Li Zha Si's village was called Shuishu Village, with about a hundred households. It was considered a large village in the surrounding area.
Years ago, a prospecting team had discovered a copper mine there. A year later, a large number of people arrived in Shuishu Village to start mining.
It was in the second month after the mining team entered the village that Li Zha Si joined them.
According to him, the mining team had six groups, with three groups forming a shift, divided into day and night shifts.
Each shift had a blasting team, a slag removal team, and a logistics team.
The blasting team was responsible for drilling holes for explosives using jackhammers. This team was small, with only two or three people.
The slag removal team was larger, usually consisting of six or seven people.
As for logistics, they were responsible for cooking for the other two teams, typically one or two people.
The mining process was as follows: the blasting team would set off explosives in the tunnels, and then the slag removal team would clear out the loosened ore using wheelbarrows.
Li Zha Si did not have blasting skills, so he naturally was responsible for slag removal.
He had good physical condition and was hardworking, so he quickly gained popularity among the mining team, and everyone liked him.
The strange event he spoke of occurred a year after he joined the mining team.
He said that the leader of the day shift blasting team was a young man who was engaged in his hometown. He brought his fiancée with him when he came to work here.
Through his connections, his fiancée was assigned to the logistics team, responsible for cooking for the night shift. This was quite common; many in the logistics team were family members of the miners.
However, the fiancée of this young man was extremely alluring.
Li Zha Si said he had never seen such a captivating woman.
Everything began with this woman.
The woman was named Xiao Juan. She was beautiful and exuded charm, generally well-liked.
But one night, Xiao Juan met with foul play.
The person who discovered Xiao Juan's body was a woman she worked with. According to the woman, Xiao Juan went to the river to fetch water that night and never returned.
When Xiao Juan was found, her clothes were gone, and she was floating naked in the river.
Xiao Juan's fiancé became despondent after this.
Although the police investigated the incident, due to the remote mountain location and the complex environment, they couldn't uncover anything definitive.
From then on, Xiao Juan's fiancé changed completely. He believed Xiao Juan had been murdered by someone in the mining team.
Perhaps consumed by thoughts of finding the killer, he was often absent-minded at work, nearly causing major accidents several times.
More than two months after Xiao Juan's incident, a man named Old Gao from the mining team died mysteriously. His death was identical to Xiao Juan's; he was also found floating naked in the river.
This led to various rumors. Some said that Old Gao had harbored impure thoughts towards Xiao Juan and killed her, and that Xiao Juan's fiancé had avenged her by killing Old Gao.
Xiao Juan's fiancé was taken away by the police for investigation but was released a few days later.
Although the police investigation ruled him out as the killer, the gossip within the mining team never ceased.
The narrative changed when one day, a man in the mining team suddenly went insane during work and almost set fire to the explosives storage.
This was a nineteen-year-old young man who was usually quiet and timid.
He was caught trying to set fire to the explosives depot. He was shouting, "They all have to die, everyone has to die, not a single one will live..."
It was clear he was disoriented, likely due to some shock.
From his ravings, people learned that Xiao Juan and the deceased Old Gao had been having an affair and had done something that was unknown to everyone else.
Old Gao was part of the night shift blasting team and was an experienced jackhammer operator. The young man who went mad was his apprentice.
Once, while drilling, they broke into an ancient tomb.
Old Gao went inside and discovered a coffin. Driven by greed, he intended to take something out of the tomb.
Initially, he took out some jewelry and necklaces, which he used to quickly win Xiao Juan's heart. They began an affair.
Old Gao sealed the tunnel leading to the underground palace with wood and warned others not to enter, citing the risk of collapse.
As a master tunnel digger, his words were naturally not questioned by anyone.
Besides occasionally sneaking into the underground palace to retrieve antiques, Old Gao and Xiao Juan frequently met there.
One night, while Old Gao and Xiao Juan were meeting in the underground palace, his apprentice inexplicably felt the urge to spy on them.
What he saw terrified him beyond measure.
Old Gao and Xiao Juan were engaged in indecent acts on top of the coffin. Furthermore, Old Gao had stripped the clothes off the female corpse in the coffin and made Xiao Juan wear them.
These were crimson phoenix coronet and robes, the traditional attire worn by women at weddings in ancient times.
Old Gao's apprentice, being naturally timid, was utterly petrified by this scene. He felt something bad was going to happen but didn't know who to tell.
After Xiao Juan's death, Old Gao seemed scared as well. He then blasted and collapsed the tunnel leading to the underground palace.
He claimed externally that the tunnel was already unstable and that he had detonated it as a preventative measure.
However, shortly after the tunnel entrance was sealed, Old Gao also died.
…
After this incident was "resolved," Xiao Juan's fiancé felt too ashamed to continue staying in the mining team and left directly.
The mining boss, upon learning of the discovery of an ancient tomb, was blinded by greed and hired several so-called experts to investigate.
Li Zha Si was also summoned to dig the tunnel at that time.
He was accompanied by two other men. It took the three of them several days to reopen the tunnel.
They were the second group, after Old Gao and Xiao Juan, to enter the underground palace.
The photograph that Li Zha Si held in his hand was taken by those "experts" at that time.
After they entered, Li Zha Si and his companions, responsible for digging, did not venture deep, staying only in the front chamber.
Everyone else went further inside. As a result, only one person came out of the group, and that person disappeared the next day, leaving behind only some photographs.
At this point, fearing accountability, the mining boss ceased operations, appeased everyone, and the matter was concluded.
Without work, Li Zha Si had been farming diligently for the past few years. This year, he took a liking to a girl and wanted to get married, but due to lack of funds, he decided to take a risk and retrieve some items from the underground palace.
This was why he later sought me out in Guangling with the photograph.
After listening to the account, I looked at Zhou Yongxiang, wanting to hear his opinion.
His expression was calm, giving nothing away. He held his thermos cup, took a sip, and said, "It seems we have to make a trip to this underground palace..."