Chapter 9
"Where are we?"
"The parking lot at the bottom of the mountain is closed without a permit."
When she got out of the car, the sunlight was a bit dazzling, and she squinted her eyes and looked at the mountains in the distance.
Most of the mountain in front of us has now become an archaeological site. Several excavators and cranes that have been used before are parked nearby. A cordon has been set up around the area, and special people are standing at the intersection to check the vehicles going up the mountain, the passengers' documents, and the machines and equipment they carry.
"I'll ask my students to pick you up," Li Cheng said on the phone.
"Yeah." Yang Ye hung up the phone.
In the distance, there are mountains surrounding the valley and endless peaks.
Halfway up the sunny slope, the greenery on the mountainside had vanished, revealing only bare brown rocks and soft, dark yellow mud. Five or six workers approached from the intersection at the foot of the mountain and stopped in the clearing in front of her. They drove a few poles into the ground and erected a makeshift iron shed for rest.
People come and go, and the whole place is noisy and busy.
Xiao Xiao came over and saw the busy scene in front of him. "People in the past were really strange. They either liked to build tombs halfway up the mountain or on the top of the mountain."
Seeing the Hanshan Peak that was almost level with the sky, Yang Ye was mesmerized. "Burial is about Feng Shui. After death, it is best to stay away from water and close to mountains. The high mountains can absorb the weather and protect future generations."
"Is that so?" Xiao Xiao said to herself
"But the main reason is that there were few plains at that time, and the good places were occupied by kings and princes. Ordinary people could only be buried in the mountains. It was better this way, as they would not be targeted by tomb robbers." Yang Ye said with a smile. He didn't see the newcomer around. This person was very complicated and would get lost if he was not careful. There was no signal on the mountain. Once lost, it would be troublesome to find him again.
"Where is the other person?" she asked Xiao Xiao.
Xiao Xiao was replying to a message, and without even looking up, he said, "I'm going to park the car."
"How long can you park your car? Call him over, don't let him get lost."
"Okay," Xiao Xiao responded and walked towards the parking lot they had just come from.
They set off early in the morning and drove for over seven hours. Although Xiao Xiao was behind the wheel for much of that time, as a newbie, he'd been driving for at least two hours. The road into the village was steep and winding, much of it still unpaved brick and dirt roads from decades ago. The surface was full of potholes, making it difficult to navigate. Zhou Yiheng felt even more nervous driving on such roads. He was especially startled by a local dog that suddenly appeared at the intersection just before turning up the mountain.
With his eyes closed and his head resting, Zhou Yiheng let out a long sigh.
Xiao Xiao looked around and found the car parked at the innermost part, with the headlights still on and the engine not turned off.
She knocked on the car window.
Hearing the voice, Zhou Yi turned his head and saw that it was Xiao Xiao. He found the button under the car window and rolled down the window.
Seeing that he looked a little tired, Xiao Xiao asked with concern: "Are you okay?"
Zhou Yiheng calmly replied, "Not bad."
But looking at his state, with a little sweat on his hands placed under the car window, Xiao Xiao chuckled and asked, "Are you nervous?"
He quickly withdrew his hand, pulled out a napkin from the storage basket, and wiped the sticky sweat from his palm. Zhou Yiheng said, "A little bit, but much better than yesterday."
"First time is new, second time is familiar. If you are fine, get off the bus. The boss is waiting for us."
The car was turned off and he unbuckled his seat belt and got out.
There were several construction trucks parked at the intersection. The dry mud was kicked up by the trucks' wheels, and fuzzy fine sand spread in the air nearby.
When the two came out, Yang Ye was standing at the intersection waiting for them.
"Boss" Zhou Yiheng greeted Yang Ye, but Yang Ye did not respond.
The towering mountain stood tall and majestic. Its peaks towered like a powerful force, like an oppressive force bearing down on her. The summit was enveloped in a sudden cloud of mist, its gray-green cliffs steep and steep. She stood before the mountain, wanting to see its features clearly, but could only look up and stand on tiptoe.
The expectation and yearning for the mountains that Yang Ye saw in his sight,
From Yang Ye's perspective, she seemed completely captivated by the mountains. The yearning and anticipation in her gaze truly baffled Zhou Yiheng. Standing before a mountain, one could only sense their own insignificance, compared to the towering heights, which held such majesty, solemnity, and mystery.
Man is born to pursue the mountains, not to admire their height.
Yang Ye focused his gaze and saw the two people beside him. "So slow?"
Xiao Xiao explained, "He's not used to parking Professor Liu's car."
Yang Ye glanced at him and didn't say anything, but Zhou Yiheng could clearly see disgust in her eyes.
