Chapter 3 Primer

On May 11, 1995, at a mine in the outskirts of Spring City. It is said that the difference in the circumstances of people leads to the difference in the way of life of each person. Some people farm, some work, some sit in the office, and some can get something for nothing.In every country and every society, there will be countless stepping stones as cannon fodder during the transitional period of the rise of emerging economies. In 1995, it was the seventeenth year of my country's reform and opening up. At that time, many mines were state-owned.However, there are still some capable and well-connected people who have obtained ore mining rights through their network channels.These people mined different types of minerals, but without exception, they all became rich overnight.

The wave of reform and opening-up has blown all families, and the voice of "going to the sea" to dig out gold can be heard endlessly. There are some winners, but more losers.But for many people at the bottom of society, there is no choice. For example, Li Ming, for him in life, there has never been an option to choose from.At the age of fourteen, he started working as a miner with his father in the "Dongyi Mine" in his hometown in the outer suburbs of Spring City.Work Monday to Sunday, never a break.In the mining area, everyone nicknamed him Monkey because of his small stature.

Speaking of Dongyi Mine, to be honest, it always feels weird.The mine is located in the Spring City Mountains, close to Dujiangyan. The owner of the mine is a private owner with a background, surnamed Dong, who is said to be a foreign Chinese. The Qingcheng Mountains have a long history, there are many Taoist monuments, and the resources are also considered rich. The "Dongyi Mine" is located on a rich coal mine, and there are veins without digging too deep, so the danger is not great. The village on the edge of the mining area also has a long history. It is said that mining in the village can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty for thousands of years. There is no farming in the village, and all the miners and their families are miners.

Before Dongyi Mine, the mine was originally owned by the local government, but in the environment of attracting investment, the Chinese surnamed Dong did not know what he promised, and the government leased the mining rights to him without hesitation. Monkey didn't understand the reason. He was just a 27-year-old ordinary miner at that time. He only went to primary school, knew some words, and followed his father's shoulders to dig some residual ore. He is a native of the village. His father was a miner, his grandfather was a miner, and his ancestors have been miners for generations, just like everyone in the village.

It's just that the village where Li Ming lives is called "Stone Bodhisattva". It is said that the origin of the village's name can also be traced back to the Qin Dynasty, although even the oldest person in the village can't tell why. To say that Dongyi Mine is weird is the consensus of every miner recently.After Boss Dong came, he drastically increased the number of miners, and even children over the age of thirteen and young women around the village were invited to mine.The government may have gained some benefits, but it turned a blind eye to it. There was no abnormality in the first year at the beginning. Boss Dong never purchased large-scale machinery. After taking over, he still used the ancient method handed down from generation to generation in the local area.Even if there are more workers, there is no mandatory production limit. The miners think that they have met a good boss, and that the man who has studied abroad is educated and knows how to care for the workers.

But at the beginning of this year, the old miners felt that something was wrong. Early this morning, an expensive-looking car drove into the office building in the mining area. Boss Dong went out to greet him in person with a flattering smile on his face.The person who came into the office left after half an hour. Not long after, the supervisors of each mine team received orders from the boss, and everyone began to dig at a 30-degree angle to the lower right side of the mine pit. The old miner who heard this order suddenly became uproarious. This coal mine is an old mine. It has been excavated for thousands of years, and the depth of the underground is only more than 30 meters.With the current annual output, it is only necessary to dig horizontally, there is no need to continue to drill the well downwards, not to mention that it must be inclined at 30 degrees, which is no longer digging coal at all!There are always many taboos in places with a long history, especially Mount Qingcheng, a place with a long history of Taoism.Successive kings of Shu had a tradition of building tombs in the Qingcheng Mountains. Stone Bodhisattva villagers have lived here for generations, and a large number of miners’ taboos have been handed down from their ancestors, but most of them are solid warnings. After all, every additional meter dug in the mine will The danger is doubled, this is by no means alarmist!But the protests of the miners were quickly suppressed.People at that time were simple and honest, and they worked hard to dig mines just to get a meager income to support their families, so the boss told them to dig, and they could only dig as they wanted, fearing that they would lose their jobs.

