Jeu de meurtre de la Ivy League

Chapitre 17

After Mulin Group compiled and analyzed all the information, they deduced that this cave was indeed Tianya's largest treasure vault during the late Qing Dynasty, known as the safest place in the world. After finding the exact location of the cave, Mulin Group tried every possible method to open it but failed. In reality, when we entered the cave, we didn't find any automatic opening method; there was no opening method at all. We had simply planted explosives beforehand, and I just needed to activate them later—a small smokescreen to make you believe the so-called legends and the false information we provided earlier.

To quote the professor, the journey from where we entered the cave to its innermost point can be divided into five sections. The first section is the cave we entered, the place Lai Bao and his companions never left—a circular area. The second section is the narrow path we followed, a rectangular area. The third section is the unknown location, the Egg Cave. The fourth section is also rectangular. The fifth section is a square area, the place where we saw the stone pillars. Based on the information we gathered during our visit, I created a graphical simulation and arrived at what I believe to be a somewhat absurd conclusion, though it at least explains most of what happened.

The various shaped areas within this cave are constantly shifting or being replaced. Based on the professor's estimation, they change every 12 minutes, forming a cycle of 7 times. Therefore, there are 7 different caves in total. To give a concrete example, if you're currently standing in the first circular area, after 12 minutes, the narrow path in the rectangular area ahead of you might not be the one you came in through; it might be a different path. If you walk forward along that narrow path and return after 12 minutes, the circular area you were in before will no longer be the same place you were in 12 minutes ago. Each area is constantly being replaced with a 12-minute interval. Do you understand now?

I pressed the pause button, scribbled on the sheets with my hand, then closed my eyes and thought for a while. After a long time, I finally understood what Shi Ping'er was talking about.

Tang Dun, I've said what I needed to say. I think Liu Chao will answer your questions about the rest. I hope you'll delete this recording completely after you listen to it, and destroy the recorder as well. I didn't leave any information with the Mulin Group. My time is running out; they're searching for me everywhere. I've embarked on a life on the run, but I'm not bored. I secretly took a picture of you sleeping soundly in bed. Haha, don't try to find me; you won't find me. I'll appear before you when the time is right. Until we meet again.

The recording ended there. I picked up the recorder and looked at it, and noticed that there was a cute ceramic bear ornament hanging on the outside of the recorder. The words "Bottle" were written on the ceramic bear.

Notes VII: The Journey to the Ends of the Earth - Chapter Twenty-One: Joining the Club

When I came out of the room, I saw Lao Fu holding the TV remote and imitating me, saying, "Hands up! Surrender and you won't be killed! Prisoners of war will be treated well!" Then everyone burst into laughter. When Lao Fu saw me come out, he quickly pointed at me and said, "The hero has returned!" Then everyone started cheering. I shook my head and smiled bitterly. Lai Bao and Mi Dou quickly made room for me on the sofa. At this moment, Liu Chao popped out from the balcony and said, "Finished listening? Let's eat then. I know you have something to ask me, but you have to sign this first."

After saying that, Liu Chao took out something. It looked very old and could be felt as leather. There was a strange pattern on it, and the whole piece of leather was covered with dense writing. I couldn't understand what the words were. Liu Chao handed me a knife and a pen and said, "Sign your name on it and then put your bloody handprint on it. That'll be it."

I looked at Liu Chao and then at the people around me. Lai Bao nodded helplessly at me and said, "Just sign it. We've all signed, and you're the only one left. Professor Zhong has also signed."

It was only then that I remembered Zhong Sheng wasn't here, so I quickly asked, "Where's Professor Zhong?" Mi Dou chimed in, "He left a few days ago, when you were sleeping like a log."

"A few days ago?" I looked at Mi Dou, who said, "Brother Dun, you've been sleeping for a week now. I don't know why you can sleep for so long."

I patted my head; no wonder my head hurt so much after I woke up. It seems I won't be able to sleep for at least two days. They also told me that because I was shot at close range, I would probably have died on the spot if it weren't for the bulletproof vest I was wearing.

