Book 1: Chapter 159

Book 1: Chapter 159

Loud explosions echoed throughout the valley, knocking out my message that said: theres poisonous gas in the spring. Send a message if alive.

This knocking method was a code without any of the normal coding logic. It could only be accomplished by experiencing countless details of our daily life, so it was basically impossible to learn. The only real way to learn it was by living with us. I was very interested in coding, so I had studied it for a long time. The source lay in the Zhang family's secret code system. Having said that, the Zhang family's set of codes came from a lost ancient Chinese language. Since Poker-Face didnt experience a formal inheritance, he could only use a few of these symbols. When we looked at the parchment we had found in the Zhang family's ancient building, we saw that countless areas in China had different symbols. Up to now, I still didnt know what those special symbols meant.

So, I wasnt worried that someone would understand my secret code. I set off the explosives three times in a row and then stood on the edge of the cliff. I listened to the layers of echoes as I looked out over the entire valley, waiting until all the noise had died down.

This was the only thing I could do.

Off to the side, I dug to the bottom rock layer with the Luoyang shovel and then had Liu Sang stick his ear to the shovels steel pipes. If there was any echo underground, he would hear it.

I sat down and looked at the nearby tulou. The sounds of the explosions must have shocked everyone there. Some of them shouldve been able to hear which direction the explosions came from and would send someone to check soon. But it was like the horse dying as it ran towards the mountain (1), or someone trying to ascend to the heavens. After the sounds disappeared, it would be too difficult for them to find us.

I opened Liu Sang's backpack and found a folding recurve bow inside. I took it out, surprised that he would use this kind of weapon.

But it was much easier for us to catch one of them in the chaos.

As I was thinking this, Liu Sang suddenly raised his hand and told me not to talk. I frowned and started to walk over, but he also told me not to move. Then, he put his ear close to the steel pipe and asked me to stretch my hand out. He started gently tapping out a rhythm on the back of my hand.

I knew he had heard a sound come from underground.

The rhythm was code for: "Saw Little Brothers mark. The mark means farewell."

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TN Notes:

(1) When a horse looks at the mountain, it thinks its close. But when it starts running towards it, the distance is so far that the horse might as well die while running. Basically, its used to say that you think something is close, but its actually far away.