W

hen I got up, I saw that the sky outside was gray and hazy. I put on more clothes

 and walked

 to the window. Instantly, I felt chilled-to-the-bone.

Another autumn 

had come

. It became colder and colder day after day. I thought there would be a sharp drop 

in

 temperature soon. I rubbed my palm and 

reluctantly

 opened my shop. 

These days, Yin Xinyue was busy

, so she

 didn’t 

spend

 the 

night

 in the shop. My breakfast was always bought during 

the dinner of the previous night

. I just needed to heat it in the morning. 

After breakfast, I held 

a

 teapot in my hands

 and

 leisurely 

sat

 on my chair

. I watched the 

people 

move

 back and forth outside. I thought I was indulging myself a lot and wished to enjoy my life like this every day. 

While 

I was having a nice dream

, Li Mazi’s voice came from outside. He

startled me

, and 

I almost 

fell

 off my chair. 

“Little 

B

rother Zhang, 

b

ad things have happened!

”

 Li Mazi looked panic-stricken. 

As he talked

, he didn’t stop 

looking

outside

 the 

shop

. 

My good mood was 

shattered

. I felt 

annoyed and scoffed at 

him. “Why are you so worried? What happened so early in the morning 

that made you like

 this?” 

“There’s a bloody man outside. Right at your door

!

 He said he 

had

 something very urgent to tell you and that he needed your help…” Li Mazi panted

 and gasped 

for his breath. 

After listening

 to him, I guessed this could be my next business case. I walked out of the antique shop. Not far from me

 was

 a 

man who was

 sitting on the sidewalk. He looked pale

, and h

alf of his 

face was covered

 in blood. His clothes were torn and tattered.

 It looked like he had just 

escaped a brutal fight. 

After looking

 at him, an 

uncomfortable feeling rose in 

my heart. “Hey, brother! Brother, wake up!” 

He didn’t react to my call. I suddenly had a bad feeling about this. 

I hastily

 reached under his nose to check his breathing. Luckily, he was still breathing. I exhaled 

a deep breath and

 turned to talk to

Li Mazi, who 

looked

 dumbstruck. “Call the ambulance! If you linger here, he 

could

 die!” 

Li Mazi gave me a nod and took out his phone to call 

the ambulance

. After the ambulance crew took the man into the 

vehicle

, they asked, “Who’s his guardian?” 

Li Mazi was afraid of taking responsibility. He hurried to explain the situation to the crew

.

 “We don’t know him. We found him unconscious in front of our shop this morning.” 

The ambulance crew staff had to call the police

 as t

hey were afraid that this man would die inside their ambulance. 

Soon, two policemen came. They were patrolling th

e 

street and were in charge of 

maintaining

 order and security in my neighborhood. 

The people

 living in this area knew them well. 

“Mr. Zhang, what happened?”

I told him about the situation. They nodded 

and

 took a few photos of the 

bloodstains

 on the ground. Then, they followed the ambulance to the hospital. 

I thought that this incident would end 

here

. However, three days later, 

as

 Li Mazi and I were 

about to close

 the shop, the two policemen came again. 

“That man 

has

 been unconscious for three days. He woke up today

. A

s soon as he woke up, he hurriedly asked to see you, Mr. Zhang. He said he needed your help. He 

has

 something very important to 

say to you

.” After talking to me, the policemen took me to the hospital to see that man. 

The man had strips of fabric bandage on his head, which

 made him look like an

 Egyptian mummy. 

When we entered his patient ward, he was screaming

.

 “I want to see Zhang Jiulin! Hurry! I need to see him as soon as possible! Otherwise, more people will die!” From his tone and words, I guessed he had encountered something 

foul

. 

I frowned

 and walked 

to his bed. I cleared my throat to get his attention. “I am Zhang Jiulin. 

Did

 you 

get into

 some trouble?” 

When he saw

 me, his eyes turned bright. He 

cheered up

 as if he had just grabbed 

a

 straw that could save his life. He grabbed my ar

m and screamed

, “Master Zhang, hurry

! C

ome save us!” 

“Friend, don’t be stirred up. Calm down

, and t

ell me everything slowly. If I can help you, I’m sure I will

,

” I said p

olitely as I 

patted his arm. 

The man finally calmed down

 and took 

a few breaths to stabilize himself. Then, he carefully arranged his words. “The story I’m going to tell you, I hope to share 

with you

 only. We can’t let other people know about it.” 

I felt a little awkward

 and looked 

at the two policemen. The

y

 gave me a forced smile then left the ward. 

Li Mazi followed them

 and politely closed

 the door of the room. “I’m his assistant. Please tell us the story.” 