Although the monkey has been digging mines for ten years, he is young after all. He doesn't understand why his parents are so excited, but his grandfather has a worried expression on his face, and he beats everyone into the main room at night. It was already dark, and a candle was lit on the table, and the dim light reflected the darkness of Grandpa's old face.He had a pipe in his mouth, and the fire had been extinguished long ago, but grandpa didn't seem to notice it, and was just in a daze. After everyone in the family arrived, he said in a hoarse voice: "Boss Dong, there is a problem."

"What's the problem?" asked the father. "He doesn't look like he's going to dig coal." Grandpa knocked the ashes out of the pipe. Father frowned, "Then what does he want to dig?" Grandpa was silent for a while, "I can't tell. Maybe he wants to dig up an old matchmaker!" "Old matchmaker" is a miner's dialect, referring to an ancient tomb.As a miner, you will always dig out many strange, indescribable and incomprehensible things in your life, and it is even more common to dig out ancient tombs. "You said that Boss Dong wanted to rob the tomb?" My father was taken aback, and then shook his head, "It's not like, which tomb robber dares to be so blatant and dig the whole mine."

"I always think this room is weird. Unusual! Unusual!" Grandpa sighed, "Anyway, it's better to be careful. The mine will continue to be dug. After entering the well, many people will be there to welcome you. Don't run away." Go ahead. If you dig something weird, don't touch it, turn around and run away." Li Ming's family has a very high status in the village. For thousands of years, the ancestors of the Li family have always been the patriarchs and village heads. After the destruction of the Four Olds, the wave of the Cultural Revolution flooded this remote mountain mining village. Li Ming's grandfather was arrested by the Red Guards. Criticism led to death, and the position of the village head fell into the hands of others.

Although the status has declined, the Li family does know many secrets that are not known in the village. At least even Li Ming can see that Grandpa has not said something clearly, as if he knows something inside. Father didn't ask further.He just touched his head with his hand, "Did you hear what your master said, be careful when you enter the mine, and follow me carefully." "Oh." Young people always have a sense of drive, newborn calves are not afraid of tigers, and Li Ming doesn't take seriously what his grandfather said. On the second day, Boss Dong increased the number of miners at one time, and even increased the salary by 15%, and there were bonuses for working more.

