Chapter 1 The Three-Inch Nail

This Three-Inch Nail (nickname for a small person) rat had two lives on his hands, and the Xiaoling Guards had long been itching to tear him apart. With Jiang Yongguang's order, the remaining Xiaoling Guards swarmed forward, pushing the stone coffin lid and sealing him inside without another word.

The rumbling sound of the coffin lid moving echoed in the dark tomb chamber, sounding particularly eerie!

Once the coffin lid was sealed, we could no longer hear the rat's voice clearly. No matter what he shouted inside the stone coffin, all we heard was a muffled "呜呜" sound, indicating the coffin's excellent seal.

At first, the rat tried to talk to us, but after a while, he began desperately pounding on the stone walls of the coffin, producing dull "咚咚咚" sounds.

After another while, he probably ran out of strength and started scraping the stone walls with his fingernails, making "吱吱" sounds.

This couldn't help but remind me of the scratch marks I had seen on the inside of the coffin before. I could imagine that those stone coffins had probably been used to seal living people inside in the same way.

Time passed by, and the sound of the rat's fingernails scraping the coffin became weaker and weaker.

The stone coffin was extremely airtight, and it probably wouldn't be long before the air inside was completely used up.

At this moment, Xiao Liang asked nervously, "Officer Jiang, you don't really want to suffocate that rat to death in the stone coffin, do you?"

Not only Xiao Liang, but other Xiaoling Guards also stood up to persuade him:

"Da Yong, I think it's been about long enough, right?"

"Yeah, Da Yong, scaring him is enough. If we don't open the coffin soon, someone's going to die!"

Jiang Yongguang had a special status; he wasn't an ordinary person. Precisely because he was a member of the public sector, he couldn't knowingly break the law.

The Three-Inch Nail was right—knowingly breaking the law is an even greater offense!

He was banking on this, so he was convinced that Jiang Yongguang wouldn't dare to do anything to him.

This was a gamble!

A gamble on who had more courage! Who was more ruthless!

Both sides were betting with their lives!

If Jiang Yongguang couldn't use a thunderous method, then it would be impossible to get a single word out of the Three-Inch Nail's mouth!

But once he failed, not only would he lose his public sector job, but he would also have to pay for the life of this grave-robbing rat!

I also broke out in a sweat for Jiang Yongguang because the stone coffin was gradually becoming silent. The Three-Inch Nail was completely giving up.

Xiao Liang couldn't help but urge, "Officer Jiang, open the coffin quickly. There's no sound anymore!"

Several Xiaoling Guards couldn't hold back any longer and were about to move the coffin lid.

But Jiang Yongguang raised his hand to stop them and said in a deep voice:

"Stop! Don't open the coffin yet! If anything happens to the rat, I'll bear all the consequences!"

His colleagues didn't dare to disobey his orders, so they silently withdrew their hands.

After another minute, the sound of fingernails scraping the coffin actually sounded again. Jiang Yongguang snorted coldly and said, "This rat was indeed pretending to be dead just now. Now is when he's truly at the end of his rope."

Only when the sound stopped this time did Jiang Yongguang calmly issue the command: "Open the coffin!"

The Xiaoling Guards quickly worked together to push the coffin lid, slowly opening the coffin. At this moment, I suddenly smelled a pungent, urine-like odor coming from the coffin, and I immediately guessed that it was probably because the rat had lost control of his bladder due to excessive fear or unconsciousness.

The smell was terrible; I almost threw up on the spot.

Several of the Xiaoling Guards who opened the coffin were also retching.

Jiang Yongguang was a ruthless man; he wasn't afraid of the urine smell at all. He walked straight to the stone coffin and grabbed the unconscious rat.

At this time, I saw that the rat's face was as pale as paper, and his forehead, face, and neck were covered in sweat. It was clear that being sealed alive in the stone coffin was indeed suffering, and most people couldn't bear it.

Jiang Yongguang pressed him to the ground and began to pinch his philtrum hard.

After pinching him for a full two minutes, the rat finally woke up.

