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

Chapter 287 Deja Vu
(I really don't have any drafts saved, I'm writing and posting everything as it comes ⊙ω⊙)

-

Yun Cai's outfit completely captivated the fat man, who stared intently at the young girl until Yun Cai gave him an angry glare, at which point he stopped staring.

The fat man came to his senses and denied it repeatedly, "No, no, absolutely not, Sister Yun Cai, please don't misunderstand. I was just worried that you would work too hard. Actually, in our hearts, you are definitely the best choice."

Wu Xiaoxie frowned upon hearing this and muttered, "You fatso, how could you change your mind so quickly? You let a young girl accompany us; what if we encounter danger this time?"

The fat man quickly spat, "What nonsense are you talking about? It's too unlucky. Sister Yun Cai, don't listen to his nonsense. I'll protect you when the time comes."

Yun Cai smiled and replied, "Then I must thank you in advance, Fatty Brother."

The fat man immediately felt as sweet as if he had eaten honey, and his soul seemed to leave his body.

Wu Xiaoxie shook his head helplessly, indicating that he couldn't bear to watch.

"Alright, let him be." Zhang Wuxun patted Wu Xiaoxie's shoulder with a smile. "Our Fatty has finally fallen seriously in love. Panzi has a warm haven now. Our Fatty is getting on in years, so let's create more opportunities for him."

Wu Xiaoxie sighed and lowered his voice, saying, "That's not what I meant, but look at Yun Cai's eyes. Her attention is always on Xiao Ge. Although she's very careful, I don't see any girlish thoughts in her eyes. I feel like she might have impure motives. Fatty seems to be serious. I'm afraid he'll end up not getting what he deserves."

He didn't want to make malicious assumptions about a young girl, but in this place where danger lurked, he couldn't let his guard down. Moreover, what had happened before made it impossible for him to truly trust A-Gui and his daughter.

Zhang Wuxun smiled with narrowed eyes and looked at Yun Cai, "It's precisely because I'm worried that I have to keep an eye on him. Don't worry, Fatty may seem carefree, but he's actually very meticulous. With him in the middle joking around, Yun Cai can't focus her attention on Xiao Ge."

"Besides, if the fat guy really likes her, he'll make it worthwhile even if it's not worth it. It all depends on how that girl behaves."

Wu Xiaoxie thought Zhang Wuxun meant to bribe her, but actually Zhang Wuxun meant to let Yun Cai make her own choice. He didn't know what kind of leverage A Gui's family had over Ta Jian's hands. If Yun Cai still had a conscience, he wouldn't mind lending a helping hand to save her life.

He wasn't concerned about Yun Cai's life, but rather about Fatty's feelings. After all, in the original story, it took Fatty a long time to recover after Yun Cai was killed by the collapsed shoulder.

Yun Cai had just subtly withdrawn her gaze from the young man when she frowned and turned her head to see Zhang Wuxun staring at her. Her heart immediately skipped a beat, and she looked away, feeling uneasy.

She always felt that her handsome older brother was dangerous. He usually seemed gentle and easy to talk to, but whenever he looked at her, his eyes seemed to be smiling, but the smile didn't reach his eyes.

Being stared at by those eyes, she had the illusion that her hidden thoughts had been seen through, as if she had no place to hide under his gaze, no matter what her purpose was.

The group, with dogs on their laps, backpacks on their backs, and machetes in hand, set off along the same route they had taken to search for Old Man Panma in the mountains, chatting as they went.

The fat man's attention was always on Yun Cai. He would make witty remarks to make her happy from time to time. When they stopped to rest, he would hand her water and dry food, and even teach her how to eat self-heating meals. He was extremely attentive.

He even took most of the candy from Zhang Wuxun's hand, coaxing and tricking him into stuffing it all into Yun Cai's pocket. He even tried to coax Yun Cai into kissing his cheek, but Yun Cai wasn't that stupid. Although she was a little shy, she still firmly and gently pushed the fat man's big face back.

Even while eating a melon, the two of them were all sticky and affectionate. The fat man, despite his advanced age, still acted coquettishly and foolishly, trying to get Yun Cai to feed him.

Ah Gui, the father, was all smiles and didn't say a word to stop him.

If it were Zhang Wuxun, and his daughter was being pursued by a scumbag who was two or three decades older than her, he would definitely chop that scumbag who dared to covet his daughter into pieces and bury him in the ground.

Well, he really is a "kind" father-in-law.

The young man remained silent the entire way, clutching his knife in his arms; no one knew what he was thinking.

That night they rested near an ancient tomb at the mountain pass.

The shameless fat man still dared to dream of sharing a tent with Yun Cai. Ah Gui finally couldn't stand it anymore and forced a smile. "Boss Fatty, you seem to be in good spirits. How about we keep watch tonight?"

