Chapter 76: Main Text Chapter Seventy-seven Heavenly Secret

Main Text Chapter Seventy-seven Heavenly Secret

Having heard this, I no longer had the mind to take a bath, so I pulled Old Liu Tou into the guesthouse cafeteria, found a quiet corner to sit, and asked him to recount the details in full.

The marks on my back vary in shade; their outline and layers strongly resemble an eyeball, exactly like the jade eye I shattered in Jingjue Ancient City. I've always worried it might be some kind of curse—perhaps not only I and Pangzi, but even Professor Chen and Shirley Yang far away in Meiguo are likely to show the same symptom.

When Old Liu Tou said it wasn't an eyeball but a character, I couldn't stay calm—I took out a cigarette and lit one for him. At that moment the guesthouse cafeteria had closed its kitchen for the shift, Old Liu Tou happened to be idle, so he gave me a full account of what happened.

In fact, this happened not long ago—less than three years back. At the time, the experts of the archaeological team were staying in this guesthouse in Gutian County, sorting and tallying the bones that had been recovered. The local authorities also attached great importance to the matter, sealing off the guesthouse; only staff were allowed in, no outsiders.

Old Liu Tou, who worked in the guesthouse cafeteria, was a helpful sort. He usually cooked for the archaeological team members, and when he had nothing to do he'd hang around watching the excitement, pitching in when people worked. The experts all ate his meals and knew him; they knew he was warm‑hearted. Sometimes, out of politeness, they'd turn a blind eye—so long as he didn't steal or cause trouble, they let him watch.

This archaeological dig recovered a large quantity of tortoise shells, plus some unidentified animal bones. Every piece of shell was carved with many characters and symbols, but most were damaged; the fragments we gathered were incomplete, requiring considerable labor and time to restore.

However, among the many broken shells there was one huge tortoise shell that was remarkably intact—about the size of an Eight Immortals table. When the archaeologists cleaned it with a mixture of ice acetic acid, Old Liu Tou happened to be nearby and saw that the symbol appearing most frequently on it was one that looked like an eyeball.

Old Liu Tou didn't recognize anything else; he only thought the eyeball‑like symbol was very conspicuous and obviously an eyeball, so he asked the archaeologist who was sorting the pieces, "Does this symbol represent an eyeball?" The archaeologist replied, "No, it's a kind of ancient script similar to oracle‑bone script, not an eyeball……"

He hadn't finished speaking when the leader of the work team, a Professor Sun, stopped him. Old Liu Tou clearly remembered that Professor Sun warned that archaeologist, saying these were state secrets and must never be disclosed to anyone.

Old Liu Tou thought, I'm just a cook—why should I care about your state secrets? So he stopped asking, but the more he thought about it, the more curious he became: what could possibly be a secret from thousands of years ago that still can't be told to the outside world? Is it just bluster to fool an old man like me? Still, since they had to observe the confidentiality rule and didn't welcome nosiness, he decided not to ask.

But ever since that large tortoise shell was taken back, our guesthouse has been catching fire every few days, leaving nobody able to rest in peace.

Not long after that, the archaeological team saw they had collected most of the shells and thought the fire hazard here was high, so they packed up and left, loading the shells into big wooden crates—enough to fill a large truck. What happened next was sinister: they supposedly tried to air‑freight the cargo back to Beijing, but the military plane crashed mid‑flight, burning everything, including the inscribed shells, to ashes.

Of the fifteen‑person archaeological work team, only Professor Sun survived—he had left his work manual at the county guesthouse, rushed back to fetch his notes, and thus missed the flight.

When Professor Sun heard the news of the plane crash in Gutian County, he sat down on the ground and couldn't get up; I brought a few colleagues to take him to the clinic, so I can say I'm half his lifesaver. Thereafter, whenever Professor Sun came to work near Gutian, he'd visit me and we'd share a couple of drinks. But whenever I asked him what the inscriptions on those shells meant, he would avoid answering, merely advising me that those characters were ominous, evil symbols and that it was better not to know, and that from now on I should stop inquiring—after all, they've already been destroyed. Each time he would sigh, saying he wished he had never seen those characters in this life. It's not that today, upon seeing that red blotch on your back, I was reminded of those dreadful characters—it's an exact match. This isn't just a skin condition; how did you end up like this?

I couldn't help but retort to Old Liu Tou: "Master Liu, you don't even know what this character means, do you?"

Old Liu Tou laughed heartily, feigning mystery as he said to me: "Young man, I only know this is an ancient script, but I truly don't know what this character means. However, someone does know—speak of the devil, Professor Sun just happens to be living upstairs from you; he comes to work in Gutian every year for a stretch, so haven't you run into him yet?"

