Archaeological Notes

Chapter 13 Cat Ear Piercing
In the past few days, Tian Rui spent very little time with the three of us, and mostly spent secret investigations. Anyway, I don't know what she did, and it might be arranged by Scar secretly.After what she said, I also felt that this matter was a bit abrupt. Indeed, I have never seen Grandma Xie walking around the village so far.

"According to the people in the village," Tian Rui paused, then said coldly, "She is a crazy woman."

At best, I was Scar's entourage, a soy sauce maker, and I didn't ask much about the affairs of the village.We rarely see Grandma Xie in the hotel these days. She has always lived in that small dark room by herself, never going out.However, when we first arrived, we also had a few chats with her after dinner, and the conversation was concise and profound, concise and powerful.It doesn't sound like a deranged person, does it?Then why does she need to act crazy among the villagers, as Tian Rui said?
The monk analyzed it, and said that maybe she had some reasons why she couldn't do it, so she had to do it?

Scar nodded, thought for a while, and said, "I have always had a problem that I couldn't figure out, that is why this old woman gave us all her heart and soul. Think about it, she pretended to be crazy in the village, but when she met us, she immediately woke up, why?"

I was right after thinking about it, this old lady didn't know the depth of our group, but she told the whole story about the treasures in Daxing'an Mountains, there must be something wrong, she said: "Could it be that she did this on purpose and wanted us to track it down?" ?”

The monk was also puzzled, shook his head and sighed: "I don't understand, but one thing I may understand is that the old woman must know a lot of things that we don't."

After chatting about a cup of tea, the sky outside gradually brightened, and Dao Scar got up and said that he couldn't delay any longer and had to go to the cliff quickly. At this time, there were very few people getting up in the village, and the less people knew about it, the less people knew about it.After leaving the hotel, the four of them went straight to the direction of the cat's ear hole.

The corpse ghost village is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and there is a cliff in the north of it. After leaving the village, you will arrive through a pine forest.

After I went there, I realized that the surrounding area is really barren, there is not even a road, the thorn bushes are as high as a person, and the dead leaves under the feet are thickly accumulated, and it is soft to step on. It is estimated that this place is inaccessible and few people will come. .I saw a "back"-shaped hole at the bottom of the cliff, which is the cat's ear hole. In fact, I don't like this thing very much. I used to enter such a hole when I was playing in my hometown when I was young, and took out some dead people's bones. Play around.Generally speaking, this hole is used by the villagers to throw waste, dead babies, deformed babies, and placental pancreas from livestock... throw them in at will and let them rot slowly.The entrance of the cave is overgrown with weeds, and some dead vines hang down from the cliff, almost covering it. Fortunately, it is deep winter at this time, and everything is withered. If it is midsummer, the dense vegetation will cover the entrance of the cave.

The four of them stood facing the entrance of the cave, but they did not enter for a long time. Because the cat's ear cave has held various dead animals all year round, it is full of yin. Looking at the small dark cave entrance, I feel uncomfortable all over my body.Scar regained his composure, walked ahead immediately, and said: "Go in, be careful."

Unexpectedly, as soon as I walked to the entrance of the cave, I felt a gust of wind pouring out from inside, and my steps stopped unconsciously.The entrance of the cave was one meter square, surrounded by patterns carved by iron drills, and the scar was not in a hurry to go in. When he touched the entrance of the cave with his hand, he saw that the stones shattered at the touch of a touch, and fell straight down.

He twisted it in the palm of his hand, looked up at the cliff again, and murmured, "Strange!"

The monk was blocked at the back, and because he wanted to go into the cave to have a look, he was impatient for a long time: "Brother Scar, don't be suspicious, the business is to move forward quickly, and to kill a pigeon, you have to ask the butcher to carry the knife —Isn’t it too much to make a fuss over?”

Scar turned around and showed us his hands, "Look, this stone shatters into slag as soon as it is touched, obviously it has been burned by fire."

I understood now, "That is to say, is it possible that someone set fire at the entrance of the cave?"

Scar nodded to express his acquiescence, and patted the ashes off his palms, "Go in, maybe you can find the answer in the cave."

Several people filed in and entered the hole. The surrounding area was pitch black, and a rancid smell rushed straight into the nostrils, which was not very pleasant.Because the equipment was lost in the heart cliff, the batteries were borrowed by Scar from the hotel.Turn on the flashlight, and the scene inside the cave can be seen at a glance. This cat's ear cave is about the size of a living room in an ordinary house. The soil on the ground is very soft, and there are some unknown animal remains scattered around. Several fireboxes containing the corpses of children are rotten. Only a few planks remained.Due to the narrow space, the whole gives people a feeling of being breathless.

The monk turned around and felt bored, so he lit a cigarette and squatted on the ground, smoking.Scar held the lamp, and searched every inch of the surrounding area. I saw that there was nothing I could do, so I asked the monk for a cigarette, and squatted on the ground to brag and fart together.

