Otherworldly Merchant

"A few days ago, while transplanting rice seedlings, I accidentally hit a snow-white bone with my hoe. I thought that the bone would bring me bad luck. As such, I threw it in the willow tree forest. Now that I think about it, all these strange things started happening right after that event..." the sluggard said.

"Why didn't you tell us something this important earlier?!" I shouted angrily. "Quickly use your brain. Was someone buried in this field of yours? Possibly someone related to the blue and white porcelain."

The sluggard thought for a long time and then looked at me with a worried expression. "My father once told me that this field was the ancestral grave of our family in the past, but it was turned into farmland during the Cultural Revolution."

I gasped. "The bone you threw away might have belonged to one of your ancestors!"

The sluggard was frightened. "I know I've sinned, but Big Brother Zhang, please save me!"

I said, "Can you calm down a bit? Let me think carefully about it. Don't you find it strange? Why would a bone that was supposed to be in the ancestral grave appear in the rice field? Li Mazi, answer this question. According to the customs of your hometown, how deep are the graves located?"

"At a depth of one meter," Li Mazi replied.

"Then, someone dug out that bone. Lazya.s.s, reply honestly, did you do something to the ancestral gave, like robbing its contents?"

The sluggard immediately shook his head. "Absolutely not. Although I'm not really a model citizen, I don't dare to do something as vile as digging up the grave of my ancestors."

Judging from his expression, the sluggard wasn't lying. Moreover, I was sure that he wouldn't dare to lie after having reached this point.

In that case, what was the deal with that bone? After a.n.a.lyzing the situation, I came to two conclusions.

First, someone had robbed the ancestral grave of the sluggard.

Second, the crustal movements had lifted up the ancestral grave.

However, the most important thing to do right now was to find the bone that the sluggard had thrown away. Only after finding that bone would it be possible to quench the anger of the blue and white porcelain.

At this time, the sky had brightened a little, and the three of us rushed into the willow tree forest.

Along the way, the sluggard told me in detail what had happened that day.

I listened until I was bored, and then asked, "Are there any diggers around here? And, did you see any suspicious people come and go around your village in this period of time?"

"Diggers? What are those?" the sluggard asked.

I said, "I'm talking about grave diggers."

The sluggard was stunned. Then, he asked, "Big Brother Zhang... do you think someone robbed the ancestral grave of my family?"

I replied, "That might be the case."

After hearing my words, the sluggard flew into a rage and cursed nonstop. Well, the sluggard had every reason to feel bitter about the fact that his family grave had been dug up.

Although he’d become this poor, he still refused to touch the ancestral grave of his family. But now, he discovered that some stranger had taken advantage of it, stirring up a hornet's nest in the process. There was no way he wouldn't get angry.

It was like finding a pretty girlfriend and being all lovey-dovey with her when someone else was quietly bringing her to bed. Then, after she got pregnant, you would be the one paying the bills. It was indeed something infuriating.

I comforted the sluggard and told him to find the bone first and put this matter aside until later. After all, it was pointless to get angry now.

The sluggard brought us to the depths of the willow tree forest, stopping in front of the biggest willow tree. According to what he said, he’d thrown the bone around here.

I gasped and said, "Willow trees already carry a high level of negative energy, not to mention when the willow tree in question is a hundred years old. By throwing the bone here, you caused the negativity of the willow tree to cover the bone every day. Isn't this the same as courting death?"

The sluggard sighed. "But, how could I have possibly known that? I just wanted to keep

Li Mazi got worried and asked me, "That bone didn't become a 'spirit', right?" In the past, he’d heard from his elders that if a skeleton was buried beneath a willow tree, flesh would grow on the bone, and it would come back to harm people.

I said, "Although I don't think it’ll go that far, let's put this off until after we’ve found the bone."

However, just as we approached the big tree, something suddenly fell from the treetop, giving us a scare and making us retreat hastily.

After a careful look, we noticed that it was a colorful snake as thick as a wrist.

The colorful snake threateningly hissed nonstop, telling us that it would bite if we got any closer.

I suddenly thought of something and quickly raised my head, looking at the big willow tree.

After looking upward, I was stunned.

I saw that countless snakes were forcibly occupying the big willow tree, and amidst this ma.s.s of snakes was a snow-white bone, stuck in a tree fork.

I recalled something my grandfather had once told me: If a bone attracted a tiger, a ruckus would definitely rise.

Perhaps this bone had really become a spirit!

There were a lot of snakes in the countryside. As such, the sluggard wasn't scared in the least after seeing the scene. He took out some realgar and hurled it toward the branches of the willow tree. Snakes hated the smell of realgar, and thus quickly scattered.

The sluggard quickly climbed the tree and pulled the bone out of the tree fork. He held the bone in his hands and thought to himself, "Ancestors, please forgive me."

