Chapter 40

The old doctor, who was wearing glasses, took a look at the x-ray that Qin Cheng had just taken, and said: “It doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with your arm, it doesn’t even look like it has been dislocated before.”

“I really dislocated my arm, it’s just that, at the time, there happened to be a friend around who knows about medicine and helped me reattach the bone. Now I want to have it checked to see if I need a cast.”

When the old doctor heard Qin Cheng’s words, he put down the x-ray and grabbed Qin Cheng’s arm, gently moving it as he asked: “How does it feel? Does it hurt?”

“It used to hurt, but now I guess I’m adapted to this kind of pain, so I don’t feel like it hurts anymore.”

When the old doctor received a negative answer, he wrote it on the medical record: “Your bones must have been reattached at the right time, so there’s no need for you to wear a cast.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and then glanced at Qin Cheng: “Which friend of yours has the ability to reattach a bone like this?”

“Well, he…. he knows some traditional Chinese medicine.”

After hearing this, the old doctor didn’t say anything else, and simply wrote a pathology list and handed it to Qin Cheng. Then he stood up and walked to the side, indicating Qin Cheng to sit down on a chair.

“Although the bone is well connected, you should still pay close attention to it for now on. I’ll fix the position of your shoulder with a bandage, so during a period of time you can’t carry any heavy objects, but you’ll be able to move your shoulder at will. In two weeks you can remove the bandages.”

Because the shoulder joint was dislocated, the old doctor only fixed the shoulder’s position and upper arm, so that the shoulder joint would be firm, allowing the elbow below to move freely. Although the movement flow won’t be as easy as before, it won’t bother Qin Cheng that much.

…

After spending such a complicated night, Qin Cheng’s glasses had long since disappeared somewhere, so when he returned to his bedroom, he looked for his glasses with lower prescription in the drawer and put them on. After that, Qin Cheng fell on the bed, not wanting to get up anymore.

Qin Cheng was so exhausted that he didn’t want to think about what had happened last night, but in the end, he couldn’t control his brain and the memories of those events kept on playing in his mind.

Too many things happened last night, and staying beside Su Jingmo made him able to ignore those bloody images at the time. However, the moment he was all by himself, Qin Cheng’s mind was suddenly filled with those chilling bloody pictures over and over again.

He was able to see the actual Hell under his feet, the Hell that could’ve swallowed him at any given moment….he saw with his own eyes how those evil spirits had long been devoid of their human appearances, tearing the three grave robbers apart, and swallowing them without leaving a trace of blood or bones behind.

Qin Cheng thought that anyone would get scared after seeing such horrible things, as long as they were normal human beings. Seeing how…. living people were being torn into pieces, treated as if they were a delicacy. When Qin Cheng thought how the grave robbers’ eyeballs were dug out and eaten just like that, he couldn’t help but feel nauseous.

He was disgusted to the extreme.

Qin Cheng thought of the words the old Taoist priest and Qu Zhiwen said before, about how the ancient tomb shouldn’t be touched. He also remembered that when he dug the tunnel, Uncle Jiang from Ninghua Village said that if they kept going, disaster would appear….

Jiang Bo died, Lin Hongxing died, Zhang Qushuo died too…. and then he saw how three of the five grave robbers were swallowed alive. Even their souls couldn’t escape.

If it weren’t for Su Jingmo and Qu Zhiwen, Qin Cheng would’ve suffered the same fate….

He’s still alive, and he can do the rest of things that he wants to do. But if his life were gone, then what would be left behind?

Qin Cheng suddenly remembered the night he went to Zhang Qishuo’s funeral, and saw how Zhang Qishuo knelt down to his parents, bidding his farewell….

The most hurtful thing about dying, is to leave one’s loved ones behind with a lifetime of suffering.

When he thought of Su Jingmo, Zhang Qishuo, Lin Hongxing, and Jiang Bo’s parents crying, Qin Cheng was a little dazed. People often say that life is more frightening than death, but for Qin Cheng, the people who say those things have never experienced the loss of a loved one.

Qin Cheng doesn’t want to die, however, everything he has been doing thus far has been leading him down to the path of death.

All of a sudden, he started to have doubts about the history of the last thousand years. However, if the price he has to pay to know the truth is his own life, then is it really worth knowing something that already happened a long time ago?

