Chapter 353: Problem in the Cave

Fatty was being secretive, while Poker-face beside him remained silent.

I didn't know what Fatty was up to, but Poker-face's attitude told me he didn't deny what Fatty said. My confusion reached its peak, and I decided to put it aside for now and see what happened.

That was my thinking, but my will was stronger than my body. Leaning on Fatty, I was trembling so badly I had to cling to his neck to keep from falling.

The cave we were in was only about thirty square meters, nothing special to see. I swept the torch around; there were only traces of man-made excavation, nothing else. The only unusual thing was the dark black marks on the ceiling—I didn't know what minerals the rock here contained.

I followed him, wading through water and crouching, passing through a passage that looked like it was cut by a knife, and entered the cave on the other side.

It was a completely different scene—at least twice as big as the previous cave. It was piled with things: rusty tools, wooden shelves and baskets, stacks of gray bricks, and many stone mill-like objects I didn't recognize.

What surprised me was that in the corner of the cave stood several racks reaching the ceiling, on which lay those iron figurines. The ceiling and walls were covered with dark green stripes, which became clearer under the spotlight and glowed like glass.

In the middle of the cave was an upside-down jar with a statue on it—some unknown deity—and a simple incense burner in front.

"What the hell is this place?" I asked in surprise. It looked like a stone chamber still under excavation, work only half done, with toolboxes and raw materials piled up.

"We guess this should be a mine shaft," Fatty said.

"A mine?" I looked around. "What kind of mine?" Then I looked at the iron figurines and asked, "Is it an iron mine?"

Fatty shook his head. "Damn it, it's worth a lot more than an iron mine! Come look." He pointed at the dark green stripes. "Can you tell what kind of stone this is by touch? Think about it—what is this area most famous for producing?"

I didn't quite get what he meant. I touched the stone's texture and felt it was surprisingly warm and smooth, almost like a girl's face. He wasn't lying—it really was unusual. Then I thought again, and a concept flashed in my mind. "Holy shit! Could these stones be… jadeite?"

Fatty nodded. "I'm no expert, but in my opinion, even if it's not jadeite, it's at least decent jade. This should be a really good jade vein."

I let out an "ah," my mind jumping, and recalled the strange phenomena I had seen earlier in the underwater stone village.

It seemed this cave was also part of the underground of that strange ancient building. Earlier I had suspected there was something inside the mountain, probably an ancient tomb, but I never thought it would be a jade mine.

I hadn't expected that, but

There is a hidden jade mine here. It's similar in principle to an ancient tomb, but the value of a jade mine is completely incomparable to that of a tomb. Gold has a price, jade is priceless; owning a jade mine makes one as rich as a country.

With that, all the meticulous arrangements above suddenly made perfect sense—if it was for secretly mining jade, building a single building, or even a castle, would be well worth it.

Building this ancient building here might even have involved the Yao King as a shareholder, using his privilege to provide protection. The value of the jade mine was so immense that no organizational power could resist such temptation.

As for why it had to be hidden? Very simple: if any other regional power found out, they would immediately send troops to attack. How much opium money could this thing be exchanged for? "Everything that happened here, I think is probably related to the jade mine. For something like this, even the most terrifying and bizarre conspiracies wouldn't be surprising. The value is just too great," Fatty said.

"Then what's the deal with these things?" I asked, looking at the iron rack in the corner and the dozen or so iron figurines lying horizontally on it. "Are these tools too? Did they find the foreman too harsh, so they shaped their pickaxes into the foreman's likeness and then smashed them every day?"

Fatty gave a half-smile, as if lacking the energy to joke. "I'm not sure, but look at these things—they're all cast iron tools, with iron trays beside them. I think these iron figurines are like our cargo smuggling method—they were used to transport things. The ore was mined, sealed directly into the iron figurines, hauled away, and then melted open at the destination. Times were chaotic then. Doing it this way prevented accidents on the road that could shatter the jade, and the decorative patterns on top also prevented rust. When broken up later, they could be collected as scrap iron to make bullets." "Oh!" I gasped, thinking to myself, so that's how it was.

Snakes have their own paths—people like them could see it at a glance. I had been extremely puzzled before and couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed, because I had thought there was a deeper story behind these iron figurines.

But then I reconsidered and felt something was off. That archaeological team salvaged these iron blocks—was it really just to retrieve the jade inside? Unlikely. Although jade was valuable, with the country's resources at the time, they wouldn't be so destitute as to send an archaeological team to salvage it. Could these things have another use? Fatty just smiled, his expression not relaxed. Slowly walking a circle along the cave wall, I continued, "But judging by the scale of this mine, it seems they didn't dig out much. The scope of mining isn't very extensive!"

"Jade mines are never very large to begin with—that's not the key issue," he said, adjusting me to stand a bit straighter. "What your Fatty Master wants you to see isn't these things."

I turned to look around again, but didn't see anything else that could catch my attention, so I asked, "What do you want me to see?"

Fatty raised his torch and asked, "Haven't you noticed? There's no exit here."

I was suddenly shaken. One second I was still grasping his meaning, the next I understood. I quickly scanned the entire cave, and as I looked, cold sweat broke out.

Indeed, both caves were not large, and as I had looked around earlier, I hadn't seen any place that could lead out.

The small adjoining cave, about thirty square meters, was very simple and certainly had no exit. This one was slightly larger, but also had no openings at all.

My mind was a bit chaotic. I immediately turned around, and Fatty supported me as we walked through both caves again. This time I was completely focused on finding an exit. After seeing everything, I felt chilled all over, almost unable to speak.

Fatty was right—there was no exit here. All the cave walls were solid rock, not even a single crack to be found.

"What's going on?" I looked at him. "How can this be?"

His face was full of bitterness, and he didn't speak.

I instinctively looked at the ceiling of the cave. If the walls had nothing, maybe the top did.

The ceiling was very low, within reach of my hand. I looked around—it was exactly the same as the rock walls. Nothing at all, just solid rock.

Fatty sighed and waved his hand. "No need to look! We've searched every inch, inside and out, up and down. These two caves are completely sealed."

I couldn't accept it. "How is that possible?"

Fatty sighed and said, "I don't know, but this is indeed the fact. This cave seems..." He paused, his tone hesitant, "completely sealed, as if it was excavated from the inside."

I was stunned for a moment, shook my head and said, "Absolutely impossible. If that were the case, how did we get in?"

He made me lean against the rock face, glanced at Poker-face who had followed us over, then shook his head and said, "I don't know."