In the archaeological practice that Lin Yan participated in, the tomb of the Ming Dynasty was undoubtedly a very strange place. The excavation work lasted for three months. He got a response. When he was told that he was only allowed to stay in the tomb for a week, he thought he was a small character serving tea and drinking water, but he did not expect to be sent to the ground on the day the plane arrived, but he was responsible for the most important thing. Cleaning up of dead bodies in the cemetery.
It was a medium-sized underground palace, with arches made of bluestone blocks. The apse was about forty meters long, and a large black lacquered coffin as tall as half a person slept peacefully on the stone platform. Lin Yan held his breath together with everyone. When the golden nanmu coffin lid was slowly lifted, and the gold, silver, jade and silk brocade around the body were exposed, the tomb burst into cheers. A large mausoleum that has never been touched by tomb robbers gave high fives to celebrate. After a long while, unrelated personnel withdrew one by one. Lin Yan remembered that the instructor was the last one to leave the field. When withdrawing, he pressed his hands heavily on his shoulders. He seemed to want to say something but he didn't say anything in the end. In the empty and dark main tomb room, only Lin Yan was left alone with a few lights that flickered on and off. Sometimes the miner's lamp went out inexplicably. He thought back later that the owner of the tomb might have been eyeing him since then.
The corpse in the coffin had rotted into a skeleton, but its hair was soft and shiny. However, when Lin Yan sat alone beside the coffin and flipped through the history books, doubts surfaced. With an unrecognizable patina, there is no record, no genealogy, not even any record in the township and county chronicles. The ever-burning lamp placed in front of the coffin had long since dried up, and a two-foot-long black spirit tablet behind it was smeared thickly with old blood. The place where the name should be written was empty, but it turned out to be a tablet without words.
When the last artifact in the coffin was successfully taken out, Lin Yan received the order to return. In just seven days, no one told him about the origin of this mausoleum.
The sun was shining brightly on Friday morning, the roses in the flower beds were rushing to open, and there was a faint scent of burnt opium in the air. Lin Yan parked the car at the school gate and hurried to the small square in front of the building. Walking to the instructor's office, in order to hurry up, I went straight through the fountain on the ground. When I was about to step out, the bells and drums suddenly sounded. Water jets sprayed out from various holes, and the surrounding area immediately became a forest of water jets.
"Damn it..." Lin Yan couldn't dodge enough and was doused in water, Lin Yan scolded Fa Ke in his heart while grabbing the hem of his T-shirt and running forward. Several school girls just came out from the main entrance of the building, and were amused by his distressed appearance.
Lin Yan blushed a little.
Sparkling water droplets splashed everywhere, and just one drop fell into his eyes. When he raised his hand to wipe it, someone caught his wrist. His cold fingertips just wiped off a drop of water on the eyelashes. Lin Yan blinked twice vigorously. He lowered his eyes and stood there in a daze for a while.
When I walked up the steps, I saw a new big poster on the left side of the automatic door. The middle-aged man with glasses was holding a pen. His temperament was like an unopened folder in a stationery store. There is a big line next to it: Chen XX, a well-known Chinese history professor, came to our school to give a lecture. All students are welcome to participate. There will be mysterious activities to interact with the professor.
The tone commonly used by the publicity department of the association, the specific time and content of the event are written in rows of small characters below, Lin Yan twisted the hem of the wet T-shirt and walked towards the foyer, muttering that this was probably the reason why the fountain suddenly went berserk. Turning back, he frowned and stood in front of the poster for a while. He always felt that the man on the poster looked familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was for a while. After thinking for a while without success, Lin Yan shook his head and stepped into the hallway.
The tutor's office is on the fourth floor.
"Teacher, are you kidding? So many people participated in the ancient tomb survey from the preliminary preparation to the end of the excavation. How could it be possible that no biographical information of the tomb owner has been found?"
"That tomb was already considered to be above the middle standard in the same period. Even if the owner of the tomb was not an official, there must be a record in the history books as a wealthy businessman."
