Chapter 355: Hypothesis

While taking off my wetsuit to recover my strength as quickly as possible, I asked Fatty what theories they had after being here so long.

He shook his head. "The most plausible theory I can come up with is that we're all dead, and it's our ghosts that passed through the rock and entered this cave."

I gave a wry smile. I understood what he meant—he didn't really think we were dead. What he meant was that the other theories were even more far-fetched. This was a matter without cause or effect. Deduction requires clues, but right now there were none; everything could only be guessed.

Fatty said, "If that thing causing trouble doesn't aim to kill us, then no matter what happens next, we probably won't lose our lives! If it wanted to kill us, why change locations?"

I gave a wry smile. If not losing our lives, then what? Would a big man suddenly appear and rape us? I shook my head. "There's no necessary connection. Being alive right now isn't necessarily a good thing. When you eat drunken shrimp, aren't you after the freshness?"

Fatty sucked in a breath, thinking it was indeed creepy, and felt a bit dejected. He cursed, "I hate this kind of elusive, incomprehensible shit the most! Don't you think the three of us have clashing fates? Why is it that whenever we get together, we end up in whorehouses like this? Damn it, it's really demonic! And that Agui, too—he knows nothing. If he had given us some hints, we could have at least been on guard."

I frowned inwardly. Fatty was right. The reason we had no clue at all, not even a basis for speculation, was exactly this: the current situation had happened inexplicably. Our existing knowledge was definitely missing some very crucial piece.

The investigation started from the village and branched out bit by bit. All information came from higher-level clues. Now we knew that the source of the iron blocks was those iron figurines, that Wenjin had been to this lakeside, that the archaeological team had been swapped, and we had learned some secrets of the ancient village under the lake. Although some of the clues weren't fully connected yet—for instance, what exactly these iron figurines were about—I believed that if we kept investigating, everything would eventually connect.

But what was happening here now, the predicament we were in, had nothing to do with any of that information. In other words, among the many clues we had gathered in the village, one piece was completely missing.

Where had it been overlooked?

Earlier when I asked Fatty for his theory, I realized this matter couldn't be deduced—there were no factors to corroborate it. Thinking this, I said to him and Poker-face, "We should sort through everything we know from the beginning. This place must be connected to the whole affair. If we list everything out from the start, maybe we can find some hints."

Fatty blew out air and pointed at the ground, which had scratches from stones he had used to carve words. "I already sorted through it before and really couldn't figure it out. If you want to sort it, go ahead—you've read more than me, so you should do better. My head started hurting when I did it!"

I looked at the words. It was his characteristic enumeration method: writing down all possibilities, including all clues, then circling them to find connections.

I said, "This time is different from before. All the information is fragments. Writing like this will only make it messier. Let me sort it out first, then we'll start from one concept and see if we can piece together the whole chain like building blocks."

I picked up a stone and wrote several key words on another patch of ground, connecting everything found since entering the village with the subsequent parts.

【Iron blocks — fragments of iron figurines — village under the lake — unknown purpose — found everywhere — seems dangerous — photos with strange smell — burned

Pan Ma's account — archaeological team swapped — bodies found — fishing out iron blocks — purpose? — underwater ancient village — Han-style ancient building — underground passage — large number of iron figurines — jade mine? — sealed mine tunnel — iron figurines — identical chisel marks A, B — stabbing pain — unconsciousness

C — suffocation — unconsciousness】

After writing, I crossed out everything that was certain, and the table became:

【Unknown purpose — seems dangerous — strange smell — purpose? — large number of iron figurines — jade mine? — sealed mine tunnel — iron figurines — identical chisel marks A, B — stabbing pain — unconsciousness

C — suffocation — unconsciousness】

This way, we had listed everything we could and could not confirm.

Then we started connecting some factors. I said, "First, let's confirm that the owner of the Han-style ancient building in the ancient village was surnamed Zhang. For now, let's call him Lord Zhang." I glanced at Poker-face. "This man had military merit and was a great scholar of Chinese classics. He might have been a local warlord, or perhaps had a different background. It doesn't have much to do with the core of the matter."

"At some point in time, this person called Lord Zhang, for some reason—again, we don't need to know that reason—discovered a jade mine under the village. Tempted by enormous profit, he colluded with the local Yao chieftain to dig forcibly, building a sturdy Han-style building in the Yao village for his men to use. The building was built so solidly that clearly they planned to dig here for a very long time, maybe even for generations."

"This cave we're in now, judging by the chisel marks, should be one of the mine tunnels they excavated, or at least one of them."

After saying that, I looked at Fatty and asked if he had anything to add. He shook his head. I continued, "Well, up to this point everything is normal and makes sense, but that contradicts our current situation. Clearly, the mine tunnel we're in is completely sealed. So I can say that in the time between 'everything normal' and our current predicament, something happened that caused an inexplicable change in the mine tunnel."

