Back at the hotel, staring at the countdown card that would flip to “10” in just a few hours, Cao Yanhua grew frantic. He bounced around, discussing possible plans with Wan San. Should they place ads to recruit more people to search? Offer a reward?
He even turned his thoughts to Yan Hongsand. “Little Red Sand, didn’t your grandfather know how to read ‘treasure aura’? Why don’t you try? Bronze is a treasure too. It’s an artifact!”
Yan Hongsand stayed silent.
Wan San’s heart stirred. “Er Huo, don’t tell me you actually know how?”
Yan Hongsand said, “I definitely don’t. My grandfather never trained me. You know I specialized in descending into treasure wells. But…”
But Old Yan could, and with a lifetime of experience passed down through generations, it was impossible that nothing was left behind.
When Yan Hongsand sold off the family mansion in Kunming to pay debts, she cleared out everything in the house.
In the past, she rarely stayed in her grandfather’s room. It always felt lifeless and smelled of accumulated herbal medicine. But that time, she cleaned every corner of the room.
That was when she saw the Yan family’s handwritten treasure-hunting manual.
It wasn’t meant for her. It was for her uncle Yan Jiuxiao. There were even words on the title page stating that Yan descendants must strictly observe the rules, and that non-disciples were forbidden from reading it.
How tragic. Her grandfather was dead. Her uncle Yan Jiuxiao was dead too.
Yan Hongsand sighed. She truly hadn’t read it, and the manuscript had simply stayed with her.
Cao Yanhua was overjoyed. “Where is it?”
Yan Hongsand nodded toward the luggage bag by the sofa.
This was truly a case of finding something after exhausting all other options. Wan San swallowed. “Um… doesn’t your family specialize in diving into wells to collect pearls? Can you even detect gold, silver, bronze, and iron?”
“The manual covers all kinds of treasures. My grandfather was just especially skilled with treasure wells.” Yan Hongsand didn’t understand their enthusiasm. “Besides, the phoenix clasp is just three pieces of bronze, right? That tiny thing. How much ‘treasure aura’ could it have?”
Cao Yanhua and Wan San answered in perfect unison.
“Better than nothing.”
“Something is better than nothing.”
They both stared at Yan Hongsand, waiting for her decision.
She bit her lip, then suddenly covered her eyes with both hands and shouted, “It’s not my fault! I’m a Yan descendant. I’m not allowed to look!”
With a howl, Cao Yanhua and Wan San lunged for the luggage bag. After all, they weren’t Yan descendants.
Luo Ren gave a wry smile. He didn’t have much hope for this anyway and stood up. “I’m going to make a phone call.”
He went into the inner room of the suite, leaving the door slightly ajar. Outside, Wan San and Cao Yanhua were noisily arguing. Yan Hongsand was adorably stubborn, still covering her eyes tightly, even though they were far away. She was being excessively cautious.
Mu Dai worried the noise might be too loud and went to help Luo Ren close the door. Through the gap, she saw the inner room window half open. Luo Ren was leaning against it, waiting for the call to connect. When he saw her, he waved her inside.
She thought he needed her for something, so she closed the door and went over. When she reached him, Luo Ren smiled slightly, wrapped an arm around her, lowered his head, and kissed her forehead, saying something in Japanese.
He was speaking Japanese into the phone. So he was talking to someone.
Then why call her in? To be affectionate while making a call, killing two birds with one stone?
Mu Dai was annoyed and twisted away to leave. Luo Ren tightened his arm and pulled her back, giving her a provocative look before quickly smiling again and saying, “Aoki.”
Was he calling Aoki? Curious, Mu Dai wanted to listen, but she refused to behave obediently. Her eyes darted, she smiled sweetly, hugged Luo Ren back, rose on tiptoe, and kissed his lips.
Luo Ren had no choice. Sometimes he dodged her. When she really annoyed him, he would pinch her waist hard.
Still, the call went smoothly.
She heard him say, “Aoki, that American-market Bounty Hunter detector modified by the Frenchman Arnaud years ago. I know there’s stock domestically. Help me ask around quickly. In the north, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi. If anyone has one, I need it. Urgently.”
Then he added, “Japanese girls really are easygoing. Yukiko just let you pass like that.”
She didn’t know what Aoki said, but Luo Ren replied, “In the next life. You didn’t introduce anyone earlier, and now you bring it up. You know how Mu Dai gets when she’s angry. She hits people.”
