Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Treasure

Youth always comes at a price, but it is through paying these prices that people gradually mature, and I am no exception. Yet what that old man never expected was that while young people may have to bow to reality and endure being bullied, they will never be cowed by threats.

“What now?” Fatty asked me, and from his expression I could already guess what he was thinking.

I glanced back at the pitch-black cave behind us and said to Fatty, “Isn’t it obvious? There’s nothing good waiting for us up above. Rather than let them kill us, we might as well give it a try.”

“You go first!” I saw Fatty lower his head and pick up two stones from the ground, and silently, I began to pray for that old man.

Sure enough, not long after I turned away, a shrill scream came from below: “Ow! Help! These two little brats are trying to kill me!”

I paid no more attention and, with Fatty, each of us grabbed a miner’s lamp. The gear from that era was top notch—though heavy on the back, each lamp could last seven or eight hours, casting a bright, far-reaching beam. The entrance was much wider than we’d imagined. I remembered last time, Cha Wenbin had said there was wind coming from inside, so there must be a passage—where there’s wind, there’s an exit, and if there’s an exit, Fatty and I could escape. Yuan Xiaobai was still waiting for us outside!

I don’t know how long we pressed on; the passage alternated between wide and narrow. In the tight spots, I could just squeeze through, but Fatty had a rough time. Usually, he’d grab my ankles while I crawled ahead, and he’d push from behind. Our clothes had long since been shredded, and our skin was so scraped and battered that we couldn’t even feel the pain anymore.

Time flies when you’re determined. When I saw the first glimmer of light ahead, I thought we’d finally found a way out.

But I was wrong. It turns out the world doesn’t just have the sun and the moon to give off light—there’s another thing called golden light!

I froze, rooted to the spot, unable to move. So there really was gold! Fatty kept urging me from behind. We’d fueled ourselves on sweet potatoes the night before, and he’d been right behind me the whole way, suffering from my flatulence. By now, he was practically asphyxiated.

“Xiao Yi, what the hell are you dawdling for? Don’t tell me you’re brewing another smoke bomb!”

“Fatty, we’ve struck it rich!” “What?”

I twisted around with effort and, my voice trembling, managed to say, “I said we’ve struck it rich! Gold—an endless amount of gold!”

“Holy crap, there really is gold!” Fatty’s head rammed into my backside just as I let out another fart…

I had no idea where we were, but as I crawled out of the cave and looked up, daylight was streaming in, illuminating a dazzling hoard. Countless pieces of gold in every imaginable form—coins, chains, ornaments, and even bricks the size of loaves. What caught my greedy eye most of all was a golden scepter, thrust upright in the pile.

Fatty rushed over, grabbing a golden bowl in one hand and a fistful of chains in the other. The gleam turned his face into a patchwork of gold. “Wow, wow, wow! We’ve made it! We’re like a dog who’s fallen into a dung pit—rolling in it!”

I was just as excited. Gold! Who doesn’t love gold? We may have been young, but no one finds money burdensome. I dove in too, stuffing whatever I could grab into my pockets. There was so much, nowhere near enough room to carry it all.

Fatty, ever the pragmatist, stripped off his clothes and tied the sleeves and legs into makeshift sacks, shoveling gold into them with relish. But in the midst of our frenzy, I suddenly realized all this gold was useless if we couldn’t get out. Where would we ever spend it?

“Wait, Fatty, how are we supposed to get out? If we can’t, what’s the point of all this gold?”

“Don’t be stupid—just go back the way we came! With all this, that old bastard wouldn’t dare not let down a ladder. Toss him a gold bowl and he’ll be on his knees calling us grandpa!”

“Good point! Money makes the world go round!”

After a good while, we’d stuffed ourselves with as much as we could carry—gold chains draped around our necks, wrists, ankles, even toes. Now that’s what I call nouveau riche.

With a golden bowl clenched in my teeth, I called out to Fatty, “Let’s go!”

But the moment I took a step, the weight brought me crashing to the floor. Too heavy!