I seized Old Liu Tou's hand and exclaimed eagerly: "Master Liu, you're truly a living Bodhisattva—you save people to the end, you send the Buddha all the way west; you must certainly introduce me to Professor Sun."

Old Liu Tou thumped his chest and gave his assurance: "Introductions are no problem, but that old Mister Sun is tight‑lipped—whether he'll talk to you depends on how you approach him. That peculiar patch on your back might just make him tell you."

I had Old Liu Tou wait in the cafeteria while I prepared myself, then went with him to visit Professor Sun, who lives on the second floor of the guesthouse. First I returned to my room and told Da Jin Ya and Pangzi the whole story.

I left Pangzi in the room to keep watch over the Fragrant Jade raw stone, and took Da Jin Ya with me—he's been in business for years, his speech is ready, and he's far more experienced in social affairs than I am.

The two of us changed clothes and went to the guesthouse cafeteria to find Old Liu Tou. I said to him: "Master Liu, going empty‑handed isn't quite proper, but it's getting late—buying snacks and fruit isn't easy either……

Old Liu Tou replied: "No need, just do me a favor—but you're not antique dealers, are you? Remember this: you must never mention this matter in front of Professor Sun; he has a bad temper and dislikes people in your line of work the most."

I and Da Jin Ya immediately agreed to keep silent about it, then made up a story: we said we were on a business trip to Gutian, and since we'd developed a reddish blotch on our backs that looked like oracle‑bone script, we'd heard Professor Sun understood oracle‑bone script, so we dared to ask him for advice—just to see whether it was a skin disease or something else.

After the three of us agreed, Old Liu Tou led us to the second floor, where we knocked on Professor Sun's door, stated our purpose, and he invited us inside.

Professor Sun looked to be nearly sixty—a gaunt, dark‑skinned old man with a slightly hunched back, probably from years of squatting in survey pits. His face was covered in wrinkles, his hair severely receded at the crown, leaving only a thin ring around the edges that he refused to shave off, instead combing it into a one‑sided spiral. Though he appeared elderly, his eyes were bright and sharp, and he wore no glasses; aside from his hairstyle, he was indistinguishable from a farmer who'd worked the fields all his life.

Compared with Professor Chen, whom I know, although both are professors, they are of completely different types—a great difference. Professor Chen is a typical academic, the sort of refined scholar who sits in an office, whereas Professor Sun belongs to the kind of long‑term practitioner, a hands‑on realist from the front lines.

Professor Sun listened to my account, then stared at the bruise on my back for a long time, repeatedly saying it was strange. I asked him, "What exactly is this thing growing on my back? Is it life‑threatening?"

Professor Sun said: "It really does look very much like a symbol. In the tortoise shells unearthed in Gutian two years ago, the most complete and largest set bore one hundred and twelve characters that resemble oracle‑bone script but aren't actually oracle‑bone script; this eyeball‑like symbol appears seven times among those one hundred and twelve characters."

Both Pangzi and I have developed a dark‑red blotch on our backs that looks like an eyeball. Although we came to see Professor Sun with Old Liu Tou, it was purely a desperate move—we had been half‑believing, half‑doubting Old Liu Tou's words. Now that Professor Sun also said the blotch resembled an ancient character, we hurriedly asked him, "What exactly is this character?"

Professor Sun shook his head and said: "The red mark on your skin merely resembles those ancient characters; there is absolutely no connection. Those relics were all destroyed in the plane crash two years ago. Coincidences abound in this world—some beans can grow to look like human heads, yet aside from the similarity, beans and human heads have no relation whatsoever."

Da Jin Ya and I tried every soft‑sell and hard‑sell, saying all kinds of nice things, just wanting to ask what the inscriptions on those tortoise shells actually said; if we knew the details, we could tell whether they were related, and then I'd know for myself.

Professor Sun merely refused to divulge another word; in the end he issued us an order to leave: "You also don't pretend in front of me—the two of you reek of earth. I have long worked at the grassroots level; even with my eyes closed I know what you two do. People with this smell are only of three kinds: one is farmers, the other two are either tomb robbers or dealers in fake antiquities. To be frank, I don't think you look like farmers; I now have no good feeling toward you. I don't know where you got this character, disguising it as a red rash on your skin, trying to worm information out of me—I advise you not to dream about it. I will only say two more things to you: first, don't cause trouble without reason; the information contained in these ancient characters is state secret, no ordinary person has the right to know it. Second, as my personal advice to you, never attempt to approach the information contained in these characters; this is heavenly secret, heavenly secret must not be leaked, otherwise anyone who has any connection with this writing will invite disaster."