Volume 8 Chapter 42 Refuge

After a long journey, I was exhausted. When I saw the situation in front of me, I was a bit overwhelmed. I just reflexively took a few steps back, exhausted and almost fainting.

However, the people around me laughed when they saw my face. Then someone helped the two bodies up. I realized that the two were actually dummies. They had stuffed something into the diving suits, and the heads of the two were two inflated black waterproof bags with two pieces of flattened chewing gum stuck on them. Two stones were also glued in the middle as eyes. Because the lenses of the gas masks were blurred and my nerves were sensitive, at first glance, it really looked like that.

I laughed at myself, and the person who helped me up moved the dummy to the stone gate. I asked the person next to me, “What is this for?”

One person said to me, “It’s for scaring the snakes. The snakes here are so smart. As soon as there are fewer people, something will definitely happen, so we don’t dare to leave people to watch the camp. But it seems that they can’t tell the difference between real people and dummies. Putting this at the door will make us sleep more soundly at night.”

From the tone of the man’s voice, it was clear that he had been deeply affected by the snakes. Then someone took out the yellow smoke bomb and threw it into the campfire, and suddenly thick smoke rose.

“This is sulfur, used to drive snakes away,” the man continued.

After slapping it once, it seemed that there was no movement, and the men sat down in a disorderly manner.

Someone took out a few more crude dummies made of twigs from the equipment on one side, took off their clothes, put them on the dummies, and then piled them up at the door and collapsed the entrance.

After that, the atmosphere really eased up. The black-glasses man added firewood to the campfire and then divided it into several piles. The space within this small relic was lit up red, and the people around him took off their gas masks one after another. One of the men saw that I was not taking mine off, so he gestured to me that it was okay, saying that these snakes were very strange and would never come near a fire.

I had to take off my gas mask as well. I had been wearing it for six or seven hours, and my face was melting. I felt much more refreshed, and everything in front of me was also refreshing.

I was able to see the true faces of San Shu’s men. After a quick glance, I knew that Pan Zi was right. Except for a couple of old faces, everyone else was new. It seemed that San Shu really didn’t have many old friends.

We greeted each other. One of the people who had just explained to me told me his name was “Mop” and that he had brought this group of people to work with Uncle San.

I could tell from his tone that he was a bit uncomfortable, but I couldn’t tell what was wrong.

Black-glasses was still as carefree as ever, cheerfully looking at me, taking out something to eat, and many people took off their shoes to roast their feet. All of a sudden, the whole place was full of athlete’s foot. I thought to myself, “This is the smell of motherfucker. Even without the dummy, those snakes can’t get in.”

Just as I was thinking, Uncle San sat down next to me and handed me something to eat. We looked at each other and couldn’t help but smile wryly. He said, “You’re laughing your ass off, damn it! If you weren’t my nephew, I’d really like to beat you to death.”

I didn’t even have the energy to argue with him, but when I looked at Uncle San, I noticed that he had swept away the listlessness in the hospital and was full of vigor. He seemed to have regained the natural character of a hero from the past, and I couldn’t help but feel relieved. I said, “Even if you beat me to death, I will come back as a ghost. Uncle San, let’s not beat around the bush. I know that your nephew is involved in this matter, and if it were you, would you just let it go?”

Uncle San should already know the ins and outs of my coming along. He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, then smiled bitterly: “Well, your uncle San has to admit defeat. You’re just like your father, soft on the outside but stubborn on the inside. I won’t say anything to you, since you’re here anyway, and I can’t send you back now.”

I smiled and asked him, “By the way, what happened to you? How did you get ahead of us? Didn’t Pan Zi say you would wait for the signal outside?“

”We couldn’t wait any longer. Your uncle knew Wen Jin was waiting for him here, and there was only so much time, so how could he wait for your signal?” The black-glasses man on the side laughed and patted Uncle San on the shoulder. ”Uncle San, your father is too sentimental. When we were singing karaoke in Changsha, we couldn’t tell you had such a broad mind.”

Uncle San slapped his hand away and glared at him, explaining, “I realized that this might be the last chance I would ever have to see Wenjin when I heard the old woman tell me that Wenjin was waiting for us in front. I couldn’t miss it no matter what, otherwise, I would have really lived a wasted life. So I couldn’t take any risks. To be honest, if I could see Wenjin just once, I would be willing to die right away.”

I was shocked. “Wait, listen to the old woman?” I realized that he was referring to Dingzhu Zhuoma. I was stunned and thought to myself, “No way.” “So she… also… gave you a message?”

