Chapter 121: I’m A Die-hard Materialist!
Wu Xie had an ominous premonition when Lao Yang took out a compass and fiddled with it earlier. Sure enough, this guy Lao Yang definitely doesn’t know the way! It’s ridiculous that they could stumble by chance to the place where his cousin sold things three years ago!
Wu Xie wasn’t without suspicion that Lao Yang deliberately led them here, just for this Bronze Tree Branch, but he didn’t think Lao Yang could fool Lin Yan. Although Lin Yan is unreliable in all sorts of ways, at least his strange ability to discern truth from lies is reliable.
So the few of them packed up, found a water source nearby to wash their faces and fill some water, then set off toward the village they had passed earlier.
Along the way, Lao Yang avoided the main road and specifically took the trails by the roadside. Wu Xie and Lin Yan had a hard time walking; both of them were rookies who had hardly ever been into deep mountain forests, so how could they compare to Lao Yang, who had been adventuring since young.
Although he knew Lao Yang surely had his own reasons, after walking for almost an hour, Wu Xie couldn’t take it anymore: “Lao Yang, why don’t we walk on the road?” He looked at the narrow trail not far away, then at his own pants: “If we keep going like this, my pants are going to be scrapped ahead of time!”
Lao Yang turned back, squatted down to look: “It shouldn’t be, the ones I bought are the highest quality—best!”
He reached out to touch it, stood up and patted his hands, leaving them with a cold and heartless back view: “I thought it was something big, no—it’s just a bit frayed on the edges, no big deal!”
Wu Xie and the equally sympathetic Lin Yan exchanged a glance, let out a long sigh, and still resignedly followed. Whether the pants were frayed or not wasn’t important; what mattered was that the weeds and sharp branches scratching their legs really hurt! Wu Xie touched his calf; he felt that the first thing to do when they arrived might be to find a place to roll up his pant legs and apply medicine! He felt his legs had been scratched open, stinging hotly against the inside of his pants.
Continuing to wade deep and shallow for more than an hour, they finally saw that village.
It was mealtime now, with the sun almost at its highest, so the village was filled with curling cooking smoke everywhere; presumably the villagers were cooking. Speaking of which, the three of them were really hungry too; they hadn’t eaten anything since waking up and had walked more than two hours of mountain roads. All grown men in their prime, hungry enough to eat a whole cow at this point.
If they didn’t know how long the tomb raid would take, Lin Yan’s stored food would have been put to use by now; why suffer like this until now?
As early as when they could vaguely see the village outline, Lao Yang was already a bit excited; when they got close, he couldn’t help exclaiming: “It’s—it’s here! I I I remember! It’s—this village!”
Wu Xie quickly pulled him back and made a silencing gesture: “What are you doing? There are seven or eight waves of cops in the village; those colleagues might be inside too, aren’t you afraid of drawing everyone over by shouting so loud?”
As soon as Lao Yang heard “cops,” his whole body trembled visibly; it was clear he had a deep psychological shadow.
Being told this by Wu Xie, Lao Yang restrained his excitement and led them around the village to the south side. Near the village entrance, several old men were sitting on chairs, basking in the sun and gnawing flatbread, chatting from time to time. When Lao Yang saw one of the elders, his eyes lit up: “It’s—it’s him!”
He pointed at the elder on the right: “This is the guide who led—led us back then!”
Those elders saw the three of them approaching, glanced briefly and continued chatting, until Wu Xie and the others stood right in front of them before looking at them properly.
Lao Yang rubbed his hands, squeezing a smile from that obviously villainous face: “Old Man, do you—do you still recognize me? Three years ago I came here with—my cousin and them, and—and you led the way for us!”
The old man on the right slowly sat up straight, swallowed the flatbread in his mouth, thought for a moment: “Three years ago? Don’t remember. I’ve led so many people over the years, really can’t recall. But I do remember leading several groups three years ago, all going to the same place. Are you here this time for that place too?”
Lao Yang rubbed his hands, his face blooming into a chrysanthemum smile: “Right you are, Old Man. Look, what—whatever price is suitable this time? We’re old—old customers, how about the ori—original price?”
The old man shook his head and held up one finger to them. Lao Yang’s expression changed, thinking the old man was about to raise the price on the spot, but the old man wagged that finger and said: “No go—no go. If you came at a different time, I could lead you, but this time… Alas, young ones, you still better not go.”
“Wha—why not?” Lao Yang was anxious; without this old man leading the way, he really had no confidence in finding that tomb clearing.
The old man slowly leaned back, shook his head, and sighed: “You young ones are all bold from skill, you won’t listen even if I tell you. The group that left this morning was the same; Uncle Tai’s team, insisting on going into the mountains. If I remember right, they’re heading the same direction as you?”
Wu Xie and the other two exchanged glances, somewhat pleased. If Uncle Tai and them were going the same direction, that meant the two tombs weren’t far apart; if they got out early, they might even pick up some leftovers inside!
Lao Yang was silent for two seconds, then asked the old man: “Old Man, then why can’t we—go into the mountains now? What’s in the mountains at this time? Some large wild beast?”
The old man smiled: “Young ones, if it were just beasts, I’d lead the way, no problem; why would I advise you to go back? Too bad that group earlier didn’t listen, or else… alas, hope they all come out alive. You don’t know, that Jia Zi Gou you want to go to is actually a boardwalk of Ghost Soldiers; this season, the hauntings are fierce. If you run into them on the road, they’ll hook away your soul too; very dangerous!” (Read with dialect feel, that eerie chill comes right in!)
Normally, Wu Xie didn’t believe in this stuff. Zombies and such might lack scientific basis, but most are mindless monsters, and the few that retain consciousness all have their weaknesses. But Ghost Soldiers are often lumped with ghosts. Think about it: if they encounter them, the other side can touch him but he can’t touch them—that’s game over.
He knew full well whether such things exist in the world or not; they’d either be strictly controlled or rampant everywhere, not like the peaceful life of his first twenty-odd years. So although he was half-believing half-doubting, recalling his cousin’s behavior, he still steeled his materialist heart.
His cousin’s freakouts were one thing, but the hallucinations from the Bronze Tree Branch couldn’t be conflated with Ghost Soldiers in the mountains. He knew that in less informed times, hunters entering the mountains often mistook wind through forests or special terrain sounds for wailing, and “ghost crying wolf howling” came from real experiences then. Most classic is karst terrain, with its many standing rocks; the wind sounds were called “devil’s voice,” troubling locals for over a thousand years until modern experts solved the riddle.
Since their destination was called Jia Zi Gou, it must be a place high on both sides and low in the middle; wind creating ghost-like wailing through convection wasn’t surprising—it was probably the elders’ superstition overthinking it.
PS: Didn’t expect it, did you? It’s my early morning!
