Chapter 84: The Miao girl is full of passion

Hearing the exclamation from the front, Fatty couldn't care less about storytelling and immediately pulled Tianzhen along to squeeze forward.

Upon reaching the end of the tomb passage, they indeed discovered a massive jade door with a large hole dug into it.

Beside the jade door stood two statues, looking like a pair of hungry ghosts.

One held a ghost claw in its hand, and the other held a seal, its entire body pitch black.

Fatty felt a jolt in his heart upon seeing these strange sculptures.

Then, when he turned his head to look elsewhere, he suddenly caught the expression on Master Zhang’s face!

Master Zhang was staring at the hungry ghost statue, his eyes flickering, as if the appearance of this thing was within his expectations.

Ever since Fatty saw Master Zhang’s small reaction, he began observing him intentionally or otherwise.

Now that he discovered Master Zhang’s anomaly, Fatty immediately kept his composure, wanting to see what Master Zhang would say.

Tianzhen also squeezed over at this moment and was baffled upon seeing the sculptures.

"Fatty, you’ve studied the history of sculpture at least, take a look at these statues?"

Fatty’s head swelled at the request.

"The history of sculpture I took as an elective was foreign sculpture history! It was all just to look at naked people!"

"I was told there would be real-life models to demonstrate, but who knew it was always big burly men every single time!"

"For Fatty here, those few months were a real eyesore!"

Hearing Fatty getting more and more off-track, Tianzhen quickly interrupted him, saying: "Alright, alright, if you can’t tell, then forget it."

Unexpectedly, Fatty leaned in and whispered: "I can’t tell, but that Master Zhang definitely can!"

Tianzhen looked at Fatty upon hearing this, "How do you know?"

"Ha! Fatty’s eyes are sharp, that’s how! Just looking at his expression, I know he knows." As Fatty spoke, he gestured with his chin toward Master Zhang.

Master Zhang seemed to sense the movement and turned to look at the two of them.

Both of them shut their mouths and smiled in unison, looking like thieves with guilty consciences.

Master Zhang ignored them and instead turned to continue speaking to Professor Chen: "Professor, I haven't seen these hungry ghost statues much either."

"The Hungry Ghost Realm is one of the six realms of Buddhism; we in the Daoist school speak of the five realms, not the six."

"Therefore, I don’t quite understand the meaning of such sculptures."

Professor Chen nodded upon hearing this; as an archaeology expert himself, he couldn't understand the meaning of these sculptures either.

Now that he had asked the Daoist Master and he didn't know either, Professor Chen decided not to linger.

He had the archaeology team take photos of the sculptures to keep as image records.

At this time, Tianzhen asked: "Professor Chen, since this door has already been blown open, does that mean someone has been in here before?"

Professor Chen nodded, "That possibility cannot be ruled out."

The tens of millions of friends in the archaeology livestream began guessing who had entered the ancient tomb before the archaeology team.

[Could this be some folk archaeology expert?]

[Damn, could it be Chen Pi?]

[Who is Chen Pi?]

[Talking nonsense, Chen Pi is over ninety years old, can he still go down into a tomb?]

[Isn't it possible? After all, the old man was still hanging upside down in the Mirror Palace when he was over sixty!]

[Damn, who exactly is Chen Pi?]

[Could it be someone from the Wu family? Didn't the Wu family discover these Warring States silk books first?]

[That’s impossible! Old Dog Wu only got the silk books recently before they were swindled away by Americans; if it were anyone, it would be the Americans!]

[Who the hell is this Old Dog Wu?]

[I think the possibility of it being Americans is higher; after all, the archaeology team only got rubbings of the silk books, and that was over a decade later.]

[Damn, if it really is the Americans, then haven't the things in this ancient tomb already been stolen clean?]

The guesses of the netizens were also Professor Chen’s worry.

When he saw that large hole, Professor Chen was afraid that the national team had arrived too late.

If the things inside had all been stolen by the Americans, the loss to the country would be immense!

Therefore, while some archaeology team members were taking photos of the hungry ghost statues, Professor Chen led the remaining people through the jade door and into the tomb chamber.

