Daomu Biji

Chapter 1 Going in circles

After arriving in the village, because we had been out for a long time and had to go back to our respective places to have a look, we made a plan. Fatty was responsible for preparing the equipment, while I continued to collect information.

After returning to Hangzhou, I started to implement my plan.

When I made the plan with Fatty, I hadn't figured out how to collect this information. Later, after thinking about it carefully, I realized that to understand Menyou Ping's life experience, we might need to start from formal channels. Previous investigations showed that people on the road did not know him well. He may have participated in an archaeological team in the 1980s, and there should be records in the organization. In those days, it was necessary to be clean to participate in such projects. I might be able to find clues in the old files in Changsha, at least to find his organizational connections, and then find one or two people who knew him, or any clues. So I was ready to start in this area.

However, the city archives, especially the personnel files, are confidential, and old files cannot be retrieved without red-headed documents. This archaeological team was formed in the early 1980s, and something went wrong, so it is likely to be classified as confidential. See it's not that easy.

In addition, the best way to find archives is to start from the research institute where the archaeological team was sent. It has only been more than 20 years now, which is not too long, and it should still be there.

I don’t know which institute in Changsha it is, but at that time there wouldn’t be as many projects as there are now, and there might be only one institute related to archeology. Most of them were students at that time, so they were probably affiliated with the university, so it should not be difficult to verify.

After several searches, it turned out that, as I thought, there was indeed an old research institute with the same situation as I thought. It has now been merged, and the old location is on the campus of a famous university.

The university was about to be relocated. When Wang Meng and I went there, there were big signs all over the place. The land had probably been sold to a real estate company. If we had come a few months later, we might have only seen flat land.

Even if there is a clue, if the institute merges, the archives may be merged into the new institute, but there is a high possibility that they will still remain in the archives of the old university. I know the government agencies very well, but I don’t really believe that anyone would care about files from more than 20 years ago.

But it’s not easy to find out about this matter. I relied on my connections and made a few detours through my third uncle’s old relationship, and found a person who worked in the research institute. His surname was Du, and his name was very interesting, Juan Shan. , sent two pieces of Chinese cigarettes, and asked about the situation, he said that the office has been moved, but the files are still in the school. There is a nepotistic relationship between the institute and the university. Many of them are lecturers in the university. I want to Look, he can take me in. Apart from the inconvenience at the entrance, the inside is relatively loose, but the old files are difficult to check, so he told me not to have high hopes.

Without further ado, I went there that night.

It can be seen that the old building of this university was renovated from a former hospital. The archives room is on the basement floor of the auditorium. It is about a hundred square meters and is almost a warehouse. It didn’t take much effort. Du Juanshan and I walked along the low and narrow corridor. Going down the corridor, there are no lights downstairs, it is pitch black. When I shine a flashlight on it, I see that there are rows of wooden shelves, with portfolios wrapped in brown paper, thick and thin, complete and broken, placed horizontally and vertically. Most of them have a layer of dust on them and smell like damp paper.

Du Juanshan told me that all the frequently used archives after 1995 have been moved away, and the rest will not be touched for many years. It is estimated that no one will look through them when they are destroyed.

I looked at this situation and felt eerie. But this is just right. The temperature in Changsha is quite high in August, and it feels cooler at night. With the shade, the coolness is very comfortable. I bit the flashlight, fanned myself, and rummaged through the old wooden shelves.

Speaking of which, I knew that Tsinghua University had a librarianship department. At that time, I still felt strange. What else is there to learn about librarianship? Seeing the scale of this archive room, I realized that people who can manage these things are called geniuses. Looking at these bookshelves, ordinary people must have black eyes.

This is just the unit archives of a research institute. If it were a national archives, with a volume of tens of trillions, how many people would be needed to handle it properly?

Du Juanshan was afraid that I would cause trouble for him, so he kept watching from the side, helped me search for it, and asked me some detailed questions to help filter it out.

Due to some special reasons, China's archives system is very complete. As long as certain rules are followed, as long as the archives are still there, they can definitely be found. It's a pity that I'm like a headless fly now. I only know the approximate year, and I don't even know the number of the archaeological team. I can only flip through each copy.

After searching for a long time, I found nothing. My idea is to search by year. All the files here are sorted by year and category. So as long as you find similar expedition files between 1980 and 1985, you can get the participant information from them. Changsha is located in the Chu region. Although there are relatively many archaeological activities, the absolute number is not much, and a shelf is full. I didn’t want to go through the archives of the past five years, but I didn’t see any document bags related to Xisha archeology.

I thought it was strange and asked Dujuan Mountain if there were any other places.

He shook his head and said that if it was gone, it basically meant it wasn't there. Unless the file was in the confidential archives, then it wouldn't be placed here. Otherwise, it will be specially destroyed.

I thought it was impossible. Even if this archeology is a secret, there is no reason why it should be so secret.

He comforted me and said that this is a common thing. Maybe as you said, the archaeological team disappeared later, which was considered a big deal. In order to keep it confidential, the files were disposed of.

We arranged the portfolios neatly and felt a little depressed, but we had already expected that things would not be so easy.

I walked out of the archives room angrily, regretting that I had spent two cigarettes in vain, and thinking about what to do next. If this path doesn't work, then as Menyouping said, he is completely a person who has no connection with this world.

At this time, I suddenly saw the stairwell in front of me and the stairs going down. It seemed that there was another underground floor in the archives. There is an iron door at the entrance of the stairs, which is locked with a thick rusty iron chain. There is also a seal of unknown age attached to the door.

"What's down here?" I asked.

"This was the archives room before the 1950s. During the Cultural Revolution, it was locked for fear of the rebels causing trouble. No one has opened this door for decades."

"Really?" I took a flashlight to shine and clearly saw that the rusty chains had been cut off and were just hanging on for show. If you don't look carefully, it's not easy to spot.