My Partner Always Wants to Dig My Grave - Chapter 1

“After two years of excavation led by Professor Si Wan, the two-thousand-year-old royal tomb is now in its final stages of cleanup…”

The reporter on the video spoke into her microphone in standard Mandarin, with the excavated pit and various burial artifacts of different sizes visible behind her.

Just as the reporter had mentioned, the archaeologists inside were still busily wrapping up their work.

The camera lens gradually zoomed in, finally focusing on a tall, slender figure.

“We’d now like to invite Professor Si to share a few words with us…”

As the reporter spoke, she walked toward the tall woman with her microphone.

The woman had an elegant, slender build, and her long brown trench coat accentuated her refined demeanor.

Her brows and eyes seemed veiled in a faint mist, a layer of detachment concealed by the gold-rimmed glasses on her nose. Unaware that the camera had turned to her, she remained half-crouched, meticulously digging with her tools as if absorbed in her task.

Seeing this, the reporter showed no sign of embarrassment and smiled, saying a few more words in an attempt to catch Si Wan’s attention.

After a moment, one of Si Wan’s colleagues, not wanting to leave the reporter hanging, gestured toward her direction.

Only then did Si Wan notice the reporter. She lifted her gaze slightly, her voice as clear and crisp as a mountain stream.

“Hello…”

Her face, captured by the camera, was so strikingly beautiful it was hard to look away. The gold-rimmed glasses added an air of aloofness, making it difficult for anyone to focus on what she was actually saying.

By the time one managed to tear their attention from her mesmerizing face, they would only catch a series of incomprehensible professional terms, yet her voice remained as pleasing as an elegant piano melody.

“Is this young girl really an expert? The world’s gone mad.” muttered a middle-aged man squatting on the half-dug foundation, his eyes fixed on the screen. He clicked his tongue twice, his expression full of disdain.

His hands, gripping the phone, were rough and stained with dirt that hadn’t been fully washed off. His thumb rested over the screen, obscuring the woman’s face but revealing the burial gold artifacts in her hands. His eyes widened greedily as he stared at the treasures, murmuring to himself, “If I could dig up something like that, my ancestors would be smiling down on me. I’d be set for life.”

Lost in his fantasy, he soon dismissed it as unrealistic and pursed his lips. “Ah, forget it. At my age, I should be thinking about how to carry on the family line instead.”

The thought made him frown with worry. After watching the interview a bit longer, he found the woman’s words oddly hypnotic.

He yawned, swiped his thumb across the screen to the next video, and instantly forgot all his earlier troubles.

The volume on his phone was turned up so loud that nearly everyone nearby could hear him watching suggestive dance videos, though it was hard to tell if the dancer was male or female.

Just as he was getting engrossed, a hand suddenly slapped his shoulder, startling him so much he nearly dropped his phone. Recognizing the person, he grumbled irritably, “Old Jin, are you trying to scare me to death?!”

Liu Jin, having just finished a meal, was picking his teeth with a toothpick. He glanced sideways at the video on the phone and chuckled.

“I was just watching you so intently, worried you’d forget about work.”

Liu Er’gou turned off his phone, glanced up at the sky, and frowned.

“Doesn’t this sky look like it’s about to rain?”

Though the sun was still out, it was mostly obscured by clouds. It had cooled down considerably, but dark clouds drifted in from the distance, looking as though they would soon cover the entire sky.

Seeing this, Liu Jin casually tossed the toothpick in his hand to the ground and said,

“That’s no good. The foundation’s only half dug. Let’s have everyone pack up and see how things go.”

No sooner had Liu Jin finished speaking than a low rumble of thunder echoed, and a stark white flash of lightning flickered within the dark clouds.

“Oh no, oh no, this strange weather really looks like it’s going to rain.”

They were all from the same village, helping out with building the house, and usually got along well. Seeing that rain was imminent, they knew they wouldn’t be able to work today, so they started thinking about moving the cement and other materials elsewhere.

As the group hurriedly worked, the distant dark clouds had already consumed most of the sky, staining it as if with ink.

The heavy clouds slowly blotted out the sunlight, and in the encroaching gloom, another clap of thunder tore through the sky. A pale flash of lightning streaked across, and the moisture brewing in the air gathered into a downpour.

