Border Cook

The fire flashed and quickly disappeared.

After a moment, there was fire again, but it also disappeared quickly.

Such flames appeared many times, somewhat like the fireflies seen on the grass in summer, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, flickering.

Xiao Luoan also saw the flashes of fire several times, frowning, "It looks like a torch, could it be a hunter going into the mountains to hunt?"

"If hunters roost at night, they will probably light a fire to scare away wild animals, but most of them will not move around." Lu Qi Yan said.

This means that hunters have to ambush wild animals during the day and need to rest and recover their strength at night, especially in the cold winter months.

Secondly, when wild animals appear at night, they are much more ferocious than humans because of their night vision and other abilities. Most people will find a safe place to hide instead of walking around and giving wild animals an opportunity to take advantage of them.

Those who walk back and forth like this are most likely not hunters.

And in Meiling, it might be someone from the mine!

"Let's go and take a look." Lu Qiyan walked away.

The others followed along with Wu Jin.

In the wild mountains and forests, the people walked cautiously. As they could not burn torches for lighting, their speed became somewhat slow.

Fortunately, all of them have good skills and physical strength, and their speed is more than twice as fast as that of ordinary people.

They reached the ridge from the hillside where they were, and then walked from the ridge to another mountain. When they reached the distance where the torches had just appeared, Wu Jin stopped first.

Seeing this, Lu Qiyan hurriedly stopped Xiao Luoan and others.

Seeing that everyone stopped, Wu Jin lowered his head and sniffed around. When he found something unusual, he didn't bark, but just bit Lu Qiyan's trouser leg.

Lu Qiyan followed Wu Jin and found a piece of oil paper and several messy but fresh-looking bones on the ground.

After examining it for a long time under the faint light of the stars and the fire starter, Lu Qiyan finally figured out that it was a chicken bone. There was also a red seal printed on the small piece of oil paper. Although the seal was not complete, the word "聚" (gathering) could be seen.

This is……

Lu Qiyan frowned, "Juxian Pavilion."

"Juxian Pavilion is the most expensive restaurant in Ronghe Mansion. Hunters who make a living by hunting will basically not go there for wine and food, let alone buy the extremely expensive smoked chicken there and bring it to the mountains to eat."

Xiao Luoan was a little excited. "This must have been eaten by the people in the mine. And judging from the appearance, they must have eaten it secretly and were afraid of being discovered, so they threw it here."

There are wild animals in the mountains, and such chicken bones will soon be smelled by the small wild animals and swallowed up.

This is probably the reason why those people dared to throw the bones here after stealing the food.

And the fact that they can steal food here means that this place is not far from where they are.

Lu Qiyan patted Wu Jin's forehead, signaling it to continue searching.

Wu Jin continued to sniff around and moved forward based on the smell he smelled.

Lu Qiyan, Xiao Luoan and others did not continue to follow, but deliberately kept a certain distance from Wu Jin to avoid being noticed.

Wu Jin followed his sense of smell and soon found another thing, a completely burned torch that was thrown away. He continued forward and found a strange place.

There were traces of excavation on it, and the soil was loose, as if it was a pit that had been recently excavated and then completely filled.

While the soil was still fresh, Lu Qiyan, Xiao Luoan and others began digging. When they dug about half a foot deep, they touched coarse cloth clothes.

It was obvious that a body was buried here.

It is unknown whether the body belonged to those people in the mine or was brought to the mine to work as a laborer.

At this point, Lu Qiyan and others did not continue digging, but instead covered the soil again to avoid being noticed.

Continue walking forward and you will see a small forest of steles.

The tombstones are next to each other, some are big, some are small, arranged in an orderly manner, and there are words engraved on each tombstone.

The deceased husband, the deceased father, the deceased wife... each one is different, and the tombstones have been exposed to wind, sun and rain, and are already mottled and dilapidated.

On a night like this, such a forest of tombstones looks eerie and terrifying.

Xiao Luoan was also stunned for a moment, then he bowed respectfully towards the tombstone and silently recited something in his heart.

The place where the deceased is laid to rest should be quiet and undisturbed. They have their reasons and do not mean to disturb us. We hope you will not blame us.

Seeing this situation, Lu Qiyan frowned and thought for a long time. After carefully observing all the tombstones one by one, his face suddenly changed. He hurriedly pulled Xiao Luoan and others back, "Get out of here quickly!"

Xiao Luoan and the others were confused, even Wu Jin was a little dazed at this moment.

But seeing that Lu Qiyan looked very nervous, he did not ask any questions and hurriedly followed Lu Qiyan to the side.

It was not until several people hid behind the rocks and were quite far away from the stele forest that Xiao Luoan lowered his voice and asked, "Commander Lu, is there anything wrong with the stele forest?"

"I just looked at the forest of tombstones. There are twelve tombstones in total, but the distance between each tombstone is too close. The distance between the front and back is not enough to put down the coffin. Although there are bulging graves behind the tombstones, they are overgrown with weeds. It looks like no one has taken care of it for a long time."

Lu Qiyan explained, "There are no candles or offerings in front of the tombstone. It's obvious that no one has come to sweep and worship for a long time."

When it comes to this, Xiao Luoan becomes more confused.

Isn't it logical that it hasn't been taken care of and no one has been worshipping it for a long time?

Lu Qiyan continued, "But I just looked carefully and found that the edges of two of the twelve tombstones were very smooth and shiny, as if they were often touched by someone. There was also the least dust on these two tombstones."

"It doesn't make sense that someone would often touch the tombstones, but no one would pay respect to or tidy up the graves. So I wonder what kind of mechanism these two tombstones have. There must be an entrance or exit near the tombstones."

In other words, the fire that suddenly appeared and disappeared just now was because of this.

That's why Lu Qiyan hurriedly took them away from this place, in order to prevent someone from suddenly coming out or someone outside from trying to enter from here and discovering them.

"So that's how it is." Xiao Luoan pondered, and then widened his eyes, "If that's the case, then their mine is inside the cave?"

“Even if they are not in the cave, at least there must be a cave inside, and it must be their hiding place.”

Lu Qiyan pointed to the mountains in the distance and said, "From here, the mountains over there are steep and dangerous. If you want to get through here, you need to climb over the mountain in front of you to get there. But if you use the cave as a passage, it will be much more convenient." (End of this chapter)