I pointed to the leather piece and asked Liu Chao, "What is this?"

"A letter of protection from the ends of the earth," Liu Chao said to me seriously.

I paused for a moment, then asked, "What kind of asylum document?"

Liu Chao repeated, "The letter of protection from Tianya."

"From Tianya!? Did I hear that right?" I shook my head and said.

Liu Chao smiled and said, "I know what you want to ask. Shi Ping'er told you that Tianya was actually the predecessor of Mulin Group, right? Actually, it wasn't at all. Mulin Group was just established by those traitors who ran away from Tianya. They made their fortune entirely by tomb raiding and treasure hunting."

It was from Liu Chao that I learned that the founder of Mulin Group was actually one of the people who defected to Tianya with the first volume of the Heavenly Book that Lao Fu was carrying. Those people were divided into 5 groups, each taking some important things with them. The first two groups tried to go overseas. They understood that even if Tianya had a wide influence at the time, it was impossible to extend its influence outside of China. Of the remaining 3 groups, 2 groups took the Heavenly Book and fled towards Shanghai. A little later, they also wanted to escape abroad. The purpose was simple: to make Tianya think that the first group to escape was carrying the Heavenly Book, so that they would not focus on the latter two groups. The last group was scattered in China, hiding their identities and waiting for the situation to stabilize so that people from abroad could come back to pick them up.

Who knew that although those who fled to Shanghai with the book hired a security escort agency, they were still robbed on the way by Old Fu's great-grandfather. The book was stolen, and the people were all killed without leaving a single survivor, which saved Tianya a lot of effort. When Tianya saw that the book was in Old Fu's grandfather's hands, he also knew that Old Fu's grandfather was an illiterate and rough man (Old Fu looked very unhappy when Liu Chao said this), so the possibility that he could know the secret was almost zero. Therefore, he simply left the book in the Fu family and sent people to monitor it year-round.

Liu Chao also said that their biggest worry at the time was that the traitors from Tianya would try every means to steal the book. So they took the initiative and tried their best to clean house across the country, eliminating those who remained in the country one by one. Some of those traitors later became bandits in the mountains, some joined the warlords, and some became merchants. But surprisingly, no one had any intention of taking the first volume of the Heavenly Book. This made the people of Tianya feel strange. But strange is strange. You can't just grab someone and ask them why they didn't want to take the book. As long as the book was still there and the Fu family was alive, that was enough. At that time, in order to ensure the survival of the Tianya organization and the continuation of its bloodline, they dispersed the organization and kept secret guards of Tianya's most confidential locations, somewhat like ancient tomb guardians. They were not allowed to contact each other until the very last moment. Liu Chao's ancestors were chosen as the only ones to guard the Cave of Memory.

So Liu Chao and his family settled in the vicinity of J City. In their early years, they made a living by farming in Chuanshan. Later, because his family members were literate, they became teachers in a township in Chuanshan. After J City was established, they gradually moved there.

As Liu Chao was speaking to me, I noticed that Lao Fu seemed to want to say something several times, but each time he seemed to swallow his words back. After several repetitions, I guessed that Lao Fu probably wanted to ask about his grandfather and father. Thinking that Liu Chao was talking enthusiastically at the moment, and judging from the way he seemed to know about his grandfather and father, I didn't interrupt Liu Chao and let him continue.

After I told Liu Chao about how Zhong Sheng had told me how he learned about the Tianya organization, Liu Chao thought for a while and said to me, "I think the person Professor Zhong was talking about is probably the descendant of the guardian of the Bashu Father River Tomb. By the way, I've already told you so much, you have to sign this now whether you like it or not."

I shook my head and said, "I still don't understand what you're saying has to do with what I signed."

Liu Chao pointed to the leather piece and said, "You can actually treat this as a contract. I can't quite understand the words on it, but I understand what it means. It means that if you sign this, it means that you will become a member of Tianya, and you must keep Tianya's secrets for life and stand up for the country in times of crisis."

I nodded and asked again, "What if I don't sign?"

