Chapter 152: You Can Come With Us, But Let’s Add Some Insurance, Yeah?
Although Master Liang had always been that image of being as timid as could be, Wu Xie still looked at him suspiciously and signaled him to stop: “How do I know there won’t be your corpse inside after we go down? You’ve been with them the whole time, who knows if you’re all in cahoots?”
Master Liang wanted to cry but had no tears. He looked at Uncle Tai and felt it wasn’t safe, then looked at the gun in Wu Xie’s hand and chuckled. Sorry to bother! So he could only burrow to the side, trying to stay far from both sides. But why were these three big rats following him over too!
Master Liang looked at the three big rats baring their teeth at him, not knowing if they saw him as reserve food, his legs shaking a bit.
But no one paid attention to his situation now; everyone’s focus was on Uncle Tai. No one wanted to know what was really going on more than them. Otherwise, while going down and walking, another self could jump out and replace him—what if the one who survived wasn’t himself anymore? How terrifying!
But seeing two identical people, a seemingly unreliable but very reasonable idea to explain everything in front of them gradually emerged in Lin Yan’s mind.
“Uncle Tai, have you been to Xinjiang?”
Xinjiang? What about Xinjiang? Lao Yang turned back to look at Lin Yan, somewhat uncomprehending. But Wu Xie beside him had a sudden realization. Right, that widely circulated but completely evidence-free terrifying rumor—Wu Xie, as part of a tomb raiding “family,” knew a bit of the inside story, though he didn’t know if it was true either.
He frowned, his attention still on Uncle Tai: “But wasn’t that thing taken away? Even upwards they couldn’t find it. It’s really this.” He looked at Uncle Tai with considerable disbelief, not thinking this dry, skinny, ordinary half-old man could obtain that thing.
“Is it really something he could obtain?”
Uncle Tai was baffled. What was all this? Why couldn’t whatever it was be said directly instead of selling a cliffhanger?
He looked at the three people in front of him and struck a pose of listening attentively: “What you’re talking about… can you be direct? What thing did I obtain?”
“What thing? Don’t you know about the biggest archaeology mystery in Lop Nur last century?”
Uncle Tai was stunned, cold sweat breaking out: “You mean that jade pendant?”
Lin Yan nodded: “Besides this, what else could explain everything now?”
Wu Xie looked at Uncle Tai suspiciously. Given Uncle Tai’s demeanor, if he really had the jade pendant on him, he wouldn’t act like this, right? There was clear bewilderment on his face; even if he had this jade pendant, he probably didn’t know it himself.
They didn’t notice that Lao Yang’s body beside them stiffened, actually looking like he breathed a sigh of relief.
Uncle Tai saw their hesitation and simply took off his backpack from behind, searching every pocket on his body one by one. So Lin Yan and the others watched in surprise as one person could carry so many things—worthy of an old tomb raider?
They saw Uncle Tai pull out, besides his clothes, three handguns one after another, several magazines, at least two daggers, a few small knives, and all sorts of other odds and ends—who knew how many—even wire for picking locks. Lin Yan looked at the places on his clothes, hands, feet, and seams that he had inadvertently brushed against, and could confirm there were at least some razor blades or small gadgets inside.
It could be said this equipment was enough for him to commit suicide with Wu Xie and Lao Yang to atone; this was real tomb raiding. Compared to Uncle Tai, the three of them were simply here to play! Not to mention Lao Yang, who had traveled far and wide for years but still didn’t have even the most basic items on him—really shameless!
Lao Yang saw Wu Xie and Lin Yan’s gazes occasionally involuntarily turning to him during this time, his face couldn’t help but redden a bit, unsure if from shame or anger. But there was no way to explain this; it was just a lack of experience, to be remedied next time.
Wu Xie glanced at Lin Yan; in his eyes, Lin Yan was simply a perfect teammate. Except possibly for combat ability not matching Zhang Qiling, he was a treasure chest, even with a little external cheat white zombie, and his own survival ability was good too—a burst of strength enough to make weightlifting champions feel inferior. So next time this kind of thing could be left to Lin Yan! Having him check things and fiddle with mechanisms or whatever was probably fine; this sort of thing just…
Wait, why would there be a next time? Wu Xie, inadvertently thinking of this again, fell into contemplation, promptly cutting off his own thoughts and secretly vowing in his heart never to enter a tomb again. If Lin Yan knew, he’d probably roll his eyes and retort: Don’t people know these days that flags set are meant to fall? Wu Xie is the protagonist; not entering tombs—what are you thinking?
