Tomb Raiding: My Family's Last Clan Chief is Little Brother

Chapter 281 Ten Years Is Too Long
(Something came up today, so I'll just put both chapters together.)
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Wu Xiaoxie's mind worked quickly, and she immediately realized, "Ah? Him? He was just discharged from the hospital a while ago. He's not in good health. He went out for a walk and got heatstroke. He's still lying in bed right now. You see, I have to take care of two patients and can't leave. I'll have to trouble you."

On the bamboo building, Zhang Wuxun pressed himself against the crack in the door, watching Yun Cai walk out of the courtyard gate, then turned to look at Xiao Ge, suppressing a laugh.

The young man had a blank face, and his expression was unreadable.

Wu Xiaoxie crouched down and peered out from the wooden door of the outer courtyard. Seeing that Yun Cai had indeed walked away along the bluestone path, he breathed a sigh of relief and waved to the two people upstairs, signaling them to hurry down.

The young man looked at the "iron gourd" in his hand and was about to put it back.

Zhang Wuxun said, "Take it. He probably won't be coming back since he's collapsed."

The young man nodded, put the items in his pocket, and restored the hidden compartment under the wooden table.

The two squeezed through the crack in the door, closed it, and returned to their bamboo house by the same route.

After Zhang Wuxun finished cleaning up, he heard a commotion coming from the courtyard.

Ah Gui, the doctor, and the two sisters, Yun Cai, have all returned.

Wu Xiaoxie helped the fat man, who was pretending to shout, upstairs, where he saw the young man lying on the bed with a wet towel on his head and his eyes closed.

He exchanged a glance with Zhang Wuxun, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, and led the doctor to the bedside to examine the two of them.

"Who is this?" A-Gui looked at Zhang Wuxun, who had suddenly appeared, with a somewhat surprised expression.

Wu Xiaoxie used the same excuse to explain again.

Ah Gui greeted everyone cheerfully and then took his two daughters downstairs to cook.

After the doctor finished the examination, he prepared a bowl of green paste-like ointment for the fat man and applied it to his face, saying that it was particularly effective. He also took the young man's pulse but couldn't find any problems, only telling him to eat more blood-nourishing foods.

Wu Xiaoxie smiled as he saw the person out, then returned. Upon seeing the fat man's green face, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" the fat man muttered under his breath, then turned to look at the young man who had just opened his eyes and sat up. "Hey bro, did you and Muyu find anything upstairs?"

The young man took the lump of iron out of his pocket and showed it to the fat man and his companion.

The fat man hissed, "Exactly the same! What is this thing?"

The young man shook his head; his memory still hadn't returned.

Zhang Wuxun took out his camera. "I didn't find any useful clues. All I recorded were some engineering-related items, and they were very messy."

"Doing engineering?" Wu Xiaoxie glanced at it; he didn't recognize any of the writing. "Could it be related to Chen Wenjin's expedition team back then?"

"I don't know. We have too few clues. Anyway, we're already here, so let's just take it one step at a time," Zhang Wuxun said calmly.

"Oh, right." Wu Xiaoxie suddenly remembered something, looked at Zhang Wuxun, and said, "Didn't Chu Guangtou say there were still photos in the stilt house? Have you seen them?"

Zhang Wuxun nodded, took out a stack of stiff, lifeless photos from his pocket, and carefully spread them out on the bed one by one.

These photos are all blurry, with yellowed edges, I don't know if it's from dampness or something, some of the patterns are blurred into a mess, and you can't see them at all.

However, there were also some unexpected surprises.

Two of the photos seem to be a sequel to the one featuring Chu Guangtou: one shows the back of a slumped-shoulder figure, and the other is a side view from above.

They were certain that the person on the back of the photo was the same hunchback who had fought them.

However, in the side view photo, the face with sloping shoulders is blurred into a blur, as if someone deliberately altered the face when developing the photo.

As he looked at the photo, Wu Xiaoxie suddenly cried out in alarm, pointing at a picture with a deathly pale face and cold sweat pouring down his face.

The fat man leaned closer to take a look, and also let out a strange cry. His gaze darted back and forth between the photo and Wu Xiaoxie's face, and finally he gasped, "Holy crap, how come this guy looks exactly like you!"

Suddenly, it dawned on him, "Holy crap, no way, could the person crawling on the floor in that videotape be the same person in the photo?"

Wu Xiaoxie's face was pale, and his mind was blank.

"Let's look again and see if there's anything else," the fat man muttered, flipping through the photos and picking out all the ones that were still legible.

"There's only this one," Zhang Wu asked.

