The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 166: Impersonate

He had already broken three fingers, and now it was impossible to run or struggle. If he tried to insert the pen into his brain again, he'd probably be knocked unconscious again, and nothing would change. The way things were going, the mark on his lower back would definitely be found.

After he spoke, Farmer reached for his clothes again, but Li Cu put up a struggle. He had a sudden flash of inspiration, waved his hand vigorously, and launched the night fishing light into the lake.

The light was very heavy and sank in an instant. Although the light was still on, and the water wasn't too deep, the lakebed was full of silt. That, coupled with the fact that the water was very muddy, made it difficult to see where it had fallen. There was only a strange faint halo on the water's surface.

"If you want to see so bad, I'll show you. Don't do it yourself." Li Cu said to Farmer, feeling at ease now that the situation had changed.

Farmer turned on his flashlight and Li Cu immediately pulled up his clothes. Farmer took a closer look with his flashlight, but there was really nothing there.

"Then what were you looking at just now?" Farmer asked. "You were being sneaky. You must be hiding something." He gave Li Cu a pat down, pulled the notebook from his pocket, and then opened it.

Most of the book was full of scribbles, and Farmer turned to Li Cu's latest record.

Since Li Cu's handwriting was already very poor, and the angle at which he was looking at his lower back was very awkward, he had copied it all very sloppily. Farmer asked him, "What's this mess?"

"Trigonometric functions." Li Cu answered him, "I'm thinking about what I learned in school. Math, if you want to be specific. I'm trying to see if I can remember it."

"Then what are you hiding?"

"I don't remember it very well, and I feel like I've already embarrassed myself enough here."

Farmer looked at Li Cu and read the notebook again: "Really? Don't try to deceive me just because I haven't read too many books."

Li Cu looked at Farmer, saw his confused eyes that were similar to how Li Cu's eyes looked during exam time, and couldn't help feeling jaded [1]. It turned out that these people weren't all brilliant students. Based on Farmer's situation, it appeared he was one of the lowest ranking students in the class, just like Li Cu.

"Take the notebook if you want, and have someone look at it." Li Cu said, "There must be someone who would know what it is."

Farmer returned the notebook to Li Cu. "No, you can continue fishing."

Li Cu was really relieved when Farmer turned to leave. He tried to hide his reaction, knowing that as long as his shoulders relaxed, his body language would become obvious. He was worried that the other party was waiting for this moment.

Farmer didn't turn back, and Li Cu slowly lowered his guard, feeling his lips trembling and his knees going weak.

At this time, however, Farmer stopped and turned his head.

"What are you staring at me for?" Farmer walked back again, "I still think there's something wrong. You really aren't hiding anything?"

Li Cu used all his strength to shake his head. Farmer approached him and urged, "But you look nervous. Is it really necessary to be so nervous? You seemed awfully calm taking a shit in public."

Li Cu bit his lower lip. He knew that it was impossible to stop his lips from trembling at this time, so he just let it go. He knew that the trick to lying right now was to highlight his emotions: "I'm a little scared. The light fell in."

Li Cu pointed to the lake: "My light fell in, so I can't go fishing. Your boss lent it to me. Since I'm like this, I can't go down and get it. He already broke three of my fingers, so I don't know how to tell him about it."

"I heard you had the upper hand." Farmer replied.

Li Cu said: "It was different then. Why don't you help me out, or I'll tell him that you did it."

Farmer's face changed. He gave a "tsk", jumped into the muddy lake, fished up the light for Li Cu, shook it until it was clean, and then threw it to him. The light was still on, and he said to Li Cu, "Go back early tonight. I'll be watching you from over there, so call me when you're done."

Li Cu nodded and looked at the light in relief. He didn't look back at Farmer's departure this time, but set up the floating light and cast a line.

Farmer left a muddy trail as he made his way back to the place where he had been standing before. He saw Leader and Merchant hiding in the darkness, all dressed in black.

Farmer patted the water droplets from his body and made a sign to Leader showing that he wasn't very optimistic. "The boy's been contaminated."

"It doesn't matter. In this place, whether he's contaminated or not isn't harmful to us. And the person who contaminated him should be dead by now." Leader continued: "We can't let him know what we've discovered. We can give him instructions and design it in such a way that he'll act according to our will."

"Impersonate Wu Xie's orders?" Farmer asked.

Leader nodded: "Yes, but we don't know what systems Wu Xie has set up. Don't make any moves until we find out. For convenience, we'll set up a spokesperson for Wu Xie, someone who can contact him directly."

"Who's the most suitable?"

"Why exactly was Wang Xiaoyuan trying to get close to him?" Leader asked, "Do you know why?"

"Because of her brother's whereabouts. That incident in Motuo four years ago." Farmer said. "She should be trustworthy, she's one of us."

"Talk to her, and tell her to contact Li Cu. Tell her that as long as Li Cu believes she was sent by Wu Xie, we'll allow her to investigate her brother's affairs." Leader said.

Farmer pointed to Li Cu: "This kid probably wants to calculate the longitude and latitude here. What should we do?"

"He can't send it out. This place is much bigger than he thinks. But Wu Xie still has a lot of chess pieces on the board, so think of this as an opportunity." Leader turned to leave, took a few steps, and then said to Farmer, "Watch him. This brat isn't very controllable. I'm even more worried now that he's being quiet."

When Farmer nodded, Leader and Merchant quickly left. He thought about what Leader had just said and sneered, feeling that Wu Xie had exhausted himself in many places. It seemed that he couldn't maintain the same level throughout all aspects of such a big plan.

Although Wu Xie's attack had caught them off guard at first, now that the clues were clear, the effects of their counterattack were already very obvious.

He touched the mud on his body, smacked the bugs off, and looked up at Li Cu, suddenly feeling like something was wrong.

He narrowed his eyes and looked carefully, instantly finding that Li Cu was no longer in his wheelchair.

"Damn it!" He jumped up and looked around, but couldn't see Li Cu at all. He rushed up to Li Cu's wheelchair, pulled out his cell-phone, and broke out in a cold sweat. 

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Note:

[1] The text actually said he had black lines on his face (like they do in anime) but I couldn't work that into the sentence without it sounding weird.