Book 1: Chapter 32: Street Caller


    The three of us were silent for a while until Fatty eventually said, "They were already building a tomb. Could they really dig up something more unlucky than that?"


    "It mightve been unlucky for the living, but lucky for the dead," I said.


    They had simply changed the position a little bit and continued building the tomb, after all. If it had been harmful to the feng shui here, they would have definitely changed to apletely different location. On the contrary, this thing may have been beneficial to the tombs feng shui.


    "Could it be they dug up some treasure? Fatty frowned. "Or maybe a giant m?"


    "Hasnt that stuff been sold by the catty (1) in recent years?" I asked. As one of the seven treasures of Buddhism (2), giant ms were once very precious. Peopleter began farming them and now a giant m weighing three or four pounds could grow in about four or five years. "Guess, is the tomb passage above us abandoned or are we standing in the abandoned one?"


    "Do you still have to guess?" Fatty asked back. "I took a look at the crappy thunder god statue in your tomb passage. It''s a fucking y pot. My tomb passage is gilded. Besides, have you ever seen an abandoned tomb passage in the middle of a tomb? Oh, this tomb passage has been built and scrapped, so lets dig a burial chamber up and down. The feng shui of this ancient tomb is only sacred as a whole, so it cant be modified. It cant just run any which way. The tomb passage above us is the abandoned one. If you dont believe me, let''s go and see what magical things they dug up back then"


    I stopped him, "Hold your horses. Remember the Stagnant Water Dragon King temple?"


    We had found a strange relic in an ancient underground salt mine in Fujian. At that time, we turned away and didn''t go in, so the name became a kind of representation of our determination to be good.


    Fatty gave me a thumbs up, "Amazing, Mr. Nave! Then let''s hurry up and find the main tomb so we can figure out whats going on with your Uncle Three."


    I lifted my towel and wiped the mud off before I pped Fatty''s hand away. We then followed Poker-Face to the other side of the tomb passage.


    As we walked down the long passage, I could see that the murals were full of eyes. I looked at them carefully, noticing that the murals wereyered and the eyelids were closed under the dim light. Fatty said that when there was light, the outeryers would vtilize bit by bit until the inneryers were revealed. The paint would be brighter and the eyes would be bigger with eachyer that was revealed.


    I whispered to him, "How did you know not to turn on the lights? Looks you havent lost your touch, after all."


    Fatty took out his phone, turned on the Bluetooth, and searched for Bluetooth devices around him. I saw it find a device that turned out to be Liu Sang''s phone. Its name was: "Be aware that you cant use lights around the muralsLiu Sang".


    Where is this kid? I asked him.


    "He won''t die. This kind of fool can live to a hundred and eight. Hes nearby, but he wont return any of my messages, Fatty said. "He must be pocketing all the good stuff for himself. When we get out of here, Ill make him empty his pockets. He wont be able to hide a single thing from me."


    I remembered the rumors Fatty had told me about Liu Sang and asked him how he knew him. Fatty sneered, "It''s a long story. Since youre in this business, you should know about Laitou Guzis death. Seventeen people from Xuanchengs old market entered Xiaomangshan and went into the Empress Dowager Chengtians tomb (3). He alone survived. Thirteen years ago, he was only a few years old and living as a street caller (4). Laitou Guzi picked him up because he had good hearing. After Laitou Guzi''s death, he found another master to apprentice under. This kid is clever, diligent, does a good job, and his hearing is really good. He''s be an expert in this business for some reason, but Ive heard all kinds of rumors, so I think its not that simple."


    I didnt know about Laitou Guzi since I was so young at the time, but I knew what Fatty meant. This kid was too smart. Something mustve happened underground at that time, and if a kid coulde out alive, then he mustvemitted murder.


    Street callers were beggars with disabilities. Beggars in Shandong, Henan, and other ces called themselves poor families, iming that they had been poor for thousands of years. Begging was a veryplicated business, and there were many different types. For example, there were hua quian (5) in Hubei Province, which was what Chen Pi Ah Si was back in the day. It was basically a beggar who was born tomit violent crimes. They were often fierce, cunning, spiteful, and persistent. Common beggars of poor families in the Shandong and Henan provinces were called "si nianzi", which could further be divided into three branches: hanmen, qimen and guomen. The poor families in Hebei also included Fanjiamen, Kangjiamen, Lijiamen and Gaojiamen.


    There were three kinds ofmon beggars: "entertainers", "fighters", and "street callers". Those beggars who strong-armed people into giving them money were the fighters, while those who had disabilities were the "street callers". The so-called "entertainers" asked for money by performing arts, such as singing folk songs (6), smashing cattle bones, and ying those bamboo pper boards that were used in folk theater.


    "Wheres he disabled?" I asked Fatty. Based on how he acted, I really couldnt tell at all.


    "Brain damage," Fatty said. "It''s definitely brain damage."


    With that said, we followed Poker-Face all the way to a stone gate at the end of the tomb passage. There was a veryplicated "caisson" (7) above the gate, with arge number of multiyer dougongs (8) and sharp flying eaves. This was the path to the second immortal gate. The dougongs were surrounded by wood carvings of immortals, but the wood had rotted and cracked. Poker-Face nced at us, "If you want to chat, finish it here. The tomb chamber is up ahead."


    Fatty looked at him, thought about it, and decided to keep talking. He stopped walking and said to me, "Theres one thing in particr Ive heard about Liu Sang. When I say it, you''ll know why I''m so cautious around him."


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) A catty is ~1.3 pounds or ~ 500 grams. Random tidbit of info: giant ms can live up to like 100 years and can weigh up to 400 pounds. Heres some more info.


    (2) Theres amon belief that wearing jewelry made from a giant m pearl can calm the spirit and remove negative energy. Some random info here.


    (3) Xiaomangshan= Little Python Mountain. Empress Dowager Chengtian was also known as Xiao Yanyan. She lived from 953-1009. She was a Khitan empress and military leader of imperial China''s Liao dynasty. More info here.


    (4) Its a type of beggar who shouted and begged in the streets (I guess they didn''t go up and beg people for food?).


    (5) Its mentioned in Chen Pis extra. Chapter 4.20.


    (6) Its really folk theater consisting of recitation apanied by pper board rhythm, but that doesnt flow lol.


    (7) A caisson, also referred to as a spider web ceiling, is an East Asian architectural feature typically found in the ceiling of temples and pces. They would look like this:


    (8) More traditional Chinese architectural stuff. Theyre interlocking wooden brackets between the top of a column and crossbeams. Look like this:


    ****


    <strong><em>Shew, I think I broke a sweat on this one lol. Just this 1 Reboot chapter tonight dears. I''m going to try and get Tiffany''s out and then work on fixing some Vol 8 chapters for those poor suckers that areing here after the Ultimate Note lol. So many pits to fall into, so little time. Until tomorrow~~~</em></strong>