Almost all men, women and children in Shipusa Village went to battle, and all went into the mine to dig deep.Encouraged by the front, all the miners worked hard, and the depth continued to extend at an angle of 30 degrees downward, and more than a month passed without knowing it. After digging for so long, the channel is several kilometers long and has a depth of more than 50 meters.The coal mine belt has already been dug through, and in the past few days, all the soil dug is yellow and black. Boss Dong seems to be a little anxious, and he will go down to the mine to check it every day.He would always squat down, pick up a piece of soil with his hands, and pinch it with two fingers. On the forty-ninth day of drilling, a miner's shovel suddenly touched something hard.The ear-piercing sound of metal collisions resounded through the mine, and the sound waves echoed in the vicinity. Everyone who heard the sound stopped their movements in unison. "What is this?" A miner pushed aside the soil layer and shone on it with a miner's lamp. "There seems to be a piece of iron underneath." said another miner. The monkey moved his head curiously, but was slapped hard by his father.He looked up, just in time to meet his father's eyes full of warning, so he had to back away complaining.From the corner of Shi Xian's peripheral vision, several miners had already removed the soil from the iron block, and the things below appeared on the retina. As soon as they saw it clearly, the people nearby suddenly exclaimed again and again. It turned out to be an iron chain as thick as an adult's waist. This surprisingly thick iron chain was completely black, and it made a "bang bang" sound when it was knocked on. All the miners were amazed by the iron chain. No one had seen such a thick iron product. Even the iron chain used on the famous 100-meter-long suspension bridge behind the Erlang Temple in Dujiangyan was far less thick than this one. I really don't know why the ancients spent a lot of manpower and material resources refining this iron chain. What's more, it is not difficult to find that the iron chain is obviously broken from the middle, and what the miners dug out is exactly the broken end. The monkey looked at it from a distance, and was a little surprised. The broken place seemed to be torn off by something with brute force.What kind of thing can have such great strength that it can actually break an iron chain as thick as a man's waist?This is simply unbelievable. The other end of the iron chain was deeply buried in the soil, I don't know how long and how deep it is. Soon Boss Dong was notified. After getting out of the mine, the overseas Chinese only glanced at the iron chain, and his face was full of joy. He repeatedly ordered everyone to continue digging along the thick iron chain, and left impatiently. It was much easier to have a goal, and everyone began to dig around the iron chain, but no one noticed that Li Ming's grandfather dragged his family members away from him. The iron chain was longer than anyone present imagined. Until noon the next day, the miners hadn't dug to the end, and Boss Dong had already brought an old man in a black suit into the mine.The old man looked fifty or sixty years old, mentally exhausted, but his eyes were terribly bright. Li Ming took a sneak peek at him, and his heart beat wildly in fright. The man's eyes seemed to be able to see through people's hearts, right down to the deepest part of the soul. Grandpa looked at the old man vigilantly, frowning even more tightly. The old man walked up to the iron chain, touched the cold surface of the iron chain with his hand, and there was a faint smile on his ghostly face.At this moment, the miners on one side also exclamated and dug out the thing connected by the iron chain. Regardless of his father's obstruction, Li Ming squeezed into the crowd of people rushing past, he was really curious to death.Young people are always like this. They are full of curiosity about everything. They don't like to listen to the experience of the old people. They always believe in themselves blindly. They don't understand the reason that curiosity will kill the cat. The waist-thick iron chain was connected to a larger iron block. When the monkey saw the ground cleaned by everyone, his head seemed to be hit by lightning.This iron chain is more than 60 meters long from the beginning to the end, and it goes straight down, but at the end of the digging, it encounters hard iron poured with iron juice. The people who climbed down the simple wooden ladder were all shocked. up. There are more than 500 people in the mine, and everyone has been digging along the thick iron ore, so the diameter of the well is not spacious, only more than four meters. The old man in black came to the bottom of the well and stomped on the ground with his shiny leather shoes. The sound of a solid collision resounded all around him. He frowned. The layer of iron was definitely not thin, at least one meter or more. The monkey was on the outermost side of the crowd. He tapped the edge of the well with the pickaxe in his hand, and the piercing metallic sound kept ringing out. At some point, his father ran to his side, slapped him on the head, and said in a low voice, "Go to the well, have you forgotten what your father said?" What is the chain used for? And this layer of iron juice, what is under there?" Li Ming looked at the black iron seal under his feet without blinking, "Maybe it is really the old matchmaker's mouth. , maybe if we dig down, we can