by Xu, Lei
Running up to me, he pulled at the photos in my hand. “Well, all right, fine, okay. You’ve got me. But let’s make one thing clear right now. When we’re down in the grave, you stay above ground. Do you understand?”
Soaring with excitement, I thought, When the time comes, if I insist on going with you, what will you be able to do to stop me? But I nodded enthusiastically. “You have my word! When we’re off on this adventure, I will obey you to the end. I will do whatever you say!”
Uncle had no choice. He sighed and said, “We can’t do this with just the two of us. I’ll arrange for a few experienced men to come over tomorrow and I’ll spend the next few days deciphering this script mapping. Your job is to go and buy some things for me.” He rapidly wrote a list, handed it to me, and said, “Be sure not to buy anything of poor quality and don’t forget to buy any item on this list. If we don’t have everything we need for our trip we could be sunk before we even reach the gravesite.”
The things that Uncle Three wanted weren’t easy to find. It seemed as though he was deliberately trying to make this a difficult task for me, because none of the things on his list were commonly stocked in most stores. He wanted waterproof miner’s lamps that could be taken apart for easy transport, soil-testing shovels, Swiss Army knives, folding shovels, short-handled hammers, bandages, nylon ropes, and much more. After buying only half of the supplies on his list, I had already spent a small fortune that came out of my own pocket. Mourning my shrinking bank account, I cursed my uncle for using my money when he had plenty of his own—the miserly old bastard.
Three days later, five of us—Uncle Three; Panzi and Big Kui, who were two of his old grave-robbing partners; the young man whom I had seen leaving my uncle’s house with the purchased antique the night I came over with the photos; and I—arrived at the location shown on the script mapping, about a hundred kilometers west of the Temple of Seeds in Shandong.
How can I describe this place? The best I can say about it is there was nothing there. To reach it, first we traveled in a long-distance motor coach, then in a much less comfortable long-distance bus, then on long-distance motorcycles, and then in wagons pulled by cattle.
When we got off the cattle carts, we could see nothing in any direction. A dog ran toward us and Uncle Three patted the shoulder of the old man whom he had hired to be our guide. “Sir, are we going to ride on this dog next? I’m afraid carrying all of us will be quite a burden for him.”
“Of course not,” the old man laughed. “This dog is a messenger. For the final leg of your journey, there’s no land transport—you have to go by boat, and the dog will bring the boat to you.”
“So he can swim, can he?”
“He swims pretty fine, pretty fine…” The old man looked at the dog. “Donkey Egg, show these gentlemen what you can do!”
The dog jumped into the river and swam around in a circle. When he came out of the water, he shook his fur dry and lay close by, panting.
“It’s still too early right now. The boatman definitely hasn’t started work yet. We’ll take a break and smoke a cigarette first.”
I looked at my watch. “It’s two in the afternoon and the boatman hasn’t started working? What kind of schedule does he stick to?”
“He’s the only boatman around in these parts and he’s one hell of a shrewd bastard. He starts working whenever he decides to get up and there are some days he doesn’t work at all. It irritates the shit out of the eager explorers who come to visit the cave,” the old man said with a smile. “There’s no other way to get there. The River God will allow only him to take you to the cave that you want to find. Anyone else who enters that place is certain never to return—anyone else but him. If you guys want to go by mule, then we can travel past the hills and go to the cave that way but that will take at least another day. And you guys have so much stuff—even if we use all the mules in our entire village, there wouldn’t be enough of them to carry all that you have.”
“I see.” The minute Uncle heard the word “cave,” his spirits instantly ran high and he took out the map he had decoded. He had been handling this like his most prized possession, and would not let me take even one peek.
When we saw him bring it to light, we crowded in to check it out, all but the young fellow who had bought the antique from my uncle. He sat off by the side and kept quiet.
