The Lost Tomb Vol. 8

Chapter 13: Proposal for Cooperation

I almost ran out of the house and it took me a few minutes to recover from the disgusting scene.

Qiu Dekao was behind me and handed me a bottle of beer and I calmed down after several sips.

"Do you feel anything?" He asked.

I looked at him and didn't know what he was asking. He said: "I'm sorry, Chinese people like to beat around the bush, and I've been somewhat influenced by them over the years, and have picked up some bad habits. What I mean to say is, do you want to cooperate?"

"Cooperate?"

"I also don't have much time, and then it will be your world. I'm always an outsider in this land, and can't get any favorable connections so cooperation has always been my choice. You can consider my proposal." Qiu Dekao said.

"You don't need to sound so grandiose. I know what you mean." I said, "What do you want?"

"We all know that four hours into the journey, there is a door. But no matter what method is used, we can't break through. I can provide all the information to you." Qiu Dekao said, "There is only one condition—you must take one of my men in."

I thought for a moment. Pan Zi seemed to want to refuse, so I immediately grabbed him: "Wait a minute, I think it's acceptable."

"Master Three, they're all thugs. We don't need their information; this condition is of no value to us. "

"Not necessarily." I said, "Since Mr. Qiu said before that he never makes impossible deals, he must have great confidence in his terms. His information should be different from what we thought."

Qiu Dekao nodded: "My idea is not that simple. The reason why I want to propose this cooperation is that I don't want you to make unnecessary sacrifices. Without this information, at least one of you will die on this four hour journey. "

"That's because you're useless." Pan Zi said.

Qiu Dekao smiled and shook his head and said, "Well, you won't believe anything I say anyway. You have to go in to find out what kind of place this ancient building is. I'll prepare four coffins and wait for you to sit down and talk again. "

The conversation ended in discord and Pan Zi gave me a wink. In fact, I really wanted to cooperate, but what Pan Zi said was also reasonable. I had to nod, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, Mr. Qiu, you go on ahead."

Pan Zi and I sat by the stream, pondering what the old foreigner said and what we saw. Pan Zi said: "It seems that this Zhangjia ancient building is extremely strange. I thought that after all the trouble they had been making outside, Qiu Dekao and his men were able to enter the building. Unexpectedly, so many people died in so many days that they couldn't even find it."

"Are you sure this ancient building must be in the mountains?" I asked.

"There have been many legends about Shiwan Dashan since ancient times, but only the legend of the Ming Dynasty fire is here, and many things have happened in modern times. In the past 100 years, I don't know how many people have entered this remote mountain village. These people must have a purpose, and there must be a lot of clues to the Zhangjia ancient building in these mountains. But I thought you were so distracted just now that you almost blew your cover. Did you think of something?"

I looked into the distance in the dark—there was a huge no-man's-land deep in the mountains and forests.

I lit a cigarette and matched the terrible patient I just saw with the shadow I saw in Agui's house and Brother Chu's photo before. I told Pan Zi, "This is definitely not a coincidence. I think there is a possibility that the shadow and the person we just saw may be of the same nature."