Chapter 53

The middle-aged man was full of disdain for Li Guoxian. After glancing sideways at Qin Cheng and Wu Hai, he said: “You certainly wouldn’t have known. After all, how could someone like Li Guoxian let something like this be known?”

After saying so, the middle-aged man didn’t intend to continue talking about this issue. He looked at the mountain, and suddenly laughed out loud: “Tsk tsk, speaking of which, you two are so pitiful. You two were also used by Li Guoxian. Either way, we don’t dare let you two leave. Li Guoxian took advantage of….” The middle-aged man suddenly hesitated to say it, but after a brief pause, he continued: “Li Guoxian telling you two about this tomb was an accident, and we can’t let more people know about it.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Qin Cheng looked at the wilderness that surrounded them. If these people really wanted to kill the two of them, then no one will know….

‘ I don’t know if Wu Hai and I will be able to escape from these 6 men. ’

As if guessing what Qin Cheng was thinking about, Tang Jie stood up, and said: “Don’t try to run away. We know this land better than you do, and you two won’t be able to escape.”

Right after Tang Jie finished speaking, the other 5 men approached Qin Cheng and Wu Hai step by step. The weapons in their hands were raised as they walked, watching closely at Qin Cheng and Wu Hai’s every move. If they made any movement, they would attack right away.

“We simply listened to Li Guoxian’s words. We came here to take a look, just as he asked us to. We don’t know what the exact situation is.” Qin Cheng said, as he glanced at the man with a machete. “You won’t actually kill us, right?”

“It’ll be too easy to kill you, and no one will know where you died. Even if your bodies were found, it’ll take at least a month or so. By then, you will have already been eaten by wild animals, so it’ll be impossible for the police to know that you were killed by us.” This time, the one who spoke was the middle-aged man, who took out a paper bag from his pocket. Then, he continued: “However, I think it’ll be a pity to kill two archeologist just like that.”

“Then, what do you want?!” Wu Hai couldn’t hold back his anger. “Heh, if you have the ability, fucking come here and I’ll show you!”

“Wu Hai!” Seeing how Wu Hai was reacting, Qin Cheng hastily grabbed him and fought hard to keep him in place. If the two of them were to fight against 6 armed men, they would definitely lose. Qin Cheng wasn’t in a hurry, but he needed to think of a way to escape. So far, these people hadn’t done anything to them, so there must be a reason behind it. After remembering that the middle-aged man said that it’ll be a pity to kill them, Qin Cheng thought that perhaps they wanted the two of them to do something for them.

“What do you want us to do?”

The middle-aged man laughed after hearing Qin Cheng’s question: “Even though you wear glasses, your eyes are more transparent.” After saying this, the middle-aged man pointed at the mountain peak: “That mountain is called Crouching Tiger Mountain, and you must have heard me say a while ago that this mountain is very dangerous.”

After hearing such a thing, how could Qin Cheng and Wu Hai not guess what these men had in mind?

“Ha! Just now you also said that Li Guoxian would use others for his own advantage. But now, aren’t you being just like him?” Wu Hai snorted. However, the middle-aged man wasn’t angry.

“I never said that we were good people. But we are much better than Li Guoxian, who would harm others in order to maintain the appearance of a righteous professor.”

Qin Cheng doesn’t care about the difference between them and Li Guoxian. In his opinion, whatever these people say was equally untrustworthy. He was more concerned about the dangerous things inside the Crouching Tiger Mountain that the middle-aged man mentioned. ‘ Could it be that there are ghosts haunting this place as well as Ninghua Village’s tomb? ’ Qin Cheng thought so, but didn’t say it. “How dangerous is it?”

“It’s a mausoleum built inside the mountain. I believe that you must’ve guessed that we want what’s inside, but we can’t get in.”

“If you can’t get in there, what makes you think that we could? Besides, if you refuse to say what it is, then it’s surely a treasure, am I right? After so many years, how can you be so sure that there’s a treasure inside that tomb? Maybe it was stolen a few hundred years ago!” Wu Hai took a deep breath, and then continued: “If you thought about it, then someone else must’ve thought about it too.”

“Of course the thing we want is still inside that tomb, we know it. As for how we’re so sure about it, it’s none of your business. All you have to do is to go into the tomb, and open the door for us.”

“That’s easier to say than done. But, aren’t you afraid that we’ll find the treasure and steal it?” Qin Cheng frowned, and then continued: “Also, what exactly is inside the tomb? Why can’t you go in?”

“There are hidden weapons inside the mausoleum. We went inside once, and someone activated a trap. Several people were killed because they didn’t had the time to escape.”

“But we don’t understand the design of these secret devices at all!” Wu Hai shook his head: “It’s impossible for us to help you!”

Behind Wu Hai, a bald man with a machete laughed out loud: “Did we say that we expected for you to break the mechanism? We were going to kill you anyways, it just so happened that you know archeology, so you two may or may not know something about the traps. If you can be of help by mere accident, then it’s good. But if you go and die, it won’t change much, doesn’t it?”

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“Yes.” Tang Jie replied, narrowed his small eyes, and laughed: “If you can really help us get what we want, we can also let you go.”

‘ In the end, is it still a dead end no matter what? However, since the people buried there were after Su Jingmo, if we can get in, we can probably get to know what happened, right? ’ In any case, Qin Cheng must find a way to get in. But those traps…. Su Jingmo said that he wasn’t familiar with the design of the mechanisms, but he also gave Qin Cheng some knowledge about the methods to avoid danger. After that, Qin Cheng read a lot of books explaining the common traps, but in the end, he had never encountered a real hidden arrow trap. He wasn’t sure whether what he read would be of any use.

“So, according to you, we can only survive if we agree to go inside the tomb?”

