The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 167: Completely Disappeared

In the twenty-third year of the Wang family's calendar, Li Cu disappeared from his wheelchair by the lake, and never appeared again.

This was something the Wang family had never encountered in its entire history. An outsider, in the core area of the Wang family's huge closed system of heavy protection, had disappeared like steam right from under the noses of those supervising him. The whole process of his disappearance should have taken no more than three minutes. They closed all the exits, and combed through every corner over and over again, but didn't find any clues.

For the Wang family members who had been around Li Cu, this was a huge disaster. It was the loss of the family's important property, and the emergence of unknown factors.

This became a turning point. As a result, the area that had been in operation for hundreds of years had suddenly become extremely unsafe. The cautious Wang family was forced to uproot itself and start a new round of migration and construction. The trust within the Wang family had finally broken down from its previous absolute stability.

There were no signs proving that Li Cu had used a tracker, and his knee injury was confirmed to be absolutely true. He was unable to walk on his own, three of his fingers were broken, and his skull was defective. They wracked their brains, but still couldn't figure out where he had gone.

The only explanation was that there was a mole.

Within this family system at the top of the food chain, it was absolutely terrible that spies had unexpectedly appeared.

As the Wang family began their migration, an investigation and cleansing of the ranks began. The previously hidden conflicts between the family systems gradually came to light.

Meanwhile, those in the Wang family who had power began taking a fresh look at Wu Xie. They began searching for his body, but found nothing.

Li Cu, Xie Yuhua, and Wu Xie. These three people, as if they had never appeared in this world, became legendary figures.

As a result of Wu Xie's judgments and calculations, a myth gradually emerged, and a strange atmosphere began to pervade. The Wang family had been a hunter for centuries, but now they felt the fear of being hunted for the first time.

The chaos in the sand sea still continued. Yang Hao was trapped in Huo Dao Fu's team, and could only learn to become like the people around him in order to survive. Liang Wan was still under the sand sea, her current situation unknown. There were more and more teams entering beneath the sand sea every day, where death and fighting occurred endlessly.

Su Wan returned to Beijing. Under Black Glasses' protection, he began to understand the ins and outs of some things. While thinking about these problems, he worried for his friends.

He learned how to distinguish the identities of the various people around him, and began to feel like someone was watching him all the time, waiting for him to meet his friends.

Great changes were taking place among all the forces, and the people within them. Those with ordinary lives wouldn't feel that some deep-rooted forces were undergoing the biggest shake-up in centuries.

These changes were intense and exciting, but they were only one among thousands of other stories. Time fermented everything from before, and it was already a year later when these people took action again and began making more connections.

Wu Xie's plan was still moving forward. He had exposed all the parts that others could understand, and left behind some truly amazing moves that hadn't been fully revealed yet.

The shop near West Lake had been closed for a long time, and there were five or six unpaid electric bills, which were covered in dust. When the boss next door played chess, he always talked about the strangeness of that shop, the young man who wasn't very good at doing business, and his cheap partner. With the exception of the dust outside, the whole aura of the shop changed as one cycle of the four seasons passed by.

No one stopped in front of the shop, and it gradually became a part of the background, no longer an accessible world like it once was.

During the Chinese New Year, the boss next door changed the New Year couplet for the shop and set off firecrackers. The former partner gathered a dozen people outside the shop, sat on the steps, drank white wine, and ate small dishes. For Master Three, Little Master Three, Pan Zi, and those brothers whom they had lost before, they tried to create a lively atmosphere.

They may not want to open the shop again, but they really missed those days.

Xie Yuhua's large house was empty, but his old comrades didn't dare show a trace of nostalgia for the Xie family. The somber and desolate situation in Beijing was even more apparent with the wealth in front of them. After the first family feast of the new year, they all put two wine glasses on their tea tables, and silently drank a few glasses in the heavy snow.

Wu Yi Qiong [1] looked at the door of his house on New Year's Eve and watched it all night long. He warmed the cooled dishes, warmed the cooled wine, and did it over and over again until dawn. On the morning of the first day of the new year, he went out to buy vegetables. New Year's food was very expensive, and wasn't particularly fresh, but he still chose to buy it anyways. He knew that he still had to cook a table full of dishes his son liked to eat at night; otherwise he wouldn't feel at ease.

The Huo family's New Year's Eve dinner was full of lights, wine, and excitement. The two brothers exchanged words with each other during the dinner, but the atmosphere was strange, and there was a kind of morbid glee. The men were smiling as their eyes kept inadvertently moving to the family photo on the wall. The missing girl smiled sweetly from above, clutching the hands of her two elder brothers. But now it seemed as if the two men had completely forgotten those days.

Su Wan was home for New Year's Eve, so his father drove him to the glasses shop where Black Glasses was quietly listening to the Spring Festival Gala on the sofa. They stayed for a while, talking and laughing, but Black Glasses never turned his head to look at them. Yang Hao didn't go home for the New Year. He was on the outskirts of Beijing, soaking in a hot spring with Huo Dao Fu, and listening to the fireworks go off all over the city while hugging a young lady.

In the light and shadows, Li Cu's home was empty. The phone rang from time to time, but no one answered.

"The flowers have told me how you once walked by

The earth knew every thought in your heart

Sweet dreams no one will miss

Finally ushered in this happy moment of today

We have walked through thousands of rivers and mountains

Every meeting and smile engraved in our hearts.

On those sunny and joyous days

Hand in hand, with so much to say

Starlight scattered throughout my childhood

Wind and rain have traveled to all corners of the world

The same feeling gave us the same desire

The same joy gave us the same song

The sunlight permeates every language

Spring brings friendly stories and legends

The same feeling gives us the same desire

The same joy gives us the same song. " [2]

The last song sounded on the TV, and Su Wan listened carefully to the lyrics for the first time, in a trance. He suddenly felt as if there were some scenes flashing uncontrollably in front of him.

In that same moment, as the time approached, the distant breathing of the young man in the darkness was getting heavier and heavier. In this deep underground space, the passage of time seemed imperceptible, and even he felt a little different.

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Notes:

[1] Wu Xie's dad.

[2] The name of this song is "The Same Song". It's the theme song of the flagship program of the China Central Television music channel.