Chapter 289: Truth

I could hardly believe my eyes. I slapped my head: "So you've been following us all along! That message, those words Dingzhu Zhuoma said to us—could it be—"

"That's right, I had her tell you that temporarily. In a pinch, I had no other choice. It's a long story." Wenjin climbed into the crevice, pressed her palms together in a gesture, brought them to her mouth like a mouthpiece, and let out a series of "cluck cluck cluck" sounds.

I wondered what she was doing—was she greeting those snakes? Then I heard a clucking echo from deep inside the crevice. Before long, someone squeezed out from within. When I looked, I saw it was Poker-face.

He squeezed over to us, looked at Wenjin, then at me. I stared at the two of them in disbelief. "What's going on here?" Suddenly I sensed something wrong. "Damn it, could this be a setup? Are you two in cahoots?"

These two, both incapable of aging, both part of the same archaeological team, both deeply entangled in this whole affair—I suddenly remembered something a friend of mine had said: that Poker-face couldn't be alone. Had he guessed right? Poker-face shook his head without speaking, so I looked at Wenjin. She said, "It's not as dirty as you think. He and I are perfectly innocent."

I frowned and sincerely wanted to kowtow to them. "Big brother, big sister, just let me off the hook. What the hell is going on?"

Wenjin said to me, "There's nothing complicated about this. Actually, back in the village when Zhuoma found you, he already recognized me, but he didn't expose me. When I found you at the mouth of the canyon, he came after us, and we met up then. Everything after that could be called a collaboration, but it was also for caution's sake."

I looked at Poker-face, and he nodded.

I got angry. "That's too much! Why didn't you tell me?"

He looked at me: "I already hinted at it. I thought you knew."

"Nonsense! How could I possibly look like I knew?" I almost jumped up, and suddenly I realized why Poker-face had been so unsettled—God, he had been worrying about Wenjin's safety the whole time.

Poker-face immediately made a "keep your voice down" gesture, and I came to my senses, lowering my voice: "You're such a lousy friend!"

"No, he was right to do so. Otherwise, I would have fallen into the hands of that female leader of yours, and she's no pushover either," Wenjin said. "Besides, at the time, I didn't know which of you might be problematic. I needed someone to help me check."

That was probably why Poker-face, after returning, started checking whether any of us were wearing masks. Damn, everything had a reason.

"What about those videotapes?" I asked. "What's this whole thing actually about?"

As soon as I finished speaking, another scream and a few gunshots came from outside.

Poker-face clicked his tongue and said, "If they keep shooting like that, they'll attract all the snakes."

Wenjin listened for a moment, then turned and patted my head like a big sister. "This is a plan. It's a long story—longer than you can imagine. I'll tell you everything, but now isn't the time. Let's get out of here first." She pointed in a direction.

I sighed, knowing she was right, so I nodded. We all stood up and quickly retreated deeper into the mud tunnel.

As we walked, I asked her, "What are your plans? Aren't you going to meet up with my Third Uncle?"

"We don't have time," Wenjin said. "Haven't you noticed that the sound of water around us is fading?"

I hadn't paid attention to that—who had the energy to notice such things in a place like this? Wenjin said, "The underground waterways here are extremely complex, but when there's water, it's not really a maze. At least you know whether you're heading toward the surface. If you go against any current, you'll definitely find a surface inlet. And if you follow the current, you'll definitely reach the end of this underground waterway—the largest subterranean lake. But once the water disappears, you'll never get out. The rain has stopped now, and the swamp water level will gradually drop. In another day or two, the water will be completely dry, and then we'll be trapped here. That's why I had Dingzhu Zhuoma tell you that if you didn't arrive in time, you'd have to wait another ten-plus years. But this time you got lucky—the rainfall this year was especially heavy, flooding the whole swamp. Otherwise it would already be too late. As for your Third Uncle, Wu Sansheng and I are heading to the same destination. As long as nothing happens to him, we're bound to run into each other."

Hearing this, it made sense, so I nodded immediately: "So are we going up or down now?"

Wenjin pointed downward: "The biggest secret is right under our noses. Are you planning to give up just like that?"

Right under our noses? I thought, I don't believe it. Wenjin checked her watch and said, "It's almost dawn. Most of those snakes come to the surface at night. After dawn, they'll all come down, and then it'll be even more troublesome for us to move around. Before dawn, we need to find a place to hide. Then you can ask whatever you want, and I'll tell you everything. For now, just focus on walking."

When Wenjin said this, there was hardly any harshness in her words, but her eyes and the tone she used to analyze the problem made me feel naturally obedient. It was as if she had an innate leadership quality. No wonder she had been the leader of the Xisha expedition back then, and even Third Uncle had to tread carefully around her.

I stopped bothering her. The three of us quickened our pace and followed the tunnel downward. Soon we reached another tunnel.

It was already very deep here. The tunnels were clearly less intricate than the ones above, with few branch-offs. Plus, the mud on our bodies made walking quite smooth. By six or seven in the morning, we had covered a considerable distance. Here, the shafts were free of mud, only natural rock caves, with hardly any sign of artificial excavation. Clearly, almost no one ever came here.

