Chapter 32: Great Tang, The Eighteen Mausoleums of Guanzhong

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【Breathtaking sunset glow appears over Liangzhou City [Trending]】
【Liangzhou celestial phenomenon [Trending]】

In a small eatery across from the commercial district, Guo Youkai, having just clocked out of work, chewed on his belt noodles while scrolling through Douyin as his "digital side dish." Upon opening the local trending list, he saw several topics related to "celestial phenomena" occupying the top spots.

He glanced out the restaurant window. More than an hour had passed, yet the sky over Liangzhou remained saturated with a brilliant glow. The crimson-gold light cast a dazzling silhouette over the steel jungle outside. Several patrons near the window were busy snapping photos with their phones.

Had a poet from antiquity witnessed this, they surely would have composed a verse on the spot. But Guo Youkai was just an ordinary office worker; he found even taking a photo for social media to be a chore. Faced with the view, he merely sighed to himself that it was beautiful, turned his gaze away, and returned to scrolling through Douyin.

After bypassing the top trending celestial topics and skipping past a few celebrity updates and current events, his eyes rested on a line of text at the very bottom.

【New Archaeological Discoveries at the Eighteen Tombs of Guanzhong】

The Eighteen Tombs of Guanzhong, the imperial mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty, are scattered throughout the mountain ranges south of the Wei River.

From the founding Emperor Gaozu, Li Yuan, to the late Emperor Xizong, Li Xuan, the mausoleums of nineteen of the twenty-one Tang emperors are included (with Li Zhi and Wu Zetian sharing a joint tomb). Excluding the final emperors, Zhaozong and Aizong, who were buried in other provinces due to the political turmoil of the era, it could be said that these eighteen mausoleums hold the history of the entire Tang Dynasty.

As a native of Liangzhou, he had heard many related historical tales since childhood. The trending topic piqued his interest—it would serve as a perfectly adequate digital side dish.

He tapped on the link, and a short news video popped up.

"Recently, a new tomb has been discovered in the northern part of our city. According to research, the tomb dates back to the Dazhong era of the Tang Dynasty and follows imperial specifications. Archaeological work is currently proceeding in an orderly fashion..."

The video began with footage of the excavation site. A female reporter wearing a hard hat stood before the camera, smiling sweetly as she narrated.

"Many viewers in front of their screens likely know the history of the Eighteen Tombs of Guanzhong. Containing the mausoleums of nineteen Tang emperors, they are a famous cultural heritage site in the Guanzhong region and an important reference for historians studying the Tang Dynasty..."

"And now, the excavation of this tomb may bring us groundbreaking discoveries. Let us invite an expert to interpret this for us..."

The camera panned, and the microphone was held out to a middle-aged man in a suit. A subtitle identified his position as 【Zhang Songming, Director of the Archaeological Office, Liangzhou Cultural Relics Bureau】.

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"Hello, Director Zhang. We heard earlier that this newly discovered Tang tomb was built to imperial specifications. But since the mausoleums of all twenty-one Tang emperors, including the two final rulers, were already excavated and confirmed by the beginning of this century, why has a new imperial tomb appeared now? Could it be that there was a twenty-second emperor of the Tang Dynasty unrecorded in history books?"

"Before opening this tomb, we had the same question."

Zhang Songming nodded in front of the camera. "But now, as the excavation deepens, we have found that the structure of this tomb is indeed unconventional."

"Judging by the height of the burial mound and the murals inside, its specifications are indeed at the imperial level. However, after surveying, we found no human remains inside, nor any typical funerary objects. Instead, there are many paintings and ritual vessels. It resembles a site for sacrificial rites more than a tomb."

The camera shifted from the interviewer to a pile of unearthed artifacts covered in mud.

Guo Youkai had no experience with antiques and couldn't identify the purpose of these items. The only thing he could recognize was a painting appearing at the edge of the frame.

The painting was submerged in a special protective solution. Because of its age, the image was blurry and damaged, barely revealing the portrait of a person.

The footage lasted only four or five seconds, and he didn't look closely, only noting that it seemed to be a side profile.

It appeared to be a man in red and white robes, his long hair tied behind his head. He stood beneath a bright moon, his figure ethereal and otherworldly. In the corner of the painting, written in regular script, was the title: "Immortal Under the Moon."

"As the viewers can see, these unearthed artifacts mostly possess a sacrificial nature. It is speculated that the Li Tang royal family used them to pray for the protection of gods and spirits, reinforcing their own imperial power in the name of the Mandate of Heaven. As for why all of this would appear in a mausoleum, that is the focus of our future research."

"Very well, thank you very much for the introduction, Director Zhang. We look forward to seeing more research results in the future."

The video ended there, and even as a digital side dish, it didn't leave much of an impression.

Feeling somewhat bored, Guo Youkai habitually tapped the comment section, hoping to find some amusement from the netizens, but as soon as he tapped, an alert box popped up on the screen.

【The comments you are looking for do not exist】

This was a sign that the video had been deleted.

Guo Youkai blinked in confusion. He exited the video and refreshed, only to find the trending topic missing from the local list. Searching for it specifically yielded no other related videos.

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Was it forcibly taken down?

Guo Youkai felt puzzled. Although he had encountered similar situations before, what was the point of suppressing a mere archaeological news item that had no public controversy or real heat?

Just as he was wondering, his phone chimed with two WeChat messages.

【Director Xu: [Progress of August Projects by Department.xls]】
【Director Xu: Little Guo, please compile and summarize this report. Hand it to me before tomorrow.】

Ugh! Back to work!

Guo Youkai hurriedly swallowed the rest of his noodles, picked up his phone to reply "received," grabbed his backpack, and headed out, walking briskly toward the bus stop.

Within minutes, he had forgotten all about the video he had just seen, his mind entirely occupied with how to chase down the previous month's data from the various departments.

Celestial phenomena, history, and immortals were interesting, but they were far too removed from his life. Compared to these ethereal topics, he was much more concerned about his performance review and bonus for the month.

In Liangzhou City at this moment, there were millions of people just like him.

People hurried through the bustling city traffic, occasionally glancing up at the crimson glow in the sky to marvel at its magnificence, only to dive back into the vast ocean of humanity, drifting along with the tide.

On their way to and from work, they might brush shoulders with vehicles from the Sanitation Bureau, but no one would notice who was inside, no one would ponder where those vehicles were heading, and no one knew that a secret, grand conflict was brewing in the shadows.

Soon, night would fall, the glow covering the city would quietly disperse, and the myriad lights of the city would take its place.

Today was, as always, just another unremarkable day.