Chapter 1 Jiang Yongguang

Jiang Yongguang asked if we had heard of the Xiaoling Guard. I shook my head, completely clueless. Uncle Mei chuckled dismissively and retorted, "What Xiaoling Guard? I've only heard of Dichlorvos!"

Jiang Yongguang didn't get angry at our ignorance. He patiently explained:

"To talk about the Xiaoling Guard, you first have to understand the Xiaoling Mausoleum. The Xiaoling Mausoleum is the joint tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty's founding emperor, and Empress Ma. It's one of the largest imperial tombs in history. Before his death, Zhu Yuanzhang not only built the Xiaoling Mausoleum, but also personally selected five thousand six hundred of the most loyal and valiant soldiers, giving them the task of guarding his tomb after his death to prevent tomb robbers from disturbing it. These people were the Xiaoling Guard..."

I was very interested in these historical stories and listened with great relish.

Uncle Mei, however, was a bit impatient. He picked at his ear with his finger and urged, "Why are you going on and on like that? You might as well start from the creation of the world by Pangu! Why is your special task force called the Xiaoling Guard, anyway? Just say it briefly!"

Jiang Yongguang smiled helplessly, didn't rush to answer, but instead rummaged in the car for two sheets of A4 paper and a ballpoint pen, turned around and handed them to us, saying:

"Please do me a favor and sign this confidentiality agreement first. After you sign it, everything we see and hear on the Tuo River, including what I say to you, cannot be disclosed. Otherwise, I have the right to hold you legally responsible."

As soon as Uncle Mei heard this, he flew into a rage, glaring and cursing, "You son of a bitch! We're here to help you, and you want to hold us legally responsible? Do you think we're stupid? Stop the car! We're not going!"

Jiang Yongguang had anticipated Uncle Mei's reaction and quickly pleaded with a smile:

"Big Brother, don't be angry. I didn't want to bother you with this kind of thing either, but it's the rule! Just scribble a couple of strokes and write your name. We won't really hold you legally responsible."

Uncle Mei snorted coldly and retorted, "So if we go out and talk nonsense everywhere, you won't hold us responsible? That's not what it says on this paper!"

Jiang Yongguang smiled and replied calmly, "Big Brother, take my advice, it's better to keep these things to yourself. Once you really understand the whole story, you won't go around talking nonsense."

Uncle Mei remained silent after hearing this, but his attitude remained uncooperative.

I wasn't as stubborn as him, and I also wanted to give Dayong some face, so I took the ballpoint pen, signed my name on the confidentiality agreement first, and then handed the pen to Uncle Mei.

Uncle Mei was still good to me. Seeing that I had signed, he didn't say anything more, put the confidentiality agreement on his lap and scribbled on it randomly. He finally signed it, but no matter how I looked at those characters, I couldn't figure out what he had written. It looked more like a ghost drawing.

I handed the confidentiality agreement back and then asked Jiang Yongguang, "Comrade, we've both signed the agreement. Can you tell us why you're called the Xiaoling Guard now?"

Just at this moment, the car arrived at the riverside. Jiang Yongguang pointed outside and said:

"Let's get out of the car first. We can talk as we walk. When you see the evidence outside, you might be able to guess the meaning of the name without me explaining it."

Uncle Mei and I got out of the car one after the other. Old Li and his apprentice also got out of the car together.

As soon as I got out, I smelled a wave of foul stench. How can I describe the smell? It was both foul and disgusting, and it made the hairs on my body stand up involuntarily.

Because I recognized that smell. It was the smell of dead people.

When I was a child, corpses were fished out of the river, and when they were exposed to the sun, they emitted this smell.

I pinched my nose and looked in the direction of the smell's source. Sure enough, I saw a row of corpses lined up on the riverbank. These corpses were the ones I had pulled out of the crevice yesterday evening.

Their times of death varied, and their degree of decomposition also varied greatly. Some still had intact flesh and probably hadn't been dead for more than three days, while others had already severely decomposed, with not much flesh left on the bones.

Seeing this tragic scene, the short-haired policewoman beside me gagged and shuddered.

I turned my head and glanced at her, teasing, "What? Going to wet your pants again?"

When she heard this, she covered her mouth and glared at me fiercely. I have to say, her big, watery eyes usually looked innocent and naive, but when she glared, she was quite fierce.

At this moment, Jiang Yongguang walked over and went straight to the corpses.

"Little Chen, you're a corpse fisherman, so you're not afraid of these things, right?"

He asked me as he walked.

I nodded.

He asked me again, "How many years have you been doing this?"

I said somewhat embarrassedly, "I just opened for business yesterday. It's a new shop."

Jiang Yongguang couldn't help but laugh and said jokingly, "You just opened for business and you've already encountered such a big deal. It seems you were born to do this."

I said with a smile, "I'm from a family of corpse fishermen. My parents do this, and my father-in-law does this too."

Jiang Yongguang suddenly understood and said, "No wonder you're such a good swimmer. So you're from a family tradition. Since your parents are corpse fishermen, you must have seen a lot since you were a child, right? Have you ever seen so many corpses suddenly appear in the water?"

I shook my head and replied, "I've never seen it. The most I've ever seen was when a whirlpool appeared on the river and swept out seven or eight corpses, but that's nothing compared to what's in front of us."

Jiang Yongguang responded and said, "I don't know if you've noticed, but the times of death of these corpses vary greatly. Some have only been dead for a few days, while others have been dead for several years. They're old corpses..."

"I noticed it," I immediately interjected. "This situation is too rare. Normally, people who die in the river will float to the surface very quickly, unless they're entangled in weeds or stuck in a crack in the rocks, and then they'll turn into a pile of white bones in the river... Yesterday's undercurrent suddenly swept out so many corpses with different times of death, it's simply incredible. I'm wondering what exactly happened underwater."

Hearing this, Jiang Yongguang couldn't help but ask, "Isn't that what we should be asking you? Little Chen, I heard from Old Li that you went down there yesterday, and then the undercurrent became even stronger. What exactly happened after you went down there yesterday? Please tell me everything."

At this time, Old Li also came over and asked eagerly, "That's right, Little Chen, everyone was in too much of a hurry yesterday, and I didn't have time to ask you about the situation. What exactly did you see underwater yesterday?"

"I saw..."

I didn't hide anything and described in detail what I saw yesterday.

I told them that there was a crevice in the ground underwater, and underground water was constantly gushing out of the crevice.

And in the middle of the crevice, there were countless corpses stuck!

There were old corpses from years ago, and there were also new corpses that had just died!

After I finished describing this scene, I saw that Old Li's little apprentice's pretty face was pale as paper, and her lips had no color.

Uncle Mei, on the other hand, said with a gloomy face and gritted teeth, "Isn't this the gate of hell opening? The fifteenth day of the seventh month, the gate of hell opens! Tomorrow is the fifteenth day of the seventh month, this is the gate of hell opening at the bottom of the Tuo River! The water ghosts in the river are crawling out to claim lives!"