32 Doggie Wang Er

 

In the eastern districts of China, there was still a culture called Minghun, or afterlife marriage. Even though these places had become wealthier than the past, there were still traditions too buried in their bones to be abandoned. In fact, money only managed this underground culture to flourish even more. A well-preserved young woman’s body could fetch up to 150000 RMB, if the dead girl was a virgin, the price could even double. That might sound high but can you really put a price on having a partner in the afterlife? In any case, when there was demand and need, there would be a market.

The inmate whom I met in prison was committed because he strangled a female university student. His goal was simple, he wanted to sell her body for money. In his eyes, the dead were worth more than the living.

However if Ol’ Zhang was in this business, he couldn’t be working alone. So what we needed to do now was to use these dead bodies to trace out the whole production line behind Ol’ Zhang, to capture this organization with one fell swoop. Furthermore, I had a sneaking feeling that this incident had to do with Lai San. I contacted the police force at Qing Chen and with their help, transported all bodies to the city morgue awaiting dissection.

At the same time, we questioned the source of these dead bodies. If my family’s grave was disturbed and my loved one’s body was missing, I would call the police. Furthermore, transporting dead bodies across far distances wasn’t something easy, so I believed these bodies came from around Qing Cheng itself. After comparing the dead’s information and their burial locations, I pulled up a map of Qing Cheng and its nearby districts. Incidentally I saw a name that popped up to me. Due to this inmate, I got to know places in China which still practiced the Minghun tradition and one of them was Lin Fen City, Ba Jia Zi District, which was just right next to Qing Cheng.

“I believe we should visit the place in person.” I told Captain Zhao. Captain Zhao nodded. “I know you have your reasons to believe Ol’ Zhang was using these dead bodies to transport drugs and for Minghun but are you sure? If this is not the right direction, our trail on Ol’ Zhang would be gone. This is the only chance to catch him.” I thought for a moment and then said, “I can’t give any guarantee but at least my instinct says that is the case. Even if Ol’ Zhang is not one of them, detaining a member in the dead-body selling business would be reward enough.”

“Okay, I’ll set up an office at Lin Fen City, just tell me if you need anything.” Captain Zhao agreed to my demand after that.

“Before we have any concrete evidence, I don’t think we should announce ourselves. Perhaps I should scout ahead as a criminal on the run but I do have a request.” I said.

Captain Zhao oh-ed and then said, “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to really have a request. Do tell.”

“I need you to haul someone out for me from the system.” I told Captain Zhao.

Captain Zhao spun the cup several times before saying, “Who is it? What prison are they in?”

“He’s not in the prison system.” I shook my head.

Captain Zhao was shocked. He asked with confusion, “Is he in a mental asylum then?” Seeing my smile, Captain Zhao knew that he was right. “For real?”

I knew a person but he did not see himself as one, instead, he identified himself as a dog, the most impressive dog in the world in fact. I had no idea what his real name was but he called himself Doggie Wang Er. Doggie Wang Er was a real dog or rather, he was no different from a real dog. He didn’t like clothes and would lick people that he liked. He marked his territory by lifting his leg and peeing by the tree. When he saw a female he liked, he would hound them like a dog in heat. If someone threw a stone, he would run to fetch it and bring it back in his mouth. Like most canines, Doggie Wang Er didn’t like to bathe and cut his nails. He was probably the only dog in the world who knew how to speak.

One year ago, Doggie Wang Er wasn’t yet a dog, he was still a man. Doggie Wang Er was a grave robber or in Chinese vernacular Dao Dou. In the Chinese grave robbing business, the most important rule to follow was 3 years of tutelage and 3 years of piety. A grave robber had to start somewhere and that start was often finding a master, and naturally this came with its risk. Hence, said rule was born. Once a master accepted a disciple, he was responsible to teach his disciples all the knowledge he had about grave robbing and tomb raiding. In these 3 years, the master would be responsible to keep his disciple fed and alive as well. After the 3 years of tutelage, the disciple would spend 3 years working on their own but still had to report back to the master out of respect. The disciples had to hand everything they had found in graves to their master, regardless of their value and it was the master’s prerogative how many percent should be given back to their disciples. Even if the master took everything, no one dared to say anything, after all, the disciple wouldn’t have found anything without his master’s tutelage.

That was the rule of 3 years of tutelage and 3 years of piety. No one in the business dared to violate it because once you did, your name would be blackballed. You’d be ostracized by those in the same field and might risk being betrayed. Tomb raiding was often a team effort and the most important thing holding a team together was... Trust.

Anyone in the team would be afraid of betrayal because who would find out about you when you were left to die inside a tomb? Therefore, the only way to stop that was to inflict heavy punishment on traitors.

