Chapter 151: Sacrificial Ditch

If I hadn't been stunned by the fall, I might have suggested we go over and look, but seeing that deep darkness in the distance, I kept the words in my mouth. Fatty didn't pick up on my fear and said, "You've got a point. So where are they going? Maybe we should go take a look—this river's not that long anyway."

Panzi immediately shook his head. He disagreed. "We don't have time to waste. Young Third Master is injured. If anything else goes wrong, we won't even be able to run. Let's not spend our energy here. We still don't know what Third Master's message to us means. Instead of asking for trouble, we should use this time to think carefully about where exactly the entrance to the underground palace that Third Uncle mentioned is. Besides, those weird birds don't seem to be flying down."

That suited me perfectly. I nodded immediately, then coughed a few times to show I was badly hurt. Shunzi didn't say anything either. Seeing us like this, Fatty looked a bit put out, shrugged, and said, forget it.

Shunzi pulled them back up onto the stone figurine. We returned to the spot where I had fallen. Panzi took a storm lantern out of his backpack, lit it, and gave us some warmth. I realized we hadn't eaten for almost a day, and my stomach started growling. So the four of us sat down and ate some dry rations.

When we opened our luggage, we discovered that most of our food was actually in Chenpi A'si's group's bags. The food we were carrying was clearly very insufficient—especially for Fatty; after this meal, there was basically nothing left to eat in his bag. But almost all the equipment was with us—ropes, grappling hooks, fire tools, and other essential exploration gear.

Panzi checked and said to us, "Looks like Chenpi A'si put some thought into how he distributed the gear. All the equipment is carried by our people, and all the food is carried by his people. That way, neither side can abandon the other, and neither can run off on their own. I didn't even notice that trick."

Fatty jeered, "What the hell did you notice? Good thing I never counted on you or your Third Master. Every time I run into you guys, we end up making a bad deal. I saw this coming back on the train."

Panzi spat and said, "Stop talking crap. You're no saint yourself. I'll be thanking Buddha if you don't cause us trouble."

Afraid they would start fighting, Shunzi said, "Bosses, if you have the energy to argue, you might as well think about what your Third Uncle's words meant."

I patted Panzi too, telling him to calm down, and asked Shunzi, "When Third Uncle came to find you, what was the situation? Could you tell us in detail? That one sentence was too vague. We haven't even entered the imperial tomb yet; we really don't know how to approach it."

When I asked, Fatty and Panzi quieted down and looked at Shunzi together.

Shunzi sat down, furrowed his brow, and said, "It was about a month ago. I was leading some tourists up the mountain at the time—nothing as intense as what you guys did, just walking around, looking at the snowy mountains. Your Third Uncle was mixed in with those tourists. Later, when we spent the night on the mountain, he suddenly called me out, very secretively, and said he was going up the snowy mountain alone now. He told me not to tell anyone else, then gave me some money and said I should wait at the foot of the mountain around this time for a man named Wu Xie, then lead you all into the mountains. If I could bring you to him, he'd give me a huge sum of money. It was then that he gave me that hint. He emphasized that as long as it was 'you,' you'd understand it immediately."

"Did he really say that?" I asked.

Shunzi nodded, his expression very certain.

I found it a bit strange. It seemed to emphasize the listener rather than the content of the words. As long as it was 'me,' I would understand immediately. Was there some quality about me that differed from the others? "Then how did you know to wait until Chenpi A'si was gone before telling us all this?" Fatty asked.

Shunzi gave a sly laugh, revealing an expression completely different from before. "I'm no fool. Your Third Uncle told me how many of you there were, and said if the number was wrong, I should only pass the message to you alone. The moment I saw you, I could tell something was off with this group—it seemed like two different factions were mixed together. Since I didn't know what you were up to, I had to play dumb first. After all, I took someone else's money; if I messed up and delayed your business, that wouldn't be good."

I looked at Shunzi's expression and sensed a kind of cunning. A knot formed in my heart. So from the moment we started up the mountain, his honest demeanor had been an act? Well, well—you really can't judge a book by its cover. No wonder the further we went, the calmer this guy got. He was just revealing his true self.

Panzi was an old hand. Now he darkened his face and said, "It can't be that simple. I think you know more than that." Shunzi gave a faint smile. "Before I retired, I served here as a soldier. I've walked these snowy mountains many times. My parents were native Koreans who fled here from North Korea during the unrest. They hid in the mountains for several years. There are plenty of ancient legends about these mountains, and we've encountered many strange things. Countless people come into the mountains every year with all kinds of peculiar purposes. If you think I know nothing, I do know a thing or two. So the moment I saw you heading for this peak, I guessed what you were planning." He paused, giving me a meaningful look. "If it weren't for your Third Uncle's instructions, I would never have let you go any further at the place where the avalanche struck on the mountainside."

Panzi looked at me, then at Fatty, and for a moment was at a loss for words.

After a long silence, Panzi took out a cigarette and offered it. "Brother Shun, I failed to recognize a man of real worth. We're on the same side now. Here, have one."

Shunzi didn't take the cigarette. He looked up and said, "I'm a straightforward man. No bullshit. I'm helping you not because I like you, but for the money. Your Third Uncle promised me an amount that would last me two lifetimes. So I have to bring you to him no matter what. You'd better figure out what those words mean."

Panzi was left feeling very embarrassed. He just put the cigarette in his own mouth, smiled bitterly, and glanced at me.

I asked Shunzi, "Then repeat Third Uncle's exact words for me."

Shunzi thought for a moment and said, "He seemed to say something like: 'When Wu Xie arrives, tell him the entrance to the underground palace is at the place of Xuanwu's corpse-rejecting ground.' Then I asked him what that meant, and he said that if I just said that, 'you' would definitely understand."

"Same again," I sighed. The key to the whole sentence was still "me," but I clearly didn't understand it at all. Where the hell did Third Uncle get this confidence in me? Wasn't he setting me up? Everyone looked at me, their eyes eager. I shook my head and heaved a big sigh.

Seeing that I couldn't figure it out, Fatty asked, "Could it be like this: this hint is related to something that happened in your own family back in the day? Something only you Wu family members would know?"

"That's not it," I said. "I know Third Uncle's personality. He's not the type to give us some super complicated code and then make us guess. Since he had Shunzi pass the message, then that sentence must have a very clear meaning. There's probably some misunderstanding—we're thinking about it wrong."

"But since Third Master said 'you' would understand at once, not 'we' would understand at once, then it must be a code related to something common between the two of you," Panzi said. "Maybe just think about what you have in common."

I didn't find that very reliable either, but since there was no other option, I started mulling it over.

The commonalities between Third Uncle and me weren't really that many, and they had to be exclusive to me and Third Uncle—if Panzi and the others shared them, they were out. For example, we were both men, but Panzi was a man too, so that didn't count. We both had the surname Wu; that should count, but it probably had nothing to do with the code.

Also, both of us got a bit unreliable around women, but that was pretty vague, and he would never admit it. Besides these, if there was anything that could be considered a common point, it was that we both lived in Hangzhou—that was our main base now.

Wait! When I thought of that, I suddenly got a jolt, as if something had appeared in my mind. A spark of inspiration flashed into my thoughts—

Xuanwu's corpse-rejecting ground—Third Uncle's hint—Hangzhou—'I' would definitely understand—