I recall it was July, shortly after the six of us first entered the desert. The heat was unbearable. One of our group, named Hu Hansan, was rather portly—and fat people suffer most in the heat. Sweat streamed off him like a gushing river, whoosh, flowing continuously. Hu Hansan groaned that he couldn’t take it anymore and wished they were back in Beijing robbing tombs. Of course, everyone knew that in the subterranean palaces, the cold wind whooshed by, making your whole body break out in cold sweats—it was absolutely the perfect place to escape the summer heat. But there was no turning back; once you stepped into the tiger’s den, retreat was impossible. The six of us braced ourselves and pressed forward.” At this point, Elder Jia took a sip of water and emphasized, “That was the first strange thing we encountered in the desert.”

Elder Jia glanced at Young Master Liu and Da Guoguo, playing coy as he said, “Guess who we ran into? You could never guess it—a corpse-drying platform! We’d seen the custom of corpse driving by the Miao people in Xiangxi’s Nuqing, but we had never seen the custom of drying corpses in the Tibetan desert!”

“It wasn’t just Fatty Hu who was burning up; the rest of us skinny monkeys were too, but to keep morale up, none of us showed it. We just kept walking, hoping to stumble upon an oasis or maybe a shack, somewhere we could take temporary shelter from the heat.” Elder Jia was completely immersed in the scene from that time. “Fatty Hu, unable to bear the heat any longer, naturally started paying closer attention to his surroundings. Suddenly, he pointed ahead and exclaimed, ‘Look quickly, is that a building over there?’ Hearing the word ‘building,’ the rest of us suddenly felt a glimmer of hope, and our bodies actually felt a little cooler.”

The six of them, including Scholar Jia, walked toward that structure. To encounter such good fortune in the desert was undoubtedly like pie falling from the sky. When they were still dozens of meters away from the structure, Fatty Hu suddenly said, “Something’s not right; it doesn’t look like a building.” His reminder made the other five notice—it truly wasn’t a building. To put it plainly, it was just a frame constructed with a few wooden posts.

Something seemed to be hanging from the frame—long, black things! As the six men drew closer, they couldn't help but suck in a cold breath: corpses were suspended from every crossbeam! Some were already desiccated, while others looked as if they had just been hung up.

“Damn our bad luck, to run into this the first time we enter the desert!” Hu Hansan muttered, his eyes half-closed under the scorching sun.

Scholar Jia wondered if it was an execution ground—meaning, a scaffold for carrying out hangings. He reasoned that if the criminals were extremely vicious, often leaders with dozens of subordinates, a simple public execution by firing squad posed the danger of a jailbreak. Therefore, they were usually taken to such a secret location for execution.

Among the six, although Bi Sazhu was skinny, he was cunning as a fox. His father was a butcher and had wanted to capitalize on the 'pig' theme for his son’s name, intending to call him ‘Sha Zhu’ (Killing Pig). But his wife absolutely refused, arguing that this one precious son couldn't be expected to butcher pigs in the future. So they chose a homophone: Sa Zhu (Spreading Beads). Bi Sazhu indeed inherited his father’s skills; by age five, he was already stabbing pigs with a knife, though haphazardly. Only later did he enter the Mojin school.

Bi Sazhu sniffed the air and asked, “Who has a good nose? Smell if there’s any fragrance around here?” Once he mentioned it, the other five noticed—there really was a faint, sweet aroma. They had been so terrified by the sight that they hadn’t registered it before.

Bi Sazhu’s deduction was correct: if these were executed criminals, it was unlikely someone would have sprayed perfume here. Furthermore, the bodies looked intact, without any obvious signs of injury.

So, everyone deduced: Could this be a place specifically used in the desert for making mummies? Back then, without formalin solution to soak the bodies and protect them from putrefying bacteria, the Tibetan people had uniquely discovered a great invention for preserving corpses—creating dried bodies.

Speaking of preservation techniques, China is a vast nation, with thousands of years of history containing many methods. For example, preservatives could be applied to the corpse, the most important being aromatics like Chinese borneol and benzoin, which kept the air fresh and made the corpse emit a fragrance. The Chinese knew about applying these to corpses for preservation thousands of years ago. Especially the ancient Egyptians, who created 'fragrant corpses' using frankincense—the mummies found in the pyramids.

Another preservation technique could be derived from tomb construction. The Huangchang Ticou (Yellow Beam Stacked Arrangement) is a decent preservative method. Huangchang refers to the yellow heartwood of cypress, which is cypress after the bark is removed. Ticou refers to the arrangement where the ends of the wooden beams all point inward, creating a solid stacked structure. Explained together, Huangchang Ticou refers to the frame structure built around the coffin chamber of a mausoleum using cypress beams. A ring of wood walls was built around the outer coffin, topped with a ceiling slab, like a small house, with side chambers outside. Princes, high officials, and scholars below the Son of Heaven could also use Ticou, but generally not cypress wood, as there were strict hierarchical limits on tomb materials; pine or Zimu wood could be substituted. When the famous Han Dynasty general Huo Guang died, Emperor Xuan of Han, considering his distinguished service, "bestowed upon him a Zigung (cypress coffin), side chambers, and a Huangchang Ticou structure."

