Chapter 446: The Teen Tomb Raider's Bag

Pibao was really just a kid, too young—while the others were getting ready, he was skipping stones by the lake. Panzi said that everyone in this trade had their own gear, and since Pibao didn't need to go down, he naturally didn't have to pack; besides, in this line of work, anyone who acted cocky must have a unique skill, because those who acted cocky without one almost always died.

Xiao Hua's things were clearly very well organized; he kept studying the "belly map." I watched Panzi bustling around everywhere, remembering his final words, and felt quite uneasy.

Panzi's words were a kind of reproach. Although it stung a bit to hear, I knew he was right—a true leader must consider everyone equally.

But I wasn't a true leader; I was just a fake. At the time, I wanted to argue back, but his last sentence made me realize I was a coward at heart.

Indeed, this was the path I'd chosen myself; I couldn't use any excuse. At this moment, there was no one left to say,

when I urged, "Let's go down quickly," and replied, "No, now's not the time." The only person who could have said that, Third Uncle, was already gone, and I had taken his place.

Many images of Third Uncle from those days surfaced in my mind. I suddenly realized that when Third Uncle said "no" or nodded coldly and said "we can try," his heart was never at ease. I once thought saying those words was so simple—without experiencing it myself, there were so many things I simply couldn't have known.

Soon, Xiao Hua began to mobilize the team. I saw him clap his hands to gather those who were ready to go down.

In the process of organizing the diggers, all the most critical information was only revealed to the diggers right before going underground. The Iron Chopsticks used this method to prevent infighting or the diggers from leaking secrets to others.

Xiao Hua was a born performer. He clearly didn't have my worries; long before I was still enjoying a simple life, he'd already gotten used to the things I was now agonizing over. I watched him assign tasks to those men as casually as a pre-show briefing, relaxed as if it were just a rehearsal. I felt a mix of envy and bitterness.

"You can't see this difference usually, but it's very obvious when you look at the reflection." I walked over to listen and saw him pointing to the opposite side of the lake.

Everything around the lake was under the moonlight. I shaded my eyes with my hand and looked closely at the scene in the lake. I saw that the surrounding cliffs were inverted in the reflection, revealing the entire circle of mountains around the opposite shore, undulating unevenly.

"Amazing. Hidden in these mountains is an extremely rare ancient building—it can be said to be the collective burial tomb of the Zhang family clan. The feng shui here is quite special, presenting a pattern of 'a gathering of immortals embracing the moon, drinking wind and eating jade.' Look at that mountain over there; the trees are swaying, but the lake surface is as calm as water, without a single ripple. That shows that if the wind blows from the wrong direction, it doesn't touch the lake surface. According to ancient books, this kind of lake is very likely to contain a dragon. The mountains around the lake are the dragon's spine. Building the ancient building inside the dragon's spine—that's sucking the marrow from the bone, a bit ferocious."

"There's definitely no dragon. When we dove down before, we didn't see a damn thing—there were giant salamanders though," I said. The others saw me coming and immediately made way, nodding and saying, "Hello, Third Master."

I gestured for them to ignore me. Xiao Hua continued, "According to ancient books, there are two kinds of lakes likely to contain dragons: first, those that are bottomless with an extremely calm surface; second, those that churn up waves without wind, which are connected to the sea. Actually, think about it: a calm surface means the lake is still; waves without wind mean the bottom connects to an underground river. Both are factors for large fish in the lake. The so-called dragon might just be a very big fish."

One of the men asked, "Why ferocious? Is the feng shui bad here?"

"It's not bad per se. Generally, feng shui emphasizes dwelling in quiet repose or standing majestic on the ridge, relying on mountain ranges for support and water veins for spiritual breath, seeking eternal stability. But if this ancient building really exists, built on the dragon's back, cutting off the feng shui vein, it's like a tumor."

"You mean this dragon vein—"

"It's likely already dead," said Xiao Hua. "So no wonder the Zhang family has the habit of moving graves. Their collective tombs can suck the marrow from the dragon vein, draining the dragon energy and then switching to another one."

"Then why? What's the benefit of this pattern?"

Xiao Hua shook his head. "No benefit. If there is one, it's only one, but if that's the case, we'll have to be on high alert." He frowned and turned to ask me, "Third Master, is it still too late for the brothers to back out now?" I was speechless at his odd joke. Seeing we didn't react, he gave a wry smile. Panzi said, "Master Hua, where does your joke end? Was the first half a joke? The brothers came here to get rich—you can't scare us and hog it all for yourself."

Everyone burst into laughter. Just then, Pibao walked over from the lake and said to us, "Masters, while I was skipping stones just now, I kept pondering one thing. I think before you go down, you need to consider this problem I've been thinking about, because your speculation might be wrong."

We were stunned for a moment. Xiao Hua said, "Oh, indeed a master. What did you come up with?"

Pibao opened his hand; his palm was full of small stone chips for skipping—clearly he still wanted to go back and play after he finished speaking.

"You proposed that the Zhang family has the custom of collective burials, that the tomb isn't sealed but open-style, where later generations can enter multiple times to bury their dead, right?"

We nodded, and he said, "Let's hypothesize. The Zhang family's ancient building is inside the mountain, their tomb is reused multiple times. All the family dead must be buried in the tomb. Think about it: this is really labor-intensive and costly. Carrying a coffin all the way from outside along mountain paths, once is fine, but over these hundreds of years, the Zhang family can't have only had one death. For such a big family, at least a dozen or so deaths would occur. If mysterious strangers kept showing up in the village every now and then, the village would definitely have some legends. But in the outer Banai village, we haven't heard any legends at all. That's a bit hard to explain. Don't you find it strange?"

"You mean the speculation that the Zhang family ancient building is an open-style tomb and the dead are brought back for burial is wrong?" one of the men asked.

"No, we clearly saw evidence of an open-style tomb in Sichuan. Such an elaborate design wouldn't be a joke. So open-style tomb must be correct," said Xiao Hua.

"I'm not saying the bosses are wrong. I'm saying there's something fishy about this matter."

I had to admit that Pibao made some sense—no wonder he was the highest-valued among the new generation. However, the issue he raised had no practical value for us.

"Actually, it may not be so," said Xiao Hua. "Maybe there were some legends in history that didn't survive, because the place where this village is located was not a peaceful place historically. There have been constant wars here. The people in this village might have been wiped out by massacre or plague, and then repopulated from elsewhere through military conscription several times."

"Even so, this village hasn't been massacred in the last hundred years, right? Up to Agui, at least four generations. During this time, logically, there should have been Zhang family members entering the village for burial."

We all frowned. This was indeed strange. Had the Zhang family completely declined during Agui's four generations? Or had no one in the Zhang family died during this period?

"It's not that we haven't heard any legends at all. Banai does have legends. The most recent one—we've been discussing it—is from a very recent era." After a long silence, Xiao Hua suddenly spoke.

"What is it?"

"The archaeological team with the iron blocks," said Xiao Hua. "That's a 'legend.' But—" He clicked his tongue. "If that's the case, then things get interesting."

I didn't understand at first, but then I broke out in a cold sweat and couldn't help touching my face. "Indeed interesting. Could it be like this?"

Panzi didn't understand: "Two masters, I haven't read much—can you stop talking in riddles?"

I said to Panzi, "The most familiar legend of Banai we've had before is the matter of the archaeological team. There's a psychological blind spot here. Combined with the strange points Pibao raised, the matter of the archaeological team can be viewed from another direction."