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

Chapter 290 Vertical Shaft Jade Vein
The bottom of the jar was broken, and a stream of black water flowed out, emitting a smell that was hard to describe.

The fat man exclaimed "Huh?", poured a black object out of the jar, rinsed it in the lake water, and spread it out in his palm. "It's this thing again."

Wu Xiaoxie's heart sank. This was yet another iron block, making it the fourth one, including the three he had found earlier.

However, unlike the previous three, this iron block is very small, only the size of a thumb, and the patterns on it are exquisite, making it a work of art.

The small iron block has a very obvious broken section at one end, clearly indicating that it was a fragment cut off from a whole iron block.

The group looked at each other, speechless for a moment.

After a while, the fat man tossed the small iron block to the young man, climbed out of the water, and said, "We can ask A-Gui about the underwater Yao village. He's a native of the village and might know what's going on."

Wu Xiaoxie nodded, "Alright, let's get ashore first and try to piece these bones together."

I didn't find any other useful information in the backpack. I checked the time and it was already past 3 p.m.

Zhang Wuxun took out a fixed cone from his spatial storage, attached a rope to it, threw it into the water, and used a buoy to mark the area.

The four then rowed back to shore. When A-Gui saw the net bag, he thought they had caught fish and was about to come over to take it when he discovered that the net was full of bones. He was so shocked that he shouted.

Although Yun Cai was young, she only paled a few shades when she saw the scene before her. Knowing that Zhang Wuxun and the others had important things to do, she reacted quickly and said she would go cook for them, and then pulled A Gui away.

The fat man was still thinking about how to explain, but he was taken aback when Yun Cai and the other person were so straightforward and didn't even ask any questions.

Zhang Wuxun patted him on the shoulder, "Don't just stand there, hurry up and move these things upstairs, and try to put together a few more before dinner."

I moved all the bones to the open space next to the tent, piled the rest of the miscellaneous items on the other side, put the diving equipment back into the tent, changed into short-sleeved shirts and shorts for easy work, dragged the rubber boat ashore, tied it to a rock with a rope, and then unscrewed the valve to release a little air. This way, it would save inflation time next time and prevent the rubber boat from bloating due to being too tight and aging faster under the sun.

Wu Xiaoxie and his companion roughly categorized the bones, while Zhang Wuxun and Xiao Ge assembled the bone frames on the side.

When Yun Cai came to call them for dinner, there were already four barely intact skeletons on the open ground.

While eating, Wu Xiaoxie asked Agui if he knew about the underwater Yao village. He guessed that the underwater village might be the old site of the Yao village, which was later submerged by floods or mudslides. However, what puzzled him was why the current Yao village was almost the same size as the one underwater, as if they were copied and pasted. Did the people who built the village back then have some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder?

After hearing what he said, A-Gui pondered for a while, then shook his head and said, "Actually, I also find it a bit strange. We all know there is a lake here, but the lake doesn't even have a name yet, and the old people in the village don't often mention it."

Seeing how absolutely certain he was, the fat man suddenly thought of something and asked A-Gui, "I remember you mentioned that you used to have an old village that was burned down by a wildfire. Could it be this one underwater? The village didn't actually catch fire, but was flooded. That's why you all said you can't see any trace on the ground. We used to call a fire 'water disaster,' so maybe you remembered it wrong."

Agui shook his head again, "It's been too long. The legend of the burned-down old village dates back to the time of the Ming Emperor. I can't say for sure whether there's any connection between the two."

Seeing the thoughtful expressions on their faces, A-Gui remembered his daughter's words and said, "How about this, when we go down the mountain, I'll go ask the old hunters in the village. They know more than I do, so maybe they'll know something."

Wu Xiaoxie nodded, "Then thank you very much."

After finishing their meal, before it got completely dark, they rummaged through the pile of garbage they had retrieved and found a leather notebook, but unfortunately, the contents had long been soaked away by the water.

The young man, clutching the badge he'd pulled from the backpack, sat on a rock by the lake with one leg bent, his brows slightly furrowed, looking somewhat dazed.

Zhang Wuxun took a skewer of wild fruit from the grill, walked over and handed it to him, asking softly, "What are you thinking about?"

The young man snapped out of his daze, glanced at the slightly burnt fruit, and without any disgust, took a bite and shook his head. "I don't know, but anyway, that dark shadow underwater gave me a very bad feeling."

Zhang Wuxun frowned as well. The thing was moving too fast, and he couldn't see what it was at all, but he felt that it was related to slumped shoulders.

Before Yun Cai followed them up the mountain, she must have already communicated with Ta Jianban. Since Yun Cai chose to cooperate with them, Zhang Wuxun had no reason to refuse.

"Let Tianzhen and Fatty go down the mountain tomorrow and have them check the written materials of the expedition team from back then," Zhang Wuxun said.

