Volume 5 Chapter 37 The Second

I was sitting on my backpack, and the doctor in the Aning team helped me bandage my wounds. Although I was not spoiled as a child, I had never done any heavy work, so I was easily injured by such bumps and bruises. If I were Pan Zi, I probably wouldn’t have been hurt. The doctor disinfected my wound and told me not to touch water or use my hand for anything else. I nodded to thank him and he went to look after someone else.

After falling off the stone bridge, Aning and the others were extremely shocked by my “way of appearing.” At first, Aning didn’t even recognize me (in fact, I was unkempt, and it was already quite amazing that she could recognize me in the end), and it wasn’t until the fat guy called out to them on the stone beam that she reacted. She was even more surprised and speechless, and looked at me with an unbelieving look.

The two groups of people stood there for a long time before they gradually reacted. I walked around a bit, anxious to see if the man on my back was my uncle. But as soon as I moved, the people around me suddenly automatically took a few steps back, as if they had seen a ghost. Several of them reflexively raised their guns again.

The fat man and Pan Zi had just let out a sigh of relief on the beam, but when they saw me, they quickly raised their guns again. I quickly raised my hands to show that I was not hostile, and Ning also waved her hand, saying to her men, “We’re on the same side. We’ve worked together before. Put down your guns.” She said this several times, and her men finally put down their guns, but the foreigners were still very nervous, staring at me with their eyes fixed.

I saw their facial muscles bulging up high, obviously their emotions had been strongly stimulated. If they were frightened any more, these people might collapse. So they didn’t dare to make any more movements, and just stood there not knowing what to do.

A-Ning frowned, and from her expression, it was clear that she didn’t know we were here. She looked up at me and asked, “How did you… end up here…?”

The fat guy laughed and said, “This is called the White Snake looking for a mate. Those who are destined to meet will come from afar, while those who are not will strip down and hold each other, but still find each other coarse. Do you believe that we are just passing by?”

The fat guy said this and jumped off the stone bridge with Pan Zi. At this time, several people in the team of Aning obviously recognized the fat man, and they all exclaimed in surprise. Obviously, the appearance of the fat man here had touched some bad memories of theirs.

The fat man walked up to us. Perhaps because he had worked with these people before, the atmosphere eased a little. Several people who had been on edge let out a sigh of relief, put down the safety on their guns, and cursed. One person even said to himself, “This is good. I ran into bad people in a bad place.”

I thought of the first time I met Fatty, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

Fatty glared at the man, and then greeted a few other people who might be more familiar. Aning wanted to ask him a question, but Pan Zi and I couldn’t help but run over to the foreigner carrying the man, and looked at the man he was carrying to see if it was Uncle San.

The foreigner seemed to be very cautious of me. When I ran over, they all walked away. The foreigner carrying the person on his back didn’t seem to be afraid. When he saw that my target was the person on his back, he put the person on the ground. I quickly opened the hiking cap on his head.

Inside the cap was a very haggard, unshaven face. I almost didn’t recognize it. I only thought it looked like Uncle San. After taking a closer look, I let out a “Oh!” and almost yelled out.

It was indeed Uncle San, the old thief, who had been missing for a long time! After only a few months, the old bastard seemed to have aged by more than ten years, and his hair was completely gray. At first glance, I couldn’t recognize him at all.

I really wasn’t prepared for this kind of reunion. I thought I would end up seeing Uncle San in a tomb, and that he would tell me everything, or that he would appear to save me when I was in danger… But he just appeared in Ning’s group in such a casual way. I looked at him, but suddenly I didn’t believe it.

Did I really see Uncle San again? Did I find him? I froze there, not knowing how to react, not knowing if I was dreaming or hallucinating.

Uncle San seemed confused, squinting his eyes, not knowing if he could see me. But I noticed that when I called out to him, he suddenly had a slight reaction, his dry lips moving slightly, as if to ask, “Big nephew?” But then there was no movement.