After a while, a tall man wearing a bib came running towards them. He had a special pass hanging on his chest, which swung in front of him as he ran.
"Teacher Yang." He ran to Yang Ye, raised his hand and greeted her while panting.
Turning around and seeing Xiao Xiao again, he became shy and said, "Sister Xiao Xiao"
Xiao Xiao was a little surprised, "Xiao Ding, why are you here?"
Xiao Ding is Li Cheng's student and knows Yang Ye and Xiao Xiao.
"Professor Li was called to a meeting at the last minute, and he asked me to pick you up," Xiao Ding said, distributing several passes in his hand to them. "Teacher Yang, you must carry this pass with you at all times, as someone will come to check on you from time to time."
Yang Ye nodded and hung it around his neck.
"Well, let's go first." Xiao Ding ran to the front awkwardly to lead the way.
Yang Ye's ears turned red when she saw Xiao Ding's expression. She didn't dare to look at Xiao Xiao. She took Xiao Xiao's arm, deliberately slowed down her pace, and walked behind him. She turned her head and whispered, "You haven't explained it to him yet?"
Xiao Xiao asked back: "What?"
Yang Ye rolled his eyes at her and asked, "What do you think?"
"Oh, you mean that thing?" Xiao Xiao reacted, "I told him."
Looking at Xiao Ding who was walking in the front, Yang Ye wondered, "Why does he still react like this?"
Xiao Xiao was also confused and shook her head, "I don't know."
Yang Ye doesn't like to meddle in other people's business. In her own words, just living is already a very tiring thing, so why bother with those unimportant things.
But this matter, although she said it had nothing to do with her, it was still related to her. For the sake of peace in the future, Yang Ye said earnestly, "You are getting married at the end of the year, so you'd better make it clear to him as soon as possible, so that Xiao Ding won't have any grudges in his heart and waste his time with you. This is not good for you or him."
This matter between the two of them can be traced back to last spring.
That was in City C. I heard that spring in City C is a warm and romantic sea of flowers. The spring there is beautiful and the sea is very healing. Yang Ye lived there for more than a month.
The suburbs of City C are very remote, and they're planning to build an elevated highway to connect them to the city center. During construction, they unearthed some strange objects, which looked a bit strange after they were sorted out. Li Cheng went to consult Yang Ye, bringing along Xiao Ding, a student.
After finishing their work, they had to return to Beijing, and Yang Ye treated them to a meal. Xiao Ding helped to block the drinking for Li Cheng and drank two more glasses. Before finishing, he pulled Xiao Xiao aside and told her a lot of heartfelt secrets. He said that he had liked Xiao Xiao since the first time he saw her a long time ago. He also explained to Xiao Xiao that his current behavior was definitely not due to drinking too much, but was purely his true feelings.
For so many years, he never thought that he would be able to meet Xiao Xiao again. They will go back tomorrow, and he doesn't know when they will meet next time. If he doesn't say it now, he will have to remember this regret for the rest of his life.
Although he had proved his sobriety several times, Xiao Xiao still regarded what he said as drunken nonsense, so she didn't tell Yang Ye.
Three or four months had passed since then. Li Cheng was on a business trip to City Z and stopped by to have a drink with Yang Ye. During the meal, he brought up the matter, hoping Yang Ye could help bring the two children together. If they were truly meant to be, it would be a wonderful thing.
Li Cheng rubbed his hands back and forth under the table. He felt embarrassed. At his age, he still had to beg others for the younger one. But when he thought about his student, he thought about how honest the child was and how he didn't usually show his emotions. When he came back and cried in front of him that day, Li Cheng felt a little ashamed. "They went to the same high school. Xiao Ding has been thinking about him for so many years. It must be fate that they meet again. Why don't you help me out and give it a try?"
Yang Ye was completely bewildered. He went back to ask Xiao Xiao, only to learn that something like this had actually happened before. But by then, Xiao Xiao already had someone she liked, and they had met each other's parents and were already in a relationship. Yang Ye didn't like the idea of rejecting someone, so he let Xiao Xiao explain herself.
Xiao Xiao raised her hand and said, "I really explained it. I will send four"
"What did you tell him?"
"I just said I don't have any feelings for him, and I don't like guys younger than me."
Yang Ye glared at her. She looked so disappointing that she couldn't even find a way to reject others. "What are you doing? Let's get to the point."
Xiao Xiao was confused, "What's the point?"
"You're getting married, there's no possibility for you two," Yang Ye said firmly, "Just say it more forcefully, don't let others hold onto any expectations."
"ah?"
"Ah what?"
"Yeah," she nodded reluctantly.
