Artifact Report

Chapter 127 Jin Xueli: Three people come together and chat about family matters
Han Liuyue stared at the coffin and thought for a while.

When she raised her head again, the cloud of doubt had vanished from her face. She smiled with sparkling eyes and said, "Yes, it came from inside!"

...Why are you so happy?
"Is he not dead?"

Jin Xueli involuntarily took a step back, countless speculations flashing through her mind. "Did they bury someone else alive?"

"Don't be afraid, I'm here, just step back," Han Liuyue said, raising the axe in his hand.

Wait a moment--

Amid the resounding sound of the axe smashing the coffin and the flying wood chips, Han Liuyue's next words danced in the air like musical notes: "Open it and take a look. You'll know, won't you?"

Should we say she's reckless or direct? Who knows what's inside when she opens it?
Also, why does she seem to be looking forward to it?
However, even if Jin Xueli had any opinions or protests about this, she would forget them all in the next second.

A flash of skin-colored shadow appeared through the crack in the coffin lid—as if someone inside was frightened and trying to avoid the axe.

"Hurry up and smash it,"

Jin Xueli immediately abandoned her previous stance and urged, "There really is a living thing in there!"

Han Liuyue was very strong and powerful. She put all her strength into it and smashed a hole with jagged and sharp edges in the upper part of the coffin with just three or four hits. She grabbed a wooden board that was sticking out like a spike, exerted force, and actually pried it open with her bare hands, expanding the hole in the thick board to the size of a human head.

...The condition for entering Kai's family is that you have to be powerful enough?
Jin Xueli stretched her neck and took a look into the cave entrance.

In the tomb chamber where only a construction site lamp was placed, the hole below was dark and blurry. As the two of them stared, a flesh-colored shadow slowly emerged at the edge of the hole, becoming wider and wider.

A head, like a mushroom after rain, slowly emerged from the hole.

He seemed unaware of the splinters of wood piercing his head; accompanied by the occasional sound of breaking wood, a complete human face soon emerged from the coffin.

He was a man with a small head and face, his half-gray hair was covered with sawdust; his skin was loose, and every wrinkle revealed seriousness.

Two people with one face, looking at each other.

Jin Xueli glanced at Han Liuyue; Han Liuyue caught her gaze and passed it to the head of the coffin, like a relay of glances.

After a few seconds of silence, Han Liuyue finally scratched her head sheepishly and laughed, "Um, Jin Xueli, keep an eye on him... I'll use my phone to search for photos of Wei Xilai."

"You don't know him either?"

Jin Xueli breathed a sigh of relief for no apparent reason: "I was just thinking, I've heard his name many times, but what about his face? It's really..."

"Yeah, yeah," Han Liuyue was delighted to have a soulmate. She pulled out her phone and said, "He doesn't appear in the news very often. If he does, it's none of my business."

"He's not a beautiful star, nor a tech tycoon who loves to show off. Who would bother to remember the face of a skinny old man? Even if I remember him, he won't pay me."

"Take a look, and I know you can understand me." Han Liuyue lowered her head and opened the webpage, saying, "If there was only one dead person in the coffin, I would know it was Wei Xilai without searching, but now..."

"You are so rude,"

The head suddenly spoke, his voice so low that Jin Xueli almost missed it. "Digging my grave is fine, but is now the time to discuss whether I'm a good person? Please let me out right now."

"You don't sound like a living person who was buried by mistake."

Han Liuyue lowered her head, typing on the screen with her fingers. "Let me see. Oh, there are photos..."

"How about it?"

Han Liuyue suddenly looked up and flashed her phone at Jin Xueli. "Look, it's really him. He looks like a stranger."

The two looked at each other for a second or two, and then simultaneously fixed their eyes on the head sticking out of the coffin lid.

"...Vulture?" Jin Xueli said softly.

Han Liuyue didn't know how much information she had received from Chai Si, so she was not surprised at all when she heard this.

She also seemed to associate Vesile with "vulture," saying, "They couldn't possibly bury Vesile alive... So, it must be a vulture."

