Chapter 59 Teaming Up

"Hush!"

"Sister Red, keep your voice down!" I gestured toward the outside of the tent.

While Sister Red was still stunned, a man's voice demanded from outside, "Who are you? Where is Lao Xu?"

I hurried over to the curtain and took a cautious peek outside.

Chen Jiansheng was pacing back and forth not far away.

Turning back, I looked at the man named Li and said, "You don't need to ask who I am. I'll just ask you one thing: do you and her want to get out of here?"

Li Zheng frowned. "Answer me first, where is Lao Xu?"

"Brother Li, Lao Xu is fine. This person might be..." Researcher An leaned over and whispered a few words into Li Zheng's ear.

Li Zheng eyed me suspiciously and asked what my plan was.

This man named Li Zheng was an intern who had graduated from a prestigious domestic medical university. Because of his powerful family connections, he had been working in the Hong Kong region for the past few years since graduation. Like Researcher An, they were employed by a private pharmaceutical company—a very famous one whose commercials frequently appeared on television.

As for the so-called teacher who had dispatched them, Researcher An had glossed over the details and avoided speaking directly about it. I could tell as much.

Sister Red pieced together the sequence of events and whispered, "Yunfeng, what are your next steps? I know roughly where the boss and the others are being held. How do you plan to rescue them?"

Hearing this, I let out a sigh of relief.

Since Sister Red had a rough idea of the location, things would be much simpler.

"Come here, this is what we'll do..."

"Will this actually work? What if we get discovered?" Li Zheng raised an eyebrow after hearing my plan.

"Leaving others aside for a moment, that little old man who is less than a meter and a half tall—you've seen him before, right?"

I nodded and said I had seen him once.

Li Zheng lowered his voice and said, "When we first arrived here, we ran into a few monitor lizards. And guess what? That little old man flicked out three flying knives, and every single one of them accurately pierced right through the lizards' heads!"

"What? Flying knives?"

My eyes widened. "Are you kidding me? What era is this, and people still use things like that?"

"Why would I make this up? Every word I'm saying is true. Would I talk nonsense about this if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes?" Li Zheng didn't look like he was lying.

"Just think about it, if we get discovered, wouldn't that guy pierce right through all of us?"

Hearing this, Sister Red gave a soft sigh.

"Yunfeng, what he said is true. I heard my father mention this person when I was a child. My father said that 'Xiao Liutou' of the Su Qin Carrying a Sword style is a senior figure within the Changchun Society. Within the society, my grandfather—'Coal Horse' Eyeball Chen—held the same rank as this man. Although his seniority within the society wasn't the absolute oldest, it was still quite high up."

"This man specializes in three-and-a-half-inch flying knives. My father joked before he died that Xiao Liutou always had an endless supply of throwing knives on him, and ordinary people could never get close to him. If our plan is discovered by him, we are indeed likely facing grim prospects."

Hearing Sister Red's words, I paced back and forth inside the tent. I didn't trust Li Zheng, but I believed Sister Red.

I had a lot of things on my mind.

It wasn't just about that little old man; there was another problem staring everyone in the face. Even if we used the tactic of hiding in plain sight and teamed up with Researcher An's group to evade those people, where was the way out?

"Boom! Rumble!"

Just as Sister Red finished speaking, rumbling sounds of thunder suddenly echoed from directly above us, clearly audible.

The south saw plenty of rain and little snow. Since Shunde was currently in the transition between spring and summer, thunderstorms were a common occurrence. Listening to the distant thunder rolling through the cave roof overhead, my attention drifted to a large ceramic vat sitting in the corner.

The vat was half-filled with very clear water, which Researcher An's group usually used for washing.

Seeing me stare unblinkingly at the water vat in a daze, Sister Red whispered, "Yunfeng, you don't mean..."

I nodded at Sister Red, pointed upward, and said, "Since it's thundering anyway, let's treat a dead horse like a live one. I want to try. If this method works, we might just find a way out."

"But..." Sister Red trailed off, hesitant.

I understood what Sister Red was thinking. She was probably worried that I didn't possess this kind of skill. I looked young, and I hadn't mentioned having any prior experience in this area.

The method I was talking about might sound unfamiliar to ordinary people, but there were plenty of precedents for it in the old grave-robbing underworld.

In the old days, tomb raiders from the north emphasized looking, smelling, inquiring, and feeling, while those from the south emphasized sniffing, investigating, probing, and striking. The two traditions shared some similarities, but upon closer inspection, differences remained.

When looking at mountains, one dislikes flat terrain. "Looking" meant observing the undulating trends of mountain peaks. Ancient people paid far more attention to yin dwelling feng shui than modern people did, and insiders could spot an exceptionally good feng shui treasure land at a glance.

Regarding "looking," there were also other small tricks. To give just a single example: if someone went to a rural area and saw a patch of farmland where all the other crops were growing vigorously, except for one patch in the middle that looked sickly and stunted, a grave robber would instantly understand. There was a seventy percent probability of an ancient tomb lying beneath that very spot. Ancient tombs contained layers of sealing mud and compacted earth, which affected the crops' ability to absorb rainwater, causing them to grow poorly. This was known as "looking."

Setting aside "smelling" for a moment, let's talk about "inquiring" and "feeling."

"Inquiring" meant asking around—asking the elderly villagers whose families had lived in the area for generations, handing out a few good cigarettes, and listening to these old folks tell local stories and legends. Often, this could yield very useful information. The tomb of King Liangzhuang, the ninth son of the Hongxi Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had its location leaked because a gang of tomb raiders gathered information from an old man in Liang Village.

"Feeling" referred to taking the pulse. In the Northern School, this was further divided into upper feeling and lower feeling. Upper feeling meant determining the entry point—how tomb raiders studied where to drive their Luoyang shovel so they could strike directly into the underground main burial chamber, metaphorically striking straight at the root of the ailment. Lower feeling referred to opening the coffins inside the tomb, which followed strict rules. If the tomb owner's remains were still intact, touching the burial goods had to begin from the head, move down past the head to the torso, and finally end at the feet.

Lastly came "smelling." In this context, "smelling" actually meant "listening"—listening to sounds. This was the method I intended to use to find the exit.

I wanted to use this method because several months ago, when I was chatting idly with Baotou, he had mentioned it to me. I had been very tempted at the time, but because I was still new to the trade, I hadn't had the chance to try it. Baotou had said he was getting old and could no longer pull off this method. To improve the accuracy of this technique, one's hearing had to be exceptionally sharp, which was also a matter of innate talent.

Baotou had told me that some people could make their ears wiggle up and down.

If such people received guidance and training, they were well-suited for grave-robbing. Conversely, no matter how hard others tried, their ears simply wouldn't budge. Baotou said that without that kind of innate talent, a person probably couldn't pull off the art of listening to thunder.

I had been overjoyed when I heard Baotou say that back then, because my ears could do far more than just wiggle.

When I was a kid, I used to do it all the time.

As long as I frowned and exerted a tiny bit of force, I could control my ears to wiggle back and forth, and I could even control them separately—making my left ear move when I wanted it to, and my right ear move independently.

I wondered if this was the so-called talent.