Volume 6 Chapter 1 Uncle San’s Awakening

About a month after the adventure in the Genting Palace, I stayed in Jilin to take care of Uncle San. This time I was more careful, for I was afraid that he would wake up and leave without saying goodbye, so I simply stayed in the hospital and lived by his bedside.

What happened later proved that I was very wise, but at the time, no one else thought so.

After his condition stabilized, there was still no sign of him waking up. His breathing was steady and his complexion was rosy, but he had no mental response. The doctor said that this was normal. His wound had become very serious, and it was not known whether the fever had damaged the central nervous system.

I had no choice but to wait. During this time, some people from home came to see me a few times, but I refused to go out to eat because I was afraid that if I left the hospital, when I returned, Uncle San would disappear again. My mother also said that I was silly, but I was very persistent in my thoughts. It is no exaggeration to say that for more than a month before Uncle San woke up, I hardly left him for more than ten meters.

During the long wait, I also did a lot of things. I have almost finished sorting out all the clues in the Yunding Palace. After several consultants from A Ning’s company returned to China, they also sent me the information they had in their hands, including the dozen metaphorical murals that A Ning took in the main coffin room of the back hall of the underwater tomb, the complete translation of the bronze fish, and so on.

All of this added up, and I had a complete understanding of the part of the mystery of Wang Zanghai, and my mood gradually relaxed. Wang Zanghai can be said to be a genius who transcends the times. Now he can rest in peace, because the secret he carefully passed down has been received by someone. Although it is in my time, I still cannot explain the scene he saw at the time, but since the secret has been passed down, there will always be a day to solve it.

What I can’t get over is the purpose of the oil-filled bottle and Uncle San. According to my guess, the people who entered the underwater tomb twenty years ago seemed to be looking for the giant door at the bottom of the palace of the clouds, and they all wanted to go in. I saw with my own eyes that the oil-filled bottle went in in a way that was shocking, and the two missing bodies (I don’t know who they are) in the treasure room with Li Sidi and the others may have also gone in.

Why did they go in? Or what did they go in for?

All the mysteries are focused on what happened in the underwater tomb 20 years ago. Wang Zanghai should have left something or a message in his own tomb. This thing or message is the reason and key that made them all think that they must go to the Genting Palace. Unfortunately, I have to wait for Uncle San to wake up before I can get an answer.

In addition, I also helped Fatso auction off the six gold items he brought with him. This time, he made the most money. The value of these gold items was very high. One of them, a Western-style gold cup with inlaid agate, was auctioned for 400,000 US dollars. Fatso was still very loyal and gave me a little money as a commission, saying that it would be used to buy equipment for the next time I caught a lama. I swore to him that there would definitely be no next time.

As the days passed, I felt a hint of boredom creeping in. During the long wait, my patience was gradually wearing thin. In the first few months, there were still a lot of things for me to take care of, but later on, I spent all my time looking at the black and white photo on Uncle San’s computer. I often wondered what that boring, lazy man was doing.

Just when I thought I would have to live like this for a long time, Uncle San’s doctor suddenly came to see me and said he had something important to discuss with me.

I thought that something had happened to my uncle, so I went with him to his office. I didn’t expect to see one of the employees from my uncle’s shop there. I asked him what he wanted to talk to me about, but he couldn’t say.

I suddenly felt something was wrong, so I hurried back to the ward. I couldn’t help but grit my teeth. My uncle was gone.

Just when I was feeling annoyed and wanted to beat up the doctor, I saw that Uncle San was being escorted back to the ward, dejected and dispirited. The person escorting him was none other than my second uncle.

I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t expose Uncle San. After a while of chatting, I took the opportunity to tell him everything that had happened after he fell into a coma and all my speculations.

Later, my uncle went back, and before he left, he asked me to keep an eye on this old child. As soon as my uncle left, I immediately confronted him, asking him when he had actually woken up and how long he had pretended to be unconscious.

Uncle San was very embarrassed, but since I had seen through him, he had no choice but to say that he had just woken up and was going to go to the bathroom. I didn’t argue with him about this, because maybe it was true. I didn’t believe that he could pretend to be unconscious for a whole month. How could he bear it? But when I asked him about other things, he simply gave up and refused to say anything. He said it had nothing to do with me.

When I got angry, I started to scold him. I said, “You old man, do you know how much suffering I have gone through for your sake? There are also people like Da Kui and Pan Zi who have followed you through thick and thin. Shouldn’t you show them some respect? At least let them know that they risked their lives for you, and for what?

I was really a bit angry when I said this, especially when I thought of Pan Zi’s deep affection for this old man. I really couldn’t say anything.

Uncle San then fell silent, smiled bitterly several times, sighed, shook his head and said, “This has nothing to do with you. Knowing it might make you even more distressed. I’m not saying it because I want to protect you. Why do you have to do this?”

I shook my head, indicating that I was the one who was distressed, and that I had to know the truth of the whole matter, otherwise I would never give up.

I said this very firmly, and I looked at Uncle San when I said it, to let him know that he absolutely couldn’t escape this time, and to let him not have any delusions.

This is also one of the results of my learning in the past few days. I have already considered this situation, so I have read many psychological articles to see how to make people give up their defense of keeping secrets.

Uncle San thought about it for a while, then sighed again, as if he had finally made up his mind. He rubbed his eyes and said, “Alas, I never thought that people say that children are creditors from a previous life. I thought that if I didn’t have any children, it would be fine, but I never thought that I would still be saddled with you. It seems that you are going to find out no matter what today?”

I said angrily, “You still have the face to say that? You don’t know who owes whom. Have you almost been buried alive at the bottom of the sea? Have you almost been eaten by monkeys? Have you…”

Uncle San made a gesture of surrender and said, “Okay, okay. Since you want to know so badly, I’ll make an exception and tell you this time. However, you must make an oath that you will not tell anyone after listening to it.”

I took an oath. I eat rice for a living, so how can I take it seriously? I immediately made a deadly oath that my entire family would die.

Uncle San was surprised at the viciousness of my oath, and it took him a while to shake his head and laugh. He then said, “I’ll say it upfront. Not everyone can believe this. If you don’t believe me after I’ve said it, there’s nothing I can do.”

I coughed anxiously and said, “What can’t I believe now? Just tell me.”

Uncle San sighed, took out a half-smoked cigarette from his pocket, and looked out the door to see if there was a nurse. He puffed on it with a pained look, and then said, “That was a long time ago. If you want to know all the details, I’ll start with that incident.”