Fatty nodded. "Don't be so fancy. The damn cave just had something happen later." This part was the initial hypothesis and fairly certain. I wrote it down as a starting point, then drew a question mark next to it. "What happened here? It certainly wasn't a sudden collapse, because if it were, people would have been trapped and died."

"Not necessarily. Think about it—we got in here mysteriously. They might have found a way out later," Fatty said.

I shook my head. What kind of education did miners have back in those days? If they could think of a way, couldn't I? And even if they could, it wouldn't be quick. Given that they had tools and strength, they would first try to smash their way out, leaving behind a lot of rubble marks on the ground.

However, I hadn't been there at the time, so I couldn't make a definite judgment and didn't argue with Fatty. We bit our lips and started thinking of various hypotheses to fit the situation.

Before we had gone two rounds, Poker-face spoke up calmly, "The statue in the mine tunnel is the Yao tribe's Thunder King God—a fierce deity. It is usually not openly worshiped unless something terrible had happened."

We were both startled. Fatty said, "Damn! How do you know this stuff?"

Poker-face didn't answer and continued, "Having this statue inside means the event didn't happen suddenly. Moreover, after it happened, they were still able to bring a stone statue from outside to enshrine here, indicating that although the matter was frightening, it wasn't enough to scare them away."

I thought it over and found it reasonable. "Setting up a statue shows they still wanted to keep mining, so they used this statue to suppress something. Although the matter was scary, it was only psychological panic, not yet life-threatening. Let's think about it from their perspective—if we were miners, under what circumstances would we do the same?"

Fatty sucked in a cold breath. "Why does this sound so familiar? Could it be that they dug up something unlucky here?"

I also nodded. It seemed we had the same thought at the same time. In the past, I often heard such rumors back home: when a factory started construction and dug up a mass grave of bones during foundation work, they would place a Guan Yu statue to suppress it.

"This is rock stratum. What the hell could they dig up in a place like this?" Fatty said. "Could it be a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil?" He then went "eh," obviously feeling his own idea was plausible. "Think about it—they're digging, and suddenly they uncover a prehistoric monster. They'd be scared half to death, thinking they'd dug up a monster's bones."

I patted him. "Comrade, when you have time, read more books. Dinosaur fossils and jade are separated by hundreds of millions of years. Digging up a dinosaur fossil here would be like a KFC Family Bucket."

"Then what do you think it was?" Fatty asked, unconvinced.

We thought for a moment and both shook our heads. In truth, it was impossible to imagine. In this kind of rock vein, what could reasonably exist that would also make them feel it was unlucky? I really couldn't think of anything. The only reasonable thing here was stone. Was it a stone that they considered unlucky? If we consider the unreasonable, anything was possible.

Fatty walked up to the statue and asked Poker-face, "Little brother, how ferocious is this Thunder King god? Is it like our Zhong Kui, a ghost catcher?"

Poker-face shook his head. "The Thunder King is specifically for restraining evil gods."

The mythology of the Yao and Miao is different from that of the Han. Many of the evil beings are gods who can sit on equal footing with the righteous gods, and ordinary gods can't do anything to them.

Fatty clicked his tongue. "So that means Zhong Kui is just the public security, and this Thunder King is the Party Discipline Committee secretary." He picked out two thin sticks from the campfire, stuck them into the incense burner, and bowed. "Secretary Lei, my apologies. We little brothers failed to recognize Mount Tai and didn't recognize you before. This little offering is nothing much, but it's a gesture—consider it an IOU. If we can get out of here, I'll definitely make up the incense oil. I know your disciplinary committee work makes it inconvenient to accept gifts, so later you can give me your wife's number, and we'll contact her..."

I thought to myself, this guy is too unreliable, and said, "You're not Yao, so how could he possibly bless you? Don't waste your firewood. Besides, only a superior writes an IOU to a subordinate—when has a subordinate ever written an IOU to a superior?"

Fatty said, "What the hell do you know? You pay taxes in Hangzhou, but you don't pay them when you go to Beijing? This isn't an IOU, it's a stock option. We're just giving a heads-up now, better than regretting it later."

As he spoke, he turned around, but unexpectedly the thin sticks, being top-heavy, caused the incense burner to tip over. The base flipped up, and all the incense ash spilled out.

Fatty immediately turned back to steady it, and I laughed, "See? He's honest and incorruptible—he won't accept it."

Fatty clicked his tongue again, broke the thin sticks in half, reinserted them, and then used his foot to smooth out the spilled ash. After a few wipes, as the ash was spread, I suddenly saw some strange lines appear on the rock surface under his foot.