The remaining photos are all of Chen Wenjin and Huo Ling and the others. The background looks like it's in the mountains and forests. There's also a photo of Chen Wenjin alone, with a large lake behind her. You can see part of a wooden box at the edge of the photo.

Wu Xiaoxie snapped out of her daze, frowning as she stared at the photo. "Why does this person look just like me?"

Actually, Zhang Wuxun hesitated when he first saw the photo, but in the end he did not hide it.

Chen Wenjin did not explain the person crawling around like a wild animal on the floor of the basement in Golmud in another videotape.

The videotape was sent to the young man by "it," seemingly simply to test how much he remembered about what happened back then.

There are so many people who look like Wu Xie that "it" sometimes can't tell which one is the real Wu Xie, but Wu Shanju's Wu Xie is the one who looks the most like Wu Xie.

"It" couldn't find Qi Yu, so it could only look for Wu Xie, who most resembled Qi Yu.

By observing Wu Xie, they could analyze the reactions of others.

Zhang Wuxun didn't hide the photos because he wanted to give Wu Xiaoxie a heads-up beforehand. Unraveling clues is Wu Xiaoxie's forte. As long as he plants the seed of doubt in his mind, and then experiences the Hidden Flower, Wu Xiaoxie will grow rapidly.

Ten years is too long.

Wu Xiaoxie's expression was somewhat doubtful. "Regardless of who he is, according to the clues I've investigated, there is no such person in Chen Wenjin's archaeological team. Moreover, when I saw her in the well, she didn't react with surprise to my face. So this photo is very likely unrelated to the expedition team."

"Then why did you put it in this pile of photos?" the fat man asked, puzzled.

The young man frowned, clearly also confused.

Zhang Wuxun said, "It's possible. It's possible that you discovered something yourself. This person might really have some kind of connection with the expedition team, which is why you put him together as well."

Wu Xiaoxie rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. "Let's not worry about that for now. Our main purpose this time is to investigate Xiao Ge's matter. A Gui said he would help us find a guide. We need to go to the places where that group of explorers stayed back then. Maybe we can find more clues."

"Okay." Zhang Wuxun nodded and put the photos into a resealable bag.

A unique sound came from the wooden staircase outside. The fat man quickly urged the younger brother to lie down, and he lay down beside him as well. Soon, a knock sounded at the door, and Yun Cai's crisp voice came through the door and reached their ears.

"Fatty brother? Is your face feeling any better? Shall I bring your food upstairs?"

Several people looked at the fat man simultaneously.

The fat man's green face showed pain, but he helplessly raised his voice and replied, "It's nothing, it's nothing. We won't trouble you, Sister Yun Cai. We'll go down in a bit."

After sending Yun Cai away, the fat man wailed silently, "It's over. My lifelong reputation is ruined today..."

Wu Xiaoxie said disdainfully, "Save your breath. You're not a kid anymore. Stop having erotic dreams. Yun Cai is still a minor. You're old enough to be sworn brothers with A Gui. How dare you mess with someone's daughter?"

The fat man was displeased. "What do you mean by my age? I'm in my prime, as handsome as Pan An, and I'm a perfect match for Sister Yun Cai."

Wu Xiaoxie spat, "You old cucumber trying to paint yourself green, shameless."

Watching the two bicker, Zhang Wuxun stroked his chin, thought for a moment, and then asked, "Fatty, do you really like it?"

Upon hearing this, the fat man immediately became wary. "What? You've got your eye on Yun Cai too? Let me tell you, I can agree to anything else, but not this."

Wu Xiaoxie chuckled, "Look at the fat on your belly, and then look at Muyu. If I were Yun Cai, I wouldn't even give you a second glance."

"Holy crap!" The fat man almost jumped up. "What's wrong with me, Fatty? Maybe Yun Cai likes someone as honest and reliable as me."

Zhang Wuxun heard them rambling on and on, almost to the point of discussing the relationship between gravity and fat gain, so he quickly raised his hand to pause the conversation.

"Alright, just relax. I'm the most handsome guy in Hangzhou. I don't even look at anyone uglier than me. If you really like Yun Cai, we can be your advisors and give you some ideas."

“Yun Cai is the most beautiful in my heart.” The fat man snorted, glanced at Zhang Wuxun’s face, and his expression twisted for a moment. “Damn it, what’s the point of a grown man being so good-looking? But seriously, if you can help me win her over, you can pick whatever you want from my shop in Liulichang.”

Zhang Wuxun chuckled, "Alright, a promise is a promise, so don't try to renege on it later."

The fat man raised his eyebrows and said, "When have I ever gone back on my word?"

When the four of them went downstairs to eat, A-Gui said that he had already spoken to the guide from back then, and that they could go to the old hunter's house to find him the next morning.