The young man glanced at him, understood what he meant, nodded, and handed him the somewhat faded badge. "Check this too."

If the dark figure in the water really does have sloping shoulders, then Tianzhen and Fatty will be in danger at any time if they stay here. It would be better to send them away.

In the original story, the method chosen by the hunchback was to take them down one by one. In order to keep the secret, the first two people he had to deal with were naturally Zhang Wuxun and the other two who posed the greatest threat to him.

Knowing he couldn't handle it alone, he would definitely use his familiar environment and the method from the original story to trap people in the Miluotuo Cave using the siphon tide.

"Eavesdropping isn't a good habit, little girl," Zhang Wuxun said lazily.

A series of very light footsteps came from behind. Yun Cai stood behind the two of them and asked softly, "What should I do next?"

Zhang Wuxun turned and glanced at her. "Now that he has received the news, you and your father can take Fatty and the others down the mountain tomorrow. You don't need to do anything else."

Yun Cai bit her lip. "What are you two going to do? It's going to rain heavily on Yangjiao Mountain soon."

Zhang Wuxun smiled and said, "That's perfect. Let's use the weather to stall them for a few more days."

"Or you could go out with Fatty and see the world."

Yun Cai understood what he meant, nodded, and reminded him, "I know, you should also be careful, he's very familiar with this place."

"Don't worry." Zhang Wuxun waved his hand, thought for a moment, and then added, "That Fatty guy is actually not bad. If you... never mind, it's up to you."

After all, this is a girl's lifelong commitment. Although the fat guy is her brother, if they're really not a good match, you can't force a goose and a mandarin duck together.

When the fat man was mentioned, Yun Cai smiled and stammered, "Fat Brother... well, he's a good guy. Actually, I like him quite a bit too."

Seeing Zhang Wuxun looking at her with some surprise, Yun Cai lowered her head somewhat embarrassedly, kicking a few small holes in the ground with her toes, and awkwardly put her hands behind her back. "Anyway, thank you."

After saying that, he turned around and jogged back to the tent to pack his things to take down the mountain.

Upon seeing this, the fat man hurriedly asked what was going on. When he heard Yun Cai say that Zhang Wuxun had sent them down the mountain, he quickly pulled Wu Xiaoxie to the rocks by the lake and asked with a stern face, "What do you mean? Don't you treat Tianzhen and me like your own brothers?"

Zhang Wuxun rolled his eyes. "Don't overthink it. I'm just asking you to go back and check the information. We don't have enough clues. It'll be faster if we split up, won't it?"

The fat man didn't believe him. "Don't try to fool me, kid. Have you discovered some danger and are trying to get rid of us?"

Zhang Wuxun sighed helplessly. The seemingly carefree fat man was sometimes incredibly meticulous.

“Really, no, you can ask the guy if you don’t believe me.” Zhang Wuxun pointed to the guy who was pretending to be a background figure. “He wouldn’t lie, would he?”

The young man remained expressionless and silent.

Wu Xiaoxie asked suspiciously, "You really didn't lie to us? I always have a feeling that you two are hiding something from us."

Zhang Wuxun tried his best to make his expression look sincere. "Tianzhen knows a lot of people, so it's easier for her to look up information. It's also good for Fatty to have someone to look after her. Besides, after you two leave Banna, you're essentially free from the surveillance of those people behind you. It's just me and Xiao Ge. If they show up, it won't be a big problem to deal with them." Wu Xiaoxie frowned, still feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on the flaw in Zhang Wuxun's expression.

The fat man's expression changed several times. He stared at the dark water for a few moments and said, "That's fine too. We'll be gone for a maximum of ten days, maybe even less. We'll come back once we find out."

Zhang Wuxun breathed a sigh of relief and handed the badge to Wu Xiaoxie, saying, "Check this out too. It should be the symbol of the organization those people belonged to back then."

"Alright." Fatty patted Wu Xiaoxie on the shoulder. "Don't you trust their skills? It's not like we'll never see them again. Come on, let's go back and have some barbecue. My future father-in-law hunted two rabbits today. I can smell the aroma from right here."

﹉﹉﹉

The next morning, after breakfast, A-Gui led Yun Cai, Wu Xiaoxie, and Fatty away from Yangjiao Mountain.

The weather was indeed as the clouds had predicted: gloomy, overcast, and with raindrops threatening to fall at any moment.

It has a sense of impending storm.

Zhang Wuxun packed up one of the rubber boats and rowed the other boat with Xiao Ge to the spot they had marked yesterday.

After putting on their diving suits, the two went back into the water.

With a clear objective, Zhang Wuxun and his colleague quickly retrieved a pile of bones. After several trips, they managed to retrieve almost everything hanging on the fence.

Finding lunch too troublesome, I simply ate a self-heating meal on the boat, rested for a while, and then went back into the water.

