Chapter 6 Riddles

As Fatty and I looked at each other again, I found that Poker-Face didn’t seem surprised at all. He just continued to look up at the black gap.

“Where are you?” Fatty asked again.

“It’s dark here,” Black Glasses said. “We don’t know how far we’ve gone. But even if we did, it’s not like you’d know the location. But you…where are you?”

Fatty looked up at the huge black spot and said, “In front of the black spot.”

The satellite phone was silent for a while, which I found a bit strange. For Black Glasses, this darkness was actually an advantage. As long as he had a match, it was just like he was living somewhere near the equator on a summer morning

I heard Black Glasses sigh, “Where’s Mute?”

“Right next to us,” Fatty responded.

“Do you two have the confidence to knock him out and drag him out of this place right now?” Black Glasses asked.

Fatty looked at me, then at Little Brother, touched the gun in his hand—this gun looked a little strange; it seemed that the herdsmen here had modified it many times—and then said, “I can’t bear to hit my darling.”

Black Glasses chuckled and said, “Apprentice, why don’t you listen to your childhood friend?”

“Why?” I asked. “Where the hell are you guys? What’s the danger to Little Brother here? Can’t you share any information with us?”

Black Glasses was silent for a while, but I could hear the sound of a chocolate bar wrapper being peeled off and then something was put in his mouth, “You see that gap? We’re inside of it. But we should be more than a hundred kilometers away from you. The gap and the black spot seem to follow the same path. We’ve been moving forward for a long time.”

“What exactly did Xiao Hua come here to do? He has enough money, so did Jin Wantang drug him or something?” I complained. “And why are you here? What are you doing in that gap? You guys aren’t me.”

“Aw, would you look at that? My apprentice is all grown up. I wanted to tell you this before.” Black Glasses took another bite of the chocolate bar, “This gap follows the dragon veins to the bottom of the Kunlun Mountains. The whole route is spread out across the rock stratum in such a way that it passes under ten thousand mountains. Aren’t you interested?”

“If I had so much money, I definitely wouldn’t be interested.”

“Yes, but he also has his own obsession. It’s not my place to tell you what it is, but you should know.”

I don’t know, I said in my heart. Only old gangsters tell their childhood friends about their obsessions. What kind of decent person talks about their obsessions?

“Now, listen to me. When you enter this gap in a few minutes, there are a few points you must pay attention to. First, you must protect Mute. The gap is a dragon’s mouth. After Mute comes in, you guys should find a safe place to rest fully. But don’t go deep into the gap. Second, there’s nothing in this gap, so you need to move as fast as possible and collect as much food and equipment outside as you can. Third, your satellite phone can be used wherever there’s a dragon vein. This black part can transmit signals, but if you leave the dragon vein, you’ll end up completely lost. The structure inside this gap is very complicated.”

Fatty looked at me and then asked Black Glasses, “Why are we going in just like that? Can’t we go out and call for a rescue team to send ten thousand people over?”

“You’re in front of the black spot, correct? Then you can’t get out,” Black Glasses said. “If the black spot didn’t want it, then you wouldn’t have seen it. One of you must have been invited.”

“Me.”

Black Glasses laughed, “I know.”

“Why can’t we get out? Have you tried?”

“Look at that gap. After looking at it carefully, don’t you find that you really want to go in?” Black Glasses asked.

I looked up at the gap. It was so huge and deep that it reminded me of the darkness I saw in the tomb door when I was lured here earlier.

I didn’t dare look at it anymore as I asked myself, will we all feel a huge impulse to enter this gap after a while?

“Black Glasses, we saw a young man just now who was as white as an ox aorta⁽¹⁾ and holding something like a spirit flag. Do you know him?” Fatty asked.

Black Glasses let out an exclamation, “So you saw him. We saw him, too. But it was only a quick glance.”

I wanted to keep asking questions, but Poker-Face suddenly came over, took the satellite phone, and asked, “Who are you?”

I heard Black Glasses laugh on the other end of the line, which left me stunned for a moment. I was familiar with Black Glasses’ laugh. When I spoke with him just now, it was his normal laughter, but when Poker-Face asked, it wasn’t normal at all.

But this really was Black Glasses’ voice, so what did Poker-Face mean by asking that?

<Chapter 5><Table of Contents><Chapter 7>

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TN Notes:

(1) Ox aorta is a popular hotpot ingredient in Sichuan cuisine. It looks like a piece of smooth white jade.