Prologue (1/2)

Prologue

Translated by FlowerBridgeToo

(Temporary took it from moonbunnycafe, as it is down)

Shao Xuan sat in a remodeled bus and looked at the multitudinous mountains outside the window. Summer Solstice had just passed and the mountains were brimming with greens that burst with life. Seeing such a scene after living long in the city made his mood—despondent due to failures—quite brighter. Initially, Shao Xuan planned to call up a few friends for a journey far away to unwind his heart, but he didn’t expect to come across his fellow townmate and classmate who studied archeology, Shi Qi, who then pulled him over for an archaeology trip.

Now, they were heading towards a relatively remote small mountain village. It was said that things of the Stone Age were discovered there. A batch of people had already set off for that location, and currently, they were in the second batch.

Shao Xuan listened to his classmate start from the primitive humans’ skull, to the stone tools they used, to the murals on rocks. He even took out a few pictures and explained them in detail—the researchers did this and that . . . after drilling in, it was hard to pull it back out . . . Although Shao Xuan didn’t understand a thing, he still gave face to him and listened attentively.

On the paper were murals that archaeologists had discovered. Shao Xuan glimpsed at them, and felt they were no better than his nephews’ and nieces’ who had yet to even enter kindergarten.

The lines on the drawings were rather simple—for most of them, one could tell they were people who held tools for hunting, as well a few drawings of various species of animals. For the rest, however, he did not have a clue what they were.

“This is a drawing of a goat? But this goat drawing is too big,” Shao Xuan said as he pointed at a picture.

On the picture, the drawing was a goat with a very long and large curved horn. By its side, there was a person holding a bow and arrows. Yet, the ratio did not seem normal. The head of the person reached only up to the goat’s back. A few other pictures were the same: a rabbit’s body proportion was akin to a lion, and on the left, there was even a picture of a horse, though its tail was drawn perhaps a bit too short.

Of course, not every single drawing’s ratio was like that. The different era’s mural styles discovered in different provinces were all distinct. At the back, the ratios were drawn a bit more like reality. On the drawings, you could even see a group of people bringing dogs for hunting.

He continued flipping back, and found several coloured drawings, giving an even clearer look to them.

“They may not have put much emphasis on things like these,” Shi Qi explained.

“You mean that when they draw, they did not have any realism in terms of proportion, and instead used exaggerated methods?” Shao Xuan asked.

“It should be like that.” Shi Qi scratched his head. “After all, in that time period, humans were not too educated in beauty. The drawings may only represent some sort of symbolic meaning. There was once a researcher who, when studying the murals, hypothesized that the reason why humans back then drew these hunting-related murals on cave walls or boulders was to let the tribe’s hunters or warriors have an idea in their hearts before heading out. Or, perhaps there was a ceremony we don’t know of—especially so for the murals drawn by those ‘shamans’.”

“Shamans huh . . .” In Shao Xuan’s mind, an image of a very odd and old swindler appeared.

“Ahh, why do you have such a face? Let me tell you this: ‘shamans’ back then did not necessarily hold low positions in human tribes. Quite oppositely, it’s very possible they held high ones.”

“I know. Swindlers, right?” Shao Xuan nodded.

Shi Qi waved his finger left and right, then took out a folder. In it were some copies of scanned drawings. As he pointed at some of the drawings and characters, Shi Qi said to Shao Xuan, “If the appearance of totems is humans’ personification of nature and their own collective unity, that means the thoughts of shamans are humans’ naturalization. The occupation of ‘shaman’ has actually already appeared in the Stone Age . . .”

Shi Qi then started to talk about the development of the occupation of “shaman” from the ancient times to the present ones—without caring about Shao Xuan. The usage of specialized jargon and even quoting various classics and works, causing Shao Xuan who was listening to have a headache.

Shao Xuan did not have too great of an understanding in that field, nor did he feel interest. If he didn’t have an old townmate and classmate who studied archaeology, Shao Xuan would have simply not bothered knowing anything of those things. Before, when he heard people talk about archaeology, he immediately thought of those priceless antiques. However, the direction of study Shi Qi took was simply more antique than antiques! It was so ancient that not many people felt interest towards the topic. Several days ago, Shao Xuan was even listening to the broadcast’s discussion on whether “Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution” was correct, or “the hypothesis on ‘aliens created life-forms’” was correct. Since he had nothing better to do, Shao Xuan gave it a listen. After doing so, he put it aside and did not study it any further.

On the contrary, Shao Xuan knew he had interest in ancient human species from a young age. Back then, during middle school, he often had discussions with others regarding several excavated yet disappeared ancient human species remains in recent modern history.

“You won’t understand if I speak professionally, so I’ll go simpler! Look!” Shi Qi used his finger to point at a map on a certain location. “‘Shaman’ is mentioned in ancient inscriptions on things such as cow bones, turtle shells, and bronze. But, it’s like this . . .”

Shao Xuan looked at the place Shi Qi pointed towards. It was a symbol, looking akin to the interweaving of two “work” (工) characters.

“On a few ancient potteries and statues, this double-work symbol has appeared. On that topic, shamans also affected areas such as hunting, praying, and rescuing. Looking at it in certain perspectives, ‘shamans’ can be counted as the scientists of that time. However, all of this is speculation. Even if it’s records from ancient times, they may not be true. After all, they loved to exaggerate. Isn’t there a saying that goes ‘There is never truth in history.’? Archaeology is merely digging up a few corners and edges. As for the truth, who knows.

“The discovered cave this time is also related to ‘shamans’. The final few pictures you saw were the murals the first batch of people sent back. In the cave, the double-work symbol was also discovered. So, we can speculate that it may be a certain ‘shaman’’s residential area. Last month, a brief earthquake occurred in that village’s region. Most likely, due to that, this cave was exposed. Before the earthquake, not a single person had heard of it.”

When he spoke up to there, Shi Qi closed the folder and carefully looked at his surroundings. Seeing that the instructor and other students were not paying attention at them, he lowered his voice, and secretively said to Shao Xuan, “I’ve heard the first person who discovered the cave was a child. Moreover, from a fellow student’s news, the child who discovered the cave saw a strange watermelon-sized insect crawling out from his courtyard’s wall. Children have great nerves, so that child followed the insect. In the end, it disappeared at the cave; the child went back, notifying adults, and only then was the cave discovered.”

“Watermelon-sized insect?” Shao Xuan felt it to be ridiculous. Regardless of who, when they heard that the first time, they would think it was overly fake. “That child lied?”