As the words left his mouth, "Old Man Sun Jiu" finished retching and was propped back into his seat by the Fatty. He was thoroughly drunk, his senses swimming in a haze, mumbling nonsensically as if guided by some unseen force: "A great King with body but no head; if the wife doesn't come, the mountains won't open; stoke the fire, boil the liver and lungs; dig wells and mine salt, ask ghosts for money; bird paths crisscross, turning back a hundred steps; wishing to visit the Earthly Immortal, first find U..." (Note: Lao Jiu Can Bu Zou—The bandit chief Seat of the Mountain Eagle from Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, who had eight Vajra lieutenants. Yang Zirong, the undercover agent planted among the bandits, was assigned the ninth position, hence the nickname 'Lao Jiu' (Old Ninth). When Seat of the Mountain Eagle tried to detain Yang Zirong, he famously shouted, "Lao Jiu can't leave!")

Listening to Old Man Sun Jiu’s slurred words—a mix of archaic phrasing and common talk, like an ancient poem or a nonsensical rhyme—I found the content bizarre and hard to decipher. Only when I heard the phrase, "wishing to visit the Earthly Immortal," did a spark ignite in my mind: "This must be a clue to the entrance of the Earthly Immortal's tomb!"

At that moment, the Fatty muttered beside me, "This Sun Lao Jiu, if you can't hold your liquor, don't drink! Can you compare to Fatty's capacity? Look at him, now he’s reciting the Three Character Classic drunk—what utter nonsense..."

I quickly clamped the Fatty's mouth shut and strained my ears to catch every drunken utterance from Professor Sun. But after finishing with, "wishing to visit the Earthly Immortal, first find U...," he trailed off into silence, slumping onto the table, deeply unconscious, no further words escaping his lips.

My curiosity was an agonizing itch; I desperately wanted to pry open Professor Sun's mouth and have him repeat every word from the beginning without missing a beat. The crucial part was: "To find the Earthly Immortal's tomb, the Feng Wang Tomb, we must first find Black what?" I hadn't listened closely to the opening lines, but now I recalled something like, "What good wife boiled the viscera for the King?"

Shirley Yang, possessing an eidetic memory, spoke up: "It wasn't some good wife boiling viscera. What Professor Sun said was likely this: 'A great King with body but no head; if the wife doesn't come, the mountains won't open; stoke the fire, boil the liver and lungs; dig wells and mine salt. Ask ghosts for money; bird paths crisscross, turning back a hundred steps; wishing to visit the Earthly Immortal, first find U...'"

I quickly jotted these phrases down in my notebook. It seemed Old Man Sun Jiu still had vital information about the Earthly Immortal's tomb hidden away, which he had inadvertently spilled after one too many drinks in his excitement. What riddle lay hidden within these fragmented sentences? We had no way to understand.

Shirley Yang mused, "A great King... with body but no head...? Perhaps 'King' without its head is the character for 'Earth' [, tǔ]? Could this be a rebus or a hidden word puzzle hinting at the secret of the Earthly Immortal's tomb? If the wife doesn't come, the mountains won't open—what character is hidden there? It probably isn't a character puzzle, as the later lines don't seem to break down into individual characters."

I was equally baffled, scratching my head: "A King with a body but no head? Who is the headless king? And who is the mountain-opening wife? If we can't even decipher the first line, the subsequent hints are completely lost."

The Fatty announced, "Let Fatty go find some cold water to splash on Old Man Sun Jiu and wake him up. Then we’ll interrogate him severely. If he won't talk, we’ll have to use some tactics—chili water, the Iron Chair, all sorts of harsh measures. Torture him until he confesses!"

I shook my head. "This isn't Zhazidong or Baigongguan; Professor Sun isn't a captured revolutionary. How can we torture him? Let's forget about forcing him tonight. After dinner, we'll take him back to my place, and when he sobers up, we can ask him then. I doubt he’d dare hide anything."

The three of us finished our meal filled with unanswered questions. Shirley Yang paid the bill, and we escorted Professor Sun back to where I was staying. At the courtyard gate, Professor Sun asked me hazily, "Huh? Where is this? Don't send me to a farm; I'm not a Rightist, not a traitor. I never killed anyone..."

I reassured him, "Don't worry, we won't escort you to a labor camp under armed guard. Look, this is my home. This place is called Righteous Peace Gate [You'anmen]. It doesn't matter if you were branded a Rightist; whichever country's Rightist you are, once you live in You'anmen... you'll be perfectly safe." Yet, my own doubts deepened. I thought, "Professor Sun killed someone? Who did he kill? For all his bad temper, he doesn't strike me as the type to commit murder. Killing isn't like slaughtering a chicken; not everyone has the nerve for it."

