The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 16: Archaeological Teams, Buildings, and Mirrors

Faced with the old woman's strange expression, I gave a brief account of my experience in Guangxi, and also told her how I got my Yangshi Lei drawing.

After hearing this, the old woman sighed, "This is also a coincidence. I couldn't find it, but I didn't expect the last one would be in that place. If you hadn't found it, I'm afraid I never would have found it in my lifetime."

I nodded. I hadn't known whether these old files would be preserved for decades, but even if they were still there, it was getting close to the time when they were regularly destroyed. If I hadn't seen it by mistake, it would have really been unique. It was obviously fated to be.

I thought for a moment and then continued, "If so, then I think the archaeological team I found in Guangxi should be your daughter's."

She nodded: "I've been to Guangxi myself, why didn't I find these things?"

I said to myself, I made Father Pan Ma open up. It all depended on Poker-face's piece of rotten iron. If not for Brother Chu's breakthrough, I wouldn't have found any information over there either. It wasn't surprising her staff didn't find anything considering the secret was under the lake.

But this wasn't what I cared about, because I clearly remembered Pan Ma's story. The archaeological team had been killed and replaced. In this way, her daughter probably became the bones we fished up.

I didn't know whether I should mention this matter to her or not. It wasn't out of fear of irritating her— I believed the old woman wasn't that vulnerable— but I was afraid of affecting her mood.

At the same time, many fragments in my heart started to connect. I seemed to have gotten some strange clues, which I immediately wanted to prove. If I was right, then I might have finally cracked this thing wide open, so I immediately asked her, "If you can, can you give me some of the information about the archaeological team you found at that time? I couldn't find it in the reference room, and the matter I'm looking into may also have something to do with your daughter. I'll immediately send someone to deliver the Yangshi Lei."

"I have a large portfolio of those materials, but most of them are useless. You can ask me what you want to know now." Granny Huo's eyes suddenly softened a lot. "What are you looking for, and how did you find that piece?"

"It's a long story. Please answer some of my questions first. If they are what I think they are, then we may be looking at the same thing."

The old woman looked at me and still seemed to be a little confused: "Ok, ask."

"You should have checked your daughter's whereabouts. Is her disappearance related to an archaeological activity in Xisha?"

As soon as I finished speaking, the old woman's face changed: "How did you know?"

I didn't give her a chance to ask another question before I immediately asked, "If I've guessed right, the rules in your family are that all girls should have the surname Huo, yes?"

She was a little surprised and nodded, "Why?"

"Then, isn't your missing daughter Huo Ling?" I calmly asked. "L-I-N-G, Ling?" [1]

*****************************

Note:

[1] There are many characters pronounced as "Ling", so Wu Xie was just trying to make sure they were talking about the same person. The raw had "王 (Wang)—令 (Ling)—玲 (Ling)" and those 1st 2 characters kind of merge to make the last "Ling" character.