If you ask a grave robber what they were most afraid of, it was not the candles going off when underground, not curses from the dead, not haunting and not traps inside these tombs. Instead they would tell you the scariest thing in this world was the human heart.

In the early history of tomb raiding, there was no system of master and disciple, the only thing holding a team together was the possible profit. For most graves, it required only 2 people. They would dig a hole and one would go down the rope and the other would stay on the surface to stabilize the rope. However, most of the time, the one on the surface would run away with the unearthed treasures and abandon their partners behind. Therefore, instead of strangers, people started to work in pairs of father and son. However, that did not stop most sons from abandoning their fathers. Later, the culture was adopted to have the fathers on the surface and the sons inside the hole, apparently, that stopped all incidents of people being abandoned inside graves.

…

That year, Doggie Wang Er had just finished his training. He was capable enough to work on his own but he didn’t dare forget about the rules, the treasures that he found for the first 3 years would all be given to his master. However, when he worked on the graves alone, either he was unlucky or the holes he made were too steep for him to get up with the treasures after he descended underground. Therefore, Doggie Wang Er needed a partner. For that, he found his father. His father was an illiterate villager, he spent his time on either alcohol or prostitutes, or else he wouldn’t send his son to follow a grave-robbing master. That way he wouldn’t need to care for his son for 3 years.

“Okay! Your father I will stay on top to hold the rope while you go down to fetch the treasures. Tie the treasure around the rope and pull once, and I will haul up the treasure. When you’re done, pull on the rope twice and I’ll get you up from down there.” Doggie Wang Er’s father said, “You really have grown a lot since I last saw you. My investment was worthwhile after all!”

“Remember, dad, no matter the haul, they’re all going to my master. It then depends on the master how much he is willing to share with us.” Doggie Wang Er reminded his father. “That is the rules. We have to follow it for the first 3 years after finishing our training.”

Doggie Wang Er’s father slammed the alcohol heavily on the ground. “What kind of fucked up rule is that?!”

In any case, they made their move that night. The royal tombs were either heavily guarded or had already been frequented by other robbers. Doggie Wang Er didn’t think he would be lucky enough to stumble across such lucrative tombs but since he grew up at this place, he at least knew the history of the local barons and their final resting places. Their target that night was the grave of a dead local magnate. The magnate had no son so his grave was soon taken up by nature and well hidden in the mountain. But with extensive research, Doggie Wang Er sniffed out this place. With the first hit of the shovel, he knew that he had got the right place. He dug downwards and soon came across the coffin buried by time and soil.

This grave was not as large as a royal tomb and naturally had no traps either. Understandably the things buried wouldn’t be so valuable either. However, Doggie Wang Er only saw this as training. He reached his hand into the hole he made on the coffin. He felt the dead’s clothes. Based on his sense of touch, the owner of the grave was already a set of white bones. From the hole, he pulled out various objects. In the dark, he couldn’t tell what they were but from his 3 years of experience following his master, Doggie Wang Er had confidence they were onto something. They might not be worth the price of a castle, but at least they should be worth several houses. After a few back and forth, Doggie Wang Er managed to send everything up to the surface to his father.

Finally, with his job done, it was time for Doggie Wang Er to leave the grave. As planned, he pulled on the rope twice. Then something strange happened, the rope dropped from the hole. Doggie Wang Er thought his father was careless to have dropped the rope so he shouted, “Dad, go and get another rope. I’ll wait here.”

“Okay, I’m sorry for being so careless.” His father shouted back. Doggie Wang Er leaned against the coffin and he was warmed by joy. To celebrate his first big haul, his master would probably share some of the spoils with him. What would he do with the imminent windfall then? His girlfriend, Xiao Hui had been complaining about her phone and he thought about buying her a new one. These days, those intelligent phones wouldn’t be that expensive. Doggie Wang Er couldn’t help but chuckle. These things inside the graves became more expensive the older they were but these new technologies, the cheaper they became with each newer generation.

Then he thought about buying himself a motorcycle but then Doggie Wang Er realized he wouldn’t be able to ride into the city without a license and nowadays registering for a license was more expensive than buying a motorcycle. Since Doggie Wang Er had spent most of his recent years in the mountains, he was quite detached from city life already.

With great plans for his future, Doggie Wang Er sat in the grave and looked up at the small hole, all he could see was a small piece of the sky. He was suddenly reminded of the story of the frog at the bottom of the well. Wasn’t he the frog now? For some reason, that tickled Doggie Wang Er and he laughed. In the deep mountain, there was no one to hear the echoes of his laughs.

He waited from morning until night. He could see half the moon from the hole and several stars. Doggie Wang Er remembered that Xiao Sui said she was a Pisces, apparently they liked to be romanced but Doggie Wang Er never understood what romance was.

The sun came up again but Doggie Wang Er still had not seen the trace of his father.