"It stands to reason that since all the corpses were in the same location, this corpse preserved so intact, it definitely wasn’t due to climate, air, or soil conditions; there must be another reason."
Long Yubei inspected inside the coffin but strangely, he did not find anything.
There were no burial goods inside the coffin.
He came out and instructed a few people, "You, bring this coffin up for me."
His subordinates did as he ordered.
After the coffin was lifted up, Long Yubei had the corpse placed onto a cart and instructed Tang Qingli to hire a well-known forensic expert from City A with a generous salary to open up the corpse’s abdominal cavity to see if there was anything inside.
He refused to believe that, while the corpses in the surrounding coffins all decomposed into skeletons, this body had no reason to remain intact in this state.
After the body was sent away, he continued to inspect the other coffins that had been opened.
Even though his search progressed slowly alone, Long Yubei still did not let anyone else search with him.
After about forty minutes or so, he received a message from Tang Qingli.
"Young Master, there were traces of surgical stitching at the location of the corpse’s stomach; the forensic expert said the incisions were clearly made after death because the cut hadn’t healed. On reopening the stitched area, they found it full of ancient preservatives, and inside there was a piece of sheepskin parchment, neither I nor the forensic expert have looked at it."
"Send the corpse back, and bring me the sheepskin parchment."
After hanging up the phone, Long Yubei climbed out of the coffin and said to the group of subordinates, "Seal up all the coffins and restore them to their original state."
Everyone then set about doing as he instructed.
Tang Qingli brought the body back and handed Long Yubei the sheepskin parchment in a white plastic bag that smelled rank.
He took it, opened the bag, and was greeted by a foul odor.
Long Yubei took out the parchment and looked at it.
Gu Lili held a lamp to provide light for him.
The parchment was covered in dense, ancient script; Gu Lili could not understand a word, but Long Yubei read each one with perfect clarity.
He had lived so many years, and there were no ancient texts unknown to him.
"I’ll tell you about it when we get back." He looked over it again, then said to Tang Qingli, "Prepare some gasoline."
"To the rest of you, reinter the body back into the coffin." After issuing these instructions to his subordinates, Long Yubei told Gu Lili, "Let’s go back."
Tang Qingli prepared a metal basin, into which Long Yubei threw his gloves and the plastic bag, then drenched them with gasoline and lit them with his lighter.
The contents of the basin quickly caught fire. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novel-fire.ɴet
Watching the sheepskin parchment burn away completely to ashes, he finally went upstairs to take a shower, eradicating the foul odor from his body.
When he went downstairs to Old Madam Long’s room, the two babies were already asleep.
"Beibei, what exactly was written on there?" Old Madam Long was genuinely curious.
"Mom and Dad, you go back to your room." Long Yubei cautioned, his intention could not be more clear—they were not allowed to hear.
"We’re all family, we won’t talk about it, just let us listen too. Your dad and I are very curious." Dragon Mother was somewhat dissatisfied, feeling that her son was really keeping them at a distance.
"Even if you’re curious, I won’t tell you. Get out."
"When Beibei tells you to go, hurry up and skedaddle, don’t dawdle," Mr. Long waved them off urgingly.
Father Long and Dragon Mother had no choice but to leave and closed the door behind them.