Let me start with something interesting.

Tian Youjin was a pharmacist who dealt in caterpillar fungus (1). He had a close relationship with my elders and belonged to the "come and give me a hug" category of uncles that I used to see when I was young.

During the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s, Tian Youjin had to live in a rural community in the mountainous areas of Inner Mongolia. He always talked about how he got separated from the herding team one time and ended up wandering around the grasslands for two months. During that time, he led the flock and even escaped from a mountain wolf before finally being saved.

Whenever he reunited with his comrades-in-arms and had too much to drink, he would start telling this story as if it was a part of his character development. In his account, that time was a rare rainy season in Inner Mongolia. The torrential rain and lightning all over the sky was the most beautiful and frightening scenery he had ever seen.

In 2013, Tian Youjin began to suffer from liver failure as a result of his alcoholism, which led to systemic organ failure. On his deathbed, his comrades came to see him. They pitied him and tried to comfort him, but at that time, he told them a second version of what he had experienced.

In the previous versions, he had experienced all this alone. But in the story he told before his death, there was one more person present. For decades, he never mentioned the existence of this person.

Tian Youjin met this man at the beginning of the second month after he entered the depths of the grassland. It was raining heavily that day. When he looked up at the valley, he saw a man standing on a ridge in no-man’s land, staring at the lightning in the sky.

He couldn't see the man clearly in the torrential rain. All he saw was the distant man pointing him in the right direction before he disappeared into the forest. There were no horses or herdsmen behind him. He was the only person.

According to Tian Youjin, this was a magical moment. The place was nearly a month away from the nearest outpost. Without horses and supplies, it was absolutely impossible for anyone to walk that far in the old forest.

A person suddenly appearing in such a place was so suspicious that he almost thought the other person was lost. But the man didn't ask him for help.

He also thought that the other party might have been a spy who had entered through Mongolia and was exploring the terrain here. Or he had met a mountain ghost. He was so frightened that he dared not speak about it for a long time. After being seriously ill, the images in his brain became clearer and clearer, and he finally decided to speak about it.

I had read this excerpt in my grandfather's notes. At that time, my grandfather had wanted to buy some caterpillar fungus from Tian Youjin. I didn’t know from whom he’d heard the story, but my grandfather's evaluation was very simple. He thought that the man Tian Youjin had seen in the mountains was a grave robber.

In Xu Ke's “Anthology of Petty Matters in the Qing Dynasty: Thieves” (2), there was a story about Jiao Si, a big thief in Guangzhou. Jiao Si often stayed near Baiyun Mountain and engaged in grave robbing. He had dozens of disciples who had skills like listening to the rain, wind, and thunder, and looking at the grass color, mud tracks, and so on. One day, he was out on the northern outskirts of the city. It was around noon when thunder and lightning broke out across the sky. Jiao Si sent everyone in all four directions, telling them to listen and observe their surroundings. They must not hesitate even with the thunderstorm going on and should commit whatever they had seen to memory. Jiao Si stood tall at the top of the ridge in the midst of the thunderstorm. The rain gradually stopped after a while, at which point someone returned from the east. They said that when a loud clap of thunder rang out, they felt a faint vibration under their feet and heard a sound coming from the ground. “That’s it!” Jiao Si said happily.

Any time thunder boomed across the sky, the hollow caves and tombs in the mountains would resonate, making it easier to find the locations of tombs in those large areas.

Inner Mongolia having such a huge rainy season was something that was rarely seen for decades. It must have taken a lot of patience and two generations’ worth of planning over several decades to be able to appear at the scene at such a time. This individual’s sudden appearance on the mountain wasn’t for something simple. Instead, they were there for a big tomb buried deep under the mountain.

But the way things developed wasn’t so simple. In fact, the development of this story was completely different from my previous experience.It all started with a text message from my Uncle Three.

There had been many stories involving both me and my Uncle Three before. After he disappeared in the Tarim Basin, I always believed on the surface that he was gone, but in my heart, I always felt that he wouldn’t die so easily. During the Chinese New Year this year, I received a short, cryptic message from a strange number.

East Nanjing Drum Tower, Arctic Pavilion Weather Museum, locker 221. Happy New Year.