I said, "Let's leave quickly. This place isn't too good."

Afterward, we hurried back to the rice field.

I told the sluggard to determine the precise location of the ancestral grave, but the sluggard shook his head, saying that he didn't know where it was. The ancestral grave had been flattened during his father's generation.

Therefore, I had no choice but to tell the sluggard to go back to the village and invite over someone old. An old person would very likely know the location of the ancestral grave of the sluggard's family.

The old man told us that he’d also partic.i.p.ated in the Cultural Revolution back then. At that time, he was still a student, and he happened to be in charge of flattening this graveyard. From what he remembered, the ancestral grave of the sluggard's family was close to the boundary tablet because back then, they were planning to pull out the boundary tablet as well.

Knowing this, we quickly inspected the area ten meters around the boundary tablet.

Of course, we didn't immediately start digging since it would just be a waste of time and energy. I simply used a shovel to feel out the surrounding terrain, bit by bit. Things went well, and we quickly found the ancestral grave on the west side of the boundary tablet.

I said to the old man, "The ancestral grave of the sluggard's family was robbed. We need help to move it somewhere else."

The old man said that there was no problem. He could just ask someone to come over and check the geomancy of the land.

I told Li Mazi to give the old man a thousand renminbi so that he could help us deal with this matter.

Actually, moving the grave wasn't my main objective. My objective was to return the bone where it belonged and bury the ancestor of the sluggard anew.

If the bone wasn't returned to its rightful place, it would be like decapitating a body before the remains had yet to go cold. No wonder the ancestor had flown into a rage.

However, there was still something that I wasn't too clear about. In the end, what was the relations.h.i.+p between that blue and white porcelain and the family of the sluggard? Why was it stubbornly defending the ancestral grave of his family?

From what I remembered, an imperial concubine had carried off the blue and white porcelain from the Imperial Palace...

As such, was it possible that there was some relations.h.i.+p between the 'Blue Head' and that imperial concubine?

In almost every village there would be someone in charge of burying the dead. These people would take a stroll around and check the geomancy of the land. Once they’d found a 'propitious place', they would call a bunch of villagers and get to work.

A very simple black canopy was erected above the ancestral grave. After that, they burned paper money as an offering to the dead and kowtowed. Only when the time was right did they start digging.

After digging a one-meter-deep hole, someone shouted, "Found it!" I rushed over to take a look and discovered that they’d already put back the fallen gravestone.

There was a row of characters on the gravestone. I took a quick look and then said to the sluggard, "This is the grave of the imperial concubine that went to the Imperial Palace."

People in my line of business had to know a little bit of geomancy as well, and I believed that the tomb might be located to the north of the tombstone. As such, I told the workers to keep digging toward the north.

However, I didn't expect that the villagers would make a terrifying discovery while putting the brick wall outside the ancient grave in order. There was a big hole somewhere in the brick wall, and a rotting corpse was stuck there.

The villagers digging the grave started screaming and threw their shovels and hoes to the ground.

I tried to calm down the people present and carefully inspected the corpse.

The left hand of the corpse was still in the middle of 'climbing' upward, while the right one was nowhere to be seen. The whole body was rotting, and the stench was unbearable. Judging by the clothes, the corpse seemed to be of a man from our time.

He shouldn't have been dead for more than a month.

Other than that, the facial features of the corpse were all twisted as though it had seen something terrifying right before dying.

I concluded that this guy was a grave robber, and he’d somehow died down here when he was trying to rob the grave of the imperial concubine.

After hearing that he was a grave robber, the sluggard flew into a rage and forgot his fear. He grabbed his hoe and mercilessly hit the corpse. However, I quickly stopped him. Now wasn't the time for these things.

I told the villagers to call the police so that they could take care of the grave robber’s corpse. After all, modern society was ruled by the law.

At the same time, I asked Li Mazi if he recognized this person.

Li Mazi quickly recognized the other party. That guy was unexpectedly Wu Tiezhu, who lived next door. Since he was a child, this guy had liked to steal small things. However, Li Mazi hadn't expected that apart from stealing from the living, he would steal from the dead as well, finally dying in this place. One could say that he got what he deserved.

The sluggard was furious and said that he would definitely look for Wu Tiezhu's family to settle this account once the grave was moved.

I didn't pay attention to the various remarks the onlookers were making and concentrated my attention on Wu Tiezhu's corpse.

The more I looked at it, the more I felt that there was something fishy.

Since this Wu Tiezhu had managed to get down here to rob the grave, why was he leaving empty-handed? Moreover, judging from his expression, he was seemingly running from this place. It seemed like he was terrified back then, and he hadn't bothered to take anything away.

In that case, what did he see in the tomb of the imperial concubine that scared him so much?

Also, what about his missing arm?