Liu Chao shook his head and gestured across his neck with his hand, saying, "To keep this a secret, if anyone tries to make a fortune or anything else using Tianya, they will definitely come to a bad end. Even if they don't die, I will follow you every step of the way from now on, whether you're going to the toilet or eating. I will even be there for you on your wedding night. And once you become a member of Tianya, Tianya will have the responsibility to protect you until you die."

I shuddered. You stayed by my side on our wedding night? I picked up my pen to sign, but just as I was about to put pen to paper, I looked at Lai Bao and the others. Lai Bao knew what I wanted to ask and said, "We really signed it. If you don't believe me, have him show it to you."

After Lai Bao finished speaking, Liu Chao took out a stack of leather documents. I flipped through them one by one and found that it was indeed Lai Bao's handwriting. I then asked Liu Chao, "Will signing this document have any other side effects? For example, will I have to take some kind of pill and come to you regularly to get the antidote, or else I'll die from excruciating pain?"

"You think this is a martial arts novel? As long as you keep the secret, there are no other requirements, and you will be just like any other person."

I thought for a moment, then smiled and asked, "So now I'm considered a member of Tianya, and I've signed a contract, so I'm a full-time employee. Will I get a salary? And what about pension and medical insurance?"

Liu Chao smiled and said, "Look at my house. Everything in my house was earned with my own hard work. Not a single penny came from the treasures posted on Tianya. I'm not lying to you."

"Isn't this just volunteering?" I muttered to myself. Just as I was about to sign, I remembered something else, which annoyed the people around me. Old Fu was so angry he wanted to stand up and hit me. I quickly took a step back, pulled Liu Chao aside, and whispered, "I told a policeman about the Heavenly Book. One of my very good friends, no, I should say we." After I finished speaking, I pointed to Old Fu, Lai Bao, and the others.

Liu Chao glanced at me and said, "Police?" So I told Liu Chao everything about what had happened with Chen Zhong...

Chapter 49 of "Tangdun Strange Tales Notes"

Chapter 49 of "Tangdun Strange Tales Notes"

Author: Tang Xiaohao

Liu Chao touched his forehead and pondered for a while before putting his hand down and saying to me, "It's okay. From my interactions with you these past few days, I personally think you're reliable and a good brother. You can tell from your friends, you know? During the week you were unconscious, they stayed by your side almost every step of the way. I think that policeman must be a very good friend of yours. Since he's your friend, I trust him too. But I hope you can keep the secret that you're now a member of Tianya from him. Can you do that?"

I nodded, then used a pen to sign my name on the leather, and carefully poked my finger with the tip of a knife to press my fingerprint on it. After everything was done, I grinned and said to Liu Chao, "Should I start calling you 'Senior Brother' now, or something else?"

Liu Chao glanced at me and said, "You're not becoming my apprentice, so why call me senior brother? I'm a few years older than you, just call me Brother Chao."

I chuckled and said, "Brother Chao, there are actually some things I don't understand, and they don't understand either. Could you explain them to me?"

Notes VII: The Journey to the Ends of the Earth - Epilogue

Liu Chao pointed at me and laughed: "I know what you want to ask. First, how did I get invited into this place? Second, what exactly is that cave all about?"

I nodded vigorously, pulled Liu Chao to the coffee table, and handed him a cigarette to light. After lighting the cigarette, Liu Chao saw us staring at him with gleam in our eyes, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud. After laughing twice, he said, "No need for that. Since we're all brothers and sisters now, I won't hide anything from you. I'll tell you everything I know, but it's a long story, so I'll just pick out the important parts."

