Archaeological Notes

Chapter 26 Parchment

During the whole process, Dabeitou's demeanor can be described as cautious, holding the parchment found from the corpse like a treasure.I saw him spread it gently on the ground, and then slowly unfold it. We squeezed together to look at it, and it turned out to be a drawing.

Perhaps because the material is high-quality parchment, after soaking in water for so many years, the patterns drawn on it not only did not fade away, but were still vaguely discernible.The parchment is about the size of 8-motif paper, square, with irregular tears around it.On it is a rather complicated line draft drawing, the brushwork is extremely messy and scribbled, people can't figure out why after thinking about it for a long time, they just feel that it should be a map.I looked carefully, trying to see something, and finally saw a tree-like sign in an inconspicuous corner of the sketch.Following an inverted "V"-shaped channel, it extends into a circle with water waves drawn, which should be a pool of water.The author's brushwork is a bit clumsy. He drew this square pool in the shape of a bucket. At the lower end, I can clearly see two channels of different sizes extending to the other side, which is a larger pool.I suddenly understood, no wonder Dabeitou was so overjoyed, this map might be the plane anatomy of this ancient tomb.

Thinking of this, I quickly knelt down and pointed to them, "Look here, this is where we come in from the snow valley tunnel, all the way to the water pool, and then come through these two passages..." I passed my finger and clicked that A large pool, "This is where we are."

Hearing what I said, those guys immediately understood, nodded and said yes, Huang Mao patted me on the shoulder and asked me what I studied in university, I smiled pretentiously, "I'm from the Department of Underground Civil Engineering." He was taken aback, probably not I heard that there is still this major, and suddenly changed my mind and smiled, and didn't say anything more.

It stands to reason that with the reference point I pointed out to Da Beitou, the whole map would not be difficult to figure out, but he shook his head slowly and remained silent, as if there was still something in the map that he hadn't thoroughly studied.I squatted down and looked at it more carefully for a while, and suddenly my head became more and more confused. I felt that this map was more profound than I imagined, and it would definitely not be as simple and naive as I thought.

I can also vaguely see that the drawing method of the artwork is very different from today's. There is a rustic taste between the sketching and brushwork. It is probably not a contemporary work, and it may be some years old.The map on the parchment, in addition to the tedious and detailed drawings, is also marked with dense text, as if there are several small ants crawling on that piece of paper.On the drawing, there are caves, pools, tombs, cave-shaped corridors, and voucher roads. It is like a complex maze, magnificent and natural.What is even more confusing is that every space on the map is marked with a small cross, as if drawn by a latecomer with a neutral pen.

Seeing this, I noticed another imperceptible thing, because I also squatted to look at the map, so I could see half of the face of the big back.I noticed that his eyes were getting bigger and bigger, with an incredible expression, he looked at the map in disbelief and muttered: "How could there be no one? Impossible..."

I don't know what he was referring to, but after thinking about it, those little forks may have two meanings, either indicating that the place is dangerous, or indicating that they have already been there, which means that there is nothing they are looking for.But if it is used to mark danger, although this road is quite dangerous, it is not so superfluous, that is, the deceased has already been to the places indicated by the "cross", but there is nothing he is looking for thing.I squinted my eyes and scanned every corner of the blueprint, and none of them was ticked or circled. In other words, the deceased searched all over this ancient tomb, but he had no clue. s things.

And those little ant-like marks are the words added. I hurriedly took out the magnifying glass from my jacket pocket to look at it, and was immediately dumbfounded. It was actually a funeral text.

Dabeitou seemed to have noticed my strangeness, looked at me sideways, and asked in surprise: "Do you know the words on it?"

In fact, I didn't study this stuff much in college. Except for class time, I played World of Warcraft for the rest, so I didn't know much about it.He could only say uncertainly: "This should be a mortuary document, which is used by the living and the dead to communicate information. In the past, when people burned paper for the dead to pass on the message, they would write this as a carrier."

Huang Mao was very surprised when he heard it, he gave me a thumbs up, and said to me: "That means you can understand these words? Why don't you translate them for the translator?"

I don't have much confidence in this, so I can only say try it out, I try to see something valuable, and I am afraid that they will think that I have saved a hand, so I explain: "I heard from my grandma that in today's society, people will write funerals. The number of people writing can be counted on one hand, and there are only a few who can read it. However, obscure writing such as coffin writing is developed on the basis of ancient Chinese characters, so I can understand as much as possible.”

Hearing what I said, Dabeitou hastily made room for me, so that I could look at the parchment map directly, and he himself lit the light on the side.I have to say, the mortuary text, I see it is not much different from your reading Japanese directly, and there is very little information that can be understood.I tried to decipher it, and I only felt that these coffin texts recorded the primary and secondary layout of the ancient tomb, such as the notes on the outside, around a corridor, there was a text like "迉...毐...虫" , I can't understand several words at all, so I can only guess out of thin air.There are many such things, such as some tunnels, and the tomb will be marked with "乷...沙". I can only think that it is a trap similar to "Shadingtian".But in the center of the whole picture, a big circle is drawn, which shows that there seems to be a large space in the center of this ancient tomb.I noticed that on it, around the circle, there was a word "鼐".