see the tomb of a certain generation of Shu kings." "How can there be such a good thing, even if there is a tomb, it is not something we living people can enjoy. I think Boss Dong is looking for death." The father became a little impatient and urged the monkey to stay away. "Dad, do you know something?" Li Ming asked quietly. "I don't know, but your grandfather probably has some clues." Father frowned, "But he didn't tell me. You know, our Shipusa Village has a history of more than a thousand years, and we haven't experienced any big storms. There are many things passed down by our ancestors, and only the patriarch can know. You will tell me before you die." "Tch, our family is no longer the patriarch." Li Ming muttered. At the same time, the old man had already carefully explored the bottom of the pit, and took out many weird instruments to check and inspect, and then told Boss Dong: "I had expected that there might be such a thing, so I wore a platform on the truck. Cutting machine, it’s no problem to get rid of this layer of iron juice, tell these natives to hurry up.” The cutting machine was quickly transported down, and with the roar of the diesel engine, the piercing sound of the cutting machine made the whole mine tremble continuously.The old man in black was a little excited. He watched the progress of the cutting machine without blinking, and his hands were even trembling slightly. Grandpa couldn't bear it any longer, so he got out of the mine too.He walked up to the monkey with an ugly expression on his face. "Master, what exactly do they want to dig?" Li Ming asked tentatively. "I can't tell." Grandpa still said those few words, but his expression was very anxious, and he muttered in a low hoarse voice, "I hope it's not that terrible thing." It took a full three hours before the cutting machine dug a round hole in the iron seal.The hole was pitch-black, and the moment he opened his mouth, there was a bone-piercing chill, and everyone shuddered at the same time. "Why is it so cold?" A miner hugged his arms tightly. The old man in black pulled a miner's lamp and threw it into a hole. The lamp shook into a free fall, and it took more than ten seconds before there was a slight shattering sound. Good guy, the space in the cave is at least 100 meters high. If it is really a tomb, then this cemetery is by no means unusual. I am afraid that even the most famous Shu king in history could not afford to spend so much manpower and material resources to build such a grave in Qingcheng Mountain. sprawling building.What's more, this place is a full 130 meters deep into the mountainside!Li Ming was a little scared, this incident became more and more weird, even his curiosity died down, he intuitively felt that the world under the cave might be more dangerous than imagined. "Leave the rope." The old man in black ordered, "You, go down the rope and have a look." The old man casually pointed at a strong miner. The miner was startled, and waved his hands, "I won't go, even if I'm killed." "One hundred thousand yuan, as long as you go down, the money will belong to you." The old man grinned wickedly.He took out ten stacks of thick banknotes from his pocket and threw them on the ground, "If you die, I will give the money to your family." The miner stared straight at the money on the ground.At that time, ten thousand yuan households were still popular, not to mention such a small isolated place. One hundred thousand yuan was equivalent to a huge sum of money that these miners would not be able to earn in a few lifetimes.As soon as the man gritted his teeth, he didn't even want to die. He took the walkie-talkie passed by the old man and climbed down the rope. "Idiot! I really don't want my life!" Grandpa scolded angrily.He was very anxious, and his anger was getting bigger and bigger. With a vertical height of more than 100 meters, the miners spent half an hour.When he finally stepped on the ground and looked around with the miner's lamp, there was only an unpleasant noise from the intercom above. "It's so big, there's no end in sight." The miner's voice finally came out. The old man frowned, "What did you see?" "There's something strange inside, ah, what's that!" The miner screamed, but there was no more sound.All the miners around were in an uproar, because they didn't know whether the people below were dead or alive, which added to everyone's sense of fear. "Make the hole bigger, get a few more ropes, and let people go down one by one." The old man in black was unmoved, he stared straight into the cave, his eyes were radiant, as if he had finally found what he had been pursuing all his life!As the saying goes, there must be a brave man under a heavy reward. Although many people are afraid of death, there are more people who are greedy for money.Stimulated by huge sums of money, many people descended into the cave one after another.Seeing that there were no more accidents, the old man and Boss Dong also went down.Unexpectedly, Grandpa also stood at the entrance of the cave, ready to go in and have a look. "Grandpa, didn't you forbid us to go?" the monkey asked angrily. "I'll go down and see if Boss Dong really wants to dig that thing out. If the purpose is really that thing, I will try my best to stop it." Grandpa was shaking all over, and Li Ming even saw deep fear in his eyes. "What's there?" Li Ming asked. "I can't tell. But it's definitely not a good thing." "Will it hurt people?" Li Ming asked again. "After digging that thing out, the harm is relatively light." Grandpa