Jin Xueli felt that her brain was like a ball of yarn that had been played with by a cat for too long, and she was a little confused.

"But...why is there a vulture here?"

Chai Si told her that the change in the behavior of the "Vulture" was caused by Wesilai using a false image - the previous "Vulture" was just determined to become a dead person.

Now, the Vulture can completely become a target without waiting for anyone to die, and thanks to the rumors spread by Vesile, it can even enter Blackmore City. "It entered Blackmore City. Does that mean... Vesile has always been a vulture? No, the vulture's ability to transform into a human started on the 17th, and Vesile died on the 16th..."

"Don't overthink it," Han Liuyue came over and patted her shoulder, "I'm here. I'll figure it out."

Jin Xueli glanced at her gratefully.

As expected of the person Chai Si said was "reliable", he really was—

Before she could finish her thought, she saw Han Liuyue raising the axe again.

"and many more--"

It was just like the game of whack-a-mole in the arcade. The axe ate into the coffin lid heavily and sank into the hole. After a dull thud, the head was smashed away.

"You only have one trick?" Jin Xueli stared at the spot where the axe and the coffin met and asked, "How can you call this a method of understanding things?"

"If you can survive being hit by an axe, you are a vulture."

Han Liuyue flashed her a toothpaste commercial smile and said, "If it's Vesile himself—how could it be him? If it's him, he's officially dead anyway, right? If he dies again, he'll have earned the title."

Jin Xueli tilted her head and thought for a moment. "You, you do make a lot of sense..."

"Brother Chai also said that there's no need to complicate many things. Oh, what's that razor?" Han Liuyue picked up the axe, pointed it at the hole in the coffin, and said, "I'll do it again—"

"Don't come again," a muffled voice came from under the coffin lid, "...I am a vulture."

Eh?
Jin Xueli was extremely shocked. She rushed to the side of the coffin and looked into the hole while saying, "This, this is not right. Shouldn't you believe wholeheartedly that you are Wei Xilai?"

"I also hope that I am," the voice from under the coffin said, "but when I opened my eyes, the environment and conditions no longer allowed me to think that I was the real Vesile."

"why?"

Jin Xueli was increasingly puzzled, and she explained to Han Liuyue, "The one who became me at the beginning, even when standing face to face with me, could rationalize everything and think that I was the vulture who was desperately trying to kill me."

"Really? What a lucky companion." The vulture in the coffin said dryly. "I'm different. When I opened my eyes, I was already in the coffin."

"So you know you're a vulture?"

"There's no way I can't know."

It even sighed in a very human way.

"Once I become the target, the emotions, experiences, and memories in the target's mind will be copied into my mind. So... I clearly retain the memory of Vesile's final death."

The two people outside the coffin couldn't help but look at each other.

As if afraid the living outside wouldn't believe it, it added, "The last thing he saw was the study carpet pressed against his face, and then everything went dark. I knew he was dead. If 'Wesile' is dead, then who am I? If you think hard about this, you'll know the answer."

"Don't you think you've been resurrected?" Han Liuyue asked, still unwilling to retract the axe, eager to try.

"At first, I did think I was resurrected."

It felt a bit strange that the vulture, which had transformed into the appearance of Vesile, could now communicate normally like a human. "But when you broke the coffin lid just now, light shone in, and this fantasy was shattered. My worst guess came true."

"What is it?"

Something inside the coffin moved slightly, making a noise. The coffin was large, and Vesile was small, so he kept bumping into the corners.

Wait a minute... Jin Xueli suddenly understood something.

"Because next to me lies the real body of Vesile."

The vulture sighed again.

"No wonder I could still copy him even when I opened my eyes in the coffin... because he was right on my back."

　It's actually quite normal that I don't know what Vesile looks like. When I was writing this, I tried to recall what Buffett looked like, but I couldn't recall what he looked like...

　　I'm sorry, Teacher Ba.

　　Oh right! I have an idea. Just writing a thank you chapter is boring. Considering I owe a lot of extra chapters, why not let the characters in the story express my gratitude on my behalf? I'll do it this Saturday...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)