Chapter 191: Intent

He Yu and I both burst out laughing at Lu Ayao’s words. Only Tian Xiaoqi had better self-control, managing to keep a straight face despite the strain. Qiao Sangui, having been thoroughly humiliated, looked like he was on the verge of cursing aloud, but logic told him that the one scolding him was Yin Pozi. He didn’t have the standing to talk back, so he was forced to swallow his pride.

Lu Ayao, however, was relentless. “You only speak of Feng Shui without looking at anything else. The Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces outside could never be constructed with just a couple of simple stones. If this weren’t a sea burial where mortise and tenon decay didn’t need to be considered, you and your men would surely have been buried here.”

“As for the dry moat outside, a river without water doesn’t necessarily mean bad Feng Shui. There is a saying, ‘A hidden dragon enters the sea.’ Since the tomb owner had a sea burial, there is already water. If they had added flowing water to the moat, I’m afraid this tomb chamber would have collapsed within a few years. Therefore, the most important element in this burial is the wind. The fact that there is wind outside the chamber but no moisture proves the builder considered this and used the moat as a guide for the air.”

The rest of us listened from the side for a long while, but I felt the only one who truly understood was Qiao Sangui, who was currently stroking his thin mustache. “What about the murals then? This tomb chamber is so sparse, lacking even a mural or an epitaph. Isn’t it just like a pauper’s grave?”

Lu Ayao ignored him and walked toward me. I blinked at him, unsure of what he wanted, but he simply reached out and asked, “Do you have any water?”

I thought to myself that perhaps Mr. Lu had talked too much and was thirsty, so I pulled my half-finished bottle of mineral water from my bag and handed it to him. He took the water but didn’t drink it. Instead, he walked back to the crumbling wall, unscrewed the cap, and began splashing the water onto the surface.

I realized what he was doing, so I narrowed my eyes to watch the wall.

As the water soaked into the wall, lines painted with pigment gradually began to appear. These lines were incredibly delicate. I had been leaning against a pillar, but I immediately straightened up in shock. There was hidden information on this broken wall!

“Hey, Old Lu, if you’re not going to drink it, don’t waste it like that!” He Yu stepped forward to stop him.

I grabbed He Yu and pointed toward the wet patches on the wall. Once he looked closely, he instantly saw the pattern as well. He shook off my hand, pulled a notebook from the side of his bag, and rushed over. He pressed himself against the wall, sketching the exposed drawings into his notebook as he examined them.

The wall wasn’t particularly large, and parts of it were ruined, but by the time the half-bottle of water was gone, the entire image had mostly revealed itself.

I stepped back to observe from a distance and found it was a mural of “Celestial Palace Musicians,” depicting a banquet scene in a divine court. The original painting must have been much larger, as the musicians alone took up half the space. I did a rough count, and the dancers alone numbered over three hundred.

He Yu frowned as he sketched, seemingly struck by a thought. He paused, then walked quickly to the end of the section. He touched the edge of the wall and said, “What’s going on? The remaining, most important half was cut away.”

I had expected as much, so I walked over and crossed my arms as I looked at the severed mural. “Maybe it was done by that same person.”

“Who?” He Yu looked up.

“Someone contacted me through a classmate before, hinting that I should go to the Xinchang Bank vault. I found a list of depositors there, but as soon as I looked over it once, someone snatched it away and burned it. Whoever cut this mural away was either an archaeology team or the person who ordered that list burned. But an archaeology team wouldn’t destroy a mural on this scale. Even if they had to cut it, they wouldn’t take only half.”

Just then, Tian Xiaoqi suddenly called out to me from behind. “Gan Ji, come look! Are there words carved here?”

I turned around and nearly died of shock. Tian Xiaoqi was leaning over the Phoebe zhennan^[1] coffin, her hands gripping the top lid, occasionally crouching down to inspect the outer casing.

