Teacher Xun patted his clothes all over. After a while, he found a crumpled soft pack of cigarettes on himself. He shook it for some time before pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.
Teacher Xun had always been a heavy smoker. He took a deep drag, and amid the swirling smoke, he finally spoke the words he had never told anyone.
It was because of Lin Feng's "intent": relaxed, natural.
Teacher Xun felt as though his whole body were soaking in a hot spring. Comfortable hardly began to describe it.
He knew he could not take this secret to his grave.
Someone would have to know eventually.
He said, "Beneath the multilayered burial chambers were bodies forcibly held down by bronze vessels.
"Have you seen the Simuwu Ding?"
The Simuwu Ding was also called the Houmuwu Ding. Both names were currently considered correct; until a definitive conclusion was reached, either interpretation remained valid.
It was a true national treasure. The Houmuwu Ding was the largest and Zhong-est bronze Ritual Vessel ever unearthed anywhere in the world.
It enjoyed the reputation of a "treasure that safeguards the nation."
A grade-one national cultural relic.
From that, one could imagine how excited Teacher Xun had been when he saw this artifact.
He had felt so exhilarated he could almost fly, as though he were witnessing Historian.
Teacher Xun said his first thought at the time had been that even if he and all his colleagues died there, they had to protect this Bronze Ding.
But he soon calmed down. If this Bronze Ding was solid, even their combined strength could not move it an inch.
They needed to report the discovery to their superiors.
The condition of the Bronze Ding was one matter. More important were the inscriptions on it.
The inscriptions