appartement abandonné du village

Chapitre 9

Wei Xian rattled off several terms I'd never heard before, presumably the names of some dangerous organizations.

"I think you might be able to handle the Heavenly Flip and Dark Plum Blossom techniques now. As for the Ghost Jump Gate, if I can't get past it, I won't be able to get that 'Imitation Shen Xiuna's Wealth Basin' either."

I was slightly taken aback. We hadn't said anything, yet Wei Buhui already knew how we had come to our door.

“Then…” Wei Xian frowned.

"You don't need to think about those things, the truth is I'm just too scared to go in."

"What do you mean?"

“I have entered 132 large tombs. I turned back halfway through seven of them and turned back as soon as I saw the entrance to two others. Can’t you figure out why?” Wei Buhui asked Wei Xian in return.

Wei Xian pondered for a long time, but still shook his head.

"Then you should quit this line of work, or you'll die somewhere one day."

Wei Xian looked at Wei Bu Hui in surprise, his face flushed red. He was clearly very dissatisfied with Wei Bu Hui's statement, but he didn't want to refute it to his face.

Imagine the bitterness of someone who aspires to become the King of Tomb Raiders, only to be dealt a crushing blow by the very King of Tomb Raiders he reveres.

"Is it intuition?" I asked suddenly.

Wei Buhui stared at me for a full few seconds; this was probably the first time he had ever looked at me directly.

"That time, I only looked at the tomb entrance from afar and I already knew that if I went in, I would die. The Sun family members didn't feel anything, but I didn't dare to take another step forward. On the other hand, Qian Liu, hehe, his intuition was also good. He didn't go into that door, but unfortunately, after he escaped back, he went half crazy."

"But if you don't dare to go in, how come the Sun brothers dare to go in?"

“They…they’ve waited too long for this day. Yuantong’s words have already prepared them for the worst. How could they stop just because of my feelings? Heh, they’ve been following me for months, thinking they’ve got some skills. I’m too afraid to go, so they’ll try on their own. I can only watch them die in front of me,” Wei Buhui said in a low voice.

How did they die?

"The others only heard the sound, but Sun Laosan forced his way out of the tomb entrance, his body covered in thorns like a hedgehog. His martial arts skills only allowed him to take a few more steps. Even in his dying moments, he clung to the head. Was that what they wanted?"

"Head, what head?"

“A skull, perhaps, is the one lying in the tomb.” A slightly unnatural expression flashed across Wei Buhui’s face.

"Who is it? What do they need that head for?"

"That's enough, stop asking." Wei Buhui's face was pale, and his eyebrows were twisted, clearly showing fear.

Let alone Wei Buhui, even Wei Xian must have seen many skeletons. How could mentioning a skull make Wei Buhui show such an expression?

What kind of head was it? Why was Sun Laosan holding it in his hands even as he died? Was it really twisted off the coffin?

Wei Buhui closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his mood had calmed down: "At that time, I was only a dozen steps away from Sun Laosan, but I didn't have the courage to go up and collect his body. Qian Liu thought about collecting his master's body, so he took a few steps and then retreated."

“But it’s only a few steps away. You also said that Sun Laosan died outside the tomb. If there were no traps outside the tomb, why, why…” Wei Xian carefully chose his words, trying to avoid the word “dare not”.

“That’s why I advised you to quit this line of work! But you…” Wei Buhui looked at me, “If you got there, you might understand how I felt back then.”

“However, you are still my grand-nephew. No matter what happens to you in the future, I absolutely do not want you to go to this grave, so I will not tell you whose grave it is. Besides, I don’t know what the Sun brothers want.” Wei Buhui said to Wei Xian word by word.

“But we’ve already come this far. You don’t need to tell me whose tomb it is. Just tell us how to get in and where the entrance is,” Wei Xian said eagerly. It seemed that he had been inspired to explore the tomb.

