Traveling Through the Grave Robbers' Chronicles: Starting from Meeting You

In the dead of night, in a small mountain village in Linyi, Shandong, Wu Sanxing received a black-and-white photo of the archaeological team taking a group photo at the Xisha Wharf.

Under the flickering incandescent light, his eyes were fixed on the old acquaintances in the photos. Now, except for him, they all seemed to have completely disappeared from this world, with no news of them.

When the sky was just getting light, Wu Sansheng packed his bags, left Pan Zi to look after Wu Xie, and took Da Kui with him to leave the quiet mountain village.

"It's on fire! The mountain behind us is on fire! Everyone, go put it out!"

As the sun rises, the villagers knock on the copper basins in their hands with wooden sticks. The huge knocking sounds echo throughout the small village, breaking the tranquility of the village.

Wu Xie and Fatty were awakened from their sleep. The shouting outside reminded them of the incident yesterday when they set fire to the corpse.

"Oh no! Could it be that the fire has spread out of the cave and set the mountain on fire?"

Wu Xie thought of the endless mountains, and hurriedly got up, dressed and got out of bed. As soon as he and Fatty rushed out, they saw Pan Zi carrying a bucket of water and preparing to put out the fire.

"Pan Zi, let's go together!"

The fat man originally wanted to say that the fire was their fault, but as there were people coming and going nearby, he did not say it out loud.

The three followed the villagers up the mountain and worked for a whole day to put out the fire. They were so tired that they sat down on the side of the road gasping for breath.

The village chief walked up to them and handed each of them a cigarette with a smile.

"Thank you all for helping us put out the fire. There is nothing good in the village. Come, have a smoke, have a smoke."

The three of them looked at each other and saw a smile in each other's eyes.

They took the cigarettes with a smile, exchanged some polite words with the village chief, and then supported each other and walked down the mountain.

"Pan Zi, where are Third Uncle and Da Kui? Why can't I see them?"

"The Third Master received a photo last night, and he packed up and went back with Da Kui early this morning, leaving me here with you."

Wu Xie paused as he was about to lie down on the bed, propped himself up and sat up again, watching Pan Zi who was sorting things out.

"What photos? Did he take them away?"

Pan Zi thought carefully for a while, "It seems that there is none. The Third Master left it on the table in the room where we slept before. I'll go take a look."

Wu Xie sat on the bed waiting for Pan Zi to come back. His intuition told him that the photo would bring him a huge shock.

"Master San, here are the photos for you."

He took the photo and looked down at it. It was too old and many of the people in the photo were blurry and he could only vaguely make out their appearance.

The people in the photo are standing in two rows, with the girls in front and the boys in the back.

Wu Xie just felt that the two people in the photo looked unusually familiar, so he walked under the light to identify them carefully.

The looks of those two people were so outstanding that even though the photo was a little blurry and even though they were wearing the most ordinary clothes, he recognized them at a glance.

"Han Yan! Brother! How could it be them?"

He looked at the back of the photo, which read “Group photo of the Xisha Archaeological Team” and below it were the names of everyone in the photo.

Zhang Hanyan and Zhang Qiling's names were written together in neat and tidy regular script.

He looked over and over again at the names at the back and the photos at the front, repeatedly confirming that the two people in the photo taken more than ten years ago were the two people he had just met.

"It's really them! This is a photo from more than ten years ago. My third uncle is also in it, but my third uncle is old now. How come they still look the same as they did back then?"

Wu Xie thought of Wu Sanxing's indescribable fear of the two of them along the way. Now, he really understood why Wu Sanxing was afraid of them.

"It's been more than ten years. They have known Uncle San for more than ten years. They haven't aged in more than ten years? Are they...really normal people?"

Pan Zi leaned on the bed, watching him sitting alone under the light, muttering to himself. The fat man next to him had already fallen asleep and was still talking in his sleep.

"Hehe... Golden Jade Clothes... I'm rich, I'm rich."

Pan Zi rolled his eyes at him speechlessly, then looked at Wu Xie and said, "Young Third Master, it's late. Go to bed. We can talk about it tomorrow if there's anything else."

"Well, okay, you go to sleep first, I'll be here soon."

Late at night, Pan Zi and Fatty's snoring on the bed were so disturbing that Wu Xie had to cover his head tightly with the quilt to feel a little better.

"Little Third Master, wake up, we should go back. I have to go back and see if Third Master can help me with anything. I don't have time to stay here for long."

Wu Xie felt that as soon as he closed his eyes, Pan Zi started calling him to get up. Even though he was very sleepy, he could only get up with his eyes closed.

"Pan Zi, where's Fatty?"

"He left a long time ago. He said he would go back to Beijing to sell his stuff and enjoy himself with the money he got."

"Oh, okay, let's go back too."

Wu Xie quickly took his things, settled the rent, and left Linyi, Shandong with Pan Zi and returned to Wushanju in Hangzhou.

"Little Third Master, I'll go check out the various markets of Third Master first. If there's any news about Third Master, I'll tell you."

"Okay, be careful. I'll wait for your news in this shop."

After Wu Xie saw Pan Zi off, he stayed in the store to study the group photo of the Xisha archaeological team. The more he looked at it, the more curious he became about Zhang Hanyan and Zhang Qiling.

Half a month later, Aning, one of Qiu Dekao's men, blocked Zhang Hanyan at the gate of the farmers' market as she was coming out to buy vegetables.

"What's the matter?" Zhang Hanyan knew why she came. She walked to a stone bench and sat down, intending to have a good talk with Aning about this business.

Aning handed over the business card of Qiu Dekao's company and said, "My boss wants to invite you to go to Xisha."

Zhang Hanyan looked at the three words "Jude Kao" on the business card, and smiled slightly when she thought of how badly he had been beaten by her.

"Aning, you know my brother and I's abilities. If you want to invite us for a trip, the price is not cheap."

"I know. My boss said, you can name your price as long as you agree to make the trip. In addition to you, there are two acquaintances on this trip."

Zhang Hanyan didn't ask her who the two acquaintances were. Even if she kept it a secret, she knew it well.

Aning thought she would ask, but she didn't expect her to completely ignore it and act as if she didn't care at all. So she didn't say anything more.

Zhang Hanyan gently turned the business card in her hand, "I agree to go, I'll pay you this amount first."

She raised her right hand. Her five fingers were long, white, and her neatly trimmed nails glowed a faint pink in the morning light.

"Okay, you go with him, I'll give you two so much."

"Your boss is indeed very wealthy. Since we have agreed, I will go back to cook. I will leave three days after the money arrives."

Zhang Hanyan wrote down her bank account number and handed it to Aning, then left with the vegetable basket.