Chapter 29 Epilogue

The friend who spoke was my senior, but we weren’t very close. We usually just hung out with the same group of people and got along well. It was a friendship between gentlemen—the kind where you helped each other out when needed—rather than a friendship where you stuck close together. I had asked him for help at that time because he did a lot of technological work. Of course, as an antique dealer, I had nothing in common with him and didn’t even really know what he did.

But after hearing his theory about there being eleven people, I had a sudden realization. My whole body suddenly broke out in a cold sweat and even my face turned pale.

That’s right, why the hell didn’t I think of that?

In those days, there were no point-and-shoot cameras,⁽¹⁾ and there certainly wouldn’t have been a photo studio in a fishing village in Hainan. So, the only people who knew how to use a camera would have been the members of the archaeological team. I didn’t have to think about it for long before I realized that what he had said made a lot of sense—after all, when I looked through the archaeological records from Xisha, I did see some photos. Generally, in situations like these, someone would tag along with the expedition team in order to promote and publicize it.

But why did Uncle Three always say that there were only ten people in the archeological team, and never mentioned the eleventh person? Did the photographer not go out to sea with them, or was Uncle Three hiding something else from me?

Seeing the look on my face, everyone burst out laughing, and the guy said to me, “Forget it. Stop thinking about it. If you want to find out how many people there really were, just visit their old institute. Archaeological research institutes generally fall under the purview of the Ministry of Culture, so as long as you know which institute sent them on that expedition, you should be able to find what you need. Most of the archives in our country are stored indefinitely, so the files should still be there.”

I didn’t bother responding. This was just a guess anyways. If I had the time, then I would check it out, but what if there really were eleven people? How would that affect the credibility of Uncle Three’s story? Would it completely overthrow it, thus making him a liar? The thought was so painful that I decided not to look into it in the end.

<Chapter 28><Table of Contents><Part II: Chapter 30>

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TN Notes:

(1) A point-and-shoot camera, also known as a compact camera, is a still camera (either film or digital) designed primarily for simple operation. Most use focus free lenses or autofocus for focusing, automatic systems for setting the exposure options, and have flash units built in.

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Hot damn, now that’s my kinda chapter lol. I know it says epilogue but it’s more of an epilogue for Part 1 (aka Uncle Three’s story) than the actual book (just in case anyone was confused). I’m going to the lake this weekend so my mini streak ends here. Next update might be Monday or Tuesday unless a miracle happens.