Book 1: Chapter 19: Exploding Mud

Book 1: Chapter 19: Exploding Mud

Liu Sang walked in the sea breeze, carrying several large porcelain pots. They were shaped like ancient urinals, but the opening was in the middle. "Let me quiz you. What is that idiot carrying?" Fatty asked me.

I secretly took a look at them and saw that they were typical old-style white porcelain. The glazed flower at the top of the opening was a lotus flower, and there were two peonies on both ends with an eight divinatory trigram pattern in the middle of them.

I figured they were soul jars, which were often unearthed in ancient tombs in the south. They were sometimes called five-grain sacs. But most soul jars were long or looked like bamboo shoots, and were far more gorgeous than these things. The porcelain patterns on the soul jars I had seen normally had three or four layers. It was said that the more layers there were, the higher the tomb owners status. If these were really soul jars, then they were really too humble.

Fatty said to me, "You don't know, right? They're sex toys. This guy is a pervert, so hes carrying them around while he works."

Liu Sang turned around and scolded him, "Are you fucking drunk? Ive been respectful since youre my senior, but dont bully me just because youre older. This is for listening. Youre so uncultured!"

I was stunned for a moment. I had heard of this kind of thing before, but I didn't expect it to look like this.

These things were used by the ancients to guard cities from enemies who sought to dig tunnels from the outside. When buried under the city wall, they could amplify any digging sounds. And when there was no wind, you could cover them in leather so that you could hear more clearly.

I took a closer look and found that they were all Liao (1) white porcelain, which seemed to have been dug up from an ancient battlefield. I had heard that when you used them to listen, you could still hear the echoes of the battlefield at night. I didn't expect Liu Sang to use such an old method, so I somewhat changed my opinion of him. It turned out that this guy did know what he was doing.

It was very difficult to walk to the edge of the beach and reach the mudflat, and we ended up having to take off our shoes since we kept getting sucked into the mud. We had hardly taken more than a dozen steps before we quickly found ourselves exhausted. The local people used something called a "haima" (2), which was a sled-like wooden plank you would stand on with one foot, but we didnt have that and could only walk.

We trudged after him for a long time before he finally reached the center of the mudflat. After he found the right position, it took the three of us fifteen minutes to get to the three directions he designated and bury the detonators.

At this time, I didnt know how many times I had fallen. I was completely covered in mud and the sea breeze was getting colder and colder. Fortunately, I had Fatty's wine, so my body was warm all over.

The setting sun gradually sank towards the horizon. There werent any fishing boats on the sea, nor was anyone on the beach. The only things I could see were the hazard lights from Uncle Twos cars that were far up on the shore. I took out the walkie-talkie and asked our lookout what the situation was. He said that there wasnt anyone on the beach for several miles.

I looked at Liu Sang, who had buried the listening devices one by one in the mud in a very strange pattern. He put a copper coin in each one, bent down, and put his ears against the openings. When we detonated the explosives one by one, mud went flying in the air. The shock wave was so huge that I lost my balance and fell into the mud again.

Liu Sang lay in the middle of it all, listening carefully. He told us to use our Luoyang shovels to bury the detonators even deeper. After burying them, the explosions were no longer like a geyser, but more like a fart. A bubble would rise up from the mud until it burst apart with a wretched sound, emitting the smell of sulfur.

The cars headlights were missing. The direction we were running in was pitch black.

"Did we get confused and run in the wrong direction?" I cursed and looked behind us, but it was also dark.

Poker-Face pointed up ahead, and Fatty loaded another flare and fired it. As the light soared into the distance, we saw that the mudflat stretched out as far as the eye could see. Not only was there no sign of the shore, but Uncle Two's cars were nowhere to be seen either.

Fatty immediately fired another shot in the opposite direction. With both sides lit up at the same time, we found that it was all wrong. The shore wasnt in either direction. We were in the center of a huge mudflat, which was much bigger than the one we had seen from the shore before.

"Where is this?" Fatty asked. "What happened to the shore?"

"This is bad. This is so bad." I took a deep breath. It appeared I had been right and something strange really was here. I kept looking in both directions, but there was nothing besides the endless mudflat.

Fatty wanted to send another signal flare, but I stopped him. "Save it. We might need it if we run into trouble."

Fatty grabbed Liu Sang, "What the fuck did you hear? Whats going on here?"

Liu Sang was trembling as he looked at Poker-Face and said, "I heard someone talking below."

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TN Notes:

(1) Short name for Liaoning province. Theres also a Liao or Khitan dynasty that existed from 907-1125.

(2) It means seahorse.

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Oh ho, ya'll better be countin' your lucky stars. I was so close to bailing tonight, but instead I leave you with this beautiful cliff-hanger () My 6th senses for a cliffie must've been tingling hehehe(I also don't recommend googling "sea cockroaches". The results are gross lol)