Chapter 122: The Lu Clan’s Curse

I had a hunch. According to what Tian Xiaoqi said, they were all carried into this underground palace by the water. If that was the case, had Han Jian’s people already reached the area we were in now? Were they heading straight for the core along the waterway? That would explain why they sent a warning over the walkie-talkie.

If this passage connected to the pool of stagnant water beneath the stone pillars, did they also encounter the stones Lu Ayao mentioned—the ones that floated on the water’s surface?

“Guys, I’m about at my limit. You three divide the watch. On this trip, I’ve been kidnapped and bitten by bugs. Now that I’ve finally eaten, if I don’t get some sleep, I’m going to drop dead.” He Yu took off his jacket to use as a blanket, already preparing to drift off.

He Yu was exhausted. He turned over and fell asleep almost the moment he closed his eyes. Before I could even turn to look at him, his snoring was already like rolling thunder. I switched off my flashlight and quietly crept over to pull his jacket up, making sure he wouldn’t catch a cold.

By the time we reached this point, both of us had essentially exhausted our strength. He Yu had gone out with the Tian Family a few times before, but as the youngest generation, he had been raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. In the past, his main tasks were just keeping records or identifying antique jars and bottles; the danger level was never particularly high.

Yet every time he came out with me, it was a narrow escape from death. If it wasn’t getting separated from the group and running low on supplies, it was fighting Zongzi, falling into quicksand, or wading through corpse oil. In the end, he would end up half-dead from exhaustion without even securing anything good.

The things I had investigated weren’t much, but they had awakened some of my previous memories to a certain extent. At the same time, I realized the timing of these memories was crucial. I was startled to find that the time my grandfather went on his long journey coincided almost exactly with the time Lu Xiaosu left Suzhou.

Ultimately, Lu Ayao and I were people driven by obsession, but He Yu being dragged into this was a complete accident. If anything happened to him, I wouldn’t be able to live with the consequences.

I had been feeling a bit drowsy, but thinking about all this made sleep impossible.

Chen Canghai went quiet as well. He switched off his flashlight and turned over to sleep at the other end of the cave. The interior was instantly plunged back into total darkness.

Once we crossed this waterway, we would be entering the center of the underground palace. This was likely our last real chance to rest. I knew how precious it was, but I couldn’t sleep at all, so I just stared into the darkness, letting my mind go blank.

A short while later, I felt Lu Ayao suddenly nudge me with his elbow, reminding me to sleep.

I knew he wasn’t asleep either. After spending so much time together, I had realized he possessed an intense sense of responsibility. His obsession with duty had reached an almost irrational level. For instance, even if it wasn’t his turn to keep watch, he would force himself to stay half-asleep and half-awake.

So I confessed, “I can’t sleep. If you want to sleep, I’ll take over the watch.”

“Gan Ji, do you regret it?” I couldn’t see his face in the dark, but his voice was flat as he continued, “The choice I made you make before… do you regret choosing to follow me to Gansu?”

I curled my lips into a faint smile. “Instead of asking that, you might as well ask if I regret my meddling hands opening that broken box in the drawer in the first place.”

“But what’s the use of talking about regret now? Given my personality, it’s impossible for me to leave a locked box in the house unopened. Even if you had stopped me then, I definitely would have found some dark, windy night to open it anyway.” I shifted into a more comfortable position against the wall.

I used my finger to trace patterns on the ground. Some were from the Ghost Bronze Pillars, and others were carvings from the tomb chambers of the underground palace.

Lu Ayao moved slightly. “You’ve noticed it too.”

I gave a muffled “Mm” in response. “My grandfather went on a long trip when I was in high school. The time Grandma Lu left wasn’t far off from his departure. My grandfather’s health started declining then, too. I suspect they were doing something together during that period.”

Lu Ayao wasn’t surprised by what I said. He just sat there, his breathing steady. Given that he had more resources than I did, he must have realized this much earlier.

Sometimes a person’s intuition is quite accurate. In fact, back when I was dazing off and accidentally wrote the sequence “4341951009” on a piece of paper, I already had certain premonitions. It was just that my mind was in such a state of shock at the time that I couldn’t process anything.

Later, when I came to this underground palace, that premonition grew even stronger. Many of the carved patterns on the walls looked incredibly familiar. I have always been sensitive to graphics and images, and every time I saw those patterns, it felt as if I had seen the templates they were copied from before.

Then, Lu Ayao suddenly spoke, interrupting my thoughts. “To play a game of chess well, one must grasp the function of every piece. He Yu was right. My true goal isn’t Lu Xiaosu. What I want to know is what role I am supposed to play in this entire affair.”

His words made me feel quite uncomfortable. To me, everyone was a living person. Even if we were all being manipulated into an unknown event, I still didn’t want Lu Ayao to objectify himself as a “chess piece” with only temporary value.

I didn’t know how to argue, so I stammered, “You… you shouldn’t say that. The only ones who know the details of the plan are people like my Fourth Brother and Tian Yuqing. Even if we can’t find the answer, we still have to live our lives well, if only for ourselves…”

“Gan Ji, you aren’t me. You don’t understand,” Lu Ayao said, shaking his head. “I don’t have much time left. The role I can play is minuscule, so I have to find the actual contents of the plan as quickly as possible.”

I froze when I heard that. “What… what do you mean, not much time left?”

“The curse,” Lu Ayao said. “No direct descendant of the Lu Clan lives past forty. I shouldn’t have even made it this far. Lu Xiaosu changed my Bazi^[1] to extend my life, which is the only reason I’ve managed to survive until today.”

I sat up straight, my mind struggling to process everything. I didn’t know what to say; I was completely bewildered by these non-modern terms.

Things like “Bazi” and “prolonging life.” When He Yu mentioned them before, I truly thought they were just remnants of feudal superstition passed down through ancestors. But hearing these words from the man himself now left me utterly confused.

“Are-are-are you sure it’s not some kind of hidden illness or something?” I asked, turning on my flashlight. Its beam was very faint.

Lu Ayao remained leaning beside me, resting with his eyes closed. Hearing my question, he forced a faint smile. He opened his eyes slightly and brushed his hair aside to reveal the cinnabar talismans drawn on his face. I keenly noticed that the top part of the cinnabar marks looked a bit lighter than before.

Lu Ayao looked at me with a smile and said, “When the traces of these spells completely vanish, I will die. I told you, I will only accompany you for three legs of the journey. Once the road is finished, our fate will be at an end, and I will leave. I’ve already told you too much; I cannot say any more.”

He closed his eyes again after speaking. Hearing that he was still thinking about those three copper coins, I suddenly found myself believing what He Yu had said about the “Lu Clan’s coldness.” I couldn’t help feeling a bit dejected, so I turned off the flashlight, curled up to the side, and stopped talking.

After a moment, another thought occurred to me. I quickly propped myself up and asked, “Hey, is there any way to break this curse? In TV shows, when people are cursed, they can go pray to Buddha and burn incense to break it. Would that work for yours?”

Lu Ayao clearly had no intention of answering me. He crossed his arms, turned over, and gave no reply.

What? I’d barely asked a few questions and he was already ignoring me. Realizing I was wasting my breath, I leaned back again.