The Huangchang Ticou represented the noble status and position of the tomb owner, but its other purpose was to protect the coffin and prevent damage. However, this type of burial was extremely costly, requiring tens of thousands of cypress heartwood logs! Despite the wastefulness, as long as the optimal preservation effect could be achieved, ancient dignitaries did not care about the cost. It can be said that the Huangchang Ticou, a coffin preservation technique adopted by ancient high officials and nobles, was something ordinary folks could never afford.

Yet another method is the dried corpse, or mummy, which is essentially an artificial dried body. After an Egyptian Pharaoh died, his internal organs were removed, and the body was irrigated with hot, melted pine resin, then wrapped in resin-soaked cloth. Mummies excavated often have pine resin in the cranial cavity and mastoid air cells. This also achieves preservation.

The desiccated corpses hanging here are of the artificial variety, affordable for ordinary people. They are naturally formed dried bodies utilizing Tibet's dry, high-temperature weather, causing the corpse to dehydrate. Besides the Loulan mummies, Hami also has dried corpses, similar to how local raisins are made. In extremely arid environments, the moisture inside the body quickly evaporates. Simultaneously, this suppresses bacterial reproduction, halting decomposition and allowing the corpse to be relatively well-preserved.

A body decomposes quickly right after death, so applying fumigants is a good method for the period before it fully dries. The fragrance the six men smelled earlier was emanating from the corpses that had just been hung up.

Hu Hansan, Scholar Jia, and the other four, who moments ago felt unbearably stifled by the heat, were now all sticking their tongues out in sheer terror at the sight, cold sweat immediately breaking out on their backs, their minds starting to chant prayers to Bodhisattva.

To prevent reanimation, the surrounding posts and beams were all brushed with red cinnabar. In such circumstances, it’s best not to provoke the dead, lest unclean things attach themselves.

“Well, we failed to find shelter, but at least now we’ve found a source of coolness!” Bi Sazhu managed a wry chuckle.

On some of the corpses already dried, the bluish veins were clearly visible. Hu Hansan, who usually boasted about his bravery, could hold it no longer; he started dry-heaving, crying out, “Waaah!”

Just as the others were teasing Hu Hansan and nearly ignoring the surroundings, they suddenly saw several recently hung corpses begin to sway!

“Not good, they’re going to animate!” Scholar Jia felt something was wrong. He saw one corpse shaking frantically, seemingly trying to break free from the ropes binding its hands!

The five of them quickly pulled out their black donkey hooves and gripped them tightly. Hu Hansan stopped vomiting immediately and fumbled in his pocket for a handful of glutinous rice, sprinkling it toward the violently shaking corpse. But for some reason this time, the rice had no effect; the corpse shook even more violently. With no other choice, they had to resort to the black donkey hooves in their hands.

The five men threw them in rotation, like tossing grenades. They landed squarely on the shaking corpse. With two sharp squeaks, all six men felt a chill run down their spines.

The five black donkey hooves seemed to work; the corpse gradually stopped shaking. Just as the six were privately relieved, the corpse suddenly lurched again. Before the six could get a clear look, two huge black objects dropped to the ground with two squeaks that were enough to shatter one’s nerves.

Under the bright sunlight, the six finally got a clear view: two gigantic rats. Their heads were easily the size of a small pig, and their teeth were exceptionally sharp—teeth seemingly born specifically to devour dried flesh. Nature is truly peculiar; one thing subjugates another.

These were no ordinary house rats, nor were they quite like groundhogs. Their nests were usually forty meters underground in the desert, insulating them from the fierce heat. The moisture they exhaled kept the air in their burrows humid. Their teeth seemed inherently designed to chew dried flesh, sharp enough to tear through it easily. Their kidneys could even automatically filter their urine and then return most of the water back into their bloodstream, allowing for repeated use. Thus, these specialized rats required no drinking water even when consuming dried corpses!

The two rats, relying on their sharp teeth, showed no sign of panic or flight upon seeing six living men standing before them. Instead, they turned and stood there, emitting angry sounds from their throats, seemingly warning them off.

The two sides confronted each other for a long moment, neither daring to make a move. Suddenly, as if spotting a cat, the two rats abandoned the corpses and fled desperately toward the far reaches of the desert. This sudden turn of events left the six men dumbfounded, uncertain what had just happened.

Scholar Jia had learned some martial arts from the Great Master who taught him years ago; his footwork was exceptional. He shouted, “Wait for me, I’ll be right back!” As soon as the words left his mouth, he shot off like a swift arrow in pursuit.