The Old Nine Gates: Lord Gou Wu

Fifty years ago, at Biaoziling in Changsha. Fourteen-year-old Wu Laogou crouched at the mouth of the cave, ready to haul the others up. He gripped a rope tied at the other end to his father, grandfather, and second older brother. The rope suddenly jerked violently. When he crawled into the passage, he found a severed hand, a corpse with its chest crushed in, and his second brother crawling out of a stone coffin, so horribly changed he was barely recognizable. He fired six shots. Five hit his brother. He pressed the last bullet to his temple and pulled the trigger. From that day on, he could no longer smell anything. It was corpse poison. From that day on, he also carried a Warring States silk manuscript, keeping its secret with him for the rest of his life. Later, a young man appeared in Changsha who could find tombs by raising dogs and reading the soil. People called him Fifth Master Dog. The youngest leader of the Old Nine Gates, he held the locations of half the ancient tombs in the city, and even Zhang the Buddha came to him for information. Later, he fell in love with a woman in a qipao and proposed to her in public, saying he would marry into the Huo family. She said, “Let me secure my place in the Huo family first. Then we can talk about love and marriage.” He waited. Later, an American tricked him out of the manuscript rubbing and sent a letter denouncing every tomb raider in Changsha. In a single night, the sky fell. He gave away his entire fortune and fled to Hangzhou. From then on, he changed his name, married into the Xie family, and had three sons: Yi Qiong, Er Bai, and San Sheng. When he died, he left behind only one sentence: “Stay out of tombs.” But fifty years later, his grandson Wu Xie went down into one anyway. Fate knows the way better than a dog.