Volume 9 Chapter 6 Subversion

I said, “This… This is how Uncle San looked when he was young. I’ve seen his old black and white photos, and they look very similar.”

Wen Jin smiled and said, “The world is not only about photos. Two people who are related by blood may also look similar.”

“Ah?” I was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized something. ”Wait, what do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that this person is not my uncle? Then who is he?”

I suddenly felt a chill, and the fragments of the past suddenly came together in front of me to form a face.

Blood relationship! Similar appearance!

I suddenly realized: “No, no!” I almost yelled, and the stuffy oil bottle immediately held me down. I couldn’t control my voice anymore, and I shouted, “My God, my God, is this person—Xie Lianhuan?”

Wen Jin nodded, and I was horrified. All my pores stood up, and countless threads began to combine in my brain. My God, I seemed to understand what was going on.

“The resolution of the photo is not high, so it’s normal to make a mistake, especially when your uncle said that,” Wen Jin said. ”Anyone would think that way.”

“What about my uncle?”

Wen Jin said, “Your uncle was indeed with us at the time, but he is not in this photo, he is outside the photo.” She held up the photo and pointed to the front of it.

I looked at Wen Jin’s gesture and suddenly understood. I felt all the blood rushing to my throat. This… this… son of a bitch, what’s going on? That’s the position of the camera.

In other words, at that time, Uncle San was taking a picture of them, and that—that the eleventh person was none other than Uncle San himself?

“But that doesn’t make sense. Why would your uncle take the photo? You could have asked someone less important to take the photo, like Xie Lianhuan, who was just tagging along, but your uncle had to take the photo?” I asked.

Wen Jin let out a sigh: “You’re still perceptive. You should be able to feel the problem here. In the version your uncle told you, there are some things that have fundamental problems, and they were there from the very beginning.” She paused, “I’ll tell you, in fact, at the time, it wasn’t Xie Lianhuan who came to me to ask me to join the archaeological team, but your uncle Wu Sansheng.”

“Ah?” I couldn’t react at once.

“Think about it carefully. Although the things your uncle told you were very smooth, logically they all had some small flaws. How could Jude Kao, an experienced smuggler, choose to implement his plan with Xie Liankuan, who had no experience in the field? At the time, he was in Changsha, and the most outstanding person he could find through connections and who was also most interested in smuggling overseas was your uncle. Only your uncle would have the courage to cooperate with such a cunning old fox with such a dark background. Therefore, the person that Jude Kao was working with at the time was not Xie Lianquan, but your third uncle. Another advantage of Jude Kao choosing Wu Sanxing was that he and I were dating at the time, which made it very convenient for me to infiltrate the archaeological team. Therefore, this is the most logical explanation.

I nodded, and suddenly remembered that my uncle had also mentioned this. I thought he was complaining to me, but it turns out that he was playing a game with me.

“At the time, Xie Lianhuan was indeed working in my archaeological team. He was a student at the University of Archaeology at the time, and because of family connections, his father arranged for him to be enrolled in my school. This person is not as useless as your third uncle said. Although he has a bit of a spoiled temperament, Xie Lianhuan is extremely talented. The word “Lianhuan” was the name his father gave him when he was three years old because he could already solve the “Nine Linked Rings” by himself. This person is quiet and introverted, but he is very meticulous and his grades are very good. He entered the university entirely of his own volition.” She paused: ”You see, your third uncle has it all backwards.”

I couldn’t handle such a complicated matter at once, so I waved my hand and sorted it out in my mind: At that time, Jude Kao found Uncle San and told him about the Xisha incident. Uncle San then designed to join the archaeological team to Xisha to look for ancient tombs, and Xie Lianhuan had nothing to do with this matter at all.

“But why did he say it the other way around? There’s no reason for it. I’ve known him to be this way for a long time. Could it be that he deliberately told such a big lie just to maintain his position in my heart? This doesn’t fit his character.”