We could hear the splashing sound of water in the rocks—all the water from the shafts was gathering around us. The terminus of the entire water storage system of the Queen Mother's City had to be very close.

By now the morning twilight on the surface should have faded. Although there was no sound of snakes nearby, we knew their numbers were astonishing. Once they returned to their nests, they might appear anywhere. Based on Wenjin's experience, it was better to hide now. How to hide was a matter of experience. She had Poker-face take off his clothes, smear them with mud from his water bottle, pile up rubble at both ends of the passage, then tear the clothes into strips and stuff them into the gaps.

"This way, to the snakes, the passage will look blocked," Wenjin said. "This is how I've been getting by these past days."

I took a few sips of water, thinking such a flimsy barrier wouldn't be of any use—if one of those giant snakes came, it would be knocked down by a single fart, right? We lit a very small fire, just enough to warm ourselves a bit. The humidity here was oppressive and the chill was fierce; without a fire, we couldn't rest.

After a short while, I gradually relaxed, though I was still uneasy. Wenjin handed me something to eat. Seeing my expression, she knew I couldn't hold back my questions and told me to ask whatever I wanted.

I had been mulling it over and perked up immediately. I wanted to ask her questions, but suddenly found my mind in a mess—there were too many things to ask. I couldn't even get one out.

"It's okay. You can ask one at a time. I expected this would happen." Wenjin looked at me with a smile.

I sorted through the questions in my head, thinking about which was the most important. After a moment, I realized that no matter where I started or what I asked, it could lead to confusion. There were too many puzzles in my mind—big and small, countless. I needed a systematic way of asking, so I said, "How about we go by time? Okay?"

She nodded. "No problem."

So I asked her, "First question, the one I most want to know—maybe it's a bit greedy—can you tell me what really happened at Xisha?"

Wenjin looked at me, surprised. "That question is too broad. A lot of things happened at Xisha. Which one do you mean exactly?"

I said to Wenjin, "After you disappeared in the tomb, what happened next?"

Wenjin paused, as if she hadn't expected me to start with this question. She thought for a moment, then suddenly sighed and said, "You actually want to know about this... It seems you already know quite a bit. This matter is very difficult to explain clearly. How did your third uncle tell you about it?"

I roughly recounted what Third Uncle had told me in the hospital, and then said to her, "He said he didn't enter that mechanism with you, so he doesn't know what happened afterward. After you disappeared in the tomb, he kept searching for you, but after all these years, he found nothing. He also said he must find you."

After listening, Wenjin gave a strange smile. She paused, then said, "I originally planned to tell you this last, because there is a very key premise that you must understand. But if I just say this premise outright, you won't believe it. I don't know if you're ready now to know the truth."

I said, "Better early death and early rebirth. Even if you told me Third Uncle is actually a woman and I'm his child, I could believe it. Just say it. After these two years, I can believe anything."

Wenjin still seemed a bit hesitant. She thought for a moment, then asked again, "Do you have any judgment of your own about this matter?"

I shook my head. "I have no judgment at all."

Wenjin looked at Poker-face, as if communicating with him, but he had no reaction. She steadied herself, fixed her hair, seeming to have made some kind of decision, then pulled a notebook out of her backpack.

It was a new notebook, modern in style, probably bought recently. Indeed, she still kept the habit of writing notes. She opened the notebook and took out a yellowed old photograph. I saw it and recognized it at once—it was the group photo taken before Third Uncle and the others set out to sea. I had looked at this photo countless times; I could recite everyone's position in it. So I glanced at it and handed it back, saying, "I've already seen this photo."

Wenjin said, "Actually, all the secrets are inside this photo. But this secret is hard for ordinary people to discover. Everything in Xisha originates from it. The secret is actually not complicated, but if I told you directly, you definitely wouldn't be able to accept it. Let me first tell you what is hidden in this photo."

At this moment, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind: could it be that what those friends mentioned while drinking—the thing about the eleventh person—was true? Was there a mysterious person beyond those ten hidden in this photo? Was Wenjin trying to tell me this? Looking at her, it didn't seem that simple. I had no idea what she was getting at.

Wenjin gave the photo back to me and asked me to point out and name the people in the photo whose names I could recall, matching them with their positions.

I looked at it and said, "I only recognize the people who are more closely related to this matter. I might know the names of the others, but I don't know which ones they are."

Wenjin said, "That's fine, just say the names."

First I saw the one that caught my attention most—Poker-face—and said, "This is Xiao Ge." Wenjin nodded. Then I pointed to a girl on one side. "This is you." Wenjin nodded again. "And then, this is Third Uncle." I pointed at Third Uncle. I glanced at Wenjin, waiting for her to nod before continuing, but this time she didn't move at all, just stared straight at me.

I was stunned. What did she mean? Wenjin took the photo back. "Why do you think this person is your third uncle?"