I suddenly felt a pang in my heart, a feeling that I could not put into words. Seeing that the old guy was safe, I immediately let my guard down. The feeling of anxiety that I had been feeling disappeared, but another wave of extreme anger came over me, and I wanted to go up and push him down and beat him up. The two feelings mixed together, and I don’t know what expression appeared on my face, but it must have been very funny.

The fat guy on the side didn’t know what he was talking about with Ning, and it seemed like they were arguing. I didn’t have time to pay attention to it either. Pan Zi looked at Uncle San and shook him a few times, then undid his clothes. I was stunned when I saw that his clothes were full of sticky pus. When I looked closer, I saw that his chest was full of sores, and countless hard-headed centipedes were crowded under his skin. It was obvious that Uncle San wanted to pull them out, but the centipedes’ tails broke off when they touched him, and the centipedes broke off inside, and the wounds would not heal. After a long time, they all became suppurated.

Pan Zi grabbed the foreigner next to him and was about to beat him, but he was held up by the others. Pan Zi struggled and yelled, “What the hell did you do to Uncle San? How could you make him look like this?”

I looked at the foreigner’s horrified expression at the wound and knew that they must not have known either, but Uncle San looked so miserable. I asked the foreigner, “Where did you find him? How did he end up like this?”

The foreigner almost threw up and turned his head and said, “It was right here, under the coffin well. We just found him. We thought he was dead, but then we found out he was still alive. The leader said this old man knew a lot of things and had to be taken away with him. I didn’t know he had these things on him, or I would never have carried him!”

“It must be you guys!” Pan Zi was furious, “I saw this in Vietnam. The Vietnamese interrogate prisoners with this trick, which they learned from you Americans. You must have tortured Third Uncle, and I’ll kill you!”

The others were all around us. I waved my hand to calm Pan Zi down and said, “It has nothing to do with them. If they did it, they wouldn’t panic without knowing that the dead centipede attracts its own kind.”

When Ah Ning came over and took a look, she also gasped in surprise. She immediately called the team doctor, and several people hurriedly straightened out Uncle San. At this moment, I suddenly felt that Uncle San had secretly put something in my pocket. The movement was very fast, and in an instant I felt my pocket move. I was stunned for a moment, and my heart moved.

In an instant, my brain buzzed, and I immediately knew: Uncle San might be awake! I was both shocked and relieved. I was shocked because he was pretending to be unconscious, and I didn’t know what his purpose was. I was relieved because he was able to do such a small trick, which meant that the old guy wasn’t close to death. I glanced around, and everyone else was shocked by his wound and didn’t notice it. So I continued to help him without making a sound, but I squeezed his shoulder hard to show that I knew there was something in his pocket.

Uncle San’s eyes were unfocused again, so the medic used alcohol to clean the wound, then used a burnt military knife to cut open the skin, and used tweezers to pull the centipedes out, releasing pus. Because it was so cold here, it was easy to freeze, so Pan Zi and I lit up the smokeless stove and kept baking Uncle San.

There were 16 wounds in total, and some of the centipedes were still alive when they were pulled out, so they were thrown directly into the fire to be burned to death. Pan Zi watched the whole process with rapt attention. I wanted to give him a wink, but I couldn’t. I had something on my mind, but it was also inappropriate for me to suddenly walk away in such a situation. I wanted to know what my uncle had put in his pocket, so I had to wait.

After all the problems were dealt with, the team doctor covered him with a blanket and let him sleep on the side. Pan Zi asked him how he was doing, and the team doctor sighed and said, “I’ve done everything I can. Now he has a wound infection. I’ll give him an antibiotic shot later, but he’s already got a fever. I don’t know if he can make it out alive. It depends on his personal will. Don’t bother him. Let him sleep.” I had an excuse to pull Pan Zi away. When I moved, I realized that I was also covered in wounds when I rolled down, and I couldn’t even stand up.