“What do you think?”

As he looked coldly at the middle-aged man, Qin Cheng nodded his head: “Well then, we’ll do it. However, before going in, you have to prepare self-defense items for us. We don’t want to die there.”

“We can give you tools, but we don’t have any self-defense items.” After saying that, the six men treated Qin Cheng and Wu Hai as prisoners, one of them even pulled their arms.

“Let’s go, while it’s still early. The tools are in that mausoleum mountain.”

“Don’t drag me. The six of you are carrying weapons, why would we try to escape at this point?” Qin Cheng said as he broke his arm away from the people tugging him. Taking advantage of this action, Qin Cheng and Wu Hai glanced at each other.

After Wu Hai pretended to cough, and nodded slightly his head, Qin Cheng breathed a sigh of relief.

The phone signal in the mountains wasn’t good, but it’s not that there isn’t any signal at all. After finding themselves in this situation, Qin Cheng instructed Wu Hai to send a message to the troublesome Deputy Bureau Jiang.

Even though Qin Cheng doesn’t like this man, he knew that in case they weren’t able to speak, it would be more useful to send Jiang Ping a direct message rather than messaging to the 12110 ¹ ….

…

Qin Cheng left three days ago, and Su Jingmo had taken the box of books that Qin Cheng brought in last time. There were a total of 30 books, and Su Jingmo had read nearly seven.

In addition to the history books, Qin Cheng also brought a lot of fictional books. When Su Jingmo was bored, and since as a ghost he was physically unable to sleep, he would read them. Two days ago, he was able to read three books in a day, but when the sun went down today, he held this copy of ‘Water Margin’, without being able to turn to 40 pages.

“This Lin Chong…”

As he pressured himself to continue reading the book, the story easily entered his heart. However, he immediately got in a bad mood when he unconsciously almost asked Qin Cheng, who wasn’t present, something.

The story was interesting, but Su Jingmo’s mind wasn’t calm for some reason. As he stroked the jade ring on his thumb, Su Jingmo frowned, but he himself didn’t notice it.

Even though Qin Cheng knows a lot about archeology and history, he’s still a mortal human. Most of the mausoleums built by the Great Xu had hired skilled craftsmen to build the coffin chambers. If something really happened, Su Jingmo doesn’t think that Qin Cheng would have the ability to avoid those traps…..

“My heart is not calm, and these books are only for decoration. It’s not good enough to read this fascinating story.” After whispering softly, Su Jingmo stood up and looked around the tomb feeling impatient.

‘ When did this coffin chamber become so quiet? When did I begin to feel that this tomb is too empty…..? ’

‘ When I close my eyes, the entanglements of my past life would always flow in front of my eyes, even for a little bit. But in the end, nothing stays. Whether it’s a person, or an event. However, among the things I’ve experienced after my death, only one person has been circling around in my mind…. ’

‘ Qin Cheng…. ’

This man, who’s unusually obsessed with historiography, but who’s also earnest and realistic, is extremely talented and learned. Even if Su Jingmo can’t predict the future, he can still guess that in a few years, Qin Cheng will be able to make a name for himself in this field of work. Not to mention Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty, Qin Cheng can also become a great master of a generation.

But he was attracted to a ghost, to Su Jingmo….. who’s gloomy and scary. When such an extraordinary person treats love so seriously, and the receiver of such love is someone like Su Jingmo….

Su Jingmo thought that he would be afraid….. afraid of…..

Just thinking about it, Su Jingmo fiercely clenched his fists and opened his eyes.

At that moment, he heard a strange movement coming from outside the tomb. Su Jingmo narrowed his eyes, and smiled: “It seems that tonight won’t be quiet. It looks like someone wants to accompany me?”

After saying that, Su Jingmo slightly waved his hand, and the gates of the Underground Palace slowly opened. Standing outside the door, there was no other than Qu Zhiwen, who had helped Qin Cheng and him last time.

“Zhen was thinking who might be, so it was you all long?” Su Jingmo said as he slowly walked towards Qu Zhiwen, with his pair of peach blossom eyes full of smiles: “Zhen doesn’t know why, but Zhen always feels like he knows you. However, it’s clear that Zhen has never seen such a dry, thin and pale face.”

The last time this remark was directed at Qu Zhiwen, Su Jingmo had said almost the same thing about his appearance.

Qu Zhiwen looked at Su Jingmo, and smiled as well. When healthy people smile, they would look amiably, but when Qu Zhiwen smiled, it made him look even more morbid: “I’m not sure why His Highness would think that you’ve seen me before. But maybe it’s because you’ve seen a terminally ill person such as myself before.”

Qu Zhiwen said it unintentionally, but Su Jingmo’s eyes, after hearing such words, changed.

Without noticing the change in Su Jingmo’s eyes, Qu Zhiwen continued: “The policeman named Jiang Ping asked me for a favor. But I need your help for this.”

“Oh? Why should Zhen help you?” With his hands behind his back, Su Jingmo smirked.

As Qu Zhiwen looked at the Emperor in front of him, he didn’t try to talk nonsense, and said directly: “Originally, Jiang Ping should’ve come with me. But he had to rush to Shanxi, because something happened to Qin Cheng.”

As expected, as soon those words were said, the Emperor in front of Qu Zhiwen, who was smiling like the spring breeze, suddenly turned cold as stone.

Qin Cheng and Wu Hai are going to enter the mountain!!!

Isn’t adorable that Su Jingmo won’t admit, even to himself, that he misses Qin Cheng? And that he cares for him? Alfjksldjd oh boi (o´罒`o)♡

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◝(⑅•ᴗ•⑅)◜..° ♡

Footnotes

<ol>In China you can contact police by either calling 110 or sending a text message to 12110.</ol>