Mu Dai could even hear Aoki laughing loudly through the receiver.
Grinding her teeth in anger, once the call ended, she snapped at Luo Ren, “Did Aoki want to introduce you to a gentle, pretty Japanese girlfriend? A chance like that doesn’t come twice. Why wait for the next life? Do it this one.”
The wind was strong on the high floor. It rushed in through the window, making her hair fly up and cover her eyes.
She reached up to fix it. Luo Ren said, “Don’t move.”
He picked at her hair, squinting as he looked for a moment. “Mu Dai, when your hair lifts like this, there are stars in it. It’s beautiful.”
Really?
Mu Dai turned to look. It was late. Many of the ground lights were out, making the stars in the sky shine brighter, twinkling.
Her mood immediately settled.
She turned back to Luo Ren and asked to confirm, “Japanese girls don’t have stars in their hair?”
Luo Ren said, “Absolutely not.”
In the outer room.
Wan San and Cao Yanhua had their heads pressed together, fighting to read the handwritten manual.
“Look here. It says people who descend into treasure wells often develop unexplained bite marks. ‘Treasure aura like snakes.’ That means the treasure bites them.”
“‘On the mountain there are scallions, below there is silver. On the mountain, there are chives, below there is gold.’ Chives? Like the chives you put in dumplings?”
Yan Hongsand covered her ears, nearly crawling under the sofa cushions. “I’m not listening, I’m not listening!”
But Wan San’s voice stubbornly drilled into her ears. “Damn, there really is bronze. I thought it wasn’t worth anything.”
Cao Yanhua scoffed. “Didn’t you see this line? ‘Anything after the Qin dynasty isn’t worth discussing.’ They’re looking for pre-Qin bronzes. That’s what counts as artifacts. It also says here they’re called ‘auspicious metals.’ Hey, there are notes here too…”
Yan Hongsand perked up her ears. Then it went quiet.
Her curiosity got the better of her. She climbed up from the sofa. “What does it say?”
…
It said that bronze was different from naturally formed treasures. Its value came largely from age. So even a pair of rigorously trained “treasure eyes” might not detect it. Bronze objects were often large and hard to transport, making them like chicken ribs to treasure hunters, not highly recommended.
Below that were just a few lines listing a “secret method,” stating that it was eccentric and harmful to the body, not worth the cost, and not recommended. It was also hearsay, with no guarantee it worked.
It was basically saying nothing at all.
And the so-called secret method was downright horrifying.
Swallow live earthworms, ants, scorpions, centipedes, unhusked rice; burn cinnabar-drawn talisman paper into ash, mix it with strong liquor, and drink it all in one go.
The manuscript even included drawings of the talismans. Fitting for bronze hunting, the talismans looked like the famous bronze Four-Ram Square Zun.
It was said that people who tried this method would become deranged, taking on the instincts of creatures that lived underground, desperately clawing at the earth with their hands. Wherever they dug, there might well be bronze artifacts thousands of years old.
Cao Yanhua shuddered. “That’s not ‘deranged.’ That’s poisoning plus a drunken frenzy.”
No wonder it said the harm was severe. Not only harmful, but also involved in digging with bare hands. Truly undignified.
As they spoke, Luo Ren and Mu Dai came out of the room.
Luo Ren said, “I contacted Aoki. He’ll deliver two modified Bounty Hunters to me by tomorrow at the latest. They’re underground metal detectors. The Frenchman Arnaud modified them years ago. The ones he handled have more sensitive positioning and detection, with depths over ten meters. We’ll work harder. Even if we camp out at Phoenix Ridge, as long as the items are there, I think we’ll get results within three days.”
Bounty Hunters? High-tech? Modified by a Frenchman? Cao Yanhua was thrilled.
Wan San wasn’t. He seemed barely to register Luo Ren’s words, sitting on the sofa staring straight ahead.
There, Cao Jiefang, as always, strolled gracefully around the room, back and forth, back and forth.
Wan San suddenly elbowed Cao Yanhua and whispered, “Hey, Fatty, do chickens eat centipedes?”
“They do, don’t they? Isn’t there that saying, ‘iron chicken fights centipede’?”
“Do they eat ants?”
“Of course. They peck at the ground all day…”
Halfway through his answer, Cao Yanhua’s heart skipped.
He understood what Wan San meant.
The two of them, sharing a tacit understanding, minds meeting in perfect sync, suddenly enlightened, exchanged a look.
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152