On the entire map of the ancient tomb, in addition to these numerous small signs, there is also a short note in the blank space on one side, which is similar to a biographical description.I carefully considered every word, reminiscing about the daytime, and finally saw some clues, but whether this is the truth, I can't guarantee it.That's all, I think I have gained a qualitative understanding from this map. Although it is a rough idea, it is better than knowing nothing.

From its intermittent meanings, I roughly understand that the owner of this ancient tomb in the Jin Dynasty originated from a wizard named "Nai", known as the incarnation of "God", who possessed a shocking ability to weep ghosts and gods, That is, he can see through everything, from the veins of mountains and rivers to the texture of human skin, he can see through everything in the world at a glance.Legend has it that he had an artifact that could contain millions of ghosts and snakes. He once helped Jin Taizu go south to destroy the Song Dynasty. Later, when he died, he specifically told him to bury himself in the artifact. When he was buried, the artifact had to be buried underground. Only in the next day can the bones be picked up for another burial.But he never thought that someone would miss that peerless artifact and dug it out within a short time, only to see that what crawled out of it was a one-eyed monster covered in scales.Later, the whole country panicked. In order to quell the storm, Jin Taizu had to send four great wizards to suppress him and find a treasure cave in Daxing'an Mountains to bury him.

I don’t know how much I understood, but that’s about all I said. I told them what I knew. After listening to them, everyone felt like I was telling a story.Huang Mao looked very happy, and said with a smile: "That's better than our random rush. With this map, it can save us a lot of trouble."

Dabeitou's expression didn't change much. After a burst of excitement, he gradually calmed down. It may be seen from this map that the things he cared about may no longer be there.He gave me the map and motioned me to save it, then sat alone on a big bag, smoking a cigarette and thinking about problems.I took the map and didn't say anything. I just took a cursory glance and compared the location of our current pool.But I found that at the corresponding place on the map, there was something like a "ten" drawn on top of the pool.I raised my head and glanced at the dark pool in front of me, and found that I couldn't see it clearly. I only felt that it was dark and dense, with a large area.

I went to ask Dabeitou to borrow that large waterproof miner's lamp, turned on the switch and swept across the pool opposite us, the bright white light instantly illuminated everything.Only then did we see that what we were in was a stone cave, with a pool of water converging below it. On the edge of the pool, there were four square corridors built against the stone walls; there were extremely regular stone walls in all directions, with colorful paintings painted on them. The murals are full of shaman-style fangs and animal faces, with extremely ferocious facial expressions.Among the four pools the size of a basketball court in front of us, we can see two criss-crossing stone paths, which are level with the water surface and built on top of the pools.And in the very center of the intersection, there is something similar to a sacrificial altar.

The sacrificial altar was built high, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, like a giant black coffin above the pool.Seeing this, the guys with big backs widened their eyes even more, and Niu Er said straight-eyed, "Why don't we go over and have a look?"

I shook my head and said it would be better not to go, one thing more is worse than one thing less, Huang Mao asked: "Then what should we do now?"

I pouted my head towards Dabei, and saw that he was also looking at the sacrificial altar above the pool in a daze, and I didn't know what he was thinking, so I said, "Ask Boss Hu, and he will do whatever he says!"

The big guys are waiting for the big back to make up their minds. I saw that he seemed to be thinking about many things. After a long time, he took a deep breath on the butt of the cigarette, threw it on the ground and put it out with his foot, before he seemed to have made up his mind, "Just follow me. You don’t need to ask more about the rest, it’s not good for you if you know.”

He's the boss, so we can't do anything about him if he says so himself, but obviously the atmosphere has become a bit tough. Everyone sat back in their seats, and Huang Mao continued to smoke.But they all have their own concerns, the smell always feels sour in the throat, and several of them are silent.I saw the skinny man sitting curled up in a corner without saying a word, and I felt sorry for him, so I asked Huang Mao for a cigarette and handed it to him: "Here, take a cigarette to keep out the cold?"

He turned his head slowly and looked at me, his face was like a bitter melon, without any expression, he just moved his mouth slowly and said two words: "No need."

This kid might not know how to smoke, so I had no choice but to take back the cigarette angrily, light it up alone, ponder over it, and guess wildly.I don't know what his origin is, I just feel a little pretentious, and I don't know if he has real skills.

"Hey, look," I was in a trance when Niu Er behind me yelled loudly, which startled me. "A lot of gas cans."

