Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Nyoi-Bo Studio

  The cave was getting bigger and bigger. Wang Yao was like a human excavator. His speed of digging was frighteningly fast. He used the stove and digger in turns. Soon, a small earth hill appeared on the ground.

  “What are you looking for?” Wang Mingbao tried to help a few times but was stopped by Wang Yao every time.

  “I want to see what’s down there. It may be related to the contamination of the well water,” Wang Yao said.

  He could feel the weird atmosphere around him getting stronger.

  “It’s weird that I feel cold wind coming out of the cave,” Wang Mingbao said as he squatted on the ground.

  “You can feel it, too?” Wang Yao asked.

  “Yes. What’s going on?” Wang Mingbao asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Wang Yao replied.

  “You keep digging, I’ll fetch you some water,” Wang Mingbao said.

  After he walked a few steps, the earth underneath his feet started to shake.

  Oh no!

  He turned around to look what had happened. The small earth hill had collapsed.

  “Wang Yao!” Wang Mingbao ran toward the cave, which was almost filled with the soil.

  Damn it!

  He tried to remove the soil covering the cave.

  “You wait, I’ll find people to save you.” Wang Mingbao didn’t think he could do it by himself. After all, Wang Yao had taken out a large amount of soil. He heard a big sound as he was about to run back to the village.

  “Stay away!”


  Wang Mingbao heard Wang Yao shouting. He quickly stepped aside.

  “Okay, I’m not in your way,” Wang Mingbao said.

  Bang! Soil and sand flew everywhere. A person broke through the soil and landed on the ground. Wang Yao jumped out of the cave. His clothes were clean. Wang Mingbao was astonished.

  “How did you do that?” Wang Mingbao asked.

  “I just triggered my Qi to surround my body, like wearing an armor.” Wang Yao replied.

  “Well done,” Wang Mingbao said smiling. He was just worried about his friend’s safety. Then, there was another Bang! The earth underneath their feet shook again.

  “What’s going on?”


  Wang Yao walked toward the cave he just dug and took a look. The bottom of the cave had collapsed, showing the entrance of a hollow space. The cold wind kept coming out of that space.

  “What’s down there?” Wang Mingbao asked.

  “I’ll go down to take a look,” Wang Yao said.

  “Take it easy,” Wang Mingbao urged.

  “I’ll be fine,” Wang Yao replied.

  He was like a superman now. A landslide like this wouldn’t kill him. He went down into the bottom of the cave and looked through the hole. He saw a human shape. It was a stone statue of a guard with a gun. Behind the statue was a stone gate.

  Wang Yao immediately realized that he had just discovered a tomb.

  “What? A tomb?”


  Wang Mingbao also went into the cave, which was about 16 feet deep, after Wang Yao told him there was a tomb. He saw the statue and gate.

  “It is a tomb,” Wang Mingbao said. “What are we going to do about it?”


  “We should call the relevant department. There might be cultural relics inside,” Wang Yao said.

  He then told the secretary of the village about his discovery. The secretary reported it to the relevant department in town. The local government responded quickly. They arranged people to visit the village in the afternoon and reported the discovery to their superiors in the city.

  The local government didn’t want anything to go wrong. They left some policemen outside the cave to guard it.

  The next day, Wang Yao electronically received the test results of the water sample from the well. The water was toxic. It contained both chemical and biological toxins.

  Wang Yao was not surprised that there were chemical toxins in the water. The chemical toxins were mainly heavy metals. Biological toxins were harder to define, but they were definitely harmful to human body. The harm could be fatal. The biological toxins could also be contagious and expand.

  Given the discovery of the tomb, Wang Yao concluded that the toxins inside the water were probably from the tomb. As for how the toxins got into the water, and why only one of the wells was affected before the earthquake, Wang Yao wouldn’t know until the gate of the tomb was opened.

  The Shangjun local government also responded quickly. They sent archaeologists to the village in the morning.

  The quiet village suddenly became very alive.

  “I heard they found a tomb,” a middle-aged villager said.

  “Really? Have they found anything valuable inside?” a tall villager asked.

  “The valuables won’t be given to you. They belong to the government,” the middle-aged villager said.

  The villagers temporarily forgot about the pain of having no water.

  Meanwhile, Wang Yao continued to follow up on the recovery of the sick kids. They had all recovered well. It would be better if they had access to a bigger variety of nutrition.

  “All the kids have almost fully recovered, and we’ve found the source of toxins. I’m ready to leave,” Wang Yao said.

  “Going back home?” Wang Mingbao asked.

  “Yes. Are you coming with me, or do you want to stay here a bit longer?” Wang Yao asked.

  “I think things between me and Han Jia would change if I stay a few more days,” Wang Mingbao said.

  “Okay, you can stay. I’ll leave the car to you,” Wang Yao said smiling.

  “Okay, thanks,” Wang Mingbao said.

  Wang Yao went to see the headmaster and secretary in the afternoon to tell them that he was leaving.

  “You can’t stay here a bit longer?” the secretary asked.

  He had become quite fond of Wang Yao. He thought Wang Yao was a really nice person and what he had done was really kind.

