Chapter 22: Professor Zhou

In the middle of The Gobi Desert, a small team of archaeologists was excavating a new site, found a few days back after a freak desert storm.

The Gobi desert is a vast, arid region. It’s known for its dunes, mountains and rare animals. There have been many discoveries in this desert, such as dinosaur fossils that were found in the Flaming Cliffs.

But this team was working on a site that was on the opposite side of that discovery.

After that sandstorm, a small stone structure was unearthed; by a small team of soldiers on patrol. 67-year-old Professor Zhou was notified about the discovery and was told to take a small team of his students to do the research work.

Mr. Lin Zhou, or Professor Zhou, had spent most of his life in this desert doing research at various sites. Never in any of his research had he found any kind of clue that could provide him with any lead to this. He was amazed when he looked at the few pictures that were sent to him with the official letter.

He gathered six of his best students, told them to pack a small bag. They were going on a small trip for some research training. They left early in the morning and reached the city nearest the site around the same afternoon. They traveled there by tourist bus to avoid any kind of rumors, and the very next day, he and his team left their lodgings for the site. It appeared to be similar to a small temple. The entrance was half-broken but still, a person could easily enter the structure doing a crab walk.

First, Mr. Zhou entered the temple, followed by his students. Inside, the temple walls were made of burnt stone.

Unlike some sites, the walls were empty; there weren’t any drawings on the walls. The temple-like building had four huge pillars supporting the central structure. Those pillars had some weird symbols on them, something which the Professor had never seen in the past.

The Professor was fascinated by this variety of symbols that were inscribed on the pillars. He wasn’t sure what those symbols were depicting, but he knew there was some meaning behind those symbols that were inscribed there.

He pulled his camera out of his bag and started to take photos of those symbols on the pillars. A huge crack was formed at the back wall of the temple, where the sand was spilling inside.

The crack was small, barely a foot-long in size, but it appeared manmade as if someone had used a huge sword to make that slash.

There were also nine dot-like circles surrounding the crack. Although the crack appeared to be manmade, the dots surrounding the crack gave it a symbolic appearance.

After taking photographs and a few samples of the stones, the team left the temple. When all his students had exited, Professor Zhou prepared to follow them. He was about to walk out of the broken gate when he felt a stone beneath his shoe. He looked down and picked up the stone; it was as dark as it could get. His old eyes also noticed some kind of engravings on the stone, that would bear closer examination. He pocketed the stone and retired for the day.

After having dinner with his students, he entered his tent, sat at his research table and took the stone out of his pocket to examine it under his table light. He tried to read the language but he failed at recognizing a single word. None of the characters matched any language he knew. The symbols on the stone were quite similar to those he had seen on the pillars.

He had studied many languages, especially the lost ones, but the stone’s inscription was unlike any other he knew. After trying for hours, he knew he couldn’t solve the puzzle alone. He decided to inform his reporting officer about the stone in the morning and ask for some expert assistance.

He walked to his bedding arrangement and turned the light low before lying down to sleep. Except for the noise of insects, silence covered the whole area. A distance hooting of an owl could be heard now and again. A small gust of wind blew outside of Professor’s tent. The dark stone lying on the professor’s table shook a bit and then turned still. Again it moved on the table, and after a moment, the stone stilled once more. Again, the wind blew outside the tent.