Chapter 201: The Eve of the Break

The barbecue was a dull affair. I wasn’t sure exactly when the atmosphere had turned so somber, but with some people staying behind to continue the excavation and others joining our ship, the crowd thinned out quickly. We finished off the pigeons in short order, and the three of us extinguished the fire, carrying the remaining meat and vegetables back into the tent.

He Yu and I knocked back beers in the tent while Lu Ayao dozed against the table. Once we finished off the last few plates of meat and drained the bottles, we crawled into our sleeping bags and slept soundly until six in the morning.

Several fishing boats were moored out on the water. Tian Xiaoqi had risen earlier than us. I was still shivering as I finished wiping my face when He Yu came sprinting from the shore. He was running so fast that he looked like he was about to cough up a lung when he finally stopped. I followed the direction of his pointing finger and spotted several small skiffs heading toward the fishing vessels. Tian Xiaoqi was sitting in one of them, and the boatman was just about to push off into the surf.

A bolt of realization struck me. I shouted to the boatman to wait, then scrambled back into the tent to grab a pen and paper. I scribbled a phone number, tore the page out, dropped the pen, and bolted for the shore.

“Hey, hey! What are you doing?” He Yu called after me.

The boatman stopped at my shout. I reached the skiff, panting for breath as I leaned against the gunwale, waving the paper at Tian Xiaoqi. “Wait! Just a second!”

“Little Boss, don’t waste our time,” the boatman grumbled, pushing the skiff further into the water. I had no choice but to wade in after it.

The boat was crowded, and Tian Xiaoqi was being squeezed by the other passengers, but she reached out desperately to grab the paper. I lunged forward, thrusting the note into her hand.

The roar of the waves and the wind filled my ears, and the salty spray splashed into my mouth more than once. Still, I clung to the side of the boat and shouted, “Call me if anything happens! I’ll help you!”

“Little Boss, this is far enough! You can’t go any further!”

As soon as I finished shouting, the boatman hauled me away from the skiff. I stood in the waist-deep water, watching the small boat drift away. Tian Xiaoqi swapped seats with someone, moving to the stern to wave goodbye frantically. I watched her, walking back toward the shore with the boatman, and waved back with a smile.

The skiff soon became a blur. I trudged back onto the sand where He Yu was waiting. He glanced at me. “Done?”

“Yeah,” I grunted.

“Then let’s go. Get changed quickly, we’re heading out too.”

We were boarding a different research vessel. My mother and Liu Wan had boarded early, but since we’d woken up late, we had to wait with the workers. There were a lot of people boarding this ship, and the three of us had to wait through three shuttle trips before it was finally our turn.

Clutching my bag, I stepped onto the boat. Fourth Brother was watching us from the shore. I looked back and shouted at the top of my lungs, “Fourth Brother! I’m leaving! Take care of yourself!”

Fourth Brother, still in his pajamas, took the cigarette out of his mouth and flicked the ash. He gave me a casual wave. “Don’t cause trouble when you get back! Listen to your mother!”

As I sat in the boat watching Fourth Brother’s figure grow smaller, a sense of worry inevitably crept back into my heart. Having traveled to so many places, I felt I had finally glimpsed a sliver of the truth. The eight archeologists who had likely committed suicide by poison in the tomb, Tian Yuqing’s disappearance… it all made the situation feel increasingly labyrinthine. And in an affair this complex, I had no idea how much information Fourth Brother had actually uncovered.

Once on the ship, I started organizing my bag. There were still traces of blood on it. When I unzipped it and saw the Nine-Ring Jade Casket inside, my vision momentarily went dark.

“Don’t go thinking it’s another supernatural event. Your mother told me to bring it along, and I didn’t have anywhere else to put it, so I stuffed it in your bag.” He Yu came down from the deck just then, tossing an orange to me.

I breathed a sigh of relief, catching the orange with one hand. I carefully “invited” the jade casket out of my bag and placed it on the small table. As I rummaged through my things, I scolded him, “You nearly scared me to death. You couldn’t have told me sooner?”

“Aren’t I telling you now?”

I ignored him and pulled Lu Xiaosu’s archaeological ID from a side pocket. I looked around, and He Yu, peeling his orange, glanced up and pointed outside. “He’s been acting strange since he woke up. He’s out there catching the breeze.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner! He found Lu Xiaosu’s body, and he already showed signs of wanting to end it all back in the tomb. It took everything I had to talk him out of it.” Sensing trouble, I dropped my bag and grabbed the cabin handrail, taking the steps to the deck three at a time.

Seeing that I wasn’t joking, He Yu’s expression shifted. He scrambled off the bunk, shoved the orange into his mouth, tossed the peel, and chased after me. “Wait, I didn’t think of it that way. He’s always been like that, I just thought he was in a bad mood.”

We pushed through the crew members toward the stern, nearly tripping several times. We only stopped when we saw Lu Ayao leaning over the railing at the back of the ship. My concerns were valid; there were few people at the stern. If he jumped from here, he’d be pulled into the propellers, and it would be a while before anyone even noticed.

He Yu was clearly spooked too, but he tried to act casual, throwing an arm over my shoulder. “See? I told you that you were overthinking it. He’s fine, isn’t he?”

I shot him a sidelong glance, thinking, If you weren’t worried, why did you run after me and even outpace me? He saw me looking and averted his eyes guiltily.

Clutching Lu Xiaosu’s ID, I walked over to Lu Ayao’s side. “Fourth Brother told me he’s going to have all the bodies cleared out of the Thirteen Palaces. It might take some time, but once they’re all recovered, he’ll send them back to you.”

I opened my hand. “This is the archaeological ID. I forgot to give it back to you. We found it in the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces. I’m returning it to its rightful owner now. It’s good to have something to remember her by.”

Lu Ayao took the ID and stared at the portrait for a long time. Just as I was about to offer some words of comfort, he tossed the ID into the sea without a moment’s hesitation. The card hit the water and was instantly shredded to pieces by the propellers.

“There is no need,” Lu Ayao said. His complexion was still sickly from his injuries. “The Lu Clan will not take in an unidentified corpse that has been missing for years. From the moment Lu Xiaosu vanished, there was no longer a place for her in the family.”

I took a deep breath, wanting to lash out, but when I opened my mouth, I found I didn’t know who or what to curse. Lu Ayao’s words had cast a heavy, suffocating shroud of grief over the three of us.

After a long, heavy silence, Xiao Wu suddenly poked his head out from the passageway. His appearance instantly shattered the tension between us. “Young Master! Young Master, I was just looking for you. The Eldest Miss wants everyone in the cabin. She said she has something important to discuss.”

The three of us exchanged looks, completely bewildered.

At a time like this, what could possibly be so important?