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

Chapter 447 Drinking Ice in Those Years
Wu Xie's heart pounded like a drum, filled with unease and anxiety. His body was tense, like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered on a chopping board.

Zhang Haike, who was half a meter away from him, received the same treatment. He had finally recovered by now, but he gasped in pain with every movement and cursed as he looked up.

After catching his breath, Zhang Haike turned to Wu Xie and said, "Damn it, you idiot, look what you've done!"

"It's none of my business." Wu Xie wasn't going to put up with him. "First, I'm happy that you're unlucky. Second, they set a trap for the two of us. You just walked right into it, so what right do you have to talk to me?"

Zhang Haike spat, "If I hadn't heard from the Grand Lama and the others that there was another 'Wu Xie' here, would I have gotten caught by them when I went to check out you out of curiosity?"

Curiosity really killed the cat!

Wu Xie snorted, "That's what you deserve. Why the hell did you have to pretend to be me? If you hadn't pretended to be me, none of this would have happened."

Driven by the belief that it's better to sacrifice a friend than oneself, he betrayed Zhang Haike without hesitation, saying, "I have a way to prove he's a fake!"

Zhang Wuxun stood beside him, lazily humming in response. He watched as the Zhang family members lined up the boxes containing the heads on the table before turning to Wu Xie, asking, "What's the plan?"

Zhang Haike instantly realized what Wu Xie wanted to say, but before he could stop him, Wu Xie blurted out the whole story.

“I saw this fake Wu Xie in Qiu Dekao’s group outside Zhangjia Ancient Building a year ago.” Wu Xie quickly explained his analysis. “So his claim about the ten-year agreement coming from the snow mountain is definitely a lie.”

The fake Wu Xie who had teased him on the mountain behind the ancient building had the same smug look in his eyes and the same tone of voice as the fake Wu Xie in front of him. In fact, Wu Xie recognized him the moment he saw him.

A hint of a smile appeared in Zhang Wuxun's eyes. He paused deliberately before slowly speaking, "But here, only the two of you know about this. How am I supposed to know if you're trying to frame him and are just trying to shift the blame onto him first?"

Wu Xie was so angry he almost fainted. He was speechless for a moment, thinking it over and over. He realized that he was really in a predicament right now. Even if he said it wasn't poop, no one would believe him.

Zhang Haike sneered from the side, "Don't waste your energy, it's useless. They will only believe their own judgment, and no matter how much you talk, they won't listen to you."

Wu Xie ignored him, thinking to himself, "All you can do now is talk a good game. What good is that? It's useless."

Seeing that he remained silent, Zhang Haike persisted, "If you ask me, someone as useless as you might as well just admit you're an imposter, that way you'll save yourself the trouble later... oh dear—"

He was speaking when a whooshing sound swept past, and he was struck hard on the corner of his mouth. However, this time the blow was much lighter than before, otherwise his teeth would have been knocked out.

Zhang Haixing's vicious voice rang out, "Blatant collusion, do you think I'm dead?"

Zhang Haike turned his head and spat a mouthful of bloody foam onto the ground. His face was swollen as he hissed and gasped for breath, saying indignantly, "Why did you only hit me and not him?"

“You two look exactly alike, who the hell can tell you apart?” Zhang Haixing said nonchalantly.

Zhang Haike was furious, "You fucking biased people!"

Zhang Haixing opened the slingshot again and warned fiercely, "Say one more word and I'll knock your teeth out."

Wu Xie chuckled to himself, thinking, "Serves him right."

Zhang Haixing turned her head and saw it, and cursed, "What are you laughing at? You're the same."

Wu Xie was afraid that this crazy woman might actually hit him too, so he quickly stopped laughing and became serious.

Zhang Wuxun pressed the lighter a few times, lit a cigarette and held it between his fingers, looking somewhat impatient. Seeing this, Zhang Haixing didn't say anything more.

Zhang Longban walked down the steps and, seeing that everything was ready, said, "Let's begin."

Someone stepped forward and removed the black cloth strips from Wu Xie and the other person's eyes. Several lights were turned on in the basement, making it as bright as daytime.

Wu Xie squinted to adjust to the glaring light and saw several tables put together in front of him, with seven or eight square black boxes on them.

