Chapter 112: Tracking Is A Technical Skill
Without mentioning Lao Yang and Wu Xie’s little thoughts, Lin Yan listened for a while and then didn’t care anymore. He tugged at Wu Xie, preparing to withdraw.
Wu Xie shook his head and grabbed him back: “Listen a bit longer. They seem to have started talking about the tomb.”
Lin Yan just felt it wasn’t scientific: “You can understand what those people are saying?” Weren’t you unable to understand before? Now you can? What kind of shocking bug is this? Why doesn’t he have this kind of bug?
So only he listened for half a day and heard nothing?
Wu Xie gave an awkward smile: “I can’t understand that Guangdong accent, but I can understand some of what the other young man is saying. He said after finishing the business, he’ll go to Hong Kong with two bosses to see the sights. You actually guessed right before; they really are bosses from Hong Kong. Hmm? Wait, they seem to be getting to the main topic.”
His ears twitched, he turned his head, and carefully moved forward a bit more, just in time to hear the person from Hong Kong talking about an ancient tomb. Unfortunately, what this person said was really hard to understand, so he could only see if he could catch some keywords or figure something out from what others said.
It had to be said that Wu Xie’s luck was pretty good. This temporarily formed team obviously had communication problems among themselves. Whenever they got to key points, that boss had to repeat several times for the others to understand.
After a long while, Wu Xie finally understood that this Hong Kong person’s ancestors weren’t originally from Hong Kong, but were authentic Manchu people, part of the Bordered Yellow Banner in the Eight Banners. Within the Grand Council, their branch commanded a force of less than three thousand men called the Iron Head Cavalry Camp, specially collecting rare treasures from the populace for the imperial family. But folk rare treasures were limited, and what they turned in decreased year by year, so this person’s ancestor, serving as a general, came up with a method: finding treasures from the dead.
Wu Xie listened with wide eyes. This official group was doing the same tomb raiding business as them? Wouldn’t that mean all the good tombs were raided by them? But listening carefully, it wasn’t quite like that. Folk tomb raiders often stripped the tomb bare, leaving nothing clean, and sometimes even destroyed what they couldn’t take. But these official raiders were different. They didn’t have such great demand; when they encountered a good tomb, they just recorded it and went back when needed. And they didn’t necessarily take everything at once, often splitting it over several times.
And this record book was called The Riverwood Collection, secretly kept by this young man’s ancestors. This time, they were raiding the one recorded in the most detail among them. This made Wu Xie’s heart itch. It seemed hopeless relying on Lao Yang this time, but following this group, maybe he could get a sip of soup? A tomb considered good by the officials must be extraordinary, and he had a rough idea of how much the treasures inside were worth. Without accidents, a better Han tomb would be about like this, and they wouldn’t even have to find it themselves.
Just as he was listening intently, those people over there seemed to hear some movement and suddenly stopped talking.
Wu Xie’s heart skipped a beat, thinking maybe the three of them made some noise and were discovered? Looking back, Lao Yang and Lin Yan were very quiet. They had been whispering out of boredom before, but now neither spoke, looking like they had been tired earlier and were about to fall asleep crouching suddenly.
So what was with this group’s reaction?
Less than two minutes later, the beams from several flashlights gave him the answer. Uncle Tai saw the light source and lowered his voice to the others: “Eagle talons are here, wind’s tight, let’s bolt!”
Although he didn’t understand much, Wu Xie still sensed the tension in the tone. He quickly went back and patted Lin Yan and Lao Yang awake: “Don’t daze, someone’s coming. We need to go too!”
Lao Yang was startled awake by his sudden pat: “Wha—what happened?”
As soon as this sound came out, Uncle Tai’s group, who were already preparing to slip away, all looked over. The owners of those flashlights also heard some movement and sped up toward this side. In an instant, Wu Xie wished he could seal Lao Yang’s mouth. He glared at him fiercely and lowered his voice: “Shut up, don’t draw them over! Probably the patrol team’s here. If we don’t go now, you might have to go back in for another three years!”
Hearing “three years,” Lao Yang fully woke up and knew his voice just now was too loud and probably drew them over. He made a shut-up gesture and completely stopped talking. Lin Yan watched from beside, saw the situation was bad, quickly found a direction different from the other two groups, and tugged Wu Xie: “This way!”
The patrol team came straight toward them, and Uncle Tai’s group didn’t even flash a light—who knew where they ran off to. Wu Xie was reluctant but could only give up.
They hadn’t been using flashlights to begin with, and now in pitch black, one tugging the other, they blindly ran through the forest, everyone scratched up badly by the bushes.
Not knowing how long they ran, they stopped only when there were no lights behind. Wu Xie was out of breath and still thinking of Uncle Tai’s group: “Tomorrow we go back and check, maybe, maybe we can track their escape footprints.”
Lin Yan saw he was still hung up on that group and was somewhat speechless: “Aren’t you obsessed with them or something? Why can’t you let go?”
Wu Xie caught his breath, straightened up, and pointed at Lao Yang: “Isn’t it him? We went through so much trouble to come here, but this guy can’t even point the way? If we can’t get something from elsewhere, wouldn’t the money be wasted?”
Lin Yan thought about it and agreed it made sense. Lao Yang really wasn’t reliable. In this situation, maybe following Uncle Tai’s group could yield something. Which tomb did they go to in the original story? The one Lao Yang raided three years ago, or the one they tracked Uncle Tai to?
Could it be that Uncle Tai’s group wasn’t a chance encounter either, but NPCs found by Wu Xie’s Third Uncle?
But thinking about it, it seemed unlikely. They had run into this group by chance. Even if they were actors, they couldn’t act 24 hours a day, right? Probably still a coincidence.
Now that it was late, tracking Uncle Tai’s group again wasn’t realistic, so the few found a spot nearby to rest for the night. Luckily, there was live water nearby, so they could replenish fresh water. If they couldn’t find a water source in the next few days, this would be their lifeline.
A peaceful night.
Whether it was Xiao Bai Bai’s innate effect or Lin Yan’s blood effect, not to mention wild beasts around them, there weren’t even two snakes, insects, rats, or ants—it was very quiet. Although they had prepared some insect repellent, they knew a whole forest like this, the repellent’s effect would be limited. Wu Xie and Lao Yang had prepared to be bitten full of bumps by mosquitoes, but they ended up sleeping peacefully all night.
Lin Yan wasn’t bothered. Ever since he knew his blood was special, he had suspected it could repel insects too, but previously going to remote wilderness with Zhang Qiling, he couldn’t verify it.
In the morning, Wu Xie stroked Xiao Bai Bai: “Xiao Bai Bai, did you scare off the mosquitoes at night?” The most special thing among them was this little zombie. Besides Bai Jiang Jiang, Wu Xie couldn’t think of who else brought this peaceful night.
Bai Jiang Jiang: “Ying ying ying!”
Only after they packed up did they realize none of them had done tracking before.
Lin Yan asked Wu Xie: “Can you find where we came from yesterday?”
Wu Xie looked at Lin Yan and scratched his head: “Wasn’t it you leading us as we ran? You don’t remember?”
Lin Yan got anxious: “I was running blindly! How would I remember the way?”
Lao Yang looked at Lin Yan then at Wu Xie. He was clueless about this too, but he had more wilderness experience than them: “How about… lo—look at footprints?”
Both men’s eyes lit up: “Good idea!”