Across the flattened yellow mud, the excavator had dug a dozen deep pits of varying sizes. A professionally dressed supervisor squatted at the bottom, wielding a shovel, a digging knife, and several other sophisticated exploration tools, carefully searching for small artifacts buried in the dirt and fragments of larger objects.
As they walked, Xiao Ding explained the current situation. "According to the latest urban construction and management needs of H City, this area connected to that mountain, as well as the row of old houses below, were originally planned to be demolished and rebuilt. When the demolition team first entered the site to conduct surveys, they unearthed a two-inch bronze bell at the mountain pass. Worried that it was an old artifact, they sent it to a specialized appraisal center. Later, they also unearthed several copper and jade pieces on the two plots of land over there."
Xiao Ding pointed in the direction ahead where a lot of people were gathered.
Looking at the newly dug holes next to him, Yang Ye was thoughtful.
Xiao Ding took them to a deep pit. Li Cheng stood there with a Luoyang shovel in his hand, shoveling away the useless mud next to it bit by bit.
Yang Ye half-knelt down and touched the edge of the pit with his hand. The brown-yellow soil was a bit sticky.
Li Cheng shoveled the soil with great effort, and seemed to have found something. He changed to a lighter shovel handed to him by his assistant. He stood up slightly, got into a horse stance, and carefully searched the edge of the pit, digging away the soil attached to the surface. Finally, he found a relatively complete copper block. Touching the copper block, he found that the edge was intact and there was a protruding sharp corner on the top. He looked at it for a while and then handed the thing to the student next to him.
Having to maintain the same posture for so long, his calves were numb by the time he realized what was happening. He slowly stood up, raised his head and stretched his neck, and saw Yang Ye squatting on top.
Li Cheng supported his aching back and said, "Here I come."
Yang Ye stood up and asked, "What did you find?"
"The surface corrosion is quite serious and needs to be cleaned to be visible."
He stepped carefully out of the pit, stepping on the wooden box underneath that he used as a footstool.
Li Cheng brushed the mud off his knees and said, "This one was just discovered the day before yesterday. There's still water underneath. There are two over there that were found last week. They're shallower than this one. The preliminary work is almost done. Let's go take a look."
Those were the pits closest to the mountain. Preparations were nearly complete, with a waterproof awning erected above. From the pits, bags of intact artifacts were gradually being handed out.
An operating table is set up on the left to facilitate on-site cleaning.
Yang Ye donned rubber gloves and entered the pit from the edge. Seeing the pile of mud before her, which hadn't been sorted yet, she half-crouched, took the magnifying glass from Xiao Xiao, and picked up a slightly exposed, more visible fragment from the ground. Focusing the magnifying glass on the exposed area, she could vaguely see the patterns and characters previously engraved on the earthy gray surface. There was a circle of small characters underneath, but the characters were not clear. It might be an inscription or some special mark.
"Professor Li, there is a new discovery here!" The student shouted in surprise to Li Cheng.
"Just clean the dirt off the surface and you can send it out." Yang Ye handed the things to the student next to her and went over with Li Cheng.
In the corner, the light formed an angle, making it difficult to see the actual situation. Students with flashlights blocked the soil layer. The edge of the soil layer was smooth, and after sweeping away the dry mud, the clear outline of the beads appeared on it.
Yang Ye pointed to an area about a palm's width where the beads were placed and asked, "Is there anything else in this area?"
“No, only this side.”
"Give me the reinforcement," she turned to Xiao Xiao and said.
Xiao Xiao stood there and didn't follow. She squatted down on the spot, found the bag of white powder in the box, added water and mixed it. Before it solidified, she went over and gave the thing to Yang Ye.
The soil layer had been covered with protective film, completing the pre-covering work. The prepared materials were placed on the surface of the soil layer, and the lid was put on. Once the bottom and the soil layer were completely connected, a carving knife was used to forcefully scratch along the edge of the box. Then, the box, along with the pile of items inside, was carefully removed from the soil layer.
Feeling heavy in his hands, Yang Ye breathed a sigh of relief and handed the things to the student who had called them over earlier.
Li Cheng was behind her, "What is that?"
"The jade necklace, the style and age don't look too old. Has it been treated before?"
"A lot of things came out of this pit, and we are cleaning it up."
The soil beneath my feet felt a bit loose. Although the surface of the soil looked dry, the feeling when I stepped on it was completely different from that of ordinary dry land.
Yang Ye asked: "Has it rained recently?"
"It's been sunny since we arrived, and the weather forecast says it will be sunny for the next week as well."
"The ground is too soft," Yang Ye stepped on. "How many meters deep is this pit?"
"More than one meter," the student replied.
"If we dig down another meter or two, there might be something underneath."
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