The Autobiography of a Tomb Raider

After hearing my complaints, Boss Wang shook his head and said, "Yunfeng, you were too rash this time. In our line of work, we must be careful, cautious, and then even more cautious. The last thing we want is for someone to follow the trail and catch us red-handed."
I apologized, "I'm sorry, Boss. I'll be more careful next time."

Boss Wang picked up his teacup, blew on the steam, and frowned. "But after all, you're one of my people, Yunfeng. So, what? Do you want to get back at them?"
Without hesitation, I blurted out, "Yes, Boss. I feel like I’ve been wronged."
Boss Wang took a sip of tea, then put the lid back on the cup. "We just established our base yesterday. Right now, we need to keep a low profile. My personal advice is to lay low for now. When we finish this job and leave Shunde, I’ll have a word with Yikezhi. She has connections in the underworld."

I immediately nodded in agreement.
In the small warehouse of the inn we rented, there were still several bags of blue-and-white soil. However, Boss Wang didn’t let me continue spreading the soil. Instead, he assigned me a different task in the afternoon. He told me to follow Sun Laoda and help him process the batch of bronze artifacts we had acquired the day before.
When I arrived at the warehouse, I suddenly caught a strong whiff of cumin and spices. Looking closer, I saw that someone had set up a charcoal grill outside the warehouse door. Meat was sizzling on the grill, slathered with a generous amount of seasoning.

Sun Laoda was in charge of converting the artifacts into cash, but of course, some preparatory work had to be done first.
"Sun Laoda, it’s Yunfeng. Boss sent me to help," I knocked on the warehouse door.
Sun Laoda opened the door. He was wearing a white protective suit, leather gloves, and plastic goggles.

Inside the warehouse, several bronze artifacts were laid out on the floor. Next to them was a large white plastic bucket filled halfway with a translucent liquid that gave off a pungent smell.
He tossed me a set of protective gear and said, "Yunfeng, put this on."
Although I didn’t fully understand, I suited up in the protective gear.

"Brother, what are you doing?" I asked, puzzled, as he dropped a bronze cup covered in red mercury rust into the bucket.
As soon as the rusted bronze touched the liquid, it began to bubble vigorously. The pungent smell grew stronger, resembling the odor of urea.
Sun Laoda pointed at the bronze cup soaking in the liquid and said, "Yunfeng, in our line of work, what I’m doing now is called 'killing the green.' The chemical formula for this solution was specially prepared by an expert Boss hired."

"Killing the green? What does that mean, Brother?"
Sun Laoda smiled and explained, "Killing the green means removing the black patina. Mercury rust from waterlogged sites penetrates deeply into the bronze, and this kind of rust can cover large areas, easily obscuring any inscriptions or characters. If that happens, we’d lose a lot of value."
He continued, "In the south, they call this process 'killing the rust,' but in the north, we call it 'killing the green.' Yunfeng, remember this: for bronze artifacts from the Western Zhou and Warring States periods, square ding vessels are five times more valuable than round ones. Pieces with inscriptions are ten times more valuable than those without. For inscriptions with more than five characters, each additional character adds thirty thousand yuan to the price. This tomb dates back to the early-middle Western Zhou period. Judging by the structure of the burial chamber and the number of bronze artifacts buried in the side chamber, the tomb owner was at least a minor feudal lord from the southern region." Sun Laoda analyzed the situation with great confidence.

"If we can uncover inscriptions that reveal the tomb owner’s identity, and if we’re lucky enough for this minor lord to be mentioned in historical records, then we’ve truly struck gold!"
After hearing Sun Laoda’s explanation, I finally understood the intricacies involved. I also realized why there was a barbecue grill outside the warehouse—it was Sun Laoda’s way of masking the strong, pungent smell of the chemical solution used in the "killing the green" process.
The gloves were worn because the solution was corrosive, protecting us from harm. If this solution accidentally splashed into someone’s eyes, it would be far more dangerous than copper-nickel alloys—it could blind a person!
The artifacts were soaked for about twenty minutes, then scrubbed with a stiff-bristled shoe brush. The scrubbing couldn’t be too aggressive, nor could all the mercury rust be removed. The goal was to stop scrubbing as soon as it was clear that there were no inscriptions in a particular area.

Wearing gloves and holding a shoe brush, I scrubbed several bronze artifacts. I examined them carefully, but to my disappointment, I didn’t find a single inscribed character. This left me feeling disheartened.
Seeing my frustration, Sun Laoda, who was scrubbing a bronze vessel, smiled and said, "Yunfeng, don’t be so discouraged. These things depend on fate. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. If not, there’s no point forcing it."
At that moment, I was scrubbing a small bronze dou vessel. After a few strokes with the brush on the inner base of the dou, I thought I saw a faint golden stroke—a radical from a character.

"Huh? What’s this?" I held up the bronze dou and scrubbed it more vigorously.
"Brother! Brother, come look! I’ve scrubbed out some characters! There are inscriptions inside this bronze dou! The strokes are really complex, like some kind of ancient script!" I excitedly called out to Sun Laoda.
He took the bronze dou and examined it.

Sun Laoda frowned as he looked at the gilded inscriptions revealed on the surface of the bronze. "These inscriptions aren’t bird script or oracle bone script. This is ancient Jinwen, specifically the six-fold seal script. How could this appear on a Western Zhou bronze?" His eyes were filled with confusion.
Ancient Jinwen wasn’t the script of the Jin Dynasty. It was an even older form of writing, possibly predating oracle bone script—dating back to before the Shang Dynasty. Sun Laoda, with his extensive knowledge, immediately recognized that the script on the bronze dou wasn’t bird script but the six-fold seal script of ancient Jinwen!
After a moment of frowning, Sun Laoda became excited. "Yunfeng, keep scrubbing the rest. The six-fold seal script of ancient Jinwen is extremely rare. There are only a handful of people in the world who can decipher it. I need to hurry and find someone to help translate these inscriptions."

Sun Laoda placed the inscribed bronze artifact into a wooden box and hurried out with it.
Later, after finishing the cleaning process, I didn’t find any more inscribed bronze artifacts. That one was the only one.
During the day, we worked on these tasks, but at night, we still had our main job to do—descending into the tomb to loot. However, Sun Laoda had rushed out in the afternoon and hadn’t returned. Without him, we were short a lookout, which was very dangerous. Boss Wang didn’t dare take such a risk.

That night, Sun Laoda didn’t return until after midnight. He was out of breath, carrying a wooden box. I knew the box contained the inscribed bronze dou.
Without a word, Sun Laoda rushed to the table, picked up a teapot, and gulped down half its contents.
Wiping his mouth, Sun Laoda looked at Boss Wang and said, "Boss, I reached out to some contacts at the archaeological research institute. Those six-fold seal script inscriptions have been translated."

"Oh? What do they say?" Boss Wang asked.
Sun Laoda opened the wooden box, touched the bronze dou inside, and coldly uttered four words.
"Jie Hou Dai Zi."

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