The Lost Tomb : Ten Years Later

Chapter 2: Arrow

The road from Hangzhou was so familiar that I soon fell asleep. My tiredness was no longer the same as what it was back in the old days. It made people want to kneel down and never get up, as if they were being beaten down by the tide. Or maybe it was more like a chronic disease. You remembered it was there, but it didn't seem so important as long as you didn't think about it.

I had constantly been subtracting things during this whole affair, so that from the previously complicated things up until now, my only focus became my core purpose. I had asked myself more than once, "What do you want? Do you want answers, or do you want the people around you to be safe?"

I was going to end this now.

I would completely end the endless conspiracy that began thousands of years ago. It was for this reason that I had passed on the harm to innocent people these past few years.

As long as the result was good, I was willing to be the last one standing, just like Uncle Three. Even if it did bring self-loathing. The good news was, everything would be settled as long as we faced it head on. The city bus driver would only get off work when he finished his last route, but he could at least look at the scenery and listen to music during that time.

It had been a week since I arrived in Erdao Baihe. I had stretched the time out so that everyone could get enough rest and reduce their desires.

Erdao Baihe was very lively, and many young people had gathered here. It appeared Changbai Mountain Scenic Spot had some activities going on. Compared to the time when it had first started running, there were fewer and fewer uninhabited areas in China. More and more roads were being built, and everyone was flocking to the wilderness. If this continued, what Wang Zanghai wanted to hide so long ago probably wouldn't last long.

After the vanguard had their rest day, we went to the mountain. There was a hotel there called Changbai Pine, whose manager had a good relationship with us. Fatty directly arranged a temporary headquarters there, because there were too many people in our group, and Xiao Hua and the others were scattered to the nearby hotels. That night, more than thirty whole lambs were roasted for everyone to eat.

Summer in the north was cooler. In the open air of the farmhouse, the boss recommended we try the thorny buds and cinnamon fern shoots that could only be found in summer. Fatty found it strange and asked: "Aren't they weeds from the back of your shop? Can you eat them?"

"How can they be weeds? They're planted. They're always delicious." The boss was an older sister. "Don't talk nonsense when Big Brother comes back. If you're not careful, he'll cut you. He's the one that planted them."

"It's the era of a market economy, how can you cut customers?" Fatty didn't want to try them. After thinking about it, he decided not to eat them and took a lamb leg instead. The cumin and pepper had mixed with the roasted scent of the meat, which made me drool as I watched him eat it.

"Cutting customers is a feature of our farmhouse." Big Sister was happy. If she wasn't slightly fat, her curves would be even smoother than Mute Sister's. Fatty wiped the oil from his lips and said to me: "This big sister is married. Let's not eat here again. We'll change to another restaurant that has a younger girl."

"Does lamb make you more angry or something? If you're always aiming at others, you deserve to have Big Brother cut you." I was laughing as I watched Xiao Hua come in through the door. He was wearing a black leather jacket, carrying two bottles of wine, and asking why I was talking in a northeastern accent. After moving a stool over so he could sit down, Xiao Hua whispered, "The vanguard has found something."

With that said, he put something down on the table.

The table was a relatively crude, iron-footed table pressed out of cedar waste, and the stool was the plastic kind with a backrest that was commonly used in food stalls. Fatty had to push two together to sit down safely.

The thing he had put down was a strangely shaped arrow, which looked exactly the same as the arrow I had found in my grandfather's ashes. The arrow had been buried in Grandpa's body for so many years, yet he had never mentioned it to anyone. We suspected that it came from an unknown ancient tomb, which must have been related to the core secret.

I remember my own mental state when I saw Grandpa's ashes get put into the urn back then, so I was still a little depressed when I saw this arrow. The arrow was badly rusted and there were pieces of rotting veneer on it, which meant it must have been taken out of the woods. I looked at Xiao Hua, wanting to hear where he had found it.