“Why did he do that? Don’t you understand by now? He said everything backwards, but what happened before the trip to Xisha wasn’t everything. What he really wanted to hide was what happened afterwards.”

I carefully recalled the entire process that Uncle San had said, and suddenly I felt as if I had fallen into a bottomless ice pit, and all the blood in my body froze: everything was said in reverse, so the most terrifying thing was not these trivial details, but what happened that night!

Then, it wasn’t that Xie Lianhuan was discovered by Uncle San while bathing, but that Uncle San was discovered by Xie Lianhuan while bathing.

Xie Lianhuan might have threatened San Shu to take him to the tomb, or else he would have told Wen Jin everything. San Shu then took him to the tomb, and then Xie Lianhuan must have triggered the mechanism in the tomb.

Everything makes perfect sense. Everything starts to fit with the character’s qualifications and personality.

At the last moment, the version that Uncle San told me was that he left Xie Lianhuan in the tomb, and then he escaped. Then, the most unimaginable situation occurred.

If it were the other way around, to keep everything reasonable, then it would be Xie Lianhuan who came out of the tomb, and Uncle San was knocked unconscious and left in the tomb. Then, it was Uncle San who died at the bottom of the sea!

Then who is my Uncle San now? Oh, I don’t dare to think about it anymore.

Wen Jin looked at my expression and said, “Now you finally understand that your so-called Uncle San is not Wu Sanxing at all. This is also the reason why your Uncle San would never tell you the truth, because from the very beginning, everything was already wrong. He had already been replaced by someone else at the bottom of the sea.”

“But, but how is this possible? Why didn’t my family members discover it?”

“That’s because your third uncle is a strange character. He lived alone as a teenager and rarely met your family. As long as you put on a little makeup and have some understanding of your third uncle’s character, you can get away with it. I think you also feel that your current third uncle is completely different from the third uncle you remember from when you were a child.

My clothes were all wet, and after five or six years of being apart, he suddenly appeared. His personality or appearance had changed, and others could accept it. I also felt that the current third uncle was much more peaceful than before. When he was young, he was simply a lawless person.

After Wen Jin finished speaking, I was completely unable to think. Or rather, I had so many questions and so many speculations in my mind that I suddenly had to think again. It was all so confusing.

“But, San… solving the chain of events, why did he do that? Why did he switch identities with my uncle?”

“This is a very complicated situation. First of all, it may be because of the files. After he returned from the ancient tomb under the sea, we all disappeared. If he had appeared at the office normally, his problem would have been quite serious. Others would have investigated him. His background in Changsha was too special. If he had been investigated, there would have been too many links, and it could have caused huge problems. At that time, Wu Sanxing was an extra employee, and his name was not in the file, so no one knew his connection to the incident. Therefore, the Xie family weighed the pros and cons and probably chose this method. At the same time, he could also get all of Wu Sanxing’s property, which was a huge benefit to the Xie family, which was in decline at the time. However, once this drama is started, it cannot be stopped. You know that your second uncle was a notorious troublemaker in Changsha when he was young, and he must not be provoked. If he finds out that his brother was murdered and the body was switched, he will definitely come after the Xie family. With the power of Master Wu and your grandmother’s family, it will be a bloody mess.” Wen Jin said, ”I have been secretly paying attention to this matter and wanted to inform your family of it in some way. But after Xie Lianquan showed his ability, I was extremely scared. This person is extremely meticulous. I feel that if I come out and say this matter, I may be bitten back. So I can only lurk.

I covered my face and began to resist in my heart, feeling that all of this could not possibly be true. I said, “So, what really happened at the bottom of the Xisha Sea? Why did you suddenly disappear? Also, why is there a bloody inscription on the top of the tomb that says, ‘Wu Sansheng harmed me’? If Xie Lianhuan harmed Third Uncle, then it should mean the opposite! No, no, this doesn’t make sense. You must be lying to me!”

