Chapter 76: The Missing Bell
The person who was blocked behind Fatty by him, leaning against the brick wall with a dazed expression in her eyes, was none other than A Ning!
Seeing A Ning, Wu Xie couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger in his heart. He went up and grabbed her collar: “Last time in the Lu King’s Palace, you harmed me once, and now you want to harm me again? If it weren’t for my good fortune and that arrowhead being fake, I would have really been killed by you! Did you call me here just to harm me? Speak up?”
Hearing his words, A Ning still had a dazed expression in her eyes and said nothing. Wu Xie felt something was off, let go of her, and carefully observed: expression dazed, eyes lifeless—this meant she had gone dumb? He frowned and patted her face: “Really gone dumb?”
Fatty nodded silently from behind: “She should really have gone dumb. Who knows what she encountered to end up like this.”
Wu Xie still felt something was off: “It’s not that I don’t believe you. We’ve only just run into her, and we don’t understand her at all. How do we know she’s not pretending? What if she’s faking it now and stabs us in the back at a critical moment? Who could handle that?”
Fatty scratched his head and pointed at Zhang Qiling: “If she’s really gone dumb, it’s Xiaoge who said it. I couldn’t tell. But it wouldn’t go as far as killing her directly, right? We’re still counting on their ship to get back. What would it mean if we killed their leader?”
Lin Yan thought it made sense too. The people on the ship outside were all A Ning’s people. Even if the ship captain and the others weren’t hers, they were hired by A Ning. What if they really killed A Ning, and then when they went out, they weren’t allowed on the ship?
“Then how about tying her up?”
As Lin Yan spoke, he started rummaging through the equipment. If he remembered correctly, he had seen a bundle of rope in Wu Xie’s bag. It was specialized climbing rope—strong load-bearing capacity, sturdy, couldn’t be cut without a sharp little dagger. Perfect for tying up A Ning.
Wu Xie thought about it and figured that was fine too. When they went out, they could just haul her up with them. As long as she didn’t die, it was okay. According to his estimation, the place they came down from earlier should be the lowest point of the entire tomb, probably about thirty or forty meters from sea level. By now, they had been crawling and turning through the tomb-robbing hole for half a day, probably only about ten meters from sea level. If the tomb-robbing hole opened at the tomb top when they went out, it might be less than ten meters from sea level. They could make it up without oxygen tanks—no risk of drowning.
Besides, they only had two spare oxygen tanks on them, which wasn’t even enough for their own people. Give her one? In his dreams!
Wait a minute! Speaking of oxygen tanks, he remembered—if they found a secret passage here leading back to the entrance, that would be thirty or forty meters below sea level. The oxygen tanks were almost used up when they came down. How could four people get out with just two oxygen tanks? Unless they went back now to find the equipment that had been moved away by the mechanism. So either they dig a tomb-robbing hole from the tomb top, or they go back to fight the Forbidden Woman?
Thinking of this, Wu Xie suddenly felt that digging a tomb-robbing hole from the tomb top was pretty good. Who would want to deal with the Forbidden Woman for no reason?
When he came back to his senses, he saw that Lin Yan and Fatty had already tied her up over there. Fatty was pressing down behind A Ning, tying the knot on the rope. Looking at A Ning’s slender frame, he worried for her waist. Fatty’s tonnage wasn’t for show, but A Ning deserved it! If they didn’t need her to get on their ship, he would absolutely leave her here to fend for herself!
“Heh heh, Fatty Ye’s technique is good, right?” Fatty clapped his hands, stood up with hands on hips, and the smile on his face had a hint of lewdness for some reason. Lin Yan walked a circle around the tied-up A Ning, nodded, and thoughtfully commented: “Of course, Fatty Ye looks like he’s battle-tested?”
Fatty’s face reddened, and he shook his head: “Battle-tested might be a stretch, but I’ve seen plenty! Young comrade, if you put it that way, you seem like… one of us?” A strange smile appeared on Lin Yan’s face, and he winked at Fatty. The two exchanged a knowing look and walked to the side, starting to exchange men’s secrets.
Wu Xie watched from the side, completely baffled. What was all this? These days, did tying someone up require technique? Why did he suddenly feel like he couldn’t fit into their world? He looked pleadingly at Zhang Qiling, but Zhang Qiling was still staring dazedly at the bronze bell, lost in thought about something.
Seeing him always staring at the bell, Wu Xie walked up: “I see you keep looking at this bell. Is there something special about it? Should we take one?”
Zhang Qiling shook his head: “I just feel like I’ve seen this kind of bell before, but I can’t remember. Take it… give it to Lin Yan. I don’t need it.”
Wu Xie looked at the bell, then at Lin Yan in the distance who was grinning strangely with Fatty, his expression gradually turning odd: “Could it be… he can eat the jade pendant, fine, but he can eat this bell too? Can it be ground up and eaten?”
If he had looked at Zhang Qiling at that moment, he would have seen a crack appear on his calm face in an instant—he shouldn’t have let Lin Yan hang out with Wu Xie! Look, now his thought process was all wrong! A small thing like the jade pendant was one thing, but could something like a bronze bell be eaten?
It was all Lin Yan’s fault!
He gritted his teeth inwardly and tried to speak in a calm tone: “Not for eating, but useful.”
Wu Xie breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn’t for eating, it was fine. He had been worried that if Lin Yan ate this bronze bell from a thousand years ago, he might get heavy metal poisoning! If Lin Yan knew, he would definitely spit out a mouthful of old blood—worried about me getting heavy metal poisoning? Why not worry about how I’m supposed to eat it?
Hmm? Lin Yan suddenly felt a chill behind him, like someone was scheming against him. He turned back for a look and saw Zhang Qiling looking at Wu Xie with a complicated expression, somewhat at a loss for words, while Wu Xie was looking at him full of concern… What did it have to do with him?
“What’s wrong?” He curiously asked Wu Xie. Wu Xie, having heard Zhang Qiling’s explanation, retracted his worried expression and shook his head slightly at Lin Yan: “Nothing.”
Wu Xie turned to look at the bronze bell and asked Zhang Qiling: “If Lin Yan wants it, how many should we pick?”
Zhang Qiling’s finger moved over several bronze bells, then he pinched two fingers together and picked one off: “One is enough.”
Wu Xie watched him pick this one out of the many bells, observed it carefully, and found it no different from the others: “Why pick this one? Is there something special about it?”
Zhang Qiling pointed at this huge white coral: “The bells on it are arranged according to Qimen Dunjia formation. This one is extra.”
Extra? If it’s arranged according to the formation, how could there be an extra? Wu Xie realized he had another new problem to think about. He began carefully observing the arrangement of the bells and actually spotted something: “Is this formation incomplete?”
Zhang Qiling nodded calmly: “It should have been complete originally, but…” He glanced at the bell Wu Xie was holding: “More than one has already been taken by someone.” He pointed to the very center of the coral, where there was a white mark: “There should have been a different one hanging here originally, but…”
Zhang Qiling fell silent. If he wasn’t mistaken, this bell should be the one taken by someone twenty years ago! And this bell was also related to his missing memories! Who exactly was it?
PS: Tomorrow is July! Begging for monthly tickets and recommendation tickets!
