We four carried the safe from the Ge family's old house.

On the way back, some villagers saw us and thought we were burglars. Two brave old men even tried to catch us.

Fortunately, Zheng-jie arrived in time to rescue us. Without her, we might not have been able to move the safe out of the village so smoothly.

Because we were carrying this heavy thing, we had a lot of trouble on the way back. But those are just trivial matters and not worth mentioning.

Back in Guanghan, Jiang Yongguang took the safe away to study it. He told us he would let us know as soon as he had news, and told us not to worry.

Me and Uncle Mei didn't push him this time, giving him plenty of time.

Cracking the safe was pretty quick. It didn't require any special skills. They just got some demolition tools and tore it open.

The next afternoon, Jiang Yongguang and Xiao Liang came over. Uncle Mei and I were waiting at home. When we saw them, I immediately went up to greet them, and Uncle Mei brewed a pot of hot tea.

Jiang Yongguang and Xiao Liang sat down around the coffee table. The two of them got straight to the point.

Jiang Yongguang said, "The safe was opened last night. The contents were pretty much what Xiao Liang guessed."

I asked in surprise, "So there really is a treasure map?"

"More or less." Jiang Yongguang said, "But the contents aren't a treasure map. It's a notebook. A tomb raiding notebook."

At the time, Jiang Yongguang said exactly those four words, "tomb raiding notebook." So much so that in later years, when a novel with the same name came out, I even wondered if Jiang Yongguang had resigned and gone home to write novels.

If the story in that novel hadn't been completely unrelated to Jiang Yongguang's experience, I would have really thought he wrote it.

But I digress.

Hearing that the contents of the safe were a notebook, I quickly asked, "A tomb raiding notebook? What's written in it? Could it be the old Ge family's tomb raiding diary?"

Jiang Yongguang shook his head and said, "It's not a chronological account like a diary. It's more like academic research. This notebook analyzes in detail the location of the ancient Shu Kingdom ruins, as well as the locations of some tomb pits."

When it came to this kind of academic topic, Xiao Liang was more professional than Jiang Yongguang. She immediately explained to us, "Based on my observations, there are two different handwritings in this notebook, so I guess this should be the joint research of Ge Xueying and her mother. And the academic basis for this notebook is likely clues passed down from the previous generation."

"How so?" I asked.

Xiao Liang said, "This notebook repeatedly mentions the tombs marked on the 'old map.' This 'old map,' I think, refers to the Ge family's ancestral treasure map. The notebook combines the markings on the old map with recent natural phenomena such as plate movements, river diversions, and seismic activity, trying to deduce a new map."

Hearing this, I understood almost everything. I rubbed my chin and said, "I get it. The Ge family should have an ancestral map. This map marks the specific locations of the ancient Shu tombs, but because of river diversions, crustal movements, and the like over the past few thousand years, the map is no longer accurate. So the research done in this tomb raiding notebook is to create a more accurate new map based on the old map."

"That's right, that's exactly what I mean." Xiao Liang nodded.

"So which ancient tombs are recorded in this notebook? Are the Tuojiang ancient Shu tomb, the Yazihe ancient Shu tomb, and the Mamuhe tomb, which is half-Ming and half-ancient Shu, all recorded in the tomb raiding notebook?" I asked.

"All of those are recorded in this notebook," Xiao Liang said definitively, "So I'm even more certain of my previous guess."

Hearing this, Uncle Mei immediately slapped his thigh and said, "Then if we search according to the order in this notebook, won't we be able to find Ge Xueying? Her next target must be the next ancient tomb recorded in this notebook, right?"

However, at this time, Jiang Yongguang and Xiao Liang looked embarrassed and frowned, "Things may not be that simple."

Uncle Mei and I were stunned and waited for them to explain.

Jiang Yongguang said, "The order of this notebook is a little different from what we thought. For example, the Tuojiang ancient Shu tomb appears in the middle and later parts of the notebook, while the Yazihe ancient Shu tomb appears in the first half of the notebook. As for the location of Yao Guangxiao's cuckoo's nest ancient Shu tomb, it was deduced at the very beginning of the notebook. In other words, Ge Xueying doesn't seem to be descending into the tombs according to the locations in this notebook."

This made things difficult.

If Ge Xueying descended into the tombs in the order of the notebook, then it would be very simple. We would just have to follow the map and look for her in the fourth ancient Shu tomb on the notebook.

But she was wandering among the ancient Shu tombs in a completely random manner. How could we find her?

Just as I was struggling, Xiao Liang said, "But looking at the entire tomb raiding notebook, I found that the Ge family isn't just looking for ancient Shu tombs. They seem to have even bigger ambitions. Their target doesn't seem to be one or two tombs."

"What?" I immediately became curious and asked, "Then what is their target?"

Xiao Liang said, "They should want to find a city by locating these ancient Shu tombs, an ancient city."

"What city?" I asked again.

Xiao Liang said, "Qushang."

"Qu... what?" I had never heard of this city.

Xiao Liang burst out laughing, smiling like a flower, she said, "Not 'qu... what', it's Qushang, a city in ancient legends, the city of origin of the ancient Shu civilization. Cancong, Yufu, Boguan, and Duyu all established their capitals there, and King Wu of Shang was also enfeoffed here."

Speaking of this, she quoted a passage from ancient texts, "'The Chronicles of Huayang' says: When the Zhou Dynasty lost its principles, Shu was the first to call itself king. There was Marquis Cancong of Shu, with protruding eyes, who first called himself king... The next king was called Boguan, the next king was called Yufu, who hunted in Jianshan and suddenly attained immortality. The people of Shu missed him and built a shrine for him. Later, there was a king called Duyu, who taught the people to farm, and was also known as Lord Du. At that time, there was a Liang woman named Li in Zhuti, who traveled to the source of the river. Yu was pleased with her and took her as his wife. He moved the capital to Pi, or Qushang."

I don't have much education and I don't understand classical Chinese, so I don't know the meaning of this passage, but Xiao Liang has made it very clear to me, "Qushang" was the capital of the ancient Shu Kingdom, equivalent to Chang'an in the Western Han Dynasty and Luoyang in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

At this time, Jiang Yongguang added, "In fact, you can tell that this city is the imperial city of the ancient Shu Kingdom from the name Qushang. The ancient form of the character Qu has two vertical 'eyes' on top, referring to the protruding eyes of the ancient Shu people, just like the protruding eyes of those bronze statues we've seen. And Shang represents the supreme position. Qushang refers to the territory ruled by the people with protruding eyes."

Hearing this, I immediately recalled the bronze statues with eyes protruding from their sockets that I had seen in the ancient Shu tomb, and my heart couldn't help but skip a beat!