The moment the gates swung open, a violent wall of sound surged toward the crowd like the tolling of a great ceremonial bell, nearly knocking them to the ground.
It was an indescribable noise—a cacophony of static-like frequency interference mingled with the rhythmic thumping of wooden fish and the low drone of chanting. *Zizzt, zizzt... Om Mani Padme Hum... Ding-ling, tok-tok... Namo Amituofo... Clang, clang... Zizzt, zizzt... All sentient beings of Southern Jambudvipa...*
Zhao Meiyou strained to keep his eyes open against the torrential stream of sound. He saw Qian Duoduo standing between the two halves of the city gate, bearing the brunt of the force yet remaining motionless.
Amidst the shifting light and shadow, the man lowered his head slightly, looking like a statue carved from fine jade.
Then, as if an invisible hand had covered his eyelids, Zhao was gently but irresistibly submerged into darkness.
He lost consciousness.
***
He was dreaming again.
No, he rarely dreamed. In fact, he almost never did.
So, were the events in this dream truly a dream, or were they a reality that had once occurred?
***
"Zhao Meiyou!" Someone suddenly slapped his shoulder. "What are you spacing out for? Watch your step, or you'll tumble down."
"Huh? Oh." Zhao Meiyou snapped back to his senses and looked down at his feet. "Holy shit, how did we end up here?"
"Didn't you say you felt like there was something on this mountain and made me come with you in the middle of the night?" Liu Qijue looked at him with an expression of utter bewilderment. "How many days have you pulled all-nighters in the lab? Careful you don't turn yourself into an idiot."
Right, he was the one who said it. Zhao Meiyou tapped his forehead.
It had been fifty years since the founding of the Metropolis. The government was currently using the city as a base to gradually radiate outward in its exploration. Their particular expedition team was part of the elite faction, and the higher-ups had put immense pressure on them; this trip had to produce results. But that was easier said than done—exploring the ruins of civilization from before the war was a monumental task. Word was that previous teams had dug up dinosaur fossils but hadn't found a single trace of human civilization.
Compared to the towering structures built by humanity, stone was actually the thing most likely to endure.
"A team leader leaving the camp in the middle of the night is a serious violation of regulations." Liu Qijue squinted at the distant campsite. Their expedition was well-equipped; with the lights currently ablaze, it almost looked like a small town. "Did you ever think about what happens if we get caught?"
"Nothing happens. We've been out here for two years. If we don't show some progress soon, those government bureaucrats will have my hide when we get back," Zhao Meiyou said. "Stop complaining and hurry up the mountain. I’ve got two cartons of Marlboros stashed away; I’ll treat you when we get back."
His expedition team had been running wild in the Southern Hemisphere for over two years. Initially, the members had been very diligent, but as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but wasteland after wasteland. There simply wasn't a working environment that encouraged dedication; it was like putting an archaeologist in an aquarium—even the most rigorous person would eventually start dancing with the seaweed.
Until about half a month ago, when they traveled near a range of mountains. Zhao Meiyou had pulled several all-nighters in the lab, obsessively reviewing the various data samples sent back by the scouts. He decided to postpone the next scheduled survey site and, in the middle of the night, grabbed Liu Qijue—who was on duty with him—and headed up the mountain himself.
"The team already concluded yesterday that there's nothing on this mountain." Liu Qijue and he were both wearing survey suits, climbing the mountain like two water-carrying monks while grumbling. "Or do you think that guy the higher-ups dropped into our team is the problem..."
"There's definitely a problem, but there are plenty of problematic people in this team; he's just one more." Zhao Meiyou adjusted his bamboo hat. "My main concern is that scouts these days don't like getting their hands dirty. They run a machine scan once and call it a day. It's very likely they missed something."
"Zhao Meiyou, are you really trying to compare human labor to machines?"
"You bet," Zhao Meiyou said. "If you're going to rob your ancestors' graves and you don't even do it by hand, the ancestors would probably die of rage all over again."
"What you dig up might not even be your own ancestor," Liu Qijue snorted. "It might be an android."
"The Metropolis ban has been in effect for decades. On the surface, androids and aerospace technology are forbidden. Aerospace aside, the upper echelons might not be above using android technology in secret," Zhao Meiyou remarked. "But you'd better pray we don't dig up any androids. People like us with no power or influence would just end up as cannon fodder."
