Part 2 Chapter 34: Sealing Mud
I asked Qin Yiheng all my questions one by one. He shook his head, lit a cigarette, and said, "Now we can only dig out the soil and take a look." Then he asked me to help.
The two of them took a short break and then started working. The old man didn't have any suitable tools at home, so I searched around and barely found a frying pan, so I used it. After working for a long time, I finally dug out a lot of soil. But as I was digging, I felt something was wrong.
Because the soil became wetter and darker the deeper we dug, I had a feeling that if we kept digging, we would find oil soon.
Qin Yiheng was also puzzled when he saw this, so he touched the soil and told me to get out of the way. I was also happy to be free, so I just smoked beside him.
He squatted down and dug for a while , then stood up and lit a cigarette, without saying anything for a long time.
When he finished smoking, he suddenly told me that this matter was getting more and more interesting. There was a layer of mud under the cabinet, so the door gods were posted outside the cabinet. There must be some connection between them. Although this mud is called mud, it does not necessarily have to be related to the door, because the meaning of "sealing the door" is "sealing the door and extinct the family". The so-called sealing the door and extinct the family does not mean that the whole family was killed or the incense was cut off, but that the family with this surname, for some reason, collectively changed their names and disappeared into the sea of people.
Nowadays, due to the social structure and various reasons, there are rarely large families like in the old days. Even if there are, they don't necessarily live together. In many remote villages, there is a village that belongs to only one family, which is basically hard to find in towns. The news once said that there was a village with a similar name. After being discovered by hikers, there was a paranormal incident, which caused a sensation. Later, no one could be found in the village. It is very likely that the whole village sealed the door for some reason and scattered to various places. However, the reason is something that people who are not involved will never guess.
Sealing the door sounds simple, but it is not as simple as going to the police household registration office to register and changing the household registration book. Chinese people have had a deep family concept since ancient times, and many families worship their ancestors as gods. Therefore, there is also a specific process for such a disrespectful thing as changing the surname.
First of all, this mud is not simple mud, but it is made of loess and a little well water, and a lot of lamp oil is added. The meaning is probably that you are born and raised here and don't forget the well when you drink water. Then the tribesmen have to symbolically scratch their hands and drop a few drops of blood into it. Finally, they burn the family tree and mix the ashes into the mud. All the tribesmen cry, and after sealing the mud in a specific place, it scatters to the ends of the earth.
Secondly, different families have different customs, so the location of burying the seal is not the same. He has heard of burying it under the threshold of the gate, and after burying it, the old threshold must be burned and replaced with a new one; he has also heard of burying it under the horse-mounting stone. In short, it must be buried in the soil. This is consistent with the situation in the wardrobe.
After listening to Qin Yiheng's explanation, my head was numb and I didn't even bother to ask questions. This was too confusing. I discussed it with him and he also said that there were many mysteries and we could only dig out the mud sealing the door to see if there was anything inside.
The process of digging mud was the same as before, but this time I didn't do it. Qin Yiheng was afraid that I would be tricked. He shoveled mud out with a frying pan, and I used a plastic bag to catch it. The mud was sticky and much harder to dig than soil, and the weight of the mud was not small. After digging a few times, Qin Yiheng said "Huh" and then stopped.
I thought he had dug up something, but after taking a closer look I didn't see anything. But I was surprised by the look of the mud, because from the details after digging it out, it seemed to be hollow inside, anyway, not very solid. It was a bit like a stalactite cave.
I asked Qin Yiheng if he had discovered anything.
He stretched out his hand and picked up something from the soil. I didn't see it clearly until he handed it to me. I found that it was a black ant, the kind you see every day, very common. I don't know if it was hurt by the pinch , it crawled very slowly.
I saw it was an ant and thought, "Is this wardrobe eaten by ants? But this thing is obviously not as capable of eating wood as termites."
When I looked down, I found that there were many of the same ants crawling around in the dug mud. I didn't look closely just now, and the color of the ants themselves was similar to the mud, so I didn't pay attention.
I asked Qin Yiheng, is this ant hiding in the cabinet?
He nodded, sighed and said, " I was too hasty and was not careful enough. Now I might have damaged it."
