Chapter 11 Qiu Dekao’s Invitation

“The village is full of Qiu Dekao’s people, but it doesn’t look like they’ve made any progress. There’s a large number of logistical support personnel entrenched in the village and they know that you’re coming. Qiu Dekao already sent word that he wants to see you.”

Since our main task this time was to rescue people, Pan Zi’s team was divided into two groups: the team that would go underground and the logistical support team. The magic lake in the remote mountains was too far away from the village, so logistics were particularly important. With good weather, it would normally take us two or three days to enter the mountain. But now we’d have three bases on the route, with five people at each base waiting for orders round the clock. This could save us time when we had to rest at night and also shorten the amount of time it would take to get support from the village to the lake.

With this setup, the support staff would consist of fifteen people who would all be led by Xiuxiu. The remaining two good players would go down with us, so with Xiao Hua, Pan Zi, and me, that brought the total up to five. Uncle Three’s woman—Mute Sister— was included among the five of us going underground.

When I asked Pan Zi why he arranged it this way, his response was, “We need her. I think Master Three trained her because she has real skill. Of course, I don’t know if Master Three slept with her, but she’s already suspicious of you. It’s safer to take this kind of person with us.”

“So I have to be on tenterhooks all the time now?” I asked him.

“We’ll definitely split up after entering. She’ll be on Master Hua’s team. Remember, it’s important to save them using any means necessary. Everything will be fine as long as they’re rescued. If they can’t be rescued, I’m afraid you won’t have the heart to keep pretending to be Master Three,” Pan Zi said.

I nodded. I had originally thought there were too many people, but I knew it was necessary if I wanted to save them in the shortest amount of time possible. In a place like that, the longer you stayed, the more dangerous it became.

The village at the bottom of the magic lake still had too many unsolved mysteries. If the Zhang family’s ancient building (1) was in the rock formation at the bottom of the lake, then the size of the mountain alone showed that it had to be extremely complicated. I figured that our progress would be very slow after we entered, so good logistics could help make up for our previous mistakes.

Among the people who came to the field with us, there was only one kid I didn’t know. He was an extremely thin nineteen-year-old nicknamed “Leather Bag”, who was said to have a very good ear. He was an excellent guy who was known as a minor celebrity in Changsha. Among those who joined our team this time, his price was the highest. I figured I’d have to hang around him a while before I could discover what kind of person he was, but according to Pan Zi, those with the highest prices were usually difficult to get along with.

Pan Zi eventually asked me if I wanted to see Qiu Dekao, but I refused without a second thought. At this juncture, everything was so chaotic that I didn’t feel like dealing with social affairs. All I had done so far was put on a face and act big in front of Uncle Three’s men. I didn’t know how smart this old ghost was compared to those people, and I had no reason to go, so there was no need to get near such bad luck

“That’s not necessarily the case,” Pan Zi said. “The relationship between this white-haired foreigner and Master Three was very complicated before. I don’t know what happened at that time, but if he’s looking for you, maybe you can test him.”

I knew he had a point, but one had to have excellent mental and physical strength to test such an old fox. I was too busy thinking about Fatty and the other’s safety and wasn’t anxious to think about these things at the moment. “Don’t worry,” I said to Pan Zi. “There will be plenty of opportunities to test him when everyone’s rescued. Right now, the arrow is on the string and needs to be released. When we arrive, we’ll rest for a night and then immediately set off for the lake the next morning. We won’t give him enough time to respond.”

Pan Zi shook his head, “This kind of old fox is difficult to avoid, but we’ll do what you say since your thinking is on the right track.”

We worked out our own calculations and discussed all the details again before closing our eyes and resting. After seven bumpy hours, we finally arrived in Banai.

The moment I got out of the vehicle and saw those tall wooden houses, familiar tropical trees, and villagers dressed in native costumes, I vaguely felt that everything I had experienced before going to Sichuan and Changsha was a dream. I could even imagine Fatty and Poker-Face waiting for me when I returned to Agui’s home.

The weather had been cool, but it was still much hotter than Changsha and Sichuan. I unbuttoned my shirt but quickly noticed Mute Sister looking at me. My heart thumped and I immediately buttoned up again before going to find Agui.

He was still the same as ever. It was already dark out at this time, so I handed him a cigarette and said, “I’m back at last. Where’s Yun Cai?”

Agui was leading us to his house and looked back at me in surprise, “Boss has been here before? You know my daughter?”

I had said that without thinking, forgetting that I was no longer Wu Xie, but a stranger to Agui. I couldn’t help laughing awkwardly and said, “Yes, I was very young at that time. Your daughter is also called Yun Cai? The last time I came here, there was a very famous tour guide here who was also called Yun Cai.”

Agui nodded and said vaguely, “Oh, yes. There are many people with this name. It turns out you’re an old expert.”

I quickly laughed and glanced at Mute Sister, but she didn’t seem to be looking at me. The others also arrived at this time, so several of Agui’s friends took their luggage and equipment to the homes that had been arranged for them. There was no hotel here, so everyone had to stay with the villagers.