Zhang Wuxun and Wu Xiaoxie laughed without any restraint, then quietly gave Fatty a suggestion, "When you're on guard duty for the second half of the night, you can get close to some of Yun Cai's tents. When Yun Cai wakes up in the morning and sees that it was her Fatty brother who guarded her all night, she'll definitely be incredibly touched."

The fat man thought it was a good idea and happily went to keep watch.

Wu Xiaoxie watched his cheerful back and shook his head speechlessly, "Sure enough, love makes people stupid. Our Fatty used to be such a shrewd person."

﹉﹉﹉

The next morning they continued their journey, walking through the forest for two days. The trees ahead became increasingly sparse, and A-Gui said that the lake was almost there.

Sure enough, after walking for another two or three minutes, the group saw the lake in the distance on the ridge. Perhaps due to the continuous heavy rain, the lake was larger than expected.

The lake is surrounded by towering mountains in the center, with continuous, steep peaks that reach into the clouds. The vegetation is very lush, and even the cliffs between the mountains are dark green. The Ten Thousand Mountains truly live up to their name.

As we approached the lake shore, just as Panma had said, the shoreline around the lake was entirely made of stone, with no trace of anyone having ever been there. It made sense, as many years had passed and those traces had long since disappeared with the passage of time.

The lake was calm and still, like a mirror, reflecting the clear blue sky perfectly, making it exceptionally beautiful.

When a gentle breeze blows, the water ripples and sparkles, like fleeting strands of silver foil. Indeed, the water is beautiful on a sunny day, and the mountains are enchanting even in the rain.

After traveling for a long time through the dense forest, everyone was sweating profusely. They dropped their backpacks and plunged into the water. The cool lake water was refreshing in the sweltering heat of summer, even more so than eating an ice-cold watermelon.

Wu Xiaoxie splashed water on his face twice and suddenly felt that the scenery in front of him seemed somewhat familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it before. He turned to look at Xiao Ge and Mu Yu and saw that they also looked puzzled. He knew that this was not just his imagination.

Zhang Wuxun frowned, then suddenly got out of the water and walked back to the shore.

The young man was squatting on the shore, only scooping up a few handfuls of water to wash his face. Seeing that Zhang Wuxun seemed to have thought of something, he also got up and walked back to the lake beach.

Seeing this, A-Gui, who was setting up a tent nearby, asked the two bosses what they needed.

Zhang Wuxun waved his hand and said it was nothing. He went into the tent that had already been set up, changed into dry clothes, and then took out his camera from his backpack.

The young man came out after changing his clothes, and Zhang Wuxun waved to him, "Young man, come and take a look."

He flipped through some photos they had taken while wandering around the village to avoid being seen, and found one of them taken by a stream near the village, showing it to the young man.

“Do they look familiar?” Zhang Wuxun said, flipping through a few more photos. These were pictures he had found in his brother’s stilt house, which he had taken pictures of on his camera to avoid damage.

“Look at these pictures again, especially the one with the box. The scenery is almost exactly the same as the mountains in our three o’clock direction. Although there are some changes, the overall layout is the same.” “Do you think this is a coincidence?” Zhang Wuxun asked softly.

The young man shook his head, took the camera, and flipped to the previous photo of the stream, comparing it with the scenery not far away. The more he looked at it, the more his brows furrowed.

Wu Xiaoxie, who was soaking in the water, had obviously thought of something as well. He felt a chill and couldn't stay still any longer. Seeing Zhang Wuxun and the other man discussing something, he hurriedly climbed ashore, approached them, and told them what he had discovered.

Zhang Wuxun also showed him the photos, saying, "This Yao village is also strange."

"If all of this is not a coincidence, then the secrets hidden in this Yao village are far more complex than we imagined." Wu Xiaoxie's expression was somewhat gloomy.

Zhang Wuxun patted him on the shoulder and comforted him, "Don't rush, we have plenty of time. Let's take it one step at a time and first figure out what happened with the expedition team back then."

Wu Xiaoxie nodded and called out to the fat man who was swimming on his back in the water, "Can you pay attention for once? Stop thinking about your Yun Cai sister. We have important business to attend to."

The fat man grinned, "I know, I know. Look at the location in the photo, there are already some signs of it."

Wu Xiaoxie sighed and said, "Then you keep an eye on A Gui and the other two. Brother Muyu and I will walk around the lake a few times to observe the environment around the lake and see if we can find a few suitable places to dump the body."

"No problem," the fat man readily agreed.

After setting up their tents, Yun Cai and the others began preparing to cook dinner. On their way here, they picked a lot of edible mushrooms and wild vegetables, which they would use for their meal.

The lake was about the size of two football fields, and Zhang Wuxun and his two companions deliberately slowed their pace.