The man hesitated for a while. Eventually, he started to talk. “I am Tang Xianzu. I live in Tangjia Village in Zijin Mountain. 

During

 recent years, many tourists have come to our village. Then, contractors came to exploit our 

land

.

 When

 the construction teams came, they used excavators to turn up the soil in our fields. At first, the people in my village felt happy and thought that th

ese

 contractors 

were

 very 

hard-working.

 However, after a while, we found that except for digging up our fields

 and 

leaving holes here and there, they didn’t do anything else. After a short course of fifteen days, they had dug a few hundred holes in our Tangjia Village…” 

Because

 Tang Xianzu 

was

 hurt, when he became stirred up, he couldn’t 

stop 

coughing. I had to bring him a glass of water. I asked him to drink 

and

talk more slowly. 

Tang Xianzu calmed down and continued the story. Although the villagers all felt the construction teams were

 acting

strange

, their lands were requisitioned

. T

hey didn’t have any right to voice up. 

Around a week ago, some good friends of Tang Xianzu came to him

 and told 

him that they wanted to go to the field and dig some treasures. 

It turned out that their village had a special piece of land where no blade of grass could grow no matter what season it was. Even 

during

 the drought season

, when 

all the other fields were dried and cracked

, 

that piece of land stayed the same. 

Tang Xianzu had heard from the elders in his village that 

that

 piece of land was very 

strange

. In olden times, the central government had uniformly allocated the fields to the farmers in this village. However, anybody who got this piece of land couldn’t grow anything. When they grew 

corn

, no sprouts came out of the soil. When they grew rice, the 

plants

 all died. The farmers couldn’t do anything. Gradually, no one wanted this land anymore

. It had 

turned into a piece of wasteland. Since there was no ownership 

of

 this land and was located in a remote corner, the construction teams had missed this spot. The kids in this village had always listened to the elders

, so t

hey never 

went

 to that place. 

However, those real estate investors had dug more and more holes in the villages, so they seemed to 

be

 searching for something. Tang Xianzu’s friends were smart. They guessed that their village

 might have some

 hidden treasures. Moreover, it 

c

ould be buried in that unwanted piece of land. 

The friends got together and planned to go there at night time to see what it was

.

 Tang Xianzu didn’t want to go with them. However, 

h

e was afraid that his friends would tease him for being

 a coward. As such, h

e 

gathered

 his courage and 

followed

 them. 

At the first

 step 

onto

 that piece of land, Tang Xianzu felt 

a chill

. He couldn’t help but shudder. He was startled

 by it and insisted 

that he go home. 

However, his

friends told him that it 

was

 normal that the place was cold at night time. They threw him a hoe

 and asked 

him to start digging. 

None of them had expected that th

at

 piece of land 

would have

 strangely tough soil, which was as hard as reinforced concrete. When their hoes hit the ground, the coiling force tingled their purlicue. 

However

, it also encouraged them 

into thinking

 there was something underneath. 

Tang Xianzu had exerted a lot of 

effort

 to dig a hole around half a meter deep. He panted

 and 

decided to sit down and smoke a cigarette to rest. 

But then, right 

at

 this moment, he suddenly heard his friends scream. “Found it! We found it!” 

Tang Xianzu hurried to that area. He saw that one of his friends had 

done a good job at digging

 with his ho

e and dug 

a big hole 

in the

 ground

. Something was 

sparkling inside. 

When he came to this 

part of the story

, I could confirm that something odd 

was in

 tha

t

 land. If it 

was

 a real otherworldly item, would I be able to earn a huge sum this time? 

I guessed Li Mazi shared the same thought. 

He

rolled his eyes and urged 

Tang Xianzu to tell us more details. 

Tang Xianzu nodded and continued

,

 “We continued to dig. After a while, we found 

a sparkling stick.

 My friends resolutely used their hands to dig the soil around. They wanted to know what that stick 

was

. However, no matter how hard we pulled, we couldn’t take it out. That stick seemed to be growing inside the earth.

 As such

, we decided to take a buffalo there to pull it

. When

 it was completely drawn out, we recognized it

 was

 more than two meters long

, with

 a shining

, pointy

 end. 

It was

 a spear used by 

a

 general 

in ancient

 times. Everybody knew that 

it was

 a valuable antique. My friends hurried to wipe the dust and mud off the spear. They even washed it clean. After cleaning it, we were all surprised

 and recognized 

that this spear 

was

 made of pure silver. The entire spear reflect

ed

 cold light!” 

When he came to this part, I couldn’t help but feel excited. With my experience, I knew this silver spear 

had to

 be a great treasure! In ancient times, blacksmithing skills and techniques weren’t good at all. 

