Chapter 123: Nine Dragons Carrying a Corpse

Guangtou's plan for us was to take a tourist route: first from Changsha to Shanhaiguan, then transfer to Dunhua, all by train. The entire journey would take about two days, covering nearly 3,000 kilometers. During this time, we had nothing to do but kill time with a cell phone and a few magazines.

I brought his fish-eyed check to Fatty. He was still happy to see me. Seeing he was in a good mood, I secretly asked him how he ended up here. Fatty told me that in this line of work, some things can only be done in a group. For example, some big tombs deep in the mountains and forests—you can never handle them alone. For one, you can't carry all the necessary equipment by yourself; for another, there's too much good stuff for one person to bring out. Such ancient tombs are usually in extremely harsh environments. If you're lucky enough to make it in and out alive once, that's already good. Nobody wants to risk going in two or three times. So when such a situation arises, someone will step up to lead. In ancient times, it was called "zhuo dou"; during the Republic era, the jargon was "jia lama."

This is like a modern-day contractor who has a project and hires electricians and plumbers. In the early days of the People's Republic, archaeological teams also used similar tactics to find talented individuals.

This time, the "jia lama" was Guangtou. Guangtou had a wide network and knew a friend from Beijing who was a "tu piao zi" (local tomb raider) that Fatty knew. Many of Fatty's connections came through that friend. One thing led to another, and Fatty ended up on this train. As for the specifics, generally speaking, the person doing the "jia lama" wouldn't reveal the details until they reached the destination, otherwise, if others found out in advance, it could cause internal strife. So when I asked Fatty about my Third Uncle, he shook his head vigorously and said, "Fuck me, you're asking me? If your fat master here had known this was related to your fucking Third Uncle, I wouldn't have come for any amount of money."

I sighed inwardly, thinking that the Poker-face must have been contacted by Guangtou as well, and I figured I wouldn't get anything out of him. Aside from me and Panzi, the one who knew the most about the situation was probably Chenpi A'si.

As usual, the Poker-face was quiet and didn't even greet me. He just dozed off there. I tried to be friendly and make small talk, but after a few sentences, I realized he wasn't listening at all. Fatty told me not to waste my energy, saying he had been sleeping ever since he got on the train.

After the train started, Fatty, Panzi, and I played Big Two and Speed to pass the time. As I played, I pondered about Chenpi A'si. The old man hadn't said a word since he got on. When Panzi tried to get close to him, he only grunted in response. As soon as the train started, he left on his own and hadn't come back yet. Fatty whispered to me, "Who is that skinny old guy? Acting all high and mighty."

Panzi quietly told Fatty about Chenpi A'si. When Fatty heard he was over ninety years old, his face turned green. He said, "Don't tell me this old geezer is coming up the mountain with us. If that's the case, I'll take care of him when we're somewhere isolated. Nobody stop me. He's going to die in there anyway."

Panzi quickly covered his mouth and whispered, "Shut the fuck up. That old man is sharp. If he hears you, he'll kill you before we even get there."

I tried to recall Chenpi A'si. In the teahouse, he gave me the impression of a profound scholar of national studies, surrounded by a group of people. With his influence and skill, and at his age, why would he come alone to "jia lama"? Wasn't he afraid of being harmed by us? When I mentioned this to Panzi, he laughed and said, "You don't get it. Right now, we're all lamas hired by Third Master. Whether you're a novice monk or an abbot, you're under Third Master's control. That's the rule of the underworld. If he wants a piece of the pie, he has to follow the rules. No matter how big a shot he is, he can't do anything about it." He paused, then said, "But we still need to be careful of this old man. On the surface, he's alone, but someone like him definitely has his own people arranged nearby."

Fatty cursed, "I just don't get it. Why did your Third Master bring in someone like this? Isn't that just asking for trouble? If this guy is really that sinister, I say we strike first. Either tie him up or take him out."

Panzi looked at the door and said, "I'm warning you, don't do anything rash. Third Master must have a reason for bringing this guy along. We'll just give him face. After all, he's so old. No matter how formidable he was in his youth, it's useless now. If it comes to that—ouch!"

Before he could finish, the Poker-face's hand suddenly dropped from the top bunk and grabbed Panzi's shoulder with tremendous force, almost making him cry out.

Panzi winced in pain and didn't finish his sentence. We were all stunned. Panzi didn't have much goodwill towards the Poker-face anyway. Just as he was about to say something, the door creaked open and Chenpi A'si walked in.

We exchanged glances and quickly lowered our heads to continue playing cards, like students caught cheating on an exam by a teacher.

The old man looked at us, said nothing, and went to his own bed. We couldn't tell if he was asleep or not.

