Liu Hong showed a very disdainful expression. "A family of 100 girls can have 100 families vying for them. How did a few of my words bother you? Beauty, look at this country bumpkin. If you follow him, I’d feel sorry for you. You deserve better.”

"That’s none of your business." Lin Dongxue simply decided to stop acting nice.

"Get lost. Don't show your annoying face around me!" Chen Shi was even more rude.

"Fucker. Believe it or not, I’ll get the dog to kill you!”

"Come at me then. Come. I don’t think you’d dare to get your dog to hurt someone.” Chen Shi could not wait for this guy to do something in order to arrest him.

Liu Hong had an expression of rage and the flesh on his face was shaking. He took out his phone and said, "I'll get someone to fix you up right now."

"I’ll also call someone then!" Chen Shi pulled out his mobile phone and pretended to dial three numbers. "Officers? There’s a man in the Xiuqiu community who owns a big Tibetan mastiff. It’s so scary. Please hurry over!”

"You're ruthless!" Liu Hong hurriedly turned off his phone and fled.

"Coward. I wanted him to come and hit me!" Chen Shi said with regret.

"How selfless... This guy is really annoying." Lin Dongxue said.

Chen Shi said to the young monk, "Tonight we will continue to investigate. Don't hang around outside. Honestly, stay at the guest house and wait for our news."

The young monk did a Buddhist ritual. "I will read the scriptures for you two and bless you with peace."

"Thank you for your kindness!"

Peng Sijue called and asked Chen Shi to go to a dinner party. Chen Shi found it to be a rare occasion and exclaimed, "You’re inviting me to dinner? This is the first time!"

"I didn't want to ask you to come. I have a classmate who is a professor in the Department of Archaeology. I didn't keep in touch with them after graduation. I suddenly need to ask them for a favor, so it’s best to have some contact beforehand… I’m the worst at this sort of stuff. Come and deal with it.”

"Is it a man or a woman?"

"Does it matter?"

"You’re right. Where are you? I'll be right there."

"I’ll send you the address."

"Department of Archaeology? I feel like I’ll have a lot of common topics with them. I love watching ‘Ghost Blows Out the Lights[1]’.”

Peng Sijue suddenly raised his voice. "Don't mention any tomb novels at the dinner table. Don’t talk about country-permitted tomb raiders either. Don't talk about random stuff, okay?"

"Yes, yes. I’ll follow your lead and play it out.”

The dinner would have been an awkward thing, so Lin Dongxue didn’t go. She went back with the young monk.

Lin Dongxue and Tao Yueyue ate takeaways at home. It wasn't until 9:00 that Chen Shi sent a message over to her. He was very excited. "Drone! Captain Peng really has a way. Let’s go to the kennels!"

Lin Dongxue called a car and went to the dog farm. Chen Shi's light blinked twice to guide her.

Chen Shi, Peng Sijue, and Xu Xiaodong were all there. In addition, there was a balding person who looked like a professor. Peng Sijue introduced, “Let me introduce you two. This is my classmate.”

"Hello!" Lin Dongxue shook hands with him.

There was a drone on the ground. Lin Dongxue was curious about this toy and asked, "It’s already late into the evening. What can the drone see?”

"This is not an ordinary drone. It is equipped with a radiation detector. It’s used by our field archaeologists to find underground corpses," the professor explained. "We typically think that there are only a few types of radioactive materials. Actually, all substances are radioactive, but they differ in strength. Phosphorus is produced when human bones disintegrate."

"Fuck, that's so advanced. It's not even mentioned in the novels about tomb stealing," Xu Xiaodong said excitedly.

"Don't talk about robbing tombs in front of my classmate!" Peng Sijue emphasized again.

"It's okay. I also like to read novels about grave robbers. It acts as a pastime." The professor mediated.

"Do you like ‘Ghost Blows Out the Lights’ or ‘Grave Robber’s Chronicles[2]’?"

"Xiaodong, please shut your mouth for me!" Peng Sijue said sternly.

The rural winds were strong. Chen Shi urged them to start quickly. The professor opened a laptop and placed it on the ground. He controlled the drone to go up slowly. Red and green colors appeared on the screen and the professor explained, “These are the radioactive sources around us. Look at these – The red ones are us.”

"There’s that much radiation on us?" Xu Xiaodong was shocked.

"The main reason is because you brought mobile phones on you."

The professor began to concentrate on manipulating the drone. The picture looked puzzling, and if you weren’t a professional, you wouldn’t understand what it was.

Suddenly, the professor said, "Here and here. There’s a phosphorus reaction!"

"Where?"

"I lowered the drone and it dropped into the radioactive source."

The professor packed up his laptop, and the five of them rushed there together. From a distance they could see the drone parked next to a cliff. Chen Shi said, "I'll drive the car over. There are tools in it."

Chen Shi drove the car over and took out two folding shovels. Peng Sijue asked, "Do you have more refined ones?"

"Don't be picky. It's already ten o'clock. Hurry up!"

The professor volunteered and taught them how to excavate using the grid method[3] so that it would be less likely to damage the bones. Soon after, bones appeared in the soil and everyone was excited. The professor picked it up, blew away the ash and soil, and examined it using a flashlight. Then, he handed it to Peng Sijue.

"There is no such bone in a person. This is not a human bone," Peng Sijue said.

"Dog bone!" Chen Shi said, scooping a dog skull out from the ground.

"We’ve busied ourselves for the whole day, but it's just a dog bone?" Xu Xiaodong said disappointedly.

Chen Shi said, "Professor, can you continue using the drone to check the area? We’ll dig these dog bones out.”

"Okay!"

Chen Shi and Xu Xiaodong quickly dug out a whole set of dog bones and put them on the ground. They almost assembled a complete dog. At this time, the professor said, "Found another place!"

Several people collected the dog bones and reburied them. They excitedly hurried to the next place, but only dog bones were dug up again.

They repeated this till 12:00 AM and a total of five complete dog bones were found 300 meters away from the kennel. Everyone was a little discouraged.

As it was late at night, everyone was cold and sleepy. Chen Shi took out some random chocolates and Snickers from the car and gave them all a little sweet food to help resist the cold.

Lin Dongxue said, "Don’t these dog bones feel a little strange? How can they be so complete? It’s obvious that people didn’t discard them after eating the meat.”

"And these dog bones are relatively large. Could they be Tibetan mastiffs?" Chen Shi glanced back at the kennel in the dark.

Peng Sijue picked up a rib from the soil and turned it over. "Bone glaze is intact, so it should not have been cooked. This is a complete corpse buried in the soil. It corroded into this, or perhaps they were buried alive."

"Can you tell whether it was buried alive or after death?" Chen Shi asked.

"This has to be tested. If it was buried alive, the bone marrow will be hypoxic."

"I see!" Xu Xiaodong said excitedly. "Look at these five dog bones, which are exactly in five directions. Is it possible that someone was performing some kind of mysterious ceremony?"

Chen Shi asked, "I still have potato chips in my car. Does anyone want to eat them?"

Lin Dongxue asked in return, "Do you have any drinks?"

"Fuck me. Everyone’s ignoring me. Does my analysis make no sense?" Xu Xiaodong resentfully asked.

Peng Sijue seemed to think of something. He dug into the soil and said, "No" before standing up and walking away.

1. AKA Candle in The Tomb, it’s a fantasy novel series.

2. Also a real novel.

3. After doing some research, this seems to be the correct English term for this method. Here’s what I’m referencing: https://www.jstor.org/stable/29543138?seq=1