M

etal objects were 

very

 expensive. Normally, the soldiers 

used spears

 with wooden handl

es 

and metal pointy heads. They would never use pure silver to cast a spear. The 

person

 that 

could

 use a silver spear like this

 must have been an 

intimidatingly famous general in ancient times. 

Moreover, as far as we knew, because this spear was buried in the ground, that piece of land couldn’t even grow a single blade of grass. It was enough to prove how formidable

 its

 murderous aura 

was

! It was able to kill all the living things

 in that land.

After thinking that I was going to gain

this

 silver spear, the corners of my mouth inadvertently rose. 

However, when Tang Xianzu saw me 

smile

, he was scared. “

Is something the matter

?” 

I then recognized that I was acting awkward. 

After pulling

 myself together, I told him to continue his story. 

Then, Tang Xianzu told me every detail of 

the

 event. After listening to the complete story, I had to snort to vent my irritation. 

It turned out when these people saw the benefits

 and 

forgot about their friendship. As soon as they saw the silver spear, they all wanted to make it their possession. No one cared about their long-term friendship anymore. However, there was only one silver spear. They discussed

 it

 and 

eventually

 agreed to weigh it and divide it equally. 

T

hey were 

really

 wasting the heavenly treasure! 

I didn’t wait 

for

 Tang Xianzu 

to finish

 talking. I snarle

d and said

. “Did you melt that silver spear?”

“Oh, we didn’t…” Tang Xianzu shook his head repeatedly. “Even though my friends were so excited and happy, I couldn’t feel happy at all. I always 

had a feeling that the

 silver spear was evil. I had that feeling because whenever I touched it, 

a 

chill 

was sent to

 my heart! I

t was so

 cold that I thought my blood 

had

 frozen for a moment!” 

Tang Xianzu was afraid that they would 

end up

in

a

 horrible 

mess

. He suggested 

burying

 the silver spear back 

in

 its place and 

to

 consider that nothing had happened that night. However, no matter how 

hard he

 tried to persuade them, his friends still insisted 

on dividing

 the silver spear. Tang Xianzu couldn’t talk them out of it. 

Feeling d

ispirited, he left. 

When he got home, Tang Xianzu 

wasn’t

 able to 

pull

 himself together. He had a feeling that something 

bad

 would happen. He was flustered and restlessly anxious. When his wife recognized his abnormal behavior, she 

asked

 him why. 

H

e didn’t dare to tell her the truth

, so h

e casually found an excuse to comfort her. 

He

 couldn’t sleep t

hat night

. Every time he closed his eyes, he smelled the scent of blood 

that

emitted

 from the silver spear. Eventually, he decided not to sleep. He sat up

 and leaned 

against the 

bedrest,

playing

 games 

on his

 phone. 

He didn’t know how long he had been playing when his phone screen blacked out. He thought it 

had run

 out of battery, so he 

went

 to charge it. 

But w

hen he turned around, he saw a man kneeling by his bed! 

Since everything in front of him was pitch-black, he didn’t see that person 

clearly

. He thought it was a thief. Instinctively, he blurted

,

 “Who the 

heck

 are you? Why 

have

 you come to my house?!” 

However, after the scolding, the shadow 

started

 to cry. At first, that shadow’s sobbing was low and indistinctive

, but

 his voice grew louder and 

clearer as time passed

. Eventually, Tang Xianzu was touched. He forgot 

about his fears and asked 

the shadow

,

 “Why are you crying in my house?” 

The shadow didn’t react or 

answer his

 question. Tang Xianzu went to turn the light on. He then saw 

a

 shadow kneeling by his bed. 

It had no physical body

! It scared the 

heck

 out of him. 

However, he didn’t want to scare his wife and kids,

 so 

he tried to suppress his fears

 and hold in his

 scream. The shadow then got up. Tang Xianzu got a glimpse of a headless man wearing a set of armor. Blood was still dripping 

from

 his cut neck. 

As the blood started to 

form a puddle on

 the ground, Tang Xianzu smelled a familiar scent. Suddenly, he recognized it was the same 

as

 the smell he had sniffed when they dug up the silver spear! 

Tang Xianzu was scared out 

of his

 wits. He couldn’t help it anymor

e and let out a scream

. Right after that, his wife opened the door

 and entered 

the room

. She asked 

him if he was all right. 

Tang Xianzu got himself together. He turned and looked again

, but n

othing was there. 

There was n

o shadow

 or 

puddle of 

blood

. He exhaled in relief. Although it could have been a nightmare, he strongly believed that the silver spear wasn’t normal. As soon as it 

became

 brighter the next morning, he went to find his friends.

..