looking” figure. It was as tall as me, made out of stone, and it was just like the Terracotta Warriors.
As I walked forward, I found more and more figures. Each of them looked different. They looked like
women, servants, high ranking officers… Some were holding flags, with the word “Qin”.
Suddenly something flashed through my mind. I was suffocating but really excited at the same time. The
stink of terracotta had accumulated there under the most important part of the Great Wall for nearly two
thousand years.
It proved that my hard work was worth it - they were the missing pieces of Qin Shihuang’s Terracotta
kingdom!
He built his Terracotta Warriors in Xian because he thought that his kingdom could persist after his death.
But for his close troops and his officers, he hid them beneath the Great Wall. The Great Wall was not just built
for defending against the northern enemies after all.
At the end of the tunnel, I found some huge words carved on the wall. I walked closer to it and found a
curse: “According to the spell, no more than two people who are simultaneously living on earth should know
this secret place, otherwise my inheritor and his peoples must suffer from severe punishment. The Great Wall of
China would disappear from the world forever…” I screamed. I was totally shocked.
I came out from another side of the “Great Wall” and saw the old man standing in front of me like a ghost.
Tears were flowing out of his swollen eyes, down his bony face.
“
Young man. Yes, the inheritor......is me. You know, I’m already 98 now and it’s time for me to pass the
mystery of the Great Wall to my inheritor. But, your trespass has spoiled our tradition. I have no son so my
niece has to inherit this mystery. This has to go on and on,” he said slowly.
He brought me outside the temple and continued, “So now, I beg you young man. Three hours later, when
it is sunset, follow this address and bring my niece, Shan Mo to this temple. Tell him the secret, and lead him
down the tunnel. The most important thing is – tell him to pass this secret the same way from generation to
generation.”
He handed me a piece of worn-out paper with Chinese calligraphy.
“
Take this piece along with you. Only then would Shan Mo believe the whole story,” he said in an almost
inaudible whisper.
I was just about to reply but he suddenly disappeared like a gusty wind in the dark forest without any trace.
Three hours later, when the sun set, I followed the address and found Shan Mo. He was tall with wide
shoulder, looking a lot like one of Qin’s Terracotta warriors. I told him the whole story. But then I started to
worry: didn’t the curse on the wall say that only two people who are stilling living on earth could know the
secret of the great wall?
We tried to find the old man in the temple. He was nowhere to be seen. All that was left was a piece of
worn-out paper. I couldn’t understand the manuscript on the paper, except the last paragraph from which I could
even smell the fresh ink.
“
Dearest Shan Mo, my niece, may peace be with you always. I’ll be watching you from above the sky,
from a place far far away, with all Qin ancestors. Good bye!”
* * *