Chapter 98: Where On Earth Is The Mechanism?
Isn’t this supposed to be a serious tomb raiding? Shouldn’t everyone be solemnly finishing their meal and starting to study the secret room? What’s up with these three guys using all the Thirty-Six Stratagems just to grab food? Fatty is one thing, eating is more important than the heavens to him, but how did Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling get led astray?
Lin Yan, dumbfounded, didn’t realize that without him and Fatty these two clowns colluding together, the other two wouldn’t have been so easily influenced. But it wasn’t too late to react now. Lin Yan shouted “Hold your fish!” and joined the scramble for food.
Otherwise, why do they say food tastes especially good when fighting over it? Lin Yan only felt the fish meat in his mouth was incredibly tender and smooth, fresh with a touch of saltiness. It was so delicious he almost swallowed his own tongue. Hearing Fatty say something about quitting to open a restaurant afterward, he nodded silently in his heart. If he wasn’t too busy eating to speak, he definitely would have shouted, “Take me with you!”
Even with just this one signature dish, Fatty’s restaurant wouldn’t lose money!
Lin Yan hadn’t even solved his own matter yet, but he was already thinking about things afterward. In his mind, after the matter ended, they could take some things and sell them off, and he probably wouldn’t have to worry about money for the rest of his life! Then in Hangzhou like Wu Xie, buy a small courtyard, drink tea and stroll around when free, wouldn’t that be wonderful? And invest in Fatty’s restaurant, go there for free food when bored, this little life would be perfect!
After a frantic feast devouring the seafood in the pot, except for Zhang Qiling still sitting upright maintaining a bit of an expert demeanor, the other three were stuffed, hands on their stomachs, sprawled haphazardly on the ground. Lin Yan even yawned—getting sleepy after eating full is a natural human reaction, it really wasn’t that he wanted to sleep after eating!
But why do yawns spread like that? Wu Xie saw Lin Yan yawn and couldn’t help but yawn too, then he watched as Fatty across from him got infected by him as well. So.
Zhang Qiling looked at three pairs of eyes staring blankly at him, somewhat baffled: “.?” The three hoping to see if he would get infected and yawn too felt inexplicably a bit guilty for some reason, and quickly turned their heads away—those looking at the ceiling looked at the ceiling, those staring at the ground stared at the ground. Fatty had nothing to stare at, so he could only stare at the empty pot in front of him, as if hoping to spot another piece of meat inside.
After eating and drinking their fill, it was time for serious business. Wu Xie always wanted to pull another secret room out of this secret room: “Have you all discovered anything? There’s a bloody smell here, I always feel the missing crew and expedition team members might be here.”
He hesitated to continue—if the previously missing people still had a sliver of hope that someone survived, the bloody smell here indicated they very likely… were all wiped out. Indeed, by distance, this island wasn’t far from the underwater tomb, just a few hours away, and they had delayed one night at sea. If the killer had placed the corpses here before them and left before they arrived, it was possible.
So the question was, now that the storm had arrived outside, if not here, where could the killer hide from the storm? Factoring in their delay on the road and the time the killer took to handle the corpses, plus the distance to nearby islands, Wu Xie’s eyes lit up: “Yongxing Island! Do you think the killer might be on Yongxing Island right now?”
Fatty thought for a moment: “You don’t say, it really is possible. If there are no other islands nearby, Yongxing Island is the most likely choice! Also, this killer built a secret room here imitating the underwater tomb, so he must have been watching that tomb for years. Do you think the killer might be… someone from Yongxing Island?”
Yongxing Island serves as a midway supply point and safe harbor for long-distance ferries and fishing boats heading out to sea. The island is practically like a city, with residential areas, commercial districts, everything, and its own defense system. When Fatty was on the island, he always saw people with controlled knives and weapons peeking from their waists. It seemed there must be some big shot backing this island.
If the killer really was an internal person on the island, Fatty shivered. If it was someone who sneaked in, it would be manageable, but if that island was built because of the underwater tomb… Thinking of this possibility, Fatty’s face suddenly paled.
His unusual expression was noticed by the other three, and Wu Xie hurriedly asked what was wrong. Fatty wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and shared his guess. Everyone fell silent. If that was really the case, they might as well let the matter rot in their stomachs. Whoever could control such an important island, none of them could afford to provoke, not even the Wu Family, the local snakes in Hangzhou.
Suddenly, Wu Xie’s face paled, and he exclaimed in shock: “In that case, my Third Uncle wouldn’t also”
Lin Yan quickly comforted him: “It shouldn’t be that bad. Didn’t your Third Uncle make preparations before leaving? He had that ocean company prepare two sets of equipment, probably just to guard against this situation! What we can think of, he must have thought of too. With your Third Uncle’s sly old fox nature, he won’t die that easily!”
Wu Xie thought about it—if Wu Sansheng hadn’t anticipated this situation beforehand, he probably wouldn’t have made those preparations. Though still faintly worried, at least for now, his heart settled a bit.
He raised his hand to press his temples, which were starting to throb from the emotional agitation, and shook his head with a bitter smile: “Hope so.” There were too many mysteries about the underwater tomb and his Third Uncle. Based on the current clues, he couldn’t deduce the truth at all. But this guess did rule out the possibility that his Third Uncle was the killer—Wu Sansheng had been running around all these years without settling down, where would he have time to develop such a large force on Yongxing Island? He himself didn’t even remember the process of going down to the underwater tomb!
This was also the only good news since his Third Uncle went missing!
At this moment, Lin Yan seemed to have discovered something. He hesitantly raised his hand and pointed to the stone wall above the statue: “Look at that, what is it?” He had noticed earlier when looking up that the color of this spot was a bit off, but Wu Xie had disrupted his train of thought. Looking back now, it felt more and more wrong no matter how he saw it. His intuition told him there must be something there, possibly even the location of the secret room.
The three looked in the direction he pointed, and the stone wall above the statue did indeed have a color slightly different from the surroundings, seeming a bit darker.
Zhang Qiling, with his good skills, directly climbed to the top of the statue, observed carefully for a bit, then jumped down and began groping around the statue: “There’s a shallow pit in the center of this stone wall; it looks like it was pushed up by this statue.”
Hearing what he said, the three exchanged glances and came to the statue to tap and knock around. When Lin Yan got to the top of the statue, he took a look too. The bun part of this statue did indeed show some wear, with a whitish color distinctly different from its surroundings. Wu Xie had searched all around this secret room, and his mechanism skills were commendable. Since he hadn’t found the mechanism, it must be on the statue itself.
But with the entire statue seemingly searched, where exactly was the mechanism?
