Ba ethnic group's bewitching charm - the executioner - Chapter 34
Han Shan nodded: "These are all your people. If I hadn't let Wu Luo go, I would be the one dead now."
"What I need you to do is help us retrieve the sacred artifact, not to kill my people!" Baqi suddenly raised his voice. "Kill that person! Go avenge Wuluo now. I cannot let my people die in vain."
“Wu Luo certainly didn’t die in vain. He died for your entire tribe. He died a worthy death,” Han Shan said.
Ba Qi seemed furious; his blue pupils, behind the bronze mask, blazed with rage, as if he wanted to burn the man before him to ashes: "You must give me an explanation for this."
Han Shan looked at Ba Qi calmly, and at this moment, there was even a slight smile on his lips.
"There's something I've been keeping from you, and now it seems that if I don't tell you, I might not get through this today." He paused for a moment, leaned forward slightly, and looked very mysterious. "You once asked me why we were spending so much energy on this person. Now I'll tell you the reason: because this person's identity is very special to us."
"Who exactly is he?" Baqi had clearly realized that things were not as simple as he had thought.
“If you want to retrieve your clan’s sacred artifacts, then not only must this person not be killed, but you must also protect him. If he dies, you might never be able to find those sacred artifacts again.” Han Shan straightened his chest and slowly, word by word, said, “He is actually Barong’s biological son!”
Ba Qi let out an "Ah!" Although his expression was not visible, his body stiffened, showing how surprised he was.
"Ba Rong has a son?" he said.
"If Ba Rong can have a daughter, why can't he have a son?" Han Shan smiled. "As far as I know, before Ba Rong betrayed his tribe and stole the treasure, he spent more than ten years constantly moving between your tribe and the outside world. Even some ordinary items from your tribe are quite valuable, so Ba Rong can be considered very wealthy. Moreover, he is a highly intelligent person, and his extensive reading has made him very knowledgeable. In addition, he was not very old at that time, so getting women should have been very easy for him."
Bachi remained silent, seemingly needing some time to process the reality he was facing.
“I didn’t know that Ba Rong had a son. Half a year ago, after Ba Rong was killed by Yu Lei, I accidentally found a stack of photos in his safe. When I put them together, it showed a person’s growth from infancy to adolescence. I realized then that this person must have been extraordinary to Ba Rong.”
Han Shan sighed, "So I continued to keep an eye out, trying to find some other clues, but Ba Rong was cautious all his life, and apart from the photos, there was nothing else related to this boy. Moreover, his whereabouts were unpredictable, and I only saw him a few times a year, so it was impossible for me to get any information from him. Therefore, I had no choice but to start with these photos, taking each one and analyzing it carefully. The photos spanned more than ten years, and most of the backgrounds were indoors, but there were two outdoors. I started with the backgrounds of the photos, and then, based on some decorations in the rooms, I finally determined where the photos were taken."
"You sent someone to find him?" Baqi asked.
Han Shan shook his head: "I didn't send anyone to that city; instead, I went to find the person in the photo myself. The search was quite complicated, but I finally found him."
The boy in the photo has now grown into a young man, about the same age as Han Shan, and lives with only his mother. Han Shan immediately began investigating his background and quickly determined that he was Ba Rong's son.
"It was a small city, and people weren't very wealthy. With money, you could get anything you wanted. Yang Zheng's father died young, but some people said he hadn't actually died; he had just left home a long time ago, and no one knew why. But before he left, he left the mother and son some money, so their life was considered relatively comfortable in the area. When I found them, the mother was already in a mental hospital. She had schizophrenia and multiple personalities, playing different roles in her own world every day. Later, she developed violent tendencies, standing at her door with a knife every day, shouting that she wanted to kill someone. Someone called the police, and she was sent to a mental hospital. I visited her once, and she mistook me for her son, saying that her father would definitely come to pick her up."
"And what about the child?" Baqi asked, engrossed in the question.
"The child has grown up. His name is Yang Zheng, the one who just defeated Wu Luo," Han Shan said. "Yang Zheng left his mother to live alone many years ago because his mother had abused him. According to the neighbors at the time, the woman was abandoned by her husband and suffered a mental breakdown, venting her resentment on her child."
"And, more importantly," Han Shan said heavily, "when that mother gave birth, something happened. Besides Yang Zheng, she also gave birth to a monster. The monster was like a skin, and it was obviously dead before it was born. The mother believed that Yang Zheng killed it, which is one of the reasons why she later abused Yang Zheng."
Ba Qi fell silent, seemingly lamenting Yang Zheng's unfortunate background. Soon, a question came to mind: "Ba Rong can keep her own daughter and six adopted children with her, so why would she abandon her own son in a small city, leaving him to endure such a miserable childhood?"
"That's exactly what I was thinking about back then." Han Shan suddenly smiled. "My conclusion is that, in addition to protecting his son from being discovered by your Ba people, Ba Rong did this to leave Yang Zheng with a huge secret. His secret, of course, is the whereabouts of your Ba people's sacred object."
Ba Qi wasn't too surprised this time; it was only natural that Ba Rong would keep the secret to his son.
