There was a spare iron shovel in his bag. I rolled my sleeves without hesitation and started to help him dig the soil. Although I wasn’t as good as Old Yao, I was young. Soon enough, we exposed the cover of a wooden coffin. Old Yao told me that he had found the goldfish bracelet inside.

“Can we open it?” I asked. Old Yao shook his head resolutely. Every profession had its own rules. If Old Yao said no, it meant no. 

I thought for a moment, then suggested, “We should continue digging. I want to see if there’s something odd about this coffin!”

Old Yao didn’t talk much. He wouldn’t nag or babble like Li Mazi. After listening to my suggestion, he continued to dig without saying a word. We unearthed the entire coffin moments later.

The coffin was made of cedar wood. From its appearance and workmanship, I guessed it had been buried for several decades… But it wasn’t damaged at all, which was quite strange.

I walked around the coffin twice.

“Old Yao, who was buried here?”

Old Yao pondered for a bit and answered, “Rich!”

It 

s

hould be some rich landlord...

“Except for the goldfish bracelet, did you find any other treasures?” I asked.

Old Yao said enthusiastically, “Yuan!”

As he was afraid that I wouldn’t get it, he made gestures to explain. I guessed he meant silver coins, the currency used during the Republic of China period. Since the coin had Yuan Sikai’s portrait on it, our folks called it Big Head Yuan.

Whenever I had a question, Old Yao always replied with just one word. I had to use my understanding to the max to decipher his answers. If we kept on like this, I wondered how I would figure out the important stuff!

While I was fretting, Old Yao took out four steel stakes from his bag and inserted them in the four corners of the pit. Afterwards, he took out a mat, securing its corners on the four stakes he had just installed.

Using a mat to cover the pit, this was the step needed before opening up the coffin.

I just looked at him quizzically because this made no sense to me. Old Yao gave me an odd smile, pointing at Li Mazi, who was stealing corn in the field. He meant he couldn’t open the coffin, so I should ask Li Mazi to do that.

Good idea!

 I thought.

I called Li Mazi. “Li Mazi, come here! I need your help with something!”

Li Mazi heard my voice, immediately running toward us. “What is it? Did you dig out any valuable otherworldly items?”

I smiled and asked him to get down the pit and open the lid of the coffin.

“What? You’re asking me to open the coffin?” Li Mazi paled, his brows slamming together.

“Why? Are you afraid?” I sniggered.

“It’s not that I’m afraid...” Li Mazi hesitated. “It’s just that Old Yao is good at these tasks. He has much more experience than me. We shouldn’t overreach ourselves and interfere with other people’s work…”

After hearing this, Old Yao directly kicked Li Mazi’s butt from behind, making him fall into the pit. He landed on all fours like a dog, but he got up immediately and started cursing.

I explained on behalf of Old Yao, “Old Yao already opened this coffin once. Every profession has its own rules, and he can’t open it a second time! Please, we’re counting on your fine labor this time.”

Li Mazi was angry. “Even if Old Yao can’t do it, we still have you here, right?”

“I have to wait up here in case something unexpected happens. If there’s an otherworldly item inside, I can be ready to deal with it.”

Old Yao also got into the pit and gave Li Mazi one-word orders.

Enraged, Li Mazi shouted, “Can’t you just finish your sentence at once? It’s still broad daylight, you don’t need to use your monkey tricks right now!”

Old Yao spoke quietly, “Fool!”

I completed the rest of Old Yao’s sentence in my head.

It took Li Mazi a lot of time before he could open the coffin. The smell of decay inside the coffin was not too strong, perhaps because Old Yao had opened it recently.

I looked down the pit and watched. Although the wooden coffin wasn’t damaged, the body inside didn’t share the same fate; only a white skeleton remained. Old Yao was a tomb robber with a conscience, so he took the goods without tampering with the body. Every bone in the coffin was neatly arranged as a human skeleton should. Nothing had changed.

However, all the goods in the grave had been taken.

Li Mazi craned his neck to take a look. “You old bastard, your hands are quite fast… You didn’t leave anything behind.”

Old Yao glared at him, but he didn’t say anything.

This coffin doesn’t have the other goldfish bracelets! Was my speculation incorrect? The cause of the problem doesn’t seem to lie with this grave.

However, Li Xiaoling has just committed suicide. How could she already have the power of a Ghost King?

What am I missing?

Old Yao seemed to have found something. He suddenly squatted and grabbed a handful of soil to sniff it. His eyes brightened after that, and he swung his arms excitedly.

“Old Yao, what did you find?”

Old Yao pointed at the grave, implying that there was another coffin underneath.

Li Mazi burst out laughing. “Nonsense! Who would bury two coffins in one grave? You’re an experienced fellow, yet you are using such cheap tricks to fool us!”

Old Yao didn’t mind him. He grabbed his shovel and quickly started digging. I picked up the other shovel and helped him. However, we had only found mud and soil by the time it became dark; there was nothing else.

Li Mazi seemed to be rejoicing in our misfortune as he stood watching next to us. “Ha! What did I say? Old Yao fooled you.”

Old Yao acted as if he didn’t hear him. He dropped his shovel and pointed at the sky. “Late.”

The sky was indeed dark; we couldn’t continue digging. Tomb robbers had their own rules, so I decided to listen to Old Yao and climbed out of the pit.

Even though Li Mazi had continuously asked us to head back home, Old Yao sat by the coffin without moving. He meant that we should stay there tonight and continue digging the next day. 

Li Mazi was almost pissing himself in fear.

Against his wishes, I agreed with Old Yao. “All right, we’ll do that.”

Li Mazi shook his head in despair. “A crazy old dude and a crazy young dude! You’re both crazy!”

“Stop nagging. You can go home if you don’t want to stay here, but this is a wild area, and it will take you a few hours to go back. It’s possible that you may encounter some evil spirit along the way…” I was trying to scare Li Mazi on purpose.

Li Mazi immediately sat next to me, not saying a word. Since Old Yao would often camp in the woods, he was quickly able to make a bonfire. We half-roasted some corn and ate them. After that meal, we put on more clothes and went to sleep.

Although we were in the middle of the woods, I quickly drifted into sleep thanks to the bonfire’s warmth.