The Lost Tomb : Restart (The Sound Of Providence)

Chapter 1: Nanjing Locker

Previously on 2016 Chinese New Year Special:

I took out my old equipment bag, which contained my old phone and old number that I used to use in the past. I charged the phone in front of Fatty and then went to the text messages. The latest one had been sent to me on New Year's Eve from an unknown number.

It was just one short message: East Nanjing Drum Tower, Arctic Pavilion Weather Museum, locker 221. Happy New Year.

I had a strong feeling that this short message was from my Uncle Three.

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Let me start with something interesting.

Tian Youjin was a pharmacist who dealt in caterpillar fungus [1]. He had a close relationship with my elders and belonged to the "come and give me a hug" category of uncles that I used to see when I was young.

During the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s, Tian Youjin had to live in a rural community in the mountainous areas of Inner Mongolia. He always talked about how he got separated from the herding team one time and ended up wandering around the grasslands for two months. During that time, he led the flock and even escaped from a mountain wolf before finally being saved.

Whenever he reunited with his comrades-in-arms and had too much to drink, he would start telling this story as if it was a part of his character development. In his account, that time was a rare rainy season in Inner Mongolia. The torrential rain and lightning all over the sky was the most beautiful and frightening scenery he had ever seen.

In 2013, Tian Youjin began to suffer from liver failure as a result of his alcoholism, which led to systemic organ failure. On his deathbed, his comrades came to see him. They pitied him and tried to comfort him, but at that time, he told them a second version of what he had experienced.

In the previous versions, he had experienced all this alone. But in the story he told before his death, there was one more person present. For decades, he never mentioned the existence of this person.

Tian Youjin met this man at the beginning of the second month after he entered the depths of the grassland. It was raining heavily that day. When he looked up at the valley, he saw a man standing on a ridge in no-man's land, staring at the lightning in the sky.

He couldn't see the man clearly in the torrential rain. All he saw was the distant man pointing him in the right direction before he disappeared into the forest. There were no horses or herdsmen behind him. He was the only person.

According to Tian Youjin, this was a magical moment. The place was nearly a month away from the nearest outpost. Without horses and supplies, it was absolutely impossible for anyone to walk that far in the old forest.

A person suddenly appearing in such a place was so suspicious that he almost thought the other person was lost. But the man didn't ask him for help.

He also thought that the other party might have been a spy who had entered through Mongolia and was exploring the terrain here. Or he had met a mountain ghost. He was so frightened that he dared not speak about it for a long time. After being seriously ill, the images in his brain became clearer and clearer, and he finally decided to speak about it.

I had read this excerpt in my grandfather's notes. At that time, my grandfather had wanted to buy some caterpillar fungus from Tian Youjin. I didn't know from whom he'd heard the story, but my grandfather's evaluation was very simple. He thought that the man Tian Youjin had seen in the mountains was a grave robber.

In Xu Ke's "Anthology of Petty Matters in the Qing Dynasty: Thieves" [2], there was a story about Jiao Si, a big thief in Guangzhou. Jiao Si often stayed near Baiyun Mountain and engaged in grave robbing. He had dozens of disciples who had skills like listening to the rain, wind, and thunder, and looking at the grass color, mud tracks, and so on. One day, he was out on the northern outskirts of the city. It was around noon when thunder and lightning broke out across the sky. Jiao Si sent everyone in all four directions, telling them to listen and observe their surroundings. They must not hesitate even with the thunderstorm going on and should commit whatever they had seen to memory. Jiao Si stood tall at the top of the ridge in the midst of the thunderstorm. The rain gradually stopped after a while, at which point someone returned from the east. They said that when a loud clap of thunder rang out, they felt a faint vibration under their feet and heard a sound coming from the ground. "That's it!" Jiao Si said happily.