When he opened his eyes and saw Jiang Yongguang, he immediately cursed and then glared, saying, "You son of a bitch, you really wanted to kill me, didn't you? Go ahead, do it. If you kill me, you'll have to pay for my life!"

But Jiang Yongguang sneered, "Pay for your life? Keep dreaming! Ask my brothers around me, who doesn't want to avenge Lao Zhang and Xiao Song? Who doesn't want your dog life? As long as they don't say anything, who will know how you died? When someone finds you dead in this coffin, they'll just assume that you were greedy and got killed by your accomplices. Who would suspect us? Huh?"

The Three-Inch Nail's face changed drastically when he heard this, and he was clearly starting to get scared.

In addition to being scared shitless in the coffin earlier, the taste was even worse than death!

Especially during the last period, when the oxygen in the coffin was exhausted, the sense of despair and helplessness made him almost collapse!

At this moment, his will was completely disintegrated!

Jiang Yongguang observed his expression and noticed the change. He immediately seized the opportunity and said:

"I won't waste any more words with you. I'll ask you one last time. If you cooperate, then everything will be fine. If you continue to play dumb or dare to tell me a single lie, then I'll have to ask you to roll back into the coffin—remember, this time, I won't open the coffin again."

"Who's your zhi guo (the one who sets up the operation)? Who's the ren yan (the one who identifies the tomb's location)? How many people are in the gang? Are you a tui zi (leader) or a xia ku (laborer)? Are there any other rats in this ancient tomb?"

As expected, the Three-Inch Nail no longer resisted, and his attitude became much more cooperative. He probably figured it out himself, thinking that being executed was more pleasant than being suffocated to death in a coffin, and he could live a few more days, so why not?

He quickly wiped his sweat and said honestly:

"I'll tell you... I'll tell you everything..."

"The zhi guo in my gang is surnamed Wang. I don't know his real name. People in this business never use their real names in the martial world. I only know that the brothers in the underworld call him Shopkeeper Wang."

In the grave robbing world, going into a tomb to steal is called "开锅做饭" (kaiguo zuofan, starting a pot to cook), and the planner who organizes the grave robbing activities is called "支锅" (zhiguo, setting up the pot), because the pot must be set up before the fire can be lit to cook.

The "支锅" (zhiguo) also often provides equipment and logistical support for the entire gang, so the "支锅" must have certain financial resources, material resources, and network resources.

Jiang Yongguang listened without showing any emotion. He seemed to be thinking about whether he had heard of the name "Shopkeeper Wang" in his memory.

Then he asked:

"What about the ren yan (the one who identifies the tomb's location)?"

The so-called "认眼" (ren yan, identifying the eyes), also known as "掌眼" (zhang yan, holding the eyes), refers to the feng shui expert who identifies the tomb location for the grave robbing team.

Seeking dragons and dividing gold to look at the winding mountains, one winding is one pass. If there are thousands of locks on the gate, then a king or marquis must reside here.

To rob a grave, you can't just randomly dig in the wilderness; you have to find the location of the tomb first.

But after thousands of years of dynastic changes, the ancient mausoleums have long been hidden among the green mountains and white clouds, and it is not easy to find them.

The older the ancient tomb, the harder it is to find. I later chatted with Jiang Yongguang and heard him tell a funny story—

He said that he had met a guy whose ancestors had built a mausoleum for a Ming Dynasty king or marquis. The ancestor passed down a map, which recorded the location of the mausoleum.

That guy was so poor for a while that he couldn't make ends meet, so he got the wrong idea, took the map from his ancestor, and took a group of brothers to find the mausoleum.

As a result, they turned over the farmland within a three-mile radius, but they didn't find the tomb of a king or marquis, not even the grave of an ordinary commoner, wasting half a month of manpower and material resources in vain.

In fact, the map passed down by the ancestor may not be fake, but in the past few hundred years, the earth's crust has moved and the rivers have changed their course. Finding the tomb according to the original map is like carving a mark on a boat to find a sword.

At this time, you need a skilled zhang yan ba tou (leader who is skilled in identifying the tomb location).