It turned out to be something from Xi Xia, which surprised me....

I tried to keep it light, but I was actually very excited inside.

Speaking of which, Xi Xia happened to be during the transition period between the Song and Yuan dynasties. This proves that my previous rough dating is not wrong. If it is indeed a stone carving from Xi Xia, it would be quite rare, even to the point where this type of thing is almost nonexistent in circulation among the people.

This Mediterranean-haired man, who introduced himself as Qin Xingping, stared at the head in astonishment and said: "Good eyesight! May I ask, master craftsman, have you ever seen anything like this before?"

He nodded and said, “I once handled a broken artifact that was very similar to yours.”

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At this time, the little sprouts piped up: "Xia, isn't that the country of Duan Yanqing, the first evil person in the world who uses a cane, from the TV drama *Dragon and Babu*?

I looked at Douzi and said, "Douzi, you have a good brain. You're right, it was the Western Xia. But that's all mythology from TV dramas. Western Xia and Dali are 100,000 miles apart, one in the north and the other in the south. Based on Western Xia's strength at the time, if they really wanted to destroy a small country like Dali, it would be just a matter of waving their hand. The TV dramas are all nonsense."

"""

I asked the man surnamed Qin again: "Since you're in the same line of work, be honest. Is this stuff fresh or dried? Besides the Wangling under Helan Mountain, I haven't heard of any well-equipped tombs in Xixia. Could it be that you've been into a large Xixia tomb?"

"You know quite a bit, little brother."

He didn't shy away, and laughed: "This is semi-ancient (meaning it has been unearthed for a while), the hundreds of tombs under Helan Mountain, the Western Xia imperial mausoleums, have long been looted until not even a hair is left. I haven't touched any major Western Xia tombs either. This piece was bought from a Huite person."

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According to Qin Xingping's own account, the Huite people are considered a minority branch residing in the Helan Mountain Desert region.

The descendants of minorities are not a minority of nationalities. Our country is vast with abundant resources, with 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, but the reality is far more complex than that.

All the rest are at most just a few tribes, not a minority ethnic group, because there are only dozens or hundreds of people in each group, so they can only be called tribes.

like the current people tribe on Mount Blang in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, the Bazha tribe in the mountains of Qiannan Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou, the Asi tribe in Mile County, Yunnan, the Kemu tribe in the deep mountains of Mengla County, the Guyaya reindeer tribe on the Hulunbuir grassland, and the Dengba cave dwellers in the deep mountains of Ziyunsan in Guizhou, etc.

Qin Xingping also mentioned the Hute people, stating that their tribe may have numbered between two and three hundred. They were active in the desert region north of Helan Mountain. He obtained this stone carving from a young man in the area in exchange for his mobile phone.

The Huite people have lived in the desert for generations, with very little contact with outsiders. Once, Qin Xingping traveled to Danba County within Helan Mountain (to shovel the ground), where he unexpectedly encountered this object. The person was a young man with braids, named Aji.

Aji doesn't want Qin Xingping's money, saying that if you want this stone carving, you have to trade your phone for it.

How much is a phone, Qin Xingping was eager to know. He immediately traded the stone sculpture for a phone on the spot.

He didn't think much of it at the time. When he returned to his hotel room and pondered it further, the more he thought about it, the more excited he became. If Aji could lead him to the site where this Western Xia stone tablet was found, he would be set for life; he wouldn't have to worry about food and drink for the rest of his days.

It's a good thought, but when he went back to find someone, he couldn't find Ajji. After asking around, the locals in Danba said that Ajji was from the Hutuh people and lived with his tribe in the desert. The tribe was isolated from the world, and every three months they would send Ajji to the county town to buy salt and tools. No one knew exactly where he was.

After hearing the story, he frowned and said, “So you think there might be a big pit where this stone sculpture came from?”

Qin Xingping smiled faintly: "The weathering of the stone carving is new, insiders can see at a glance that this is a broken relic. As for me, I'm usually a traveling merchant, accustomed to going it alone. We met in Handan today, which counts as fate."

"This job needs manpower, there's no way around it. How about we join forces and try to haul a load together?"

In the tomb robbing world, "拼车" means temporarily partnering up with strangers. People in the profession generally dislike "拼车" because it's unsafe and there's a risk of being betrayed and robbed by your partner. Of course, there are rare cases where people become close friends through "拼车," but those are exceptions.

(Editor in charge：apothecary diaries light novel)