"Ah, wait, that's not right." Zhao Meiyou seemed to remember something and laughed. "I'm the cannon fodder. You've got your little kid—by the way, how's that going? Are you two official yet? Is it still a case of 'he flees, he pursues, he finds it hard to fly away'?"
"Zhao Meiyou, can you buy something useful when you go to the black market? Is there any point in reading romance novels from hundreds of years ago every day?"
"What's wrong with romance novels? They're a great tool for building workplace relationships," Zhao Meiyou argued righteously. "Except for you, almost everyone in the team has come to me to copy the novel files."
Liu Qijue aimed a kick at him. "Dammit, the fact that our survey progress is lagging is entirely your fault!"
Zhao Meiyou and Liu Qijue were used to bickering and scuffling; he should have dodged it easily. However, it was too dark, and Zhao Meiyou misjudged his footing, tumbling straight down the side of the mountain.
"Holy shit?!" Liu Qijue's voice drifted down from above. "Zhao Meiyou, you okay?"
"I'm fine!" Zhao Meiyou patted the dirt off his clothes. "Drop the tow rope and pull—" His voice cut off abruptly.
A floating lamp descended from above. The lamp's casing was a screen displaying Liu Qijue's face. "What's wrong?"
"I think there's a mountain path here." Zhao Meiyou observed his surroundings. "Tell you what, you keep going up the mountain on the vertical route. I'll circle around from here. We'll meet at the summit."
"You sure you're okay?" Liu Qijue asked suspiciously. "Zhao Meiyou, you're not trying to ditch me here so you can go back and sleep, are you?"
"Sleep? No one's waiting for me in bed. Why would I go back just to stare at Diao Chan?" Zhao Meiyou waved him off. "The smell of coffee in his lab is practically a gas bomb. Now get moving."
Liu Qijue cursed at the screen before the call disconnected, presumably continuing his climb.
The side Zhao Meiyou was on wasn't actually a path; it was more of a landslide strip carved by water. It was difficult to traverse, requiring him to climb almost on all fours. The floating lamp scouted and illuminated the area around him.
The night was deep and the dew heavy. The ecological environment in this area hadn't fully recovered, so there was almost no sound of insects. Zhao Meiyou finally managed to scramble over an extremely steep section of the mountain. He recited his channel password to the floating lamp to access the stored data. "Read me a book."
The screen finished loading and began to play: "...The moonlight already fills the window. Tossing and turning for a time, all sounds are hushed. Suddenly, a booming wind is heard, and the mountain gate swings wide..."
It was "The Mountain Elf" from *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio*.
It was the dead of night, and Zhao Meiyou was walking alone in the desolate mountains. The synthesized mechanical voice slowly narrated the eerie and haunting old tale—the painted skin of a female ghost, mountain god sacrifices, a bridal sedan at a crossroads, a landlord's new concubine drowned in a well, a fox-faced youth brewing wine with well water, hearing a woman singing whenever he was drunk.
Zhao Meiyou was listening intently when the synthesized voice actually began to sing. The singing was fragmented, like a poor signal. He couldn't make out the lyrics. He tapped the floating lamp, but the screen suddenly went black.
What happened? Was it broken?
Zhao Meiyou held the lamp, searching for a signal. As he reached a certain spot, the singing drifted out of the lamp again, intermittent and faint.
One step further, and the singing vanished.
Zhao Meiyou tested the area and found that the song acted like a guide, only sounding when he moved in a specific direction. The path was incredibly steep; it took a great deal of effort for him to finally haul himself up and step onto a blue stone slab.
*Clack.*
The mud and gravel disappeared. He had stepped onto a mountain path.
A real mountain path, showing signs of human craftsmanship.
He seemed to be halfway up the mountain. The steps were very dilapidated, stretching out toward an unknown destination. The singing from the floating lamp became stable; though he still couldn't hear the lyrics, the melody became clear. Zhao Meiyou stood there for a moment, certain he had never heard this song before.
There was definitely something on this mountain.