To tell the truth, I didn’t care for this guy at all. Panzi and Big Kui, the two men who used to work with my uncle, were friendly, steady, reliable fellows. But this young guy didn’t so much as fart once on the entire journey—he was like a deaf-mute. All he did was look straight up at the sky, as if he were worried that it was going to fall down on him. When we first began our trip I talked to him a bit but after a while I didn’t bother to pay any attention to him at all. I honestly couldn’t understand why my uncle brought this obnoxious poker-faced jerk along with us.
“There is a cave, a river cave, right at the back of this mountain,” Uncle Three said. “So what’s the deal, old man? Does this cave eat people alive?”
The old man smiled. “It’s all talk passed down from the older generation. I can’t remember all the exact details. People in the village used to say there was a snake monster in there. And that those who went in the cave never came out. Then one day, the boatman’s great-grandfather paddled a small boat out from inside the cave. He told us he was a traveling salesman from out of town. But who ever saw a traveling salesman carrying a boat on his shoulders while he ran around doing business? Everyone said he was the snake monster transformed into a human. When he heard that, he laughed it off and said he bought the boat from people in the next village and if we didn’t believe him, just go and ask. So people went and asked, and the answer was just as he claimed. So everybody believed him, and thought the monster in the cave was gone. Then a few adventurous teenagers went into the cave, and never came out.
From that day on, only the family of the traveling salesman was able to go in and come out without being harmed. Don’t you think that’s strange? Later on, through the years, his family kept running this business, all the way up to now.”
“Can the dog take messages in there and return unscathed?” I was intrigued by this story.
“This is their family dog. But other people’s dogs or livestock that go into the cave never come out.”
“And the government doesn’t investigate something so baffling and bizarre?”
“How many people believe us when we talk about it?” The old man tapped the spent ashes from his pipe onto the ground.
Uncle Three frowned and clapped his hands. “Donkey Egg, come over here.”
The dog wagged his tail and came running over obediently. Uncle picked him up and sniffed him, and his expression changed. “That can’t be…is it possible this is in the cave?”
I also picked the animal up and sniffed. I choked and coughed at the overwhelmingly foul smell. This dog’s master was quite a slacker. Heaven knew how long it had been since the dog had a bath.
Panzi burst into laughter. “If you want to follow in your uncle’s footsteps, you still have a long way to go!”
“This goddamn dog stinks!” I smiled while I struggled not to vomit.
“This dog grew up eating dead human meat,” Uncle Three said. “That’s a cave filled with people’s carcasses. That boatman the old man is talking about, I’m afraid when he was a child, he too was fed…”
“Oh no—that can’t be!” I was so scared that my hair stood on end. Even young Poker-face’s expression changed a bit when he heard this.
Big Kui, Uncle Three’s other buddy, was a whale of a man whose head was almost as big as those of the cattle that pulled the cart, but inside he was a timid, fearful wimp. He asked so softly that it was almost a whimper, “What do you mean about this cave? Will we be in danger when we go in there?”
“I don’t know. But a few years ago in Taiyuan, Shanxi, I found a cave like that where bodies were piled up during the Japanese massacre. Where
ver you find a carcass cave, it’s a place where there has probably been a massacre—this I am certain of. You know,” he added thoughtfully, “I heard of a place in Shanxi where people fed dead human flesh to kids when they were little so the stink of corpses would accumulate in their bodies. When the kids grew up, their bodies smelled just like a dead man’s and not even ghosts couldn’t tell the difference between them and a corpse. Sir, was your traveling salesman who became a boatman from Shanxi?”
The old man’s expression flickered and he shook his head. “I have no idea! That was this boatman’s great-grandfather and that was long before my time.” He looked up into the sky, and said to the dog, “Donkey Egg, go and get the boat from your house!” The dog plunged into the water and swam toward the back of the mountain.
Meanwhile, I saw Uncle Three look quickly at Panzi, who stealthily took a backpack out of the pile of luggage and put it on his back while Poker-face did the same. Panzi walked past me, whispering, “We may not be able to trust this old man— watch out.”
