Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 61 The Fat Guy Let It Go

Seeing that the topic wasn't going well, the fat man changed the subject. He couldn't afford to rest, and if he didn't brag a little now, he'd definitely be screwed over by these scoundrels later. He might as well indulge in his bragging for now.

The fat man glanced at Sadipeng, thinking that this kid was the most naive, and then said to him, "Glasses, do you know that place is the best place in the whole country!"

“This…” Sadipeng hesitated a bit after being asked the question.

"Glasses, Northeast! In the forests of Dongbai, you can kill a roe deer by simply pulling it up with a single branch, and you can catch a plump fish by scooping it up with a ladle from the river."

As he spoke, the fat man gestured with his hands, his face full of pride. "The area is rich in resources, and the forests there are especially beautiful."

Sadipeng nodded repeatedly.

The fat man's words displeased Professor Chen, Chu Jian, and Hao Aiguo, who were almost obsessed with the Western Regions. However, Chu Jian didn't say anything; the fat man could say whatever he wanted, it was none of his business.

Just as Hao Aiguo was about to argue with the fat man, Professor Chen stopped him.

However, Professor Chen spoke up, first giving the fat man a kind smile.

Then he glanced at Hu Bayi, Yang Xueli, and Ye Yixin.

He intended to say it to the three of them. He completely ignored Anliman.

"Comrade Xiao Wang, the Western Regions have their own merits. They hold endless secrets to explore and priceless treasures, all of which are ancient cultural heritages with extremely high archaeological research value. The Western Regions are a treasure of the world."

"The Western Regions are simply the most beautiful place in the world."

Professor Chen looked around, the yellow sand appearing like treasure to him, and couldn't help but sigh, "How wonderful!"

Hu Bayi, Yang Xueli, and the others didn't say anything, nor did they agree with Professor Chen's words, as if it were none of their business; it was just a debate between the old man and the fat man.

Professor Chen was always very amiable and spoke very politely, but the fat man felt that the old man was determined to argue with him, so he snorted defiantly, "Why doesn't the Northeast have any heritage? You think it only has forests? There are treasures underneath too. We were there just a while ago..."

Just then, Hu Bayi, seeing that Fatty was about to let something slip, quickly coughed and rinsed his mouth, interrupting Fatty's words. After coughing a few times, he picked up the water bottle, took a sip of water, looked at the sky, and said, "The stars are exceptionally bright tonight!"

The fat man realized he had almost let something slip and exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, yes, the stars are indeed exceptionally bright."

"Fatty, just say it! You guys were still..."

Seeing that the fat man had changed the subject, Sadipeng pressed on relentlessly, "Still what?"

I don't know if he was deliberately pressing me for answers or genuinely eager to learn. We're not stupid; Fatty and his friends understand such profound and mysterious feng shui. What was it again? It easily makes people think of something...?
They were all archaeological team members, and Professor Chen, in particular, narrowed his cloudy eyes slightly, looking at Hu Bayi with a meaningful gaze. Along the way, they had exchanged many words, and Hu Bayi's understanding of feng shui shocked Professor Chen.

However, Hu Ming didn't mention feng shui at all, saying that he wasn't very familiar with it. But Professor Chen knew that Hu Ming didn't want to talk about it, or that he was afraid of being found out.

Professor Chen knew that Hu Ming was wary of him.

In terms of intelligence, how could Professor Chen, a cunning and shrewd man, possibly lose to Hu Bayi and Fatty?
This Sadi Peng is still going on and on. The fat man opened his mouth, somewhat at a loss. "We were just... Lao Hu, can you talk to Glasses about this?"

He simply shifted the blame to Hu Bayi; that's just how Fatty is—he always needs someone else to cover for him.

Hu Bayi was speechless, but he had to cover up the lie. He could only bite the bullet and say, "We heard from our fellow villagers a while ago that the ancient tomb of Empress Xiao in Niuxin Mountain was discovered in Dongbai. It is located at the intersection of Dongbai and Neimeng. We heard that there are many treasures there."

Shirley Yang squinted at Fatty and Huba, a smile appearing in her eyes.

"Brother Hu, how did your fellow villager find out?"

Seeing that Sa Dipeng was still pressing for answers, Hu Bayi was getting a little annoyed, but he still said, "The ancient tomb of Empress Xiao in Niuxin Mountain is very large and needs to be excavated for protection. So the archaeological team hired these villagers as workers, paying them three yuan a day for food and lodging."

Everyone became interested and looked at Hu Bayi, hoping he would continue to tell them something interesting.