Wei Buhui seemed somewhat taken aback and said, "How do I get in? Haha, if you can't even figure this out, you're even less qualified to go in."

Their expressions made it seem as if we had asked a stupid question.

After leaving the central "three-story building," I kept thinking about Wei Buhui's final expression.

"Hey, what did you mean by Wei Buhui's last words?" I asked Wei Xian, who was sitting next to me.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

I glanced at Wei Xian; he seemed out of sorts.

He came full of hope, but not only did he not get many clues, he was also told that he was "not suitable to continue in this line of work". Now he is feeling a mix of emotions, and he probably didn't even notice what Wei Buhui said or his expression at the end.

"I mean, Wei Bu Hui seems a little surprised that we can't find the entrance."

"What's so strange about that? Maybe it seems simple to him, but not everyone seems simple. Who is he anyway!"

I frowned. "No, I feel like something's not right."

Looking back now, it's impossible for there to be an underground passage in Zhabei Garden. Perhaps I've read too many novels, so when I saw the statue and that tree there, I subconsciously fell for it. Anyone with a clear head knows that a passage couldn't possibly have been dug that far. Aside from the sheer scale of the project, the soil excavated from the "three-story" area was openly transported to Qiujiatang by handcart—something Zhong Shutong witnessed firsthand. How could there possibly be an underground passage?!

I suddenly stopped in my tracks. Wei Xian, who was somewhat absent-minded, walked several steps away before noticing my strange behavior.

"What's wrong with so many people?"

“You can wake up now. Don’t take Wei Buhui’s words too seriously. Also, I think I know where the entrance to the passage is,” I told him.

Sun Huizu's skeleton (1)

With a few flicks of the oddly shaped metal piece, Wei Xian easily opened the iron door to the basement.

"Do you remember what Zhong Shutong saw one morning when he was rushing to catch a train?"

"Yes, it was mentioned in your work manual." Wei Xian casually closed the iron gate, and with a bang, we were locked in darkness.

"Now that I think about it, I'm surprised I missed such an obvious clue, hehe, and you missed it too."

Wei Xian didn't respond to me. He took out a specially made flashlight from his pocket and turned it on, a beam of light shooting out from it. The flashlight's light source was so strong and focused that it did little to help dispel the surrounding darkness; in fact, it made the surroundings seem even more gloomy.

Wei adjusted the flashlight, causing the angle of the optical lens to change, and the beam of light spread out noticeably. It seemed this flashlight was a valuable tool for him when navigating the underground tomb.

"You've probably figured it out by now. What Zhong Shutong saw back then was a lot of truckloads of soil being transported out of a 'three-story building,' meaning there was an entrance to the passage there. That building is gone now, but even if it were, it wouldn't help much, because most likely the exit, which existed solely for transporting soil, would be blocked up after completion. However, in this central 'three-story building,' the building where the Sun brothers lived back then, there's still a very good chance that an entrance remains. And if this entrance exists, it's in Qian Liu's basement."

Wei Xian used the flashlight to find several switches, but none of them worked.

"Damn it, there's no way the power could be cut off in an old house like this. Does that crazy bastard who's been guarding the house for sixty or seventy years never use the lights?"

I recall the scene from my last visit, and it seems this is probably how it will be.

An old man living in darkness. Just imagining his life made my breathing involuntarily become heavier.

The basement space is about twenty square meters. Although it is not large, it is still difficult to find a non-existent passage with only flashlight lighting.

I couldn't help with this; Wei Xian was quite professional, you could tell from his movements. I stood by the bed, watching the beam of the flashlight slowly move. Wherever the beam shone, Wei Xian would touch or tap, his hands and feet were quite nimble, and he didn't knock anything over.

"He will surely die underground one day." I recalled Wei Buhui's assertion.

I gripped the edge of the bed. On this bed lay a cold corpse yesterday, and before he became a corpse, he had uttered the lament, "The campaign was not yet won when he died, often leaving heroes to weep." Now, thinking back, that lament was mostly directed at the deaths of the Sun brothers in the afterlife.