Chapter Four
THE CARCASS CAVE
My Uncle Three had worked with Panzi and Big Kui for years in a trade more dangerous than most. The three of them were all experienced grave robbers who knew what they were doing and I trusted them completely. So when Panzi told me to watch out, I knew where things stood.
Big Kui gave me a quick look that told me to keep quiet and stay out of any trouble that might crop up. I smiled in response while thinking, why would I need to get involved anyway? Big Kui was capable of knocking down a cow with one punch without even trying, and Panzi was a war veteran with scars all over his body. My Uncle Three, from the time he was young, was famous for being devil-may-care when he got into fistfights— plus that quiet poker-faced bastard didn’t look one bit like a merciful type. And then there was me, the intellectual—since time began, eggheads like me were notorious for being useless in a brawl.
Uncle Three came beside me and jammed an army knife into my hand. It was heavy and felt unnatural and awkward. I had no idea of how to use it if I had to defend myself.
At that moment Donkey Egg swam back and leaped to shore with a splash. The old man hit his pipe against his trousers and said, “Let’s go! The boat’s here.”
Two boats emerged from the back of the mountain, one after the other. A middle-aged man stood on the first vessel, shouting as he poled it toward us. It was a good-sized boat that looked like it had more than enough space for our equipment. The old man patted the cow’s neck. “Gentlemen, there is no need to unload and move your gear. I’ll pull the cow and the cart onto the second boat, and we’ll all ride on the first one. That will be easier for everybody.”
Panzi smiled. “Some of our stuff isn’t waterproof and I think it would be better to carry those things with us. If the cow jumped into the water, wouldn’t we be screwed?”
The old man smiled and nodded. “You have a point. But our cow here is not a buffalo. It would never jump into the water. If it did jump, I myself would personally help you rescue your things until every single item was retrieved.”
Quickly and skillfully, the middle-aged boatman guided both boats ashore. The old man pulled the cow toward the boats while we each shouldered our own bags and followed behind him.
While the cow and cart were being loaded onto the second boat, I checked out the boatman. His complexion was dark and swarthy and he had a rough appearance; somehow I felt he was up to no good. I remembered what Uncle Three said about people who ate the flesh from dead bodies, and all of a sudden the man looked ghastly and horrifying.
“When we’re at the cave, everyone, be sure to whisper, so as not to upset the River God—and be careful—do not speak ill of him,” the boatman warned us.
“How long does it take to reach the cave?” Uncle Three asked.
“If we’re very lucky, we’ll get there in five minutes. The river’s current is very swift and dangerous, especially inside the cave.”
“So there are spots where it’s not so strong?”
“Yes. Sometimes the water goes upstream. When you saw me rowing down, it was going downstream. Now we’ll have to go against the current, which could take us much longer, perhaps around fifteen minutes. There are also a few dangerous turns to negotiate along the way.”
“Is it light inside the cavern?”
The man laughed. “No sun reaches into that place—how could there be any light? You could say it’s completely pitch-black.” Then he pointed to his ears. “I have been a boatman for decades. These punt-poles and my ears are good enough to get me by.”
“In that case, can I use a flashlight?” Panzi raised the miner’s lamp in his hand. “It won’t obstruct your view, will it?”
“Not at all,” the man said. “But be sure not to shine it into the water. You’ll be scared to death!”
“Why?” Uncle Three smiled. “Is there a water monster of some sort?”
“Not even a water monster could compare to what’s there. I don’t even want to talk about it. If you guys are daredevils, take a look—but remember, just one glance is enough. If you’re lucky, all you’ll see is a pool of black water. If you’re not, what’s there will scare the hell out of you.”
