Tomb Raiders Codex

Chapter 8 Contracts
The reason why it can be seen that it is a fragment of a coffin is because there are faint traces of paint brushing on the periphery of the rotten wood.

In ancient times, the coffin was painted to prevent moisture. The richer the family, the thicker the paint.The coffin has four sides and two ends, that is, four sides, top, bottom, left, and right, and two heads at the front and back, with a total of six boards.Generally, a thin layer of lacquer is enough, and some wealthy households will go through [-] layers of lacquer three times.

I fiddled with the broken wood with my hands, and found that the interior of the wood block was severely corroded, as if it had been soaked by some water, and the color of the paint was black.My grandfather has written all these in his work notes, and he is also particular about them.

The coffins we often see are usually red or black. Of the two, black paint is more common. Black represents peace. Only people who died violently will use red paint to ward off evil spirits.

The one in front of me should be a black lacquered coffin.Looking with the light of the flashlight, there is still a whole piece of wood in the soil layer in front of me. It looks like a whole coffin buried in the soil, just blocking my way.

My heart skipped a beat, feeling something was wrong.

How the coffin is buried is actually particular.

The burial of our ordinary people is to let Mr. Feng Shui find a suitable place for burial, dig a grave, put the coffin on it, and then seal the soil. This is called a tomb.

So what is a tomb?
It has certain specifications and exquisiteness, among which the obvious point is that the coffin does not directly touch the soil.Even for smaller tombs, after the pit is dug, tomb bricks will be laid around it, the coffin will be lowered, then the tomb bricks will be used to seal the top, and finally the soil will be covered.

So, in the industry of digging mushrooms.

It is not a good thing to find coffins when you dig the soil. This means that what you dug are the graves of ordinary people, and there will be no good things.And as long as the tomb is built with bricks, it will not be bad.

It stands to reason that even though he was a civil servant, he wouldn't be buried in a simple way. I just dug up the coffin. Isn't that too unlucky?
Whose coffin is this?

Could it be that Hu Laoxia lied to me again, this is actually not a big tomb, but a poor tomb?
I am a little uncertain, but things have come to this point, there is absolutely no reason to give up halfway, this coffin is lying in the earthwork in front of me, blocking my way, it needs to be cleaned out.

I looked at the watch on my wrist, I had been down to the ground for half an hour, it was five o'clock in the morning, and the sky was about to light up.My waist was sore and swollen due to long-term bending, and my muscles were a bit too much. After thinking about it, I retreated out with the coffin block.

Tofu was letting the wind outside, with an anxious look on his face, he was relieved when he saw me coming out, and said, "Why did I go down for so long this time, we agreed to change shifts every 10 minutes."

I threw the wooden block in my hand to him and said, "Look, what is this?"

He held the tofu in his hand and looked at it several times. Monk Zhang Er couldn't figure it out and said, "It's a lump of rotten wood. I asked you to dig mushrooms. How did you dig out a log?" The wood in the coffin couldn't be seen, so when he told the story, Tofu suddenly showed an expression of enlightenment, and said with a tangled expression: "Could it be that we dug a mushroom without meat for the first time? This is also luck. It's too much."

I said, "I'm not sure if it's the Flammulina velutipes or the big-headed mushrooms. The coffin is a bit weird. I'll come here first tonight. I'll clean out the coffin tomorrow night and see what's going on." After that, we moved the bed and moved the coffin. The pit in the shaft was covered, and all the tools were stuffed under the bed. After cleaning the dirt in the room, he took a shower casually, and then fell asleep.

This sleep lasted until noon the next day. Although it was broad daylight, the floor of the old alley building was too low, and the surrounding area was surrounded by high-rise buildings built later, so the sunlight was blocked.Our room was not clean in the first place, so the windows were kept closed all the time, which made the light even more dim, and when we opened our eyes, there was a dead silence around us.

This kind of environment makes people feel a little uncomfortable. I was about to wake up the tofu next to me to get up and prepare to eat, when there was a sound of footsteps outside the door.

Heck, heck, the person who came was probably wearing leather shoes and walking loudly, as if he was a huge monster.

