Chapter 108: Colleague?
Wu Xie and Lin Yan looked at each other in dismay: Why did this get even more complicated? Why did another group of people pop up?
Lin Yan frowned, realizing the situation was not simple: “You mean… the ones looking for the snake-browed bronze fish are the same people who killed the ship captain and the others in the underwater tomb?” Who from the Nine Gates? The Huo Family, the Chen Family, or the Zhang Family?
Hearing this, Wu Xie suddenly remembered something: “Before, when I went to Third Uncle’s shop, I asked the shop assistant there to keep an eye out for anyone looking for snake-browed bronze fish. A couple days ago, they told me someone was indeed looking, but it wasn’t one family from the Nine Gates—it was several families.”
Lin Yan was startled: “Several families? Which ones?” Besides the Huo Family, who else was looking?
However, Wu Xie shook his head: “I don’t know. The shop assistant said that since I asked for discreet inquiries without alerting them, it was already hard enough to find out this much. Digging deeper would inevitably get noticed by them. After all, the Wu Family in Changsha can’t compare to the other gates—we’ve been out of it too long.”
Since that’s the case, there’s no way around it— they’ll just have to play it by ear. Hopefully, the ones scheming against Wu Xie aren’t any of those scheming old foxes from the Nine Gates. But judging by Wu Xie’s protagonist aura, he should end up getting the remaining two snake-browed bronze fish anyway?
But for now, none of that was the point for them—the focus was the Qinling tomb they were about to go to. Lin Yan had some suspicions about Wu Xie’s plan to give the shopping list to Lao Yang to buy equipment, thinking it might be better if Wu Xie bought it himself. He had a bad premonition about it, but Wu Xie helplessly told him, “If I go buy it myself, Second Uncle will definitely find out.”
There was no way around it. If Wu Xie’s Second Uncle found out Wu Xie was going into a tomb again, he might really break his legs—who knows if he’d take Lin Yan down with him? Whatever, better leave the preparations to Lao Yang. And so, a certain good-for-nothing who knew nothing about this stuff gave up, and even the entire itinerary was planned by Lao Yang dragging Wu Xie along.
So when departure time came, Lin Yan regretted it.
“Wu Xie, fine, you don’t take the airplane, but why not even a train? Damn it, from Hangzhou to Xi’an, no sleeper berth for me—you want me to die on the bus?”
On the long-distance bus, Lin Yan suppressed his nausea and quietly questioned Wu Xie, curling up into a ball. Wu Xie had no mood to deal with Lin Yan—he was nearly carsick to death himself: “I didn’t expect this either! Think about it— which of our equipment could go on a plane or train? We can’t just mail the equipment, right?”
As soon as he said it, he froze: “Right, these things can’t be mailed. How did that Mute Bottle mail you last time?”
Wait, we were talking fine—why bring up black history?
Lin Yan was dumbfounded: “Go ask him! How should I know?!”
Lao Yang, who had been listening to them the whole time, got impatient: “You—you guys, can you not— not talk anymore? It’s giving me a headache, and—and carsick!”
Wu Xie shot Lin Yan a resentful look: It’s all your fault, why say that stuff!
Lin Yan glared back unyieldingly: Isn’t this the mess you caused? What’s wrong with me complaining a bit?
After switching to eye contact, Lao Yang, the only one benefiting, slowly recovered. At least by the time they reached Xi’an, he was in better shape than the two of them.
“Come on, eat—eat the local specialty, sour—sauerkraut fried rice and, and lotus root soup!” After getting off the bus and finding a guesthouse to stay the night, they dropped their luggage and went out to find food. They really had no appetite on the bus, but after several hours, bodily instincts took over. Before Lao Yang finished introducing, half the plate in front of them was gone.
Lao Yang was stunned, staring at the dishes that had instantly dwindled by more than half: “You—you guys, how so— so fast? Leave some for me!”
A second later, the food stall gained another young rice bucket. After filling their stomachs, they strolled through Xi’an’s characteristic night market. Lin Yan, still having a bit of pocket money, treated the other two to a meal, eating from one end of the street to the other, their stomachs bulging two rounds.
On the way back, while walking off the food, Lin Yan wiped his mouth and let out a burp: “Burp— so what’s the plan? Head into the mountains tomorrow? Walking into the mountains in broad daylight— that okay?”
Lao Yang mysteriously grinned: “Into the mountains it is, but we’re still far from the place. Just follow me next!”
Who would have thought Lao Yang’s “into the mountains” wasn’t the hiking Lin Yan imagined? He first took them onto a big bus—the same long-distance kind Lin Yan had just ridden, and now even looking at it made him reflexively nauseous: “Fuck, you should have said we’d take a bus!”
Lao Yang gave an awkward smile: “This—this is the only bus going— going that way, or—otherwise we’d walk for several—several days.”
Lin Yan was full of despair: “I’d rather walk several days!” Wu Xie hadn’t expected it either—just escaped the bus nightmare, now back in it. But he was prepared, pulling out two pills from his bag: “Bought these at a service area on the highway. Here, two for you— ration them. I figure the way back will be the same.”
Last time he came to Qinling with Zhang Qiling, it wasn’t this torturous! Not sure if it was the route, but this bus driver drove like a maniac—one foot on the gas, one on the brake—making him dizzy as hell. After enduring days of this bus torment, Wu Xie and Lin Yan never touched buses again on future trips. But that’s a later story.
After about two hours, Lin Yan, having taken motion sickness medicine, felt better but was now jostled into a daze, nearly falling asleep. Just then, a huge boom came from afar: “Fuck, thunder?”
He opened his eyes and looked out the window, seeing smoke and dust billowing on a distant mountain: “Damn, we didn’t hit a landslide, did we?”
Wu Xie had almost fallen asleep too but jolted awake at the noise. He was by the aisle seat and squeezed next to Lin Yan to look out, his expression turning serious: “Something’s off—not a landslide. Why does this sound so much like dynamite? They blowing up the mountain for roadwork?”
A middle-aged man from up front, looking like a local, turned around and grinned at them: “Out-of-towners, huh? Didn’t know? They’re blasting a tomb!”
“Blasting a tomb? So brazen in broad daylight? Not afraid of getting caught?” Wu Xie, having done it twice and about to do it a third time, instinctively felt guilty. Seeing the man’s confidence, he got curious: “Tomb raiding this rampant now?”
The middle-aged man saw his righteous indignation—like a naive newbie—and didn’t suspect anything: “Heh, you didn’t know? This side and the mountain across the Jialing River are two worlds. At least there’s a road here; over there, there’s not even a path. Takes cops a whole day to get there, and the guys are long gone by then.”
He pointed outside: “But rarely such a big blast—probably overdid the dynamite this time.”
Wu Xie acknowledged it and stopped talking to him. The middle-aged man had finally found someone to chat with and wanted to say more, but seeing Wu Xie’s face like he was about to sleep, he wisely turned back.
Seeing the middle-aged man no longer paying attention, Wu Xie breathed a sigh of relief, secretly poked Lin Yan, and made a gesture: Watch out for that middle-aged man!
Lin Yan saw he wasn’t speaking, instinctively leaned in close, and asked with his eyes: What?
Wu Xie cautiously glanced at the middle-aged man, saw no reaction, quietly breathed a sigh of relief: Looks like we ran into a colleague!