Wu Xie didn't know what they were up to. He glanced around and saw that the basement was clean and there was no bloodstains, but for some reason, it had a creepy feeling.

The smell of blood and that familiar pungent odor came from the boxes in front of him. Wu Xie couldn't figure out what was inside from the expressions of the people around him, but it certainly wasn't anything good.

The chair he was sitting on was actually just an ordinary chair, except that armrests that could be tied to it were welded to the side. Wu Xie breathed a slight sigh of relief, thankfully his previous imagination was just a false alarm.

Zhang Long pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the two men, staring directly at their faces. He said, "I have seen your faces. One of you must be wearing a mask, but you have been wearing it for more than twenty years, so your skin and face have completely blended together."

“One of you has definitely had facial surgery to better fit the mask, and one of you has definitely had bone-breaking surgery on both legs to adjust your height.”

"The time is too long ago, and it is impossible to judge the surgical marks by touch. We also do not have professional medical equipment at present. So, theoretically, if we do not test the DNA, you are almost the same person."

Wu Xie frowned and looked at Zhang Wuxun, "What about him? Did he also use this method?"

Zhang Long smiled slightly and said, "He's different from you guys."

If it weren't for the huge difference in hairstyle, Bai Ci's image would actually be closer to Wu Xie's than Zhang Haike's.

However, from the very first sentence he uttered, Zhang Wuxun adhered to the persona of "Bai Ci," remaining indifferent and aloof, never showing his emotions.

Only when one has truly struggled for a long time amidst heart-wrenching carnage and the brink of death, bathed in murderous aura and fighting to the very end, when one is on the verge of death, can one's mind remain extremely calm and restrained.

Only such people possess this kind of indifference, seemingly accepting the fleeting nature of life as if it were nothing, yet remaining detached from the mundane world.

Having witnessed enough horrific ugliness, his vision had become all-seeing; emotions were an extra gift to him, but also the most useless thing.

However, because something was always lingering in his heart, once the catalyst for everything appeared, the desires and soul that he had to abandon in his desperate situation returned to that cold, lifeless body.

He saw the long-lost sunlight and came back to life.

-

Time flies by like drinking ice, ultimately nothing like a grand dream ending in utter despair.

Time may pass, but the heart's passion remains undiminished; through the years, a solitary lamp illuminates the passing years, calling the soul home.

Wu Xie didn't catch the unspoken meaning in Zhang Longban's words, and he continued to ask, "There is an obvious flaw in what you said. How could anyone have known what I would look like in the future twenty years ago?"

“You were already eight or nine years old then, so we can estimate about 80% of what you would look like in the future. Even if there are differences later, they will be minor. With slight modifications to the basics, there won’t be any major flaws,” Zhang Longban said.

"Alright, I can tell you apart in just fifteen minutes, but you'll suffer a bit."

“I can tell you definitively that we will eliminate the fake one, so you must do everything in your power to prove that you are the real ‘Wu Xie’.”

"Wait a minute." Zhang Haike's eyes flickered. "What makes you think you can tell the difference between the real and the fake? You know nothing."

Zhang Longban's face showed a calmness born of long-term control. "Many people have told us that Wu Xie is a very weak person, but we believe that many things can be faked for a long time."

"So neither strength nor intelligence can help me distinguish. We've known for a long time that Wu Sansheng of the Wu family can appear in two places thousands of kilometers apart at the same time. How could I possibly know what's going on between you two?"

At this point, Zhang Long paused for a moment, then smiled sinisterly and said, "Actually, before the two of you, we had already eliminated many fake Wu Xies, so remember, playing tricks won't work."

Wu Xie shivered from the coldness on his face, knowing full well how miserable the fate of those "fake Wu Xie" would be.

His lips trembled as he asked, "What if—I mean, what if Wu Xie really failed your test and was mistakenly killed by you?"

Zhang Wuxun stood to the side with his arms crossed, giving him a calm look, "Don't be afraid, if it's true, everything will be alright."

Wu Xie forced a smile and gave a dry laugh. What else could he say?

Zhang Long raised his hand slightly and waved it gently. The Zhang family members standing behind the table opened the square boxes together.

Wu Xie, afraid of missing something, craned his neck and peered intently inside.