Zhao Meiyou knew the best course of action was to turn back and return with the main force after they were fully prepared. But he wasn't sure what lay at the end of the path. The expedition team was riddled with government spies; a single move could affect everything. If he could get a handle on what was up here beforehand, he would be better equipped to deal with them later.
Besides, Liu Qijue was also climbing. If they happened to stumble onto the same path, they could at least look out for each other.
Zhao Meiyou briefly weighed the pros and cons and unhesitatingly chose the method with the highest risk and highest reward: he continued up the mountain.
There seemed to be miasma in the mountains, possibly accompanied by an unknown magnetic field, causing the floating lamp to malfunction. Zhao Meiyou carried a small analyzer with him and tried to identify the components of the miasma. The result was unexpected.
It was actually sandalwood.
Sandalwood was almost non-existent in the Metropolis. Zhao Meiyou had heard people in the Lower Districts mention it; supposedly, it was a type of wood that could be made into incense. Top-grade sandalwood essential oil was known as "liquid gold," and even in the black market of the 330th floor, it was a rare find.
Could there be a natural sandalwood forest on this mountain? Zhao Meiyou thought, *Damn, if word of this gets out, the government might kill my whole team just to monopolize it.*
But he overlooked one thing: sandalwood had many uses. Besides being beneficial to the human body, it had another purpose.
For example, in Buddhist rituals.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Zhao Meiyou saw a lake deep within the forest.
The music was coming from the water.
He had been climbing for most of the night, and dawn was now approaching. The light in the forest was dim. Zhao Meiyou circled the lake, thought for a moment, and adjusted his survey suit to diving mode before plunging into the depths.
He left the floating lamp on the shore. Underwater, the music became incredibly clear. Zhao Meiyou had heard the cymbals, bells, and drums during the spirit processions in the Lower Districts, and this melody felt ancient. The lake water was murky at first, but once he reached a certain depth, Zhao Meiyou saw something like a bronze mirror. The mirror was held in the arms of a celestial maiden statue. He reached out and tried to wipe it.
Moonlight rose from somewhere unknown and fell into the lake. Reflected by the bronze mirror, it illuminated the depths of the water.
First, Zhao Meiyou saw lotuses. The melody flowed like water, and flowers and water drifted around him.
He was now standing on the lakebed. All around him were ruins, with many sculptures already covered in moss.
This was a temple complex buried deep beneath the lake.
The music was coming from here. Zhao Meiyou looked at the statues—celestial musicians offering music to the Buddha, attaining supreme joy. The sculptures stretched out through the water, leading toward a place where the moonlight was most intense—
He saw a golden Buddha statue.
For some reason, the Buddha's body had broken. Only the head remained, buried in the silt, revealing half of the Buddha's face. The slender eyes were currently fixed on Zhao Meiyou, elegant and solemn.
*The lotus has left its land for a thousand years; after the rain, the scent of blood still carries the tang of iron.*
When dawn broke, Zhao Meiyou returned to the foot of the mountain looking like he had rolled through a mud pit. Diao Chan stood outside the shower stall with a cup of coffee, knocking on the door. "You look worse than if you'd pulled a week of all-nighters in the lab. Where did you go?"
There was no answer. Zhao Meiyou quickly took a cold shower and came out while drying his hair. "Meeting in three minutes."
"I was born to be a nanny for you two." Diao Chan shook his head repeatedly and sent out a notification on his terminal. "Meeting summary?"
"There's something on the mountain," Zhao Meiyou said. "The expedition team is officially stationing here. Notify the Metropolis government. S-rank document."
Diao Chan's hand paused. Documents submitted to the government were all numbered; S-rank was the highest level. For Zhao Meiyou to say this undoubtedly meant a major discovery.
Zhao Meiyou took a sip of Diao Chan's coffee. "We might be staying here for a very long time."
Diao Chan felt like sighing. He took a sip of his coffee. "How long is 'a long time'?"
"Not sure." Zhao Meiyou thought about it. "Maybe long enough for Liu and his kid to celebrate their golden anniversary here."
He paused, realizing he had forgotten Liu Qijue on the mountaintop.