  “The kids have almost fully recovered. You don’t need to worry about them. There might be toxins from the tomb to the underground water, so the wells were contaminated. Ask the villagers not to drink the water from the wells for now. Use the water to feed livestock and water the crops,” Wang Yao said.

  “Since you are leaving, would you like to have dinner at my house tonight?” the secretary asked.

  Wang Yao agreed.

  The secretary’s family made 10 dishes for dinner. They never even cooked that many dishes even when their children came home for Chinese New Year. They just wanted to express their gratitude to Wang Yao.

  The secretary also invited the headmaster. They talked and drank a lot. Eventually, they were drunk.

  Wang Yao spent a peaceful evening at the secretary’s house. He packed up the next day and was ready to leave.

  Wang Mingbao drove him to Shangjun and then to Bingzhou. Wang Yao was going to fly from Bingzhou to Haiqu.

  A lot of villagers came to see Wang Yao leave. They loaded his vehicle with local food, including winter dates, millet, and eggs. This was how these simple and unadorned villagers expressed their gratitude.

  “I’ll come back when I have a chance,” Wang Yao said.

  “We welcome you to come back here any time,” a villager said.

  “Okay, thank you,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

  “Let’s go,” said Wang Mingbao.

  As soon as Wang Mingbao started the car and drove for a few feet, he and Wang Yao heard someone shouting.

  “Help! Help! Someone just died on the hill!”


  “Stop the car!” Wang Yao shouted.

  Screech! Wang Mingbao broke hard to stop the vehicle.

  “Looks like I can’t leave now,” Wang Yao said.

  It was true that someone died. One of the archaeologists had died from poison.

  When the stone gate of the tomb was open, the black venom, which was like ink, spilled out from inside. The venom went straight onto the archaeologist’s face. He screamed, struggled, and cried before he was killed by the venom.

  At the same time, two more archaeologists were poisoned and fell onto the ground. Both of them passed out.

  Wang Yao went to see the two archaeologists. Both of them were in critical condition. The venom was toxic.

  “Fetch me some hot water,” Wang Yao said.

  He didn’t even have time to boil the water. He just melted two leaves of Detox grass into the hot water and gave it to the two archaeologists to take.

  There was a stinky smell near the tomb.

  “Don’t stay here. Stay away from the tomb,” Wang Yao said.

  The villagers immediately walked away.

  “Well, doctor, how are they?” the person in charge of the tomb exploration asked. He was quite anxious. He didn’t expect such a big incident to happen at the beginning of tomb exploration.

  “That person is dead for sure. As for these two, it’s hard to tell at the moment,” Wang Yao said.

  Both of the archaeologists were in critical condition. Their faces were severely damaged by the venom. Soon, the wounds became ulcers. The venom was corrosive. Even if they had survived, their faces would be permanently damaged. The person in charge sighed.

  The ambulance from the town hospital arrived two hours later. All the paramedics were shocked to see the two injured archaeologists. They thought their faces were damaged by acid.

  It was not over. Soon, the people who had helped the archaeologists started to how symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. They were all hired from the village.

  The secretary of the village went to see Wang Yao. However, Wang Yao had no more Detox grass. Without the licorice roots, it wouldn’t be very effective to treat the villagers with Qi.

  “I need some herbs,” Wang Yao said.

  He needed licorice, basil leaves, iris chinensis, common wedgelet fern, leafy paris, and Semiaquilegia. Wang Yao only brought licorice with him this time. He had to buy the rest of the herbs.

  “Where is the closest herb shop?” Wang Yao asked.

  “In town. I’ll ask someone to take you there,” the secretary said.

  After he had bought the herbs, he started to brew the decoction. He put herbs into the China pot one by one to brew the decoction slowly.

  The quality of the herbs was not very good. After the decoction cooled, he gave it to those who were poisoned. Without the Detox grass, the decoction was not that effective.

  The ambulance returned when the people were still taking the decoction.

  “What happened in your village?” the paramedics asked with surprise.

  Eight villagers had been admitted to the town hospital. Now, more people were sick.

  “They were poisoned,” Wang Yao said.

  He hoped that nothing worse was going to happen. However, the number of poisoned people was increasing, not in the village, but in the town hospital.

  Several nurses from the internal medicine department started to show symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. They were suspected of getting sick because of the new patients.

  “We had four more patients from that village today,” the paramedics said.

  “What are their symptoms,” the doctor asked.

  “Vomiting and diarrhea. One of them was unconscious,” the paramedics said.

  “Shit! I hope this is not an outbreak of some contagious disease,” the doctor said.

  The doctors were anxious. After all, they could get sick, too. They could get the flu or diarrhea like everyone else. In most cases, the doctors were anxious about being ill while having rich medical knowledge.

  “Dr. Wang, do you think this is some sort of contagious disease?” The secretary was also worried.

  “Possibly,” Wang Yao said. He couldn’t exclude the possibility of the spreading of some sort of biological toxin.

  “What can we do about it?” the secretary asked.

  “Spray some lime water around the village, especially areas near the tomb,” Wang Yao said.

  The person in charge of the tomb exploration acted even faster. He seemed to have experienced similar incidents before. He arranged sterilization around the tomb and established a barrier between the tomb and village.

  With so many people getting sick, everyone in the village was panicking.