The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 32: Yangshi Lei (Part II)

I looked at the drawings and understood their intentions, "Are you going to find this ancient building?"

Pink Shirt nodded and I frowned. I still remembered what the old woman had said to me. They probably hadn't found the exact location of the building yet, so why were they suddenly going?

"Have you found the location?"

Pink Shirt looked at the old woman, as if to ask for permission, and she nodded and said, "Tell them."

Pink Shirt told Xiuxiu to turn on the lights and then said, "Yes, because your experience in Guangxi inspired us."

With that, he took out a complete drawing of the building and showed it to us.

Fatty slipped the seal into his clothes and brought the drawing closer. I found that it was a diagram of the entire "Zhang Jialou" structure, which had been reconstructed using modern software and the Yangshi Lei drawings.

When I looked at the picture and smelled the familiar ink, I immediately remembered the times when I had stayed up all night drawing in university. Life was pretty simple back in those days, but now that this thing appeared in such a place, it made me really uncomfortable.

Pink Shirt said, "This is the structural diagram that we asked someone to restore based on the Yangshi Lei patterns. You may not understand the details, but it doesn't matter. I'll explain." He began to explain the symbols for the others, but I was so familiar with these things that I naturally didn't need to listen. Within a few seconds, I already had a general understanding of this building.

It can be said that the whole thing was a stocky and solid wood and stone structure that was typical for that time period. I had seen the Yangshi Lei pattern of each floor hastily before so I wasn't very familiar with it, but now that they were using the drawing software to recreate all seven floors on a piece of paper in a familiar way, the shape of the building was almost clear at a glance.

Xiao Hua pointed to some of them and said, "Look, this is the top of the building. Isn't it the Zhang Jialou you saw at the bottom of the lake in Banai?"

I didn't need him to point it out as I had already discovered it myself, but I was still surprised and quickly nodded while thinking, no way.

He said, "When I heard you say Zhang Jialou, I knew this would be the result. And when I heard you say iron corpse, I was even more certain. Zhang Jialou is underwater, and part of it is buried under the mountain. Look here again." He pointed to several parts of the drawing. "You can see that the first and second layers of the prototype are very different from the following layers. The first and second layers are more like towers than buildings, while the parts connecting the first and second layers and the following layers lack a lot of design."

"What do you mean?"

"The first and second floors of the Zhang Jialou are separated from the remaining floors. They're aboveground and lead to the remaining floors buried deep in the mountain through tunnels. Because of the size of the project, I believe those floors should be hidden in the mountain near the lake. We just have to find them."

"We? You have so much experience that you should be familiar enough with it."

Pink Shirt said, "This is definitely a big tomb. You won't come back empty-handed. It's always been our practice to divide the tomb equally when working together."

"At this point, you think I still care about money? You shitty bastard, I can tell at a glance that it's too dangerous." I said. "Is there even a chance of coming out alive?"

"Are you so unsure of your skill?" Pink Shirt asked. "The places you went to before weren't good either."

I told myself that it was different. I knew the danger in those places, but many things happened before I went, so my trips were inevitable. And even after going on one adventure after another, the answer to the puzzle was still drawing me in deeper and deeper. I had made it to this point, but I really couldn't muster up the courage to do it again.

Most of the time, even if you yearned for something, you would slowly lose momentum if you delayed too long. Even though I knew this place might be very critical and may be an indispensable piece of the puzzle, my first reaction was to refuse.

Pink Shirt saw that I was being difficult and looked to the old woman, who said, "Don't refuse so quickly. Think it over. As long as you find the building, I'll immediately tell you everything."

"You can tell me first." I said.

The old woman shook her head. "You're Old Dog Wu's grandson. I don't trust your character. It's your family's tradition to go back on their word."

I shook my head: "Sorry. You don't trust me, and I don't trust you."

The old woman sighed and said, "Even if you say you won't go, you're only representing your own thoughts. What about you?" She unexpectedly looked at Poker-face.

Fatty immediately said, "The three of us are of one mind and will advance and retreat together. We definitely won't be provoked by you. But like Mr. Naïve said, your sincerity isn't enough."

The old woman smiled, "It's not an issue of money, but whether you want to go or not."

I told myself that Fatty was merely stirring up trouble. I wouldn't easily agree this time, but just as I was about to shake my head and refuse again, I heard Poker-face suddenly say, "I'll go."

I was surprised, and as soon as I glanced back, I saw Poker-face looking at us. Fatty and I looked at each other and couldn't believe our ears. Just as I was about to speak, the old woman said, "Ok, one is coming."

I was a little angry and couldn't respond. At that moment, it felt as if things were out of my control. I wanted to refuse, but I immediately realized that I had no right to say no, and it was up to the others to decide what they wanted to do.

I felt very uncomfortable as the old woman asked Fatty and me, "How about you?"

"I'll go too!" Fatty said immediately. I was angry beyond belief and looked at him incredulously. Fuck, who said that the three of us had one mind just now? Fatty immediately leaned in and whispered in my ear: "Damn it, Little Brother already agreed. If you don't, he'll change hands and then it'll be difficult for you to find him."

Shit, if I thought about it, saying no at this time was tantamount to just quitting the game.

"How about you?" The old woman looked at me and asked again. "Hurry up and decide, we're running out of time."

"All right," I said, "But I'll say this first: if it's too dangerous, we'll quit."

The old woman clapped her hands and Pink Shirt said, "Then welcome to the group. I'll tell you where we're going. We leave in three days."