Secret 1

Chapter 25 Mountain Cemetery (4)
Ye Xiao frowned and walked away from the mirror, and went outside to check carefully. Dust and rubbish were everywhere, as dirty as a construction site.And that mysterious girl was very clean and spotless, so it was absolutely impossible to live here, unless——is she really a ghost?

"Maybe this is just her activity place, and she usually lives in some other secret house?"

It was Irina who interrupted. She finally got used to the environment here and stopped covering her nose.

"I guess she came here to enjoy the flowers." Lin Junru pointed to the tumulus flowers outside, "I'm afraid she is also a sentimental girl, like Du Liniang, feeling that youth is fleeting."

Her words couldn't help but make grandson Chu admire him, as if he was praising his student: "Oh, what a child can be taught, you have learned everything I just said!"

Lin Junru immediately blushed: "When I was in college in Taipei, I also participated in Bai Xianyong's youth version of "The Peony Pavilion."

Sun Tzuchu's eyes brightened: "What are you playing? Miss or girl?"

"No, I'm just a prop, just an errand."

"Enough, let's get out!"

Ye Xiao interrupted Sun Tzuchu's nonsense again, the first group hurried out of the house, the four breathed in the fresh air, they were really suffocated just now.

Leaving this mysterious garden, Ye Xiao looked around and saw the tall water tower.He and Ding Ding were on the water tower last night and found the lights in the hut.They turned a corner and crossed a street, and came to the gate of the building, only to see a sign "Zhengnan Elementary School" hanging on it.

"Zhengnan—what an antique name, like a Ming and Qing novel. Is it the descendant of Zhuge Liang's army who conquered Menghuo?"

Sun Tzuchu started to show off his knowledge again, but Ye Xiao once again dampened his interest: "Don't go in, let's go to the edge of the city to explore the way according to the original plan."

Leaving this secluded residential school area, follow the markings that were put down last night, and return to the east-west main road.Looking up, the sky is still dark, and the mountains in the distance are green, and there seems to be misty smoke rising.That is the unique "miasma gas" in the virgin forests in the south. People in the ancient Central Plains were extremely afraid of this fog.

Ye Xiao took the lead and walked forward quickly, carefully observing the surrounding buildings along the road, and it was still as silent as death.On the other hand, Sun Zichu talked a lot along the way, constantly joking with Lin Junru and Yi Lianna, as if he was going to go camping on the mountain.

Half an hour later, they passed through the last row of buildings, and there was a lush forest in front of them.The straight road ends here, and turns into a path uphill with stone steps, covered by dense trees, leading to some fairy mansion.

The four of them walked up this path, walked slowly along the steps into the mountain, and soon entered the green world.Yi Lianna rushed to the front curiously and said, "It doesn't seem to be as scary as I imagined."

"Yes, I think this mountain path is very Zen-like, and it's a good place for an expert to live in seclusion." Sun Tzuchu agreed excitedly, but then he said pessimistically, "However, can we find a way out here?"

Ye Xiao didn't pay attention to it at all, but carefully observed every tree and even every leaf on the road, and the birdsong would make him stop.

Suddenly, the steps in front of me became gentle, the trees suddenly became thinner, and the whole field of vision suddenly opened up, with most of the city crawling under our feet.There are rows of platforms around, arranged from high to low along the 45-degree slope.

And on these stepped platforms, there are hundreds of them in each row—tombstones.

Cemetery on the hillside.

The shady mountain wind swept across the cemetery, and the surrounding trees whistled strangely.Every photo and every pair of eyes on the tombstone is watching the four uninvited guests, angry at them for disturbing the peace of the deceased.

It looks like the common terraced fields in the southwestern mountains, except that instead of crops, bones and tombstones are planted.Each tomb is made of bricks to form a semicircle, and some round mounds are surrounded by a half circle of brick walls. This is the "chair" style grave of a wealthy family in the south.

Anyone will be deeply shocked, it is difficult to describe this scene in words, spectacular or sad?Weird or vicissitudes?
It took Ye Xiao a while to come back to his senses.Although many mountainous areas in the south have this form of burial, and even Hong Kong can only build cemeteries on hillsides because of the large number of people and the lack of land, but in the environment of Nanming City, for these people who are eager to escape, suddenly Witnessing this large tomb, the impact on the mind is stronger than the sight.

They were originally on the shady mountain road, but they suddenly entered the cemetery, facing the sky without any obstruction, and directly overlooking the city below—isn’t this the environment designed for the dead buried here?

Some kind of dire omen?Or an important clue?

Live or die?

Became a problem in the cemetery.

It was Ye Xiao who broke the terrified silence: "It's just a cemetery. What's so scary? There is life in this world and there is death. Every city has a cemetery, but this is a narrow basin, and people can only build cemeteries on the hills." .”

"Yes, this is true in many places in China. Besides, from the perspective of Feng Shui, this is also a good place to go with the mountains on its back and the bustling basin facing the bustling basin." Go to a tombstone and say, "Although it is located on the west side of the city, the platform is facing south, and each tombstone is also angled, so that the tombstones are facing south."

After all, he took out his compass and looked at it. Sure enough, the tombstone beside him was almost facing south.Therefore, according to the direction of the tombstone, only a corner of the south side of the city can be seen.Perhaps because of this angle, people standing in the city below the mountain can hardly see the cemetery exposed on the hillside.

Lin Junru and Yi Lianna became more courageous. They walked to the rows of graves and even roughly counted them—each row of platforms has 130 to 150 tombstones, and there are a total of [-] rows of platforms from top to bottom.

