Black Gold 1983

Ren Ye frowned deeply, looking at Ma Xiaojun with a puzzled expression, and asked in a deep voice, "Didn't you say it was a female corpse? How did it turn into a boil?"

Upon hearing this question, Ma Xiaojun, Ma Maocai, and the others exchanged glances, their faces showing awkward, forced smiles.

Actually, they just wanted to look for coking coal down there, but the layer of hard rock below the coal seam was too hard to shovel into. So they thought of widening the tunnel to the side to find a better place to shovel.

Unexpectedly, this expansion led them to dig through the tunnel where the roof of the West Second Mining Area had collapsed years ago. Once the tunnel was opened up, they saw the body lying next to the pile of rubble. The group was so frightened that they ran away as fast as they could.

I only glanced at it briefly, and since it was dark below, I didn't see it clearly at all. I only caught a glimpse of a long strand of hair hanging down the head of the corpse from a distance, and I subconsciously assumed that it was a female corpse.

But now that I've calmed down and thought about it carefully, how could a complete female corpse possibly appear out of thin air in that collapsed mine layer that had been sealed by rock strata for many years?

After much thought, only one explanation remains.

They may have been mistaken; it might not have been a female corpse at all, but most likely the rumored "mineral boil."

After listening to Ma Xiaojun's explanation, Ren Ye and Ren Shouyi exchanged a glance and decided to go down and check to confirm. If it really was a female corpse, they would have to call the police.

Renye immediately spoke up, saying he wanted to go down into the shaft to inspect it.

But upon seeing this, Madeline immediately raised his hand to stop him, his expression grave and tinged with fear. He said in a deep voice, "Don't go down. If that thing really is a mine boil, it could be fatal! In my opinion, let's just pretend we didn't see anything and let it go. Don't provoke the evil creatures down there."

Everyone hung their heads, clearly having second thoughts.

Renye looked at them and smiled, "Don't panic. I've never believed in these superstitious things. To put it another way, even if there really is a mine down there, we're actually going to make a fortune."

The so-called "mining boils" were indeed described as quite eerie by the older generation in the mining area.

They say this thing is an evil creature released from the underworld.

According to folklore, after a person dies, their soul enters the underworld, where the King of Hell personally judges their merits and demerits. If a person committed many evil deeds and had an evil heart during their lifetime, they will be sent to the eighteen levels of hell to suffer endless torment.

But some wicked people, who enjoyed wealth and luxury in their lives, are unwilling to suffer this torment in the eighteenth level of hell.

Therefore, the souls of these wicked people would secretly use all the gold and silver they had accumulated in their lives to bribe the judges in the underworld.

The judges who accepted bribes would then act corruptly and violate the rules of the underworld. They would find an extremely yin iron ore and sculpt it into human-shaped statues in the likeness of these evil people.

These statues are the real "boils".

As for the boils, they are destined to be judged in the eighteen levels of hell on behalf of the wicked who should be punished, so they are filled with resentment.

Miners must immediately close their eyes, bury the site, and move away if they discover it, otherwise their lives may be in danger.

However, mines where "mineral boils" appear are mostly rich or fertile mines.

Upon hearing this, Madeline's face instantly darkened: "Don't talk nonsense! You child, you don't know what's important! Encountering that thing is no good; there's bound to be a mining disaster!"

"I grew up in the mines, how could the old folks be wrong? Although finding a mine boil probably means there's a rich deposit underneath, it's also a deadly threat! The rules are crystal clear: finding a few mine boils means losing a few miners' lives, without exception!"

At this point, he swallowed hard, his voice filled with terror: "Besides, we've only caught a glimpse of one body from afar. Who knows how many more are hidden if we dig deeper? In my opinion, these mine nodules might be the result of the roof collapse accident in the West Second Mining Area back then, where so many miners died. They're all their vengeful spirits gathered together, clinging to the gloomy energy underground!"

Madeline spoke with such conviction that it sent chills down the spines of the group.

"If you ask me, we should just call it quits. We're all just ordinary people with families to support. It's not worth risking our lives and fortunes in this dark well just to earn a little bit of hard-earned money."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ma Tiejun took a step forward, looking completely unconvinced.

"Uncle Delin, I don't think this is that mysterious. You've made it sound so strange. What year is it now? Those superstitious beliefs about ghosts and gods are long gone."

Renye listened quietly to the argument that everyone was making, without saying a word.

In fact, he had encountered the same situation in his previous life. It was in a large mine he had opened in Taiyuan. The mine shaft went down hundreds of meters, and when the miners were working, they dug out a large number of human-shaped ore pieces deep in the rock strata.

The stones, each with an outline resembling a human figure, were curled up and entrenched in the cracks of the coal seam. Their strange and eerie appearance caused a sensation throughout the mining area at the time, and in the end, no one could provide a proper scientific explanation.

A bunch of pseudo-experts claim that these "human-shaped minerals," geologically known as "iron nodules," were formed naturally over tens of millions of years of sedimentation.

Under the erosion and pressure of water, minerals deep underground gradually clump together, and with the compression of geological movements and the scouring of water, they occasionally form human-shaped outlines.

As for why it grows to look so human-like, they couldn't give a clear answer, only vaguely saying it was the result of geological movements and the coincidence of mineral deposition.

But it cannot be denied that the area was indeed a rich mine, with large reserves and good coal quality. It was thanks to that mine that he made a fortune back then.

He couldn't let go of the matter, so he specifically sought out a knowledgeable and geology-savvy veteran miner in the area for advice.

After listening to his description, the old miner shook his head and told the truth: the legend of the boils circulating in the world is not a substitute for some evil person, nor is it a gathering of evil spirits, nor is it a substitute statue created by the judge of the underworld for personal gain.

So-called boils are a disease.

This is what modern medicine calls a boil, commonly known as a "fire boil".

This disease is very common among miners and is an acute suppurative inflammation caused by bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus infecting a single hair follicle and the surrounding tissue.

It has become an "occupational disease" in mines mainly because the damp and hot environment underground, coupled with heavy physical labor leading to excessive sweating, friction injuries, and poor hygiene, all create ideal conditions for bacterial infection.

In the past, medical conditions in mining areas were extremely poor, especially in those illegally operated coal mines, where there was absolutely no medical care available.

Miners contract boils underground. At first, they are just red, swollen, and festering. No one treats them or applies any medicine, so they can only endure it.

As the infection spreads, high fever develops, and sepsis sets in, many people die silently in the dark alleyways.

The unscrupulous mine owners didn't care about the miners' lives at all. When someone died, they neither reported it to the authorities nor took the body away for a proper burial. They would simply find an abandoned tunnel, throw the body into it, and hastily bury it on the spot with coal gangue and slag.

Over the years, those corpses, suffocated in the dark and damp underground mine, never seeing the light of day, slowly rotted and decayed, their outlines curled up and deformed, mixed among the rock strata and coal blocks.

Later, when miners were digging coal, they accidentally unearthed an old, collapsed tunnel and were horrified to see a dark, rotting, human-shaped corpse.

The rumor spread like wildfire: whenever a boil or a strange rock shaped like a human is found underground, a miner is bound to lose his life.

Where is the evil spirit actually taking lives?

Those bizarre humanoid silhouettes that were mistaken for "mining boils" were actually the remains of miners who died in the mines and were hastily abandoned and buried underground because they couldn't afford medical treatment in their early years.