“This damn weather is so uncooperative… raining just like that.” Liu Er’gou complained.

On the dug foundation, which hadn’t yet been cemented, the nearby sand and soil were instantly washed away by the rain.

The few people mixing the cement were already drenched, cursing as they scrambled to find shelter.

“Stop all that useless chatter. Look at how heavy the rain is, it won’t let up anytime soon. Let’s just put the stuff away and head home for now.” Liu Jin shouted.

Liu Er’gou wiped his face with his hand and was about to leave with the others when something tripped him underfoot. Losing his balance, he fell and landed squarely on the rain-soaked ground.

The pain in his rear made Liu Er’gou grimace fiercely. Before he could even collect himself, he started cursing.

“What the hell tripped me?!”

Hearing the commotion from Liu Er’gou, the others who were about to run back to the village stopped in their tracks. They saw Liu Er’gou sitting on the ground, his clothes stained with mud, looking utterly disheveled. They immediately burst into laughter, clutching their stomachs.

“Liu Er’gou, your wife’s going to scold you again when you get home like this.”

“Yeah, yeah. If you don’t want to get an earful, you’d better clean up and throw those clothes away.”

Liu Er’gou ignored their unhelpful suggestions, but the thought of his fierce wife made him shudder. He didn’t even bother to check what had tripped him, feeling both embarrassed and annoyed by their laughter.

“Go on, go on! Instead of laughing at me, why don’t you help me up?”

Liu Er’gou had fallen so hard that his butt had gone numb, and he couldn’t get up on his own for a while.

Though the others were still laughing, they made their way over to him.

Liu Jin reached out and struggled to pull Liu Er’gou to his feet, then kindly brushed the mud off his clothes.

“Er’gou, why weren’t you watching where you were going?”

Liu Er’gou spat and grumbled,

“How was I supposed to know what tripped me?”

As he spoke, he lifted his foot to kick the offending object, only to slip once again and fall back to the ground, sending the group into another round of laughter.

Liu Er’gou, fuming, tried to push himself up from the ground. As his hand searched for support, it brushed against something hard and cold, its texture unlike any stone.

“What the heck is this?”

Frowning, he muttered a curse under his breath. When he looked over, all he could make out was a pale object that seemed to glow faintly in the dim light.

He ran his fingers over it again, then waved off the others who were trying to help him up, grumbling, “Let me see what this thing really is.”

With that, he began digging through the soil, unearthing the half-buried object. His rough hands wiped away the dirt, and after being washed by the rain, half of it was already exposed, a smooth, warm white jade material.

Seeing Liu Er’gou fall silent, Liu Jin patted him on the shoulder and, catching sight of the object in his hand, joked in surprise, “Did we just dig up a treasure?”

His eyes fixed intently on the vase as if trying to discern something from it.

Noticing the others’ gazes, Liu Er’gou, a man with little education who only indulged in treasure appraisal videos online, grew more convinced that this was indeed a valuable find. He immediately tucked the white jade vase into his clothes, puffing out his chest, and warned the others warily, “What do you mean ‘we’? I dug this up myself! Don’t any of you try to take it!”

Liu Er’gou, known for his greed, eyed the hidden treasure enviously. Though some were resentful, one person scoffed, “Who knows? That might just be some nobleman’s chamber pot.”

Clutching the object protectively, Liu Er’gou retorted, “Even if it’s a chamber pot, the material alone must be worth a fortune.”

Squinting at the half-dug foundation, Liu Jin cut off their bickering and said gravely, “Enough, enough. If there’s one treasure, there might be more. Let’s keep digging and see what else we can find.”

Hugging his prize tightly, Liu Er’gou declared, “I’m not digging anymore.”

Someone called him a “miser,” and the others, now suspicious that there might be more items, picked up their tools and started digging around the same spot.

After a while, Liu Er’gou stood to the side, torn between leaving and fearing he might miss out on other discoveries, a classic case of wanting to have his cake and eat it too.

A few more shovels into the ground, and Liu Jin’s tool hit something again. He exclaimed excitedly, “You know what? We might really have struck treasure here!”

With that, he dug more vigorously, and the others gathered around to join in. Even Liu Er’gou couldn’t resist his curiosity and sneaked a glance.

