I almost ran out of the house and it took me a few minutes to recover from the disgusting scene.

Qiu Dekao was behind me and handed me a bottle of beer and I calmed down after several sips.

“Do you feel anything?”  He asked.

I looked at him and didn"t know what he was asking.  He said: “Chinese people like to beat around the bush. I"m sorry, I have some bad habits. I mean, do you want to cooperate? “

“Cooperate?”

“I also don"t have much time, and then it will be your world. I"m always an outsider in this land, and can"t get any favorable connections so cooperation has always been my choice. You can consider my proposal." Qiu Dekao said.

“You don"t need to sound so grandiose. I know what you mean.”  I said, “What do you want?”

“We all know that four hours into the journey, there is a door. But no matter what method is used, we can"t break through. I can provide all the information to you." Qiu Dekao said, “There is only one condition—you must take one of my men in.”

I thought for a moment.  Pan Zi seemed to want to refuse, so I immediately grabbed him: “Wait a minute, I think it"s acceptable.”

“Master Three, they"re all thugs. We don"t need their information; this condition is of no value to us. “

“Not necessarily.”  I said, “Since Master Qiu said before that he never makes impossible deals, he must have great confidence in his terms. His information should be different from what we thought.”

Qiu Dekao nodded: “My idea is not that simple.  The reason why I want to propose this cooperation is that I don"t want you to make unnecessary sacrifices.  Without this information, at least one of you will die on this four hour journey. “

“That makes no difference to you.” Pan Zi said.

Qiu Dekao smiled and shook his head and said, “Well, you won"t believe anything I say anyway. You have to go in to find out what kind of place this ancient building is.  I"ll prepare four coffins and wait for you to sit down and talk again. “

The conversation ended in discord and Pan Zi gave me a wink. In fact, I really wanted to cooperate, but what Pan Zi said was also reasonable. I had to nod, “Then we"ll talk it over Master Qiu, you go on ahead.”

Pan Zi and I sat by the stream, pondering what the old foreigner said and what we saw.  Pan Zi said: “It seems that this Zhangjia ancient building is extremely strange. I thought that after all the trouble they had been making outside, Qiu Dekao and his men were able to enter the building. Unexpectedly, so many people died in so many days that they couldn"t even find it.”

“Are you sure this ancient building must be in the mountains?” I asked.

“There have been many legends about Shiwan Dashan since ancient times, but only the legend of the Ming Dynasty fire is here, and many things have happened in modern times. In the past 100 years, I don"t know how many people have entered this remote mountain village.  These people must have a purpose, and there must be a lot of clues to the Zhangjia ancient building in these mountains. But I thought you were so distracted just now that you almost ran away. Did you think of something?”

I looked into the distance in the dark—there was a huge no-man"s-land deep in the mountains and forests.

I lit a cigarette and matched the terrible patient I just saw with the shadow I saw in Agui"s house and Brother Chu"s photo before. I told Pan Zi, “This is definitely not a coincidence.  I think there is a possibility that the shadow and the person we just saw may be of the same nature.”

“Tell me more about it.”  Pan Zi obviously didn"t understand.

I said: “We don"t know what happened to the man on the stone path, but a.s.suming he survived by chance, you should be able to imagine what his body would look like.”

Pan Zi nodded. Just now when the man stood up, his body basically melted and the whole thing was very strange. This kind of deformity was absolutely impossible to cure.

I said, “The photo Brother Chu gave me was very similar to the strange shadow I saw on the second floor of Agui"s house, and the posture of that the man just now when he stood up. I believe that in this village, there was someone who suffered the same accident as the man just now, but he survived and became deformed." I smoked a cigarette, coughed, and thought some more, “This man is probably from the archaeological team 20 years ago.”

Pan Zi didn"t say anything and I told him what I had experienced in Banai. But he didn"t know everything, so I was just really sorting it out for myself.

“Suppose, when the archeological team went into the mountains, whether before or after the switch, they carried out archaeological activities on the sh.o.r.e of that mountain lake. With the time and scale spent by that team at that time, they would certainly find something. They may have even entered the cave and met with misfortune. Some died, some survived, and some disappeared.  Then, the people from this team left here, but one of them who they believed had been killed climbed out of the cave by himself. He survived and went back to live in the village." I said, “This man has lived for decades. He knew many secrets and dared not go back to the world outside the village.  He thought he would die in this village, and as a result, what he couldn"t imagine was that the incident was not over. Decades later, the “conscious successor” of the former archaeological team appeared again in this village. “

“Did you make this up yourself?”  Pan Zi said, “How do you explain the photo Brother Chu gave you?”

“The background of that photo was Golmud"s sanatorium and the strange shadow was behind the screen. Little Brother was also found in this village. The timeline is the same. Although I don"t know the specific relationship between them, there are obviously more secrets in this small village than I can imagine." I said.