In the afternoon, they searched for the deep depression created by the siphon tide. The walls of the depression were very smooth from the impact of the water flow, like a funnel-shaped vertical shaft with a wide opening and a narrow bottom.

Zhang Wuxun swam in, trying to find the opening connecting to another large lake, but found that at the bottom there were several narrow openings, like cracks in a mountain, so narrow that he couldn't fit through them even after shrinking his bones.

This is ridiculous. In the original story, how did the guy with the hunched shoulders manage to get the fat guy inside?
Or is there another entry point?
Zhang Wuxun squinted and carefully examined the stone at the crack. Hmm? It seems a little different.

I touched it and it felt cold and slippery, clearly not as rough as stone.

"Damn!" Zhang Wuxun exclaimed in surprise. "Could it be that the jade vein leads directly to the bottom of the lake?"

Having figured out what was going on, Zhang Wuxun turned around and used his flashlight to send a signal, calling the young man down as well.

He pointed to the edge of the crack, gesturing for him to touch it.

The young man felt it with his right hand and was also somewhat surprised.

Zhang Wuxun pulled out his dagger, poked it hard at the jade vein a few times, pried off a small piece of jade, and then gave a hand gesture to the young man.

The two resurfaced, climbed onto the boat, and looked up at the sky. The sky was so overcast that it looked like it was about to rain.

They had spent a long time in the water today, and had used up several oxygen tanks. Seeing that it was getting dark, there was no need to go back into the water.

"Brother, let's go back," Zhang Wuxun said.

The young man nodded, took off his mask, and looked a little tired.

After all, even delivery guys aren't made of iron; everyone gets tired, he just doesn't say it out loud.

After rowing the boat to shore, the two men first moved all the things on the boat to the place where they had piled up things yesterday, and then dragged the boat ashore and tied it up.

I had a simple lunch, and now my stomach is starting to rumble in protest.

Zhang Wuxun and the young man exchanged a silent look for a few seconds.

“I remember Ah Gui left us a rabbit when he left,” Zhang Wuxun said, breaking the silence.

The young man remained silent, just staring at him.

Alright, Zhang Wuxun sighed, it seems he has no choice but to show off his skills today.

"Wait, I'll let you taste my cooking today."

Zhang Wuxun stoked the campfire, set up the iron pot, added two pieces of hot pot base, and after the thick oil melted, he sprinkled in some chopped green onions, added a packet of pickled cabbage, stir-fried it with a spatula, added two bags of pure milk, then poured in water, covered the pot, and waited for the soup to boil before adding the vegetables.

While waiting for the soup to boil, Zhang Wuxun sliced ​​the remaining rabbit meat that Agui had killed the day before.

In the summer, the temperature is high and food spoils easily, so A-Gui dug a deep hole with a shovel to use as a temporary cellar, wrapped the meat in plastic, and buried it in the ground.

In the small cellar, there were also mushrooms and wild vegetables that Yun Cai had picked in the woods. Zhang Wuxun washed them twice with water, chopped them up, and placed them aside.

He also took out some meatballs, dried meat and other ingredients from his space. After the water boiled, he put them all in. The red oil bubbled and bubbled, and the fragrant and spicy aroma made Zhang Wuxun's cheeks ache with envy.

"Hey bro, dinner's ready!"

Zhang Wuxun turned around and called out to the young man squatting beside the skeleton.

The young man got up, went to the river to wash his hands, and then came back to sit by the campfire.

Zhang Wuxun handed him the bowl of meat and vegetables he had prepared, saying, "Here you go. We've been soaking in the water for two days straight, so let's have some hot pot to get rid of the dampness. I'm pretty good at making this."

He's not good at cooking. Although he won't burn the food, no matter how many seasonings he adds, the taste is just so-so. I won't embarrass myself by trying.

In fact, Zhang Wuxun discovered that the young man really liked sweet and sour flavors.

He had noticed it when the four of them stayed at the inn after coming out of the underwater tomb. At that time, the fruit tea was so sour that Wu Xiaoxie and Fatty were grimacing, but Xiao Ge only twitched his eyebrows and finished the rest without changing his expression.

So today, Zhang Wuxun didn't make a very spicy broth for the hot pot, and added milk to relieve the spiciness, as well as pickled cabbage.

"Eat more." Zhang Wuxun smiled and used a slotted spoon to scoop all the meatballs from the pot into the young man's bowl.

Seeing how much the young man was enjoying his food, Zhang Wuxun smiled like an aunt, a strange sense of satisfaction creeping onto her face.

The plan to feed the family patriarch was a success! Yay!
Thank you to the generous donor 【聂莫忘情长】 for the donation!

Thank you so much to the generous donor, [Please complete your information]! Sending you a huge heart!

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(End of this chapter)