Finally, Uncle Tai laid out all his odds and ends on the ground, nearly stripping off his clothes down to just pants, even rummaging through every corner of his backpack, but no sign of a jade pendant anywhere; only then did they stop.
Lao Yang went up with a grinning smile, chatting and babbling that this was all for their safety and such. Uncle Tai actually had no resistance in his heart; if it were him, the result would probably be the same. Forget Wu Xie and them—even when he realized this himself, he wanted to turn his own things upside down to check.
Few in the trade didn’t know about that eerie incident; their Qinling side was close to there too, and the news had spread immediately. Back then he was still young, only in his thirties, at the age of rampant curiosity, and had even teamed up with a few in the know to go check it out, but halfway heard the thing had been taken away; they found no clues there and gave up.
He had once thought this was just a case of rumor-mongering, an exaggerated legend, until Lin Yan just pointed out this eerie matter, and he only then belatedly felt afraid. What if it was real…
While they were chatting back and forth, Master Liang beside them couldn’t hold back anymore. He had been surrounded by several big rats in the corner for a long time, constantly in fear of being eaten, so he involuntarily looked toward Lin Yan: “Th-that Lin little brother, c-can you c-can you make your pet call these big rats away? They seem like they really want to eat me…”
Lin Yan’s attention was finally drawn over. Seeing Master Liang’s miserable state, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud, but schadenfreude now might not be good, so he put his fist to his mouth to cover a light cough, shrugged his shoulders to wake the little white zombie that hadn’t moved for a long time and seemed asleep: “Xiao Bai Bai, how about making your little brothers stay away from him? If they keep surrounding, he’s probably gonna be scared enough to wet his pants.”
Hm? Uncle Tai looked at Master Liang, who only now had some presence, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. Could it be him…
He wordlessly sped up his packing, hastily gathered his odds and ends, and came before Master Liang, who was leaning against the wall with still-shaky legs. Though he didn’t seem to be coming at them, who could guarantee he wasn’t doing it incidentally?
He stared wordlessly at Master Liang for several seconds, making him baffled: “Uncle Tai, why are you looking at me like that?”
Uncle Tai took a deep breath and asked him coldly: “What exactly is your goal in coming here? Just for this tomb? There are four corpses here, but no yours. What do you think we make of that?”
He cleverly included Wu Xie and the others here. If Master Liang was smart, he’d say whatever he had to say now. Truth be told, though Master Liang had always worn the skin of a coward, now that they’d come this far, he didn’t quite believe the act anymore. Not to mention the four corpses neatly placed here.
If not for Master Liang never leaving their sight along the way, he could already confirm it was Master Liang up to no good. But if not Master Liang, then who could do such a thing?
He glanced at Wu Xie and the others watching the show from not far away, shaking his head inwardly. These people had started following behind them, but there’d been at least a day and night without sight of them. Not to brag, even bringing a few baggage, these greenhorn little guys couldn’t possibly keep up. Not to mention later they were the ones following these little guys, though only meeting in the mine.
Who wouldn’t see firelight in a pitch-black mine? Could only say these little guys were too green. That is… Uncle Tai warily glanced at Lin Yan, precisely the little zombie casually kneaded in his hand. He’d never heard of being bitten turning straight into a zombie—maybe seen it in movies? But in reality, maybe he hadn’t encountered such things, but he’d really never seen it.
He’d been in this line for so many years, never even heard of something so outrageous. If he survived this time, he’d probably have to ask old friends to inquire about Daoist Sect matters—ones he hadn’t dealt with much before. Who’d have thought they’d be so… eerie.
The little white zombie rubbed against Lin Yan’s hand, human-like rocking back and forth like stretching lazily, then jumped down toward Master Liang in the middle of the encirclement. The Rat King and its little brothers, seeing the little white zombie coming, were like they had radar on their backs—in the instant the little white zombie jumped down, they had already turned, sitting respectfully on the ground toward it.
Given the posture, if they weren’t rats, those long tails would probably be wagging like windmills.
