This made Zhou Xuan feel more comfortable than in the Fu family's villa. After all, he could understand the people around him. He felt very isolated in New York, but here there was a warm atmosphere that made him feel much more at ease.
The owner, a man in his fifties, clearly knew Fu Ying. He greeted her with a smile, "Miss Fu, what brings you here? Hehe, please come up to a private room."
Fu Ying nodded and replied, "Uncle Li, I went to China and just got back. I came to eat with a friend who also just came from China and isn't used to the food here!"
The boss, Uncle Li, led the way to the second floor. There were six rooms in two rows on the second floor. He arranged for Fu Ying and Zhou Xuan to enter the second room on the left, turned on the air conditioner, and called a waiter to make tea.
Fu Ying and Zhou Xuan sat down at the large round table, and then Fu Ying said to Uncle Li, "Uncle Li, you go ahead and do your work. You don't need to keep us company. I'll chat with my friend while we wait for the food."
Uncle Li chuckled and left. Fu Ying clearly had something to talk about with her friend, so there was no need for him to stay.
The waitress brewed the fine Longjing tea that Uncle Li had specially brought out with boiling water, but judging from the tea set, it was clear that Uncle Li was not a professional tea connoisseur like Uncle Liu.
After the waitress prepared the tea, she placed a cup in front of each of them and then left the room.
Fu Ying gently blew on the steam rising from the teacup, but didn't pick it up to drink. She looked up at Zhou Xuan and asked, "Little Zhou, tell me, what do you think I'm inviting you to do? Guess!"
Zhou Xuan shook his head and said with a wry smile, "How could I possibly guess? But in my imagination, could it be something like salvaging a sunken ship or hiding treasure at sea?"
Fu Ying gently shook her head, slowly turning the teacup in her hands, and then said, "No, let me tell you a story first."
Zhou Xuan smiled slightly, just about to hear her speak, but then wondered what story she was going to tell. No one could understand a girl's thoughts, let alone a beautiful girl like Fu Ying. Anyway, he didn't want to understand. It was just a job. If she wanted to talk, she could talk; if she wanted to tell stories, she could tell stories. He let her be.
"It was... not so long ago, a few years before Liberation," Fu Ying slowly began to tell the story. "There were two brothers, the older brother was thirty-four years old, and the younger brother was only seventeen. The older brother was twice the age of his younger brother. Their parents died in the war eight years ago. When their parents died, the younger brother was only nine years old. The older brother took his younger brother and traveled around. He loved his younger brother very much. He always let his younger brother eat first and wear clothes first. He raised his younger brother like both an older brother and a parent. At that time, China was engulfed in war. There was fighting everywhere, and people were dying everywhere. The older brother simply took his younger brother to apply for jobs at the Atlantic Company in San Francisco to work in the gold mines. When they arrived in San Francisco, they found out that they had been tricked. They were not going to mine gold, but to mine coal, and they had no freedom at all."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Xuan vaguely guessed that Fu Ying was probably referring to her ancestors who had ventured to America. But what did this have to do with the people she had hired this time?
"My brother loved martial arts and fitness since he was a child and became very skilled in them. After realizing he had been tricked in San Francisco, he secretly contacted some workers and discussed his escape plan. After some time, he escaped on a stormy night. There were more than forty people who tried to escape, but only seven made it out. My brother desperately protected his younger brother and they escaped together. To avoid being tracked down, the two brothers hitched a ride on a train to New York. Later, my brother became a bodyguard for a big boss who was in international business and made a fortune from war. My brother made a lot of money with him. After he quit, he opened a shop in New York. A few years later, the shop grew and the business became good."
Zhou Xuan asked, "You're talking about... your great-grandfather, right?"
Fu Ying nodded: "Yes, my brother's name is Fu Yushan, he is my great-great-grandfather, and my brother's name is Fu Yuhai, he is my great-grandfather. After their business grew, my great-great-grandfather once obtained a treasure map. He was always adventurous, and my great-grandfather couldn't persuade him to stop. He said that they were poor before, but now they had enough to eat and wear, and he shouldn't take any more risks. But my great-great-grandfather insisted on going, and my great-grandfather had no choice but to let him go. But once he went, my great-great-grandfather never came back!"
Zhou Xuan suddenly realized: "So the place you asked us to go was the place your great-great-grandfather went to?"