Ever since we entered the Main Hall, no one had been willing to deal with the central coffin first, nor had anyone stepped forward to inspect it. I had planned to wait until we finished checking the rest of the hall before touching the central sarcophagus. I hadn’t expected Tian Xiaoqi to be so reckless, not only touching it but sprawled right on top of it.

Seeing this, I hurried down the steps to get her. “You, you, you! What are you doing lying on top of that? Get down right now!”

Still lying on the lid, Tian Xiaoqi blew off some dust, brushed it twice with a small brush she brought, and pointed at the lid. “Come look! There’s writing on here.”

The top lid of that massive coffin reached up to my chest, and the sarcophagus was quite long, so I couldn’t see the top of the lid she was talking about. I told her, “It’s common for a coffin lid to have writing. Usually it’s just words comforting the ancestors or prayers for protection. Stop messing around. This sarcophagus gives me a bad feeling. Get down here.”

Tian Xiaoqi swatted my hand away. “No, no, no, this doesn’t look like any of that. Hold on, let me figure it out and I’ll read it to you.”

Standing by the sarcophagus, I was getting restless, having no idea what she was seeing. Even if there was an epitaph or something carved on the lid, it couldn’t be that crucial. She could easily come down first and let one of the men climb up to look.

Tian Xiaoqi clung to the sarcophagus, her face practically pressed against the lid. Once she finished reading, she raised her head and smiled at me. “This must be the tomb owner’s epitaph! Let me read it to you!”

With that, she cleared her throat. “‘Wandering for many years, betrayed by friends and blood kin alike, all new grudges and old hatreds are extinguished. My body was prepared by a friend and buried here.'”

He Yu and Lu Ayao both stopped what they were doing to listen. Once she finished reading, Tian Xiaoqi slowly shuffled around before sliding down from the coffin lid.

I steadied her and said, “It’s most likely an epitaph written for the tomb owner by a descendant. We haven’t even checked the area around this sarcophagus yet. If there’s a trap inside, none of us would be able to react in time. Climbing up like that so recklessly was far too dangerous.”

“If there were a trap inside, I’d be the one dying on it anyway. What are you getting so worked up about?” Tian Xiaoqi shot back, completely out of character.

I didn’t expect her to ask that. My brain stalled for a moment, and before I could respond, Tian Xiaoqi brushed past me to resume her inspection of the Ship-Burial Coffins pieced together on all sides. I was left standing there, feeling as though I understood what she meant, yet at the same time as if I didn’t understand at all.

He Yu clicked his ballpoint pen and sidled up to me, coyly bumping me with his hip so hard I nearly toppled onto a coffin. I turned around, ready to snap at him, but he just looked at me with a mock-bashful expression, even poking my shoulder with a dainty orchid-finger gesture. I instantly felt so disgusted that goosebumps broke out all over me.

“Come on, you naughty devil, do tell,” He Yu said softly, continuing to disgust me. “What’s the big rush?”

I didn’t find it funny in the slightest. I shook him off and walked over to the edge of a coffin to examine the material, lowering my voice. “What the hell is wrong with you? Now you’re making me the butt of your jokes?”

He Yu stopped joking and leaned in, crouching down beside me. He tapped me, gesturing for me to look at Tian Xiaoqi in the distance. I turned my head away and treated him like thin air, prompting him to sigh. “What are you getting worked up for? You brought this on yourself. Back when the two of you were poisoned in that cave…”

I didn’t want to hear it and turned away, but He Yu yanked me right back.

“Don’t play dumb with me. We’ve been traveling together all this way; don’t tell me you haven’t noticed anything. If you won’t tell her what’s on your mind, at least tell your brother here. Your families have been close for generations, and she clearly has feelings for you. You have to deal with this eventually.”

I slammed my empty water bottle into his chest and stood up, glaring at him. “Deal with it, my ass! Stop talking nonsense. Finding a way out of here is the only thing that matters right now.”