Seeing that I hadn't even finished my meal before heading to Shanzui Village to find the stone, Xue Haihua comforted me with a touch of helplessness, "Mr. Duan, these people around you have been so busy all day, they haven't even had a proper meal. Even if you're in a hurry, we won't be short of time for this meal. Let the others rest!"
"Boss Xue, I am paid by your side and I am obligated to serve you. Please understand. If your men are tired, then I will take matters into my own hands."
I couldn't tell Xue Haihua the real purpose of my trip, and I understood that he didn't understand why I was in such a hurry.
In his view, I came here to conduct research and investigation on the historical sites.
However, all I'm looking for are a few stones, not some worthless treasure. These things aren't going to get lost, so they're not worth valuing so much.
I knew that Wei Shengnan was pressed for time. Almost a day had passed and she hadn't found anything, so I was getting a little impatient and had no mood to take care of Xue Haihua's feelings. Seeing that he wasn't going to come along, I had no choice but to leave on my own.
“Mr. Duan, you’re in too much of a hurry! You’re a guest that the Wei family specifically asked me to entertain. How can I let you wander around here alone?”
Seeing my insistence, Xue Haihua had no choice but to get up and say to his secretary, "Prepare the car and go to Shanzui Village. Also, have someone keep an eye on that rock. From now on, no one is allowed to touch it."
The two-kilometer distance passed in the blink of an eye. After Xue Haihua's driver parked the car on the road, I looked out the window and realized that the courtyard was not a private residence.
Or rather, it's not entirely a private residence.
The courtyard was enclosed by a wire mesh wall. The open ground of the courtyard was piled with stones of all sizes, as well as some stone incense burners, stone lions, and tombstones that had been carved into stone.
This courtyard is a stone processing factory.
A young man guarding the gate saw Xue Haihua's car arrive and ran up to him, saying, "Mr. Xue, our men have taken control of the yard, and someone is guarding that rock too."
"Take me to see it."
Upon hearing the young man's reply, I stepped into the courtyard: "Besides that stone, were there any other discoveries?"
"There's nothing on the surface! There's a lot of rubble piled up in the corner of this yard, but checking it piece by piece would take too much time, and our people haven't had time to investigate that area yet."
As the young man spoke, he led me to the rock: "This is it."
I squatted down to examine it. The stone had sharp edges and was about 15 centimeters thick. Near the lower right corner, the two characters "拾陆" were carved. Next to it, where it was broken, there was half of a Manchu character.
Judging from the appearance, it should be the inscription on a stone tablet. If it comes from the shaman temple I am looking for, then the sentence containing these two characters should be "Made in the sixteenth year of Jiaqing".
Judging from the cracks on the edge of the stone, it must have been broken, and not recently; it looks like it's been there for quite some time.
Although this stone is not what I am looking for, the half of the Manchu script on it makes me feel that it probably comes from the shaman temple I am looking for.
After examining the surrounding stones and confirming that there were no other parts of the stone tablet, I asked the young man, "Is the person in charge of this factory here?"
"Yes, he's in the room behind. He's been brought under control. This way, please."
As the young man spoke, he led us toward the bungalows in the courtyard.
As soon as I entered, I saw a middle-aged man with a strong build, tied to the ground with ropes, and his face was bruised and swollen.
Seeing the middle-aged man's appearance, I was immediately stunned: "What's going on? Why are you tying him up?"
Xue Haihua explained from the side, "In order to handle this matter, I asked some friends in society. Although they went a bit overboard in their work, they were also very efficient."
The young man in front didn't hear our conversation. When he heard my question, he pointed at the middle-aged man and said, "This bastard can't understand human language. He insists that we trespassed and is going to call the police. No matter what we say, it's no use. We have to resort to force."
"Let them go. We're not robbing anyone, so this isn't practical."
Xue Haihua took the secretary's handbag, took out 20,000 yuan in cash, and placed it on the table in front of the middle-aged man: "Brother, we had some misunderstandings before. Consider this money my apology! As long as you answer a few questions for my friend, we'll leave immediately, okay?"
The middle-aged man, still reeling from the beating, looked at the thugs in the room with some fear: "What exactly do you want?"
Xue Haihua took out another 10,000 yuan and placed it on the table: "Can we talk now?"
The middle-aged man glanced at the money, then at Xue Haihua, and swallowed hard. "What do you want to know?"
I cut to the chase and asked, "We found a fragment of a stone tablet in your yard. I want to know where that stone tablet came from!"
Xue Haihua's secretary stepped forward and showed him a picture on the tablet: "It's this stone."
What is this thing?
The middle-aged man glanced at the picture and shook his head immediately: "I don't recognize this thing, I've never seen it before!"
"Damn it, you better think about it!"
One of the thugs, eager to impress Xue Haihua, yelled at the middle-aged man, "Do I have to use my fists to help you remember?"
The middle-aged man timidly replied, "I'm not lying, I really don't know! I've been a stonemason since I was thirteen, and I've been doing it for over twenty years now. I've handled countless stones. You're asking me to think of something from a picture? What can I possibly come up with?"
"Don't be nervous, we won't hurt you."
I handed the middle-aged man a cigarette: "Take a closer look, the stone in this picture has words carved on it! You probably rarely encounter stones with carvings like this when you're working, right?"
"There are fewer now, but there were many in the past! Now even stone troughs and stone mills used in rural areas are bought back at high prices by antique collectors, but in the past, even coffin beds from ancient tombs would be carried over to be made into stone mills! Especially during those special periods in the 1970s and 1980s, stone tablets and statues from temples were sent to processing plants."
The middle-aged man paused for a moment: "My family has been stonemasons since my grandfather's generation. However, we only do work for a few surrounding villages, so the workload is not large. Many of the old materials piled up in the yard were left behind by my father and grandfather when they were working. How could I possibly figure it out?"
After thinking for a moment, I felt there was no need for the middle-aged man to lie, so I simply asked directly, "Back then, there was a shaman temple on Mawei Mountain that was demolished. Were the stone statues and steles inside sent here?"
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