Impatient for Professor Sun to sleep off his intoxication, the Fatty went off to the antique market at Panjiayuan after we arrived home. In the afternoon, when Shirley Yang and I saw Professor Sun had sobered up, we poured him a cup of hot tea. I closed the door, pulled up a chair, and sat facing him, getting straight to the point: "Old Man Jiu, to be honest, when you were drunk, you mentioned killing someone and being a traitor back then. But in my estimation, while it’s true you might crave prestige, I absolutely refuse to believe you are a murderer. I suspect you were framed. Why don't you tell us the whole story, the origins of these events?"

Then, patting my chest, I swore an oath to Chairman Mao that if there was anything I could do to help clear your name, I would go through fire and water without hesitation. If I were incapable, everything you told us today, you and Shirley Yang and I will bury it deep in our stomachs, never uttering a single word to an outsider.

Professor Sun knew he had spoken carelessly while drunk, but seeing the sincere expressions on Shirley Yang's and my faces, he could only recount his experiences during the Cultural Revolution. Unexpectedly, they were intricately linked to that "Earthly Immortal's Tomb." Eighty percent of the reason Professor Sun sought the "Earthly Immortal's Tomb" was connected to his time in the labor camp.

During the Cultural Revolution, Sun Xuewu was purged. Due to his poor relationships, he was falsely accused. Initially charged with moral turpitude, later, some villain exposed him and branded him a revolutionary traitor. During the public denunciation rally, there was no room for him to defend himself. Just as he was about to be bound and taken to the execution ground for immediate sentencing, fortunately, his old classmate, Chen Jiuren—Professor Chen—stepped forward to testify, proving that Sun Xuewu’s revolutionary consciousness was extremely low and that he had never participated in the revolution at all, meaning he couldn't possibly be a traitor. This saved his life.

Later, Sun Xuewu and Chen Jiuren, two comrades sharing misfortune, were sent down to the Guoyuan Gou in Shaanxi for labor reform. Guoyuan Gou, meaning 'Orchard Gully,' actually had no orchard at all; it was a stone quarry. Chen Jiuren, a man of letters, couldn't endure swinging a sledgehammer and chiseling stone. Within half a month, his health collapsed. Fortunately, his family pulled strings, secured a medical certificate claiming a stomach tumor, and had him recalled to Beijing for treatment, thus saving him from dying in the camp.

But Sun Xuewu had no one to look out for him. He was alone, his wife long dead, without children or connections. He could only endure the grinding hardship in the farm day after day. Fortunately, his physical constitution was relatively strong; he had done farm work before Liberation, allowing him to withstand such heavy labor for a short period. However, the mental pressure was immense, his future bleak, with no idea what lay ahead. Moreover, these reformed laborers had to mutually inform on each other—if you didn't denounce others, others would find ways to denounce you. Life there was simply unlivable. In the farm, Sun Xuewu met a man who had been a regimental commander during the Korean War. His surname was Feng, and for whatever reason he was sent for labor reform. Because he often partnered with Sun Xuewu for labor, they shared a similar fate. The two got along reasonably well. One day, Commander Feng secretly told Sun Xuewu, "Old Sun, I can't stand this half-living, half-dead existence anymore. I've been thinking for days, and now I have a plan: I’m going to run. You look like you're fading too; why don't you run with me?"

Sun Xuewu was shocked and asked Commander Feng, "Run? Are you throwing your life away? Besides, although the farm security isn't strict, we are deep in the sparsely populated mountains of the Daba range. Even if we escape, then what? Where do we hide afterwards? Won't things be worse if we are caught?"

Commander Feng seemed confident. "Once we cross the mountains, we’ll be in Sichuan. My ancestral home is in Sichuan. Rather than waiting here to die, I’d rather risk crossing the mountains. Once I reach my hometown, I’ll be like a fish returning to the sea, a bird soaring to the heavens."

It turned out that Commander Feng's ancestors were local gentry from the Ming Dynasty who had served as "Mountain-Watching Protectors"—in other words, grave robbers. The "Mountain-Watching Protectors" had once unearthed the Dragon Bone Heavenly Book from an ancient tomb in Sichuan. After comprehending its mysteries, they attained the Great Dao and became Immortals. In the underground palace of the tomb they plundered, the Immortal created an Earthly Immortal Village, intended as his resting place a hundred years later. Legend had it that whoever found this Earthly Immortal Village and paid homage to the Immortal Mountain-Watching Protector could achieve immortality, no longer needing food or drink, nor even the smoke of the mortal world.

But this Earthly Immortal's Tomb was buried too deep, leaving no trace. From the fall of the Ming Dynasty until now, no one had managed to find it. However, the Immortal had left a few cryptic phrases for the descendants of the Feng family: "A great King with body but no head; if the wife doesn't come, the mountains won't open; stoke the fire, boil the liver and lungs; dig wells and mine salt, ask ghosts for money; bird paths crisscross, turning back a hundred steps; wishing to visit the Earthly Immortal, first find U Yang..."