Wen Jin looked at me, and seemed to be a little distressed, grabbing my hand and saying softly, “Xiao Xie, you have lived with him for so many years, and I know you can’t possibly believe this. So, I also thought about not saying this, but you are so obsessed with this mystery. Even if I don’t say it now, I don’t think he can hide it for too long. Because things have come to this point, there are too many loopholes. He has no way to get away with it except by constantly lying to you. It’s too late for you to choose not to believe now.”

I thought to myself, “I’m not disbelieving, I already believe it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so uncomfortable. I calmed down a bit and asked, ”I know, you continue. I’m just venting a bit, it’s a bit uncomfortable.”

Wen Jin put my hand on her palm and patted it. I suddenly felt a warmth pass through me. She continued, “The next thing you may find even harder to believe.”

Uncle San suddenly drowned and was found holding a snake-browed copper fish in his hand. It was obvious that he had evil intentions and the final consequences had come upon him. Wen Jin was grief-stricken, but later the situation was urgent and she had to continue to preside over the work, taking people down to the bottom of the sea.

The process after that was basically consistent with what “Uncle San” told me after solving the mystery. He probably was afraid that the real Uncle San would leave clues about him in the ancient tomb at the bottom of the sea, so he pretended to be unfit. After they started exploring the tomb, he secretly followed them, and was finally blocked outside the Qimen Dunjia.

Wen Jin and the others disappeared into the tomb and never reappeared, so he came up with the idea of pretending to be Uncle San and swapping identities. After being rescued, when someone asked him his name, he used the name Wu Sanxing, the fisherman who had saved him. Otherwise, his identity would have been revealed, and this was obviously a well-thought-out plan. Wen Jin said that Xie Lianhuan was meticulous and meticulous, and that was true.

Wen Jin and the others went all the way to the temple where the model of the Genting Palace was placed, but they were knocked out by someone who looked exactly like Uncle San.

Wen Jin said, “If I tell you, you may not believe it.” I thought to myself that we had already come to this point, and in fact, there was no longer any question of believing or not believing, so I let her not worry about my feelings.

Wen Jin said, “The person who knocked us out was not someone who looked like your third uncle. He was actually your third uncle.”

There was a third uncle in the east and a third uncle in the west. I was a little confused about the real and fake third uncles, so I said to her, “Let’s use our real names. What you mean is that the one who knocked you out was really Wu Sanxing. But wasn’t his body found?

“We made a mistake. The body we found in the sea was not Wu Sanxing. It must have been one of the first people hired by Jude Kao. This group failed, but they brought out detailed maps of the ancient tombs, so Jude Kao was able to provide such good information. The face of that corpse had been smashed by the rocks and was already swollen. In addition, the diving suit he was wearing was the same as the one Wu Sanxing had received from Jude Kao. That’s why we identified him as Wu Sanxing. Actually, I was a little suspicious at the time, but I didn’t have the experience of identifying such a corpse, and the diving suit was very peculiar, which was too convincing.

“So, according to what the little brother recalled at the time, when you first saw him, he first pretended to be a woman, then hid from you, escaped into the hole behind the mirror, and drugged you. Why did he do that?”

“Because he thought that Xie Lianhuan had already told me everything,” Wen Jin said. ”He thought I had come to confront him. If it had been just me, it would have been fine, but the entire archaeological team had come down. Obviously, he thought his business was completely exposed, which was a very serious crime at the time. So, as the team leader, I couldn’t favor him in front of so many people. He had to take measures on his own without implicating me. So he decided to drug us and then make plans.”

“That’s how the last scene happened,” I continued. ”That makes sense, but what about the blood writing?”

“Those blood characters are your problem. You misunderstood them yourself,” Wen Jin said. ”Think about it. How were those characters arranged?”

I thought to myself, could this also be a misunderstanding? It was so clear, so I dipped my hand in the water from the kettle and wrote down the characters on the stone wall according to my memory.

Wu Haixie

I even

save my life

not