After seeing the true nature of those things, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets, his mind went blank, and all the muscles in his body went limp uncontrollably.

Those are heads—seven heads!
Seven heads with Wu Xie's face on them, neatly arranged!
It was placed inside the box, its eyes closed, facing Wu Xie.

The pungent smell of formaldehyde almost made Wu Xie faint.

Zhang Haike, standing beside Wu Xie, also looked surprised, but he was much calmer than Wu Xie. "What is this?"

“I chopped them down myself, and these are the seven that look the most like them,” Zhang Wuxun replied.

It was as if one could already see Zhang Wuxun picking through piles of "Wu Xie's" corpses, the severed heads and necks still dripping with glaring crimson blood.

Wu Xie's head was throbbing, and his stomach was churning. He forced himself to hold it in and asked with difficulty, "Why are there so many?"

“You have to understand that many things can’t be accomplished on the first try. A perfect copy is often accompanied by many defective products. Defective products can’t be recycled or circulated,” Zhang Longban said. “So they can only exist as comparative data.”

Zhang Wuxun said, "Every winter, a 'Wu Xie' will appear in Motuo, trying to enter the depths of the snow-capped mountains, but they will eventually be discovered and eliminated by my people."

"In order to capture all the 'Wu Xie's' in one fell swoop, I laid bait all over the country during this year of the ten-year deadline. Using my current face and a reason they couldn't refuse, I lured all the 'Wu Xie's' who had already formed in the world here."

"We'll be heading into the snow-capped mountains soon, and you're the last two before the deadline."

“These heads are a stepping stone for one of you. Before one of you becomes Wu Xie, these people also had the potential to become Wu Xie, but obviously, they weren’t so lucky.”

He smiled as he spoke, "After everything is over, the one who stays can go and visit the place where they were buried. After all, not everyone can have such a bizarre and amazing experience."

Wu Xie's head was throbbing with pain. He had a feeling that he was about to get a fever, but he had to keep his mind clear, otherwise he might lose his life and then he would have nowhere to turn to cry.

"Why do all these people have to pretend to look like me?" he asked.

Zhang Longban's face showed an expression of recalling and sorting out. After a long while, he said, "Since you found out that my surname is Zhang, you should also know our background. Forty years ago, during that period, we discovered that someone was conducting a nationwide manhunt for a person named Zhang Qiling. This matter was of great importance, so we began to get involved and discovered a huge conspiracy that left people speechless."

“We watched this conspiracy unfold from the sidelines, and as things became increasingly out of control, we had no choice but to intervene. We quietly intervened in part of it and dealt with some of the people who had been dazzling us.”

Forty years ago, Wu Xie only had one very important memory related to Xiao Ge.

Are these people Zhang Dafoye's men, or are they remnants of the Zhang family that were secretly preserved after the main branch of the Zhang family was destroyed?

Thinking this, Wu Xie asked.

“There are no real Zhang family members left.” Zhang Longban said, “During the internal turmoil on the mainland, one of our international trade systems in Hong Kong was preserved relatively intact.”

Even when talking about something sad, Zhang Longban still exuded an arrogant yet calm demeanor.

It's hard to describe this feeling. Wu Xie had seen it in Xiao Ge before when Mu Yu briefly told him about him. It was a kind of dignified aura that came from within, similar to that of an ancient nobleman.

But it's not aristocracy; it's not the air of extravagance, but a sense of superiority born from years of knowing everything and having it all under control.

“However, the Zhang Dafoye you mentioned, his ancestors no longer belonged to our system a long time ago,” Zhang Longban added.

Wu Xie looked at Zhang Wuxun, who seemed to be watching from the side, and said, "You are a Khampa Luo person. I want to know about the relationship between the overseas Zhang family member I know and the Khampa Luo people that you mentioned before."

He then looked at Zhang Longban and said, "Since you have been observing me for so long, you must know that besides Zhang Qiling, there is another member of the Zhang family by my side."

A strange look appeared on Zhang Longban's face. He hesitated for a few seconds before speaking, "Do you think that information about that Zhang family member overseas is more important than your own safety?"

Wu Xie nodded without hesitation, "Important!"

Good afternoon, let's play fishing.