I went over to have a look, and found that Niu Er pointed to a very inconspicuous corner beside the stone platform, where several old cotton-padded clothes were piled up.He opened it and saw a few oxygen cylinders lying there quietly, not ours.However, apart from the oxidized paint on the body of the can, judging from its model and color, it is exactly the same as the one we use.At this time, Huang Mao went up and picked up an oxygen bottle, put his ear to it and listened, then looked at the barometer and said, "There is air, but it is still full."

The labels on the oxygen tanks were also clearly made in Hong Kong. Judging from the strange behavior of the big back and the constant appearance of items exactly the same as our equipment, I made a bold idea.Granny Xie from the village once revealed that an expedition team had visited Xing'an Mountains three years ago. From my point of view, the corpse now is most likely one of the team, and the team with the big backs, It is very likely to be the second echelon, that is to say, when the first team came in and failed to get out of the ancient tomb, or failed to achieve the goal, the new team will soon start to act when the time is ripe. .

I was wandering too far, deducing the purpose of Dabeitou's team, so I just stared blankly at the ground, lost in thought.But he didn't notice that Cun Tou, who had been half lying on the stone wall behind him, suddenly moved.The kid finally woke up and started coughing loudly, clamoring for water.

Seeing this, Huang Mao hurriedly fed him with a water bottle. The strange thing is that Cun Tou sees water like a hungry wolf sees meat. He snatches it and pours it into his belly. He drank all the water and wine.But what was unexpected was that he still wanted it. Huang Mao only thought that Bunny was very thirsty, so he hurriedly brought him a water bottle from the bag on the other side. Fortunately, I suddenly realized that the situation was abnormal, and immediately stopped Huang Mao: "Don't give it to him. I drank it, I just fished him out of the pool, how little water did I drink?..."

As soon as I said something, Huang Mao was taken aback for a moment and didn't take precautions, but the water bottle in his hand was snatched away by Bunny, he opened his mouth and poured it, and it was gone after a few gurglings.After finishing the drink, Cun Tou giggled, his face was swollen and turned into a fat man, purple and black, and he actually yelled for water.

Now even Dabeitou was attracted, frowning and beckoning us: "Don't give him any water, we didn't bring much water this time, it's a waste of him. I think there's something wrong with this kid... "

As soon as Dabeitou said this, the rest of the people couldn't figure out why, that brat Cuntou was reincarnated like a thirsty ghost, I guess his belly was full, but he still said he was thirsty.But when we were in a daze, no one expected it, the inch head suddenly sat up, pushed us away, stumbled, ran to the edge of the stone platform a few steps, and actually lay down in front of the pool and swallowed heavily. drink!

The water in the pool is dark, it may be poisonous after it has been stored in this ancient tomb for hundreds of years.The few of us were shocked, as if there was a paw scratching in our hearts, this brat Cuntou must be crazy, he has lost his mind to this point.I immediately realized that if this continues, this person will be hopeless.I was about to pull him up, but the yellow hair rushed ahead of me, and went to grab the inch-headed arm and pulled him hard, but I didn't want to pull him up.The few of us immediately stepped forward to help, but we saw the inch-head lying on the edge of the pool, drinking and choking a mouthful of rancid blood in the water, with finely minced meat floating on it, probably stomach All the viscera and six internal organs in the body are rotten.

We were frightened by his move, and the strength in our hands loosened unconsciously. At this time, Cun Tou slowly raised his head, looked at the glint in the dark pool water eyes, and suddenly hiccupped. The water kept flowing out of his mouth.Seeing him like this, we thought that he would leave the edge of the pool after drinking enough, and we felt a little relieved.Unexpectedly, a strange thing happened next, a scene that no one could understand appeared, Cun Tou broke away from us suddenly, with tremendous strength, with a "swish", like a loach, plunged into the pool in the blink of an eye in.

A well-behaved person turned into such a half-human half-ghost in a short while. We on the stone platform looked at the swaying pool, and the miner's lamp shone on it, and the mood couldn't be calmed down for a long time.Niu Er sighed: "What do you think is wrong with you, you just woke up and turned your face, can't we get down to save him?"

Brother Liu Maodi approached the pool, looked at the bottomless pool with a miner's lamp, and said with lingering fear: "This incident has not stopped after making a sharp turn. That brother has a monster in his belly, and he is so fussy if he doesn't drink water. But this pool of water is really enough for him to drink." After speaking, he turned to look at Da Beitou and asked, "Boss Hu, what do you mean?"

You can't tell what he is thinking on the face of the big back, and the way this person does things is also very perverse. He thought for a while and said, "Let's go down."

This time Huang Mao also choked up, "Brother, really go down? Such a big puddle, looking for an inch is like looking for a needle in a haystack, you have to think about it. We have done our best, and we can't blame us for this, but he can only blame his life." There is such a doom."

Unexpectedly, Dabei raised the corner of his mouth, smiled and waved his hands, and smiled meaningfully: "Whoever said it was to save him, I have other reasons."

(End of this chapter)