I rolled up the whole guestbook, pulled it off the string with a hard tug, shoved it in my pocket, and then left the museum. Fatty followed me out, but he didn't seem to understand what was going on. We squatted down in a corner and carefully read the transfer statement several times. I flipped back and forth through the guestbook’s other pages and found that all the other messages were normal. This was the only page that had a problem.

"This…does this really count?" Fatty asked me.

I nodded. Although I didn’t know much about these kinds of things, all the other documents must have been prepared if Uncle Three really wanted to leave me something.

Fatty immediately went back in, saying that he would go through all the other guestbooks on the wall since there might be other plots that were transferred like this.

I sat on the steps and waited for him. I was in a daze for a long time before I finally recovered and checked the information on my phone. The plot at No.87, Section A, Changping Road, Xiaosongshan seemed to be a large area in Yeshan, Nanjing that used to be a weather station. Uncle Three bought the whole plot after the station was condemned. He had done it more than a decade ago when land prices were very low. Although that plot wasn’t very valuable now, it was still a huge sum compared to what it had been worth at the time.

But this wasn't the first time that Uncle Three had bought land. He ended up buying most of the land around his old house, but he certainly hadn't done it for investment purposes.

My initial reaction was,

But in this day and age, it was a well-known fact that the things in tombs often weren’t as valuable as the land the tombs occupied. With this particular plot of land, it didn’t seem to matter what was underground.

Fatty didn’t find anything and came back out, but he didn’t seem dejected at all. We got in the car and headed for Yeshan Town. Fatty cracked the window, took out a cigarette, and then shook his head, "Mr. Naïve, your uncle is actually quite loyal. Why didn’t I have such an uncle? It looks like we’ve found a career in the second half of our lives. If God wants you to be rich at midnight, who can make you poor just before the dawn (1)? This Fat Master should be the general manager, yeah?"

I didn't have time to talk nonsense with him. I felt my heart start churning as I looked at the simple deed in my hand and the thumbprint that was on it.

Uncle Three might not really be dead.

On the one hand, an unresolved stone in my heart had finally begun to shift in a direction that made me feel at ease. If he wasn’t dead, then it wasn’t any of my business how he stirred up trouble outside. But on the other hand, if he didn't die and didn't show up, did that mean that things weren’t over yet? It was a terrifying thought.

Not only had the Wu family secretly dealt with things for three generations, but I had already used up all my strength. My mind and even the demons in my heart were too old to keep going now. Was it really not over?

I didn’t dare think about it.

We asked the Didi driver a bunch of questions as we headed towards the weather station. Yeshan was a mining town full of mountains and valleys. There were even a variety of rolling hillsides and various geological protection areas around the town. I checked the county annals and found that the underground mines in this town were all tunnels from past dynasties. The earliest discovered tunnels were from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and they stretched several hundred meters below ground. I didn’t know whether Uncle Three had bought this place because of those mines or if there was something else here.

When we turned off the main road and started down the village road, the driver told us that the weather station was on the mountain behind the village. We got out of the car and headed into the old, cramped village. Old wooden houses and new concrete houses were all crowded together, and the path in between them was only three people wide. Many slogans from the Cultural Revolution were still there. The vegetation out here on the outskirts of the city was well protected, and the trees were towering. Although the village road was only a few steps away, there was still a sinister feeling that came with walking in the mountains.

Once we left the village, we followed the barren mountain road up the back of the mountain. Fatty was frowning and started scolding, "This lot can only be used to build a graveyard. The land we just walked past is so good, yet all your Uncle Three left you was a corner."

"Tomb real estate is still real estate. Do one business, love one business (2)." I laughed at him.The weather station had to be located in a place with minimal environmental interference, so we were heading in the right direction. At the top of the mountain, I saw an old sealed iron gate that had a decaying sign on it that read: “Weather Station”. Many sections of the yellow cement walls on both sides of the gate had collapsed and weeds were sprouting from them. I could see moss and centipede vines overrunning other parts of the walls, practically engulfing them. I looked through the bars in the iron gate and saw the weather station’s old building still standing there. The outer wall looked completely moldy and mottled, and was covered in more moss and vines. Rotten leaves littered the ground in layers so thick that I figured they would reach my ankles when I walked in.

The mountain air was filled with the musty smell of soil, grass, and rotten leaves, as well as the rusty smell of the iron gate. It made my throat feel tight.

Fatty's eyes were looking straight ahead, "Shit, they didn't tear it down? We’ll have to do it ourselves. And we can’t get equipment up the road, either. It's a fucking loss."

When I looked at this oversized Golmud sanatorium look-alike, my first reaction was to turn my head and walk away. There was no doubt that something was going on here. I could even feel a huge pressure coming out of the decaying ruins of the building. This was another huge Pandora's box that Uncle Three had given me, and I shouldn’t open it.

