his arm as per usual around Qin Cheng’s shoulder: “You haven’t said anything yet. He Yalan’s friend is quite pretty, right? I saw that the atmosphere between you two was quite good too.”

“Not bad, I guess.” Qin Cheng had no other choice than to follow Zhang Jun towards the northern gate of the campus.

“Tch, I always thought that you were the kind of person who was way too focused on studying, but with that ‘Xia as the Summer and Tong as bright red’, hey, I didn’t know that you could be so skillful in teasing girls.”

With a helpless smile, Qin Cheng said: “What else could’ve I said? Xia Tong is indeed too shy.”

In fact, Qin Cheng could see at first glance that Zhang Jun was trying to set him up with Xia Tong. He had dated several girls in the past, so he didn’t resist Zhang Jun’s matchmaking. To be honest, a girl such as Xia Tong, who’s shy and blushes easily, it’s quite rare for most men to be interested in this kind of nature, but Qin Cheng doesn’t care about it. In the past, he may even try to develop a relationship with Xia Tong, however, at this moment, he didn’t have the intention to do it.

Because something else was occupying the depths of his heart, which made him hesitate.

While he thought about this, Qin Cheng didn’t pay attention to the people passing by and ended up accidentally bumping into a young man.

“Sorry.” Qin Cheng quickly apologized to him, but before he could look at him for long, that young man suddenly smiled back at him and said some strange words.

“If I said that you’re full of ghostly qi, and look like you are about to die, would you believe me?”

That young man had short, sharp hair; he was tall and handsome, and he looked just like any other college student.

◝(⑅•ᴗ•⑅)◜..° ♡

Footnotes

<ol><b>鸿门宴</b> <b>hóng mén yàn</b> ; Refers to a famous event that happened in 206BC, when the future first Han Emperor, ( <b>刘邦</b> <b>liú bāng</b> )Liu Bang [256 or 247-195 BC] escaped an attempt of murder by his rival ( <b>項羽</b> <b>xiàng yǔ</b> )Xiang Yu [232-202 BC]. This sentence is used to refer to a banquet set up with the aim to murder a guest / a dinner in which treachery was planned. <b>兄弟</b> <b>xiōng dì</b> ; Although this term is commonly used to refer to someone of the same generation in a blood relationship; male friends often refer to each other as Xiongdi (brothers) in order to show a close friendship. Qin Cheng’s surname ( <b>覃</b> ) is a polyphonic character that can be pronounced as ‘ <b>qín</b> ’ (sounds like Chin) or ‘ <b>tán</b> ’, but when used as a surname, it’s mostly pronounced as ‘ <b>qín</b> ’. It’s a combination between the characters <b>西</b> ( <b>xī</b> ) and <b>早</b> ( <b>zǎo</b> ) = <b>覃</b> ( <b>qín</b> or <b>tán</b> ). Qin Cheng’s name ( <b>程</b> <b>chéng</b> ) is the same character as the ‘ <b>chéng</b> ’ character from the idiom <b>鹏程万里</b> ( <b>péng chéng wàn lǐ</b> ); which means that that the Peng bird (a mythological big bird) is said to be able to fly for ten thousand Li (approximately 5000km); and it’s used as a metaphor for having a great/bright future. From <b>《庄子·逍遥游》</b> ( <b>zhuāng zǐ·xiāo yáo yóu</b> ), “Zhuangzi: An Easy Journey”, written by ( <b>庄周</b> <b>zhuāng zhōu</b> ) Zhuang Zhou [369-286 BC], a Taoist author during the Warring States Period [475-221 BC]. Here Qin Cheng makes a word-play with Xia Tong’s name: <b>夏彤</b> <b>xià tóng</b> = <b>夏天</b> <b>xià tiān</b> (summer) and <b>红彤彤</b> <b>hóng tōng tōng</b> (bright red). <b>乘热打铁</b> <b>chèn rè dǎ tiě</b> ; It’s a Chinese idiom, it’s used as a metaphor for seizing a favorable time/favorable opportunities and conditions to do something. From <b>《四世同堂》</b> ( <b>sì shì tóng táng</b> ) “Four Generations under One Roof”, written by ( <b>老舍</b> <b>lǎo shě</b> ) Lao She [1899-1966], a Chinese novelist and dramatist.</ol>