Chapter 203: Snake Swamp Ghost City Arc, Chapter 29: Epilogue

The friend who spoke was my senior; I didn't know him very well either. This group often hung out together and could chat amiably — it was the kind of gentlemanly friendship where we help each other when needed, not the sort that has to be glued together. I asked him for help back then because he seemed to do technical work. Of course, as an antique dealer, I had no overlap with him at all. I didn't even know exactly what he did. Now, his words woke me up like a dream. Hearing this theory of "eleven people," I broke out in a cold sweat and even my face turned pale.

Yeah, why the hell didn't I think of that?

In that era, there were no point-and-shoot cameras, and there definitely wouldn't be any photo studios in the fishing villages of Hainan. The person who could use a camera would indeed be a member of the archaeological team. Just thinking about it for a moment, I realized he made a very good point. I've seen a lot of materials from the Xisha archaeological expeditions, and they all had photos. Generally, in such cases, there would be someone from the publicity department following along to document things.

But why did Third Uncle's account always only mention ten people, never this eleventh person? Was it that this publicity person didn't go out to sea with them, or was Third Uncle hiding something else?

Seeing my expression, the group burst into laughter. That person said, "Forget it, don't worry about it. If you want to know exactly how many people there were, just go check their old employer. Archaeological research institutes generally belong to the cultural system. You can find out which institute sent them at that time. The files should still exist — many of our country's files are permanently preserved."

I kept quiet. After all, this was just speculation. If I had time, I could go check. But if it turned out to be eleven people, how would I face Third Uncle's explanation? Would I have to completely overturn it? That kind of pain would be too much. Thinking of this, I decided it was better not to check.