I felt like the hesitant and roundabout style of this short message was odd, but that kind of style had frequently accompanied me before ten years ago. Everything Uncle Three used to send me was usually easy to understand, so I didn't know what he was trying to do.

During all those years, I had been looking forward to the day when Uncle Three would tell me the secrets in his heart. I wanted to see what was so great that he felt the need to lie to me. When I later found out that he might not be my real Uncle Three, I suddenly understood something. If a person had to bear too many lies, he might not be able to clarify them even if he wanted to.

I let go of my obsession at that time, because I was afraid that he was deceiving me about my own identity. Maybe I wasn't me. Maybe I was born as a toad spirit, or I came from a three-thousand-year-old rock or something. Although I was confident that I had been an ordinary person since birth, I didn't know how to face myself in case I was from an illogical or illustrious background like that.

I didn't go to Nanjing immediately, but went to Beijing first. My presence put a lot of pressure on things there, so Fatty and I eventually left for Nanjing. I had been reading that text message on the high-speed train over and over again. I didn't try to call the number back like I would have done before. Instead, I had learned that hiding myself first was the best way to take the lead.

Fatty asked me what I wanted to do.

I had been doing some thinking and knew that things like lockers were usually cleaned out every night. If something had been placed inside the locker, then it wouldn’t have made it through the night. If I went there, I wasn’t expecting to see anything inside that locker. But even if someone had put something in there, then it must have been taken to the lost and found. Like this, they could ensure that the item wouldn’t be taken away after it was left behind.

Another possibility was that the information or item was stuck in a hidden part of the locker, or simply written in there with a black light pen.

But I didn’t think it was possible. Based on my understanding of Uncle Three, the locker itself must have been tampered with.

The Arctic Pavilion had a very long history. It had always been famous since the Observatory of Astronomy had been built in the Liu Song period of the Southern Dynasties (3). A huge observation platform was built there in the early Ming Dynasty, which made me wonder if Wang Zanghai had been involved at the time.

All of this meant that the place wasn’t irrelevant.

There weren’t many obstacles along the way. We found an employee, gave them the locker number, and then followed them the whole way.

Locker 221 wasn’t in use and happened to be open. I looked inside, but found that it was empty. Fatty helped block me from prying eyes as I felt around the inside to make sure there wasn’t a hidden compartment. When I still didn’t find anything, I asked about the lost and found.

Fatty looked at me, "So stupid. Isn’t it just a spam message?"I shook my head and turned to look at the wall opposite locker 221 as I tried to think. The wall was full of guestbooks that people could look at. I pointed my hand straight across to where locker 221 would be on the opposite side and walked over, finding a guest book.

There was a string that attached the book to a wooden plank that ran across the wall. I opened the book and began to skim it. As I flipped through a few pages, I came to one in particular that had the following passage written on it:

Transfer Statement

I hereby transfer Plot No.87 of Section A, Changping Road, Xiaosongshan to Wu Xie free of charge.

Transferor: Wu Sanxing

Transferee: _____________

The transfer of rights will be completed when this document is signed, without any other agreement.

There was also a thumbprint on it. I froze for a moment and Fatty asked, "What's wrong?"

"My Uncle Three left me a piece of land," I said.

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TN Notes:

(1) If you skipped the Zhang family extra, caterpillar fungus (Cordyceps sinensis), is a fungus that grows on insects. It’s mainly found in the Tibetan Plateau. It parasitizes larvae of ghost moths and produces a fruiting body that’s valued as an herbal remedy and is used in traditional Chinese medicine. It’s now considered an endangered species in China because of overharvesting and overexploitation. According to this page, it’s taken as a generic immune booster, or to treat a growing list of conditions, including cancer. But its anti-tumor properties have never been tested in a clinical trial. More general info here.

(2) Xu Ke (1869–1928)’s “Anthology of Petty Matters in the Qing Dynasty” is considered an "unofficial" history of the Qing Dynasty that provides an encyclopedic coverage of life during that time. The content is extremely vast and includes all aspects of history, society, state, the arts, and human life. It's composed of extracts and quotes from people without livelihoods, including scoundrels, thieves, opium addicts, etc. More info here.

(3) The Liu Song period was around (420-479 CE)

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