The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month in the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu's reign was the off year.
Liu Qingda's father, Liu Laoshuan, picked up a few old newspapers from the market and plastered them on the wall. He was dragged away by Qing soldiers that night and beheaded three days later.
He rushed into the Yamen to ask for an explanation, but was treated as an accomplice and sentenced to death row.
In the prison, there is a veteran who has been pretending to be crazy and has been a fool for sixty years, a female ghost who was wrongfully killed, and a revolutionary party who looked forward to death. Before he died, the old Taoist gave him a piece of bronze, saying that it was the key left by Emperor Yongli three hundred years ago. The formula only had sixteen words: "At the bottom of the Yellow River, on the top of Mount Tai, in the belly of the Miao border, on the border of Yunnan and Myanmar."
The female ghost grabbed his wrist and said, help me find my son, and I will ensure you get out alive.
The revolutionary party stared at him before dying: live and find them.
He climbed out of the pile of dead people, carrying three lives, a piece of copper, and a son who could not be found. From Yanzhou Dalao to Shanghai Beach, from the mountains of western Hunan to the jungles of Yunnan and Burma, twenty years of journey through rivers and lakes, three hundred years of treasure mysteries.
Someone asked him if it was worth it.
He said: Some things are more important than life.
——My name is Liu Qingda, a tomb keeper.
