Chapter 484: A Difficult Choice

We carried all the still-living people out of that room. After exiting, there was a very long corridor, its structure unexpectedly the same as below—all partitioned into rooms. We were too lazy to check what was inside. We lined everyone up in a row in the corridor and then began rescuing them one by one.

The toxicity of this strong alkaline mist acts on the human respiratory tract—it must be ulceration of the respiratory tract causing breathing difficulties. Perhaps because of our moving them, the few people we carried out almost immediately stopped breathing as soon as they were set down, with the weakest among them dying right away.

That feeling was terrible, as if we had murdered them. We tried every possible method along the way, and finally it was Poker-face's turn.

From the state in which Poker-face was found, he had wrapped himself tightly with everything on him. His tattoos were already visible, indicating his body temperature was now quite high.

Fatty said, "With this situation, couldn't it be that he adjusted his breathing to the weakest state?"

"Isn't this the legendary tortoise breathing technique?" I said.

"When you say those words, can you not use that Hong Kong-Taiwan wuxia movie tone?" Fatty said. "Fucking tortoise breathing, I'll suck ghosts instead. He first made his body very weak, entering a deep coma state. His heartbeat is also faint, so his blood pressure is very low. He used clothes to wrap himself tightly, minimizing contact between his skin and the air, thus reducing the degree of poisoning. Among everyone, he has the mildest poisoning—that must be the reason."

"How did he make his body weak?" I said. "Tell himself 'I'm weak, I'm weak'? Don't you think even hearing that makes you want to slap yourself? Can you make yourself like that?"

"You don't understand this." Fatty pointed at little brother's hand and turned Poker-face's hand over for me to see. I saw wounds on both of Poker-face's wrists. "To become weak, just let blood; little brother surely knows much more about bloodletting than we do."

Those red marks on the floor seemed to contain little brother's blood in addition to the others' excrement and urine.

"What should we do now?" I looked at these people, growing a bit scared—if it happened again, we might also end up like this. "There are only two of us, and so many people here; we can't carry them out."

Fatty scratched his head and said, "Don't be mad at me for saying this. I think it's already good if we take little brother out alone. If we stay here, no one will make it, and we'll be doomed too."

"Weren't you just saying something about equal rain and dew?" I said.

"Saving people is saving people, but when you find you can't save them anymore, you shouldn't force it. Lord Fatty is a very utilitarian person. With my build, I definitely can't carry another person out. I'm not familiar with them; they're all people who are better off than me in this line of work—everyone should have that awareness. You carry little brother on your back, and I'll lend a hand; we need to get out of here quickly, that's the truth."

I thought it over, looked at the several unconscious people on the ground, and wondered: if I were lying here, would I want others to have such a conversation while I'm in a coma?

"Then after we get out, will we come back in? Come back another time and take these people and Old Mrs. Huo's body out too?"

"Damn it, you still haven't had enough?" Fatty said. "This ghostly place is really fucking eerie! Lord Fatty has never been afraid of a tomb, but this ancient building—the moment I entered, I felt uncomfortable all over. Tianzhen, let me tell you, by the time you come back, these people will have been dead long ago. Coming back would be for nothing. Don't get tangled up on this at such a crucial moment."

I knew Fatty was lying. Fatty's reasoning was actually very simple—I try my best to save first, that's the first principle, but if I can't save them, I won't force it, and won't bear any moral constraints. Fatty is a person who lives quite clearly; many times his stupid, carefree way of life really impresses me. We didn't discuss this further. I walked back, looked at Old Mrs. Huo's body, and thought about how to explain to Xiao Hua when we got back.

Of course, Old Mrs. Huo had truly lived a full life—an incredibly brilliant life, involved with several men who were local heroes, something ordinary women wouldn't even get to see. But with Old Mrs. Huo dead, how would Xiao Hua explain when he gets back? The Huo family is now in chaos—see the living, see the dead. Although Old Mrs. Huo's body was withered, it was still quite difficult to bring it out.

I probably couldn't bring out Old Mrs. Huo's entire body. But which part should I take out to achieve the goal of "see the dead"? The answer was very obvious. But I really couldn't figure out how to cut off Old Mrs. Huo's head.

I wondered what expression the Huo family would make if they saw Old Mrs. Huo's head. This "see the dead"—if they actually saw the body, would they blow up directly?

However, a family of tomb raiders views many things differently from ordinary families. Xiao Hua definitely needed this thing. Even if it wouldn't be displayed for all the Huo family to see, it should be displayed before some of the elders who can make decisions, and then the story of what happened would be told.

But no matter how I thought about it, I felt this act was really something I couldn't bear myself. I kowtowed several times before Old Mrs. Huo's body and said to her, "Grandma, you know what I want to do, right? You also doted on Xiao Hua. I'm truly left with no choice. If you don't object, don't move."

After saying that, I looked at the body and saw that it indeed didn't move, so I said, "Thank you, Grandma. I'll tell you secretly: my grandfather liked you the most. If you also like him, send me a dream, and I'll bury you next to my grandfather without letting my grandmother know."

"You shitty bastard selling out your grandmother to survive," Fatty cursed from the side. "Your grandfather might already have three wives and four concubines down there. If you send the old lady down, it'll be another bloody storm."

"I can't worry about that much," I said. "Drifting in the jianghu, how can one avoid getting cut." After saying that, I felt myself to be an absolute fucking bastard. I pulled out the knife from the body, measured it at Old Mrs. Huo's neck, closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, then turned to Fatty and said: "Fatty, I have a job. If you do it for me, I'll give you six hundred thousand!"

Fatty was over there organizing all the stuff, turned his head and asked me: "What's up? Between you and me, why so polite? Tell me, what job? If it's easy, I'll give you a discount."

I said: "Help me cut off Grandma's head."

Fatty stared at me, dumbfounded: "Are you crazy? Will Xiuxiu not kill you then?"

I told Fatty my idea. Fatty thought about it and said: "This thing I really haven't done. Although I'm a tomb robber, desecrating a corpse—especially the corpse of someone I know—I've never done it. I really can't do it."

I sighed and asked Fatty: "Then what do we do? Think of a way for me." Fatty thought and said: "Eight hundred thousand. Eight hundred thousand and I'll do it."