Chapter 171: Thoughts Across Time and Space
An aimless archaeological expedition began in an oasis not far from the Niya ruins. No one deliberately publicized the fact, but word of the entire Shanghai Museum archaeological team's trip to Niya spread.
Although most at the museum were skeptical, the archaeological team was accompanied to Niya by Shanghai Museum Director Ming Yuanxing. The special exhibition on the Jinhou Chime Bells had already opened, and stories about its legends were waiting to be interviewed. Yet, he personally led the Shanghai Museum's least visible department to that untouched desert. This gave the staff a glimmer of hope: perhaps, with its historically untraceable history, the Shanghai Museum could... unearth something.
By the time they had completed the scope determination, geological surveys, and preparatory work, it was already early March, and the daytime temperature had risen back to around 15 degrees Celsius. Time was running out, as the Taklamakan Desert would enter its peak sandstorm season in April.
In an oasis 20 kilometers away from the Niya Ruins, several drones continuously transmit data from the Land Ranger Pro metal geodesic instrument in all directions.
Yu Huang stared intently at the screen of a computer on a simple table. There were still about 300 square meters left to scan. If he couldn't find any metal objects underground in those 300 square meters, what would he do next?
"Prepare the thermal imager." Ming Yuanxing said to Xiao Chen from the archaeological team.
Qin Tian looked up from her computer. Thermal imaging cameras were more suitable for detecting ancient tombs. She didn't quite believe there was one here. If it was indeed a clue her mother had left her, she would have chosen something easily detectable, made of metal.
The numbers sent back by the Land Ranger kept changing, the area remaining in the longitude and latitude decreasing. Qin Tian pointed, his heart beating faster and faster. Was there really nothing? Could it be that it was just a nursery rhyme?
The wind started to blow. It came from the Taklamakan Desert, carrying a dry, sandy, and faint chill. Qin Tian shielded his eyes with his hands and gazed into the distance, a sense of foreboding passing through his heart.
A burst of horse hoof sounds came quickly from far away, and a black horse galloped over. Aimu was lying on the horse. The sound arrived before the person arrived.
"Qin Tian! Call it a day!"
The sturdy black horse rushed in front of her and stopped suddenly. Before she could see clearly, Aimu had already jumped off the horse.
"Call it a day! The wind is picking up in the Taklamakan Desert. It's likely to be a sandstorm."
Ming Yuanxing frowned and said to Yu Huang, "Let's call it a day."
Yu Huang was stunned. He had heard of sandstorms before, but he had never imagined they would actually happen before his eyes. He was stunned for a moment, then picked up the intercom to call back the team members.
Qin Tian turned on her phone and called back the drone. She went to the table to put away her computer when the numbers on the screen suddenly jumped, accompanied by a beeping sound. Qin Tian paused as the southeastern detector detected movement. The numbers jumped faster and faster, and the beeping became more urgent. Ayimu called her from a distance.
"Qin Tian, get in the car."
She looked up at the southeast sky, the wind blowing her long hair. She walked towards the southeast corner, her steps getting faster and faster until she was running.
Beneath a large tree in the southeast corner, Li Xianle stared blankly at the Land Ranger in his hands. He had once thought this American gadget was a scam. He had been working for 12 years, and the farthest he had been with these instruments was Songjiang, Shanghai, and they had never sounded a single time.
The intercom rustled, telling him to go back immediately, saying there was a sandstorm. He had never seen a sandstorm before, but compared to the sandstorms that occurred once a month, the beeping sound he heard for the first time in 12 years was more shocking to him.
Aimu saw that Qin Tian not only didn't return, but was running further and further away. Ming Yuanxing was also shouting at her at the top of his lungs, but she had obviously run out of the range of his sound waves. Aimu jumped on the black horse and galloped towards her at full speed.
The sound of horse hooves echoed beside Qin Tian, and she stopped. Azati had said that Aimu was a great horse rider, and it was true.
