At 8:30 that evening, three hours before departure, I knelt on the ground, not daring to look into King Leader's eyes.

There was no point in hiding it from him, so I laid bare the plight of Li Jing's Home truthfully.

The light bulb inside the room was dim, casting a yellowish glow. King Leader sat there smoking a cigarette, expressionless, as he watched me. The atmosphere between us was somewhat oppressive.

Gritting my teeth, I decided to go all in.

I kowtowed forcefully to King Leader: "Boss, Li Jing and her daughter saved my life. They've fallen on hard times now, and I, Xiang Yunfeng, am one to repay kindness with kindness. I'm not sure what will happen tonight when I go down into the pit, but I really want to help them both."

"I'm asking you, Boss, to lend me fifty thousand yuan!" I finished and bowed deeply again.

After hearing my plea, King Leader extinguished his cigarette. He shook his head, his voice deep, "Cloud Peak, fifty thousand yuan is not a small sum. It's nearly a decade's savings for an ordinary family. I can lend it to you, but you have to agree to one condition."

"Please tell me, Boss." My eyes were earnest.

"This condition... you don't need to know it now. Just remember that you owe a debt, that's all."

"In the future, you will repay this debt to me, Mr. Wang."

"Do you agree?" King Leader's gaze was piercing as he looked at me.

At that moment, I agreed. I was doing it for Li Jing.

King Leader then went to his own room, and about ten minutes later, he returned with a bulging plastic bag.

He gently placed the plastic bag on the table.

"Cloud Peak, here's the fifty thousand, not a yuan less. Take it." He pushed the bag towards me.

It had some heft to it. Inside the black plastic bag was money wrapped in newspaper, layered several times over.

Carefully lifting a corner of the newspaper, I saw such a large sum of money for the first time. My heart raced, and I quickly covered the newspaper, not daring to look again.

Before I left, the Boss stood with his hands clasped behind his back and said, "Cloud Peak, remember the time. Come back before midnight tonight."

"Also, we in the underworld always value fairness. I give you money, and you owe me, Mr. Wang, a debt. Similarly, the girl you're helping owes you too."

"I can't guarantee your safety on this venture into the pit. In our line of work, you have to be open-minded, bold, and carefree. Cloud Peak, if you feel short-changed."

"Just take her."

King Leader spoke indifferently, but his words left me unsettled for a long time.

"I... Should I listen to the Leader? But if I do that, wouldn't I, Xiang Yunfeng, just become a lowlife thug?"

The Boss spoke of the rules of our world, that there must be give and take, but... that's hardly a rule, is it?

Clutching a black plastic bag filled with money, I walked with a heavy heart, a mix of excitement, fear, elation, and anxiety.

The image of Li Jing bending over in her Donald Duck pajamas kept surfacing in my mind, along with the words she had said to me that afternoon...

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Bang, bang," I knocked directly on her door.

The door creaked open a sliver, and I saw half of Li Jing's face.

Holding the plastic bag, I said with an excited smile, "Li Jing, I've brought the money! You don't have to worry about people coming to collect debts anymore!"

"Come on, let's talk outside," Li Jing said, her face lighting up with joy as she pulled me toward the arch bridge.

The river flowed, the crescent moon hung in the sky, and under the Shunde arch bridge stood a young man and a young woman.

"Li Jing, take a look, look at this fifty thousand yuan. If you pay those people back, you and your mother will be safe," I handed the plastic bag to her.

By the moonlight, she opened the bag and glanced at the newspaper inside. As she looked, her eyes reddened.

Li Jing, holding the bag, hugged me tightly.

"Xiang Yunfeng, thank you, you're so kind," she said, hugging me tightly.

I could clearly feel the girl's body temperature, softness, and curves.

My face flushed with heat, turning fiercely red.

Li Jing buried her head in my chest and whispered in a tiny voice, "I... I'll keep my word, I'm yours now."

It might sound a bit melodramatic now, but at the time, it was all real, considering we were both quite young.

These days, such things wouldn't be surprising.

Don't believe me? Try taking a brand-new latest model iPhone to a high school and see—girls are much more open now. Getting red-faced from a hug, that's just for shy guys like me.

That night, well... later on, as if possessed or in a daze, I ended up going to a small hotel with Li Jing.

I won't go into the embarrassing details, but in the end, I ran away.

Looking back now, I regret it. I feel like I missed out on some beautiful times.

...

At twelve fourteen in the midnight of Shunde, the entire city was shrouded in darkness, except for two glowing red points halfway up Moth Mountain.

Eldest Elder Sun flicked his cigarette ash and said in a deep voice, "Enough talk, it's settled then. Everyone check your Walkie-Talkie batteries. I'll go down with you to look for people. Second Brother is my own brother, I can't just sit around."

"The lookout duty, I'll leave it to you to arrange," he said to the head.

King Leader didn't speak; he just nodded in agreement.

And so, myself, Boss Number Three, the Yao Family Siblings, a group of five, descended into the pit. The safety of those above was now entirely in the hands of King Leader.

Sliding down the Thief's Hole, the pit was shrouded in darkness, so I turned up the brightness of my headlamp a notch.

It was when we descended to the spot known as Large Tomb Overhead Pouring that Yao Yumen, the woman, paused. She squatted down to feel the stone named Consecration, uttering a soft exclamation of surprise.

"What's wrong, Sister Yao?" I sweetly called out to her.

The woman rolled her eyes at me in response.

"Hey, you should call me Jade Sister, not that awful 'Sister Yao.'"

I quickly corrected myself: "Oh, Jade Sister, is there something amiss with this stone called Consecration?"

She got straight to the point: "This Western Zhou Tomb is a bit odd. This type of Green Slate is rare in the southern regions, almost non-existent. It's almost certain that it came from the vicinity of Luoyang Mountain."

I pondered carefully and the more I thought about it, the more alarmed I became. It was indeed so. Previously, our attention had been captured by the Burial Artifacts, and we had completely overlooked this detail.

This woman... her observational skills were too keen.

This stone, similar to those found near the Longmen and Yungang Grottoes, wasn't particularly hard, but it possessed excellent expansibility, meaning stability. It wouldn't crack under the stress of thermal expansion and contraction.

What I found startling was this principle of thermal expansion and contraction. Could it be that the Western Zhou craftsmen understood it three thousand years ago?

From the West Ear Chamber, a Bronze Bean had been retrieved with the inscription "Mustard Seed Belt" etched upon it.

The Boss said this translation was done by someone from the Archaeological Research Institute, whom he had contacted through his connections. It was unlikely to be incorrect.

The stone wasn't native to the south, and it certainly couldn't sprout legs to travel thousands of miles on its own. The only explanation was human transportation.

Over a distance of several thousand kilometers, such a massive blue stone overhead pouring project, spanning the south and north of the Yangtze River, would require an immense amount of manpower and resources, and the wear and tear on the vehicles and horses would be substantial.

Historical records mentioned that the Mustard Seed was a minor lord during the early period of the Western Zhou in the south, with no record of even his fief or descendants.

But if that were so.

Could a minor lord possess such vast financial and material resources?

The massive blue stone overhead pouring before us was evidence itself.

I secretly speculated that there might have been a mistake regarding the true identity of this Mustard Seed.

In other words.

The historical records might be erroneous. (To be continued)

*******

I have also posted the following more chapters [All free]: https://www.readgates.com/article/7b136c