He, Diao Chan, and Liu Qijue were classmates. After graduation, they joined the government and were assigned to the same expedition team. Their bond was incredibly strong, and they were also three confirmed bachelors. By all rights, none of them were bad-looking. Diao Chan came from a prestigious family and had the air of a refined young master; it seemed like everyone in the team had a thing for him, yet he appeared perfectly chaste. Zhao Meiyou was someone who frequently acted out but was occasionally reliable. The only relatively normal one was Liu Qijue.
There was a student in their team who hadn't graduated yet, and he was utterly infatuated, as if Liu Qijue had fed him some thousand-year-old love potion. The expedition was called "surveying," but it was actually just digging in the dirt—exhausting work with their faces to the earth and backs to the sky. After two years of wandering the desert, it was rare for a peach blossom to bloom from a crack in the rocks, and both Zhao Meiyou and Diao Chan were quite happy to see it.
After the meeting, Zhao Meiyou did a small favor and sent the kid up the mountain to pick up Liu Qijue. Unsurprisingly, as soon as Liu returned to camp, he tried to beat Zhao up. "Zhao Meiyou, you bastard! I spent the whole night on that mountain drinking the cold wind!"
"Wake up, it's not the season for northwesterly winds," Zhao Meiyou said while dodging. "You've got so much fire in you after a night of cold wind; you really need someone to help you cool down, Liu Qijue."
"You're both hopeless." Diao Chan drank his coffee while pulling away the kid who was trying to break up the fight. "Ignore them. These two won't stop until dinner is served."
The government's approval came quickly, allowing the camp to be officially established at the base of the mountain, coordinates 29753. Zhao Meiyou worked overtime for an entire year and finally gained a rough understanding of what the temple ruins at the bottom of the lake were.
The mountain path was renovated, and the lake was completely drained. Floating cranes continuously transported sculptures down from the mountain. Diao Chan and Zhao Meiyou rode a flying car into the air, looking down at the town that had begun to take shape at the foot of the mountain. "Is the government planning to build a new research institute here?"
"Yes, the scale of the new institute will be massive." Zhao Meiyou had a cigarette in his mouth as he spread out the blueprints. "It's expected to be no smaller than a town."
Diao Chan studied the blueprints. "The government is investing a fortune."
"Where there is great profit, there must be a grand gamble." Zhao Meiyou looked into the distance. A crane extended its massive claw, lifting the last sculpture from the lakebed.
The moment it emerged from the water, the Buddha's head shone brilliantly.
After a full year of calculations and conjectures, Zhao Meiyou had reached a preliminary conclusion: this Buddha statue was likely a supercomputer from the 22nd century. If the residual information within it could be successfully decoded, the results would be immeasurable.
Diao Chan brewed a fresh cup of coffee, which Zhao Meiyou promptly snatched away. "Stop drinking that. You really need to fix your dietary imbalances and caffeine addiction, or you'll drop dead. We're going to be here for many years."
"Quit smoking before you talk to me." Diao Chan squinted at the golden Buddha head in mid-air. "Has the new institute been named yet?"
"It has." Zhao Meiyou tossed his cigarette butt into the coffee cup, earning a smack on the back of the head from Diao Chan.
"It's called the 'Ancient Capital'."
***
Winters went and springs came. The grey light of dawn gathered around the mountain mists, turning a pale, fish-belly blue. There were no seasons in the Metropolis—or rather, seasons weren't precious. The climate control systems in the Upper Districts could be bought out with money; you could cycle through all four seasons in a single hour. The expedition team had traveled for a long time, from the North Pole to the Equator to the Southern Hemisphere. Wastelands were many, and places of life were few. After staying in the Ancient Capital for several years, Zhao Meiyou finally understood what the poems meant by "spring tides bringing rain."
The Ancient Capital was filled with red-brick buildings covered in Boston ivy. In the summer, it was a sea of lush greenery and red brick. The architecture radiated outward from the foot of the mountain; initially, it only covered a few miles, but now it seemed as if the entire mountain was being swallowed by the institute's boundaries. Their work had proceeded relatively smoothly over the years. The information stored within the Buddha was extremely difficult to decode, but fortunately, the entire temple complex left behind a wealth of information. Even reconstructing a fraction of it was enough to satisfy the government.
"I knew you'd be here."
