The Lost Tomb : Extras & Special Stories

Extra Story: The Wu Family Snippets

"Just come with us. It's rare that we get to go back to our old home. The elders at home also miss us a lot." Wu Yiqiong looked at Wu Sanxing pleadingly. "Let bygones be bygones."

"Big Brother, stop talking. If they don't give us the land we should've owned, I won't bother visiting them." Wu Sanxing took a sip of tea.

Wu Yiqiong looked at Wu Erbai helplessly, and the latter snorted, "Third Brother, how about we make a deal?"

"Do tell." Wu Sanxing secretly smiled. Just as I expected, Second Brother fell right into my trap as well.

Wu Erbai lit an incense stick and put it in the incense holder. "You know that room in our ancestor's mansion, the one that was sealed by bricks? Haven't you always wanted to know what's in it?"

Wu Sanxing smiled after hearing this. "If I go with you, will you tell me how to enter the room?"

"Deal."

"I'll be angry if you're lying to me."

"What the hell is going on? What room? Why didn't I understand a word you two said?" Wu Yiqiong asked Wu Erbai when they walked out of the house.

Wu Erbai grabbed a handful of rice and fed the chickens in his yard. "Unlike me and Sanxing who were always running around, you were too honest when you were a kid. The original owner of our old mansion was very strange. There are some places in that mansion that are invisible to ordinary people."

*****

Changsha Mountains.

"You just fell asleep." Wu Yiqiong was clutching the car's door handle with all his might.

"I did not," Wu Sanxing said.

"Where's the right-side mirror then?"

"It's where it's supposed to be."

"Bullshit! It was hit by a pickup truck just now and fell off!"

"It's fine. I don't usually back up anyways.

"You're always so careless. When are you going to grow up?"

"It's not a big deal."

*****

"Was our sister-in-law fine with you not bringing her along?" Wu Erbai started making tea. "She didn't look happy to me."

"She doesn't like the countryside anyway. It's just that Little Xie has gone to college, so she's not used to it. She'll get better." Wu Yiqiong said. He looked at Wu Sanxing, who was trying to hitchhike. His old Audi had hit an old locust tree and was still smoking.

"What's that?" Wu Yiqiong pointed to the old locust tree.

Wu Erbai stood up and walked over to the tree. The bark had cracked, and something strange had been exposed. "This...." He leaned over and pulled out something, "Iron sand."

"Eh, why is there iron sand in the bark?"

"The old tree is blooming. It was planted by Chang Tieshu [1]."

"Who's that?"

"He's the one who sold the house to our old man."

"We've known since we were five that the trees in our house have iron sand in them. In the past, Chang Tieshu planted a lot of trees. He got his nickname because he used to stuff iron sand in the bark."

"Why did he do that? What's the point?"

"The idiom 'the iron tree blossoms' can mean that things are difficult to achieve. The old man said that he suspected Chang Tieshu was trying to do something really difficult, but failed in the end."