Chapter 44 Fatty

Although I was a little surprised, I had already guessed that this might be a possibility. Out of all the people who had gone to the Seven Star Lu Palace, Da Kui had died, Uncle Three had disappeared, Pan Zi was in a coma, and Poker-Face’s life and death were unknown. That left only me and the fat guy. This organization would definitely have a contingency plan prepared just in case, so I figured their first candidate was that fat guy and I was supposed to be his backup.

The boat approached the pier without slowing down. That fat guy had gained some weight in the few days I hadn’t seen him but he was just as agile as before. Following the group of people, he jumped onto the boat and ran forward a few steps before coming to a stop. When he saw me, he gave a hearty laugh, “Young comrade, you’re here, too. It seems that our Miss A Ning is still quite popular.”

The woman graced him with a reluctant smile; it seemed that they were well acquainted with each other. I had very mixed feelings when it came to this fat guy. I didn’t know whether to be happy or upset by his appearance, but when I recalled his actions in the Lu Palace and how he had almost gotten me killed several times, I felt my head suddenly start to ache.

He threw his luggage onto the deck, sat opposite us, and rubbed his shoulders while saying, “I was in a rush to get here—you guys are in too much of a fucking hurry. By the way, have you found the place?”

The woman named A Ning shook her head, “There’s only one more place left to look. If nothing unexpected happens, that should be the place.”

“I told you guys already,” the fat guy said. “I’m not the kind of person who determines the exact location of a tomb by using dragon acupoints or digging around. You find the place, let me know, and I’ll go down. If you can’t find it, then don’t blame me. I’m still getting paid. Those are the rules in this business. You southern barbarians need to learn them if you’re going to stick around.”

A Ning sighed as if she had a headache and said, “I know. Everything’s already been arranged. Mr. Wu is responsible for finding the specific location.”

I had been in a relatively relaxed mood since this conversation started, but when I heard this, I was completely blindsided. I’m responsible? What exactly am I responsible for? I’ve never located a tomb in my life!

“What do you mean I’m responsible?” I hurriedly asked. “Don’t you guys know where the undersea tomb is?”

“We only have a rough idea of the location,” she replied. “The best-case scenario would be for us to find the grave robbers’ tunnel your uncle made. If we can’t find it, then we’ll have to rely on you to find the exact location and determine the shape of the undersea tomb. We only have some information from a pile of old books, which can’t replace the experience of a skilled grave robber. Your Uncle Three was very shrewd and didn’t leave us any information at all.”

My back was covered in a cold sweat. It looked like I wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight. I’d have to think hard about all the things my grandpa had taught me before. Otherwise, I’d immediately make a fool of myself as soon as we got to that place.

I wouldn’t have any problems with the actual digging part of it. If I slipped up and made any mistakes at the bottom of the sea, then I could just blame it on the seawater. After all, grave robbing on land was completely different from grave robbing at sea, so this kind of work was far outside of my professional scope. But they also wanted me to take on the difficult task of drawing a floorplan of the undersea tomb. Although I hadn’t done it before, I was fortunate enough to have theoretical experience.

After thinking about it, the nervousness I felt just now started to dissipate. It’ll all work out, I told myself. And if it doesn’t, I’ll just make something up by saying that the undersea tomb has a strange structure.

The fat guy glanced at me and said, “That’s good, everything is all set. But it’s rare to visit Xisha so let’s have a good meal tonight and build up our strength. We’ll need it since grave robbing is all about manual labor.” After saying that, he ran to find the captain and asked if there was any seafood on the boat.

A Ning didn’t seem to have an appetite at all and just leaned to the side while remaining silent. But I was so hungry that when I heard the word seafood, my mouth immediately started watering and I ran over to join them.

There were a lot of Spanish mackerel, cornetfish, and groupers in Xisha. Some people said that the sea in Xisha was half water and half fish so fishing boats seldom came back empty-handed. Fishing in Xisha was also a very interesting activity during the tourist season. The fat guy ran after the captain and kept shouting for fish until the captain reluctantly took out a huge mackerel from the fish hold and handed it to a subordinate while saying, “Cook it.”

The fat guy didn’t know what had happened to us recently and started cursing when he saw how gloomy and upset the captain looked, “Shit, it’s not like you’re not getting paid for it! You’d think I was trying to rob you or something!”

But when the fish head hotpot was served, it smelled so delicious that he and the captain both forgot about how upset they were. Even I was focused solely on filling my stomach. I never would have thought that a city boy like me would be dying to eat something like this. The fat guy was eyeing the pot greedily and swooped in with his chopsticks before it had even cooled down, swiping a piece of fish and putting it in his mouth even though it was hot enough to bring tears to his eyes.

