Chapter 78

“There’s something I want to ask you.” As he said this, Qin Cheng looked at his two best friends, who were standing behind him, considered his words, and finally said: “But…. for now, let’s get to the bottom of the matter at hand…. Li Guoxian and Tang Jiaming….”

When Qin Cheng said this, Zhang Jun and Wu Hai didn’t find anything weird. But Qu Zhiwen was different. Compared to these two, he knew best what Qin Cheng wanted most at the moment.

How could the most urgent matter be about Li Guoxian and Tang Jiaming?!

What Qin Cheng said was just for Zhang Jun and Wu Hai’s ears, to not suspect anything. After all, the thing Qin Cheng actually wanted to ask about was something he didn’t want them to know….

When he thought of this, Qu Zhiwen’s eyebrows rose slightly as he looked at Qin Cheng with a smile. With a nod, he said: “Alright.”

As he said that, he approached Qin Cheng and whispered in a low voice that only the two of them would be able to hear: “The less people that know, the less competition there will be.”

‘ After all, who wouldn’t be tempted by the power of the Taowu Bones? A thing that goes against the laws of Heaven, bringing the possibility of living forever, that’s something everyone would like to possess…. ’

Qu Zhiwen’s words made Qin Cheng frown. It was true that he didn’t want Zhang Jun and Wu Hai to get involved in this, but it wasn’t for the reasons Qu Zhiwen must be thinking.

After all, it wasn’t like exploring a tomb. Even if these archeological nerds knew the dangers that lay ahead, they still wouldn’t turn back. Just like Jiang Bo and Zhang Qishuo, who inevitably died in the end…. Zhang Jun and Wu Hai still choose to stay in Ninghua Village, even after all the murders that happened there. Perhaps, because they had figured out that the unknown history of the Xu Dynasty had been erased from history itself.

Even though Wu Hai and Zhang Jun seemed calm on the surface, in fact, they were suppressing their boiling blood. Their desire to discover the unknown….

It was even worse than Qin Cheng’s own desire.

Qin Cheng could lead these two to explore the tomb with him. But he couldn’t put them in danger with the current matter regarding Su Jingmo.

Besides, Su Jingmo had insisted Qin Cheng come to the tomb alone, since it was a private matter. It was very likely that he might even lose his life in the process of it all.

How could he bring others into his own problems?!

Not to mention…. the fact that he…. had some strange feelings….

It could be said that Qin Cheng was someone special to Su Jingmo right now…. and Su Jingmo was even more special to Qin Cheng. Special to the extent that he doesn’t want to give him to others, or let other people see him….

The horrible desire to monopolize him.

However, Qin Cheng didn’t want to explain these things to Qu Zhiwen. As long as the results were good, nothing else mattered.

After everyone sat down, Qin Cheng rushed to ask Zhang Jun: “Did you find anything during your stay in Xi’an?”

After looking at Qu Zhiwen, who was sitting quietly on the side, Zhang Jun said gloomily: “I’ve found a lot of things, but…. is it okay for this guy to know?”

Zhang Jun wasn’t familiar with Qu Zhiwen, while Qin Cheng and Wu Hai were well aware of that man’s ability.

After Wu Hai nodded his head at Zhang Jun, he said: “You can talk. This person understands things that we don’t. As I told you yesterday, he saved Qin Cheng and me from that tomb, and…. he seems to be a…. Heavenly Master?”

As soon as he said that, Wu Hai glanced at Qu Zhiwen uncertainly. When he saw Qu Zhiwen nodding his head, he continued: “Qin Cheng and I found a village filled with grave robbers in Pingyao. They were the Faqiu faction, and they mentioned something about Li Guoxian. Although their words can’t be trusted, there must be some truth in what they said.

“What did they say?” Zhang Jun, after hearing this, couldn’t help but remember what happened at the celebratory banquet Li Guoxian had held that day. With some apprehension, he asked: “Qin Cheng, what you said, is everything the truth?”

Qin Cheng nodded and frowned: “Yes, it seems that he would ask his students to explore the tomb first. This has happened before, and several people died as a result of it. But, for some reason, the news was suppressed, so we don’t really know what happened.”

In the past, it’s true that no one knew the reason behind all the deaths. After all, who would dare to carry on the project when human lives were in danger?

But now, Qin Cheng knew a lot more.