‘ Exchange my life for historical truth? ’

‘ What’s the use of knowing a past that’s already gone? And even if I know about it, even if I know that the river of history has drowned the Xu Dynasty, what’s the point? ’

‘ Without life, then everything will be gone. Knowing that everything could be in vain, and that I won’t be able to save myself… ’

‘ Is it really worth it? ’

Qin Cheng slowly shook his head, stood up, walked towards the bookshelf, and took Zhang Qishuo’s written conjectures about Ninghua Village.

At the end, Zhang Qishuo wrote: “….. Although this tomb looks similar to the Imperial Mausoleums of the early Tang Dynasty, I can’t help but make a wild assumption. What if this tomb doesn’t belong to any known Dynasty? If there’s a gap in history, and we can prove that a certain event was cut off the whole human history….. then, can we say that there were more than 83 Dynasties and 559 Monarchs ¹ (including the 397 “Emperors” and 162 “Kings” ² ) in Chinese history?! Of course, I’m just joking.”

Of course, Qin Cheng didn’t think that Zhang Qishuo was joking when he wrote this. It could be said that when Zhang Qishup wrote this article, the first 20000 words about the confusing relationship between the Ningua Village tomb and the Tang Dynasty wasn’t what he wanted to say at all. Qin Cheng could imagine Zhang Qishuo’s shaking hands as he wrote the last sentence, as if he was making such a guess for the very first time….

Qin Cheng clenched the paper in his hand and closed his eyes, remembering that when Zhang Qishuo left, he told him two things. One was to take care of his parents, and the other one, was to not go see him ‘there’ until he discovered that part of history.

But, was it worth it, for his archeology team, who were a group of lunatics whose hearts were tied to the Ninghua Village tomb….?

To discover the 84th Dynasty, and the 560th Monarch…..?

Was it worth it?

In the world of the living, history is like a tall building built by time, and the higher you ascend, the more clearly you can see the infinite future ahead. If the Xu Dynasty really existed, then that means that time has built up 84 floors, but humanity has only known that 83 floors existed, meaning that a whole Dynasty disappeared from humanity’s sight.

Qin Cheng wanted to figure out everything, but not for everyone else, he wanted to know for himself. If he gives up just like that, even if he can have countless opportunities in the future, this will be the biggest regret of his life.

When he thought about that possibility, Qin Cheng immediately took his notebook, and began to record his recent discoveries.

The Capital of Great Xu should be around the area of Pingyao in Shanxi Province. The Jue that the taxi driver showed him was the same as one found in Su Jingmo’s tomb, so someone must’ve dug up Great Xu’s artifacts in Shanxi, and then sold them as ancient objects from the Han Dynasty.

This kind of Jue should only be used by the Royal Family, and by its appearance, this particular one should be only used for accompanying the burial, meaning that the person who dug up that Jue must’ve also dug up other items, and by following them, he might be able to guess where the tomb is located.

When he thought of this, Qin Cheng took out his phone to find the taxi driver’s number and gave him a call. After waiting for a short while, the man on the other end of the phone spoke with a thick Xi’an accent: “Hello, who is it? I’m driving.”

After saying hello, Qin Cheng briefly told him about their conversation that day, but it seemed that the old taxi driver couldn’t remember. After a while, he suddenly remembered, and said: “Oh…! I remember, you said that the wine bottle would be worth a lot of money in a few years, right?” Once he mentioned this, the old taxi driver pulled over and stopped the car: “In fact, some time ago a man actually spent 500000 yuan ³ and bought the wine bottle right away. Thanks to you, my son-in-law made a fortune by telling us to not sell it in a hurry.”

‘ Bought for 500000 yuan? ‘

When he heard the old taxi driver say that, Qin Cheng couldn’t help frowning, after all, who would dare to spend 500000 yuan to buy something like this? At least, that person should’ve been someone who’s knowledgeable about ancient artifacts. However, according to the current situation, if that person really knows something about ancient artifacts, then he would certainly feel that the Jue was actually fake.

“Did the buyer say anything?”

“I went to see the transaction and he didn’t say anything. He just negotiated with my son-in-law about the price…. Well, I think he said that it would be easy to handle something with this wine bottle, but he didn’t say anything else after that.” Then, the old taxi driver said with a smile on his face: “Right, my son-in-law said that he would go to Shanxi again in a few days to buy other relics, so young man if you’re not busy, could you go with my son-in-law and help him see the authenticity of the relics? If you can, then you can discuss with my son-in-law how to split the profit.”