A flying car descended from the sky. The person who stepped out was Diao Chan, holding a paper umbrella. "The people from Experimental Lab No. 2 have been looking for you all night. You don't even carry your communicator; have you become addicted to mountain climbing?"
"It is a bit addictive." Zhao Meiyou stood at the summit, surrounded by a patch of plants that might have been bamboo. "What do they want with me?"
"People from the government have arrived. They specifically asked to see the progress of Experimental Lab No. 2." Diao Chan handed him the umbrella. "Also, the research station at the South Pole sent some local specialties. They want to trade for some wine and Mandala seeds."
"The wine is easy, but what do they want seeds for?" Zhao Meiyou asked. "Can they grow them on ice?"
"The version I heard is that a researcher down there went mad while scanning the ice layers," Diao Chan said. "Before he died, he kept muttering about seeing Mandala patterns."
"What on earth are they doing at the South Pole? How many people have gone mad this year?" Zhao Meiyou clicked his tongue. "What specialties did they send?"
"A bunch of ancient ice. Said it was dug up from four thousand meters underground. Good for soaking in wine."
"Fine." Zhao Meiyou rolled up his sleeves and dug a jar of wine out from under the bamboo. Diao Chan watched him. "What are you doing?"
"The South Pole even sent the tools for the crime; it would be rude to refuse." Zhao Meiyou picked up the wine jar. "Come on, let's treat those big shots from the government to some good wine. The sooner they drink, the sooner they go mad."
Later, those government officials who drank the wine did indeed go mad. The Ancient Capital and the South Pole station passed the buck back and forth, and eventually, the matter was dropped. One day, Zhao Meiyou was so busy he lost his mind and dumped the delivered ice into his bathtub for a soak; he ended up perfectly fine.
His friends had various opinions on this. Liu Qijue's assessment was that "scoundrels live for a thousand years," while Diao Chan believed it was a case of "fighting poison with poison."
In the seventh year of the Ancient Capital's establishment, a batch of blue-green tiles was fired in the workshop to be placed on the newly built red buildings. It was said that the firing method had been discovered in the ruins; some tiles even had a glaze as clear as lapis lazuli.
The number of staff in the institute grew larger and larger. It had long since ceased to be the original expedition team of fewer than a hundred people. There were specialists sent by the government and well-connected hangers-on from the Upper Districts. Zhao Meiyou arranged for the useless ones to work in offices and released batches of new survey results every month—mostly ancient ways of entertainment: how to brew wine, how to make incense, how to roast tea, and how to craft zithers. A wealthy scion even paid out of his own pocket to build a greenhouse in the Ancient Capital, several kilometers away from the core experimental zone, specifically to house the well-connected staff so they wouldn't cause trouble.
The original lake on the mountain had long been drained. Zhao Meiyou partitioned off a pond, refilled it with water, and planted many lotus seeds. Afterward, he found Diao Chan and Liu Qijue and instructed them: "I'm going to seal Experimental Lab No. 2. I won't be coming out for a while."
Experimental Lab No. 2 was the highest-level laboratory in the Ancient Capital. The staff were all Zhao Meiyou's direct subordinates, including Diao Chan and Liu Qijue.
Only one thing was kept in the core area of the lab: the Buddha statue salvaged from the lake years ago.
"You're finally going to start working on that program of yours?" Liu Qijue knew that Zhao Meiyou had been designing something for years, something that seemed closely related to decoding the Buddha's head.
Zhao Meiyou nodded.
"When will you be out?" Diao Chan asked.
Zhao Meiyou thought for a moment and replied, "When the lotuses bloom."
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
古都 | Ancient Capital (Gudu) | The name of the research institute/town established by Zhao Meiyou.
南阎浮提 | Southern Jambudvipa | A Buddhist term referring to the world inhabited by ordinary human beings.
黄钟大吕 | Huang Zhong Da Lü | A metaphor for grand, solemn, and harmonious music or sound.
聊斋 | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio | A famous collection of ghost stories by Pu Songling.
山魈 | Mountain Elf / Mountain Demon | A creature from Chinese folklore, featured in the story Zhao listens to.
2号实验场 | Experimental Lab No. 2 | The highest-security laboratory within the Ancient Capital.
伎乐天 | Celestial Musicians | Divine beings in Buddhism who provide music as an offering.
