He Thought He Had Hit Jackpot
When Lin Wenhua found what he believed was an ancient relic buried in the ground, he probably felt like he had just hit the lottery. But he was in for a surprise. The thing started moving like it was alive.
He was just a humble farmer from the region of Chengdu who had spent all his life growing and selling mandarin oranges. Little did he know that his life was about to take a wild turn.
Hidden Secrets
Most people are happy to keep to themselves, mind their business, and live their daily lives without any preoccupation about other matters.
For instance, a farmer could spend every day of his life walking and working on the soil of his land without ever thinking about what goes on underground. And if he happened to know about it, he might be impressed, shocked, or even scared.
Sometimes Secrets Come Out…
Most of us live our lives in a similar way to that farmer: we assume that there are lots of crucial and decisive processes going on close to us, but of which we will always remain ignorant.
But sometimes, some pieces of these hidden parts of reality leak into our daily lives. And the consequences can be good or disastrous, but they’re always unexpected.
The Story Of Li Wenhua
Li Wenhua wasn’t going through an easy financial situation. It had been a bad summer in terms of weather; for this reason, the harvest hadn’t been too good. He sold fewer mandarin oranges than other years.
He was struggling. But he still had no other option than to wake up every morning, go to his fields, and work as hard as he could to make ends meet.
Another Day At The Farm
And that was exactly what he was getting ready to do that day. He had to work really hard to compensate for that bad summer. So he woke up, braced himself for a long day of work among the orange trees, and left the house.
He didn’t know that this day wouldn’t be like the others: today, he would cross paths with something that would change his life in a real way.
He Didn’t Know What He Was In For
He started his day clearing some weeds from some parts of his field. As he was getting busy with it, he felt his shovel suddenly stomp against something. He wondered what that could be.
Maybe some trash that someone had left there? Maybe some pipe to irrigate someone else’s field? He decided to dig deeper and find out what it was.
What Was That?
As he kept digging, what resurfaced from the soil kept amazing him more and more. It seemed like a stone with some mysterious engravings on it! Maybe it was an ancient relic!
He was excited about what would come out when he was done digging. And then he remembered something that happened to one of his neighbors a few years ago.
He Had Found An Ancient Relic
If it turned out to be a relic, well, it wouldn’t be the first time. A friend of Li who lived nearby had found an ancient piece of furniture buried in his soil some years ago.
He remembered how he called some scholars from the nearest university. They came over to examine it and found out that it was a relic from 1,000 years ago! The piece of furniture was now in a museum, and his neighbor had been paid good money for his finding. Would the same thing happen to Li?
It Was Coming Out
As more parts of the object became visible, Li got more and more excited. Maybe that would be the day when his financial difficulties would be over. He couldn’t wait to take a closer look at that object.
He was lost in his fantasies of what he would do with the money and admiring the strange, symmetric engravings on the object when suddenly, something happened that made his stomach drop.
It Was Alive!
The object was moving! What in the world was that? It seemed to be alive! But there was no way an animal could look like that. Perhaps it was some sort of machine?
Li felt a bit scared. But he kept on digging. He was determined to get a grab on that thing and find out what it was. And when he was done, he didn’t know whether to feel disappointed, excited, or frightened.
It Was A Spider
It was a big, strange spider. The round part with the mysterious symmetrical engravings he had seen was its body. Li had never seen a spider like that before.
He thought for a minute what to do with it. Finally, he decided to go for an empty bottle and managed to get the spider to get inside it. Then, he took it to his house.
He Told Everyone About His Discovery
He told his neighbors in the village about it. Soon, word got around the area that one of the farmers had caught a really weird-looking spider.
And after a while, some zoologists from the city heard about it as well. And it wasn’t long before they knocked on Li’s door, asking to see his spider, that he kept and took care of in his house.
Scholars Step In
The zoologists examined the spider for a while. After an hour, they came back to Li and informed him about his discovery. That was a really rare species of spider. No one had ever seen any similar specimen since more than 20 years ago.
It was named “Chinese hourglass spider”. That species lived in underground caves and built trapdoors using plants, soil, and silk to hide. But that wasn’t all.
The Spider’s History
It was one of the oldest species of spiders known in China and one of the first that had been mentioned in written records. It’s mentioned in an old dictionary named the Er Ya from the fifth century BC.
Li was also informed that the rareness of that specimen made it extremely valuable. One of those wild spiders can be sold in the market for as high as $1,700, or 12,000 yuan.
A Happy Ending
So it seemed like Li had indeed found a hidden fortune that would put an end to his financial struggles. So he agreed to sell it. But he had one condition.
He demanded that the spider would end up stored somewhere as close as possible to its living conditions in the wild. It had grown on him, and he wanted the spider to live a comfortable life. The zoologists gave him their word that that’s how it would be.