The little white zombie didn’t make a sound, no one knew how they communicated. What Lin Yan and the others saw was the little white zombie staring at the rats for a few seconds, then turning back to Lin Yan’s arms, the big rats following respectfully behind the little white zombie, standing behind Lin Yan like door gods, making him thoroughly uncomfortable.
Wu Xie watched the scene with a strange expression; in his mind had already appeared the scene of all sorts of bizarre animals jumping around in his courtyard in the future. Wonder if rats digging holes would damage the foundation? Maybe install a rockery in the yard for a nest?
By the way, could the rats here still eat normal food? They wouldn’t only gnaw corpses, right…
Wu Xie completely didn’t think of one issue: why did the little brothers taken in by the little white zombie subconsciously become his own to raise in his mind? Sigh, old worrywart, couldn’t help it! Raising one Lin Yan was raising; raising a few more little things didn’t seem a big deal?
Uncle Tai was still staring at Master Liang. Master Liang could still smile at him at first, but as the pressure around Uncle Tai grew lower, the smile on his face couldn’t hold: “No, Uncle Tai, what do you mean? You suspect me?”
He struck a pose of you got it wrong: “You can suspect anyone but not me, right? Me, with no strength to truss a chicken—”
Uncle Tai interrupted him with one sentence: “Then why is there no corpse of yours here?”
Master Liang frowned; he didn’t know why either: “How should I know? Maybe they just picked randomly? Look, these corpses are all of people who died before. Aren’t you—”
He widened his eyes, the whole person pressing against the wall behind him and starting to tremble.
Two seconds later, he scrambled on hands and knees to Lin Yan’s side, grabbing his hand full of cold sweat, almost shouting: “They all died, I saw them die! Why are you still alive!”
He looked at Lin Yan, cold sweat already pouring down his forehead in an instant: “Don’t believe him! Who knows if he’s already dead! Look, these four corpses here are all of people who died in this mine before! Who knows if Uncle Tai is already dead, and the one here isn’t the real him! Didn’t you bring up that Shuangyu Jade Pendant? Maybe it’s that jade pendant; the one here isn’t him anymore, the real him was killed by this self, he’s already dead which is why there’s a corpse here!”
Wu Xie thought about it, a bit disbelieving, but the gun he’d already lowered in his hand still aimed at Uncle Tai: “If it’s really like you say, why is there still one Uncle Tai in front of us, and the other people are gone? By your logic, only dead people would have another corpse here, so there should be another them alive, but why so far only one Uncle Tai?”
Master Liang stuttered: “Th-then maybe they d-died before it could replicate?”
“…That does make some sense. So the question returns to Uncle Tai: how do you prove you’re yourself?”
Uncle Tai was also at a loss for words now. Yeah, how to prove he was himself? If it was really like that legend, could his replicant still be himself? And if he was the replicant, where was his original body? Master Liang had a point; what if it really was only dead people who could be put in that coffin—when had he died once?
After a while, he gave a bitter laugh: “I can’t prove it, but… now there’s only one living me here. Isn’t that enough? If I really had that jade pendant, your replicants would probably have come knocking by now, right?”
While he spoke, Lin Yan carefully watched his eyes and found he really wasn’t lying. Plus he had quite a lot of odds and ends on him; just the number of handguns exceeded theirs—enough bullets alone could wear them down. Lin Yan wasn’t sure what to do with Uncle Tai, so he quietly asked Wu Xie: “What now? Leave him here or…”
Wu Xie fell silent; leaving Uncle Tai here clearly wasn’t realistic either—this guy was too dangerous. What if he quietly followed and stabbed them in the back? Though he had no motive now, if he really was a replicant and they knew his secret, silencing them wasn’t impossible, right?
Don’t think Uncle Tai had nothing in hand now; he could bet that if he fired, Uncle Tai would react first! Not to mention he hadn’t fired seriously many times—his aim was questionable.
So now there was only one choice.
Wu Xie let out a long breath, lowered the gun, and said to Uncle Tai: “Whether you’re the original or a replicant now, anyway there’s only one Uncle Tai left, right? Truth be told, we don’t fully trust you either—what if you stab us in the back? Like this: give us your guns and ammo, and we guarantee not to make the first move on you. How’s that?”
Uncle Tai’s gaze instantly turned icy cold.