The power of this hotpot was so powerful that all the newcomers gathered around, although I didn’t know if it was because they were hungry or not. Even Bald Zhang, who had been sleeping somewhere in the cabin below, came over and sniffed it. “That’s what’s good about Xisha. Whatever dishes you make with the fish here are so unique that you won’t be able to taste them anywhere else.”

The fat guy pulled him away with a curse, “You can suck up as much as you want but don’t spray your fucking saliva in it. It’s disgusting.”

Bald Zhang realized that he had never seen the fat guy before and hurriedly moved to shake hands with him while saying, “Ah, a new face! How may I address you?”

The fat guy was a very frank person. He looked at Bald Zhang before asking A Ning, “Who’s this bald guy?”

Bald Zhang’s face darkened when he heard this, and he said with forced politeness, “Please call me Mr. Zhang or Professor Zhang, ok?”

But the fat guy ignored him. A Ning saw that the atmosphere wasn’t good and quickly intervened, “I forgot to introduce you guys. This is Professor Zhang. He’s one of our consultants this time.”

The fat guy didn’t dare be too presumptuous when he heard that the other man was really a professor. He hurriedly shook hands with Bald Zhang and said, “Oh, I’m really sorry. I couldn’t tell that you were an intellectual and just said that without thinking. My name is Fatty Wang. I’m not an educated person so don’t take it to heart.”

Bald Zhang forced a smile on his face and said, “Educated and uneducated people are both human beings. Educated people are simply uneducated people who have changed. It’s just a matter of division of labor. Yes, different divisions of labor.”

Fatty didn’t understand what he was talking about, so he could only smile ingratiatingly. That Bald Zhang didn’t seem to know what topics were appropriate and ended up asking, “What kind of work does Mr. Wang do?”

Fatty froze for a moment, clearly feeling a little awkward, but he couldn’t be too rude in front of an intellectual so he said, “Well, to put it in layman’s terms, I actually work underground.”

When Bald Zhang heard this, he couldn’t help but be awestruck, “So you’re a public security officer! I apologize for my disrespectful behavior.”

As soon as I heard this, I hurriedly held back my laughter. This fucking Bald Zhang was too verbose. Fatty saw me smiling and glared at me menacingly before saying to Bald Zhang, “We can talk later. Come and have a taste first.” As he spoke, he motioned for the others to take up their chopsticks and start eating.

I ignored them all and focused on picking up a piece of fish with my chopsticks and putting it in my mouth. The taste was absolutely fucking amazing. I hadn’t even swallowed the first bite yet before I was picking up a second piece with my chopsticks.

Fatty took a few bites with a pleased expression on his face and then started shouting for wine. “These guys come out to catch fish so how could there be wine on board?” A Ning asked. Fatty didn’t believe her and ran to the ship’s cabin to look. After tossing things around for a while, he came out laughing while holding a jar of wine in his arms. The captain’s face turned pale with fright when he saw it and he immediately went up to grab it, saying that it was for the Dragon King.⁽¹⁾

Fatty became furious, “What nonsense are you talking about? If you gave the Dragon King such crappy wine, he’d definitely destroy your boat.” After saying that, he took a bottle of Erguotou⁽²⁾ from his bag and stuffed it into the captain’s hands, “Take it! Give the Dragon King a chance to taste something different! This is what we call a cultural wine exchange between north and south. You see this? It’s Red Star Erguotou. It’s good stuff so stop being fucking unreasonable.”

The captain stood frozen to the spot, not knowing what to do. Fatty took it as him agreeing to the exchange and tore open the seal, pouring everyone a glass. The wine was really good. It was a famous coconut wine from Limiao Township. As the wind carried away the remnants of the clouds, we ate and drank our fill until the moon was far above our heads.

Fatty finished the last sip of wine and belched before slapping his thighs and sitting up straight, “Everyone, now that we’re all full, it’s time to talk about serious things.”

<Chapter 43><Table of Contents><Chapter 45>　

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TN Notes:

(1) The Dragon King (also known as the Dragon God) is a Chinese water and weather god. The dragon king is the king of the dragons and he also controls all of the creatures in the sea. The dragon king gets his orders from the Jade Emperor. More info here.

(2) Chinese sorghum liquor. It’s available in various strengths, the average being 50% alcohol by volume or 100 proof. Bottles have a red star on them. More info here.

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Shew, we’re a third of the way through and still not in the tomb yet. I forgot how much buildup there was.