After the team doctor bandaged my wounds, he went to see the others. There were about 16 or 17 people in Ning’s group. The cold fireworks had gradually gone out, and it was too dark to count. The fat man was being pulled aside by Ning and kept saying something, and I couldn’t see the situation there clearly. I wanted to take Pan Zi to a place where there were no people, but Pan Zi was a little dazed and just sat next to Uncle San, unable to react.

I was really annoyed, and I couldn’t help at all at the critical moment, so I had to find a way to avoid the people around me. A-Ning’s team was divided into two groups, one group of injured people resting, and the other group going down to the coffin well. These people seemed to have no ill will towards me, which may be related to the fact that Fat Boy knew these people. But because of the way I had just scared off the centipede, wherever I went, they all looked at me with strange eyes. The circular tomb was so empty that there was really nowhere for me to hide.

I decided to go to the corpse that I had crushed, pretending to look at it, and then no one would come around to look at me.

The corpse looked like a giant mantis shrimp, with its facial features blurred by my stomping. I looked at it and my scalp went numb, but I couldn’t care less. I took out something from my pocket and it turned out to be a small piece of paper. I looked back and saw no one behind me, so I nervously unfolded it and read a few lines. I was surprised when I saw that the first half of the words were not written in Uncle San’s handwriting. Looking at the shape of the writing, it seemed to be written by Mung Yau-bun. It said, “I’m going down.

That’s all. You should go back. It’s not a place you can handle if you go any further.

Everything you want to know is in the bronze fish with the snake’s eyebrow.

The signature was even more surprising. It was the strange symbol we saw… This was really left by Mian Youbing. What does it mean?

Below that was Uncle San’s very messy handwriting. It looked like it was carved with fingernails, but it was still clear. There was only one line.

We are only one step away from the truth. Give the bronze fish to Old Wu below, and let him decipher it. It doesn’t matter. The most important thing is with me. They won’t dare to do anything to us. Obviously, when Uncle San got here, he must have found this note from the Mian Youbing somewhere, and this note must be written to us. It seems that Mian Youbing wanted to stop us from going down. Judging from the meaning of the note, it seems that there is still a passage, and he went to a very dangerous place. But Uncle San obviously didn’t appreciate it. This is really deadly. What the hell is this old guy trying to do? What else is there at Uncle San’s place that is crucial? Since the Mian Youbing didn’t want us to go down, then who was the mark for? Was it for himself?

My mind suddenly wandered off into the distance. In fact, I felt that more and more clues had appeared during this period of time, but because the previous mysteries were too chaotic, once there were new ideas, it was particularly confusing.

I thought of the markings in the underwater tomb. When Mian Youbing saw them, he knew he had been there before. Now that he has carved the markings, does he… know that he will lose his memory? So he left his own markings in advance, so that the next time he comes, he can remember it by the markings?

It’s too messy, and my head is starting to hurt again. At this time, Ning and Fatso called out to me. I was startled and looked back. They were beckoning me to come over. So I just didn’t think about it anymore, folded the note, stuffed it back into my pocket, and walked over.

Ning handed me a jug of water. I took a sip and she said, “I talked to Mr. Wang. We’re officially ready to cooperate. What do you think?”

Cooperate? I saw the shape of her breasts under her tight clothes and remembered what happened on the boat. I was a little afraid to look straight at her, and I couldn’t think of what to say when I thought of the warning from the oil bottle and what Uncle San had said.

When I found Uncle San, I felt relieved, but there was also a selfish element in this relief, which was that I could go out. In fact, what I really wanted was to get out of this place. But as Uncle San said, we seem to be very close to the truth. It seems that Uncle San himself also has a mystery. If we can forget it, it would be fine. If not, with Uncle San’s personality, we will definitely have to do it again. Can I just sit back and do nothing?

After thinking about it, I still gritted my teeth and said, “How do we cooperate? Tell me. To be honest, I really have to think about cooperating with you.”