The water is crystal clear near the shore, and the bottom is full of irregularly shaped stones that have had their edges worn away by the constant flow of water.

Further in, the lakebed suddenly disappears into darkness, indicating a significant drop and considerable depth.

Panma had described the shape of the Demon Lake as resembling a sickle slung over the base of a mountain, but the lake they now saw was quite different from Panma's description.

As the saying goes, shallow waters cannot hide dragons, but deep waters must harbor monsters.

They slowed down and walked around, but found nothing in the shallows. The bottom of the water was clean without any impurities, not even common floating objects like duckweed, which was obviously very abnormal.

You have to understand that this is a wild body of water, and without anyone to take care of it, how can it be kept so clean and pristine?

Based on the photos, the location where the archaeological team was originally stationed should be the same as their current campsite, on the south side of the lake. Pan Ma and his team killed someone, and in their panic, they wanted to quickly dispose of the body, so they must have chosen the nearest location.

Zhang Wuxun and his two companions arrived at the shallows to the south and began searching under the rocks. The body had been submerged in water for so many years that it had long since turned to skeletal form and was no different from the stone. It would undoubtedly be a huge undertaking for the three of them to search by hand.

So the dogs that had been brought along came in handy.

Having stayed at A-Gui's house for the past few days, they had become familiar with the dogs. Zhang Wuxun took out a few vacuum-packed chicken legs from his spatial storage, tore them open, and fed the dogs until they were satisfied. Then, he led the dogs to use their keen sense of smell to search for the dogs.

As evening approached, they actually found a human skull under a rock. It was probably because stones had squeezed into it and it had been buried for a long time that it hadn't been washed away by the water.

Just then, the fat man came to call them for dinner. Upon seeing this, he said, "When the bodies were dumped, they weren't tied up. They would first become floating corpses, and then sink to the bottom of the water to be eaten clean by fish and shrimp. The bones would definitely be scattered. The head is here, but the thigh bones are thousands of miles away. Maybe some of them were even dragged away and eaten by animals in the forest. The area is too big. We definitely can't search like this."

Although Wu Xiaoxie was a little discouraged, he wasn't in a hurry. "No rush, let's take it slow. We can't leave without leaving any clues at all."

"Let's go, let's go eat." The fat man grabbed one of them with each hand.

Ah Gui shot two wild animals in the woods with his hunting rifle, used some unknown seasoning, and put them on the grill. They smelled incredibly delicious.

The group sat around the campfire, drinking rice wine, eating roasted meat, and enjoying chicken and mushroom soup made by A-Gui, as well as cold wild vegetables. They were thoroughly enjoying themselves in the night breeze.

After finishing their meal, Yun Cai suddenly decided to dance for everyone. She clapped her hands and walked to the open space illuminated by the campfire, where she began to perform dance moves.

Yao ethnic dances feature many spinning and back kicking movements. Yun Cai has a beautiful figure with long, straight legs. When she twists her waist, even the fat man's jaw almost drops.

The fat man was completely captivated and jumped up, shouting that he wanted to learn too. He squeezed next to Yun Cai, swaying his fat waist. Even though it was the same movement, his posture looked like that of a shaman, which made everyone laugh.

"Little sister, you sit at the bow of the boat, while I walk on the shore, loving each other dearly, the tow rope swaying gently~"

The fat man started showing off his raspy voice again, and Yun Cai laughed so hard she almost forgot her dance moves.

"It sounds awful." Wu Xiaoxie covered one ear and laughed, "Shut up."

Zhang Wuxun smiled and said, "I'll accompany you two."

As he spoke, he took out a harmonica from the side pocket of his backpack, tried a few notes, and began to play "The Peacock Flies By".

Yun Cai paused for a moment, then glanced subtly at the young man sitting next to Zhang Wuxun while spinning around, before continuing to dance to the beat.

After finishing the piece, the fat man took the harmonica and surprisingly started playing "Liuyang River".

Zhang Wuxun and the others were shocked. "Oh my, we didn't expect our Fatty to have this trick up his sleeve."

The guy on the side seemed a bit out of it, staring blankly at the flickering flames above the campfire.

Zhang Wuxun patted him on the shoulder and said, "Let's go for a walk by the lake; it'll help digest your food."

The young man nodded, got up, and the two walked towards the lake.

The dancing cloud spun around and came back to find that the young man was no longer sitting there. She quickly stopped dancing and looked around anxiously, but in the instant she turned her head, she met Zhang Wuxun's gaze.

Zhang Wuxun stared at her coldly, his face completely devoid of its usual gentle smile.

In an instant, Yun Cai felt as if she were being stared at by some sinister venomous snake. Her scalp tingled, and her whole body seemed to be frozen in place, unable to move.

Thank you so much to the generous donor [Nie Mo Wang Qing Chang]! Sending you a huge heart!

(End of this chapter)