"Cheng Gong, do not act based on your feelings, but on reason!" As soon as he spoke, Professor Song frowned and said.
Cheng Gong immediately deflated upon hearing his teacher speak.
No matter how displeased he was with Li Zhonglou, he dared not retort to Professor Song.
He could only snort in his nose and say no more.
Seeing this, Li Zhonglou couldn't help but feel amused.
Bringing personal emotions into work was a major taboo for any team. Cheng Gong's animosity towards him was undoubtedly due to him stealing his fame.
A narrow-minded person has no room for reason.
Then let him be convinced by his loss!
The group each took out their phones and took pictures of the stone tablet for archiving.
Then they bid farewell to the elder and prepared to head up the mountain.
Just then, Li Zhonglou's peripheral vision caught sight of a round, earthy-yellow brick piece by the elder's bamboo house.
A dragon head was carved on the wall, but a corner was broken.
Long-term exposure to rain had caused it to be covered in moss, making it inconspicuous.
He walked over and dug it out.
After a glance, he asked in front of everyone, "Elder, are you selling this item?"
"Isn't this just a piece of junk? If you want it, just take it. We're all friends." The elder spoke in a pleasant Sichuan dialect, very enthusiastically.
As this exchange happened, everyone else's gaze also fell on this dragon head round brick piece.
"You must be here to pick up junk." As expected, Cheng Gong showed disdain again.
Professor Song and Zhang Chen were bewildered. Zhao Zheng frowned.
Only Lin Ying's eyes lit up.
But no one spoke.
"It's not acceptable to just take it for free. This item is very old and not ordinary," Li Zhonglou said with a confident smile. "Although it's damaged, its value is still quite high. How about I give you twenty thousand?"
"Twenty thousand? That's too much!" The elder was startled.
This thing was just a piece of yellow mud brick dug out of the ground when the house was built.
A dragon head was carved on it. It had been in the corner for so many years. Some people had seen it, but clearly, no one was interested.
It didn't matter if it was given away or not.
Li Zhonglou's offer of twenty thousand immediately stirred a warm feeling in his heart.
"Master, how can you pick up treasures like this?" Zhang Chen's mouth turned up, and he leaned into Li Zhonglou's ear to advise, "You're inflating your own price. Others won't sell it later."
"You know nothing!" Li Zhonglou replied in Sichuan Mandarin.
Then he turned back to ask Lin Ying, "Senior Sister, do you have cash? There's no signal here, and mobile transfers might not work."
"You! If I hadn't withdrawn some cash in advance, you'd be boasting now," Lin Ying said with a smile.
She paid the elder twenty thousand.
However, the others showed no intention of leaving, clearly waiting for Li Zhonglou to explain.
If it wasn't a treasure hunt, why spend twenty thousand on a mud brick carving?
"This thing isn't valuable, but it's priceless," Li Zhonglou said, seeing through everyone's thoughts. "Aren't we here to archaeologically excavate the Western Xia tomb? this dragon head round carving is a typical totem of the Western Xia royalty, which should have been a marker of the tomb owner's identity. It broke after being exposed to the sun, wind, and rain, was buried in the ground, and then dug out again."
"It cannot be sold, but it is of great use for understanding and researching the history of the Western Xia."
"You all specialize in academic and historical research, while my senior sister and I are more skilled in the appraisal of antiques and cultural relics. We each have our strengths."
Clap clap clap.
As soon as he finished speaking, Professor Song led the applause, and Zhao Zheng and his wife immediately echoed him.
Cheng Gong's face turned ashen, feeling as uncomfortable as if he had held back a bowel movement.
In this single aspect, he had lost to Li Zhonglou by a wide margin.
Poor eyesight, unrefined skills.
Especially Li Zhonglou's words about each having their own strengths, but unfortunately, he did not have any strengths over Li Zhonglou.
The sarcastic remarks from earlier felt like invisible slaps to his face.
If his skin weren't thick enough, and he didn't care about losing face, he would have already burrowed into the ground.
"Cheng Gong, although Zhonglou is young, you should learn from him in both knowledge and broad-mindedness," Professor Song, who knew his student best, said with a shake of his head.
Then Li Zhonglou put away the round carving, and everyone began to climb the mountain.
They were on the back of Mount Mengding, an undeveloped primeval forest, while the other side had been cleared for tea cultivation.
Its tea was known as the ancestor of all teas.
The foot of the mountain was about nine hundred meters above sea level, and the ancient tomb was located at over fifteen hundred meters.
However, since the government had intervened, an excavator had cleared a dirt path.
Everyone except Professor Song climbed relatively easily.
They soon reached the location where the red flag was planted. The surrounding trees had been cleared, a cordon had been set up, and cameras had been installed.
Two armed police officers were also standing guard.
Behind them was a stone wall with a stone door built into it.
Years of erosion from wind and rain had made it mottled.
Even the door rings that should have been on it had fallen off and were lost.
If it weren't for a close-up observation, the stone door, hidden in the dense forest, would not have been discovered at all.
"At that time, I mobilized all the members of the Yucheng Cultural Relics Protection Association and scoured the area for three days before finding this door," Zhao Zheng said with pride in his voice.
He was in this field of work. Finding a Western Xia royal tomb in his hometown, and if he could use it to piece together the history of the Western Xia's dating, what an honor that would be.
Everyone knew that people either sought fame or fortune.
Actually, that was inaccurate.
In reality, everything was for their spiritual world.
Earning money to satisfy life's pleasures was for spiritual enjoyment.
Seeking fame to enjoy a sense of accomplishment and a high status was also for spiritual enjoyment.
In the final analysis, the essence was no different.
When people no longer needed material things, the only pursuit was the enrichment of their spiritual world.
This was the motivation that supported and drove Zhao Zheng and his wife to travel thousands of miles to assemble the team and enter this ancient Western Xia tomb.
"The path ahead has been cleared, let's go in," Wang Lixia urged, following her husband.
The stone door was heavy.
After presenting their credentials and greeting the armed police, the group pushed it open together. Behind it was a stone wall with a two-meter-wide gap that had been dismantled.
There was a gap of nearly one meter between this stone wall and the stone door.
Everyone took out their flashlights from their bags. They saw that the stone wall stretched upwards, at least three to four meters high.
It seemed that the mountain wall inside the stone door had been hollowed out to build the ancient tomb.
Entering the stone wall, it turned into a passageway that could only accommodate two people walking abreast, with some murals carved on it.
Typical Qiang ethnic clothing and style.
Entering the passageway, they found a tomb chamber five meters high, containing a stone coffin. The coffin lid had fallen several meters away.
The stone coffin was carved with dragons and phoenixes, with Buddhas riding dragons and flying on phoenixes.
The craftsmanship was exquisite, and the content was rich.
Other than that, it was empty, with no extra clutter, and even the skeletal remains were gone.
There were also countless patterns carved on the stone walls nearby.
Not a single burial object was found.
"It seems someone has been here before," Zhang Chen said regretfully. "Then what's the difference from the information we have?"
"The difference is over there. Look carefully, that's not a wall, but a stone gate blocking the path," Zhao Zheng pointed to the east of the tomb chamber.
As soon as he spoke, Li Zhonglou's flashlight shone over.
A giant stone, chiseled and mottled, almost blended with the stone wall, blocking the path.
But faint cracks could still be seen.
There were also many traces of gunpowder explosions on the giant stone.
Clearly, it had been subjected to directional blasting before they arrived.
Unfortunately, the giant stone was undamaged.
Now, wouldn't this trip be in vain?