The Northern School Tomb Raider: Confessions from Prison

My name is Qin Feng, but everyone on the wrong side of the law calls me Crazy.

In 2006, my father died of silicosis. The 4,500 yuan surgery bill crushed me, and with nowhere else to turn, I apprenticed myself to Liu, a tomb raider from the Northern School. I picked up a Luoyang shovel and plunged into the lightless world underground.

With the Northern School's real skills, I made my way from north to south: pre-Qin tombs in western Liaoning, Warring States tombs in western Shanxi, Han tombs in the Qinling Mountains... Over ten years, I entered fifty ancient tombs, reading the soil to determine their age, navigating quicksand and hidden fire traps, appraising treasures and fencing stolen goods. I went from a clueless novice to Master Qin, a man feared and respected in the trade. Haggling on the black market, fighting off those who tried to rob me, dodging villagers and inspectors: I lived by the blade, convinced that I had what it took to make something of myself.

Then, outside a cliffside tomb in the Qinling Mountains, the police closed in and cold handcuffs locked around my wrists.

It was only after writing my confession in prison that I finally came to my senses. Tomb raiding steals cultural relics and destroys a thousand years of heritage, but it also ruins your own life. Tomb raiding is illegal, and those who break the law will reap what they sow. This is the hard-won warning I paid half my life to learn.