Chapter 6.18 Point in Time (Extra)

I was silent as I ate the scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions.

Fatty didn’t have time to buy any vegetables, so he borrowed some side dishes from next door. He could only put out so much on such short notice, but it was enough once we added the salted peanuts we’d bought from the corner store.

Fatty was drinking silently and Poker-Face was eating very little. Beijing was very dry and comfortable when I first came here, but now I was missing Fujian’s humidity.

I turned to look at the equipment he had brought and found that it was almost everything we had. There were three big bags that were worn down and covered in mud after we went roaming around the mountains in Fujian. Even though they looked like snakeskin bags full of potatoes, they were necessary for our trip.

Wang Meng had tried all sorts of ways to get Poker-Face an ID card, but it hadn’t been settled yet. I didn’t know how he got to Beijing, but he always seemed to have a way.

I vaguely felt that his sudden appearance had something to do with Black Glasses. It wouldn’t be surprising considering they had known each other far longer than I did. And considering the fact that Black Glasses didn’t desperately ask me and Fatty to help him, he might have already called upon Poker-Face.

After we were done eating, I casually brought up Black Glasses. If Poker-Face knew about it, then we could talk about it. If he didn’t know, then I wanted to give him a heads up.

Fatty asked me why Black Glasses was scheming something. To be honest, I knew Little Brother Zhang had a story up his sleeve, but I didn’t know if the place he was talking about was really a valuable tomb. Under normal circumstances, this kind of job shouldn’t be done rashly. Black Glasses could be regarded as a veteran, so it didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t know all the details. That was why I kept thinking that he and Little Brother Zhang didn’t tell us everything.

“When it comes to recruiting grave robbers, the recruiters will promise that the tomb they’re going to rob is full of gold and there are generations of grave goods there. Even selling one item would be enough for people to live comfortably for three lifetimes. But Black Glasses and Little Brother Zhang didn’t do this. After all that talk, it’s nothing but difficulties. There are bugs, it’s impossible to enter, and people can’t see when they reach the tomb. There’s no fucking way they can recruit any grave robbers like this,” Fatty said. “But if it only had grave goods, Black Glasses wouldn’t keep it from us. I honestly feel a little hurt he didn’t say anything to us this time. He’s cozying up to those fucking outsiders, but not to us.”

There must be more than grave goods there, I said to myself. In principle, this kind of job shouldn’t be done at all.

“Little Brother, what do you think Black Glasses’ reason is? Could it be something to treat his eyes?” Fatty asked Poker-Face.

Poker-Face shook his head, opened his equipment bag, and started hanging the stuff on the wall, “He’ll die this time.”

I paused, and Poker-Face quietly added, “That tomb can’t be robbed. Look at your grandfather’s notes.”

I took a deep breath. I honestly hadn’t opened my grandpa’s notes for a long time. I didn’t have that rookie mentality anymore, so I didn’t think about his notes very often.

Poker-Face took out a roll of paper from his bag and silently stuck it on the wall. I saw that it was the genealogical chart that had been sorted out before.

“What’s this?” Fatty asked him, but he didn’t answer.

I went to the back room, took out my cell phone, pulled up the scanned photos of my grandpa’s notes, and looked them over carefully.

Poker-Face left. I didn’t know if he went to find Black Glasses, but I ignored it and continued flipping through my grandpa’s notes. I hadn’t read them for many years, so it was actually like reading them for the first time. As I looked through them and saw the yellow paper in the pictures—I had scanned them because the paper became too brittle—it suddenly occurred to me that Zhang Haike had told me before that there always came a turning point in one’s long life. Before this point in time, there were no disadvantages, and any hardships or trials could be surpassed. After that, the seemingly eternal things began to decay and friends would start to die.

When I thought of Poker-Face’s words, I suddenly wondered if this time had come. For Poker-Face, was it time for me and all those around me to die?

<Extra 6.17><Table of Contents><Extra 6.19>

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