Only me and Tofu live in these three buildings, who will be outside the corridor?
Since I was doing a shady business, I was a little vigilant in my heart, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the movement outside.At this time, the footsteps sounded from far to near, clicking, clicking, and seemed to be walking towards our location, and then, at our door, the sound stopped.

The next moment, there was a knock on the door, accompanied by a loud voice: "Open the door, open the door!" It was a woman's voice.

This voice is very strange, I don't remember knowing such a woman, and there is a menacing taste in the voice, damn it, can't it be a note?Could it be that something went wrong with our actions and was discovered?

Tofu was woken up by the noise, and listened for a while, then poked my waist with his foot, and said: "Could it be your mistress who came to the door?"

I said: "What mistress, I don't even have a mistress. Don't talk about it, the woman outside is not good, I'll go and have a look, you should be more vigilant." Saying that, I walked over and opened the door cautiously.

In the dark corridor outside the door, there was indeed a fat middle-aged woman standing, with a waist three times thicker than mine, wearing a yellow cheongsam, which looked particularly uncoordinated.

The woman had a fleshy face, triangular eyes, thin lips, and thin hair pulled back her head. She seemed to be a difficult person to get along with.When I saw that it was not a note, I was not afraid anymore, I frowned and said, "What are you knocking, who are you?"

The woman raised her triangular eyes, snorted heavily, and scolded viciously: "You poor people from outside, why did you move into my building without my consent?"

"Your building?" I thought this woman was a little unreasonable, and was about to speak, when Tofu came over rubbing his eyes, yawned, and said casually: "Auntie, what about your building, we paid the rent. "

The woman probably hated being called aunt, so she became furious and pointed at Tofu's nose and cursed: "Pay the rent? You hand it over to the ghost! I am the landlord of this building. If you live in my house without permission, now If you dare to bully me, believe it or not, I will call the police immediately!"

This matter is a bit weird, I'm not sure what the origin of this woman is, but it is absolutely impossible to call the police, once the police is called, the matter between the two of us will never be covered up.I wanted to scold her, but after hearing what she said, I could only suppress my anger and said, "Sister, don't get excited, calm down first. We did pay the rent before we came to live here. There are contracts. How can you say that we live privately now?"

A look of suspicion suddenly appeared on the woman's face, she took out a large bunch of keys from her waist, and twisted them before our eyes.The brass key jingled, and she said, "See, I have the keys to every room here, and I am the landlord here. I don't know what the housing contract is, and I haven't confiscated your money. If you don't tell me today Clear, let's go to the bureau to talk."

I took a look, and sure enough, the bunch of keys in her hand had numbers on them, and my keys happened to have these numbers too.

How is this going?

Could it be that I was cheated when I rented this house?

Tofu also looked suspicious, and said to me: "Did you meet a liar, and the rent was wrong?"

"Impossible." I immediately vetoed it and said, "The key here was given to me by that person."

At this time, the fat woman seemed to think of something, and said, "What does that person look like? Also, take out the housing contract you mentioned." I ordered Tofu to take the contract in my bag. Turn it out, and describe the man's appearance to the fat woman.

I didn't think there was any problem before, but now I recall it carefully, and while describing it, I feel chills in my heart.

At that time, the person who rented my house was a Cantonese guy. I found him in the security room of the third building.He was about forty years old, thin and bald, and was sitting alone in the security room.

Recalling now, the security room was pitch black at that time, and the computer was not turned on.What is he doing sitting there alone?

Thinking about it carefully, I can’t remember his specific appearance, but the clothes he wore at that time were very strange, a bit like the white sweat coats worn by old men in the past. My grandfather also wore that kind of coat, but now It is rarely worn anymore.

Thinking about it this way, it seemed that something was completely wrong when renting a house.

At this time, Tofu suddenly came out of the room, with pale lips, holding a stack of things in his hand, forced a smile on his face, and said to me: "Comrade Chen Xuan, are you kidding me again? In your file bag, there is nothing else but this."

He handed it over and saw it, and I was shocked.It was a stack of yellow straw paper, the kind of paper that was burned for the dead in the past.

(End of this chapter)