The monk claimed to be a gangster, bragging about what he had seen in his belly, saying that he had an uncle who participated in a self-defense counterattack in [-], and when he came back, he told how the scene in the cat's ear hole was like a purgatory on earth, and it was not a human life at all. .The shocking thing is that the environment in the cave has brought unique diseases that cannot be prevented. Some positions are disease communism, everyone has a share, and the most fatal thing is-"rotten crotch".

The degree of hardship is unimaginable to most people. The skin in the crotch seems to no longer exist, and transparent water, yellow and red water seep out. When the person sits there without moving, the roots of the legs and the testicles are glued together in a short while. .Some were shy and wore a pair of underpants, and the cloth was pasted on them like adhesive tape, and the underpants could not be taken off. If they moved a little, it was like a layer of skin was glued on.The festering area is large and involves various parts. Taking off clothes is like peeling skin.A soldier who joined the army from college had been in Maoerdong for several months, and his skin was festered all over his body.When I took off my clothes at the hospital, a layer of skin also came off.

The testicles are the most rotten, and the cat's ear hole is also called "rotten eggs", which are so rotten that they are out of shape, leaving only a pile of rotten ones.It was the most itchy spot again, but I couldn't scratch it, and couldn't stand it, so I rubbed it with both hands until it changed shape, and the pain was unbearable before I stopped.A soldier's rotten crotch developed to the deep part. The epidermis of the testicles festered and scabbed, and they continued to fall off and fester. If more parts fell off, the epidermis no longer existed.Finally, one time, he moved lightly, and a piece of the ulcer fell off, exposing two round testicles, "No, the egg fell out!" People in the cave exclaimed.

Walking is uncomfortable, and the tall and straight boys all changed their postures, with their crotches crossed, their feet in the shape of an "eight", and their legs in a slightly "O" shape, moving forward step by step.Some cats can dance disco with their ear holes, and those with a broken crotch can also dance. The front of the foot was rotten, and he only landed on the heel, and the buttocks were still twisting and twisting.After the combat troops leave the position, they usually have to participate in the formation and practice kicking in advance. Those whose crotch has not healed cannot kick. Even if they grit their teeth and practice, they will die ugly.

The monk was quite emotional when he said that, and my nose was sore when I heard it. I couldn't help but feel very lucky that I was born in this harmonious society.The monk is quite funny, and it's a pleasure to argue with him. After talking for a while, Scar told us to go there, maybe we found some valuable clues.

Deep in the cat's ear hole is a stone wall with serious water seepage, and the green area above it is full of moss.We leaned over to have a look, and Scar shot the light of the battery on the wall. I watched for a long time and still didn't see why.It gives people the feeling that he is just a stone wall, nothing special.The monk stepped forward and knocked, shaking his head: "There is no interlayer, it is not hollow."

Scar gave me the battery again, motioning to hold it, and I took it dumbfoundedly and helped him light it.But seeing him roll up his sleeves and tear off a palm-sized moss on the stone wall, I immediately saw that there seemed to be patterns carved on the stone wall under the moss.

The monk quickly came up to help, and peeled off all the moss attached to the stone wall. Gradually, the patterns carved on the stone wall were clear at a glance. From left to right, there were four pairs in total. of.Dao Scar asked me if I had studied stone carvings and ancient paintings in college. I nodded humbly and said that I knew a little bit, so he lit me up and motioned me to study it carefully to see if I could find something of value. .

Looking from the left, the first engraved scene is that many people are collectively digging something, and the scene is very spectacular.A dozen burly men wearing square scarves surrounded a Buddha statue with a big head and lifted it out of the ground.There are two more, very burly, carrying a big tree stump in front of the team, as if shouting something.

The second painting is a hill, on which several Chinese characters stand, and several soldiers with big ear hats are pressing on.A group of people detoured from the back of the hill and turned into a valley. Everyone's heads were turned backwards, as if they were reluctant to part.

The third painting is the most intuitive and clear. It is engraved in a cave, with several people huddled pitifully inside.But at the entrance of the cave, a few people ignited a big fire, and they wanted to burn the people in the cave to death!

I couldn't wait to look at the fourth painting, but found that this stone painting was fundamentally different from the previous ones. Although the lines were as simple and clear, there was a sense of neatness between the lines.The left half of the painting seems to be a village. People live a life of slash-and-burn farming, working at sunrise and resting at sunset.The other half suddenly changed, and the entire village disappeared overnight!

A line of small characters and engraved on it:

"Laba niche divine calculation workshop

Demons and Monsters Gathering Center

People blow lamps, ghosts light candles

Since ancient times, there is but nothing.”

I repeated these words over and over again, feeling indescribably familiar, and suddenly recalled, this is not the fish eye that Scar showed me when I was drinking in Menjia Hutong in Beijing before I came here The ancient proverb recorded in the stone?I couldn't figure it out for a while, so I pointed it out to Dao Scar, and he was also very puzzled, "Don't be too busy, let's take pictures one by one, first tell me what clues you can see from the previous few patterns?"

In fact, ancient paintings are only a relative concept. From the perspective of art history, we all call them ancient paintings before the Republic of China.There are also many carriers for ancient paintings, that is to say, they are not necessarily painted on paper, but can also be painted on stone.These paintings, first of all, in terms of painting style, should be from the period of the Anti-Japanese War. In addition, analyzing the degree of mottled stone walls can also correct this point.I pointed to the first painting and said, "In my estimation, we have to analyze it in conjunction with the treasure legends in the village, and maybe we can explain it more clearly."