However, as they unearthed half of it, they gradually realized something was off.

It was a square stone, and under the rain’s wash, faint carvings began to show.

“Could this be a stele?” Liu Jin frowned, stopping his work in confusion.

The others halted as well, crowding around the stone to examine it closely. After a while, someone reached out to touch it and jumped back in alarm, saying, “There’s writing on it, it really is a tombstone.”

Muttering about bad luck, the group fell into uneasy whispers. Up above, Liu Er’gou clutched the object in his arms even tighter.

“What kind of characters are these? I can’t make any sense of them!”

Just as he was about to give up, Liu Jin knelt down again and dug through the dirt with his hands, eventually pulling out a white porcelain bowl.

“This is incredible, this might be a noble’s tomb!”

Seeing that Liu Jin had also unearthed something valuable, the others immediately knelt and started digging feverishly.

“There really is more!”

They exclaimed in excitement. The deeper they dug, the more the tombstone emerged from the soil, but they were too focused on digging for treasures to pay it any mind.

Once they had dug up all they could, Liu Jin and the others climbed out with their finds. Liu Er’gou, who had been loudly refusing to go back down, stared in astonishment and anxiously asked, “Is there anything left down there?”

Liu Jin brushed the mud off his clothes and replied mockingly, “Er’gou, weren’t you the one shouting about not going down? Now you’re complaining that all you got was a chamber pot?”

“Don’t even think about it. We dug up a tombstone down there. If we kept going, we’d probably see the coffin. Everything worth taking has already been dug up.”

Holding his spoils triumphantly, one of the men spoke smugly to Liu Er’gou.

Liu Er’gou felt embarrassed but knew he was in the wrong. He glanced down at the foundation, where the upright tombstone looked eerie and sinister, sending a chill down his spine.

He forced a smile, his face wrinkling with effort, and pleaded ingratiatingly, “Could you all come back down with me and take another look?”

Though greedy for riches, he was also extremely timid and superstitious. The scene below made him fear he might provoke vengeful spirits or malevolent ghosts.

As he thought this, the sight of the tombstone sent another cold shiver through him, making him even more afraid.

“We’ve been at it all day. Let’s go, time to head home.”

With that, the group laughed and started to leave. Liu Er’gou stared longingly at the spot, as if hoping to spot gold gleaming in the dirt, and only snapped out of it when Liu Jin slapped him on the back.

“What are you standing around for? If we don’t leave now, it’ll be dark soon.”

The sky had already been gloomy from the rain, and now, as evening approached, night was about to fall.

Liu Er’gou grabbed Liu Jin’s arm and begged, “Old Jin, please come down with me. Maybe we can dig up even more.”

Liu Jin shook his head and refused. Seeing Liu Er’gou’s dejected expression, he laughed and threw an arm around his shoulder. “I heard you have a niece in college, studying something… what was it again? Oh, right! That thing you were watching in that video, archaeology!”

Though still reluctant, Liu Er’gou had no choice but to leave. He pondered Liu Jin’s words carefully and said, “I’m not really sure. She’s always quiet when she comes back, and even when she does talk, I can’t understand her.”

Liu Jin rolled his eyes and continued, “Are you stupid? Fancy folks call it archaeology, but in plain terms, it’s just digging up graves, specializing in nobles’ and royals’ tombs for research. I’ve heard they find loads of treasures like these. Maybe your niece could help us appraise this stuff.”

Liu Er’gou’s eyes lit up, and he slapped his forehead. “You’re right! That girl is the only college student from our Liu Village. She must know a lot. She even said her teacher is some big shot in the field, some expert named Si something… Ah, never mind. Anyway, he must be impressive. She’s coming back today. Let’s show her what we found later.”

After they left, the characters on the tombstone gradually became clearer. A wind laden with rain blew through, carrying a biting chill that made them shiver with cold.

As night fell, the heavy rain had ceased, leaving the moist air tinged with the earthy scent of soil. The rustling of leaves around them made the silent night feel even more eerie.

A flash of crimson appeared before a tombstone, long hair flowing loosely down her back. From a distance, she looked like a vengeful spirit emerging from hell to claim a life.

The woman’s faint sigh mingled with the biting wind, only to be swallowed by it moments later. Her figure vanished as though it had never been there at all.

…