Chapter 113: Cabin In The Mountains
It sounds easy, but it wasn’t until we actually started tracking the rookies’ footprints that we realized how difficult it was. Yesterday when they ran over here, they wandered around aimlessly. There were footprints, but maybe because it hadn’t rained in the Qinling Mountains for a few days, the footprints were very shallow and not that easy to find. Most of the time, they had to rely on the extent of damage to nearby bushes to know if they had passed by yesterday.
Did not expect that running for half an hour would turn into looking for a road in a graveyard. It took them nearly two hours to find the place where they eavesdropped yesterday, and another nearly half an hour to confirm Uncle Tai’s direction of travel.
“Wu Xie, are you sure these traces were left by Uncle Tai and the others?” Lin Yan was a bit uneasy. If they took the wrong path, forget about catching up to Uncle Tai’s group—they might even get trapped in the mountains themselves. If they couldn’t get out later, they’d really be in big trouble.
Wu Xie looked at him helplessly: “I’ve said it several times—there’s only this one road here. If they didn’t go this way, where else could they go? We’ve checked the other directions; they’re not traces left by a large group, at most just from hunters in the mountains. We can only go this way.”
Lin Yan saw it too—near the place where they rested yesterday, there was only this one road, paved with stone steps. They’d checked the other directions where a dirt road had been trampled out, and there were no traces. If Uncle Tai and the others were fleeing, they really could only run this way.
Whatever, treat a dead horse as a live one—at least there’s a road here, right? Having a road means people have been here; maybe they could encounter some villagers or something. Even if they couldn’t find Uncle Tai, they could still get out, which would be a backup plan.
They walked silently along the road for a full morning. The stone steps were gone, and ahead was only a path trampled out by people.
Lao Yang was timid to begin with, and seeing this, his face turned green. He started backing out: “Sh—shall we go—go back? If—if we can’t find them and get lost, what then?”
Wu Xie appeared gentle and mild, but was stubborn deep down. Hearing this, he glanced at him: “It’s fine. According to the information I checked, we’re still a long way from the real Qinling Mountains. This place is just a bit far from the tourism area. Further ahead, there are probably some remote villages, and only deeper in might there be ancient tombs that haven’t been raided.”
Lin Yan had no objections. He didn’t believe that Wu Xie, the son of destiny in the tomb raiding world, wouldn’t encounter a tomb. Worst case, there was still Lao Yang—he had to get Wu Xie to the sacred tree no matter what. With him around, no matter how off track they went, they should still make it.
Sure enough, not far along the path, they saw a dilapidated temple, and surprisingly, there were a few locals in front and behind it. Lao Yang looked like a thug, and Lin Yan holding a white furball in the wilderness didn’t look respectable either. At a time like this, only the respectable Wu Xie could go up to communicate.
Although Wu Xie wasn’t exactly respectable either, at least he looked it.
Wu Xie went up and put on an act first, claiming he was a tourist, but he was seen through by the local in a second and got an eyeroll: “I’ve seen plenty of people like you. Tourists my ass—either tomb raiders or poachers. Trying to fool me? In your dreams!”
Wu Xie didn’t expect the locals here to be so fierce. Cold sweat broke out for a moment. He wanted to say a few more words to salvage it, but couldn’t think of any excuses right away. Seeing his approach wasn’t working, Lao Yang rolled up his sleeves and started threatening. Surprisingly, the mountain folk here ate that up and were indeed scared. They agreed to take them directly to the village.
Before leaving, Lao Yang couldn’t help asking: “Did—did you see se—several people pass—pass by ahead? An old one leading a few young—young ones?”
The local’s face changed immediately. They had been a bit cowering from the scare, but now were even more nervous: “Why are you asking about them? Those people haven’t done something bad, have they? Are you cops?”
Hearing this, Wu Xie thought it was a great excuse and immediately played along: “How did you tell? Do you have any clues about those people?”
The local answered cautiously: “That guy stays in our village four or five months every year. He doesn’t look like a good person—either tomb raiding or poaching. We’ve suspected him for a while. Counting you all, seven or eight groups have come this month, probably all here for them, and they’re all staying in our village. Keep going straight ahead to a fork in the road, take the left one, cross a stream, and you’ll be at our village.” Then they chased after asking if that counted as providing clues and if there was any reward.
