Chapter 22 Burial Ditch

If I hadn’t fallen and injured myself, I might have told them we should go and take a look. But as I peered deep into the darkness in the distance, I decided to keep my mouth shut. Fatty, on the other hand, didn’t seem to feel my hesitancy and said, “You have a point. Where are they going? I say we go and take a look. The river isn’t that long anyway.”

Pan Zi immediately shook his head in disagreement, “We can’t waste any more time. Plus, Little Master Three is injured. If something else happens, he won’t be able to run away. There’s no point in wasting our energy here. Besides, we still don’t even know what Master Three’s message means. Instead of looking for trouble, let’s take this opportunity to think about where the entrance to the underground palace is, especially now that those strange birds don’t seem to be flying down here.”

This was exactly what I wanted to do, so I immediately nodded. Then I coughed a few times to show that I was seriously injured. Shunzi didn’t agree or disagree, instead choosing to keep his mouth shut. Fatty gave us an annoyed look but eventually shrugged his shoulders and said, “Fine, whatever.”

Shunzi helped pull the two of them out of the burial ditch, and then we went back to the place where I had fallen. Pan Zi took out a lantern from his backpack and lit it to keep us warm. I did a quick calculation and found that I hadn’t eaten for almost a whole day. As if on cue, my stomach suddenly started to growl, so the four of us decided to sit down and eat.

But when we opened our equipment bags, we found that Chen Pi Ah Si and his team had been carrying most of our rations. The food we had brought with us obviously wasn’t enough, especially for Fatty—after the meal, there was basically nothing left to eat in his bag. But on the bright side, we had almost all of the equipment with us, such as ropes, grappling hooks, flares, and other supplies essential for the expedition.

Pan Zi looked at it all and said to us, “It seems that Chen Pi Ah Si was very clever when distributing the supplies among us—we carried all the equipment and they carried all the food. That way, neither side could take advantage of the other or run away by themselves. I can’t believe I didn’t notice.”

Fatty scoffed, “Then what the hell were you paying attention to? Fortunately, I wasn’t blindly relying on you and your Master Three. Every time I meet you guys, I always end up with a loss. I expected this the day I stepped foot on that train.”

Pan Zi spit in contempt, “We don’t need your fucking sarcasm right now. You’re not that great either. If you don’t drag us into some kind of trouble, then I’m the fucking Buddha.”

Afraid that they would start fighting, Shunzi quickly interrupted them, “Guys, if you have the strength to argue, then why don’t you hurry up and figure out the meaning of Master Three’s message?”

I patted Pan Zi on the shoulder, silently telling him to calm down, and then asked Shunzi, “When Uncle Three came to see you, what was the situation like? Can you tell us in more detail? That phrase is too vague. We haven’t even really entered the imperial tomb yet, so it’s hard to come up with any ideas.”

When I asked this, Fatty and Pan Zi immediately quieted down and looked at Shunzi.

Shunzi sat down with a frown and said, “It was about a month ago. At that time, I was also taking tourists up the mountain. Of course, they didn’t want to go as high up as you guys, so I just took them around and let them see the snow-capped mountains. Your Uncle Three was among those tourists. Later, when we stopped to spend the night on the mountain, he suddenly took me aside to talk. He was acting all mysterious and saying that he was going further up the mountain alone now, and told me not to tell anyone else. Then he gave me some money and asked me to wait for a man named Wu Xie at the foot of the mountain around this time. When you showed up, I was to take you guys into the mountains. As long as I could bring you guys to him, he said he’d give me a lot of money. It was at that time that he gave me this message. He emphasized that as long as you heard it, you’d understand it right away.”

“He really said that?” I asked.

Shunzi nodded, his expression very certain.

I found it a little odd. This seemed to emphasize the listener rather than the content of the phrase itself. As long as “I” heard it, I would be able to understand it right away. Was there something about me that set me apart from others?

“Then how did you know to tell us this only after getting rid of Chen Pi Ah Si and the others?” Fatty asked.

Shunzi smiled, showing a completely different expression from before, and said, “I’m no fool. Your Uncle Three told me how many people to expect and said that if the number was wrong, I would have to wait until you were alone to pass the message on. As soon as I saw you guys, I could tell that there was something wrong with the atmosphere between you, as if there were two different groups mixed together. At that time, I didn’t know what the situation was so I had to play dumb. After all, I had taken someone’s money, so I had to do my job well. It wouldn’t be good to interfere in your business.”