“No, no, this is too much!” I had to shed some of the gold, tossing it back with a sigh. “What a shame, damn it, we can’t take it all!”

Fatty was more optimistic: “No worries, we’ll come back tomorrow and take more. From now on, it’s meat every day and wine at every meal! If only Cha were here—imagine how he’d react when he saw we really found it!”

“I’m here, and I’d advise you both to put that stuff down…”

“Who’s that? Wenbin?” I asked.

A sudden clatter came from the southeast corner—someone sat up from within the pile of gold, grinning at us. Who else could it be but Cha Wenbin?

Fatty spat out his golden bowl and shouted, “My god, I missed you so much!” But before he could take two steps, the gold around his legs tripped him up and he fell flat on his face.

Cha Wenbin came over, helping Fatty to his feet as he said, “Let it go, all of it—you can’t take these things with you.”

Fatty took off some of the bracelets on his ankles and said, “Alright, there’s too much to carry anyway. No big deal, I’ll just ditch some. Now that you’re here, strip down and load up like us—just a little each, and we’ll be set for life.”

“I mean put it all down. This treasure can’t be taken.”

Fatty rolled his eyes. “Are you nuts? Gold is gold no matter whose hands it’s in. Don’t tell me you bought into that old man’s nonsense about female ghosts. Didn’t you chase one off the other night? With you here, I’m not worried!”

Cha Wenbin said, “Just put it down for now. Listen to me: no one can take this hoard. Old Man Qiu only knows half the story. Fatty, look at your feet and tell me if you notice anything strange.”

Fatty lifted his foot and looked, puzzled: “My arms and legs are all here, nothing missing. I can jump, I’m strong as ever!”

Cha Wenbin smiled and said, “Look more closely. What’s the difference between your feet and mine?”

“You’re you, I’m me. Of course there’s a difference—my legs are thicker than yours!”

Cha Wenbin pointed at me. “Xiao Yi, look down—do you have a shadow?”

I looked down, moving my left foot, then my right. Damn, as if I’d seen a ghost—there really wasn’t a shadow!

“Where’s my shadow? Maybe the light here isn’t strong enough?”

Cha Wenbin pointed at his own feet. “Then look at mine!”

Sure enough, he had one! Thinking maybe the light was better there, I walked over and stood beside him, shoulder to shoulder. His hand moved, and the shadow on the ground moved with it. But me? No matter how I jumped around, there was no shadow for me!

Fatty tried as well, and just like me, he had no shadow.

“Cha, what’s going on—where are our shadows?”

Cha Wenbin didn’t explain, just told us, “Put down the gold and try again.”

I did as he said, and sure enough, my shadow instantly reappeared. Fatty, seeing mine, began tossing away his gold too, and when both of us stood bare before Cha Wenbin, our shadows had returned.

“What’s happening, Cha?”

“I think this treasure is cursed,” he said. “I got here a day before you two. At first, I was as excited as you. But soon I realized something was wrong. Living people can’t take this stuff out. If you try, you become a living dead.”

“A living dead? What’s that?”

“A living dead is a person without a soul. Without a soul, all that’s left is a shell. Gradually, you lose the taste of food, can’t feel temperature, even forget who you are. Your mind empties out, your heart grows cold, until finally, you’re alive, but nothing around you matters anymore.”

Fatty, horrified at the thought of tasteless food, groaned, “Then what’s the point of living?”

“That’s why you can’t take these things. Even if you could, they’d mean nothing—you’d never enjoy anything you bought.”

“But why?”

Cha Wenbin turned and pointed. “Look over there, in the corner.”

Following his finger, we saw something faintly flashing with golden light in the northwest corner. We walked over and found a shrine, upon which stood a golden fox statue, about half a meter tall. Its tail was spread out behind it like a thousand-armed goddess.

“This fox looks familiar!” “Fatty, you think so too? I do—it looks just like the one we saw that night, doesn’t it? Look at those eyes—sly and seductive. If this were a real fox, it could steal a man’s soul.”

“Xiao Yi, this time you’re right. It really can steal souls, and I think the shadow business is all tied to it.”