Chapter 4 Continue to Track

After the group bought their tickets, they immediately entered the scenic spot. We carefully followed them from a distance.

We were afraid that they would discover us since there was no one else around so we quickly hid behind some bushes. Our new position was both painful and itchy because the sharp weeds and bushes kept scratching and poking us. After a while, we were already feeling a little overwhelmed with the whole situation.

Although we were at the foot of Snake Head Mountain, we had actually already entered within its boundaries. Several of the paths leading to the tourist spots were paved with stone so it wasn’t difficult to walk at all. These paths wound around the mountainous terrain, revealing mountain streams on one side and carvings of many famous people on the cliffs on the other side. The scenery was beautiful, but the group we were following kept walking without stopping to look at any of it, almost as if they weren’t interested in the mountain scenery at all.

I had been in good shape recently so I didn’t feel much as we continued walking along. Lao Yang, however, had no time to exercise since he was in prison so his cardiorespiratory system wasn’t as good as mine. After a while, he was obviously exhausted and started gasping for breath.

The mountains became quieter and quieter so we didn’t dare speak and just continued to follow them silently until it became dark out. The group finally came to a stop when the moon was halfway across the sky.

We crouched down behind some bushes in the distance and watched them. At this time, Lao Yang tugged on my arm. I looked back at him and saw that he was pale and sweating profusely. Knowing that he couldn’t hold out any longer, I gave him some water and told him to rest for a bit.

As Lao Yang gasped for breath, he said to me, “O-O-Old Wu, I think that’s enough. L-let’s just forget it. They’ll steal whatever they find, and we’ll steal whatever we find. I’ll die if we keep following them.”

I was more or less fine, so when I heard him say this, I immediately became upset and quietly swore, “Shit, you’ve only been in prison for three years. How are you so useless? And now you say you want to stop following them… Won’t that mean everything we just went through was all in vain? Suck it up and hang in there.”

“How much longer do you think it’ll take to get wherever they’re going?” Lao Yang asked. “Did they stop because they reached the right spot?”

I looked at the group and said, “No, we’re not deep enough into the mountains yet. There’s still a long way to go if we want to cross the mountain. I guess they’re tired and decided to take a rest. You see? They made a fire. It looks like they’re going to stay here for the night. Let’s not waste any time either. We’ll eat first and then get some sleep.”

We also settled down in the grass, but unfortunately, we couldn’t light a fire in the middle of the night because they would discover us right away. We couldn’t dry our sweat-soaked clothes and shoes, nor could we warm up our dry rations, so we had to make do with cold food and damp clothes. Lao Yang sighed and started complaining about how bad my idea was.

I was also regretting it right now and feeling a little upset, but I didn’t want to hear it from him. I’m the one who came here to help you with this nonsense, I secretly scolded him. If you can’t stand this much, then we should just go back. Otherwise, we’ll probably have to flee if we go further into the mountains.

Lao Yang was depressed for a long time, but then he suddenly said, “Wait, Old Wu, it’s not a good idea for us to f-follow them passively like this. We don’t know whether they’re going to cross the mountain or not. If they just head straight for the woods along the top of the mountain, we’ll really be screwed.”

I tensed up when I realized that he was right. I had been taking it for granted that anyone who entered the mountain was going to cross it, but if these people really didn’t plan on crossing the mountain and wanted to wander around the area instead, wouldn’t our whole plan be ruined?

This really was a problem. After all, it wasn’t like we could go up and ask them where they were going. I looked at the fire burning off in the distance, lost in thought.

Lao Yang saw that I had no idea what to do either and sighed heavily. After thinking for a moment, he said that we’d be screwed if it were up to me so it was better to depend on him. He would get closer and try to eavesdrop on those people’s conversation. Now that they were in the mountains, they probably wouldn’t be as cautious when discussing their plans.

I told him that I had no argument with that, but I didn’t trust him on his own so I followed after him.

We stealthily crept closer, but it was so quiet in the mountains that we didn’t have to walk far before we could hear their voices. Lao Yang grabbed me and motioned that we should hide where we were; there was no need to go any further.

I nodded, and the two of us crouched down and held our breaths as we listened to them laughing. To our surprise, there were two people in the group who had strong Cantonese accents.

It was really odd—I had never heard of any Cantonese people doing this line of work.

Everyone in the group was talking and laughing amongst themselves when we heard a young voice say, “Uncle Tai, give us an estimate. How long will it take to get there? After all that walking today, I feel like my legs are going to fall off.”

A hoarse voice replied, “I told you to exercise more before you came here. All you know how to do is fucking eat, drink, whore around, gamble, and spend time with women. You’re bound to suffer this time. Let me tell you, it’ll take two days to cross Snake Head Mountain if you follow the roads. But if the roads are impassible, then I can’t say for sure. If you can’t stand it anymore, just go back down the mountain right now. Don’t slow us down.”

The young man was obviously a little intimidated by Uncle Tai and said, “I may have been a little distracted recently, but don’t you worry. Once this deal is done, we won’t have to come back to these mountain valleys anymore. We can follow Boss Wang and Boss Li to Hong Kong and live like high society people, right?”

One of the men with a Cantonese accent said, “Yes, yes, that’s no problem at all! We’ve already agreed that as long as you guys get things done, we’ll pay you as much as you want. This is the deal of a lifetime; everyone can retire when it’s done. At that time, the whole colorful world of Hong Kong will be open to us. There will be plenty of places to spend a lot of money. It’ll definitely make all this hard work worth it.”

“Boss Li,” Uncle Tai said, “it’s too early to say such pretty words. We don’t know for sure if there is such a tomb, and all we have is your promise. What if it’s fake information, and there’s nothing there?”

“Aiya,” Boss Li replied. “I say, Old Tai, you’re too skeptical. We’ve been working together for so long. When have I ever failed you? To tell you the truth, as long as we make it to the right place, you guys won’t even want to dig up Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s tomb.”⁽¹⁾

Uncle Tai obviously didn’t like listening to such sweet talk and sneered, “I don’t believe it. Don’t be so quick to promise if you can’t deliver. But now that you mention it, we’ve worked together for a long time but I still don’t know where you got this information from. This is the last time. If you don’t have anything to hide, hurry up and tell us what you know.”

“Yeah, tell us!” The young man immediately chimed in. “Then I’ll be able to brag about it in front of women!”

Boss Li smiled and replied, “Aiya, you two…really…If you guys really want to know, then I can tell you. But I’m afraid you won’t believe it.”

<Chapter 3><Table of Contents><Chapter 5>

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TN Notes:

(1) Reminder: Qin Shi Huang, or Shi Huangdi, was the founder of the Qin dynasty, and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of “king” borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty from 221 to 210 BCE. Here’s info on his tomb (most of which hasn’t been excavated yet).

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Raws of next chapter are 7.5 pages (this was 2.5). Kill me now. Next update will be in a few days I guess. Til whenever~~