At this moment, the waiter brought out the dishes, and Fu Ying continued, "Yes, my great-grandfather was raised by my great-great-grandfather as a baby. When he was hungry, he would rather go hungry himself than let my great-grandfather go hungry. After he became rich, he helped my great-grandfather get married, but he himself was still single. After the expedition, he was never heard from again. All of this huge family fortune was left to my great-grandfather. So for many years, my great-grandfather has been trying to find my great-great-grandfather's whereabouts. He said that even if he died, he would find his remains, otherwise he would not be able to die in peace."
Zhou Xuan was a little puzzled and asked, "Do you know where our great-great-grandfather went? If you don't, there's nothing we can do, but if you do know, how come you haven't been able to find him after all these years?"
Fu Ying slowly shook her head and said, "My great-great-grandfather told my great-grandfather about that place when he passed away. Later, my great-grandfather also went there, but that place was too dangerous. It cost a lot of money to hire someone, and none of the people he hired ever came back. After this happened four or five times, my great-grandfather stopped hiring people because he felt even more distressed by the many deaths. He also forbade my grandfather and father from hiring anyone else."
“But my grandfather, my father, and my cousin all know that what my great-grandfather couldn’t let go of was this matter. My cousin and I thought that if we could find my great-great-grandfather’s remains, it would be the best birthday gift for him. So, my cousin traveled all over the world looking for expert divers. We were willing to spend any amount of money for this, not for treasure, but just to find my great-great-grandfather’s remains. I’m contacting you because of this matter. I’m making this clear to you today. My cousin and I can’t lie about this. The Wolf brothers and Elena know perfectly well why they were invited—it’s for this high reward!”
Looking at Fu Ying's pretty face, Zhou Xuan asked in surprise and confusion, "Since it's such a dangerous thing, why didn't you explain it to me clearly when you were in China?"
Fu Ying's eyes immediately reddened, and she whispered, "That's because I was worried you wouldn't agree. I know your diving skills are better than anyone I've ever met, so you have the best chance of finding my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather is ninety-eight years old this year. He's old and nearing the end of his life. I just want to help him fulfill this wish while he's still alive!"
Zhou Xuan fell silent. He also valued Fu Ying's filial piety, but it was a very big and dangerous matter. No amount of money could compare to the preciousness of life. Besides, earning a few million was not difficult for him now. He would not do it if he had to risk his life!
After pondering for a moment, Zhou Xuan asked again, "What exactly is that place? And what kind of danger is it?"
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Volume One: The First Signs of Growth, Chapter Eight: Sinkholes and Underground Rivers
Fu Ying said leisurely, "Actually, neither my cousin nor I have ever been to that place. Only my great-grandfather and grandfather knew about it. Because it was too dangerous, they never mentioned it again after the last failure, not even my parents knew."
Zhou Xuan found it strange and asked her in confusion, "Since neither you nor your cousin know the address of that place, what's the use of recruiting people? From what you've said, your great-grandfather and grandfather are worried about safety and won't tell you the address. Wouldn't that be a waste of time?"
“Don’t worry about that!” Fu Ying said slowly. “Don’t ask my great-grandfather for the address, ask my grandfather. Do you think I don’t know what my grandfather is thinking? He’s mainly worried about safety. They went before because the equipment was too poor, but now it’s different. High-tech equipment can make up for many human shortcomings. As long as we are well prepared, my grandfather will agree. My great-grandfather is about to turn ninety-eight, and this is what he thinks about all the time. As long as we are well prepared, my grandfather will agree!”
The key question is just how dangerous this is. If it's just deep-sea diving, that's fine. Zhou Xuan has a general idea of what's going on. He knows when he's diving deep and he won't continue when he reaches the point where he can't dive any further. But then another question popped into his mind: "Miss Fu, you mentioned diving. Let me ask you, with your family's wealth, buying a small submarine shouldn't be a big problem, right? Machinery is many times more capable of diving than a person, you must know that, right?"
Fu Ying shook her head and said, "Of course I know. Although we've never been there, my great-grandfather told us cousins this story when we were very young. Pit, have you ever heard of it?"
“PIT?” Zhou Xuan frowned and shook his head. “Never heard of it. Besides, you know I’m terrible at English!”
Fu Ying said calmly, "I didn't mean to laugh at you. I just said it naturally. PIT means sinkhole. You know what a sinkhole is, right?"
