Chapter 170 The whole universe is telling her the truth
It was still that vast highway. The golden poplar forest had lost all its leaves in winter, and the grayish-white, weathered tree trunks pointed straight to the sky, like a whole desolate cemetery.
Qin Tian drove to Minfeng Town before dark. As soon as she stepped out of the car, Aimu rushed over and gave her a warm and firm hug.
"Why are you here at this time? Today is the first day of the Han Chinese New Year, right?"
Qin Tian liked her straightforwardness very much.
"Well, I can't wait. I had the New Year's Eve dinner yesterday at noon and set off."
"Where's your brother?" A sudden voice interrupted.
Azati naturally opened the car door, took out her luggage, and looked around.
"He didn't come." Qin Tian said briefly.
"Why? Is he okay?" Azati asked stubbornly.
Aimu found him annoying and pulled Qin Tian home.
"Stay at my house tonight. Dad knows you're coming today, so he's also at my house."
Qin Tian was afraid that she would be disappointed, so he didn't say anything to refuse. He took out a bunch of gifts he had brought and distributed them to everyone. Aimu accepted the gifts without hesitation and happily opened the packaging to express her appreciation.
When Director Jiang saw her, he also smiled, but his greeting was the same as Azati's.
"Where's the little boy? Didn't he come with you?"
"Well, he's spending the New Year with his family."
Director Jiang nodded thoughtfully without asking any further questions.
Aimu happily pushed Qin Tian's luggage into the room, and Azati stuck to her all the time and followed her.
Qin Tian handed the photo of the gilt plate rubbing to Director Jiang.
Director Jiang looked at it with a magnifying glass for a long time and then looked up.
"That's right. The woman in the painting, her age, clothing, and hairstyle all match the attire of noble women of the Jingjue Kingdom at the time. However, I can assure you that no Han Dynasty artifacts like this have been unearthed in Niya. This rubbing, aside from the woman, still shows typical Han Dynasty features. The artifacts unearthed in Niya, on the other hand, mostly have strong Western characteristics."
This answer was within her expectations. She had traveled thousands of miles to Niya to prove her judgment. Qin Tian took out the bronze coin and handed it to Director Jiang again.
"Do you think there's a connection between these two objects? This bronze coin is also a Han Dynasty symbol, but the rose and Kharosthi script are Niya's totems."
Director Jiang took the bronze coin and nodded in agreement.
"Now that you put it that way, it's true. They seem like two unrelated things, but they actually have a lot in common. And this coin..."
At this point, he suddenly realized something and looked up in shock. Qin Tianzheng clenched his fists, his eyes shining brightly, and nodded at him restrainedly.
"This coin is from a tomb. If they really came from the same place, it means that this Han Dynasty gilt plate is also from a tomb."
The gilded plate and bronze coin are both clues left by Han Wenying. If they really come from the same tomb, it means that Han Yehua's identity may be more than just an antique dealer. At least he is very likely to have information about an unmined tomb and has not let anyone know.
The question is, where is it? Where can we find this tomb?
Qin Tian and Director Jiang hurriedly ate dinner absentmindedly and returned to Director Jiang's residence. Director Jiang took out all the materials and books he had collected over the years, but until daybreak, they still found nothing.
Director Jiang collected the books in the first light of dawn.
"The Western Regions are vast, not just Niya. Although the women's clothing on the gilded plate matches that of the Jingjue Kingdom, it is, after all, from the Han Dynasty. Even if it wasn't in the Central Plains at the time, it might not have been in Niya either."
As the person who knew Niya best, he was right. The Western Regions were vast; any place was possible. Intellectually, she knew it was impossible to find a tomb that had lain dormant for two thousand years in Niya in one trip, but this utter lack of direction still frustrated her. Before leaving, she handed the Han Dynasty two-handled cup to Director Jiang. It came from this land; let it return home.
Back at the hotel, as always, she thought of him. Day after day, night after night, his presence remained constant. Whenever her thoughts lingered, he filled her mind. He accompanied her to sleep and woke with her. And today, in this same hotel, this same room, the longing washed over her like a tide, overwhelming her.
Last year on this day, faces and peach blossoms shone brightly in this very doorway. They all wondered, "Where are you?" They all felt, "You should be with me." If you were here, I wouldn't be so lost now. No matter how difficult it was, you always found the dragon's lair, listening to the crisp drop of coins mingling with the dragon's murky breath. You gave me a childhood filled with imagination, dreams that never fade, courageous adventures, and a romance that will never fade with time.
Qin Tian stayed in Minfeng Town for three days. Every day, Aimu would come to see her with great enthusiasm. They drove around, chatting and talking about everything, as if they had found another version of themselves. But she knew that staying and wandering was meaningless.
China was so vast that she couldn't possibly find Han Yehua's hidden Han Dynasty tomb with just a rubbing and a coin. She had sorted through all her old belongings and memories, and had no other clues.
All that remains is to compromise with reality.
Unlike that Mid-Autumn Festival, tonight's moon was a crescent. Its crescent shape shone across the sand dunes. The Taklamakan Desert shimmered in the moonlight, and the memorial archway of the ancient city of Jingjue stood alone.
