He will never forget the humiliation he suffered that day despite being praised and criticized...
After this trial, Lin Hanzhen became more determined and advised Wen Duo to give up the idea of excavation.
Beiling Village has its own rules. The archaeological team should not act on its own without the consent of the witches headed by Wu Heng.
If Wen Duo disturbed the ancient tomb that they had guarded for generations, his fate would be even worse than that of the man who peeked at her taking a bath.
"Hanzhen, how much funds do we have left?" Wen Duo asked her when they returned to their residence.
"There's not much left." Lin Hanzhen is meticulous and the only female member of the team. After entering the village, she is in charge of the archaeological team's funds.
"Take it all out."
"what are you up to?"
"I talked to a few villagers and found they had no idea who the tomb's owner was, nor did they understand why they had been forced to live in this remote, impoverished area for generations. Everyone wants a better life, so I offered them double the price for help. First, we'll excavate the tomb, then clear the blocked road. Once we're out, we'll take them out to live a better life. Many of them have already agreed."
"Wen Duo, you're crazy!"
"I'm not crazy, I'm perfectly sane."
"You're asking villagers to dig up their own ancestral graves?!"
"What ancestral tomb?! Gravekeepers usually live together with one or two people of the same surname. There are fifty or sixty households in the village, but there are more than thirty surnames. Maybe they were all deceived and came here. We have all been deceived by the witch!"
Lin Hanzhen's mind buzzed, and she recalled that when she first came to the village, it was indeed the witch who revealed the matter about the grave-keeping clan to her.
Wu Heng is a shrewd person by nature. Could it be that they were really deceived?
"I know you have concerns, but we are not enemies with the villagers. We excavate the ancient tombs to better study the culture here, and we will also find ways to more reasonably protect the things they have guarded for generations." Wen Duo softened his tone and coaxed her softly. He knew that she would be the most susceptible to this.
"Research is allowed, but excavation is not." Lin Hanzhen was angry and refused to say more with a cold face.
"How can we study it without excavation? The climate in the mountains is changeable, and the ancient tomb might have collapsed. The village is so backward that there is no condition to protect the cultural relics." Wen Duo took her hand affectionately. "How about this, you think of a way. Let me go to the perimeter of the ancient tomb to take a look. If the tomb is damaged, we will conduct rescue excavations. If the tomb is intact, we can make further plans."
Lin Hanzhen was so annoyed by him that she had no choice but to go to Wu Heng again and tell her that they only wanted to explore the tomb, not excavate it.
Wu Heng was very generous and told her that only witches and their relatives could enter the ancient tomb area.
Recently they have been getting along well and calling each other sisters. If Lin Hanzhen wants to go in, she can drink blood and swear an oath with the witches and swear never to leave, then she can become the new witch and enter the ancient tomb.
As Wen Duo was a man of low status, if he wanted to get in, he could only marry Lin Hanzhen.
Become a gravekeeper, marry Wen Duo, and never leave.
No matter what choice you make, it seems like a dead end.
However, before Lin Hanzhen could make up her mind, Wen Duo had already taken action.
He persuaded a dozen villagers to sneak into the outskirts of the ancient tomb after dark to find the entrance to the tomb.
Just as he was about to put down his shovel, the villagers suddenly rushed over, grabbed him, and brought him before Wu Heng.
Wu Heng only treated Wen Duo as a tomb robber, and she had arranged the villagers in advance to lure him into committing the crime so that she could catch him in the act.
"Lin Hanzhen! Is it you! You actually...!" Wen Duo struggled and roared, thinking that she had leaked the secret.
"Ah Zhen, come here," Wu Heng waved at her. "You should have seen clearly what kind of man he is, right?"
"Sister Wu Heng, please forgive him. He was just, just confused for a moment!" Thinking of the man hanging upside down on the tree and almost losing his life, Lin Hanzhen was so scared that tears streamed down her face.
"Everyone, I, Wu Heng, have something to say to you openly and honestly." Wu Heng walked into the crowd and accepted the worship of the witches and villagers. "My clan has guarded the ancient tomb for thousands of years, living a peaceful life. However, things are different outside. Beyond this mountain, great changes have taken place. I often wonder if using the rules left by our ancestors to bind you here is also selfish."
After hearing this, the witch and the villagers whispered a few words to each other, and it seemed that everyone had different ideas.
Wu Heng turned and faced Lin Hanzhen. "When you first arrived, I knew what you were doing. It was also my instruction that I allowed you to write and draw everywhere in the village."
"Why? You're not against us...?"
"Yes, Ah Huan. He told me a lot about you, saying that you are not trying to destroy the ancient tombs, but are conducting scientific excavations to protect the cultural relics left by our ancestors. If your purpose is to protect them, then I don't object."
"Since you have no objection, why do you use this method to make him..." Lin Hanzhen looked at Wen Duo. The once favored son of heaven was pinned to the ground by a group of vulgar villagers. It was a complete disgrace.
Wu Heng glanced at Wen Duo. "Our ancestors are our common ancestors. Just because I don't object doesn't mean no one in the tribe objects. If he wants to gain their support, he should be like Ah Huan, like you, and consider them for their benefit. But what has he done in the past two years? He would rather lobby and bribe than have a proper talk with us. Ah Zhen, he not only disrespects you, he also disrespects us."