Wu Xie was annoyed by her nagging and pulled out a red bill to give her. The person grinned from ear to ear.
The group followed the direction the local woman pointed and walked straight to the fork in the road, but were held back by Lao Yang, who insisted on taking the middle path.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t that lady say to take the left?” Wu Xie asked puzzled, but Lao Yang shot back: “Are—aren’t you stupid? That—that old lady is tr—tricking us! The left definitely doesn’t go to the village. It—it might lead up the mountain where someone could am—ambush us!”
“No way, this isn’t pre-liberation era. Who still does that nowadays?”
Wu Xie didn’t figure it out, but Lin Yan did: “Lao Yang, are you worried that person is a shill in cahoots with bandits, directing people who come? Relax, I’ve checked—she wasn’t lying. This road does lead to the village. If you pick another one, that might be the one up the mountain!”
No sooner had he said it than he regretted it a bit. Lao Yang was clearly giving directions—why had he been so dumb? Tracking that old slickster in the village couldn’t possibly be better than going straight into the tomb for first dibs. Not to mention that lady wasn’t lying—seven or eight groups of cops really had entered the village this month. If they were staking out those people, they might even get implicated!
He looked at Wu Xie, hoping he wouldn’t be led astray. Following Lao Yang, there was a tomb!
Wu Xie greatly trusted Lin Yan’s judgment—that skill of reading faces to tell if someone was lying was almost like mind-reading. So he chimed in: “Since that lady wasn’t lying, let’s still go to the village. We’ve been walking half the day; we can rest there. Those people aren’t going anywhere—we can follow them later.”
Lao Yang panicked: “You be—believe whatever she s—says? This—this is called double-cross, do you kn—know?” According to him, no good people came to places like this. Locals would scam anyone they saw, and double-crossing was normal. He and his cousin had probably experienced this back in the day, and the path Wu Xie’s Third Uncle took was pretty safe, so he hadn’t thought of it. Though he still trusted Lin Yan’s judgment, since Lao Yang said so, they half-believed and took the middle path.
Lin Yan brought up the rear and breathed a sigh of relief. Good thing Lao Yang was one step ahead and turned it around; otherwise, it would’ve been hard to stop Wu Xie from entering the village. Worst case, he’d have to scare him with the cops in the village.
They walked until dusk without seeing the village. When Wu Xie wanted to go back, the path they’d come from was already lost in the darkness—even with flashlights, they couldn’t find it. They could only keep going. Fortunately, as the sun set, they finally found a wooden shack, probably a supply point made by mountain folk for hunting and gathering herbs.
It didn’t look very sturdy, but inside it was well-equipped despite its small size: stove, bunks, fire pit, even an attic. With three of them taking turns on night watch, they could manage the night. After discussing, the watch order was Lao Yang first, Lin Yan second, Wu Xie the early morning shift.
After dinner, Lao Yang took the first shift. He was in good spirits and told them all sorts of experiences from when he came here three years ago. Wu Xie was exhausted from the day, and Lao Yang droned on like chanting scriptures, so he got impatient and went to sleep first. Lin Yan, however, listened with great interest, getting more and more energized. He could tell these were all things Lao Yang had personally experienced.
Before, he thought this instance was also arranged by Wu Sansheng, and Lao Yang was just going through the motions three years ago. Did not expect his experiences to be so rich—just this one trip to the Qinling Mountains topped ten trips by Wu Xie to the Lu King’s Palace. Now Lin Yan felt Lao Yang might not have been arranged by Wu Sansheng, but Wu Sansheng had definitely done something in the middle, with the intention of letting Wu Xie break away from his protection for some training, which was why Lao Yang the tomb raider had found Wu Xie. After all, Lao Yang had worked in Wu Xie’s shop a few years ago and knew Wu Xie didn’t touch this stuff.
Like having the shop assistant let slip that Wu Xie had already been down a tomb?
Gradually, Lao Yang ran out of things to say. Watching time pass slowly, he stared blankly at Lin Yan: “Aren’t you sleeping? If—if you don’t sleep now, you’ll—only be able to sleep at dawn. Won’t—won’t you lack energy tomorrow?”
In his previous life, he was an overtime pro, a night owl ace, okay? Just sleeping two or three hours? No big deal. Young man, pulling an all-nighter is nothing!