“You’ll be in this one.” Agui pointed to the wooden building where Poker-Face, Fatty, and I had stayed before. I sighed and walked to the door, but was stunned when I lifted the curtain and went in.

There was a familiar man already in the house. He was sitting on the ground with a small oil lamp lit in front of him.

It was a foreigner. A very, very old foreigner whom I recognized immediately—it was Qiu Dekao.

“Sit down, old friend.” The foreigner saw me come in and motioned with his hand. “We finally meet again.”

I took a deep breath and felt myself break out in a cold sweat. In the end, I really can’t avoid it, I thought to myself. It came too fast. I glanced outside to see where Pan Zi and the others were.

“When old friends meet, there’s no need to be such a stranger,” Qiu Dekao said. “I’ll leave after we have a little chat, so don’t bother your men.”

I didn’t see Pan Zi, and the other guys were all talking and laughing with each other. I cursed to myself before turning to look at Qiu Dekao. But just as I was forcing a smile on my face, I noticed something lying beside him.

It was a blade. And one I recognized. That was the ancient blade Xiao Hua had given Poker-Face before they came here.

My heart thumped and my first thought was, Poker-face lost the blade again so quickly. He’s really a fucking failure. My second thought wasn’t a good one. How did they find it? Did Qiu Dekao’s people enter the bottom of the lake?

Qiu Dekao looked at me staring at the ancient blade and pushed it towards me. He then spread his hands and said, “It should be yours. My people picked it up by chance and now it’s back with its owner.”

“Where did you get this?” I pretended to be calm as I walked over and sat down to take a look at it. There was no mistake. It was Poker-Face’s blade.

It was very heavy but didn’t weigh as much as his original black sword since even I could barely lift it. The body of the sword was caked in mud and didn’t seem to have been cleaned at all.

“Why ask when you know perfectly well?” Qiu Dekao took a sip of tea. “Unfortunately, my men were carrying too much weight to bring the dead bodies out with them. I pity your men. They took on such a dangerous job and don’t even get a funeral. But you Chinese don’t seem to care about these things. This is an advantage I’ve never been able to learn.”

“Dead bodies?” I felt as if something exploded in my head. “Is he dead?”

“This was taken from a corpse. If you’re talking about the owner, I think he’s dead.” Qiu Dekao was surprised when he saw my expression. “Why, is this person very important? Master Wu, you hardly ever showed this kind of expression when death was mentioned before.”

I looked at the blade, completely dazed. Absolutely impossible, I said to myself. It’s not Poker-Face!

How did Poker-Face die? If Poker-Face is dead, doesn’t that mean Fatty’s no better off? No way, no way, no way. Poker-Face is completely insulated from death. Where else in this world can he die?! He would never die.

After a moment, I immediately forced myself to calm down and looked at the sword carefully. “Can you describe the body’s characteristics?” I asked Qiu Dekao.

He was confused by my reaction. Maybe he had been using such a profound attitude to try and stand up to the Chinese. He may have played mind games with Uncle Three before, but I wasn’t actually Uncle Three and couldn’t cooperate with him. I just wanted to know the answer to my question.

He looked at me in surprise and then burst out laughing. After taking a sip of tea, he suddenly said, “Are you really Master Wu, or am I mistaken?”

I went up and slapped the teacup from his hand, grabbed him by the collar, and said, “Don’t talk nonsense. Answer my question.”

Qiu Dekao was very old, so after the initial surprise wore off, his face darkened, “What’s wrong with you?” He asked me. “You’re crazy to be so rude to me. Aren’t you afraid I’ll disclose your secret? Wu Sanxing, where’s your reverence?”

What the fuck?! I said to myself. Who the fuck taught you Chinese? Yu Qiuyu (2)? 

But once I thought about it, I realized that I was so rude just now that he couldn’t talk to me normally (3). As soon as I came to this conclusion, I let him go and said, “Answer my question first. This is a serious matter. Do you still remember what happened to you at Dart Summit? Do you want it to happen again?”

Qiu Dekao paused and then fixed his clothes before asking, “Is it that serious?”

“Answer me, what did that person look like?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “My man found him.” 

“Take me to see him so I can ask him in person,” I said.

Qiu Dekao looked at me for several seconds. Once he determined that my anxiety wasn’t fake, he immediately stood up, “Okay, follow me. But he’s in terrible condition, so you should mentally prepare yourself.”

<Chapter 10> <Table of Contents><Chapter 12>

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TN Notes:

(1) Remember, the pinyin for “Zhang family’s building” is Zhang Jialou. So the pinyin for “Zhang family’s ancient building” is “Zhang Jiagulou”. I’ll be using different variations depending on the context because “Zhang family’s ancient building” is a mouthful lol. 

(2) He’s a modern Chinese writer/scholar. More info here

(3) I think Qiu Dekao was trying to say “respect” instead of “reverence” (like respect for your elders, which Asian countries are all about), but Wu Xie had him shook lol.

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Updated 1/6/2021