sighed, "If I didn't come up, you will leave with your father and his family, the farther the better, and never come back in this life." After finishing speaking, I went down. "Dad, are we really not going down?" Li Ming looked at his father behind him. Father shook his head, "Listen to your grandfather." "Tch, you've been listening to your master all your life, and you don't have any idea. You're so useless!" Li Ming blinked, and when his father wasn't paying attention, he grabbed the rope and climbed down. His father was so angry that he jumped on his feet and kept yelling at him as "asshole", "unfilial" and "disobedient", and finally had no choice but to follow him into the cave. Li Ming climbed until his hands became numb, and his feet stepped firmly on the ground. He looked around with a miner's lamp. This place looked like a natural cave, so vast that it couldn't be seen at a glance.Many people walked to the right after going down the cave, and he followed the crowd. The body of the first miner who entered the cave was lying flat not far away, and his face was covered with several sheets of cloth.Li Ming squatted down and looked at it, and couldn't help shaking. The old mine was safe, and it was normal for a few people to die due to accidents throughout the year. He was used to seeing deaths, but this person's death was by no means unusual.He didn't have any scars on his whole body, only his expression before he died was terrified, as if he had seen something terrifying that was unbearable to the spirit. Li Ming looked back and found his father chasing him, so he quickened his pace to catch up with the crowd.The further he walked, the more traces of artificial construction became. The ground of the huge cave was obviously flattened by people, and many strange buildings were built. Some things he knew were like towering Buddhist pagodas, while others were full of strange things. Local exotic colors. This made him even more surprised. Although Li Ming didn't know much about it, he watched the only TV in the village whenever he had free time, so he knew more than ordinary miners.As Yue walked forward, the more dangerous she felt, it made Li Ming's heart pound. I don't know how long they walked, until everyone gathered not far in front and stopped moving, Li Ming also found that the surrounding atmosphere became depressed. No one spoke, just stared blankly at the front, as if the soul had been sucked away, and remained motionless.Boss Dong and the old man in black also seemed to be petrified, standing in front of everyone, all the surprises on their faces disappeared, leaving only endless horror. Everyone's eyes in the cave were focused on one point, and Li Ming followed those eyes and moved over bit by bit. Finally, he saw what everyone saw. It was a stone bodhisattva taller than a person, and the material was ordinary, but it was strange that after thousands of years of sealing, there was no sign of corrosion.You must know that the humidity in the Spring City area is generally thick, especially in the sealed environment of deep mountains, it is easy to form miasma, which is very corrosive, and it will peel off layers of skin whether it is stone or iron. But the stone-carved Bodhisattva stood upright sitting upright, with a touch of strangeness that caught people's hearts.Li Ming couldn't turn his head around. Could it be that the ancients spent so much manpower and material resources to move the mountain more than 100 meters deep, and sealed the entrance of the cave with iron juice several meters thick, refining the waist-thick I don't know the purpose of the iron chain, in order to preserve this seemingly worthless stone bodhisattva, right?Li Ming was a little disappointed, he thought that there would be a shocking secret buried inside or an emperor's tomb, with countless precious treasures.Sure enough, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment!His gaze climbed up along the feet of Stone Bodhisattva, and when he saw Stone Bodhisattva's face, he was stunned. It's hard to describe that face, there are bursts of evil between the eyebrows and eyes, especially the mouth, which is painted red with some paint, and the bright red lips seem to have drunk blood.Li Ming felt that the stone bodhisattva's mouth had a great mysterious attraction. He couldn't control his body, and he couldn't even look away. He felt dizzy, and even his soul seemed to be pulled out of his body.At this moment, someone pushed his face away forcefully, and Li Ming saw his grandfather who was close at hand. Grandpa's whole body was drenched in cold sweat, and only despair remained on his horrified face.He pushed him away with all his strength, and shouted heart-piercingly, "Run away, the Blood Bodhisattva is born!" Blood Bodhisattva, what is a Blood Bodhisattva?Is it the terrifying stone bodhisattva in front of me?The monkey wanted to leave subconsciously, but he didn't know that no one could escape. The moment someone entered the cave, the seal of death had already been opened, just like Pandora's box, and everyone had already lost the chance to escape!On June 15th, 1995, Chuncheng began to inexplicably spread many versions of zombie rumors, and it was difficult to distinguish the true from the false.But few people noticed a little news published in the local newspaper: "A small mountain village called Shipusa in the Qingcheng Mountains, due to a sudden mine disaster, everyone in the village, including men, women, old and children, died in the mine overnight. None survived."