On October 5, 1988, Qixinggang, Xinghan County, Sichuan, China.
Qixinggang, located in the east of Qionglai Mountains, was originally a desolate hill far away from the city. Today, however, a large group of scientists and administrative officials from the cultural relics department has gathered here. At the top of the hill, a 5-meter-square exploration pit has been dug to a depth of 3 meters. Several tents were erected not far from the exploration pit, and several sophisticated instruments were set up in the tents. The gasoline generator rattled, the fluorescent screen pulsated, the red and green lights on the instrument panel were flashing, and the printer kept spitting out data with lines of numbers.
“There is a foreign object under 20 centimeters.”
“Geomagnetic anomalies.”
“Soil resistance is abnormal.”
All the detection results were sent to Ouyang Qufei, who was waiting on the edge of the exploration pit.
Ouyang Qufei, an archaeologist who has gained a high reputation in recent years and is well-known both at home and abroad, is only 35 years old this year. He is very tall, 1.8 meters, but his body is well-proportioned, his muscles are strong, his face is slightly thin, his forehead is straight, his nose is thick, his eyebrows are thin and his lips are thick, and he is full of male fortitude, especially the two corners of his mouth are not commensurate with his age. The deep wrinkles on his face suggest that he has gone through rough years and has a strong character.
Today is an important day in Ouyang Gofei’s life. The archaeological excavation of the treasure pit of the ancient Shu King Silkworm Cong on Qixinggang was carried out entirely according to his suggestion. The success or failure of this work is related to his reputation and future. Now, the mystery has been revealed.
Several mechanics continued to dig at the bottom of the pit. Now everyone can see that the color of the soil has changed from yellow to brown, the texture of the soil has changed from tight to loose, and some broken pottery and charcoal are mixed in it. This means that many centuries ago, someone dug a deep hole here, and then filled it back with the soil on the surface at that time.
Ouyang Qufei’s heart beat wildly. Is the treasure of the silkworm king, which has been pursued by the world for half a century, really buried under this thin layer of soil? At this critical juncture, he was too nervous to restrain himself.
The crowd around the exploration pit also saw this change. They are all insiders. So many pairs of keen eyes have captured the same message – a discovery that shocked the world, and maybe the curtain is about to be unveiled.
All the technicians Ouyang had to dig for soil returned to the top of the exploration pit. He took a lightweight engineer shovel himself and scraped off another layer of soil at the bottom of the pit. Now his confidence is even stronger. His long-term work experience in cultural relics has made him develop a sixth sense. Just like a hunter approaching his prey and a gold digger approaching the gold vein, he heard a voice in his heart gently reminding him: “Near Now, you are very close to this ancient mystery.”
So he put on a small hand shovel and carefully scraped off the floating soil at the bottom of the pit. He first saw the green patina stained in the soil, and then saw a corner of a bronze vessel. He suppressed the excitement in his heart, held his breath, and began to remove the soil around the copper utensils with a brush and a hand shovel. From this moment on, all anxiety, fatigue, and the whole outside world ceased to exist in his mind.
Two hours later, the outline of the bronze vessel had been completely removed. It is a bronze cast statue 1.82 meters high, with deep eyes and huge ears, a dignified face, wearing a high crown, a dovetail-shaped robe, bare feet, and standing on a 70 cm high carved bronze seat.
A pair of eyes inlaid with black gems stared indifferently at this strange world.
The scientists and officials surrounding the exploration pit were all shocked by this unexpected discovery. Except for a sigh of voice, no one could utter a word.
It was Ouyang Qufei who first regained his senses. He quickly arranged the manpower, expanded the scope of the exploration pit, and worked overnight. By the evening of the second day, one by one, the rare treasures of the world were gradually exposed to people’s astonished eyes. There are more than 20 life-size bronze heads of people with different expressions and hair styles; there are five or six giant bronze masks with a height of 90 centimeters and a width of 1.2 meters; two pieces with a height of more than 3 meters The bronze god tree has a dragon coiled on its trunk, and various strange birds and monsters hang on its branches and leaves; there is a 1.4-meter-long golden scepter, the top of which is decorated with a bronze bird head; there are also a large number of gold bricks, gold foil, There are precious stones; there are countless ivory … and all these are novel cultural relics that have never been discovered in Chinese archaeology.
That night, everyone from the Sichuan provincial government to the State Council in Beijing got the shocking news. Therefore, the armed police quickly protected the scene, relevant experts came from all over the country, and various testing work was accelerated.
The radiocarbon determination of the organic matter samples contained in the treasure pit and the thermoluminescence determination of the pottery pieces have proved that the age of these cultural relics is about the 12th century BC, which is equivalent to the end of the Shang Dynasty, which is indeed consistent with historical records. The era of the activities of the Chinese silkworm Congwang is consistent.
It was not until three months later, when the general situation was clear, that the relevant departments held a press conference to Chinese and foreign reporters in Beijing. The host of the conference read out a press release, which ended as follows: “Xinghan County, Sichuan Province. The discovery of the Treasure Pit reveals the high civilization of the ancient Shu Kingdom that has long since disappeared, and proves that Western Sichuan was another cultural center of ancient China.”
“The location of the treasure pit was determined by Ouyang Qufei, a young archaeologist. According to his speculation, this is only one of the seven pits where the silkworm king of Shu Kingdom buried treasure. Except for the accidental discovery by local farmers in 1935 In addition to one of the pits filled with jade and the one excavated this time, it is estimated that there are five other treasure pits, the locations of which were all accurately determined by Ouyang Qu, and the Chinese cultural relics department will excavate more in due course.”
“The scientific and artistic value of this batch of cultural relics that have been unearthed and will be unearthed is immeasurable.”
When the press conference was over, everyone gathered around Ouyang Qufei and congratulated him. The camera’s flash was blazing brightly, words of congratulations came from all directions, someone tapped him on the shoulder, someone squeezed his hand. But after two years of hard work, at the pinnacle of success and honor, he seemed to turn a blind eye to everything around him. His heart had already flown to that distant foreign country; in front of his eyes, there appeared another beautiful figure of a beautiful girl. Maybe in the sky, maybe in the depths of his heart, the faint song that made him unforgettable once again sounded: the lemon tree is so beautiful, the lemon blossom is so fragrant, but the poor lemon fruit, can not For people to taste.
So there were tears in his eyes. The people around clapped again, thinking that he was moved by this warm scene. Only he himself knew that this was the most bitter and bitter tears of his life.
He has an impulse, he wants to tell everyone, in order to preserve this cultural treasure for the motherland, he personally paid a painful price.
His lips moved, but no sound came out.
Because this is a story that cannot be told, a story that can only be buried in the bottom of my heart until he dies and drifts away in the wind…