Chapter 123: Self-inflicted
Although Old Man Wang was determined to persuade them not to enter the mountains, after repeated failed attempts, he still told them the correct route to Jia Zi Gou at the moment of parting, and even gave them a rough map.
Lao Yang confidently claimed that he definitely knew Jia Zi Gou—saying the terrain there was unique, with the mountain outside looking like a goldfish’s face, so you wouldn’t get lost once you got close—but when asked how to get there, Lao Yang looked down at the map: “Hey, these lines are drawn pretty, pretty detailed!”
Wu Xie and Lin Yan both abandoned him; this guy was just too unreliable!
Lin Yan was a bit puzzled. With Wu Xie and Lao Yang’s personalities, it wasn’t that he looked down on them, but clearly they didn’t have the Old Man’s favor. In the original story, did they get this map? If not, who knows how many detours they would have taken! He sighed while eating snacks, thankful that he was here now. If it weren’t inappropriate, he could claim credit at this moment, and maybe get an extra ten percent of the share afterward?
Wait, on this trip, did they get any good treasure? It wouldn’t be that they got nothing and just strolled around inside the tomb, right?
He quietly gave Wu Xie a sympathetic look. In this situation, his Wu Shan Ju hadn’t gone bankrupt yet, which could only mean the Wu Family had helped a lot. Opening a shop was one thing, but losing money every time he went down to the fights was something else. It could only be said that Wu Xie was naturally bad at making money.
By the time they saw Goldfish Mountain, nearly two hours had passed. Lao Yang looked at Jia Zi Gou faintly visible in the distance and joked that they might have to camp outside.
Wu Xie asked him: “Why camp outside? Look at this outside—there are hardly any trees, all loose soil. Won’t we eat a mouthful of dirt sleeping here? And there’s no protection; what if wild beasts come?”
Remembering the monkeys from the previous night, he added: “Even without fierce beasts, a group of monkeys would be unbearable. If a bunch of them come against us few, even if they take our equipment it’s fine, but what if they take our food?”
As soon as Lin Yan heard this, he reflexively protected it with his hand, looked around and saw no movement, then disdainfully said to Wu Xie: “Just shut up! Don’t jinx it and actually bring the monkeys!”
Wu Xie waved his hand carelessly: “I’m just hypothesizing. I still think camping inside the mountain is safer!”
Lao Yang shook his head: “This, this won’t do! Didn’t I go to that place three years ago? The through winds inside are espe—especially fierce! Not to mention sleeping, you can’t even start a fire! In a place like this, how safe is it at night without, without fire?”
Wu Xie thought about it and agreed. If not for their fire lit on the first floor the previous night, that monkey might have jumped down to mess with their luggage. But if not inside the gully, the outside terrain was flat as far as the eye could see, with no cliffs on either side, though there were some trees. Forget large animals—a group of monkeys could beat them senseless.
He looked around, trying to find a cave, but the only visible ones were the two huge cavities on Goldfish Mountain: “How about… we go up there?”
Lao Yang looked at the cave and gave Wu Xie a strange look: “It’s been three years, and you, you’ve gotten dumber? That cave looks high enough, but it doesn’t look big because it’s fa—far away! Once we get close, who knows how big it might be! The wind would blow, blow you to death! Besides, the cliff next to it is al—almost vertical; how do we get up?”
Lin Yan watched Wu Xie acting foolish and felt confused. Wasn’t Wu Xie always high-IQ? How did he suddenly get stupid? Could following Wu Xie have sucked away his intelligence? Actually, he’d overthought it; Wu Xie just lacked experience from rarely going out. Even an old hunter would make the same choice.
Lin Yan, on the other hand, had experienced the great information age and seen a tiny bit more. Though he hadn’t learned much from Bell’s survival guide, he knew the basics. In comparison, among them, only Wu Xie, the shut-in from the flip-phone era, was a total newbie outside his professional knowledge.
If not this and not that, Wu Xie gritted his teeth: “Then how about we cross Jia Zi Gou first and figure out camping later?”
Lao Yang sighed: “I, I want to too! But that Jia Zi Gou, crossing it would take at least an afternoon!”
He looked at the sun and calculated mentally: “At our—our speed, by the time we reach Jia Zi Gou, it’ll al—already be almost dark, and walking out from Jia Zi Gou would take until midnight to reach the place!”
Lin Yan calculated: it would be dark around six now, plus an afternoon—say six hours—getting out around midnight or one a.m. Seemed doable?
He told Lao Yang, who thought about it and realized it wasn’t that late. Back then, not many young people stayed up late; in Lin Yan’s time, not sleeping until three or four a.m. didn’t even count as staying up—it was just late sleeping!
So they decided: better to eat dinner outside Jia Zi Gou and cross it overnight. Speaking of which…
Wu Xie looked at Lin Yan, who had nearly finished that small pack, with a strange expression mixing curiosity and amazement: “Lin Yan, can you still eat dinner? You’ve eaten this much on the way…”
Lin Yan gave him a strange look: “Of course I can eat. I’ve almost finished this, and it’s only one or two now. We still have three or four hours to Jia Zi Gou outside; I’ll be hungry by then.” He rubbed his stomach and let out a timely burp. For some reason, his appetite had indeed increased a lot—at least double before—and he had a special fondness for meat.
Wu Xie rolled his eyes at him. Fine, he shouldn’t have asked this guy! Obviously, even if not hungry, he’d take action. Who knew where all that food went! He sized up Lin Yan—no height gain, no body change, not fat! That was ridiculous!
The rest of the way almost drove them to despair. The surrounding forest density visibly decreased, and some areas seemed hit by mudslides or landslides, even encroaching half the path. For safety, they detoured, adding a lot of distance.
Along the way, forget beasts—even bird calls were rare. Wu Xie even missed the wolf howls from the previous night. They’d said all they could in the first few hours; the latter half was like the road to Lu King’s Palace—everyone was exhausted with sore legs and feet, no one in the mood to talk.
When they finally saw Jia Zi Gou’s classic one-line sky, they dropped their packs and sat on the ground. Lao Yang and Lin Yan were slightly better off; Lao Yang did forced daily exercise in prison, even playing basketball sometimes, keeping decent stamina; Lin Yan had inexplicably leveled up—his body seemed stronger every day, worlds apart from months ago, easily outpacing Wu Xie on pure physical ability.
Wu Xie hadn’t expected to go down to a fight so soon again, or to walk this far on it. During rest, he’d just eaten, drunk, and lounged with Lin Yan, no exercise at all—even gaining a lap of fat. Under these conditions, keeping up with Lao Yang and Lin Yan to get here was already impressive.
“Fuck, tired… tired me out!” Wu Xie sprawled on the ground panting heavily, while Lin Yan could already stand and stretch to gather firewood.
He returned hugging two dry branches, just in time to hear Wu Xie, and shook his head: “Wu Xie, this won’t do! You’re the man who’s going to become Tomb Raider King—how can you be this weak? Start exercising when we get back, fighting! Ollie give!”
Wu Xie glared irritably: “Bullshit! The last fight nearly killed me—only a ghost would go down again! Damn it, whoever goes again is a dog!”
This made Lin Yan burst out laughing: “Looks like the nickname Wu Little Dog is inescapable for you! Right, pup? Wu Little Dog? Hmm?”
Wu Xie didn’t know yet? In the future, Wu Xie the dog thing would raid countless tombs! Well… maybe not that many, at least two big ones were unavoidable! Who could blame Third Uncle for only writing that far? Even after the plot ended, he probably couldn’t escape this line of work—going down tombs would still be frequent.
He was just waiting for the day to call Wu Little Dog!
