The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 44: Parasite

His expression was full of innocence and even a little bit of sick pleasure. I was so shocked that I didn't react for a while, and it took me a full second before I thought to pull my leg back and see what he had done.

At first glance, I only saw my wound. There was blood, but the amount didn't seem to match what I would expect from a nicked vein. I moved my ankle a little bit, but there was no discomfort except for the pain from the wound itself.

When I looked at him doubtfully, I found that he was staring back at me quietly. I didn't know what the situation was, and I couldn't figure out which vein he had nicked.

I continued looking at him helplessly and saw him slowly reveal a mischievous smile. Just as I was feeling even more confused, he suddenly said, "I'm joking."

"Joking?"

He laughed and patted me on the shoulder before handing over the water so I could wash the wound myself. "Your life must be very boring."

I slowly started to understand what he meant. I wasn't angry. In fact, I actually thought it was pretty funny myself and thought, what qualifications do you have to teach me? It doesn't look like you've lived a happy life either.

But this did make me feel better about him. Although I didn't think there was a problem with him at first, our two backgrounds were so similar that I could understand what kind of person he was most likely to be (or forced to be) under that kind of life experience. I was sure that even I would have such a character if I had to go through that.

This was the only similarity I had found out of all the people I had met up to now in the grave robbing business. Fatty, Poker-face, Pan Zi, Uncle Three, and all the others did things in an extremely utilitarian (not totally utilitarian) manner, but they didn't have the artist's mind of "doing something that has nothing to do with real life, which nobody can understand."

Xiao Hua's joke was a little illogical and completely meaningless, which was why I couldn't react at first. Grave robbers usually always said something practical, not something like this, so his joke made me realize that he was different.

Maybe it was because he was an opera singer.

I was reminded of a funny story I had heard before about the Mystic Nine's Er Ye. The extremely heroic and childlike Er Ye was probably the most lovable person in the Mystic Nine.

After treating the wound, I put countless band-aids on it, which made my whole foot look like a post-modern art piece. As I was putting my socks back on, I saw him staring into the depths of the hole. He motioned me over to take a look and I found that the hair had started to spread to the mouth of the cave, apparently attracted by Xiao Hua's blood.

I asked him what he wanted to do next, since I was afraid he couldn't move. If I had known what we were going to do here, I would have taken the lead and sent him to the cliff first.

"We won't go in for the time being." Xiao Hua said as he rubbed his wound. "Granny and the others should have some news soon. There's no need for us to go in now, so we'll just wait for the news to come."

There was no way to tell the age, workmanship, or function of the iron plate at the end of the cave, let alone the "problematic thing" Xiao Hua had mentioned. But the situation inside the cave was already clear at a glance, so there was really no need to go in again.

I thought of what the old woman had said about the two teams needing to cooperate with each other. I didn't know what kind of cooperation method she had planned, but I kept feeling a vague uneasiness in my heart.