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 I’m 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.”

Poker-Face shook his head, pushed the door to his room open, and went in. Uncle Two stood up, seemingly unwilling to drop it. I immediately grabbed him. “That’s just how he is, Uncle Two. Don’t mind it. If you ask him again, he’ll knock you out.”

Uncle Two sat down and took a sip of tea. “Does he still refuse to talk?”

“Even if he doesn’t say anything, I can still figure it out.” I sighed. “In fact, the one who lied to me the most was Uncle Three. I don’t even know how many things he didn’t tell me. But the price I paid for knowing those things is too much. If others don’t want to talk, I won’t make them.”

“Your Uncle Three owes a lot of debts. After things are over, he’ll have to pay them back one by one. I just don’t know if he’ll be able to do it in this lifetime. We, the Wu family, will have to help him.” Uncle Two suddenly sighed and held his forehead, “I’ll have to make sure everything’s balanced for when I reincarnate. Little Xie, let’s talk business.”

I nodded and sat down, my back ramrod straight. It was like I was suddenly a child again, unable to recite the Tang poetry Uncle Two was quizzing me on because Uncle Three and I had snuck out the previous night to catch grasshoppers in the field. When I fell asleep, Uncle Three carried me back and put me into my bed.

That was why I hated Uncle Two as a child and absolutely adored Uncle Three. But now that I thought about it, this family probably would have collapsed without Uncle Two.

His hair was all white now, which was a stark contrast to my father’s appearance. In fact, my father was basically the Wu Xiubo (1) of the neighborhood committee. Uncle Two had always been so strong and spirited, but we could see the hidden tiredness and age creeping up on him.

He pointed to the murals we had photographed and asked me, “Tell me, what’s wrong with these murals?”

“They look like they’re from the Song Dynasty, but the South Sea countries existed during the Han Dynasty. Murals from the Song Dynasty are very complicated. The density of colors and lines far exceeds that of murals from the Han Dynasty. The drawings are smooth and the composition is rigorous, but there’s nothing on the murals that could help us distinguish which dynasty they’re from. The content of the murals is relatively unknown, so it’s actually difficult to figure anything out without checking historical records first.”

“You’re right. There’s 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, you’ll see there’s 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. Don’t 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. There’s a saying: thunder suppresses the nine typhoons. As long as there’s thunder, the typhoon won’t make landfall. We need to look into the typhoons and thunderstorms along the coast here. The South Sea King’s tomb won’t be found using our usual methods, so I found an expert in Beijing to help us.”

I paused. “An expert?”

Uncle Two nodded. “He’s someone who can listen to thunder to find tombs. He’ll arrive tomorrow.”

<Chapter 15><Table of Contents><Chapter 17>

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TN Notes:

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