Scar looked at me and handed me the battery. "how to say?"

"Look!" I shined the light on the first painting, and explained: "They seem to be digging out something with all their strength, and I think it's upside down in nine out of ten, and it's probably from the Daxing'an Mountains." That ancient tomb of the Jin Dynasty. And the two people in front carrying half of the stump are the Guo brothers, and that is the big clapper they used to give orders."

After hearing this, the monk expressed doubts, "Then it makes sense to say so, but what's the matter with this big-headed Buddha?" After speaking, he pointed to the statue of Bodhisattva surrounded by the mural.

This is a test for me, "Because the painters will use the abstract painting method to a large extent. Since it is not realistic, we latter may not be right to guess randomly. Anyway, they just got something from the tomb of the Jin Dynasty. Yes, it has something to do with Buddhist monks and Buddhism anyway.”

Scar nodded thoughtfully, without expressing any opinion, and then looked at the second picture, "Continue."

"The second picture should be the most understandable," I pointed at the soldiers with big ear hats, "these are Japanese. They once surrounded and suppressed the Bangbandits. Guo Da Bangzi and Guo Er Bangzi were carried to death in the cottage. Said that there was a small group of people who escaped, and when they left, they were very angry, and they may have received some special instructions."

Seeing that they didn't say anything, I paused and began to explain the third painting: "This may imply that the kidnappers who escaped from the Xing'an Mountains earlier hid in a certain cave in order not to be caught by the little devils. , Later, I didn’t want to leak the news, and was set on fire and burned to death in the cave.”

At this moment, the monk lost his composure, stretched his neck and asked me: "Hey! I said Comrade Xiao Xuanxuan, could it be this cat's ear piercing? But if you say that, a paradox will arise. The cat's ear hole is a fortification that was only dug and built during the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, how could it appear at that time?"

After I analyzed it carefully, I found that it is not difficult to say clearly, "Bao Buqi dug this cave during the Anti-Japanese War. Later, for convenience, someone directly remodeled this cave, or it was not touched at all. People in the village Just give it a name."

"Moreover, when I entered the cave just now, I found that the entrance of the cave had been burned by a fire." I looked around and felt that the atmosphere was very cold. .”

"What about the corpse?" the monk asked again. "No, there is nothing in this cave, not to mention a few skeletons, right? Could it be that the people outside collected the corpse?"

Now I also feel that my head is big. If the people outside smoked the people in the cave to death, there is no reason for him to move the corpses.But apart from the bones of some animals, there is no skeleton of an adult man in this cave at all. Even after so many years, it is unlikely that there is not even a scum left. In addition, they are all bandits. I didn't see any spears, which felt a little strange.

Scar was not thinking about this at all, he touched me with his elbow, "Stop dawdling, the last picture, what do you see?"

The last painting can be said to be the most outrageous. Judging from the degree of weathering, it will definitely not exceed 30 years, which means that it was not carved at the same time as the previous three paintings.And the styles are very different, it doesn't seem to be from the same hand, it may be engraved by someone who came into the hole later.I shared my opinion with them, and the monk raised a question: "You said, could it be that Brother Scar and his father came in and engraved it?"

I said that this is not impossible, even though he said so, it was difficult to accept for a while, could it be that 25 years ago, Scar's father, Tian Modou, knew that his son was back, so he left this information on it?

Several people looked at Scar in unison, and I noticed that his breathing was a little heavy, "Then what is the meaning of this painting?" He asked.

"This seems to be a prophecy book." I analyzed: "I am also very uncertain. It is about the people in a village. At a certain time, all the people will disappear at once."

"Then what do these words next to it mean?" The monk muttered: "What Laba niche...I have drunk this Laba porridge before, what do they mean? It's crazy."

"Laba Niche," Dao Scar couldn't understand what it meant, and couldn't understand the details, so after repeating it for a while, his eyes widened suddenly.He grabbed my arm and asked, "What's the date today?"

"January 27." I was stunned by his sudden gesture, and I couldn't adapt, "What's wrong?"

He looked very anxious, "I'm asking about the lunar calendar, how much is it?"

"The twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month."

"The twelfth lunar month? Four days ago, the ancestral hall in the village..." He suddenly seemed to be a different person, murmuring these words in confusion.Staring blankly at the few lines on the stone wall, the whole person seemed to freeze, and then a look of ecstasy rippled on his face, "I understand!"

I don't know what kind of medicine he sells in the gourd. It's very strange. I don't think he's crazy?I wanted to ask him, but the monk shrugged his nose: "Strange, where does the smell of smoke come from?"

The faces of the few people changed instantly, and my voice was not good, and I had already guessed seven or eight points in my heart.Before Scar could react, he was driven out of the cave by me and the monk. After taking a few steps and turning a corner, he saw the flames rising from the entrance of the cave, mixed with billowing smoke pouring into the cave. , Someone actually wanted to burn us to death!
(End of this chapter)