After saying the creepy words, the local man took a step back, and jumped into a black tomb hole with a "plop".

Ji Feng pulled me and wanted to run back to the car, but I grabbed her tightly and didn't move.

I was thinking urgently.

Didn’t this person stay on the mountain road with the driver? Why did he suddenly come around in front of us?

Didn’t he only speak local dialect? Although the sentence “all are underground” is not considered Mandarin, it is clearly stated and the words are straightforward and everyone can understand it!

who is he?

We only met one person on the mountain road, why was it him?

Why did he appear in this ancient tomb?

I slowly walked to the edge of the tomb hole and shone it in with a flashlight. The tomb hole is about four or five meters deep in its longitudinal direction, and there is a horizontal deep hole at the bottom.

I suspect that the underground tomb passages are connected, and in a while, maybe he will emerge from some tomb hole.

I said to Monsoon, "Let's go back to the car first and come again tomorrow during the day."

Then, I pulled her to avoid the tomb holes carefully and walked onto the mountain road.

The driver was smoking. He had already turned off the car and saw only a cigarette butt flashing in the dark.

After coming to the mountain road, I was still worried and always felt that there was a deep pit under my feet. I had a comrade in the army who fought in southern Xinjiang. The enemy was best at burying landmines and could be bombed into the sky every step he took. Until he evacuated from the front line, retired from the army and returned home, and walked on the asphalt road, he was still worried, and always felt that he would explode if he stepped on it... Now, I understand his feelings.

I stopped a few meters away from the smoker, and while looking at his face, I asked, "Who?" - I don't believe anyone in this place anymore.

The driver stepped on the cigarette butt and said, "I."

It's our driver.

I looked around and asked, "Where is that local?"

The driver said, "He suddenly walked away just now. I thought, I could find the way down the mountain anyway, so he would go. Will we leave?"

I said, "Let's go to Mengou Village."

We found Mengou Village in the dark and found the home of the reader Liu Mingjiu.

The old couple heard that we were invited by his son and welcomed us warmly.

I found that people here can actually understand Mandarin. I can basically understand the local dialect spoken by Liu Mingjiu's parents. In other words, the guide we met on the mountain road was probably disguised.

I asked the driver to drive back to Liqu Town.

After eating something, Liu Mingjiu's parents took us into a cave. The earthen kang was warm. There was an old portrait of Chairman Mao on the wall, and the old man smiled warmly.

Monsoon and I sat on the earthen kang around the quilt, talking about the local people who suddenly appeared and disappeared. Monsoon was not afraid of the ancient tomb, but she was very afraid of the person who was hiking around in the ancient tomb.

She said: "I kept wondering where he went after he jumped into the tomb hole?"

I said, "I suspect that this person has been living underground and has been hiking around in the tomb passage all day long. Those ancient tombs are his home."

She said rationally: "Then what is he doing?"

I said, "Maybe it's a tomb robber."

A sneaky sound came from behind the water tank, and Ji Feng immediately raised his ears: "What's it?"

I said, "It's a mouse."

She whispered a word that made my hair stand up: "Didn't you notice that person looks like...a mouse."

In the morning, we had millet porridge and potato pine.

Liu Mingjiu's family has no crowbars, and there is no rope long enough.

Ji Feng and I wandered around the village and asked many people. When the farmers heard that we borrowed crowbars and ropes, they were a little alert and repulsive.

I have checked the information from this village and 70% of the men have participated in tomb robbing. They are very crazy. They cannot have these things, they just don’t want to lend them to us.

They may suspect that we are also here to rob the tomb.

It would be too unprofessional for any tomb robber to not even bring these basic tools and to borrow them everywhere.

There is a cave on the hillside far away, far away from the village, which looks a little lonely. I walked towards it with the monsoon. Generally speaking, the farther away from the crowd, the simpler the people are.

The door of the earth kiln was quietly closed, and no one came out. There was paper cut on the window, and the color had faded. It should be a big rooster and his head was gone.

I said, "No one is sure."

Monsoon said: "But the door is not locked."

I said, "No one locks the door in such a mountain village."

Monsoon said: "The folk customs are simple?"

I said, "There's nothing to steal."

We were both out of breath when we walked, so we had to go over and take a look. I walked to the wooden door of the earthen kiln and knocked, but no one responded.

I gently pushed open the door and there was a dirty cloth curtain inside. I lifted it up and there was someone inside! It was a woman in her 30s with her hair up to her waist. She was sitting on the kang and posing for poker and fortune telling.

The mat on the earthen kang was torn and there was no bedding. Two rice cans, one large and one small, were broken into three pieces. The water tank was empty, and a thick layer of dust fell. Several holes in the window paper were broken, and the cold wind was poured into it...