Qin Cheng is an ordinary man who just happened to learn about the Taowu bones by chance, which means that there must be many and more knowledgeable people out there who already knew about them.

Eternal life….

Who doesn’t want it? Especially those who are in higher positions…. After all, who doesn’t want to live longer?

Su Jingmo, who was once an Emperor, seemed to know a lot about the bones. So who can guarantee that people of this era who are in high positions, wouldn’t know about them as well?

What are a few human lives in exchange for something like that….?

When Qin Cheng thought about this, he felt a chill run down his back.

If all these speculations were to come true, then there was nothing he could do, other than to step into this mess….

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot more than what I expected. I think that Jiang Bo, Lin Hongxing and Zhang Qishuo’s murder cases would end inconclusively. After all, it seems that no one has been investigating it, other than Jiang Ping.”

“Li Guoxian is still a very prestigious archeologist in academic circles. But, no matter how famous he is, he can’t be above human life. Who would dare protect him?”

As soon as Wu Hai heard Zhang Jun’s words, he said: “I think our ‘mentor’ is not as simple as we thought. Perhaps, there’s someone backing him-….”

Wu Hai stopped talking all of a sudden, but everyone could understand what he meant to say. After several deaths, Li Guoxian, as the person in charge of the project, wasn’t affected at all. It was abnormal, no matter how you looked at it….

At that moment, the cubicle became silent, and no one spoke for a while. Then, Qin Cheng broke the awkward silence: “In the end, Zhang Qishuo was killed by ghosts. So, how can a killer be found? This world doesn’t believe in ghosts and Immortality, am I right?”

Qin Cheng’s words were exactly what his two friends had in mind as well. They knew that their colleagues had fallen upon someone’s killing trap, whose purpose was to send human beings into that tomb to die by the hands of the dangerous ghosts…. There must be an important reason as to why those people had gotten away with it so far.

“Bah! Why are you worrying about this matter? We shouldn’t be the ones to investigate the murder cases. We should investigate history. We can’t bring them back to life, and the only thing we can do for them is find out about that lost piece of history. We can burn a book about it for them. After all, since there are ghosts in this world, wouldn’t they be able to read it in the underworld?”

“Besides, it’s useless to worry about this matter. We should pay more attention to Li Guoxian, and to not let him mess with us. I cherish my life very much.”

After hearing Wu Hai and Zhang Jun’s words, Qin Cheng couldn’t help but laugh. After taking off his glasses, he rubbed the bridge of his somewhat sore nose: “Of course, it’s not just Li Guoxian. Tang Jiaming is also there….”

“Tang Jiaming? Is he working with our ‘mentor’?”

“No, I’m not sure about that.” Qin Cheng shook his head. “I only know that Tang Jiaming is able to see ghosts, but he has been pretending that he doesn’t all this time. From the moment I came back from Shanxi, I’ve felt that something is wrong. As if someone already knew what Wu Hai and I were doing, which could explain why we fell into the hands of that group of grave robbers so fast.”

Before Qin Cheng could say more, Zhang Jun’s face became ugly: “….Well, now that you mention it, I do remember one thing. A few days after you two went away, I didn’t see Tang Jiaming in the research laboratory. But I did hear that he went back home to see his mother….”

“Home? Where is Tang Jiaming from again?”

“Shanxi….”

It was a single word, but Qin Cheng’s back instantly felt numb. His surroundings suddenly fell into a dead silence, as if the warmth surrounding them had suddenly disappeared and the air had fallen to a freezing point.

“Heh, what a coincidence. Shanxi…. he’s surnamed Tang…. That family of grave robbers in Shanxi, was also surnamed Tang.”

Although Wu Hai’s face was smiling, his eyes were as cold as ice.

How could Zhang Jun not understand what Wu Hai was implying? However, if this was the truth, then was Tang Jiaming a grave robber? How was that even possible!? But, when Zhang Jun saw that his two friends didn’t seem to be joking, he understood the seriousness of the matter.

“There are many grave robbers from the Faqiu sect that would disguise themselves as ordinary people, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a grave robber disguising himself as an archeologist….” Qin Cheng was aware of Tang Jiaming’s academic level, but it was extremely hard to accept that a person he considered a friend was, in fact, a grave robber.