"Why didn't you tell me from the beginning that that person was Ba Rong's son?" Ba Qi asked.
“Barong is an enemy of your tribe. I’m afraid if I tell you this secret, you won’t let Yang Zheng go. If that happens, all of what we’ve done now will be meaningless.”
"Now that Baron's son is in your hands, where is the sacred object?"
"Don't worry, I will definitely help you find the sacred object. However, I need some time. There are many strange things about Baron's son. I believe that the secret is hidden in those strange things."
"So you sent Wuluo to his death!" Baqi was furious again.
Han Shan wore an innocent expression: "I never expected that Yang Zheng could defeat Wu Luo. But this incident has given me some inspiration. I think that when Yang Zheng fully reverts to his true nature and becomes a real devil, then perhaps we will be able to find out the whereabouts of the sacred object."
Ba Qi remained silent, hoping Han Shan's deduction was correct. He had led his people out of the mountains in search of treasure. Although he had previous experience studying and living in the outside world, he still found himself unable to adapt to life there. Moreover, what he was about to do was extremely important to the entire tribe, and he had to rely on the person before him. Of course, he wouldn't trust him. This kind of intrigue and power struggles between people had already thoroughly disgusted him.
"Alright, let's see what Yang Zheng is doing now," Han Shan said. He went to the monitor, typed a few keys, and different images flashed by. Soon, Yang Zheng appeared on the screen.
As the camera zoomed in, Han Shan's expression suddenly became unusually solemn. He saw that although Yang Zheng was covered in blood and looked somewhat terrifying, his expression was unusually calm, showing no trace of the impulsiveness he had displayed in the room earlier.
Yang Zheng now seems like a perfectly normal person.
Chapter 22
This is probably the longest and narrowest city in all of China. The districts are often separated by tens of kilometers. So, although many people know this city as an eastern coastal city, the actual city center is more than 30 kilometers from the sea. Fortunately, most of the city's development is now focused on appearances; the main road leading from the city center to the seaside town is very impressive, with overpasses in the middle, making it look extremely spectacular.
Qin Ge's jeep arrived at the seaside town in just over 20 minutes.
The friend who specializes in folklore is named Gao Wei, and he works at the Municipal Cultural Relics Management Committee. Last year, when Qin Ge was investigating the Scarface Killer case, he discovered a "rebirth talisman" supposedly passed down from the Five Pecks of Rice sect, a branch of the Taiping Dao (Way of Peace) during the Eastern Han Dynasty. The leader of the Five Pecks of Rice sect was Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Legend has it that the Yellow Turban followers wore talismans of immortality when going into battle, making them incredibly brave and fearless. To trace the origin of this "rebirth talisman," Qin Ge met this folklore expert and consulted him about the distribution of Taoist temples throughout the city. Gao Wei is a meticulous person; he not only drew a detailed map of the distribution for Qin Ge but also marked the specific routes to each temple.
Therefore, even though Qin Ge woke Gao Wei up at 5 a.m., Gao Wei still told him in great detail the exact location of Xingxiutai in the seaside town.
The car drove through the town, heading straight for the sea. The abandoned old beach, like a weary old woman, lamented alone in the night. A long sea dike connected the land to a small island in the sea.
Xingxiutai is located on the island.
The car drove past the sea dike, the sea on both sides as tranquil as a gentle lady. The construction of the sea dike was once a source of great pride for the people of this city, and the beach was relocated to the island as a result. But times have changed; building a dike around the sea has proven to be an extremely foolish act, causing immense damage to the local ecosystem.
The island has mountains, which, though not high, have complex terrain, with one side rising from the beach and the other side having cliffs overlooking the sea.
At the foot of the mountain, Ma Nan and Qin Ge abandoned their car and started climbing. At first, there were man-made steps, but after turning a corner, a small path appeared on one side of the steps. There was a sign next to it, indicating that the path led to the cliff behind the mountain.
The two continued along the path. Climbing the mountain wasn't difficult for them, but the long winter nights, even though it was already past midnight, left them in complete darkness. The faint starlight and moonlight cast only faint shadows in the darkness, creating an eerie atmosphere. Relying solely on the beam of Qin Ge's flashlight, and with the path winding and uneven, both of them found it somewhat strenuous.
Few people visit the back mountain, so Xingxiu Terrace is not well-known locally. The folklore expert told Qin Ge that this was a way for the government to protect historical relics in accordance with its development strategy.
Xingxiu Terrace is located at the highest point of the back mountain, just a few steps away from the cliff.
Upon reaching the summit, the terrain suddenly opened up, and the starlight and moonlight streamed down without obstruction. Qin Ge exclaimed "Huh?" because what he saw was not a single high platform, but three connected by a passageway, which at first glance resembled a smaller version of the Great Wall.
"There were originally three Star Constellation Platforms," Qin Ge said with some doubt. "Which one should we go to?"
“Of course it’s the middle one.” Ma Nan said without hesitation. “Antares is one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions. It is originally composed of three stars. Fuxi is the second star of the three stars, and his position is the middle one of the three stars.”