If I hadn’t been dazed from the fall, I might have suggested that we go take a look, but seeing the deep darkness in the distance, I held my tongue. The胖子 (Fatty) didn’t sense my fear and asked, “You have a point. So where are they going? Why don’t we go take a look? After all, this river isn’t that long.”

Panzi immediately shook his head in disagreement, saying, “We can’t afford to waste any time. Young Master San is injured; if something else happens, we won’t even be able to run. We shouldn’t spend our energy here. We still don’t know what the message from San Ye means. Instead of complicating things, we should take this opportunity to think carefully about where the entrance to the underground palace that San Shu mentioned is. Besides, those strange birds don’t seem to be flying down.”

This was exactly what I thought, so I nodded immediately. Then I coughed a few times to indicate that I was seriously injured. Shunzi also remained silent. Seeing us like this, Fatty couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated. He shrugged and said, “Forget it then.”

Shunzi led them up the stone statue channel, and we returned to the place where I had fallen. Panzi took out a wind lamp from his backpack, lit it to warm us up, and I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything for almost a day. My stomach immediately growled, so the four of us sat down to eat a bit of dry food.

When we opened our luggage, we discovered that most of our food was actually in the bags of Chen Pi Ah Si’s group. The food we had on us was clearly insufficient, especially for Fatty, who had basically run out of food after this meal. However, almost all the equipment was with us, like ropes, grappling hooks, fire-starting tools, and other essential exploration gear.

Panzi checked and said to us, “It seems that Chen Pi Ah Si put some thought into distributing our gear. All the equipment is carried by our people, while the food is carried by theirs. This way, neither side can let the other down, and neither can run off on their own. I really didn’t notice this tactic.”

Fatty mocked, “What the hell did you notice? Fortunately, I never expected anything from you and your San Ye. Every time I run into you guys, it’s bound to be a losing deal. I predicted this day would come back on the train.”

Panzi spat and said, “Shut up with your sarcastic remarks. You’re not exactly a good person either. If you hadn’t caused us trouble, I’d be grateful just for that.”

Shunzi, worried that they would start arguing, said, “Gentlemen, if you have the energy to argue, why not think about what your San Shu meant by that statement?”

I also gave Panzi a nudge to calm him down and asked Shunzi, “When San Shu came to find you, what was the situation? You need to tell us in detail. That one sentence is too vague; we haven’t even entered the royal tomb yet, and we really don’t know how to think about it.”

As soon as I asked, Fatty and Panzi quieted down and turned to look at Shunzi together.

Shunzi sat down, furrowing his brows and said, “That was probably about a month ago. At that time, I was also taking some guests up the mountain, though not as intensely as you guys did. We were just walking around, looking at the snow-capped mountains. Your third uncle was mingling among those guests, and later, when we were spending the night on the mountain, he suddenly called me out, looking all mysterious. He said he wanted to go up the snow mountain alone and told me not to mention it to anyone else. Then he gave me some money and asked me to wait for someone named Wu Xie at the foot of the mountain around this time. He said as long as I could bring you guys to him, I would get a big sum of money. That’s the hint he gave me at that time, and he emphasized that it was ‘you’—once I heard it, I understood immediately.”

“Did he really say that?” I asked.

Shunzi nodded, his expression very certain.

I found it a bit strange; it seemed like he was emphasizing the listener rather than the content of the message. As long as it was ‘me’ who heard it, I could understand right away. Did I have some quality that set me apart from the others?

“How did you know to tell us all this after getting rid of Chen Pi and A Si?” Fatty asked.

Shunzi chuckled, revealing a completely different expression than before, and said, “I’m not an idiot. Your third uncle told me how many of you there were, saying that if the number was wrong, I could only pass the message to one person. The moment I saw you all, I felt that the atmosphere of your group was off, as if there were two different factions mixed together. At that time, I didn’t know what you were up to, so I had to play dumb and observe. After all, I had taken someone else’s money, and if things went wrong, it would be bad for you.”

Looking at Shunzi’s expression, I sensed a cunningness, and a knot formed in my heart. So it turned out that his earlier simplicity had been an act? Wow, people really can’t be judged by appearances. No wonder he became more composed as we went further; it was because he revealed his true self.

Panzi, being an old hand at this, suddenly turned serious and said, “It can’t be that simple. You seem to know more, don’t you?”

Shunzi smiled faintly and said, “I served in the military here before I retired, and I’ve walked the snow mountains a lot. My parents are ethnic Xian people who fled from North Korea during the 718 turmoil and hid in the mountains for several years. There are many legends about this mountain from ancient times, and we’ve encountered all sorts of strange events. Every year, countless people come into the mountains with various odd purposes. If you say I don’t know anything, I do know some things. So when I saw you heading towards this mountain, I guessed what you were up to.” He paused and gave me a meaningful look, “If it weren’t for your third uncle’s instructions, I definitely wouldn’t have let you go further at that spot where the avalanche occurred.”

Panzi looked at me, then at Fatty, and suddenly couldn’t find the words.

After a long pause, Panzi took out a cigarette and handed it over, saying, “Shunzi, I didn’t recognize the mountain for what it is. Now that we’re on the same side, here, have a smoke.”

Shunzi didn’t take the cigarette, looked up and said, “I’m a straightforward person, so let’s skip the small talk. I’m helping you not because I like you, but because I’m after money. That Third Uncle of yours promised me a sum that would be enough for two lifetimes, so I have to bring you in front of him no matter what. You should quickly figure out what that phrase means.”

Panzi felt awkward because of him and had no choice but to put the cigarette in his mouth, giving me a wry smile.

I asked Shunzi, “Can you repeat Third Uncle’s exact words from back then?”

Shunzi recalled and said, “He seemed to say this: ‘When Wu Xie arrives, tell him that the entrance to the underground palace is in the place where Xuanwu rejects corpses.’ Then I asked him what it meant, and he said just to say that, and if it was you, you’d definitely know.”

“It’s still the same,” I sighed, thinking that the key part of the whole sentence was ‘I’, but the truth is I didn’t understand that sentence at all. Where did Third Uncle get this confidence in me? Wasn’t he just setting me up?

Everyone looked at me with eager expressions, but I shook my head and sighed deeply.

Fatty, seeing that I was confused, asked, “Could it be that this hint is related to something that happened in your family before? Something only the Wu family would know?”

“That’s not quite right,” I replied. “I know Third Uncle’s personality. He’s not the type to give a super complicated code and then make us guess. Since he had Shunzi relay the message, it must be very clear. There must be some misunderstanding on our part.”

“However, since Third Uncle said it’s something ‘you’ can understand, not ‘we’, it must be a code related to a commonality between you two,” Panzi said. “Why not think about what commonalities you share?”

I felt that this was also somewhat unreliable, but at that moment, I had no other options, so I began to ponder.

The common points between me and Third Uncle aren’t many, and they must be specific to us. If Panzi and the others share them, they don’t count. For example, we are all men, and since Panzi is also a man, that doesn’t count. If we think about it, we all share the surname Wu, which should count as one, but that probably has nothing to do with the code.

Another thing is that we both have a somewhat offbeat reaction to women, but that’s quite vague; he would never admit it. Aside from that, if we talk about common points, the only thing is that both of us live in Hangzhou, and our main living area is Hangzhou.

Wait! When I thought of this, I suddenly felt a jolt, as if something had clicked in my mind. A spark of inspiration suddenly appeared in my brain—

‘Xuanwu rejects corpses’—Third Uncle’s hint—Hangzhou—’I’ would definitely understand—

I suddenly realized that these four characters actually meant this!