At this moment, Fatty again sneakily said to Tianzhen: "Do you know where Master Zhang’s eyes were focused when he looked at that hungry ghost statue?"

Tianzhen was completely confused, "Where?"

Fatty quickly pointed to the hungry ghost’s hand; in that hand, it was holding a seal.

This led Tianzhen to take an extra look when he passed by the statue.

But he didn't find anything special about that seal.

It just didn't look like a conventional seal shape, and the carvings on it were also a bit strange.

It was just that the seal wasn't large, and it was pitch black, so it wasn't very clear.

However, if Master Zhang was really staring at that seal, he likely knew what this thing was!

Influenced by Fatty, Tianzhen also felt more and more that Master Zhang seemed to have many secrets.

……

After following Professor Chen into the tomb chamber, everyone discovered that there were many coffins in the room.

And the lids of the coffins were all covered, looking as if they were intact!

Group: 371729119

Seeing this scene, Professor Chen’s heart suddenly settled a bit.

If the coffins hadn't been moved, it meant the things inside hadn't been stolen.

Because people who enter ancient tombs with the purpose of theft wouldn't have such high standards.

They wouldn't put the coffins back after taking the items!

Professor Chen had led teams in rescue excavations of some looted ancient tombs.

Those were the dirty deeds of people who refused to accept national archaeological regulations, refused to report their itineraries, and refused to hand over archaeological finds according to their importance!

Such people tended to keep everything in the ancient tomb for themselves.

They only had money in their hearts, not the big picture.

It was as if the cultural gaps of the Xia Kingdom had nothing to do with them.

Many precious cultural relics that could have filled cultural voids flowed into the market this way and eventually entered overseas!

The destructiveness of the ancient tombs looted by these people was quite significant.

Sometimes the tomb owner’s corpse was even dragged out and exposed in the wilderness by them.

Just because such people who don't follow the rules exist, many people feel that folk archaeology shouldn't be encouraged.

But in terms of the losses brought by folk archaeology versus the contributions made, the country still tends to want to find ancient culture faster and in greater quantities.

Thereby re-establishing the cultural confidence of the Xia Kingdom.

Now seeing that the coffins hadn't been damaged, Professor Chen could at least determine that lawbreakers hadn't entered this ancient tomb first.

After Tianzhen and Fatty entered, they could tell at a glance that these coffins seemed to be arranged in some kind of order, not very neatly or regularly.

Fatty kept an eye out and counted, discovering there were exactly seven coffins!

And the coffins themselves were also very exquisite, not only having a large number of carved patterns, but they also seemed to have some kind of inscription carved on them.

Professor Chen shone his flashlight and studied them for a long time, but unfortunately, he couldn't understand a single word.

This kind of inscription didn't look like the writing of any dynasty in the Xia Kingdom; it had a bit of an exotic flavor.

But Professor Chen knew that inscriptions were most helpful in determining the identity of the tomb owner.

Since he couldn't understand it, he immediately had people take photos of the inscriptions and send them back to the National Institute of Archaeology.

He had the experts at the National Institute of Archaeology decipher them quickly.

At the same time, he also posted a sample image in the livestream for the netizens to identify.

There is no shortage of all kinds of masters among the public.

Sometimes things that experts don't understand happen to be in a field that a certain master is skilled in.

For example, once the Institute of Archaeology was excavating an ancient tomb from the Qin Dynasty.

There were a few lines of small characters carved in the tomb passage, and they didn't use the script of the Central Plains at all.

It also didn't seem to be the writing of any ethnic minority.

The National Institute of Archaeology posted the content images online, and eventually, it was deciphered by a folk master.

He told the experts at the Institute of Archaeology that this was a special script used by a special profession.

This profession was the pigment mixer for the ancient royal family, specifically responsible for mixing various colors of pigments for the royal family to use in architecture, painting, tie-dyeing, etc.

This script was the mixers' own private writing.

They used a script that others couldn't understand to name the rare colors they mixed!

That’s right, color was a luxury item in ancient times!

In an era without chemical synthetics, colorful hues were extremely hard to come by.

Therefore, the pigment mixers recorded the names and mixing methods of the rare colors they found using a script only they could understand.

The purpose was to prevent leaks!