But I didn't turn back.

I thought of my Uncle Three. If he had been tied up by a perverted savage in the wild, then the only person who could save him was me. If I turned my head and left, my heart would never be at peace.

Even though Fatty was disappointed, he still climbed through one of the breaches in the wall. I moved to follow him, and the two of us waded through the weeds. As we approached the concrete building, I saw a square line of numbers graffitied on the outer wall of the doorway.

xxx5034

It was a cell phone number.

I took out my phone and pulled up the text message. This was the number that had sent me the New Year’s blessing text. At that time, the phone’s software couldn’t tell whether it was spam or harassment.

Fatty and I looked at each other.

I pulled my Kukri out of my backpack and put it on my hip while Fatty found a brick nearby. But just as we were about to walk into the ruins of the weather station, I suddenly heard someone talking. Fatty grabbed me and hid in a bush.

At that moment, we saw two or three people coming out of the ruins. "I, Wu Sanxing, have always been a man of my word,” one of them was saying. “If you want this land, now is the time to buy it. In less than three years, the land prices here will double. I’ve talked with the village. Half the money for the road will go to them and the other half will go to me. You only need to sign your name."

The man who answered him spoke in the Nanjing dialect. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he didn't seem to be satisfied. But the first person who spoke said he was Wu Sanxing and his voice was very familiar.

But even though it was familiar, it definitely wasn’t my Uncle Three’s voice. I wondered to myself.

When we looked up from the bushes, we saw an old acquaintance walking out. It was none other than Jin Wantang, our old comrade.

He brought the people to the door and pointed to the village at the foot of the mountain. "This is a village that gives rise to brilliantly talented people. Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been sixteen such people. I, Wu Sanxing, looked at the feng shui here and saw that it wasn’t bad. You can go ask anyone. You could tear this weather station down and build a school. If you don’t believe me, ask my nephew. I told him to stay in this village before the college entrance examination. He didn't believe me back then either, and only stayed here for half a month. He could've gone to MIT if he stayed here longer than that, but he got into Zhejiang University (3) instead. "

Jin Wantang's assistant started nodding beside him, "I was stupid back then. My uncle can't be wrong in this regard.""Isn’t this Big Gold Tooth? Why is he here?” Fatty whispered. "What is he doing spouting such bullshit?"

I frowned and listened for a while, suddenly realizing that these two guys were posing as me and my Uncle Three to sell the land.

At this time, a hammering sound came from inside the ruins. There appeared to be some people working inside. When I glanced at Fatty, he said, "Well this is awkward. How are you going to handle it?"

"Damn it!" I quickly stood up and shouted, "Jin Wantang!"

Said man had just sent the people away and immediately froze when he looked back and saw my unexpected appearance. Then, his whole body leaped up and he ran away with a "Wah!" Fatty and I moved to outflank him as his man came over to stop us. Fatty tripped the guy and pushed him directly to the ground. When the guy landed, he didn't dare get up again.

Fatty continued giving chase.

The three of us rushed into the village, but Jin Wantang was too old to run. I kicked him into the courtyard of the village’s ancestral hall and then went up and started cursing him, "Do you want to fucking die?" I took out my phone and pointed to the text message, "Are you fucking messing with me? Are you trying to trick me?"

Jin Wantang looked at my phone, but didn't respond. He could only point at me and say, "Little Master Three, I’m still an elder. Even if I do something wrong, you can't be so rough."

I sneered, "You want me to pity you because you’re old, right? If you dare say you’re an elder one more time, I’ll call Little Brother up and have him beat you to death."

"I really wasn’t messing with you. Your Uncle Three asked me to hand the land over to you, but I thought you would find it useless. I figured I could help you sell it first and then give it to you in cash. I’m just providing a service.” Jin Wantang looked at me seriously.

" helping sell the land? You just want to take it for yourself!"

"Why would I want this barren hill, Little Master Three? This land is so strange, can't you see it?" Jin Wantang said mysteriously. "Besides, do you know why your Uncle Three bought this land? I’m doing it for your own good."

****

TN Notes:

(1) Basically, as long as you work hard, don’t give up, and seize good opportunities, the God of Luck definitely won’t pass you by.

(2) It’s basically an attitude that as long as you start doing a certain thing or working in a certain industry, then you should love it and continue to do it. Since they’re grave robbers, selling a plot of land to put graves in isn’t that far off lol

(3) If you couldn’t tell, they’re super elite schools. MIT stands for “Massachusetts Institute of Technology” and is in the US. Zhejiang University is an elite Chinese university located in Hangzhou. Tiffany said Wu Xie actually studied at Zhejiang University, so he's pretty smart (obviously lol).

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