In the village of Beicun, Zichuan County, lay a dry well where two villagers, A and B, ventured in search of treasure.

After digging barely a foot down, they unearthed a skeleton.

In clumsily shattering it, they found a single gold piece clutched in its jaw.

Overjoyed, the two immediately pocketed the coin.

They continued digging and uncovered six or seven more skeletons, shattering each one in turn, but this time found nothing.

Beside the bones lay two porcelain vases and a bronze vessel.

The bronze object was large enough for a man to embrace, weighing several dozen jin, with a ring on each side whose purpose remained unknown; the rings were heavily rusted, clearly relics of antiquity.

The porcelain vases possessed an ancient style, also speaking of long passage of time.

After emerging from the well, both villagers died.

Not long after, villager B revived, crying out: "I am Han Chinese.

Because we suffered the upheaval of Wang Mang’s rebellion, my entire family drowned themselves in this well.

Before dying, I held a gold piece in my mouth.

Why did they take it? Taking it was one thing, but why shatter the skulls of my family members one by one? Truly hateful!" Hearing this, the assembled villagers were filled with apprehension.

They immediately burned incense to pray for forgiveness and promised to properly rebury the remains.

Only then did villager B recover; however, villager A remained dead, beyond saving.

The scholar Yan Zhengsun heard of the matter and paid to purchase the bronze vessel.

As for the two porcelain vases, one was bought by the scholar Yuan Xuan Si, and the other by Scholar Zhang.

Yuan’s porcelain vase possessed the ability to predict the weather: if damp marks appeared on its surface, beginning as small as a grain of rice and gradually expanding, rain would soon fall.

When the damp marks receded, the weather would clear.

Scholar Zhang’s porcelain vase could determine the date.

On the first day of the month, there was only a single black dot on its surface; a new dot appeared each day until the fifteenth, when there were fifteen dots, after which they gradually diminished until all the dots vanished by the end of the month.

Because the vase had been buried underground for so long, a tiny pebble was stuck in its mouth, impossible to dislodge.

When they struck it with a tool, they accidentally applied too much force.

Though the pebble was eventually knocked loose, it left a small flaw on the mouth of the vase—a minor imperfection, perhaps.

The vase held another marvelous quality: if one filled it with clean water and nurtured a sapling within, the tree would grow, flower, and bear fruit without the need for fertilizer, as if planted in the open ground.

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