"But that old man has a rather strange temper. You should tell him you're from the government, and he'll be more proactive. But be careful not to give yourself away," A-Gui advised.

Back in the house, the group discussed it and, given that the fat man's face was full of menacing features and he didn't look like an official, he volunteered to go to the fertilizer plant to get sulfuric acid, melt it down, and see what was inside.

Wu Xiaoxie cautioned him, "That thing is still somewhat dangerous. Don't act rashly. We'll talk about it when we get back."

"I know, I know, I'm not a three-year-old," the fat man readily agreed.

After discussing the matter, the group went their separate ways to rest.

Fearing something might happen at night, Zhang Wuxun and Wu Xiaoxie shared a room, while Xiao Ge and Fatty shared a room.

The next day, Fatty happily followed Yun Cai to the fertilizer plant.

Zhang Wuxun and his two companions, along with A-Gui, went to find the old hunter, also known as Old Man Panma.

But when we got there, we learned from Panma Old Man's son that the old man had gone into the mountains last night.

"I estimate I'll be back before noon today. Why don't you gentlemen wait a bit?" the old man's son said somewhat embarrassedly.

He didn't understand why his father, who had promised so readily, would suddenly go up the mountain at night without a word. He had been doing this for the past two years; he was really getting senile.

The three old hunting rifles that were hanging on the wall of the main house were still there, so it was clear that Old Man Panma had not come into the mountains to hunt at this time.

Wu Xiaoxie suppressed his doubts, gave Zhang Wuxun and the other man a wink, and then smiled and told the old man's son that it was alright, they would just wait.

The three of them had just sat down inside and hadn't even had a chance to drink tea when a man burst into the courtyard, shouting, "Is Old Man Panma here?"

The newcomer was a short, middle-aged man who spoke with a Beijing accent. He spoke to Old Man Panma's son in a condescending and arrogant tone that was grating to listen to.

Wu Xiaoxie whispered to Agui who this person was, noticing that the old man's son seemed to know the other person quite well.

Ah Gui whispered, "This is Old Man Panma's distant nephew. I heard he's a big shot."

The wealthy man and the old man's son were talking as they walked into the house when he turned his head and saw three strangers inside. "Oh, we have guests?"

"Ah, yes, they're also here to see my father. These three are all government officials..."

The rich nephew had absolutely no interest in who they were; he just plopped down in his chair and started rambling on.

Wu Xiaoxie and the others listened quietly for a while and realized that this guy wanted to buy something from Old Man Panma, but Old Man Panma refused to sell it.

“Brother, your father has gone senile. You can’t let him do whatever he wants. That big customer was someone I went to great lengths to invite. That thing is, after all, an inanimate object. You can’t take it with you when you die. Why keep arguing about it? You can’t take it to the grave anyway.”

The tycoon pulled out a flip lighter from his pocket, lit a cigarette with a snap, and said, "While my boss is still interested in that thing, you should hurry up and sell it for a good price. Then you can use that money to send your son to that prestigious school so he can have a bright future."

The old man's son looked embarrassed and said with a bitter face, "It's not that I don't want to, it's just that my old man is very cunning. Seeing how obsessed he is, I once got so angry that I said I would throw that thing into the mountains so that he wouldn't think about it anymore. Who would have thought that he would go up the mountain that night and hide it? I secretly followed him several times, but he always managed to shake me off."

The wealthy man, impatient with all this, got up to leave. "You have guests here, so I won't stay any longer. Anyway, if you put in the effort, and things go well, I'll take you and your nephew to Beijing for some sightseeing. See you later."

After saying that, he turned around and left in a hurry.

The old man's son turned around and gave the group an awkward smile, "Please excuse my poor appearance."

Zhang Wuxun and the others didn't say anything, after all, it was their family matter and outsiders shouldn't judge.

While they sat and waited, the old man's son told them many more stories about his father Panma's great achievements back then.

By noon, Old Man Panma still hadn't returned.

His son was getting impatient. He told Zhang Wuxun and the others that he would go look for it, and he took a hunting rifle hanging on the wall and went out.

Zhang Wuxun and the others had no choice but to continue waiting at his house, but the father and son did not return until it was getting dark in the afternoon.

Ah Gui felt a little embarrassed, after all, he was the one who introduced Pan Ma, and it was really inappropriate to leave the guests waiting in an empty room. So he cursed the two men a few times and said to Zhang Wuxun and the others, "Why don't we go back first, and have this kid from the Pan Ma family come to find you tomorrow?"

Zhang Wuxun figured the time was about right, so he got up and beckoned Wu Xiaoxie and the other person to go outside.

Thank you so much to the generous donor 【聂莫忘情长】! Sending you a huge heart!
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(End of this chapter)