Pan Zi said: “Then don"t sleep tonight. Let"s ask Agui what"s going on, go to the second floor of his house, and find out about the shadow.”

I shook my head: “No.” I thought of the previous fire at Poker-Face"s “former residence”. Although Uncle Two was evasive to me at that time and hinted that he had set the fire, he didn"t blatantly admit it himself.  I figured this was probably the person who lived in Poker-Face"s “former residence”.  He thought nothing would happen, but when we showed up, he thought it wasn"t over yet and immediately burned down the house and destroyed everything.

So we won"t find anything on the second floor of Agui"s house.  This man wasn"t a poor wretch. After so many years, he still showed a very high vigilance and ability to execute actions.

Why?

During the time Qiu Dekao was here, he must have erased all traces, and at this time, he would definitely not be staying in the village.

If it were me, I would hide in the deep mountains and move near Qiu Dekao"s camp.

“Did you say they found the Zhangjia ancient building?”  Pan Zi asked, “Aren"t the iron-like things they brought out from Zhang Jialou?”

I shook my head.  I didn"t know this person"s position yet, but all his actions showed that he didn"t want the previous things to be exposed, and although I didn"t know whether it was for selfish reasons or not, I didn"t want to expose everything either. But I had a very ominous feeling.

This premonition may have something to do with the burning of Poker-Face"s house.  I was almost able to see those photos, but was distracted by someone in a moment of carelessness and overlooked them.

“Pan Zi, can the team leave without resting first?”  I asked.

“Yes, I picked all these people, and they can withstand three days without sleep.”  Pan Zi said, “Why, what do you think?”

“We need to enter the mountain immediately. I think something might happen.”  I said, “Tell them to rest in the mountains. We must get to the lake before tomorrow night.”

My sudden decision caught everyone by surprise. Fortunately, the deterrent force of Uncle Three was here. In a strange atmosphere, everyone began to pack up the baggage that had been opened and had Agui prepare dogs and mules and set off for the mountain overnight.

Even so, when the mules arrived and we set off, it was almost three o"clock in the morning.  The mountain forest at night was full of mosquitoes and I was extremely tired. At the same time, my heart was alight with anxiety. I knew it might be nothing, but I couldn"t help worrying.

Along the way, I walked in front of the team and followed Agui closely.  He led us with three dogs while Pan Zi and several of the men drove the mules for a long distance.

We didn"t rest until dawn, where we set up the first supply point and marked the way.  After walking through the dense canopy, we saw that not far away was a procession of Qiu Dekao"s men, all big blue tents. We ignored them and went on.

We went all the way there without speaking, and when we arrived at the magic lake, it was already the evening of the second day.  The sun had only one tail, and the calm lake reflected only a faint light, which was extremely dim.

On one side of the lake-sh.o.r.e, the bonfire was blazing brightly and a series of red flames reflected an incredible scene.

Bonfires where meals were being cooked were everywhere, and there were many makeshift shacks covered with thatch between the rocks.  There were twenty or thirty people, mules, dogs, and even ducks, mixed among them.

The radio was playing music, and beer and c.o.ke cans were scattered in the cracks in the rocks.

In the light of the fire, groups in twos and threes played cards in a daze, drinking and smoking, a leisurely and incomparably modern picture.

“The Stone Beach bosses couldn"t lie down in sleeping bags, so they built shacks, and the ducks are raised to eat since it"s too much trouble to bring them in one by one. Each group has caught more than a dozen ducks and raised them in the lake first so they can"t run away." Agui said, “In a few days I will have to get some lounge chairs from the outside. Does the boss want me to get one for you too?”

“Sunbathing.”  Xiao Hua gave me a pat on the back. “People in this line of work are naturally fond of having a good time.”

I looked at a man and a woman— two foreigners— sitting on a big stone beside the lake-sh.o.r.e kissing. I sighed.

No one paid any attention to us. When we entered their camp, everyone looked at us indifferently.  Pan Zi pa.s.sed by a place where beer boxes were piled up and took several cans for us without any protest.

“It seems that we are treated as one of their own.” Pan Zi said, “Qiu Dekao"s f.u.c.king unreliable. There"s not even a sentry.”

“It"s not that he doesn"t have one, they"re just skilled and brave.”  Xiao Hua took a sip of beer and pointed at a place.  I turned to look and saw a spark on a tree in the woods outside the firelight. It seemed that someone was smoking over there.

“Just one?”

“Just one.”  Xiao Hua said, “I think there"s a gun in his hand. He"s got good eyes.”

“Let"s stay away from them.”  Pan Zi said, “It"s very smoky, and there are a lot of people with eyes.”  He pointed to the other side of the lake, which was dark.

As we walked over, everyone was so tired that they laid their equipment down on the ground. Pan Zi kicked them and told them to get up and cut firewood.

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