She folded her arms, strolling across the silver-white dunes, her long hair fluttering in the wind. Her longing took shape, and she turned her head to gaze at him beside her. His eyes reflected the vast sky, and the wind ruffled his black hair.
When she climbed the hills, he climbed the hills too; when she stepped into the valleys, he stepped into the valleys too. He was there, not far away, not too close, following her every step, accompanying her over the hills and across the valleys. Under the same bright moon, bathed in the starlight of 800 million years ago.
There were tears in her eyes, and the wet ballad crossed the river of time, singing alone in the bitter and cold desert night sky.
"One step left is eight-two, one step right is three-seven. The white chess piece is called the east, and the black chess piece is called the north. Two steps left is four-three, two steps right is five-eight. White chess piece, go west, and count seven squares to the distance you go. The golden rose is blooming, waiting for me, waiting for you, waiting for a thousand years of fragrance."
She stopped, and he stopped too. So close yet so far away.
Look up at the starry sky, the stars are shining, and the creatures are whispering.
"There's a compass, and the archway is marked with longitude and latitude. As long as you walk in that direction, you'll always be able to get out."
This nursery rhyme is about longitude and latitude.
82.37 east longitude, 43.58 north latitude, 7 kilometers west
On the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, a small border town, Minfeng, welcomed a convoy of vehicles. Several children stopped playing and spoke to each other in Uyghur.
"Are you here to film a scene?"
"Ayimu!" A sharp-eyed child spotted Aimu walking towards the motorcade. With Aimu were her precious guests, who privately called her Aimu, meaning "sister as beautiful as the moon."
After the convoy came to a complete stop, Ming Yuanxing stepped out of the first Jeep. Qin Tian reluctantly went to meet him.
"What are you doing here? It's all a mystery. We don't know anything yet."
Ming Yuanxing laughed and said, "You can run around everywhere, but I can't come here?"
Members of the Shanghai Museum archaeological team began to disembark. The last two vehicles contained the exploration equipment they had brought from the museum. Team leader Yu Huang directed everyone to carefully move the equipment into their temporary quarters.
Qin Tian was a little nervous. She had been very conservative on the phone, hoping Ming Yuanxing would just send one or two archaeologists. Unexpectedly, Ming Yuanxing personally led the team, bringing the entire Shanghai Museum archaeological team with him. The equipment was also state-of-the-art.
Ming Yuanxing saw the burden on her face and said with a smile, "We have the best detection equipment at the Shanghai Museum, but we just didn't have a place to use it! Now it's finally being put to use. The same goes for the archaeological team. Who should I send? They all want to come! Tell me, when we discovered the Ba Tomb last time, you flew there immediately. If I told you not to go, would you agree?"
Qin Tian was speechless.
"But... I have no solid evidence other than speculation."
"Which archaeological expedition doesn't start with speculation? We've only seen successful cases. There are far more unproven speculations than successful ones. It's just a matter of success and failure. Let's just treat this as a training opportunity for the Shanghai Museum archaeological team. Old Qin, you kept thinking about this until you left the Shanghai Museum."
After lunch, Director Jiang arrived after hearing the news. Ming Yuanxing hit it off immediately, listening to his insights on Niya civilization and asking many questions.
"I agree with Xiao Qin's speculation. The gilded plates and bronze coins are likely from unmined tombs. However, this longitude and latitude is unlikely to be the location of an ancient tomb," said Director Jiang. "Before you came, Azati and I drove there to explore. It's an oasis. Firstly, an oasis has high humidity, which doesn't meet the requirements for a tomb site. Secondly, there are roads and human footprints, so if there was an ancient tomb, it would have been discovered long ago."
Ming Yuanxing crossed his fingers under his chin. After Qin Tian told him the news, he immediately checked the topography of this longitude and latitude. Indeed, he and Director Jiang agreed. This longitude and latitude weren't a tomb, but unlike Director Jiang, he knew Qin Tian's family and ancestors, which was why he chose to go all out. The longitude and latitude that remained in Qin Tian's childhood memories couldn't be just an ordinary geographical location. Even if it wasn't a tomb, it was very likely the true hiding place of the gilded plate.
He was once a member of the Shanghai Museum's appraisal team. For over a decade, he and Lao Qin traveled extensively, their hearts racing and their blood boiling. Later, Lao Qin passed away, and his career flourished. He was grateful. For him, it was not only a gift from fate, but also a position that allowed him to realize his long-cherished vision for the Shanghai Museum and lead it towards greater internationalization. However, the thrill and emotion of pursuing and encountering cultural relics at first sight disappeared from his life; this was the price he paid.
He knew what Lao Qin had been searching for. Throughout their years together, he had imagined more than once that he would witness this historic moment with Lao Qin. He had thought such fantasies could only exist in the past, until this Spring Festival, more than 20 years later, when Qin Tian's call arrived like a New Year's greeting. This might be his last visit to the scene, to the place where his dream began and where it would end.
"Qin Tian, what do you think?" he asked.
Through the window, the afternoon air is filled with a weathered yellow.
"Me," Qin Tian's eyes followed the particles floating in the air. Is it a sandstorm? "I think this longitude and latitude can't be an ancient tomb. But it is - the entrance to the truth."
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