With him there, we didn't dare discuss any plans. We just focused on playing cards. Time passed little by little. Around midnight on the second night, our train stopped at Shanhaiguan.

Shanhaiguan is the First Pass Under Heaven, but it's a man-made attraction, mostly rebuilt in 1986. Our next transfer wasn't for another two hours. Fatty asked if we wanted to take a look. I said it was already past midnight with no moon—what the hell would we see? So we followed a crowd of transfer passengers from all over the country toward the station waiting room.

It was just before the Spring Festival travel rush, so there were already a lot of people. The station smelled terrible. All kinds of people were spending the night there, some even sleeping on the floor with their bedding. We carefully made our way through the crowd, afraid of stepping on someone.

There were so many people and everyone was moving in a chaotic manner. Soon we got separated. The Poker-face and Chenpi A'si were pushed far away from us. Fatty got stepped on by a few people and was cursing. I wanted to call out to them not to get separated, and raised my hand to show them where I was. Panzi grabbed my hand and pulled me down into a crouch.

I was puzzled. Then he said, "There are cops! Keep your head down." I quickly sat down on the floor. Surrounded by people, I glanced out of the corner of my eye and saw several uniformed police officers and auxiliary police checking IDs at the main entrance.

I whispered to Panzi in the Hangzhou dialect, "Is it a problem? This happens all the time in Hangzhou. They're just checking IDs. We don't have any equipment on us, and we're not wanted. What are we afraid of?"

Panzi pointed his chin at a few inconspicuous men in the crowd and said, "The ones at the door are just the front line. There are plainclothes officers in the crowd. They're looking for someone. Keep your head down so they don't recognize you."

I quickly looked up and saw that among those people was a familiar face. That person was staring straight in our direction. Before I could get a better look, the person suddenly struggled and pointed at me, shouting, "There!"

I noticed the person was handcuffed and my heart skipped a beat. I took a closer look. Holy shit, wasn't that Chu Guangtou? How had he been arrested in just two days?

"Motherfucker!" Panzi cursed, grabbed me, and we jumped up and ran. A bunch of plainclothes officers charged after us, shouting, "Stop!"

We scrambled over several rows of seats, pushing people aside. Panzi plowed through, and people parted for him. But when I went through, they crowded around me. I thought to myself, What the hell? Do I look that easy to bully?

Just as the people ahead blocked me and the cops behind were closing in, suddenly—smash! A fluorescent light in the waiting hall shattered. Everyone was startled. Then another one smashed. I took the chance to duck between two people and squeezed through the crowd, trying to get to the entrance.

Suddenly, someone grabbed me and pulled me aside. It was Panzi. He jerked his head, signaling we should get out through the train tracks.

The fluorescent lights above kept shattering one after another. The waiting hall got darker and darker. Shards of glass fell. Suddenly there was noise—children crying, people screaming—chaos. Many people pushed toward the entrance. We went with the flow and squeezed out.

I saw Fatty in the distance signaling to us. I moved toward him. Just as I was about to ask about the Poker-face, he suddenly appeared like a ghost. Fatty asked Panzi, "Your 'jia lama' contact got busted by the cops. What now?"

Panzi cursed, "That damn bastard gave us up so easily. People these days really can't be trusted. If I get the chance, I'll kill him!"

Fatty said, "What's the use of getting worked up? You gotta tell us what to do."

Panzi scratched his head, not knowing what to do. He looked at me. Just as I was about to curse him, the Poker-face tapped our shoulders and said, "Follow the old man."

We followed his gaze. Chenpi A'si was watching us from not far away, with a few middle-aged men who had appeared out of nowhere standing beside him.

The Poker-face walked straight toward him. We had no time to discuss, so we braced ourselves and followed. When Chenpi A'si saw us coming, he gestured to the men beside him, and they quickly dispersed into the crowd. He himself turned and walked into the crowd.

Under the cover of the crowd, we finally escaped the Shanhaiguan train station in the dark. We groped our way to a park and stopped. We looked at each other; everyone's expression was grim. This was truly a bad start. We had thought that with Guangtou's plan, we could reach the destination without having to think for ourselves. But we hadn't even made it two days before Guangtou was caught and even led the cops to us personally. Some thirty-year relationship that was. It seemed Third Uncle's judgment wasn't so great either.

We crouched in the bushes to rest for a while. Chenpi A'si looked at us and suddenly let out a cold laugh. In a hoarse voice, he said, "With a bunch of losers like you, you want to dig up the Nine Dragons Carrying a Corpse coffin of the Dongxia Emperor? Has Wu Sansheng lost his mind?"