Sun Tzuchu immediately made a mental calculation: "1690 to 1950 dead are buried here."

"No, your calculation is wrong." Ye Xiao once again ruined his showing off, "You missed an important point: many Chinese tombs are mandarin duck caves where two people were buried together!"

Lin Junru nodded frequently and said: "Yes, 'We must sleep together in life, we must share the same cave in death', more than 3000 people may be buried here at most."

Thinking that there might be so many bones buried under her feet, Yi Lianna also took a breath: "It's much colder now than before, as if it's winter all of a sudden."

After her reminder, Sun Tzuchu shivered, hugged his shoulders and said, "Yes, the cemetery is very dark, and it's on the mountain, and it's a different world from the mountain below."

"It's the realm of Yin and Yang."

After Lin Junru finished speaking, her lips turned purple, but Sun Zichu still said cynically, "Then we are now in the underworld!"

"I'm afraid, when we step into Nanming City, we have already reached the underworld!"

The conversation between the two became colder and colder, as if it was not from their own mouths, but from the ghosts in the tomb behind them.

Ye Xiao didn't care about their nonsense, but carefully observed the words on the tombstone, such as the one behind him——

"Xian Kao's concubine Ougong taboo Guang Nanxian and the tomb of Taijun Meilan, Zi Xiaofeng and Nv Xiaoya stand respectfully"

This is a very traditional Chinese tombstone writing method, and it is also a joint burial tomb for a couple.There is also a place of origin under the name of the owner of the tomb. The man's place of origin is "Tengchong County, Yunnan Province", and the woman's place of origin is "Lanna Babai Village".There are also dates of birth and death on the tombstone. For men, it is "80th year of the Republic of China to 20 years of the Republic of China", and for women, it is "90 years of the Republic of China to [-] years of the Republic of China".

There are also two ceramic photos inlaid on the tombstone. The male has a large military cap on his head. He has an obvious southwestern Chinese face, and his eyes are bright and heroic.And women are like typical Dai people.

The males on the tombstones are all from Yunnan Province, and the females are all from "Lanna XX Village". Ye Xiao and Lin Junru checked other tombstones together.Of the 138 tombstones in this row, single-cavity tombs and double-cavity tombs account for almost evenly half.In addition to 8 single female tombs, there are 95 male tombstones from Yunnan, 15 from Sichuan, 8 from Guizhou, 6 from Hunan, 5 from Guangxi, and even one from Shaoxing, Zhejiang!

The earliest date of their birth was the third year of the Republic of China, the latest was the 50th year of the Republic of China, and the earliest time of death was the 66th year of the Republic of China, and the latest was the 94th year of the Republic of China—that is, 2005 AD.

Lin Junru from Taipei is very familiar with this: "The calculation method is very simple. Just add 1911 to the year of the Republic of China to get the year of the AD."

Elena doesn't understand what the Republic of China is: "I don't understand, it seems very ancient?"

Ye Xiao remained silent all the time, and he carefully observed the row of female tomb owners.Except for the nine females from Yunnan, the rest of them are from "Lanna XX Village", and most of them were born younger than males.Many couples buried in the same cave are old couples and young wives, with the biggest age gap of 25 years.

"Where is Lanna?" Sun Zichu also frowned, temporarily forgetting his fear, "Although they are different villages, they are all named Lanna in front of them, which is obviously the name of a certain country or place."

At this time Ye Xiao finally reminded him: "Have you forgotten what place we are going to visit when we set off from Chiang Mai?"

"Ah—Royal Lanna's Tomb?"

"That's right." Lin Junru's face turned pale again, "Are these women's native places come from the mausoleum?"

"Of course not! Otherwise, it would be a tomb within a tomb!" Sun Tzuchu regained his composure, paced between the tombstones and said, "Since there is the Lanna King's Tomb, this place was naturally called the Lanna Kingdom in ancient times. The name 'Lanna' It has been used to this day and has become a place name or a clan name, 'Lanna XX village' has the same meaning as Xishuangbanna XX village."

In the end, Ye Xiao glanced at the huge and desolate cemetery and said, "Let's go quickly, we still have to go up the mountain to explore the road."

They left the more than 1000 tombstones and returned to the mountain trail just now, only then did they understand the purpose of digging this difficult and dangerous road: this is the way for people to go up the mountain to visit graves during the Qingming and Winter Solstice.

The mountain road further up became steeper and steeper, and soon the stone steps under the feet disappeared, and it was so narrow that only one person could pass.The slippery soil made them more careful, there were often thick branches lying across the road, and Ye Xiao had to break the branches to move forward.

Some strange birdsong resounded from deep in the mountains, like a girl's scream, making the four of them tremble with fear.Yi Lianna looked at the sky covered with leaves, and her originally fluent Chinese became stuttering: "It seems... there is no way... Will we... get lost?"

"No, I left a mark every few steps I took."

Ye Xiao looked back, and looked around vigilantly.The leaves in the dense forest shook slightly, making a dull rustling sound...

In an instant, the air froze.

Heartbeat, heartbeat, heartbeat, heartbeat, the beating of the four hearts accelerated almost at the same time, and the adrenaline was also secreted rapidly, quickly spreading to every blood vessel in the body.

Although I can't see anything, only the dazzling green everywhere, but the feeling is real - the cemetery is hundreds of meters away, and they have just disturbed the sleep of the dead.

There was a sudden gust of wind from above, Ye Xiao only felt his scalp go numb, and raised his head within a tenth of a second.

Finally, that... is here!
(End of this chapter)