"Ayimu, how long will it take for the sandstorm to come?"
"It's hard to say. It could just be a strong sandstorm. March isn't the season for sandstorms. But you're guests from afar, and I don't want you to take any risks."
"I'm not your guest, I'm your friend. Azati said the desert is also your friend. Tell me, what are the chances of your friend coming uninvited?"
Aimu rode on a tall horse, looking towards the direction of the sand dunes.
"About 40%."
Qin Tian smiled brightly.
"Thank you, Aimu."
She started walking again, heading towards the southeast corner.
"Qin Tian!" Aimu stretched out her hand, her sleeves fluttering in the wind. "Get on the horse!"
Qin Tian grabbed her hand, and the strength and courage coming from their clasped hands made her fly over the ground and land on the horse's back.
"drive!"
Aimu squeezed the horse's belly, and the horse carried the two girls at a gallop, running towards the sound of the instrument that was in sync with her heartbeat.
Li Xianle held the Land Ranger, unsure what to do. He dragged the beeping thing a few steps toward the gathering place, and it immediately stopped barking. He hurriedly pulled it back, and it barked again. Just as he was at his wit's end, perhaps dazzled by excitement, he saw a horse running towards him.
Qin Tian jumped off the horse.
"Teacher Li, what's the situation now?"
Li Xianle breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that someone had come.
"About 1.5 meters underground, the signal strength is high. There is an obvious metal object."
"Teacher Li, for safety's sake, please go back to the car. I'll stay here and see what's going on."
What the hell! He'd heard this exciting buzzer for the first time in his twelve years, and they were actually sending him back to his car. At the annual class reunion, those guys from Xi'an and Henan talked and talked, while he could only cower like a quail. This was his only chance to speak at the reunion, especially in the midst of a sandstorm. It was something he'd cherish for the rest of his life.
"Xiao Qin, let me get the tools. You're just a little girl, but you can't do this job."
Qin Tian wanted to persuade him, but stopped.
In the dim, dusty wind, the Shanghai Museum's convoy pulled up before us. The archaeological team members disembarked, each holding a Luoyang shovel. The last person to disembark was Ming Yuanxing, also holding a Luoyang shovel.
The desert wind neither grew nor faded; it continued to blow. The Shanghai Museum's archaeological team dug through the sandstorm, digging a patch of ground. The sounds of the excavation changed. After Yu Huang called a halt, Li Xianle jumped into the pit first, revealing a corner of a metal box buried deep underground.
Qin Tian stood beside the excavation pit, his headscarf and hair fluttering in the wind.
He swept the surrounding dirt aside and pried up a rusty iron box. He lifted the box and, feeling its weight, he immediately lay down beside the pit and grasped the handle on one side. More people came to help, lifting the box to the ground.
A rusty iron lock hangs on the box corroded by time, guarding the secrets from the past for the last time.
Everyone looked at Qin Tian, waiting for her choice.
Her hand gently stroked the iron lock, and she shook hands with her mother who had hung the iron lock with her own hands 20 years ago, across time and space.
"Smash it open."
Li Xianle broke the iron lock with a shovel and used all his strength to open the lid of the box which was tightly closed due to rust.
A bundle of inscribed bamboo slips lay neatly in an old iron box.
Time paused at this moment. The sound of the wind was as calm and surging as the waves. Unknown birds flew across the sky. Spring had arrived, and the sky awaited the birds' return.
Qin Tian knelt in front of the broken box that had been sleeping for many years, covering his eyes with his muddy hands.
It was the mother. She knew paper was too fragile, so she chose to use bamboo slips to travel through time. At that time, she didn't know how long she would have to wait, how long it would take for her 10-year-old daughter to come here.
The wind from the Taklamakan Desert carries the sand and the bamboo slips carved by the mother, the letter written to her daughter, can be swayed by the spring breeze even in the land of death.
