Chapter 90: Causes and Consequences (2)

After Guo Er finished speaking, Su Rou and I both felt a little heavy hearted. Yes, he had tried every possible way to make money, to strive, that kind of striving could be considered striving too, but in the end it was all for nothing, and on top of that he had two elderly parents above him and two young children below him, while his own body had ended up in this state.

I actually knew about Guo Er’s family. Aside from an elder sister who had married far away, he was the only child. In those years, that was quite rare.

Everyone fell silent for a moment. After finishing his last puff of cigarette, Guo Er said, “Little master, I, Guo Er, am not good at many things, but I am pretty sharp, like an all purpose remedy. I know you came here because of something, so just say whatever you need to say.”

Back then, I was still someone who did not know how to beat around the bush. Since Guo Er had said that, I asked directly, “The thing in that tomb is too dangerous. I came to ask how many people went that day and what exactly happened. That is all.”

Guo Er’s expression changed slightly and he asked, “Little master, just how dangerous is that thing?”

“You experienced it yourself, what do you think? I am worried that if you go down again and bring something back that should not come back up, the villagers will be affected. So I have to make things clear,” I said very seriously.

Upon hearing this, Guo Er slapped himself hard once and said, “Little master, then you should quickly go find one person. He brought something up. That tomb is extremely sinister. I, Guo Er, may be mixed up in all this, but I cannot harm the villagers.”

Hearing that, my heart suddenly tightened. Su Rou could not help but slap his own forehead and muttered, “My Uncle Guo Er, you really dare to bring anything back.”

But this was not the time to worry about that. The key was to understand what Guo Er and the others had done down there and what they had encountered. I forced myself to stay calm and held back the urge to immediately go back and find my master and track that person down. I said, “Do not worry. We will find the person. You just need to tell me what happened that night first.”

“Alright, alright,” Guo Er quickly agreed, then added, “Remember, the one who brought something up was Old Du, Du Changyi.”

“How is it him?” I had not even spoken when Su Rou exclaimed. Who was Old Du? He was an official in the village.

I waved my hand to signal Su Rou to stay calm, then said, “I understand. Continue slowly.”

Guo Er nodded, took a deep drag of his cigarette, and began to recount what happened that night.

Guo Er was a well known figure in the village. Why? Because he had a quick mind. Normally, people with quick minds tend to be a bit lazier than ordinary people. Why? Because once your mind becomes flexible, you no longer want to earn hard money, you start thinking about making a living with your brain instead.

Guo Er was exactly that kind of person. In his early years, he had a good relationship with village officials, so he was given an easy job and managed to accumulate quite a few work points.

Later, the policy changed. Guo Er did not want to spend his life farming, so he tried to follow the new policies to make money. He made a few trips to the county town and township, and eventually figured out a way to earn money, collecting scrap.

In the village, he was the only one doing this. As mentioned before, because he had a sharp mind, he naturally would not go door to door collecting himself. Instead, he set up a scrap collection workshop and hired people to collect it for him.

In fact, this business did make money, and he earned quite a bit, until one day when he went to the county scrap collection station and met a few strange people.

Those strange people were young men, but they were dressed very fashionably, in floral shirts and tight bell bottom pants, and two of them even had permed curly hair. That style was rare even in the county and definitely ahead of its time. What was strange was that these trendy young people had actually appeared at a scrap collection station.

Guo Er was delivering goods when they stopped him. One of them said quite sincerely to Guo Er, “Let us take a look at whether there is anything good. We will pay big money for it, is that alright?”

What good things could possibly be in scrap? The most valuable things were just some waste copper. Guo Er was someone with both brains and courage. After observing them, he realized these young people were not targeting him specifically. They inspected almost everyone who brought scrap. So Guo Er decided to take a gamble. What if there really was something valuable in his pile of junk?

After getting Guo Er’s permission, those young people indeed began rummaging through his scrap, and they really did find some items.

Those items were not popular in the countryside. There were a few old copper coins, a very old and blackened silver lock meant for children, and a few large bowls.

What were these things supposed to be worth?

Yet those people actually paid Guo Er fifty yuan.

As I said, Guo Er was a thoughtful man. People who are thoughtful like to think. He began to ponder the situation and asked around everywhere, and eventually he learned a completely new term he had never encountered before, antiques.

It turned out those young people were searching for antiques in scrap. These items, once taken to big cities, were worth a great deal of money.

Guo Er did not regret what happened that day. He knew that as long as he understood the trick behind it, he could make money from it. Why care about a single loss or gain? Besides, the ones who lacked judgment were probably those young people. They were so conspicuous while collecting scrap, were they not attracting suspicion? He, Guo Er, would never do something so foolish.

He devoted himself to learning about this matter. After a few months, he truly figured out the system, and that year he made quite a bit of money from it.

But how large could the village’s resources be? Moreover, he was not the only one doing it. Once more people joined in, the villagers started to take notice. In short, it was no longer easy to find old goods.

In fact, there were still ways, such as going to more remote places to collect, but Guo Er had even bigger ambitions. He knew of something even more profitable, grave robbing. That was something he had heard about after starting this business.

He had heard too many stories of people becoming rich overnight because of a rich tomb. Although it was dangerous, he decided to go for it.

After that, Guo Er formed a team. Including himself, there were four people. This included Han Hua, known for his strong body and nicknamed Han Niu, Jiang Xianqin, who knew a bit of folk exorcism and was called Jiang Yaomaoer in Sichuan, and finally Old Du.

Old Du had a heavy family burden. As a small village official, he did not have much benefit, so he decided to work with me. Having an official as cover made things much easier. Jiang Yaomaoer was brought in because grave digging was a bit sinister, and having someone who understood the field made things safer. As for Han Niu, his body was strong enough to do the work of two men, so he was absolutely necessary. As for me, in order to learn the trade, I had secretly followed others into two tombs in other places. With these four people, it was enough, Guo Er explained.

In truth, this ragtag team could not compare with professionals. But in this rural area, even a landlord’s tomb was rare, so this kind of team was sufficient.

So they began working everywhere. But the harvest was not very rich, far from becoming rich overnight, only making small amounts of money.

The richest tomb they had ever dug was that of a minor seventh rank official, and they only earned a little over three thousand yuan. Split among them, each person only got a few hundred.

Guo Er was unwilling to accept this. He had followed others into tombs before and had seen real wealth. He desperately wanted to find a rich tomb.

At that moment, Old Du reminded him, “Er Wa Zi, do you remember that year?”

“Which year?”

“The year when our village cut bamboo. Everyone in the village knows that during that time a tomb was dug up. Just the exposed gate was already as tall as half a person. What do you think? Would that count as rich meat?”

Hearing this, Guo Er slapped his forehead and said, “Look at me, I have been confused. How did I forget about that? That is definitely a rich tomb, richer than rich. We are going after it.”

And so, that was how Guo Er and his group set their sights on the hungry ghost tomb.

After the graves in that area had been relocated, the original plan was to build a township office there. But because it used to be a burial ground, the officials felt uneasy about it. After building two half finished buildings there, construction was eventually stopped.