I looked at Shunzi’s expression and suddenly found a kind of cunningness there that made my heart clench. So all that honesty and simplicity I saw on our way up the mountain was fake? I thought to myself. This guy… you really can’t judge a book by its cover. No wonder he became calmer the further we went—he was just showing his true colors.

Pan Zi was more experienced with the ways of the world, so after hearing this, his expression darkened and he said, “It’s not that simple. I think there’s something else you’re not telling us.”

Shunzi smiled faintly, “I was a soldier here before I retired. I’ve walked all over these snowy mountains. My parents were native Koreans who fled across the border when war broke out and hid in the mountains for several years. There are many ancient legends about these mountains, and we encountered many strange things. Every year, countless people enter the mountains for various strange reasons. Even if you thought you were being sly, there’s no way I wouldn’t know that you were up to something. That’s why, when I saw that you guys wanted to go to the top of this mountain, I immediately guessed what you were trying to do.” He paused and gave me a meaningful look, “If it weren’t for that deal I made with your Uncle Three, I would have never let you guys go any further that that spot where the avalanche happened.”

Pan Zi looked at me and then at Fatty, completely speechless.

After sitting there quietly for a while, Pan Zi eventually took out a cigarette and handed it to Shunzi while saying, “Brother Shun, it seems we failed to recognize a great master. Now that we’re all clearly on the same team, how about a smoke?”

Instead of the taking the cigarette, Shunzi raised his head and said, “I’m a simple man, so let’s cut the bullshit. I’m not helping you guys because I like you; I’m helping you because I want money. Your Uncle Three promised me enough money for two lifetimes, so I have to bring you to him no matter what. You should hurry up and think about what that phrase means.”

Embarrassed by his rejection, Pan Zi put the cigarette in his own mouth and looked at me with a wry smile.

“Then repeat Uncle Three’s exact words to me,” I said to Shunzi.

Shunzi took a moment to recall before saying, “At that time, he seemed to say something along the lines of: ‘When Wu Xie arrives, tell him that the entrance to the underground palace is at the place where the Black Tortoise Rejects the Corpse’. And then when I asked him what it meant, he said that as long as you heard it, you would definitely know what it meant.”

I sighed, “It’s still unclear.” The key to the whole thing was me, but I obviously didn’t understand this phrase at all. Where the hell did Uncle Three get this confidence in me? Maybe he was just messing with me?

The three of them looked at me with hopeful eyes, but I just shook my head and sighed.

Fatty, seeing that I couldn’t figure it out, suddenly asked, “Maybe this message is related to something that happened in your family before? Something that only a member of the Wu family would know about?”

“Not likely,” I replied. “I know Uncle Three’s personality, and he’s not the type of person who would tell us a super complicated code and then leave us to guess the answer. Since he asked Shunzi to pass the message along, then the meaning of this phrase should be very clear. Something must have gone wrong—our thinking must have gone in the wrong direction.”

“But Master Three said that you would know it as soon as you heard it; he didn’t say that we would know it. So, it must be a secret code based on something you two have in common,” Pan Zi said. “Just think about what you guys have in common.”

I didn’t think it would work, but there was no other alternative at this time, so I spread my fingers and began to think.

Uncle Three and I actually didn’t have much in common, but I had to think of things that only applied to the two of us. Any commonality that we shared with Pan Zi and the others had to be excluded. For example, me and Uncle Three were both men, but Pan Zi was also a man so that couldn’t count. We were both also surnamed Wu, so that could count as one common factor, but it shouldn’t have anything to do with the secret meaning of that phrase.

Another thing we had in common was that we both acted like idiots whenever we saw women, but that was also rather vague. Plus, that was something he refused to admit even if he was being beat to death. Aside from these things, the only other thing we had in common was that we both lived in Hangzhou, and had made it our base of operations…

Wait! As soon as I thought of this, an idea suddenly popped into my head and everything started to click together.

“Black Tortoise Rejects the Corpse”—Uncle Three’s hint—Hangzhou—“I” would definitely understand—

I suddenly realized what this phrase actually meant!

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