The fat man was acting mysteriously, while the quiet oil bottle remained silent. I didn’t know what the fat man was up to, but the oil bottle’s attitude suggested that he didn’t deny what the fat man was saying. My confusion reached its peak, and I decided to put aside my concerns for now and just observe.

I thought that way, but my body wasn’t cooperating. Supported by the fat man, I trembled and had to cling tightly to his neck to avoid falling.

The cave we were in was only about thirty square meters, and there wasn’t much to see. The torch illuminated the area, revealing only traces of manual excavation, with nothing else of note. The only special feature was the dark black markings on the ceiling, indicating the presence of some minerals in the rock.

I followed him as we waded through the water, crouching down as we passed through a passage that looked like it had been cut with a knife, arriving in another chamber on the other side.

This place was a hidden gem, at least twice the size of the previous cave. It was filled with all sorts of things: rusty tools, wooden racks, baskets, and piles of blue bricks, along with many strange stone mill-like objects that I didn’t recognize.

To my surprise, there were several tall racks in one corner of the cave, reaching up to the ceiling, and on them lay iron statues. The ceiling and walls of the cave were covered in dark green stripes, which became even clearer under the spotlight, emitting a glass-like glow.

In the middle of the cave, there was an upside-down jar with a statue of a deity on top, though I couldn’t tell which god it was. In front of it were a few simple incense burners.

“What the hell is this place?” I exclaimed, looking around what seemed like an unfinished stone chamber, with tools and raw materials piled up.

“We suspect this is a mine,” the fat man said.

“A mine?” I looked around, “What kind of mine?” Then I glanced at the iron statues and asked, “Could it be an iron mine?”

The fat man shook his head, “It’s worth much more than an iron mine! Come look.” He pointed to the dark green stripes above, “Can you tell what kind of stone this is? Think about what is most abundant in this area.”

I wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but I touched the stone’s texture and found it surprisingly smooth and warm, almost like a girl’s face. He wasn’t exaggerating; it was indeed unusual. Then it hit me, and a thought flashed through my mind, “Wait! Could these stones be… jade?”

The fat man nodded, “I’m no expert, but in my opinion, even if it’s not jade, it wouldn’t be low-quality stone. This should be an excellent jade vein.”

I gasped, my mind racing as I recalled the strange phenomena I had seen at the stone fortress at the bottom of the lake.

It seemed this cave was also part of that strange ancient building underground. I had always suspected there was something in these mountains, thinking it might be an ancient tomb, but I never expected it to be a jade mine.

This was unexpected, but it made sense now.

There was a hidden jade mine here, similar to the ancient tomb, but the value of a jade mine was incomparable to that of an ancient tomb. Gold has a price, but jade is priceless; owning a jade mine could make one as wealthy as a nation.

With this realization, everything about the tight security measures above suddenly made sense—if it was to secretly mine jade, it would be worth building not just a building, but even a castle.

Building this ancient structure here, there might even be shares held by the Yao King, who uses privileges to enforce protection. The value of the jade mine is too great; no regime could resist such temptation.

As for why it needs to be hidden? It’s simple: if any other forces were to find out, they would definitely send troops to attack immediately. How much opium could be bought with this thing if it were turned into money?

“I fear that what’s happening here is related to the jade mine. For something like this, terrifying conspiracies and strange occurrences wouldn’t be surprising; the value is just too immense,” the fat man said.

“What about those things?” I asked, looking at the iron frames in the corner with a dozen iron statues lying on them. “Are these tools too? Did they find the foreman too harsh, so they shaped the hoes to look like the foreman and smashed them every day?”

The fat man smiled faintly, as if he lacked the energy for jokes. “I’m not sure, but look at these things; they are all cast iron tools, and there are iron supports beside them. I think these iron statues are like what we use for large cargo; they are used to transport things. The ore is dug out and sealed directly in the iron statues to be taken away, then melted down locally. Back then, in the chaos of war, this method could prevent accidents on the road that might shatter the jade. Plus, with the carved patterns on them, they could resist rust, and after being broken, they could be said to have been collected for smelting iron to make bullets.”

“Oh!” I gasped, realizing it was like that.

There are ways for snakes, and people like them understand immediately. I had previously felt incredibly puzzled and was somewhat disappointed, thinking there was a deeper story behind these iron statues.

But then I thought again and felt something was off. Did the archaeological teams salvage these iron pieces just to recover the jade inside?

That seemed unlikely; although jade is valuable, given the national strength at that time, it shouldn’t have been poor enough to send archaeological teams to salvage it. Could these things have other uses?

The fat man just smiled, his expression not relaxed. As I walked slowly around the cave walls, I continued, “However, looking at the scale of this mine, it seems they haven’t excavated much; the mining breadth isn’t high!”

“The scale of the jade mine was never going to be large; that’s not the key issue,” he corrected me, helping me stand upright. “What I want you to see, my dear friend, is not these things.”

I turned to look around again and didn’t see anything else that caught my attention, so I asked, “What do you want me to see?”

The fat man raised the torch and asked, “Don’t you realize? There are no exits here.”

I was suddenly shocked. Just a second ago, I grasped his implication, and in the next moment, it hit me. I hurriedly scanned the entire cave, and when I looked again, cold sweat broke out.

Indeed, these two caves were small, and from what I had seen along the way, there was no place to exit.

The small cave next door, about thirty square meters, was very simple and definitely had no exit. This one was slightly larger, but it also had no openings.

My mind was a bit chaotic, so I immediately turned around. The fat man supported me and we walked through both caves again. This time, I focused entirely on finding an exit. After looking around, I felt a chill all over and could hardly speak.

The fat man was right; there were no exits here. All the cave walls were solid rock, not even a crack could be found.

“What’s going on?” I looked at him. “How could this be?”

He had a bitter expression and remained silent.

I instinctively looked up at the top of the cave. There were no walls, so it was possible that it was at the cave’s ceiling. The ceiling was very low; I could reach up and touch it. After looking around, I found it was just like the rock walls—nothing there, just a solid block of stone.

The胖子 let out a sigh and waved his hand, saying, “No need to look anymore! We’ve searched every inch and every corner, inside and out, top to bottom. These two caves are completely sealed off.”

I couldn’t accept it. “How is that possible?”

The胖子 sighed again and said, “I don’t know, but it’s the truth. This cave seems to be…,” he paused, his tone a bit hesitant, “completely sealed off, as if it was excavated from the inside.”

I was taken aback and shook my head. “That’s absolutely impossible. If that were the case, how did we get in?”

He had me lean against the rock and looked at the dull oil bottle that followed him, shaking his head and saying, “I don’t know.”