It's true that Liu Chao's friend was invited by Wang Qiang to forge the Heavenly Book, and it's also true that he was invited by the Mulin Group. None of these events were pre-planned by Liu Chao; everything before was just a coincidence. After learning that the Heavenly Book was in his friend's possession (there was a small incident involving Zhang Aimin bringing a photocopy to him, which was also purely coincidental, but Liu Chao deduced that Shi Ping'er must have led Zhang Aimin there—the purpose of which remains unknown), he became more vigilant. He wanted to contact other people on Tianya, but the old method of communication involved setting off special fireworks in a specific location, such as in the southeast, with a middleman responsible for contacting those in the surrounding area. The guards (this is the rule of Tianya; even if contact is necessary, it can only be done through a contact person. The contact person is not responsible for guarding those locations; their only task is to memorize the communication signal and the approximate locations of the guards within a radius of several hundred miles. Guards contact others through contact persons and have absolutely no idea of the specific locations of the others). Although his father taught him the special method of making fireworks and the materials were easy to find, setting off fireworks and firecrackers was completely prohibited. Moreover, according to Liu Chao, those fireworks lasted at least ten or twenty minutes once they were set off and were considered giant fireworks. If they were set off, violating the regulations would result in a fine, and in serious cases, one could be arrested for 15 days.

When I heard this, I thought to myself, "Are these idiots really that serious? They might as well give each of them an email address or something like QQ or MSN, or even raise carrier pigeons. It's the 21st century, and they're still throwing fireworks..."

Liu Chao shook his head and said, "Those QQ and MSN services are unreliable. So many passwords have been stolen. I can't afford to take responsibility if something goes wrong. Besides, the ancestors of carrier pigeons have already tested them and found them to be unreliable. In the early days, there were so many hunters. At first, they used bows and arrows, but later they had guns. Whether it was flying in the sky or running on the ground, if a shot didn't kill the pigeon, it would be so frightened that it would suffer from temporary amnesia, forget all its way, and fly directly across the ocean to America."

We all laughed when Liu Chao said that. After we finished laughing, Liu Chao continued, "I couldn't contact the person in charge either, so there was nothing I could do. Just when I was trying to notify others, I inexplicably received an invitation to participate in a treasure hunt. When I saw that it said Biyun Cave, my heart tightened. Although we call it the Cave of Memory, it is still called Biyun Cave outside. I did some research and found that basically no one outside knew about this event. So I thought it must be related to those traitors who were not completely killed, so I simply set off."

“You all know what happened next. Oh, Tang Dun doesn’t know what happened after you went in. Let me tell you.” Liu Chao threw his cigarette into the ashtray, poured some water in, and continued, “As soon as you entered that road, you told us to go back. I knew you wouldn’t see us when you came back, so I told everyone to stay where they were. Everyone was panicked at the time. They saw that I was relatively calm and couldn’t think of any other way, so they had to listen to me.”

After Liu Chao finished speaking, Lai Bao and the others nodded.

Liu Chao glanced at Lai Bao and continued, "We stayed there until the group of assassins appeared from the side path. It seemed like they were going to kill us, and they were definitely there to silence us. There was no other way, so I had to strike first and take out the first person who appeared on the side path. The others were blocking the way and couldn't get through, so they just kept firing. I had to tell Lai Bao and the others to move aside and let them come over. I took them out one by one. At close range, guns might not be as fast as mine."

If someone said that normally, I wouldn't believe it, but I witnessed Liu Chao's skills with my own eyes, so I had no choice but to believe it. Besides, Lai Bao and the others were there, and they were all nodding in agreement.

I asked, "How did they come out from the side path? Why weren't they behind you first? How did they end up in front of you? Didn't you notice them coming in?"

Liu Chao shook his head and said, "It seems you haven't fully understood what Shi Ping'er told you. This hole itself is overlapping and constantly changing, with several places constantly moving. So when they blasted in, the hole they were in might not be the same place as us. In modern scientific terms, that means we weren't in the same space as them at the time."

Just then, Lao Fu blurted out in a displeased tone: "Hey Chao, Lao Tang was in a coma for a week, and all you did was say some meaningless things and ask us to sign that thing. You didn't reveal anything about this hole. Now that Lao Tang is awake, you're starting to talk. Isn't that favoritism?"

Lai Bao chimed in from the side, "He's not just biased, he's just heartless, utterly stupid!"

Liu Chao laughed and said, "If I tell you this once, and then Tang Dun wakes up and I tell you again, won't you lose interest?"