She saw my expression and shook her head with a smile. “Well, I didn’t have time to say goodbye to you on the island. Now that you’ve saved me, I’m in the sea… I had my reasons. I never wanted to hurt you.”

I thought of what happened in the underwater tomb and sighed. I thought to myself, “Who would believe you?” I lit a cigarette and said, “If you really want to cooperate, tell me what’s going on. What are you looking for at the bottom of the sea? What are you doing here?”

The fat guy said, “Right, we should be honest with each other.”

Ning looked surprised. “Didn’t your uncle tell you? You… didn’t know anything and just ran around like crazy?”

I smiled wryly. I thought to myself, if my uncle had told me, I wouldn’t have cared about his life. I shook my head. “He didn’t tell me. I’ve been a headless fly.”

A-Ning frowned and looked at me for a long time, as if she had discovered that I was not lying. She said, “No wonder, I always thought you were a very capable person, and I could not see that you were lying. It turns out that you really don’t know anything.”

At this time, I suddenly felt a little strange. Why did this woman suddenly come to us to cooperate? They were so many people, and they had plenty of food and weapons. We only had three people, so why did they want to cooperate with us? Even if it was because I could scare away the centipedes, they could just tie me up. Could it be that—I looked around—their situation is not good, or is there some reason they have to?

A-Ning looked at my expression and probably guessed what I was thinking. She didn’t say anything, but sighed and said, “Actually, we little people don’t know much either. We just work for the boss.” She told us to sit down, and then called over another foreigner. A-Ning introduced him to me. He said his name was Kirk, and he was an expert in Chinese studies, specializing in Dongxia. He knew the most about the whole thing, so you could ask him. The foreigner shook my hand and said, “We were supposed to keep this a secret, but now that this is the situation… ask whatever you want.”

I felt a chill in my heart.

He continued, “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you about the purpose of our boss. To be honest, I’m just a team leader. Ning and I only knew that we needed to enter a place, take something out, and then it would be done. I really don’t know what the higher-ups want these things for, so our goal at the underwater tomb can be said to have two goals. One is a jade seal, which you Chinese call the ghost seal. I heard that it can summon the army of the underworld. The other is the schematic diagram of the underground palace. Unfortunately, we didn’t get either of them. In the end, it was our Ning who went out and got back some of the things that should have been ours.

“Ghost Seal?” I almost jumped up when I heard that. ‘You mean the ghost seal of King Lu Shang? In the underwater tomb?’ When we mentioned the ghost seal, the fat guy was also very interested and came over. A Ning seemed to hate the fat guy, but there was nothing she could do.

Kirk nodded and said, “Yes, I believe you know something. After the tomb of King Lu was dug up by the Wangcang pirates, the latter replaced the ghost seal with a snake-browed copper fish. We always thought that the ghost seal was taken by him to his own grave, but we could never find it. And the diagram of the heavenly palace, I’m afraid, fell into the hands of your third uncle. We still don’t know how many tricks this old fox has played on us, but we still have to cooperate with him. His information is much more accurate than ours.”

I nodded and smiled wryly. I also have a deep feeling about this. The fat guy said, “Then you say that the time when Ning and we went to the bottom of the sea, what did she bring out?”

Kirk opened his mouth to say, but Ning stopped him and said to him, “Say what you should say, and don’t say anything you shouldn’t.”

The fat guy angrily said, “What do you mean?”

Kirk, however, didn’t seem to appreciate Ning’s feelings. He laughed and said, “Even if you don’t tell them now, you’ll have to show them anyway. Besides, it’s useless for you to have these things now.”

Ning looked at us and stamped her foot, as if she was very unwilling: “I worked so hard to get these things, and you’re really taking advantage of me.”

