I silently cursed in my heart as the fat guy heard my movement, suddenly turned around, and showed an embarrassed expression. He immediately said, “Awake? Come, come, I saved some food for you, eat it while it’s hot.”

I glared at him and said, “What did you just say? What’s something I shouldn’t know?”

I had just gotten up, my face probably didn’t look good, and I hated it when others kept things from me. Although I knew that what the fat guy claimed was something I shouldn’t know might be unreliable, I was still very unhappy.

The fat guy startled me and pretended to be confused: “What do you mean I can’t let you know? I said I can’t let you get tired; you must have misheard.”

I spat and sat down beside him, saying, “Enough of that, don’t think you’re my uncle; you can’t fool me. What’s going on? Speak up, or I won’t let this go.”

The fat guy looked at my expression, and I didn’t budge at all, urging him, “Come on, speak! You’ve already let the cat out of the bag, and you still want to hide it from me? If you don’t tell me, we’ll part ways. You know I hate it when others keep things from me; I mean what I say. You either tell me or watch me die right here.”

The fat guy scratched his head: “Damn it, why are you acting like a woman throwing a tantrum, saying you want to die? I’m not telling you for your own good.”

I cursed, “Stop with that; I’ve heard that too many times. I can judge what’s good for me myself. What’s really going on?”

Of course, I was just saying that. I knew the fat guy wasn’t like my uncle; in this situation, he generally wouldn’t hold out. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to stand the atmosphere. The fat guy wasn’t someone particularly stubborn, and I appreciated that about him.

Sure enough, the fat guy glanced at the silent oil bottle, which showed no reaction, and then sighed, saying, “Come with me to see something.”

I couldn’t walk, so the fat guy helped me to the shade. The documents above had already been sorted through, clearly indicating that they had been looked at earlier. The fat guy stacked all the documents together, revealing a flat stone surface underneath. I saw that beneath the documents, on the smooth surface of the giant stone, several large characters were written in black carbon.

It was dark at night, and we were far from the bonfire, so I couldn’t see clearly. The fat guy turned on a miner’s lamp to illuminate it for me. I took a few steps back to read it and was stunned.

It was a sentence:
“We have found the entrance to the Queen Mother’s Palace; there is no turning back once you enter. From now on, farewell forever. Your wish has been fulfilled; do not regret or think of it. This place is dangerous; you should leave quickly and not linger.”

I was dumbfounded. The fat guy behind me said, “I saw this when I was sorting through the documents. I was originally going to cover it up so you wouldn’t see it, to prevent you from getting stuck in a loop… It seems your uncle is determined to die this time, and damn it, he chose to leave you behind forever.”

This was indeed my uncle’s handwriting. Although it wasn’t very neat, after doing rubbings for so many years, I could still recognize his writing habits. The characters were quite rough, clearly written in a very urgent or excited state.

I was a bit taken aback, but strangely, my heart was as calm as water, without any emotions, and my mind was blank. I thought I would feel something, like worry or anger, but I didn’t feel anything at all.

The fat guy thought I was feeling down and patted me, not saying anything. I took a few steps closer, looking at those words, still unable to stir up even a little ripple.

The worry for my uncle’s safety has been worn down during this long process. Although I still hope nothing happens to him, in such an environment, it wouldn’t be surprising if something did occur. I have already come to terms with my own mortality, so death is no longer a concern for us here.

It’s like war; when everyone has a high chance of dying, people are only concerned about the outcome, not the safety of any individual.

I suddenly feel that I can understand my uncle. This statement here is his greatest care for me. If we were to switch places, and I were chasing a secret I couldn’t tell my nephew, with danger ahead, he would not want me to take the risk, nor could he reveal the truth to me. In that case, this would be the best approach.

Moreover, if it were the old me, I might have been in tears, lamenting that my uncle would never return, and I would carry that regret until time dulled it.

The problem is that I am no longer the person I used to be. What I am pursuing now is the immense mystery that lies beyond these events, rather than my uncle himself. Therefore, these words only mean one thing to me: my uncle is still alive, and he has found a way. The situation is no different from before, which might explain why my heart is as calm as still water.

I don’t know if this is a kind of progress or just my exhaustion; perhaps these are all excuses, but my uncle has already gone far, far away from me.

I silently watched for a while before turning around. The fat guy came over, hooked his arm around my shoulder, and comforted me, saying, “I told you not to look. If you look, you’re just adding to your worries for nothing. There’s nothing you can do about this, so don’t think too much about it.”

I didn’t want to explain my state of mind to him, so I didn’t respond. He pulled me back to the campfire and handed me a bowl of something to eat.

It was still boiled compressed biscuit mush. I had no appetite and ate slowly. The fat guy continued to comfort me, saying, “Your uncle is not an ordinary person. Extraordinary people must have extraordinary outcomes; it’s destined. Besides, with his vast experience, he might still come back.”

I sighed and said I was fine; I had gotten used to this kind of thing. What I was thinking about now was where the entrance was.

When I was in the rainforest, I had foreseen that I might not see my uncle again because the red smoke represented danger. Therefore, the one producing the smoke would not stay in the smoking area. At that time, I speculated that my uncle might have left after signaling with smoke.

Now it seems that most of my predictions were correct, but I didn’t expect my uncle to have found the entrance, which means their location is completely unknown.

My uncle set up camp here and discovered the entrance. Then, they should have started organizing their gear and calmly left this place, leaving behind this deserted campsite. To prevent me from following, he lit the red smoke and left a message here before entering the entrance and not returning.

He said there would be no way back from this journey. My uncle is not someone who would resign himself to fate; this entrance must be extremely dangerous, to the extent that he made a judgment that he would surely die. Or perhaps there are some reasons that make it impossible to return once you enter this place.

It seems that things are like this.

According to this judgment, the entrance should be nearby, perhaps even within this temple. I don’t know how much information my uncle has, but he shouldn’t be searching blindly; he must be following some clues or traces, something we are completely unaware of. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t make some deductions.

The fat man said, “Then let’s go look around for clues; maybe we can discover something. Right, little brother?” He glanced at the dark oil bottle, clearly hoping he would reassure me, but the dark oil bottle shook his head. I looked at him, and he said, “Since Wu Sanxing wrote this, he must be confident that we won’t find that place.”

“Why?” the fat man protested.

The dark oil bottle stared at the campfire and said calmly, “Wu Sanxing is meticulous; he knows that if we see the message, we will inevitably realize the entrance is nearby. He doesn’t want Wu Xie to take risks, so if the entrance were easy to find, he certainly wouldn’t have left a written message. The fact that he did leave it indicates that this entrance must be extremely difficult to discover, or even if we find it, we may not be able to enter.”

What he said made sense. I sighed, thinking that even if there were clues, my uncle might have destroyed them for safety’s sake.

The fat man grumbled, “So we came all this way for nothing?”

The dark oil bottle shook his head. “For you, this might actually be a good thing.”

“You fat爷我 ran over a thousand kilometers, crossed the Gobi, traversed the desert, and entered the rainforest to get here, then just to sunbathe and go back? How is that a good thing?” The fat man leaned against a rock, scratching his head. “There’s nothing but junk here; this time, I really feel like I’ve been cheated.”

The dark oil bottle looked up and said, “However, it doesn’t mean there’s absolutely no way to find the entrance.” He glanced around the campsite. “Moreover, the situation here is very strange; it doesn’t seem like a simple withdrawal. Wu Sanxing’s words may not be trustworthy.”