In fact, what the old taxi driver said was also what his son-in-law wanted. This time he earned quite a good sum of money after hearing his father-in-law advising him to not sell it in a hurry, and of course, he also mentioned to him that he should contact Qin Cheng. However, the old taxi driver couldn’t find Qin Cheng’s number, and later, he forgot about it all together. Now that Qin Cheng had called, he remembered this and rushed to propose such a deal to Qin Cheng.

Actually, Qin Cheng didn’t care about sharing a profit of re-selling antics, he just wanted to know where the old taxi driver’s son-in-law had bought the Jue, so that he could find out where the Imperial Mausoleum of the Xu Dynasty might be located. So, this invitation was the perfect excuse for Qin Cheng’s original purpose.

“Alright, you can tell your son-in-law that I will help him with his trip to Shanxi.”.

“Ah! That’s great! Alright then, don’t say more, I still have to pick up a passenger, so I’ll tell him when I go back home.”

After hanging up the phone, Qin Chen saved what he had written on the computer and stood up to take a nap. However, he was suddenly startled by a face outside his window that faced a corridor.

He didn’t know for how long had Tang Jiaming stood outside his window at the other side of the corridor, but when Qin Cheng saw who it was, he took a deep breath and opened the door: “Tang-ge, what are you doing? Why are you standing here without making a sound?”

“I was about to knock on the door but I saw that you were on the phone, so I thought of calling you after you finished talking.” Tang Jiaming looked Qin Cheng up and down, and saw him covered in dirt. “By the way, why are you so dirty? Where did you get all this mud from?”

“I went out on my bike this morning and fell down in a construction.”

“You fell?” When he saw the bandage on Qin Cheng’s arm, he said: “You even fell on your arm?! Is it serious?”

“It’s not serious, I just have to bandage it for two weeks. Oh right, Tang-ge, what can I do for you?”

“Ah, if you didn’t remind me I would’ve forgotten. I was just about to go upstairs, to my bedroom, when I ran into Zhang Jun and Wu Hai downstairs, and they wanted me to ask you to join them for dinner.”

Qin Cheng was extremely tired after last night, and in fact, he didn’t have much appetite for the moment, but when he suddenly thought of something, Qin Cheng nodded, and walked into the open corridor. As expected, he saw Zhang Jun and Wu Hai. Qin Cheng then waved his hand at them and said loudly: “I’ll go down once I change my clothes!”

After he said that, Qin Cheng turned back and entered his bedroom to change his clothes, but before that, he asked Tang Jiaming: “Tang-ge, would you like to join us?”

“No, it’s fine. Recently, I’ve been so busy that dark circles started to appear under my eyes. I must hurry up and rest for a while, or else if I keep on going like this, I’ll end up dying of a heart attack.”

Tang Jiaming was the leader of their team, and he had many things to worry about. Qin Cheng also knows that there were many excavated objects to look through recently, so Tang Jiaming must be even busier than before. Moreover, he couldn’t tell Zhang Jun and Wu Hai what he wanted to say in the presence of Tang Jiaming.

So, without saying anything else, Qin Cheng patted Tang Jiaming’s shoulder, and said: “Alright, then the next time we have a chance, let’s go have a drink.”

“Sure. But now you must hurry up, or else Zhang Jun will start shouting at the building.”

Qin Cheng nodded his head, changed clothes, closed the door of his bedroom, and left.

Tang Jiaming simply stared at Qin Cheng’s back for a while. Then, he turned around, and walked towards the stairs….

ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉﾞ

Footnotes

<ol><b>帝王</b> <b>dì wáng</b> ; A generic term used by historians for feudal Monarchs. The “Emperor ( <b>帝</b> <b>dì</b> )” is different from “King ( <b>王</b> <b>wáng</b> )” in terms of hierarchy. The supreme rulers of the Xia [2000 BC], Shang [1600-1046 BC] and Zhou [1046-256 BC] Dynasties were called Kings ( <b>王</b> <b>wáng</b> ), and after their deaths, when they were worshipped, their descendants would call them Emperors ( <b>帝</b> <b>dì</b> ). At the beginning of the Qin Dynasty [221-207 BC], the title of “Emperor” ( <b>皇帝</b> <b>huáng dì</b> ) came into existence, and only the head of a vassal state or a Prince could be called King ( <b>王</b> <b>wáng</b> ), meaning that there could only be one Monarch, and multiple vassals. About USD$ 77000 in present year (2021).</ol>