“Well, if it’s not a coincidence, and if everything is true, then that means that Tang Jiaming has been working with those grave robbers all this time. I can’t say for sure whether Wu Hai and I have been followed, but….” Qin Cheng snorted. “I can guess that they were sure I would be able to dodge the traps hidden inside the tomb, which explains why they let us approach the tomb in the first place…. If that is the case, then Tang Jiaming set me up from the very beginning….”

‘ I’ve always lived in the midst of studies. Every single day, there’s nothing more than archeology for me. My life revolves around the objects dug out of the tomb, so how could I get myself involved in such a scheme? ’

Not to mention Qin Cheng, but it was the first time for Wu Hai and Zhang Jun to get involved in such a mess as well. It seems that they had become chess pieces in the hands of someone working in the shadows. Even if they were to lose their lives one day, the feeling of being manipulated like this is way too unpleasant.

“Fortunately, we can still find out who’s behind all this.” Wu Hai sighed.

“We can still find out?!” When he heard these words, Zhang Jun became a bit impatient. He suddenly stood up and began to pace back and forth: “But, what on earth are they even trying to do? I can’t understand it! After all, even if we know that Li Guoxian and Tang Jiaming have some kind of scheme going on, how can we be sure that no other people around us are scheming as well? What the hell are they doing? So many people have died already, and they don’t even care?!” As soon as he said this, Zhang Jun turned his head to look at Qin Cheng. “What is inside that tomb that makes them so crazy?!”

When Zhang Jun said these words to Qin Cheng, the meaning behind them was self-explanatory.

‘ If you’re talking about ‘crazy’, then I, who ran straight to the tomb in Ninghua Village after everything that happened, can be considered even crazier than them. ‘

However, Qin Cheng didn’t know what to say. After all, everything he has been doing so far wasn’t only for Su Jingmo’s sake, but also to discover that missing part of history.

Even then, there were some things that couldn’t be said out loud….

“There’s indeed a valuable treasure hidden inside that tomb, and they must be very desperate for it. But I’ve never been greedy for that treasure from the start. I have another purpose for going into that tomb. The first one is to figure out the Dynasty’s history. As for the second one…. because there’s someone there I want to visit.”

“There’s someone in the tomb? Is someone living there?” However, as soon as he said this, Zhang Jun realized what kind of ‘someone’ Qin Cheng was talking about. Qin Cheng was able to see ghosts, and it’s pretty clear that only ghosts were inside that tomb….

“You fucking—…. You don’t mean to say that you like a ghost, right?”

After seeing Zhang Jun’s expression, which was the exact same Wu Hai had when he first heard about it, Qin Cheng couldn’t help but shake his head as he laughed bitterly: “Love is complicated.”

Qu Zhiwen, who had been listening this whole time without saying a word, suddenly opened his mouth: “There’s no need for the two of you to ask more questions, you should just listen to what Qin Cheng says. The more you know, the more you two will be in danger. At some point, it’ll be hard to get out.”

“Fu-! Shut up!!” Zhang Jun wasn’t unreasonable, he knew that he couldn’t solve this complicated matter, and that it would be better to just stay the fuck away. The further away, the better. He had never said it out loud, but he cherished Qin Cheng like a brother, and when he looked at Qin Cheng like this, Zhang Jun didn’t know why he had a bad feeling surging in his heart…. He just couldn’t figure out where this feeling was coming from.

After scratching his head, Zhang Jun thought for a long time before he could squeeze out some more coherent sentences: “Alright, Qin Cheng, I’ll listen to you. If you don’t want to say it, I won’t ask. Besides, I’m not interested in any treasure. But you definitely can’t swallow every historical secret from the tomb in Ninghua Village on your own!”

This statement made Qin Cheng laugh out loud: “Of course. I’m far inferior to you in porcelain research, so I may trouble you from now on. Oh, right! I suddenly remembered that before Wu Hai and I went to Pingyao, I gave you a pile of porcelain fragments. What have you found?”

“Oh! I forgot about it as well, since you never asked about it. But, I did find something.”

“What did you find?”

“It’s not really that important. It’s just about a love affair, which should belong to the Emperor of the tomb in Ninghua Village.”

“….What?” Qin Cheng suddenly felt that he had heard wrong.

“As I said, it records the Emperor’s love story.” Zhang Jun said indifferently.

–The author has something to say–

Xiao-Cheng covered his ears, pretending that he didn’t hear anything….

Aldhaldhsldk poor Qin Cheng 😂😂😂 he can’t escape Su Jingmo’s past as a flirting man who slept with tons of people lmao

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