Chapter 122: The Lu Family’s Curse

I have a hunch. According to what Tian Xiaoqi said, they were all carried into this Underground Palace by the water. If that is the case, had Han Jian’s people already reached the area we are 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 connects to the pool of stagnant water beneath the stone pillars, did they also encounter the stones Lu A’yao mentioned, the ones that float 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 was out the moment he closed his eyes. Before I could even look at him, his snoring was already like rolling thunder. I turned off my flashlight and quietly moved 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 reached our breaking point. 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 recording things 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 be half-dead from exhaustion without having scavenged 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 a long journey seemed to coincide almost exactly with the time Lu Xiaosu left Suzhou.

Ultimately, Lu A’yao 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 A’yao 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 it had reached an almost irrational level. For instance, even if it wasn’t his turn to keep watch, he would force himself into a state of being 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 A’yao 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 A’yao 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 A’yao 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 A’yao 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 A’yao 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 A’yao said. “No direct descendant of the Lu family lives past forty. I shouldn’t have even made it this far. Lu Xiaosu changed my Bazi 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 archaic, 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 his 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, switching on my flashlight. The beam was very weak.

Lu A’yao remained leaning beside me with his eyes closed, resting. Hearing my question, he forced a smile. He opened his eyes slightly and brushed his hair aside to reveal the talismans drawn on his face in cinnabar. I keenly noticed that the marks at the top seemed a bit lighter than they had been before.

Lu A’yao 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 stages. 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. Realizing he was still preoccupied with those three copper coins, I suddenly felt a moment of confirmation regarding what He Yu had said about the “Lu family’s coldness.” I couldn’t help but feel a bit dejected, so I turned off the flashlight and curled up to the side, falling silent.

After a while, another thought occurred to me. I 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 or burn incense to break it. Would that work for you?”

Lu A’yao clearly had no intention of answering me. He crossed his arms and turned over, giving no response.

What? I’d barely asked a few questions and he was already ignoring me. Feeling snubbed, I leaned back again.