The long-haired woman raised her head and looked at us coldly.

I said to her in half-baked Shaanxi dialect again: "My fellow villager, can we come in and sit down?"

The long-haired woman said harshly: "You've come in."

Surprisingly, she speaks very standard. It is not easy to meet someone who speaks Mandarin here.

As I walked into the earth kiln, I said, "I'm really sorry, I'm disturbing you."

There was also a wooden board on the ground in her house. Monsoon walked over to it. With a squeak, she jumped away in one step: "What is this?"

I said: "The cellars are living in caves and the cellars are hidden, this is the way of life for the locals."

We sat on the earthen kang.

I said to the long-haired woman, "May I ask, do you have crowbars and ropes at home?"

She looked at me and said, "Do you think I look like someone with those things?"

Ji Feng followed the topic: "He is a writer named Zhou Dedong, Zhou Enlai's Zhou, Zhu Dede, and Mao Zedong's Dong. This time, he came to northern Shaanxi to collect folk songs and write novels..."

The long-haired woman did not speak and continued to perform poker.

I whispered to Ji Feng, "Call the driver and send it."

Then, I said to the woman, "Where is your husband?"

The long-haired woman said, "I've gone to Beishan."

I immediately noticed: "Beishan is so desolate, what are you doing there?"

The long-haired woman said, "There are a lot of people there."

I said, "Why didn't we see it?"

A sharp and strange scream suddenly came from outside the window: "It's all underground!!!"

I had a cold war and turned my head suddenly to look out. There is no doubt that this person outside the window was the one who showed us the way and disappeared into the ancient tomb that day.

The long-haired woman sports poker while casually saying, "He is a mentally ill."

I said, "Why did he get mentally ill?"

The long-haired woman said, "Why are you crawling around under the tomb every day? Isn't you mentally ill?"

In the afternoon, the driver delivered the crowbar and rope.

Monsoon and I climbed up the North Mountain again.

This is the northern Shaanxi on November 15, 2007. The sky is cloudy. Although it is daytime, there is no sign on the mountain, and it is dead. There are withered and dark hay and short trees everywhere. It doesn't look as terrifying as at night, but it's even more desolate.

According to historical records, the tombs from the Qin and Han dynasties all had bucket-shaped tombs, tombstones, ancestral halls, tombs, and stone sculptures of people and animals on the ground. Now, these things have been spent for a long time, leaving only bare loess.

Liu Mingjiu's father actually brought us a black donkey hoof. He said that it was an evil-proof one. I threw it away halfway.

Turning a corner, a place suddenly flashed out, very bright, like a dirty beggar tied with a red-headed rope. We walked forward and saw clearly that it was a tall new grave with a big red and green wreath. A tall wooden pole, with a big paper-paste bird tied to the top, painted black, very depressed. It turned to look at us with the wind, and then turned to look at the distance.

Ji Feng said: "I'm not afraid of ancient tombs, I'm afraid of new tombs."

I said, "Why?"

She said: "The people in the ancient tombs do not even exist, and there is nothing to be afraid of. There is a photo on the tombstone of the new tomb. I am afraid of that photo, especially the eyes on the photo."

After walking past the new grave, we stepped into the weeds and continued to look for the tomb hole marked with white cloth. I looked back and saw that the big paper-paste bird on the new grave was staring at us from a distance. After I turned around, it turned around and looked elsewhere.

There are incomplete clay pots everywhere on the mountains. This land is too old, and when something grows old, it is easy to turn into a monster. There are bones of various shapes, and I cannot tell which part of the human being they come from. There is a bone that is very long, and I suspect it is a horse.

It was so quiet, only the footsteps of me and the monsoon. We were in the light, and countless people were lying in the darkness of the ground.

Ji Feng said again: "Now, I am not afraid of new graves, I am afraid of criminals." While speaking, he looked around: "In this wilderness, people will know that we are from the city when they see our outfits. If a few locals suddenly appear to kill money, we have nowhere to escape."

Her concerns make sense. There is no signal on this mountain, and even if you want to call the police, she can't even report it. Even if the police successfully call the police, it will definitely be dark when the police arrive here. After the gangster killed us, he threw us directly into the tomb hole and buried it without leaving any traces...

We finally saw a piece of white cloth tied to the tree, which looked like a soul-summoning banner. The tree was naturally deformed, twisted and crooked, and had already died. There was a black tomb hole in the low-lying area beside the tree, which was black and waiting for us to enter.

I stepped over the deep and shallow weeds, walked to the edge of the tomb cave, and looked inside.
To be continued...