(At this time, I felt very strange. How could Ning and the others be so cooperative? When I later talked to Uncle San about this, he said that at that time, in fact, Ah Ning and the others had no other choice but to cooperate with you, because they were amateurs after all, and even if their technical equipment was better, it was still no match for my half-baked knowledge as a tomb raider. But she was also very clever. She was actually eager to tell you everything, but she still tried to get a little bit out of you, hoping to get something out of you in exchange. Fortunately, I deliberately didn’t tell you anything, otherwise you would have given her the whole package, and my plan would have been ruined.)

He took out a stack of things from his pocket and handed them to me. I thought she would take out some artifacts, but when I took them over, they turned out to be a stack of photos, all of which were murals. I flipped through them one by one, and she reminded me not to mess up the order. I looked at a few of them carefully and found that I had never seen these murals before. I asked, “Where were these taken?”

Kirk said, “It was taken from the main tomb chamber when you went down to the sea together. It’s a narrative mural, very important. You can take a look and see what’s inside.”

I counted and there were 15 murals in total, all of which had changes. Obviously, they were all connected, but there was no necessary plot connection between the murals. I saw paintings of climbing snow-capped mountains, looking down at the mountains, climbing rocks, and soldiers fighting. There is no necessary connection between the scenes in each mural.

Kirk knew from my expression that I didn’t understand, so he took out a picture and said, “Look, this is the first picture. What do you see?”

The picture shows several Jurchen people in traditional dress tying up a Han Chinese man. I said, “Is this a prisoner taken on the battlefield?”

“You could say that, but guess who the prisoner is?” Kirk smiled mysteriously.

I looked at the photo of the mural carefully and found that the appearance of the captive was actually similar to the image of Wang Zanghai on the porcelain painting. I was surprised and said, “Is this Wang Zanghai? The Jurchen people are capturing him?”

Kirk said, “Yes, this is the first picture. This is the picture. What does it mean? It means that Wang Zanghai may have been forced to build this place. He was captured.”

I suddenly saw a hint, and looked at the other pictures. I said, “What about these pictures?”

“They are all about what happened to Wang Zanghai after he was captured and was in the hands of the Dongxi people. Although we can’t fully understand them, we can guess what happened from the previous photos.”

I looked at one of them carefully and suddenly found something wrong again: “This one…”

Kirk looked at it and nodded: “You have a good eye. This one is also very important. Have you noticed that this is the imperial tomb in the crater? When Wang Zanghai was taken captive, the imperial tomb already existed and was already very dilapidated.”

I exclaimed, “Ah,” so he didn’t build the imperial tomb above our heads?

Kirk said, “We have studied the overall style of the mausoleum above, which is from the Yin and Shang dynasties, but he changed it to the Ming style. The Dongxia people didn’t kidnap him to build the mausoleum, but to rebuild it, because it had been used for so many years that it was no longer usable.”

“So the underground palace here also existed long ago?” the fat man asked.

Kirk nodded: “We used these photos to find the old road here, but there are still some photos that we can’t understand, like this one.”

It was a mural of countless evil spirits bursting out of the stone. It was the penultimate photo. There was another photo that depicted a black mass of something like a soft organism, climbing up from some huge cliff, and someone above was dumping something down.

I was nervous and relieved. I was about to sit down and take a closer look when Aning suddenly reached out and said, “Okay, we’re done talking. You can look at the photos anytime. Now, do you have anything to tell us?”

“Tell what?” I was confused.

“I’ve told you everything about me, and about you and Wu Sanxing,” Aning looked at me, “You’re not more stingy than me, are you?”

I thought to myself, what the hell are you talking about? You haven’t said anything. You haven’t even mentioned the main point. You think I’m the same Wu Xie who didn’t know anything before? Then I asked her, “Is there a man here called Wu Laosi?”

A-Ning nodded and said, “What? Do you know him?”

I took out two copper coins from my pocket and waved them in front of them. “Everything you need to know is in there. If Wu Laosi is still alive, let him come out!”

In an instant, I saw Kirk almost fall to the ground, and A Ning’s eyes were also straight, stuttering, “Oh my god! You actually have two… pieces of…” As soon as I moved my arm, their eyes followed me.