This ancient riddle held the vital secret to the entrance of the Earthly Immortal Village. Besides the Feng family, they never revealed it to outsiders. At that time, Commander Feng only told Sun Xuewu a small portion, persuading him to escape with him back to Sichuan and hide in the Earthly Immortal Tomb for refuge. Although Commander Feng had been a soldier and fought battles, he was extremely superstitious about these ethereal legends passed down by his ancestors. It was precisely because of this that he had been sent for labor reform. Now, unable to endure the suffering of quarrying stone, he wanted to flee to his hometown. Whether he could achieve immortality was uncertain, but at least he had a destination to seek. In any case, he was doomed here, and if the Feng Wang Tomb truly contained the Heavenly Book, he might as well follow his ancestors into immortality.

When Professor Sun heard this, he felt that Commander Feng must have lost his mind, perhaps mentally broken by the strain. How could he dare say such things? In those times, merely speaking those words would be enough reason to execute him ten times over.

So, Professor Sun made his stance clear, firmly refusing to accompany him, saying, "If you want to go, go by yourself. Don't worry, I won't inform on you behind your back."

Commander Feng sneered, "There's a saying: Never reveal your deepest thoughts to another. Since I’ve shared my escape plan with you, Old Sun, even if you don't report me, you'll likely be implicated after I run. So, I'll help you out a bit."

Professor Sun was alarmed: "What are you planning?" Before the words left his mouth, he was struck on the back of the head with a pickaxe and immediately passed out. When he woke up, Commander Feng was nowhere in sight.

Commander Feng's disappearance caused a huge stir in the labor camp. Search parties scoured the surrounding hundred miles but couldn't find a single strand of Commander Feng's hair. He couldn't have grown wings and flown away. Then, someone reported seeing Professor Sun with him last. Professor Sun was immediately interrogated, but he knew he absolutely couldn't reveal the truth; otherwise, the investigation would only deepen, and even if he wanted to tell the truth, how could he? Should he say Commander Feng ran off to the Earthly Immortal Tomb seeking immortality? Who would believe that? He could only insist that Feng probably escaped, claiming ignorance about everything else, using the injury on the back of his head as proof that he, too, was a victim.

Though the matter was officially concluded without resolution, gossip was a formidable force. Some began to suspect that Professor Sun had a private feud with Commander Feng and had secretly murdered him, burying the body somewhere unknown. Although this theory was never officially endorsed, it spread widely in private, turning everyone against him as a murderer. Even after the Gang of Four was dismantled, this issue remained unresolved for him.

Professor Sun never knew whether Commander Feng managed to escape to Sichuan. Moreover, Commander Feng's case was later exonerated. Even if he had been hiding in the deep mountains, he could have emerged publicly by now, yet he never reappeared. The man had vanished as if evaporated from the face of the earth—for years, he remained "unseen alive, with no body found dead." Thus, the rumor that he had been murdered by the "enemy agent Professor Sun" and his body hidden in the wilderness became even more convincing. There was just no evidence for the time being, so no one could do anything about Professor Sun.

The mystery of Commander Feng’s disappearance became a constant source of anxiety for Professor Sun in later years. When he later encountered various legends and records concerning the "Earthly Immortal Village Ancient Tomb" in his work, he paid extra attention. On one hand, he hoped to find the Zhou Tian ancient hexagrams within to achieve a breakthrough in his research; on the other, he wanted to track down Commander Feng, who had been missing for ten years, and clear the unjust accusation leveled against him.

But Professor Sun also knew that after fleeing, Commander Feng had likely been eaten by wild beasts in the mountains or fallen to his death in some ravine; the chance of reaching Sichuan was slim. Even if the "Earthly Immortal's Tomb" was found, it might not yield any trace of the man. Nevertheless, Professor Sun held a faint, almost intuitive premonition: "Commander Feng is no ordinary man; perhaps he really managed to find the tomb entrance, and maybe he is still alive today."

After listening to Old Man Sun Jiu's account, my mind began to work, and I formed a plan: "We can't decipher the riddle of the Earthly Immortal Village right away. Moreover, the Bronze Divination Mirror can only be used once or twice more and shouldn't be used lightly to divine the earth’s ley lines at a crucial moment. However, I believe Commander Feng is a vital clue to finding the tomb. Most legends about the Ming Dynasty Earthly Immortal are shrouded in mystery. They always say he’s in Sichuan, but there’s no general region—we don't even know if it's the ancient Ba or Shu territories, or East or West Sichuan? Without a proper lead, it’s almost impossible to search. But if we can find out which county and town Commander Feng's ancestral home is in, we can go there ourselves, follow the trail, and act according to the situation. Finding the tomb entrance shouldn't be difficult then."