I was certain it was a skirt buried in the ground, not rags because of the obvious stitching on it.

The others were rooted to the spot, and even Li Meijing was left tongue-tied. "Song Yang…” she faltered. “Is that really a corpse?"

I asked Wang Dali to bring me my bag from which I grabbed a brush. "How slow would a brush take?” Dali frowned. “I have a spade in the car. Isn’t that better?"

"Do you think we’re digging for treasure?!" I chided.

Ding Xu burst into tears and begged hysterically, "Don't dig! Stop investigating! Let's go back now!"

I left Dali and Zhang Cheng the task of holding down Ding Xu while I slowly brushed the soil off the top. A rotting pink dress gradually emerged, as well as a white arm-like skeleton. As the body was unearthed, the others turned ashen with fear. Everyone had previously assumed the corpse was one of DIng Xu’s fabricated stories.

I turned...