Yiyi, Zhan Xinjia. Were you the one who finally opened this box? How old are you now?
I often wonder whether you will be happy or upset when you find this box, so I leave the answer to the unknown. Whether you can come here or not, I will regard it as God's will.
My father, Han Yehua, has a secret. His fame as an antique dealer wasn't due to his talent, but rather to the fact that he guarded an ancient tomb, one passed down through generations of the Han family.
My father betrayed it for a living, but couldn't bear to desecrate his ancestors. He copied a burial object, a large gilded bronze plate from the Han Dynasty, claiming it was his own unique vision. To protect the truth, he concealed a woman.
This woman is our ancestor, Chun, a noblewoman of the Jingjue Kingdom of Caucasian descent.
After the discovery of the Niya ruins, the name Chun became known to the world.
I present this jade to you, and wish you all the best.
These two thousand-year-old bamboo slips have stirred the world's emotions. People speculate about her life and pursue her love affairs. Just a few words have left behind a mysterious legend.
As descendants, we can only get a glimpse of it from the burial objects.
Feng, a nobleman from the early Eastern Han Dynasty, first met Chun during a ritual ceremony. A Han Dynasty gilt plaque depicts this moment. Perhaps due to status, race, and distance, they were separated, but Feng often expressed his regards for Chun and presented her with gifts.
No one knows Chun's true feelings for Feng. In this ancient tomb, there are no words left by Chun. After Chun's death, Feng spent a year traveling to Jingjue Kingdom, but Chun Jun had already been buried. To express his longing and endless love, Feng built an uninhabited tomb for her, leaving it to her descendants.
Years later, Feng passed away, his body transported a thousand miles to the desert for burial. Even though there was no spring in this tomb, sharing the same bed in life and the same bed in death—this was the end of this love.
I sometimes wonder what Chunjun thought of this deep affection. It wasn't until the end of my life that I understood the pair of bamboo slips buried with her as her response. "Fortunately, we must not forget each other"—this is both Feng's words to Chun and Chun's heartfelt message to Feng.
I wish so much that in the years to come, you won't have to miss me anymore, yet I worry that one day I'll be forgotten. So I took away every letter Yunjie wrote to me, every card my dear daughter wrote to me, every rose I folded, to carry with me your deep affection forever.
Yiyi, I'm truly sorry for not being there for you as you grew up, for not saying, "Mom is here," when you needed me. This same pain was also part of my childhood. My grandfather passed away early, his sensitive identity and premature death left a hollow and gloomy childhood. However, Yunjie was always there, filling that regret.
If people truly have souls, my soul would pray that one day, someone who loves you more than I do would walk into your life and gently heal the pain of growing up without a mother. Because I believe that only love defies time and leads to eternity.
Just like this ancient tomb, it's not only the origin of our family, but also... Now, I hand it over to you. You have the right to decide whether to bring it to the world. Whatever your decision, I support you.
Love you forever, Mom Han Wenying
83.243 east longitude, 41.146 north latitude
The winds of Niya carry an unknown love story from the sand dunes of two thousand years ago to the oasis of spring. Faced with the barriers of race, identity, and distance, love is more than silence and regret; it is a discontinuous event in the river of life, a momentary contingency that leads to eternity.
She looked up at the sky, and the dust in the air represented his unwavering commitment.
I will accompany you through the dynasties and trek through ancient tombs and deserts. Promise me, Qin Tian.
Three months later, the Xinjiang archaeological team and the Shanghai Museum archaeological team dispatched by the state opened the tombs of Chunjun of the ancient Jingjue Kingdom and Feng, a noble of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
A resplendent Han Dynasty gilt plate depicting chariots and figures returns to the human world, carrying with it the deep longing of 2,000 years ago. Along with it are a large number of Han Dynasty coins imprinted with roses. On it is a Kharosthi inscription, which translates into Chinese as "My heart will always follow you." My heart follows you wherever you go.
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