The Lost Tomb : The Southern Archives Mysteries

Chapter 43: Those Who Are Favored By Gods

The human skin mask that Miss Dong looked at was obviously much older than the other human skin masks. It had started to turn black in the glass cabinet and had cracks all over it. There was a very simple ancient tattoo on it that was monochromatic.

"This mask has several thousand years' worth of history. Everyone in the Zhang family has tattoos, but the locations vary. This family has been around for many generations," Miss Dong said. "They established the Western Archives more than a thousand years ago to investigate strange events that took place in Tibet and established archives everywhere after that. The South Sea Archives was the last one established and has only been around for sixty years."

"Why is the Zhang family in so many people's business? Wouldn't Empress Dowager Cixi stop them? [1] Is there no farm work in the northeast villages or something?" Zhang Haiyan asked.

"No one knows why the Zhang family does these things. Some people say that they have something to do with grave robbing. Since they go tomb robbing all year round, they need to know about the legends and news surrounding the tombs. That's why they set up the archives. In the beginning, the people in the archives were all from the main branch of the Zhang family. But ever since the last century, the number of the people in the Zhang family has decreased. They started to adopt orphans from the remote parts of Southeast Asia," Miss Dong said.

Zhang Haiyan was silent as Miss Dong kept walking. "In fact, the people like us who work for them only know that there are tons of records sent to the northeast every year. In addition to helping the Zhang family collect information from various places, we also adopt orphans, train them, and then have them hunt down the traitors of the Zhang family. Zhang Ruipu was one such traitor. All of these traitors are difficult to deal with, which I believe you have experience with since you've dealt with him."

It sounds just like a gang, Zhang Haiyan thought to himself. The Zhang family in the northeast is just a northeastern gang. They sound like an organization of hereditary "bandits" with a long history. It's a bit like Elder Brothers Society [2]. There may even be mysterious religious customs, so that's why the archives were set up everywhere. They're worshiping Huang-Lao [3] and catching ghosts while recruiting members at the same time.

Zhang Haiyan continued following her, and they soon reached a dark room. Zhang Haiyan glanced at the décor and saw that it was all archive cabinets. They were the same ones that were used by the South Sea Archives.

"This place was originally a part of the South Sea Archives' expansion plan, but these are the only things left now," Miss Dong said. She pulled at a white cloth that was in the middle of the room, revealing Zhang Ruipu's body lying on a table.

Miss Dong hung an incandescent lamp over the corpse and took the corpse's hand before showing it to Zhang Haiyan. He saw that the corpse had three fingers that were very long, and there was a hint of deformity.

"One of the characteristics of the Zhang family is that they have some fingers that are long. Zhang Ruipu had three, so he was considered relatively mediocre among the Zhangs. The fingers are said to be used to break mechanisms when they rob tombs. Their fingers can reach smaller places that way." With that said, she grabbed a file that was sitting off to the side. "This is Zhang Ruipu's file." She flipped through a few pages until she reached a photo.

An official from the Qing dynasty and Zhang Ruipu were both in the photo. "This was taken in the twenty-fourth year of Daoguang [4]. Qiying was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and the Minister of Trade and Industry. The photo was taken in Macau during Qiying's negotiation with France [5]. This person is Zhang Ruipu, and this person is Qiying."