After all, just sitting there is boring. "Brother Hu, your fellow villager didn't say what kind of treasures he has? Like stone statues carved like aliens, buildings like pyramids, and landscape paintings from the Spring and Autumn Period. I've heard that there are aliens in landscape paintings from the Spring and Autumn Period." So he wanted to ask about aliens.

Seeing Sadipeng's expression, Hu Bayi couldn't help but chuckle. "I haven't heard of that before, but I can ask around for you later. Let's just fool Sadipeng for now."

At this moment, Professor Chen put away the map, moved to sit down next to Hu Bayi, and since he was sitting on the ground anyway and covered in sand, he smiled and said, "I know what Comrade Hu is talking about. The ancient tomb of Empress Xiao in Niuxin Mountain was in the news a while ago. It's a pity that I couldn't participate in this archaeological excavation."

He then changed the subject, saying, "The news also mentioned that a Liao-Jin general's tomb was discovered there, but the main burial chamber had been destroyed, and the coffin they found was empty. Nothing else was mentioned."

Damn it.

Upon hearing this, Hu Bayi and Fatty were scared half to death, their souls practically floating in their throats. The coffin was empty, and they had no idea what Yingzi had said. Their hearts were filled with unease.

Fortunately, they weren't the ones who dug the tunnel, so there's still room for negotiation. Yingzi probably won't tell anyone; she's a clever and quick-witted girl, very shrewd.

"The Liao and Jin dynasty tombs are connected to the Guandong Fortress, and there are many weapons inside. We've really struck gold this time," Professor Chen continued. "Have you heard about this, Team Leader Hu?"

"Ah, is that so?" Hu Bayi was startled and frightened. He subconsciously glanced at the fat man and saw that the fat man's face had turned pale.

Seeing Hu Bayi's expression, Shirley Yang smiled slightly. Keep pretending, keep pretending.

At that time, the regulations on tomb raiding were not strict, and a large number of ancient tombs were excavated in many places. They would even dig up small mounds. It was the most frenzied era of tomb raiding.

Anliman sat to one side, completely uninterested in the matter, drinking his Ma** wine one sip after another, while Sadipeng, Ye Yixin, and Chu Jian were very interested.

At this moment, Hu Ming, who had been watching from the side, suddenly said, "Of course we know about this, because we've been there ourselves."

Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look at Hu Ming. Hu Bayi then exclaimed in surprise, "Mingzi, you..."

Hu Ming waved his hand and looked at Professor Chen and the others, saying, "We've been there, there's nothing wrong with it."

"There's nothing yet, tell me if you guys are..." Professor Hao was about to get angry at Hu Ming when Professor Chen stopped him.

Yang Xueli also looked at Hu Ming in surprise, wondering why he brought this up directly.

"Hu Bayi, Fatty, and I were all sent-down youth there. We recently returned to our hometown to visit our fellow villagers after we were discharged from the army."

It was around that time that we went on a mountain patrol with a childhood friend. At night, we got lost and ended up in Yeren Gully, where we discovered traces of the Japanese...

Hu Ming changed the story of how they went to Yeren Gully to claim they got lost while patrolling the mountains, entered Yeren Gully, and discovered the Kwantung Army fortress, but did not enter the tomb chamber. Hu Ming said that the passage leading to the tomb chamber had already been destroyed before they even entered it.

"The reason why Lao Hu said that was just now was because he was afraid that others would find out that so many of us went in, and that there were still many empty coffins in the fortress, and that people would say that we took everything out of them. At that time, even if we were in the right, we wouldn't be able to explain ourselves."

If we ruin our reputation as soon as we leave the military, the military will lose face as well.

So the three of us brothers decided to keep this a secret.

"Besides, if we really took all the treasures inside, do you think the three of us brothers would come here?" Hu Ming glanced at the crowd and said.

Hu Bayi then smiled wryly and said, "Indeed, when we went in, we found many coffins and a pair of children's corpses that had been drowned in mercury. Because we couldn't bear to do it, we carried them out and buried them!"

"Damn... I get angry just thinking about what Lao Hu said. Those Japanese are really something else..." Fatty cursed as he thought of the coffins at the Kwantung Army fortress.

At this point, everyone believed Hu Ming's words. After all, just as he said, if the three brothers had really obtained your treasure, would they still have come here to take such a risk?

Yang Xueli glanced at Hu Ming and the other two, and she still felt that the three of them were probably going there to rob a tomb.

(End of this chapter)