Iron Bull Reappears

Author: Nado
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: While searching for the Ming Dynasty cast iron ox in Dujiangyan, technician Lin Cui gets lost. She is in this world, but her memories and actions seem to come from another world. So where did the original Lin Cui go? Could there be different possible worlds and different Lin Cuis? If one Lin Cui suddenly becomes another world's Lin Cui, will Nado one day need to find his original self too? The Fish Mouth of Dujiangyan was made of iron oxen and iron turtles during the Yuan Dynasty, but they are now lost. It is said that Yuan Dynasty water management experts cast two iron turtles with their heads joined and divided bodies, using them as the Fish Mouth. In the Ming Dynasty, more than 10,000 jin of iron was used to cast an iron ox for the Fish Mouth. However, both the iron ox and the iron turtles were eventually washed away by the river. During the drought period in 1990, the Dujiangyan Cultural Relics Management Bureau invited relevant experts to explore the locations of the iron ox and iron turtle in the inner river of Dujiangyan. The experts' detection devices showed red signals wherever they went, indicating the presence of metal, but no iron ox or turtle was found. The fate of the iron ox and iron turtle remains a mystery. Since both artifacts weighed more than 10,000 jin, it is unlikely they were washed far away.
One day, the director of the Social News Department, Song Xiaotao, suddenly invited me for dinner. Although I had worked at the newspaper for many years, I did not belong to the News Department, so I had never had any contact with this old man. The only thing I remembered about him was that he always drank alcohol during lunch every day, and when he drank, his voice became rough. So when the topic selection meeting was held in the afternoon, I would often hear him shouting alone. In short, I didn't have a bad impression of him, but I kept my distance out of respect.
He suddenly invited me for dinner, with no apparent reason but great enthusiasm, which made me uneasy. When Song Xiaotao invited me for dinner, his face was extremely unpleasant, and the lavish feast only added to my anxiety. Fortunately, Song Xiaotao was not the type to beat around the bush. After a few dishes, he handed me a copy of Southern Weekly and asked me to read the news articles inside. The iron ox caught my interest, so I asked him, "Is there really an iron ox weighing 60,000 jin?" Song Xiaotao replied, "Yes. Ten years ago, a comprehensive search was conducted, but it was not found. This time, the repair project aims to bring the dividing iron ox back to the world. The higher-ups place great importance on this year's annual repair of Dujiangyan, believing that the return of the 500-year-old iron ox will be a great news point. Southern Weekly covered this story, which we didn't, and I was criticized for not assigning someone to do a proper job. But I was also in a difficult position—I didn't have any professional water management experts, so how could I have done a good job?"