Volume 6Chapter 25: Restart
At this point, Uncle San had told us everything he knew about the whole story.
After he finished, both of us felt relieved. Uncle San probably felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and I felt like I had just finished watching a movie.
We both fell silent. Uncle San went to the bathroom, and I closed my eyes and thought over everything he had just told us. After a few minutes, I had a very clear picture of what had happened.
Although the whole thing was not 100% clear, the cause and effect of Jude and Uncle San were mostly clear.
As for Uncle San, his experience in the underwater tomb was the beginning of his nightmare, and it was also the opportunity for him to gradually mature from a bandit. In order to find the archaeological team that disappeared in the ancient tomb, he could be said to have devoted his entire life to it. Not to mention the money and time, he even sacrificed his own career in order to delay the progress of Ah Ning and the others. Except for a few particularly loyal employees, all of his employees in Changsha had dispersed. Uncle San should be considered one of the top figures among the descendants of the Nine Gates. Now everything has vanished.
Now he himself has fallen into a semi-dead situation. At his age, he should have retired long ago. Of course, the unluckiest person is me, suffering from both mental and physical torture. However, after hearing the rest of the story, I realized that this incident seems to have nothing to do with me. Now that I think about it, I feel that perhaps Uncle San was actually being kind when he lied to me. If I had known how deep the water was, I probably wouldn’t have stepped in.
The most important message Uncle San gave me was that, on their boat, in addition to him and Xie Lianhuan, there seemed to be a third person who knew about the ancient tomb at the bottom of the sea.
This person must be one of the ten, because when they finally entered the underwater tomb, there was no boat on the surface of the sea, and only those few people went down.
So, there were ten of them in total, excluding Uncle San, Wen Jin, Mian Youbing, Huo Ling, Xie Lianhuan (who died), and the person who sent him back, leaving only four people, Li Sidi and the others. If Mian Youbing’s words are true, then this person should be one of the four. There should be one more woman among these four people, so there are actually only three people to choose from.
If it wasn’t for the return of the undead, this mysterious person would definitely be one of these three people. Of course, there is still a question here, and that is who Mian Youbing saw before he fell into a coma. This question is very strange. If you try to explain it by saying that he saw the wrong person, it makes sense, but it still feels a bit off. I’ll have to think about it more when I get back.
As for Jude Kao, it was about the year when Jude Kao was doing archaeology in Xisha. Jude Kao refused to say, obviously this matter was very critical and involved the core secret. And the reason why he was willing to tell the previous things, now it seems that these things are irrelevant. At that time, what he was pursuing was only the meaning of the Warring States silk book, which was an academic matter.
But obviously, his goal has now changed. I have discovered a place that Uncle San did not think of. What is the purpose of this Jude Kao? It is still a mystery. Filming the dead, filming murals, entering the Lu Palace, and entering the Yunding Palace, this is definitely not academic research. What does he want to do?
Jude Kao is already a ninety-year-old man, and he is still doing this. Obviously, it is not for money or fame or status. This is really a bit strange.
When Uncle San came back from the bathroom, I told him what I had thought. He nodded and said to me, “I’ve actually thought about this, but this matter is really too complicated for me to explain. You see, after Jude started the Xisha Project, I completely lost track of it. However, if you look carefully, you can still feel a clue. The Lu Palace, the underwater tombs, and the Genting Palace are all places that Wang Zanghai has been to. On the surface, it is obvious that they seem to be following Wang Zanghai’s footsteps. I feel that they are looking for something, something that Wang Zanghai may have left in these ancient tombs.
“Something left in the ancient tombs?” I thought for a moment, “Could it be the Snake-Eyed Bronze Fish?”
In order to pass down the secrets of Dongxia, Wang Zanghai hid the snake-brow copper fish in the treasure eyes of the great geomancy, hoping that it would be discovered by tomb robbers in the future. So the snake-brow copper fish was hidden in those ancient tombs.
Uncle San shook his head and said he couldn’t make it out. It didn’t seem like it. It seemed like something else. They repeatedly entered the underwater tombs, as if they were trying to get clues about where Wang Zanghai had been and then go find it.
“Actually, I don’t care what they want to do. I just want to know what happened to them when they disappeared at the bottom of the sea in Xisha. Where did Wenjin go? I was staring at Jude Kao because this Xisha incident must be related to his purpose. Unfortunately, the more I investigated, the more complicated it became. Uncle San sighed and said, “In the end, I didn’t know what I was looking for. I could only try to be faster than them and find what they were looking for a step ahead, so that I could threaten the old ghost to tell the truth. Unfortunately, your uncle San is old, and many things are beyond my control.”
I patted him to comfort him and said, “The thread of the geomancy has ended. It has reached the end at the Genting Palace. It was clear that the purpose of Ah Ning and the others was to carry the coffin, but the situation was chaotic at the time and they failed. I think they may go in again. Anyway, the Genting Palace should be the last stop. Whether they find it or not, this matter should be coming to an end. Uncle San, don’t be too persistent. For some things, you’ve done your best, so don’t think too much.”
Uncle San smiled wryly: “The end? I thought so at first, but now it seems that it’s too early to say so.” He then picked up the videotape that the oil lamp had sent and patted it, ‘This thing is definitely not over yet. Let’s see what’s inside first.’