I waved to Lai Bao and Lao Fu and said, "What are you talking about? Shut up. If you have any complaints, wait until later."

"Well, the story of this cave is quite long. To put it simply, its discovery was triggered by a treasure map, which was originally found in a scripture passed down in the family of our founder, Tianya. At the time, the founder didn't take it seriously. Later, after the organization was established, a wise man said that the map indeed pointed to the location of a treasure. They set off immediately, and it took them several years to find the cave. Entering the cave took nearly half a year. Of the dozen or so people who went in, only five came out alive. Two of the survivors later became traitors. That's why the Mulin Group knows the exact location of this cave. Our ancestors must have discovered this cave a long time ago, at least back to the earliest dynasty in our country. Tang Dun had been to that stone gate and should know what was on it."

I nodded. Indeed, Shi Ping'er had told me about it when I saw the stone gate.

"After they left, the remaining five people wrote down everything in the cave. Of course, the methods of entering and leaving were also recorded, but not completely. The complete methods were all derived by the Tianya people through countless experiments. But there is only one way to enter and leave, and that is to blast the mountain. There is no other way. There is no such thing as it appearing automatically once every few decades. That is all a lie. At that time, the White Lotus Rebellion was originally under the banner of helping the people, but it later turned into a poisoning of the people and became a completely evil cult. It also set its sights on Tianya. Helpless, the people of Tianya came up with a plan to lure these people into the cave to find treasure. Then the guide and the evil followers of the White Lotus were sealed in the cave. The remaining people spread the false news that the White Lotus had hidden the treasure in this cave."

I thought of the scenes that Shi Ping'er saw when she first entered the cave. Putting it all together, it seems that the boxes that the White Lotus Sect was carrying were actually there to collect treasure, not to store it. I was getting a little impatient and asked, "What I want to know now is what this cave is all about?"

Liu Chao shook his head and said, "We found out that this cave was used for sacrificial purposes, but we don't know exactly what it was used for, or whether it was formed naturally or by human intervention. Also, the key point of this cave is that stone pillar. Only by getting close to that stone pillar can you see some people who have been here in the past or future and what happened here. That's why it's called the Cave of Memory. We also call it the Cave of the Prophet, or simply the Immortal Cave."

I snorted and listened for a long time. Even the people inside Tianya didn't know what was going on with this cave. Liu Chao got up, poured a cup of tea for each of us, and sat down. He said, "Actually, I think one day, when the time is right, I'd like to hand over the information about this cave to the country. We've been guarding this place for generations, and we're tired, really tired. We don't have enough manpower, material resources, or financial resources to discover the secrets of how this cave was formed."

After Liu Chao finished speaking, he got up and went to the kitchen. When he reached the kitchen door, he asked us, "What would you like to eat? I'll cook tonight. My wife is still in the city minding the shop."

I asked my last question: Why did Liu Chao let Shi Ping'er go? Logically, shouldn't Shi Ping'er be Liu Chao's adversary? Shouldn't Tianya have cleaned up its own ranks of traitors?

Liu Chao's answer was: He didn't know Shi Ping'er's identity either. Judging from her actions after leaving the cave, she probably didn't belong entirely to the Mulin Group. She might have come from some other third-party organization. As for whether it was good or bad, he could only rely on his own judgment to believe that Shi Ping'er would be of some help to them. After all, she had saved them in the most critical moment. He couldn't find a suitable reason to harm Shi Ping'er.

When I went out onto the balcony, I realized that the house was located near Chuanshan Mountain. From the balcony, I could clearly see the Chuanshan Reservoir and the towering Chuanshan Mountain. I took out a cigarette and looked at the surrounding farmland and the pedestrians walking slowly on the path. I really wanted to shout to vent my anger, but I didn't know what to shout. When I was rummaging for a lighter in my bag, I pulled out the voice recorder that Shi Ping'er had left behind. The ceramic bear on the recorder reflected a blinding light under the sunlight, which kept shining into my eyes and made them sting.