Book 1: Chapter 16

Book 1: Chapter 16

Old Jin couldn't stay in our house because the cold made his hips hurt, so we got him a place in the county town and went back to the village first.

Our house was now crowded with Wu guys. Uncle Two printed out the photos we took and spread them out on our desk while the three of us squeezed onto the sofa in the corner to watch them have a meeting. The rest of the house was full of equipment. Most of these guys were hired grave robbers who had regional accents, and each one was even uglier than the last.

Uncle Two was very efficient and soon ordered some of the guys to start working. Everyone was smoking, which meant the whole room was filled with smoke as if it was on fire. Everyone eventually left to start working, leaving only one of Uncle Two's guys to sweep all the cigarette butts off the floor and clean the table.

As I opened the door to let out the smoke, Fatty said quietly, "Little Brother and I will sleep first. You two can catch up." Fatty went into the room and gave Uncle Two a smile, "Uncle, you guys keep talking. I have to get up early tomorrow, so Im going to bed first."

Uncle Two grunted, looked at Poker-Face, and then said, "You stay." Poker-Face acted like he didn't hear him and continued to his room. Uncle Two slammed his fist on the table, "I told you to stay!"

I was completely shocked. I had no idea why Uncle Two suddenly got so riled up. I immediately went over to Poker-Face, who paused and looked back at Uncle Two.

"Uncle Two, what's wrong?" I hurriedly asked.

"I have something to ask him, Uncle Two said coldly. He must know where your Uncle Three is."

"Youre right. Theres about a seven-hundred-year gap between the Han and Song Dynasties. These murals can't be from the Han Dynasty, but the sarcophagus you photographed is. So, maybe these murals and this sarcophagus come from two different tombs. If you put the two things together and analyze them, youll see theres a problem, Uncle Two said. "The tomb you went to should be the place where Uncle Three hoarded grave goods. He hid everything he stole there."

"What do you mean?"

"It's just a speculation for now. Your Uncle Three was very interested in listening to thunder and hid everything related to it in one place. Dont tell the others about this just yet and keep it between the two of us." He looked at me, "Let's go to that South Sea country first. It was said to be in Wuping, which is now far away from the sea. Theres a saying: thunder suppresses the nine typhoons. As long as theres thunder, the typhoon wont make landfall. We need to look into the typhoons and thunderstorms along the coast here. The South Sea Kings tomb wont be found using our usual methods, so I found an expert in Beijing to help us."

I paused. An expert?"

Uncle Two nodded. "Hes someone who can listen to thunder to find tombs. Hell arrive tomorrow."

****

TN Notes:

(1) A Chinese actor, musician, and producer. Hes most widely known as Xinjie Liu, the protagonist in the television series Before the Dawn. Wu Xies dad is basically a silver fox hehehe