Chapter 149: The Locksmith

I went over and kicked He Yu a couple of times. He just rolled over, mumbled something in his sleep, and kept on sleeping. Unable to wake him, I turned around to ask Lu Ayao to help me carry him into the cabin, but when I turned, what met my eyes was Fourth Brother’s extremely grim face.

Fourth Brother startled me. I quickly set the beer He Yu had given me down on the ship’s railing. It took me a moment to remember that I’m an adult now and having a drink isn’t a problem. This was just muscle memory from my high school days, a habit I still can’t shake.

Back in high school, during the peak of the smoking craze, both Fourth Brother and my mom kept a very close eye on me. Back then, almost every guy in our class would sneak off to the bathroom during long breaks to smoke a few. That’s when I picked up the habit too, though I never found it particularly enjoyable, so I rarely smoked outside.

Fourth Brother held a cigarette between two fingers. He tilted his head to signal his crew, who came up to help carry He Yu into the cabin. Then Fourth Brother’s gaze shifted to Lu Ayao standing beside me. The two of them just stared at each other, locked in a silent standoff for quite a while, before Lu Ayao finally picked up his jacket, turned, and went down into the cabin.

Fourth Brother’s look made me a bit uneasy. I said, “Fourth Brother, don’t be like that. They’re good friends of mine. They were the ones who kept me company when you weren’t around.”

“How old are you? How long have you been in this line of work? What do you really know? We’re diving tomorrow for surveying and mapping. You stay put on the boat with Xiao Wu. If I find out you snuck into the water, I won’t punish you—I’ll punish Xiao Wu. Understood?” Fourth Brother said sternly.

Hearing I wasn’t allowed to dive filled me with disappointment. “Huh? You can’t do that! I’m already here, so why won’t you let me dive? That’s complete dictatorship!”

Fourth Brother chuckled. “This time, I’ll be a dictator. You can stay with the team if you want, but not only will I dock Xiao Wu’s pay, he’ll also have to write a self-criticism. You think about it tonight.”

Fourth Brother knew my psychology all too well. He knew exactly how to make me toe the line. Hearing him say that, I opened my mouth but ultimately said nothing. This tactic of his was downright despicable, utterly despicable!

What had started as an intriguing trip to the South China Sea now felt utterly boring. I didn’t want to deal with Fourth Brother anymore and turned to head for the cabin, only to be called back by his shout. I didn’t dare defy him, so I walked back with a forced smile:

“Boss Chen, is there something else you need?”

Fourth Brother handed me the bag he was holding. The moment he placed it in my arms, its all-too-familiar weight sent a jolt through my entire body. I looked up in surprise. “This…”

Fourth Brother gave me a slight nod, taking a drag from his cigarette. “I had the crew pack up the tools from your rented room. They should be by your bedside now. If you’re bored, try to crack it as soon as possible. This thing has dragged too many people into it. The longer the matter of that box drags on, the more complicated things will get.”

I immediately thought of the Xinchang Bank Vault incident. Lu Ayao had hinted to me before that Fourth Brother was almost certainly fully aware of the Xinchang Bank affair. But it had been so long, and he had never brought it up with me. Just how deep did these waters run?

So, I moved a bit closer to Fourth Brother and probed, “Fourth Brother, what exactly was the Xinchang Bank Vault for? I saw Grandfather’s name in the records there. What did he store inside?”

Fourth Brother took another drag from his cigarette. Hearing my question, he didn’t show any odd reaction; instead, he spoke very calmly. “Since you’ve already seen it, there’s no point hiding it from you. To be honest, I’m investigating this matter too. Before returning from Shennongjia, I got a call from an unknown number. The caller said the Xinchang Bank Vault had something I wanted, so I went.”

“I found a ledger there with Master’s name recorded in it. But as far as I know, Master never stored anything in that vault while he was alive. Later, I tried tracing that number, only to find it had already been canceled. The only thing I found was that it originated from Inner Mongolia.”

I hadn’t expected Fourth Brother to be so open this time. Had he said his usual “That’s not something you should ask about,” I would have definitely assumed he was involved. But he just told me the whole story so plainly, leaving me momentarily unsure of what to make of it.

On an impulse, I leaned in closer and asked Fourth Brother under my breath, “I have a thought. Do you think… Liu Sanshui might still be alive?”

Fourth Brother froze mid-drag, as if hearing that name from my lips was something truly alarming. He frowned at me. “Let me hear your thoughts. What makes you think that?”

I quickly sorted through the clues in my head and gave him a brief rundown: the secret script we found in the underground unclaimed tomb in Gansu, what He Yu uncovered when he went back home, and finally the tomb robber’s tunnel I found in Yunnan, where the chisel work on the tunnel walls matched the crisscrossing tunnels in Gansu down to the technique.

“They all know about this too?” Fourth Brother asked.

I instinctively glanced toward the cabin, then nodded.

Fourth Brother sighed. “You really can’t keep a secret, can you? We’ve found different secret scripts in a few other treacherous tombs we visited too, but they were very short, just a few characters each, and the translated meanings were completely baffling. You guessed right; Liu Sanshui might indeed still be alive. But why hasn’t he resurfaced? Why hasn’t he returned to the Liu Family? That’s the real question.”

I looked back. Liu Wan was standing on the deck with her hands in her pockets, lost in thought. The wind whipped her hair across her face, and she tucked a strand behind her ear as she stared out at the pitch-black sea.

“Alright, get some rest and don’t overthink it. I’ll keep looking into all of this.”

With that, Fourth Brother gave me a push toward the cabin. I had a feeling he just wanted to shoo me away so he could get some alone time with Liu Wan. Letting out a quiet huff, I lifted the curtain and went back inside.

The cabin bunks were almost completely full. The air inside was so stagnant that the moment I stepped in, I felt like turning right back around to get some fresh air. But skipping sleep wasn’t an option. The ocean wind was freezing at night, and going out without bundled-up clothing would definitely give me a cold. Crowded as it was, the cabin at least offered temporary shelter from the wind.

He Yu’s bunk was right next to mine. On the headboard, Fourth Brother had someone place my tool bag. I unrolled the leather pouch and found that not a single item was missing; they had even included a few books on lockpicking for my reference. It seemed Fourth Brother really had gone to great lengths to get this box open.

I set my bundle at the head of the bed, washed up quickly, then sat down on the mattress. Putting on my glasses, I flipped through a couple of those lockpicking manuals, left somewhat speechless.

It seemed Fourth Brother really took me for a locksmith.

If this box had even the slightest thing in common with the mechanisms of an ordinary lock, I wouldn’t have been trying to open it for so long without getting anywhere.