Chapter 117: Ambushing Someone
Lin Yan’s actions directly caused Wu Xie’s anger to crash midway; he couldn’t vent it at all, stuck in his throat, neither up nor down.
If Lao Yang hadn’t ditched them in the middle of the night to dig a tomb-robbing hole, there would be something to say, but Wu Xie couldn’t help looking at Lao Yang’s backpack. He wasn’t digging a tomb-robbing hole, but the digging motions Lao Yang couldn’t hide. Could he have gone to dig something else? But there didn’t seem to be anything extra in this backpack?
Before setting off, they had stuffed their bags especially full; if there was anything extra in Lao Yang’s bag, he would definitely notice.
Even so, even if the suspicion of Lao Yang secretly digging a tomb-robbing hole at midnight was cleared, what needed to be asked still had to be asked: “So you weren’t digging a tomb-robbing hole, what were you doing? Could it be you went to dig treasure?”
Lao Yang quietly swallowed some saliva, clearly did not expect Wu Xie to hit the nail on the head right away, and started stuttering wildly again: “N-No, no, this deso—desolate mountain and wild—wilderness, where’s the tre—treasure?”
This time Wu Xie felt his clothes being tugged again, and Lin Yan’s affirmative voice rang in his ear: “He’s lying!”
Now Wu Xie’s eyes showed some shock and doubt. They hadn’t explored that place during the day; how did Lao Yang know there was treasure there? But Lin Yan had no reason to deceive him.
He probed: “Don’t lie anymore? You did go dig treasure!”
Lao Yang panicked even more: “Rea—really not!”
Wu Xie turned back to look at Lin Yan, and Lin Yan gave him a firm look: 100% lying!
Now Wu Xie felt confident in his heart; he never doubted Lin Yan’s judgment: “Alright, stop deceiving me! Lao Yang, this really isn’t fun. Don’t you know you stutter when you’re nervous? What are you guilty about? What’s something you can’t show us? From childhood to now, don’t you know what kind of person I am? Is there anything between us that can’t be laid out openly?”
Lao Yang was somewhat dumbfounded, not knowing for a moment whether to argue or keep holding on. Wu Xie had made it so clear; not speaking up now would be his fault. But this matter was truly strange.
He sighed deeply and sat down by the bonfire, suddenly seeming like his back was bending down.
Seeing this, Wu Xie knew he had won this round, snorted coldly, held back from showing his satisfaction, and pulled Lin Yan to sit down too.
Seeing them both sit down, Lao Yang mumbled several times, supported his head with his hand, and said to them with a bitter smile: “I-I actually didn’t want to hide it from you, but this matter—it’s really, sigh, I-I don’t even know how to say it.”
Hearing him say this, Wu Xie’s anger flared up again: “What do you mean didn’t want to hide it from me? This is you not wanting to hide it from me?”
Seeing him angry again, Lao Yang also got somewhat annoyed and ashamed, hurriedly explaining: “I-I really didn’t want to, you—you listen to me explain.”
Wu Xie held the little white zombie in both arms and gave him a cold smile: “Fine, explain. As for whether your explanation is true or reasonable, that’s my business.”
Lao Yang was choked by this sentence, reflexively wanted to get angry, but remembered it was he who had wronged Wu Xie first, so he forcibly suppressed his anger. His temper wasn’t good to begin with, and now being pressed by Wu Xie without exploding was not easy.
“This story has to start from three years ago. But Old Wu, Wu Xie, I thought with our ten—ten-plus years of friendship, even if you cared, you wouldn’t lose your temper like this. You saying this makes me feel very uncomfortable.”
He took out a flask and drank two mouthfuls of liquor, feeling like bitter wine entering his throat and piercing his heart. Wu Xie just raised his chin at him: “You still have the face to say that now? Wasn’t it you who led us here along the way?”
Now that his anger had subsided, he felt a bit scared instead; he had almost forgotten about the handgun on Lao Yang’s lower back! If he really provoked Lao Yang, he and Lin Yan would be done for together!
This time Lao Yang was really angry; he slammed the beer bottle on the ground and glared at Wu Xie: “I—I fucking said no, why—why won’t you believe me?! Damn it!”
Wu Xie didn’t dare provoke him further and softened his tone: “What exactly happened? What exactly are you hiding from us?”
Seeing Wu Xie no longer pressing aggressively, Lao Yang decided to quit while ahead. He took another sip of liquor, composed his emotions, and told the two a past event that no one except him knew anymore.
Back then, when Lao Yang followed his cousin to the Qinling Mountains, they robbed a Qing tomb, digging out a few plates from that tomb, and the bronze bell on his ear. This bronze bell originally had two; the other was with his cousin, probably confiscated long ago by now.
According to him, at that time in the tomb they saw a bronze tree, over ten meters tall, and even after digging seven or eight meters down into the soil, they couldn’t see the bottom. He had told all this to Wu Xie, but what he hadn’t said was that when they left back then, they used a diamond saw to cut off a thin branch too!
As he spoke, Lao Yang took out that bronze tree branch from his backpack and held it in his hands. Wu Xie felt it wasn’t clear seeing it across the fire and wanted to lean over to take the branch, but Lao Yang blocked it with his other hand: “Don’t—don’t touch!”
Wu Xie’s hand froze in mid-air, singed by the fire, and he immediately pulled it back from the burn: “If you don’t let me look, how can I tell what it is? Are you afraid I’ll rob this stick?”
Lao Yang shook his head and raised his hand to gesture at him: “N-Not for that reason. D-Didn’t you see I’m wearing gloves too? This thing is very strange; if not like this.”
He held it for just a moment before carefully placing that bronze tree branch far away from them. Wu Xie thought to himself upon seeing this: Does this mean even with gloves, you can’t touch it for long?
At this time, Lao Yang looked up at him and said in a very heavy tone: “Do you know how my cousin was caught? He-He kept this thing close to his body back then, and slo-slowly, he wasn’t right anymore. By the time we got out, he had already.”
At this moment, Wu Xie’s gaze on that bronze tree branch was no longer so eager; though still curious, at least he didn’t want to touch it: “Your cousin… went mad? Sure it’s this bronze tree branch’s problem?”
Lao Yang nodded: “Everyone else—was fine, so it could only be the branch! D-Do you know about yin people?”
Wu Xie nodded then shook his head, seeing Lin Yan didn’t understand, so he explained: “Yin people refer to the legendary people who work for the King of Hell; different places describe the origins and traits of yin people differently. What I know is that when they sleep, unlike ordinary people with toes pointing outward, they point inward.”
Lin Yan thought about it; wasn’t this just like positions such as yin-yang eye or Yellow Springs ferryman! More precisely… underworld messenger from the living world?
Lao Yang said that ever since his cousin carried the bronze tree branch, the whole person became strange. By the time they left the mountains, he could not only hear strange things talking but even see strange guides. According to him, he had been chosen by the King of Hell and was seeing lost souls and wild ghosts in the living world.
Wu Xie thought for a moment: “Then this place, you deliberately brought us here?”
Lao Yang shook his head: “I really—really didn’t know; only when we got to this house did I reco-recognize it. Before leaving back then, the last night, I-I also got up at night and found my cousin gone, and when I went out, I saw—he was over there filling soil, burying… this bronze tree branch!”
Wu Xie looked at Lin Yan, and Lin Yan nodded slightly to indicate Lao Yang wasn’t deceiving him this time; it was all true!
So Wu Xie couldn’t help looking at that seemingly unremarkable bronze tree branch with a strange gaze. Regardless of whether that so-called yin person legend was true or not, this thing… was really that powerful, able to turn a normal person into that?