Zhou Xuan was taken aback and said, "I knew about sinkholes. There are many in my hometown, such as sinkholes, dragon caves, bottomless pits, and so on. However, very few people have ever gone down there. They are surrounded by cliffs on all sides. I heard that there are underground rivers and monsters like dragons and jiaos at the bottom. Of course, I have never been there and have never seen such monsters."
Fu Ying added, "Of course, that's just a legend. PIT means sinkhole in English. Since China has the most and most influential sinkholes in the world, the international academic community organized an international karst sinkhole expedition in 2005. After conducting a large-scale investigation in Chongqing and Guangxi, China, they adopted 'sinkhole' as a term and began using the Chinese pinyin 'tiankeng' internationally. The place we're going to is also a sinkhole!"
Zhou Xuan was somewhat stunned. The moon in foreign countries is probably the same as the moon in China. The sinkhole is probably not much different from the sinkholes in China. The mystery of sinkholes is like the mystery that adults used to scare children by saying there were ghosts outside. In Zhou Xuan's mind, there was nothing else he understood besides mystery and fear.
“The place my great-grandfather went to should be a place in the primeval forest of southern North America. According to my great-grandfather, the place is very mysterious. A helicopter once flew over there and was sucked into the sinkhole by the airflow. The sinkhole is surrounded by cliffs on all sides, with an area of about four or five thousand square meters and a depth of more than six hundred meters. The bottom is jungle, with many plants that I have never seen before. At the westernmost part of the bottom of the sinkhole, there is a circular water pit with a diameter of only two meters. The water in the water pit flows very fast and is also very cold, with a water temperature of only two to three degrees. The inner layer of the water pit has an underground current flowing from west to east, which is called an ‘underground river’ in Chinese terms.”
As Fu Ying finished speaking, she felt a little thirsty, picked up her teacup and took a sip. The tea had long since gone cold.
Zhou Xuan was stunned. After a long while, he asked, "Going to the sinkhole is one thing, but it doesn't mean we have to go to the underground river in that water pit, does it?"
Fu Ying nodded seriously and said, "Yes, it's in that pool. My great-grandfather took people there four times and hired expert divers, but no matter how many people went down, none of them came out. They were all tied with ropes before going into the water, and all they brought back were broken rope ends. The entrance to the pool is very narrow, only about two meters wide, so it's impossible to put a small submarine in there. Therefore, they could only dive down by themselves. My great-grandfather used ropes tied to stones to measure the depth, which was about two hundred meters. However, the currents in the lower layers of the water are very strong, so the exact depth is uncertain."
Zhou Xuan gasped in shock at this moment!
This mission is really not simple. Maybe foreigners are just naturally bolder. The Wolf brothers and Elena knew it was such a mission, but they still came without any problems. Zhou Xuan really admired them. However, he wasn't in the mood for it!
Zhou Xuan would rather salvage a sunken ship in the deep sea than dive into the Yin River; this difference was significant in his mind.
Although the ocean is deeper and larger, it is not as dangerous as underground rivers. The unknowns in underground rivers are too great, and modern high-tech machinery is limited by terrain and space, which further increases the difficulty of rescue once an accident occurs.
By this time, the dishes had been served, but Zhou Xuan had lost his appetite. After thinking for a moment, he said to Fu Ying, "Miss Fu, I think I can tell you the truth. I don't object to diving, and I would even try the deep sea. But I'm not willing to go to the sinkhole because of the underground currents. However, since we're already in America, if your grandfather tells you the location, I still hope to go there and take a look. I probably won't agree to go underwater. I won't accept your money; I'll pay for it myself. You know, I have tens of millions in assets just because of that piece of jade. Money is not a problem. Besides, no amount of money is more valuable than life!"
Zhou Xuan spoke frankly, but it was a normal human reaction. Of course, this excludes those who love adventure or are short of money. Some come for the adventure, some for the money. Zhou Xuan initially came thinking that this wouldn't be too difficult and that he could make a fortune. But now, money is nothing to him. Call him cowardly or incompetent, but he's not going to gamble his life for millions.
This time, Fu Ying did not insist. She nodded and said, "Of course, you can go and see if you want. Whether you agree to go into the water or not is your freedom. We will never force you, nor will we ever force you. That's why I'm making this clear to you now. Everything must be based on your own willingness."
She smiled faintly and said, "Let's not talk about it anymore, let's eat, the food is getting cold."