"Go on, go there, go on." I could almost hear Qian Liu's sharp screams faintly echoing in the darkness.

I remember that time; his waving arm almost hit me.

Was he pointing me to the entrance to the basement?

I lay down on the bed, the mattress hard. I recalled that day, and Qian Liu's movements as he lay in the same spot as me. When I came in that day, the door was open, letting in a little light from outside, which allowed me to vaguely see Qian Liu's shadow.

"What are you doing?" Wei Xian heard the noise, turned around, and the beam of his flashlight shone on my waving arm.

I got out of bed and pointed to an area diagonally opposite.

"Look over there, it might be right there."

The flashlight pointed to a bookshelf.

"There's definitely something wrong. There aren't any lights here, so what kind of book is he reading?"

"Come over and lend a hand," Wei Xian called to me.

We moved the heavy bookshelf away.

Wei knocked on the wall a few times.

“Strange, it’s solid.”

"Really?" I reached out and touched the wall, but felt that the ground beneath my feet was uneven.

I dodged twice with my feet.

“It’s empty!” Wei Xian and I said in unison.

"It's here after all." I stomped a few more times, and suddenly my feet went soft, accompanied by a cracking sound, and I sank down.

I gasped in surprise, my right hand grabbing Wei Xian's foot. My feet were dangling in the air, and I had no idea how deep the hole that had suddenly appeared was.

Wei Xian took a step back with his left foot, squatted down, and grabbed my hand.

"Let go of my feet, I might not be standing steadily, we might both fall. Hold my hand."

Sun Huizu's skeleton (2)

Wei Xian dragged and pulled me up from the ground, shining his flashlight into the dark hole. I was still in shock.

This entrance must have been sealed off by Qian Liu himself. Over the years, a heavy bookcase has been pressing down on it, and it's already started to sink. If I stomp on it a few more times, this concrete slab won't be able to hold up.

Looking down from the cave entrance, it became clear that even if Wei Xian hadn't grabbed his foot, nothing serious would have happened; the cave was about two and a half meters deep.

It looks like it's less than a meter long.

Wei Xian patted my shoulder: "Let's go. Just knowing we're here is enough. We'll come another day; I need to prepare some equipment. Also, didn't you notice the air feels a bit off?"

I nodded and quickly left the basement with Wei Xian. It did feel a bit stuffy, but thankfully only sixty or seventy years had passed, so the air inside wasn't yet deadly poisonous.

The iron gate was locked again, but the key to unlocking the mystery of sixty-seven years ago was already in our hands.

For the next few days, Wei Xian did not contact me.

During my daily interviews, I was always distracted, hastily scribbling down my drafts and immediately checking the caller ID the moment my phone rang. What, then, lies hidden beneath the unknown earth?

Five days later, I finally received a call from Wei Xian.

He is ready.

Tuesday, June 22nd.

I called the newspaper and said I'd twisted my ankle and was on my way to the hospital, but would come to the office that afternoon if things went well. In other words, I was also foreshadowing my decision not to go to the newspaper office. As long as I didn't get stuck there for a few days, nothing would go wrong.

Of course, perhaps the question isn't whether we'll be trapped for a few days, but whether we can get out or not.

At 9:30 a.m., not far from the three-story building in the middle of Puji Road, I met up with Wei Xian, who was carrying two large blue travel bags.

“This is yours.” He handed me a travel bag.

"Wait a minute." He stopped me from bending down to pull up the zipper.

After waiting a few minutes, when no one was coming or going, we slipped through the door of the "three-story building." If someone saw the two of us carrying these two large bags into the basement, it would be difficult to explain.

We opened the iron gate, put the two travel bags inside, and then left the gate open, returning to the sunlight outside.

Let some of the fumes in the room dissipate first.