Chapter 406: Journey to the Buddha

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“It must be the height or the humidity level of the location where the corpse was found,” Tian Dongmin recalled. “The corpse was well-preserved. Even the hair on the head and the clothes on the body were distinguishable. As we are all archeologists, we could easily tell that the corpse belonged to the Ming Dynasty!”

“The corpse belongs to a middle-aged man, but the cause of his death was unknown.”

“The odd thing we discovered was the piece of cow skin in the hands of the corpse. The cow skin looked like it had been treated with Chinese wood oil. Despite the fact that it had been around for so many years, it did not have any sign of decomposition.”

“We cautiously removed the piece of cow skin from the hands of the corpse. When we unfolded the piece of cow skin, we were surprised to see some writings on it.”

“Dong Peizhuo, someone with profound knowledge in languages could decipher and read out the writings on the spot!”

“It was, in retrospect, like a script in a movie,” Tian Dongmin had an agonizing look on his face, and said. “The piece of cow skin was actually a will! What shocked us more, was the fact that it contained a big secret. At the time, we felt like it was a dream, and could not believe the sight before our eyes!”

Zhao Yu made a guess, “Is it related to the Gold Buddha?”

“Yes! The will was handwritten by the Luya Prefecture, Qiu Cheng.” Tian Dongmin gave an affirmative answer. “To be able to lay hands on the will, the corpse was likely to be a descendant of Qiu Cheng, either his son or grandson.”

“By and large, the content in the will mentioned that, before the death of Qiu Cheng, he put away a large amount of treasures, including the Dozen Statues of Gold Buddha, all of which were hidden in a secret place in Qinshan.”

“In order to remember the location where he hid the treasures, Qiu Cheng secretly created two treasure maps.”

“Later on, Qiu Cheng suddenly fell ill and was bedridden. Before his death, he did not manage to come around to move his hidden treasures. He handed one copy of the treasure map to his family, while bringing the other copy with him to his deathbed.”

Upon hearing that, Zhao Yu and Miao Ying were still confused and had more doubts. It seemed that the corpse and will were the vital clues to the case, which was very different from what they had imagined it to be.

“The will also revealed an important detail,” Wang Taiming was explaining to Zhao Yu and Miao Ying on his way back to the tent. “As Qiu Cheng was a very cautious man, he covered his tracks by engraving the treasure map onto two pieces of ancient jade! That is to say, the will, which was found in the hands of the corpse, was not the treasure map!”

“We searched every corner of the place where we found the corpse, attempting to find the piece of ancient jade, but to no avail. It was unknown whether the will and the piece of jade were separated, or if it was because the descendants of Qiu Cheng had lost the jade accidentally.”

Tian Dongmin added, “We searched the records and found that Qiu Cheng only had one son, who succeeded to the throne and became the Qiu Cheng Prefecture. However, before long, the peasants staged an uprising. Sadly, there was no further documentation found in the records. Therefore, we had a feeling that the corpse belongs to the son of Qiu Cheng.”

“We saw a lot of ancient military equipments in the cave. I suspected that, after the fall of Luya Town, Qiu Cheng’s son, his family, and some soldiers fled to the cave and lived in seclusion for several years. However, it was probably an outbreak of disease that took the lives of all of them. Qiu Cheng’s son could have died on a higher ground, thus leaving the corpse there.”

“That was why all of us felt that the Gold Buddha and treasures could still be well hidden in the Qinshan, where no one has discovered them yet. We also wondered if we were to find the piece of ancient jade, would it lead us to the Gold Buddha and treasures.”

“But…” Hearing this, Miao Ying frowned and interrupted, “Now that the piece of ancient jade is missing, does it mean that the treasures are found?”

“Yes, it is possible!” Zhao Yu agreed with Miao Ying. “This happened so long ago, so anything is possible! The corpse could have belonged to one of the Tomb robbers, who killed Qiu Cheng’s descendants and stole the treasures away. Another possibility could be a betrayal by a family member. After all, it was such a large amount of treasures.”

“No!” Tian Dongmin shook his head and said. “According to our subsequent research, the probability of the Dozen Statues of Gold Buddha being found was less than five percent.”

“Surely not? How could all of you be so sure?” Zhao Yu did not believe it.

“Believe me; we have been researching on cultural relics for a lifetime! Wang Taiming said, “No one understood more than us the value of the Dozen Statues of Gold Buddha! Twelve days were needed to create the prototype of the Dozen Statues of Gold Buddha. Each status was made of pure gold. Their significance and standard set them apart to be classified as among the national level of rare cultural relics.”

