Ma Baoguo was summoned to Guanzhong by an urgent telegram from his senior fellow disciple. A Tang tomb had been unearthed, its entrance wide open, and thirty-seven crates of Wuliangye had been found in the burial pit.
By the time he arrived, his senior fellow disciple was already lying flat. Clutching Ma Baoguo's wrist with his dying breath, he said, “Baoguo, there's someone in this tomb... A young man who doesn't follow the rules of martial virtue.”
The moment he finished speaking, Sun Xiaochuan came tumbling out of the grave robbers' tunnel.
He had just woken up, a lump swelling on the back of his head. The first thing he said was, “Where am I? What the hell do I care about the money my brother owes?”
No one knew that something had entered his body at that very moment.
It claimed the surname Li, and said it had been a tomb raider in the Tang Xuanzong era. It had slept for thirteen hundred years, only to wake and find its soul inside the body of a sharp-tongued young man. It called Sun Xiaochuan “Host,” while Sun Xiaochuan called it “Old Creep.”
Old Creep said he had sealed the tomb himself back in the day, and could navigate its traps with his eyes closed. Sun Xiaochuan told him to go ahead, then.
Old Creep fell silent for a moment.
“I can only move my mouth right now.”
The archaeological team was blocked outside the mountain gate. Half the tunnel had caved in, and Wuliangye was flowing through the tomb like a river. In the darkness, Sun Xiaochuan bickered with an old Tang Dynasty ghost as they stumbled onward, searching for treasure.
Beneath the thirty-seven crates of liquor lay a bronze box.
Old Creep said, “Open it.”
Sun Xiaochuan said, “Why should I?”
Old Creep was silent for a long time. Then his voice suddenly dropped.
“...That was my daughter's dowry.”
The bronze box opened, and the silk manuscript inside crumbled to dust.
Old Creep didn't say another word.
Sun Xiaochuan tucked the empty box into his coat, crouched at the entrance to the tunnel, and lit a cigarette.
“Old Creep,” he said, “there's no shame in crying out loud.”