As he spoke, we could see the cave at a distance, hidden at the base of the cliffs. When we were on the shore, we couldn’t see a thing, and imagined it would be a gigantic cavern. But as we got closer, we were surprised to see that it was actually tiny, with an entrance so small that it was only about four inches wider than the boat we were on. But the most alarming thing about this portal was its height. Men couldn’t go through it even if they were sitting down. If we crouched with bent backs, we would only manage to enter with enormous effort. If anyone inside meant us any harm, it would be impossible for us to move our arms and legs to defend ourselves in such a small, compressed space.
“Holy shit,” Panzi cried, “isn’t this cave a little bit cramped?”
“It’s fairly large. There is a passage inside that’s even narrower than this,” the old man said from the back of the boat.
Uncle Three shot Panzi a look, and Panzi smiled. “Ah. If there was someone in the cave trying to rob us, I guess he wouldn’t be able to escape easily with so little room, eh?”
At this point, I saw the middle-aged boatman move his hand as though in some sort of signal, and the old man’s expression changed. I thought to myself, there certainly is something going on here. Then we heard a roar, and the boat shot into the cave.
Panzi turned on his miner’s lamp. At first we could still see light from the outside but soon our lamp became the only source of illumination.
“Master Three, this cave isn’t so simple, huh?” Big Kui said. “This is a water robbers’ cavern!”
“A water robbers’ cavern…Unlike modern caves which are dug with a rectangular entrance to the underground world, this entrance is circular which tells us this is an ancient cave. When we go in here, we may well enter another kind of world.”
“Oh. This gentleman apparently is quite experienced. He’s right,” said the boatman, who leaned forward and knelt with one knee resting on the bow. He was paddling with just one hand as if he were drawing a dot here and a stroke there. But the strange thing was that his pole did not touch the water at all, nor was he out of breath as he should have been after paddling upstream with a group of men on board his boat.
“I’ve heard that this entire mountain was a tomb,” he said. “There are many of these water caves nearby, all different sizes, but this one is the largest and the deepest. I think in time past, the water was not this high; perhaps this might even have been a dry cave.”
“Oh. Apparently you’re also an expert.” Uncle Three politely handed the boatman a cigarette, who accepted it as he shook his head and said, “Expert? Give me a break. I’ve only heard this from the people who came here before me. I heard more and more stories, and eventually learned how to say a few things here and there. My knowledge is slight. Please don’t moc
k me by calling me an expert.”
Panzi and Big Kui both had their hands on their knives as my uncle and the boatman continued their banter. Although the atmosphere seemed pleasant and harmonious, everyone in our group was on edge. There were five of us and only two of them so if anything were to happen, I reckoned we probably would not be the losers. On the other hand, if these two dared to attack us, that would certainly mean they had come well-prepared, ready to overpower us.
As I continued with my thoughts, the poker-faced young fellow waved his hand. “Hush! Listen, someone is talking!”
We all held our breath, and we could hear a voice coming from deep within the cave. We strained to make out what was being said but could only occasionally decipher a word or two. I turned to ask the boatman whether he often heard these sounds when he was here but to my surprise, I found that he had disappeared. I turned to the other side of the boat, and shit—the old man had vanished as well.
“Panzi, where did they go?” Uncle Three cried.
“Don’t know. Didn’t hear any diving sounds,” Panzi was also astonished. “The minute we heard that voice, I stopped paying attention to those guys.”
“Oh my god, we don’t smell like corpses. What’s going to happen to us? Panzi, you fought in Vietnam back in the day. Did you ever eat the liver of your enemies?” my uncle demanded.
“You’ve got to be kidding, Master Three, I was in the kitchen washing dishes every day.” Panzi pointed to Big Kui. “Fatty, didn’t you say your family used to sell buns stuffed with human meat long ago? You’re such a greedy bastard—you must have eaten a lot of those when you were a kid.”
“Bullshit! I made that up. Besides, we made those human meat buns to make money from other people. Have you ever seen a salesman so desperate that he’d eat his own wares?”
I quickly made a time-out signal. “The three of you put together add up to being older than a century and a half. Stop being such jerks and show us young guys a good example, will you?”