Looking at my puzzled face, Black Glasses laughed, “Giggle, giggle, giggle,” and I didn’t know what he was laughing at. Uncle San nodded and told me about the situation when he met Black Glasses.

It turned out that Uncle San’s progress was much faster than we had imagined. Pan Zi had just set off with us less than ten hours ago, and Uncle San had already arrived in the Devil’s City and learned about the situation. Just when he thought everything was going well, that night, Dingzhu Zhuoma actually found him, and just as I and Mian Youping had encountered at the time, she conveyed Wenjin’s message.

Unlike us, Uncle San was not so honest. He immediately asked Dingzhu Zhuoma for more detailed information. Dingzhu Zhuoma was still playing mysterious with Uncle San, but Uncle San was not a good-tempered person. When he heard the news that Wenjin was still alive, he immediately went crazy and immediately ordered someone to put Tashi and Dingzhu Zhuoma’s daughter-in-law down. Uncle San did not tell me the specific process, but it was obvious that he was coming to a bad end and threatened the old woman.

The way the people on the street do things is really different from what I thought. I can’t do this. Although I don’t agree with what Uncle San did, it must have been effective. Then Dingzhu Zhuoma had to reveal the situation of Wen Jin’s message to him, and told Uncle San that I and the Mian Youbing also got the message.

“She said that a month after she was separated from the expedition team, she met Wen Jin again in Golmud. At that time, Wen Jin seemed to have undergone a major change. She took Wen Jin home to stay for a night, and that night, Wen Jin gave her the videotapes to keep for him. Uncle San said, “For more than ten years, they had no contact with each other. It wasn’t until a few months ago that she suddenly received a letter from Wenjin, asking her to send the three tapes to three different addresses and telling her to convey a message to the recipient if they came to inquire.

Knowing that Wen Jin was in Golmud, Uncle San almost went crazy and immediately set out to find this oasis. Because our tire had a flat, progress was slow in the last few days, and they had already overtaken us and entered the oasis at this time, but they entered a different entrance than ours.

After that, they traveled through the rainforest overnight and set up camp on the ruins. That night, Uncle San took some people out to look for Wenjin. When they returned, all the remaining people were gone. Uncle San knew something was wrong. The next morning, they found our signal smoke. Uncle San then lit lit a red smoke to warn us not to approach, and took the others to search around. They were lured by the snakes all the way, and finally found the quagmire. Then they heard someone screaming under the beast’s mouth, so they immediately went in to rescue the person.

I don’t need to describe the rest.

After listening to it, I couldn’t help but be dumbfounded. This is more or less what I imagined. When I first read the preface to Wenjin’s notes, I had a feeling that there must be a part for Third Uncle. But now that it’s been confirmed, I’m a little less convinced.

In that case, Dingzhuoma didn’t know anything about the deeper things either. She was found by Aning and the others and rehired as a guide, which was completely an accident. Otherwise, the place where we heard the message should have been her home.

The clues in my head were becoming clearer and clearer, and some fragments could already be pieced together: the three people mentioned in Wen Jin’s notes should obviously be me, Mian Youbing, and Third Uncle. I had previously thought that A Ning had received the tape, which had previously been confirmed to be for Mian Youbing. Mian Youbing had cooperated with Third Uncle this time to deliver the tape to A Ning’s hands, in order to allow A Ning and his team to find Dingzhu Zhuoma and plan this operation.

The focus of all this is on Jude’s purpose for this operation. This time, everyone is making a last-ditch effort, almost exhausting all their ingenuity.

Thinking about it, I suddenly thought of something and asked Uncle San, “Uncle San, since you also received the message, then shouldn’t you have also received a videotape?”

Uncle San looked up at me, threw his cigarette butt into the campfire, and nodded: “Yes.”

“Sure enough!” I thought to myself.

“This video tape should have been sent to Hangzhou when we were in Jilin. I didn’t notice it when I was away, but I saw it when I went back to clean up the shop.” He looked at me and said, ‘I didn’t mean to hide it from you.’

I nodded, I really believed that. At this time, I asked Uncle San impulsively, ”Uncle San, don’t you think this is strange? It makes sense to send it to you or to that young man, but why would Auntie Wenjin send it to me? I was still very young when you two were in love, and I really can’t figure it out. Does this have anything to do with me?”

Moreover, the video tape also contained such a shocking content. Was that really me? Or was it just someone else’s prank?

Seeing my expression change, Uncle San sighed and said, ”No, in fact, your Auntie Wenjin had her reasons for sending you the things.”