Fridays in university institutions are always lazy, and everyone looks like they are waiting for the weekend to come. Lin Yan’s tutor is no exception. He was sitting with his legs crossed when a student covered in water broke into the office. Behind the table, he held a thick purple sand cup in his hand. Because he often traveled in the west in his early years, his purple skin was wrinkled by the wind and frost outside the Great Wall, and because of his middle-aged fat, he has lifted a little bit, and the bags under his eyes hang loosely behind his glasses.
The instructor got impatient with Lin Yan's aggressive tone, and patted the stack of books on the table: "I really don't have one. Look, I'm just worrying about writing the excavation report. I haven't made any progress after working for more than a month."
Lin Yan propped his hands on the glass panel of the table, and leaned forward impatiently: "I don't believe that the tomb has never been stolen, and the body and burial are intact. Can't we confirm the identity of the owner of the tomb?"
This student has always been known for his politeness and patience, and it is rare to see him so anxious.
"That's the problem. Comparing the materials sorted out from the unearthed cultural relics with the records at that time, I can only say that he is a non-existent person." The instructor put down the cup, and tapped twice on the cover of the book with his fingers: " History of the Ming Dynasty is not my main field of study, so if you ask me, why not look up the information yourself, the students in our school must have the ability to conduct independent research, you must make good use of the resources in the school library."
Lin Yan shook his head in disappointment. Just like what the instructor said, the historical materials are vast, and if it is really checked, let alone three months, even three years may not necessarily make progress. By then, he will have used up his ten lives long ago. What's more, he has searched through the relevant history books in the library in a week, and even asked Yin Zhou to search the database in various bad ways, but the strange thing is that no matter whether he uses time, person's name or location as keywords, he can't find any information. According to common sense, in ancient times, even a scholar would make a serious note in the county annals, but this Xiao Yu, like a person from another world, was skipped by various records out of thin air.
The air was filled with the light aroma of book pages and wood, and the light blue shutters blocked the sunlight just right. Lin Yan subconsciously glanced back, as if there should be companions waiting to answer his doubts, but Xiao Yu It exists, he thought.
Lin Yan lowered his voice with his head down, "Teacher, this matter is really important to me. Can you help me..." While speaking, his gaze was fixed on the desktop, and the glass plate was pressed down. Looking at many old photos of my mentor when he was young, a row of people in the black and white picture are wearing overalls and hard hats, with a gray face but a youthful smile. Compared with the middle-aged man with swollen eyes in front of him, there is a strange sense of disobedience.
Time is a wonderful thing.
The instructor tapped on the table with two fingers, and did not look at Lin Yan when he spoke, his gaze was a little dodged: "Why do you have to investigate the owner of the tomb? Do you need it for writing a thesis?"
Lin Yan took a deep breath. He has always had a keen insight into people's emotions. Last night when he was sorting out the clues, the situation in the tomb suddenly flashed in his mind. Many doubts already existed at that time, but he Immersed in excitement and tension, I didn't notice it. For example, since he joined the team, everyone has been keeping secrets. For example, when the body cleaning personnel evacuated one by one, the instructor also looked at him with such evasive eyes. The whole thing seemed to have been arranged a long time ago, so Lin Yan didn't care to disturb the teacher's rest, so he grabbed his phone and set a time for this meeting.
"Teacher, you should know why, people, life, relationship, and heaven." After hesitating for a moment, Lin Yan frowned and finished the sentence word by word, pressed his hands on the table, turned and left.
When he walked to the door of the office, he paused deliberately, one, two... Lin Yan counted silently in his heart.
three.
"Wait." The mentor's voice sounded from behind.
"Lin Yan, I'm not in charge of this project. I just heard that a lot of strange things happened when the tomb was opened. Someone came to me and asked you to go there by name. I didn't agree... If you really want to know about this matter, you can Go directly to the planner of the entire excavation work." The finger tapped twice on the table. "My surname is Chen. Come to our school next Monday to give a lecture. There are posters downstairs." After speaking, he took out a few volumes from the neatly stacked books and rearranged them, and put them on the table, as if to see off the guests : "You can ask him for details."
"One last question." Lin Yan leaned on the door frame and poked his face in: "Teacher, do you know Xiao Yu?"
"I don't know." The answer was quick this time: "What is that?"
Lin Yan sighed, leaning on the railing and hurried downstairs.