Chapter 291: Imprisoned

After Wenjin was knocked unconscious by Third Uncle, her memory was a complete blank; when they woke up, they were already in the sanatorium in Golmud.

Hearing this, I was already very confused. This was too mysterious—clearly someone had kidnapped them while they were unconscious and locked them up there.

Following Wenjin's reasoning, after Third Uncle knocked them out, he would have woken Wenjin up, explained things, and then discussed a plan. But Wenjin didn't wake up, which meant something unexpected happened after they lost consciousness.

"Was Wu Sansheng not among you?"

Wenjin shook her head, and I said, "Then that's strange. Who kidnapped you?"

"It was 'It,'" she said softly.

I had always been puzzled by this, so I asked Wenjin, "What exactly is 'It'?"

Wenjin had been talking a lot and took a sip of water, then slowly shook her head and said, "I can't describe it. We discovered it while researching the whole thing. How should I put it? It's like a kind of 'force.'"

"'Force'?" I frowned.

"After we survived, in that dark room, we deduced everything from start to finish, but there were many links we couldn't connect. Finally, we realized that in the whole affair, in many places, one person was missing," Wenjin tucked her hair behind her ear. "That is to say, for this to happen, a few people alone wouldn't be enough, but it still happened, as if there was an invisible person filling in those gaps. Moreover, the more we studied it, the more we found that this person definitely existed, but up to now, they haven't revealed a single clue, as if they were formless, existing only in logic."

She said seriously, "We called this person 'It.' Apart from Jude Kao, Xie Lianhuan, and ourselves, there was another force meddling in this matter. This force was buried the deepest, almost never showing its face, but its power truly drove the course of events. That sent chills down my spine."

I felt a little chill myself and asked her, "Can you give me an example?"

Wenjin said, "Was the decoding method of the Warring States silk manuscript really uncovered by Jude Kao? Could a foreigner really solve something so complex? And where did he learn about the existence of the underwater tomb? If no one had told him that information, he wouldn't have come to China, wouldn't have bribed your Third Uncle, and wouldn't still be obsessed with a goal no one knows. That's the first logical gap. Also—" Wenjin sat up straight, lifted her chest, and gathered her hair to show me her oval face: "All of us seem to have lost the ability to age. So many years have passed, and we haven't grown old." Her posture was so graceful that I almost stared, but she immediately lowered her hands and shook her head. "After we were unconscious, someone must have done something to our bodies."

I said, "That's still a good thing; many people dream of something like that happening!"

Wenjin shook her head sadly and said, "Dream? Do you still remember that thing you encountered in the Golmud basement?"

I thought to myself, how could I forget, and I nodded.

"That is what we will ultimately become," Wenjin said. "The one you saw, she was Huo Ling."

I shuddered: "What? That monster was Huo Ling?" Suddenly I felt nauseous.

Wenjin said, "After she returned from Tamutuo, she began to change, turning into a monster."

"This..."

"This anti-aging effect has side effects." She looked at me and held out her hand for me to smell. I immediately detected a faint, very familiar fragrance—the smell of a banshee. "At a certain point, we will begin to change, and inside my body, this change has already started. Before long, I'll become exactly like the monster you saw."