Shoveling

That night at the inn, four more people arrived, three men and one woman.

The woman was in charge of our logistics, in her thirties, with a mischievous smile and a black mole under her eye. In the industry, she had a nickname—One Mole. I later heard from others that One Mole's goal was to sleep with a hundred men before she turned forty.

"Yo, yo, yo, a new one again! But this one's so young, I wonder if the other part is small too?" One Mole smiled slyly as she looked at me.

"Alright, alright, Xiaohong, stop scaring him. This kid's young but has potential. With two years of training, he might turn out to be something," Wang Ba-tou stepped in to diffuse the tension.

The three men were brothers, all surnamed Sun. By age, they were Sun Oldest, Sun Second, and Sun Third.

Wang Ba-tou said that Sun Second and Sun Third were well-known in the business. They could use the Luoyang shovel to uncover all sorts of things and were particularly skilled at a technique called flying needle soil probing, especially for finding large deep pits. Their experience was extremely rich.

Sun Oldest, on the other hand, held two positions—he was in charge of lookout and sales. My first impression of him was that he seemed calm and honest. It was only later that I learned that people who appear honest on the outside are often the most cunning, with their eyes everywhere, ears on alert, and capable of handling emergencies when they arise.

Southwest of Shunde's Shunfeng Mountain Park, there was a small ravine the locals called Moth Mountain. Wang Ba-tou said that the large pit was located at the mid-level of Moth Mountain.

At the time, I asked him, "Boss, how do you know there's a large pit at the mid-level?"

Wang Ba-tou puffed out a ring of smoke, squinted his eyes, and replied, "Cloud peak, lock the crossing bar, clearly divided into two sides, high mountain, flat land hole, large pit in the center."

I was puzzled at the time, feeling like Wang Ba-tou was speaking in tongue twisters. I couldn't understand at all.

Later, after I studied the Funeral Scriptures and Wang Ba-tou passed on his experience of dragon searching and grave probing, I finally understood. Those short four lines were a perfect description of the feng shui advantages of Moth Mountain.

That night, at around 1 AM, we arrived at the mid-level of Moth Mountain after carrying large bags.

Looking at an old cedar tree, Wang Ba-tou stomped his foot and said excitedly, "Old Second, Old Third, here! Let's take a sample and see if it's salty. If there's stone, use the needle!"

Sun Second nodded, pressed the button on his small walkie-talkie, and said, "Oldest, we're about to eat. Is there anyone nearby?"

The red light on the walkie-talkie blinked, and Sun Oldest's low voice came through, "All quiet. You can start cooking."

Knowing that no one was around, a flash of excitement passed through Sun Second's eyes.

He took off his backpack and pulled out a small short stick, with a bent half-circle shovel at the end.

Wang Ba-tou said to me, "Cloud peak, this is our eating tool. The times are changing, we need to keep up with the times. We've turned the Luoyang shovel into a segmented tube. When we put it in the bag, no one can tell."

"Clack, clack, clack," Sun Second skillfully assembled the Luoyang shovel, which turned out to be a long one, over eight meters.

"Second Brother, this is a deep pit. Is this long enough? If not, I have more in my bag," Sun Third asked.

"Old Third, don't panic, if it gets any longer, it'll be hard to handle. Let's just check the soil layers below first, see if it's salty."

"Yunfeng, come over here and help me hold the Luoyang shovel," Sun Second waved at me.

I hurried over to help him steady the Luoyang shovel. Then, Sun Second unzipped his pants and, right in front of me, took out his little brother and began peeing with a loud sound.

After he finished, he shivered and quickly zipped up his pants.

He squatted down, stared at the spot where he had peed for a while, then frowned. "No good, there's stone beneath here. We need to shift the point to shovel."

"Xiaoyunfeng, right where you're standing, start peeing right there."

Although I didn't understand why, I did as he said and began to pee.

"Heh heh," Sun Second chuckled, "This young guy's full of energy, huh? Look at that yellowish stream."

He watched the ground where I had peed for two minutes, then nodded. "This spot is good, there's less stone below. Let's go!"

With great strength, he thrust the Luoyang shovel down with force, and it sank ten centimeters with each strike, continuously bringing soil out.

Halfway through, I noticed the color of the soil changing—it was turning darker.

"Second Brother, look! The soil's turning black. Does that mean we've hit the right spot?"

"Not yet, this black soil isn't what we want. It's just rotting tree roots mixed with organic matter. Totally useless."

The hole kept getting deeper.

"Damn, this is incredible. The rod's not long enough. Old Third, extend it!"

With the added extension, the Luoyang shovel continued to dig deeper.

An hour later, the shovel finally brought up a layer of white soil, followed by some bluish soil underneath.

Sun Second sniffed the soil, and suddenly became excited.

"Shit! Wang Ba-tou! This kid Yunfeng's a lucky star! Haven't seen such a big pit in two years!"

"One shovel hit the tamped earth layer, white clay connected with blue clay!"

"It's either from the Western Zhou nobility or from a small feudal lord!"

"We're going to strike it rich!"

"Shh! Second Brother, keep it down," Sun Third frowned and warned.

But Sun Second didn't seem bothered at all, waving his hand dismissively. "It's just that I haven't seen this kind of blue-and-white soil in years. Hopefully, it's a new pot."

A "new pot" refers to a tomb that hasn't been robbed before, still fresh, offering a chance for great wealth if it's properly excavated.

At this moment, Wang Ba-tou quietly spoke up, "That's just luck. Even if it's an old pot, as long as there's still some good stuff left inside, this trip won't be wasted."

"This is a Western Zhou tomb; what if there's a Four Sheep Square Zun or a Bronze Blood Vessel inside?"

"Haha, Wang Ba-tou, you're still daring to dream. If something like that comes up, we wouldn't even dare to sell it. We'd be caught and killed," Sun Second laughed, then pressed his radio. "Old Brother, Wang Ba-tou says this tomb might have a Four Sheep Square Zun. Do you have any connections to move it?"

The red light on the radio flickered, followed by a crackling voice.

"Square Zun my ass! I don't want to catch a bullet! Get back to work!"

The Sun family brothers were well-known in the underworld for their skills. With a single strike of the Luoyang shovel, they could roughly visualize the structure of the large pit below.

Given the tomb's age, most tombs of this kind had collapsed over time. It was nearly impossible to dig straight into the main tomb chamber with your eyes closed. There was a real risk of missing the burial items and digging in the wrong direction.

Thus, the safest method was to follow the burial path and then decide whether to dig toward the side chambers or the main chamber.

With Sun Second and Sun Third working together, using the whirlwind shovel to clear the dirt, it was now my turn to get to work.

My task was to spread the dirt, but not just any dirt. If I were to spread all the soil from a hole over ten meters deep, there was no way I could carry it all.

The dirt I spread had to match the surrounding soil color, so it blended seamlessly. I was responsible for dispersing the compacted soil that had been dug up, especially the white soil and blue soil.

Since the blue and white clay mixed with other soil had a distinct color difference, I had to carefully spread this soil around, making sure not to leave any traces at the original spot.

In the mountains, there were people farming everywhere. I couldn't just dump the blue and white soil casually, so I piled it up on the side and planned to dispose of it when it got closer to dawn.

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