“If it did happen in the past, it would definitely be documented in the records!”

“Also, had the treasure map been engraved on the ancient jade, Qiu Cheng’s son would likely memorize the treasure map by heart and would have broken the ancient jade. This would be a foolproof plan!”

“Then explain it to me,” Zhao Yu said. “Since Qiu Cheng’s son memorized the treasure map, why did he not retrieve the treasure? And why did he die at… oh…”

Zhao Yu did not finish his sentence, answering his own question: “It could be possible. At that time of chaos, the treasures would not be of any use, even if he had retrieved them.”

“Yes!” Wang Taiming added. “No matter who it was, retrieving the treasures would not be of any use! At that state in time, staying alive was the top priority! Sadly, the descendants of Qiu Cheng did not manage to keep themselves alive!”

“Oh…” Zhao Yu understood now. “So, from that moment, all of you kept thinking about the Gold Buddha and treasures, and planned to find the treasure map to retrieve the Gold Buddha! Also, all of you kept it hush-hush in order to lay hands on the ill-gotten wealth?”

“That’s not true!” Tian Dongmin sighed. “We had been in the cultural relic’s line for a lifetime. We were not obsessed with wealth! But… Maybe… After the death of the Fan Department Leader, we developed some sort of obsession? We unexpectedly made the wrong decision!”

“So… How did the Fan Department Leader die?” Miao Ying questioned.

“Oh well…” Tian Dongmin replied, “At that time… we did not think much into it. We thought that being able find the related clues about the Gold Buddha was a huge cultural relic discovery. We anticipated that, once we got back to the office, we would have to write reports about our findings and apply for a permit to retrieve the treasures.”

“Unexpectedly, on our way back, we encountered an unprecedented flash flood in Qinshan. It was so frightening! The flood enveloped us from all around. The pathways we saw a moment ago, became streams instantly…We ran… and hid, but were swept off by the waters eventually.”

“Fortunately, there were a lot of vines growing on the shore. Wang Taiming and me climbed to safety, leaving behind Dong Peizhuo and the Fan Department Leader.” Tian Dongmin recalled the painful memories. “Initially, Fan Department Leader was able to climb to safety on the shore. But, seeing that Dong Peizhuo was about to be swept away by the waters, Fan Department Leader went back in an attempt to save him. This caused him to get caught in the vines.”

“But after Dong Peizhuo went ashore, all of a sudden, there was a big block of wood in the water, which floated over and knocked right into Fan Department Leader’s body, causing him to be swept into the middle of the flood! All of us were shocked at what we saw, and wanted to get into the waters to save him. But the great flood forbade us to do so!”

“Subsequently, we saw Fan Department Leader struggling in the waters, as he shouted to us, ‘Gold Buddha! Remember to find the Gold Buddha… Gold Buddha…'”

“After shouting those two sentences, we… did not see him again!” Speaking of this, Zhao Yu and Miao Ying could clearly tell that there were tears in Tian Dongmin’s eyes, so emotional was he, that he could not continue talking.

“After we came home, Dong Peizhuo was distraught and behaved like a zombie in full flesh! No one could talk him out of his funk.” Wang Taiming continued sharing the story on behalf of the emotional Tian Dongmin. “We could not stand the sight of his behavior any longer, and told Dong Peizhuo that Fan Department Leader’s last wish was to find the Gold Buddha. We should put together all our efforts to find the Gold Buddha and fulfill his last wish. It was definitely more meaningful than for him to waste his life away.”

“Upon hearing that, Dong Peizhuo finally braced himself up and found the meaning of his life again! He vowed to dedicate his whole life into finding the Gold Buddha!”

“But…” Speaking of this, Wang Taiming had a change of tone in his voice and said, “We faced a challenge in the finding of Gold Buddha. If we were to report the Gold Buddha matter truthfully, the higher authorities would inevitably report to the State Administration of the Cultural Relic Bureau. This way, the task of finding the Gold Buddha would not fall on us!”

“At that time, if we were to continue finding the Gold Buddha, we would face a lot of constraints and concerns. Not only would we risk losing our jobs, but also, it might implicate our family and friends! That was why, after much deliberation, we decided to conceal the truth and used our own ways to find the Gold Buddha, in order to fulfill the last wish of Fan Department Leader.”

“This was how we started our journey to the Buddha.” Wang Taiming tearfully said. “But it was unexpected that this journey would take us twenty long years! It was also a journey of no return!”

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