Chapter 262: Second Night: Secret

I glared and said, "What did you just say? What is it that I can't know?"

I had just gotten up, so my expression probably wasn't great, and right now I hated being kept in the dark more than anything. Even though I knew whatever Fatty claimed I couldn't be told was probably nonsense, I was still really pissed off.

Fatty was startled by me and played dumb: "What do you mean, can't let you know? I said I didn't want you to tire yourself out—you must have misheard."

I spat and sat down beside him. "Come on, come on, don't think you can pull one over on me like my Third Uncle. What's the deal? Out with it! Otherwise, I'm not letting this go."

Fatty looked at my expression, and I stared back without backing down, pressing him, "Spill it. You've already given yourself away—how can you still try to hide it? Am I that unreliable? If you don't tell me, we're going our separate ways. You know I hate being kept in the dark more than anything, and I mean what I say. You might as well watch me die here."

Fatty scratched his head. "Damn it, since when did you learn to act like a woman, throwing a tantrum and threatening to die? I'm not telling you for your own good."

I cursed back, "Save that crap. I've heard it a thousand times. I'll decide for myself whether it's good or not. What the hell is going on?"

Of course, I was just saying it, but I knew Fatty wasn't like Third Uncle—he wouldn't hold out under these circumstances, or he wouldn't be able to stand the tension. Fatty isn't a particularly stubborn person, and I really appreciated that about him.

Sure enough, Fatty glanced at Poker-face, who made no sign, then sighed and said, "Come with me and look at something."

I couldn't walk, so Fatty helped me under the awning. The documents on top had been organized—clearly they'd been looking at them earlier. Fatty stacked all the papers together, revealing the stone platform beneath, and I saw that on the flat surface of the huge rock, several large characters were written in black charcoal.

It was dark at night, and we were far from the campfire, so I couldn't see clearly. Fatty lit a mine lamp to illuminate it for me. I took a few steps back to make it out, and froze.

It was a sentence:

We have found the entrance to the Queen Mother's Palace. Entering it, there is no return. From now on, parting forever. Our wish will be fulfilled; no regrets, do not think of us.

And this place is dangerous. You must leave quickly and not stay.

I was stunned. Fatty behind me said, "I saw it when I was tidying the papers. I covered it up so you wouldn't see it and start overthinking... Your Third Uncle seems to have made a death-bound decision this time. And damn it, he's chosen to leave you behind forever."

This was indeed Third Uncle's handwriting. Although it wasn't very neat, having done rubbings for so many years, I could still recognize his stroke habits. The characters were written quite hastily, clearly under urgent or emotional circumstances.

I was a bit slow to react, but strangely, my heart was as calm as still water. I felt no emotion at all—my mind was blank. I thought I would feel something, like worry or anger, but I felt nothing.

Fatty thought I was down and patted me without saying a word. I stepped closer to look at the words but still couldn't stir a single ripple inside me.

Worry about Third Uncle's safety had been worn away over this long process. Although I still didn't want anything to happen to him, in this environment, even if something did, it wouldn't be surprising. I myself had accepted the possibility of death, so death here was no longer a concern we needed to worry about.

It was like war: when everyone has a high chance of dying, people only care about the outcome of events, not the safety of any single individual.

I suddenly felt I could understand Third Uncle. This sentence appearing here was the greatest care he could show me. If our roles were swapped, and the secret I was chasing was right in front of me but I couldn't tell my nephew, and the road ahead was extremely dangerous—I wouldn't want him to follow me into danger, and I couldn't tell him the truth. Then such a method would be the best.

And if it were the old me, I would have burst into tears. From then on, Third Uncle would never appear again, and I would carry regret until time dulled it.

But the problem was that I was no longer the old me. What I was chasing was the huge mystery behind these events, not Third Uncle himself. So these words meant only one thing to me: Third Uncle was still alive, and he had found the path. The situation hadn't changed at all from before—maybe that was why I was so calm.

I didn't know if this was progress or exhaustion on my part, or maybe these were just excuses, but Third Uncle was already very, very far from me.

After silently looking for a while, I turned around. Fatty came over and put his arm around my shoulder to comfort me. "I told you not to look—if you don't listen to your Fatty's words, you just bring yourself more worry. There's nothing you can do about this, so don't dwell on it."

I didn't want to explain my state of mind, so I didn't answer. He helped me back to the campfire, ladled me a bowl of something, and told me to eat first.

It was still boiled compressed biscuit paste. I had no appetite and ate slowly. Fatty continued to comfort me, saying, "Your Third Uncle isn't an ordinary man. Extraordinary men must have extraordinary fates—it's destiny. Besides, he's so experienced, he might still make it back."

I sighed and said, "I'm fine. I'm used to this by now. What I'm wondering right now is where the entrance is."

Back in the rainforest, I had already foreseen that I might not see Third Uncle, because red smoke meant danger, and whoever set it off wouldn't stay where it was lit. I figured then that Third Uncle might have left the place after lighting the smoke.

Now most of that guess seemed correct, except I hadn't expected Third Uncle to have found the entrance. That meant their location was now completely unknown.

Third Uncle camped here and discovered the entrance. Then they must have packed their gear, calmly left here, and abandoned the empty camp. To prevent me from following, he lit red smoke and left this message, then entered the entrance and never returned.

He said there was no return from this journey. Third Uncle isn't the type to accept fate, so the entrance must be extremely dangerous—he judged he would surely die, or else there was some reason that made it impossible to return once inside.

That's how it looks.

According to this reasoning, the entrance should be nearby, maybe inside this temple. I didn't know how much Third Uncle had figured out, but he wouldn't have searched blindly. He must have followed some clue or trace. We knew nothing about that, but that didn't mean we couldn't deduce it.

Fatty said, "Then let's go look around later for some clue—maybe we'll find it too. Right, Xiao Ge?"

He asked Poker-face and gave him a wink, obviously hoping Poker-face would comfort me too. But Poker-face shook his head. I looked at him, and he said, "Since Wu Sansheng wrote that, he's confident we won't find the place."

"Why?" Fatty wasn't convinced.

Poker-face stared at the campfire and said calmly, "Wu Sansheng is meticulous. He knows that after reading the message, we'll realize the entrance is nearby. He doesn't want Wu Xie to take risks, so if the entrance were easy to find, he wouldn't have left the words. The fact that he left them means the entrance must be extremely hard to find, or even if we found it, we couldn't enter."

That made sense. I sighed, thinking that even if there were clues, Third Uncle might have destroyed them for safety.

Fatty said gloomily, "So we came all this way for nothing?"

Poker-face shook his head: "For you, this might be a good thing."

"I, your Fatty lord, have run a thousand kilometers, crossed the Gobi, traversed the desert, entered the rainforest to get here, and now I'm going back after a sunbath — you call that good?" Fatty leaned back on a rock and scratched his head. "There's nothing but junk here. This time we've really taken a loss that even grandpa wouldn't recognize."

Poker-face looked up and said, "However, finding the entrance may not be absolutely impossible." He glanced around the camp, "Moreover, the situation here is very unusual; it doesn't look like a simple evacuation. Wu Sansheng's words may not be trustworthy."