Lin Hanzhen didn't dare to say anything else. In terms of knowledge level, Wen Duo, who had received higher education, was far superior to Wu Heng.
But in private, Wen Duo told her more than once that the villagers were trapped in the countryside and had little knowledge, so they just had to fool her a little.
Wu Heng saw through his arrogance and took advantage of it, setting a trap for him.
"I underestimated you," Wen Duo said bitterly as he lay on the ground. "You can kill me or chop me up, it's all up to you."
"You're arrogant, but your temper is stubborn," Wu Heng said calmly. "You're not one of my people, and I don't want to antagonize you, but you just disturbed our ancestors. According to the rules, you must apologize and accept the spit of everyone in the tribe to appease the ancestors' anger."
"Accept spit?" Wen Duo sneered. "What kind of improvised rules are you talking about? It's just that you feel I've insulted you, so you want to insult me back..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the villager next to him spat in his face with a "pa".
Wen Duo was tied up with ropes and couldn't move. He could only let the sticky thread slide down the end of his hair with a grim face.
Someone took the lead, and the others joined in the punishment, spitting at the handsome young man one by one, trampling his arrogance and dignity into the mud.
Lin Hanzhen had never seen such a scene. The man he loved most was forced to be like a rotten loach, covered with dirty and smelly saliva.
She vaguely felt that Wen Duo might never forget the humiliation he suffered today.
"Sister Wu Heng, he knows he's wrong! He knows he's wrong! Please be merciful and forgive him..." Her emotions were stretched to the limit, and she fainted before she could finish her words.
It was early summer of 1993. Wu Heng had just given birth to a boy, and Lin Hanzhen was also pregnant.
By the time the story got to this point, it was getting dark outside.
Lin Hanzhen and Wen Zichuan's meal lasted from noon to night.
"Mom, you conceived me in Beiling Village?" Wen Zichuan chewed on the place name, feeling as if he had heard it somewhere before.
"Yeah. I've been in the mountains for so long that I can't remember the dates. It seems like it was around the time the crape myrtle flowers bloomed that year, and my belly started to grow. I was always tired and didn't want to move."
"What about my dad? Is he still thinking about excavating the ancient tomb?"
"Strangely enough, he seemed like a different person after that day. He no longer cared about research, but instead spent every day hanging around me. Worried that I wasn't getting enough nutrition, he raised chickens in the yard and gave me eggs to eat."
"It's not easy, he's actually willing to be nice to you."
"Your father was a bit proud, but he wasn't a bad person. He was very young at the time and didn't understand many things."
"What happened next? How did you get out?"
Lin Hanzhen remembered that the third year was another long rainy season, and there was a mountain fog in late autumn and early winter.
Wen Duo suddenly seemed to feel something and went into the mountain again. The rocks blocking the road were washed down to a lower depression by the rain this year. It seemed as if God was playing a joke on him. The door that was closed three years ago was opened to him casually again three years later.
What was even more shocking was that when he excitedly ran back to the village and told the news, except for the members of the archaeological team who were overjoyed, the other villagers were very calm.
The villagers said that this was the case. Wu Heng had a book left by his ancestors that recorded many changes in the mountain conditions, ranging from three to five years to several decades. If they could go out, they would go for a walk outside. If they couldn't go out, they would just stay in the village.
How many years does a person’s life last?
The villagers' excessive calmness makes people feel that the standard they use to measure time is not their own lifespan, but the passage of thousands of years and the vicissitudes of life.
The archaeological team was finally able to leave Beiling Village, and as promised, the photo was left behind.
Wu Heng didn't want to send them off, but after she became a mother, her character changed.
Seeing that Lin Hanzhen was pregnant and had a hard time walking on the bumpy road, she softened her heart and gave her a ride.
Lin Hanzhen couldn't bear to leave her: "Sister Wu Heng, I will come back to see you when I have the chance."
Wu Heng shook her head. "I hope everything is going well for you, but it's best if you don't come back."
Since Beiling Village has no plans to integrate into the secular world for the time being, Wu Heng lets things take their course and continues to live in seclusion with her people.
Before bidding farewell, she made the archaeological team swear that no matter what, they would not tell anyone about this place, otherwise the anger of their ancestors who had been disturbed would fall upon them and their children.
"By the way, that piece of jade of yours was given by her." Lin Hanzhen suddenly remembered something.
"The female clan leader?" Wen Zichuan asked.
Lin Hanzhen nodded. If she guessed correctly, the jade pendant was something from the ancient tomb.
Although a jade pendant is not enough to be considered an archaeological discovery, it is also closely related to the tomb-keeping clan.
Wu Heng had a sisterly relationship with her, and the crown was equivalent to a gift from an aunt to her nephew. After she gave birth to Wen Zichuan, she put it on him.
"They left in 1988 and returned in 1993. Five years is enough time for a lot of things to change. Your father went from being a key trainee at the institute to a dispensable figure."
"What is a dispensable person?"
"First, the institute hired a lot of new people, and without senior mentors to guide him, he couldn't get involved in new projects. Second, people who were jealous of him in the past stepped on him and always assigned him to jobs like distributing newspapers and sweeping garbage. Your father couldn't stand being treated like that, so he left the institute."
Wen Zichuan could basically remember what happened after leaving the research institute. His father went to work as an apprentice to Master Lin for a period of time.
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