Volume 8 Chapter 19 Secrets
I heard this and cursed in my heart. The fat guy heard my movement and turned around, looking embarrassed. He immediately said, ”Are you awake? Come on, I’ve saved you some food. Eat it while it’s still hot.
I glared at him and said, “What did you just say? What can’t I know?”
I had just woken up, and I didn’t look good. I hated it when people kept things from me. I knew that what he was trying to tell me might not be true, but I was still very unhappy.
The fat guy was shocked and pretended to be confused. “What can’t you know? I said I can’t let you get tired. Did you hear it wrong?”
I spat and sat down next to him and said, “Come on, don’t think you’re my uncle, you can’t fool me. What’s the matter? Tell me or I’m not finished with you.”
The fat guy looked at my expression, and I looked at him without giving an inch, urging, “Say it. You’re trying to hide it even though it’s all out in the open. I can’t tell you things? If you don’t tell me, then we’ll part ways. You know I hate it when people keep things from me. I’ll do what I say. If you don’t, you’ll see me die here.”
The fat guy scratched his head: ‘Damn it, why are you acting like a woman? You’re being so dramatic. I’m not telling you because I think it’s for your own good.’
I scolded him: ”Don’t give me that. I’ve heard that before. I can judge for myself. What’s going on?”
Of course, I was just talking, but I knew that the fat man was not like Uncle San. Under such circumstances, he would not insist, otherwise he could not stand the atmosphere. The fat man is not a particularly persistent person, and I especially appreciate this.
Sure enough, the fat man looked at the oil bottle, and the oil bottle did not make any indication. He sighed and said, “You and I will come to see something.”
I couldn’t walk, so Fat Man helped me and we went under the awning. The documents on top had already been sorted out, so it was obvious that they had been looked at. Fat Man folded all the documents together, revealing the stone platform underneath. I saw that underneath the documents, on the flat surface of the huge stone, there were several large characters written in black charcoal.
It was dark at night, and it was far from the bonfire, so it was hard to see. Fat Man turned on the miner’s lamp to illuminate the area for me. I walked a few steps away to take a closer look, and I froze.
It was a sentence:
We have found the ultimate entrance. There is no turning back. Farewell forever. Our wishes have been fulfilled.
There is no regret. This place is dangerous. You must leave quickly.
I froze. The fat man said behind me, “I saw it when I was packing the documents. I originally covered it up so you wouldn’t see it, so you wouldn’t get into a corner… It seems that your third uncle was determined to die this time, and, moreover, he chose to leave you behind forever.”
This is indeed my uncle’s handwriting. Although it is not very neat, I can still recognize the writing habits after doing rubbings for so many years. The handwriting is quite sloppy, and it is obvious that he was in a very urgent or emotional situation at the time.
I was a little overwhelmed, but my heart was strangely calm, without any emotions, and my mind was blank. I thought I would always have some kind of emotion, such as worry or anger, but I didn’t feel anything.
The fat man thought I was depressed and patted me on the back. He didn’t say anything else. I walked a few steps and looked at the characters, but I still couldn’t stir up any emotion.
My concern for Uncle San’s safety had been worn away during this long process. Although I still didn’t want anything to happen to him, in this environment, it wouldn’t be surprising if something did happen. I had come to terms with the fact that I would die, so death was no longer a concern for us.
It’s like war, when everyone is likely to die, people are only concerned about the outcome, not the safety of an individual.
I suddenly felt that I could understand Uncle San. This sentence, appearing here, was already the greatest kindness Uncle San had shown me. If we were to switch places, the secret I was pursuing, which I could not tell my nephew, was right in front of me, and the road ahead was extremely dangerous.
Moreover, if I were the old me, I would probably be in tears, and Uncle San would never appear again, and I would always feel regretful until time dulled it.
The problem is that I am no longer the old me, and what I am pursuing is the great mystery behind these events, and it is no longer Uncle San himself. The situation is exactly the same as before, and this may be why my heart is at peace.
I don’t know if this is a sign of progress or just my exhaustion. Maybe these are all excuses. Uncle San is already far, far away from me.
I looked at him for a while in silence, then turned around. Fat Man came up and hooked his arm around my shoulder, comforting me, “I told you not to look, but you wouldn’t listen. You’re just adding to my troubles. There’s nothing you can do about it. Don’t think about it anymore.”
I didn’t want to explain my state of mind to him, so I didn’t answer. He hooked me and helped me back to the campfire, gave me a bowl of something to eat.
It was boiled compressed biscuit paste. I didn’t have much of an appetite, and I ate very slowly. The fat man continued to comfort me, saying, “Your uncle is no ordinary person. Extraordinary people have extraordinary endings. It’s destined, and he has so much experience, he may not be able to come back.”
I sighed and said I was fine. I was used to this kind of thing. I was just wondering where the entrance was.
When we were in the rainforest, I had already predicted that I might not see my uncle again. Because the red smoke meant danger, the person who was making the smoke would not be in the place where the smoke was coming from. At the time, I thought that my uncle might have left after making the smoke.
Now it was clear that I had been right about most of it, but I had not thought that my uncle would have found the entrance, which meant that their location was completely unknown.
My uncle had camped here and found the entrance. Then they should have packed up and left calmly, leaving this unmanned camp. In order to prevent me from following, he lit a red smoke and left a message here, then entered the entrance and never returned.
He said that there was no way back, and Uncle San was not the type of person who would accept his fate. This entrance must be extremely dangerous, so much so that he made the judgment that he would die, or there were some reasons that made it impossible to return after entering this place.
It seems that this is the case.
According to this judgment, the entrance should be nearby, perhaps even inside this temple. I don’t know how much Uncle San had in his hands, but he wasn’t just looking around blindly. He must have followed some kind of clue or trace. We don’t know anything about this, but we can still speculate.
Fatso said, “Then let’s go look around for clues later. Maybe we’ll find something. Right, little brother?”
He asked about the Mian Youping, and gave him a wink, obviously wanting Mian Youping to comfort me, but Mian Youping shook his head. I looked at him, and he said, “Since Wu Sanxing wrote it like this, he is sure that we won’t be able to find that place.”
“Why?” The fat man was not convinced.
Muyoubing looked at the campfire and said lightly, “Wu Sanxian is meticulous and knows that if we see the message, we will definitely know that the entrance is nearby. He doesn’t want Wu Xie to get into danger, so if the entrance is easy to find, he definitely wouldn’t leave a message. The reason he left it is that the entrance must be extremely difficult to find, or even if we find it, we won’t be able to enter.”
He made sense, and I sighed, thinking that even if there was a clue, San Shu would probably destroy it for insurance.
The fat man said in a depressed tone, “Then we didn’t make a trip for nothing?”
Muyoubing shook his head: “For you, this may be a good thing.”
“You, my fat uncle, ran a thousand kilometers, crossed the Gobi Desert and the desert, entered the rainforest and came here, and then went back after a sunbath. This is called a good thing?” The fat man leaned against the stone and scratched his head. “There is nothing broken here, and this time it is really a loss that even grandpa doesn’t know.”
Muyoubing looked up and said, “However, there may not be absolutely no way to find the entrance.” He looked around the campsite and said, “Moreover, the situation in this campsite is very strange. It doesn’t seem like a simple retreat. Wu Sansheng’s words may not be trustworthy.”