As he was talking, he explained to me that there must have been a story behind this mud. It looked smooth on the surface, but someone must have tampered with it underneath. Now it seems that it was probably made according to some layout or terrain, or even in the shape of a map. This kind of ant must not be an ordinary ant. Even if it doesn't look impressive, the food it was fed must not be ordinary. He made a bold guess and said that it is very likely that this kind of ant used to eat corpses. The corpses may not be human, but should be some small animals.
Eating corpses for a long time will naturally cause the yin energy to be very heavy. Coupled with the ants' instinct to forage for food, after being sealed in a closet, they will most likely rely on instinct to find their so-called way out or place.
This is probably why the ants were put in here. The "two ounces" of soil on top seems to have nothing to do with avoiding lawsuits. The reason for the soil on top is very simple, which is to seal the Yang energy outside and prevent the ants from being affected by the environment outside the closet; the door god is probably for a similar reason, to prevent any unclean things from outside from entering the closet.
I listened to him and barely understood him.
It was already very late at night and my head was a little dizzy, so I lit a cigarette and thought about it.
These ants are used to find the way? If so, this door seal was a three-dimensional map?
Damn, this is too advanced, isn't it? I asked Qin Yiheng, assuming his speculation is correct, then what are they looking for with ants? And even if the ants find it, won't they have to dig it up? How can they check it?
Qin Yiheng pursed his lips and said, "We can't guess what we are looking for, but we probably haven't found it."
As he spoke, he used a frying pan to dig up the mud and told me that although he hadn't dug to the bottom yet, there might be a glass groove embedded in the wardrobe. If the entire glass groove was taken out, he would be able to see everything clearly.
I thought about it and felt that he might be right. Then he used the frying pan to dig along the edge of the wardrobe a few times and found the edge of the glass groove.
At this point, the only thing we can do is to take out the entire glass tank and see what's going on. I asked Qin Yiheng, and he had the same idea.
After we rested for a while, we started moving the glass trough out.
The glass trough is definitely made of tempered glass, so you don't have to worry about it breaking when you move it, but the mud inside is very heavy, so moving it out will test your waist strength.
It took a lot of effort to get it out. We put it on the ground and before we could even take a breath, we barely raised the glass groove a bit. Qin Yiheng lay down and put his head into the gap to take a look.
He looked at it for a while, then came out and asked me to come in and take a look.
I was curious, so I quickly went in and shone a flashlight on it, just like I was doing a brain CT scan. After a few glances, I understood why he wanted me to check it out.
Although part of the top has been dug out, the shape underneath is still intact. The shape is very obvious, it is a pair of large palms. I don't know the proportions, and I don't know how many times it has been magnified, but the palms are clearly visible.
I stepped out and went to verify my guess with Qin Yiheng. Before I could open my mouth, he nodded in understanding and said, "Yes, these hands are most likely made according to Yuan Zhen's hands, otherwise there would be no need to go to such great lengths to set up such a scheme. Now that the mud has not been completely dug up, I don't know if there are still things related to Yuan Zhen buried in the mud, such as birth date or hair and blood writing or something."
After saying that, Qin Yiheng went back in and took a picture of the bottom of the glass groove with his mobile phone. Probably because of the reflection of the glass groove, he took it several times before he was satisfied. He came out and lit a cigarette and thought deeply.
When he was thinking, I was just idle. It's not that I didn't want to help, but my mind was too confused.
From the time I entered the industry until now, I feel like I am surrounded by this kind of thing.
After standing there for a while, I got up and walked around the house. I wanted to get a bottle of water and clear my mind. As I walked, I unconsciously looked up at the skylight again. At first, I didn't look carefully. When I reacted, I immediately shuddered - there was a person lying on the skylight, staring at me with his head stretched out. The light couldn't illuminate his face, so I couldn't see what he looked like. I regretted not bringing a flashlight with me.
The man didn't react when I looked up. I controlled myself and didn't shout, fearing that I would alert the enemy. I pretended nothing had happened and walked back to Qin Yiheng, wanting to remind him. But as soon as I stood still, I saw him winking at me.
I panicked when I saw him like this. He must have discovered something, so I asked him in a low voice. He didn't say anything, but stepped decisively into the mud in the glass groove. He must have used all his strength, and his foot was stuck in the mud. After he finished stepping, he grabbed me and ran to the living room, shouting at me as he ran: "Don't look back, don't stop! If you really can't help it, just pee in your pants! It can save your life!"
