Jia Zhuangyuan chased for a long time, and from a distance, he saw the two rats vanish into thin air with a “sou” sound. When he arrived at the location, he was surprised to find several small stone hills around him, each as tall as a person. The hills were carved with images of various animals. The two giant rats were nowhere to be seen. Only beneath a massive stone engraved with the images of eight rats was a huge dark hole.
Jia Zhuangyuan immediately guessed that the two rats must have slipped into this cave. He decided to return and bring his brothers to deal with them later. He marked the location and headed back to find the five others. He hadn’t walked far when he saw the five of them approaching with low spirits.
“We all thought you had been eaten by those two rats and came searching frantically. And yet you’re laughing!” Hu Hansan, already panting heavily from his obesity, bent over with his hands on his knees, catching his breath.
“Hehe, if they had eaten me, I’d be tastier than even the monk Tang’s flesh!” Jia Zhuangyuan joked.
“Your meat can’t compare to the monk’s, but against a mummy? You might stand a chance—it might even be tender!” Bi Sazhu chuckled maliciously.
“I’ve already found their hideout. Since we’re here, why don’t we go straight to their lair, destroy their nest, and catch them to see what these corpse-eating rats are capable of!” Inspired by the moment, Jia Zhuangyuan forgot their main mission in the desert and insisted on confronting the two giant rats.
Among the five, serious disagreement arose. Some agreed out of curiosity, while others refused, arguing that since they came to the desert for grave robbing, why waste time messing with rat holes? Eventually, after Jia Zhuangyuan’s persuasion, they unified their decision: dig!
Bi Sazhu initially suggested setting fire to the hole to smoke the rats out. Jia Zhuangyuan disagreed, saying that the rats might have become spirits, and there must be treasures inside the cave. Setting a fire would be easy, but it would be a pity to burn away valuable items.
The others remained skeptical but carefully began digging along the rat hole. The entrance grew larger and larger, eventually wide enough for a person to crawl through. To prevent the rats from suddenly attacking, the six decided that four would go inside while two stayed outside—to prevent the rats from escaping and to watch for any unexpected arrivals.
Though grave robbers were generally fearless, the six had just witnessed the rats eating mummies, which unnerved them all. No one wanted to go inside. Since they had already dug this far, retreating wasn’t an option. Finally, they decided by drawing lots: six sticks, two long ones and four short ones. Those who drew the short sticks had to go down; the two with the long sticks remained outside.
Jia Zhuangyuan said, “I don’t care—I’ll take the last one.” As it turned out, Hu Hansan drew one and got a long stick. He was overjoyed! The other four drew one by one, and as expected, they all got the short ones—the remaining stick was naturally the long one. Jia Zhuangyuan said, “Fair enough? You all saw—I drew last. Don’t be scared. Grip your tools tightly. What haven’t we seen before? Just because of a couple of rats, are you all pissing your pants?”
Bi Sazhu snorted and said, “At worst, we die! Who said I’m scared?” Bi Sazhu was the typical brave fool. Once, at night, he specifically went to catch scorpions. He flipped over a pile of rocks with his flashlight, only to find a corpse lying there, seemingly not long dead. Everyone else ran off screaming in terror, but Bi Sazhu wasn’t afraid at all. He caught every scorpion crawling on the corpse. When he weighed them later, they totaled nearly three taels. This proved the saying: fortune favors the bold!
With Bi Sazhu’s words, the others felt slightly reassured.
Among the four, there was another named Zhang Shusheng, who always claimed the famous calligrapher Zhang Xu as his ancestor because of their shared surname. Zhang Xu was an ancient master calligrapher, so Zhang Shusheng aspired to be a worthy descendant of the Zhang family. Often, he would grab a stick and wildly write characters on the ground to practice his brushwork. However, after years of practice, he still couldn’t even write his own name well. At first, he refused to admit defeat and kept practicing alone. After half a year, he thought he had succeeded, writing so fluently he felt proud, as if he had become an immortal.
So he set up a stall at the market, offering to write letters and sell calligraphy.
The result was predictable: he didn’t sell a single piece and eventually lost his stall.
Without income, it was like a slow death.
Men fear being cornered the most. Once cornered, even a scholar could become a wolf.
But life isn’t always bleak. At this time, he met Bi Sazhu. Logically, the two brothers must have had some fate connecting them. That day, Bi Sazhu happened to need to send a letter home but couldn’t write. Hearing about Zhang Shusheng, he rushed to the market to find him, but after three attempts, he couldn’t locate him. After asking around, he learned that Zhang had already changed professions.
Though he had changed careers, the letter still needed to be written—his family was waiting for a reply.
Bi Sazhu asked around for half the day before finally finding Zhang Shusheng’s home. What happened next caught Bi Sazhu completely off guard: upon hearing Bi’s request, Zhang suddenly squinted, then collapsed to the ground motionless. His family quickly pressed the point between his nose and upper lip and finally revived him with a splash of cold water. After waking, upon seeing Bi Sazhu again, he burst into tears, crying for quite a while before calming down.
Once he stopped crying, Bi Sazhu asked him a simple question: Why were you crying?
Actually, this question was quite foolish—there are only three reasons for crying: joy, sorrow, or just plain foolishness.
Upon hearing the question, Zhang opened his mouth again, as if ready to cry.
But he didn’t cry after all.
“Excitement! Excitement! Today, I finally met someone who appreciates me—it was worth living this long!” Zhang Shusheng said.
This sentence left Bi Sazhu stunned for a while.
The next sentence made Bi Sazhu completely understand Zhang’s meaning: For half a year, since he had started his stall at the market selling calligraphy, not a single person had come to him. People only gathered to mock him. Now, finally, someone had come needing his writing skills.
The next sentence made Bi Sazhu stunned again: “Today, I won’t charge you a single penny—I will serve you completely!”
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