Chapter 31 Secret? The past is like smoke!
The old village chief's skinny fingers were tightly clenching the corner of the quilt, and his knuckles were sickly pale.
The candlelight flickered in his cloudy pupils, reflecting bottomless fear.
"Back then... I was forced into it..." His voice was hoarse like sandpaper, and tears slid down his wrinkled face.
Xiaobai nudged Tang Jingmo with his elbow and glanced in the direction of the old man - this kind of hard work of comforting people should be left to professionals.
Tang Jingmo understood and tapped the ground twice with his military boots. The crisp sound made the old village chief tremble all over.
"Old village chief," he said in a steady and powerful voice, "Thirty-four of the thirty-seven people who participated in the 'Dragon Bone Project' died and only three survived. The organization has already investigated the matter."
The slender fingers took out a yellowed document from the inner pocket and said, "The fact that you have been the village chief for so many years is the best proof."
The bright red official seal on the document was particularly eye-catching in the candlelight.
The old village chief suddenly started coughing violently. Xiaobai took the cup of water from the table next to him and handed it to him so that he could moisten his throat.
"Thirty, thirty years..." The old man breathed a sigh of relief, "Finally..."
"Old village chief, Old Man Lin is using this incident to control you."
"I was just overthinking..." After taking a breath, the old village chief tremblingly took out a piece of green fragment from his cloth bag, which was faintly glowing with a faint blue light.
Tang Jingmo frowned the moment he took the bone fragment: "Have you been carrying it with you recently?"
"It was buried underground before. Ever since the strange phenomenon appeared in Dragon God Mountain, I dug it out and was ready to..."
The last boot was left hanging in the balance, and it turned out to be the death warrant for the old village chief. However...
"The fragments have radiation..." Xiao Bai said halfway, but then he realized that the old village chief might not understand radiation, so he changed his words, "This thing is poisonous. No wonder your health has been declining so quickly recently."
The old village chief actually smiled when he heard this, revealing his few remaining yellow teeth: "No wonder the doctor said I'm not sick... but I'm dying."
He stood up with difficulty and took out a burnt thread-bound book from the deep of the kang cabinet. "Our Lin family... has kept this secret for generations..."
On the yellowed paper, three strange phenomena at Longshen Mountain were clearly recorded:
"In the 28th year of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's reign, General Meng Yi led 300 boys and girls into the mountains to search for immortals. Only three of them managed to survive with jade talismans..."
"In the ninth year of the Chunxi reign of the Song Dynasty, the Imperial Observatory brought a hundred craftsmen into the mountains, but only three bronze tablets came out..."
"In the 32nd year of the Republic of China, the Japanese Army's 'Dragon Bone' Unit..."
Xiao Bai took a deep breath - these so-called "immortal mountains" and "dragon caves" are clearly the same alien ruins! After three openings, nine keys were lost in the world...
"According to our ancestors," the old village chief suddenly grabbed Xiaobai's wrist with his dry branch-like fingers, "after every strange phenomenon... a destined person will appear."
His cloudy eyes stared at Xiao Bai's increasingly translucent face, "The night you recovered from your illness... I heard the dragon roar in the back mountain."
The candle flame crackled and a spark of light burst out. Suddenly, a crow's shrill cry was heard outside the house.
Since it came to this, Xiao Bai also asked, "Old Village Chief, before Old Man Lin died, he mentioned my parents. I wonder what the reason was."
Xiaobai's question made the old man's skinny fingers clench the corner of the quilt suddenly, and his knuckles made a "cracking" sound under the weight.
The candlelight made the old village chief's wrinkled face flicker.
"Old Man Lin said..."
The old village chief recalled the past and suddenly found strength. He struggled to get out a tin box from the deep of the kang cabinet. The rusty lock "clicked" and a yellowed photo lay inside.
"This is Professor Su from the archaeological team. Look carefully at her eyes."
The woman in the photo is standing at the foot of Longshen Mountain. She is dressed in a white shirt and khaki pants, which makes her stand out from the surrounding villagers.
She held her slightly bulging belly with one hand, and her almond-shaped eyes behind the lenses curved into crescents - that look was exactly like Xiaobai's today.
"So, Old Man Lin wants to tell me that my biological parents are someone else, or that it's a secret that can't be told?"
Xiaobai stroked the yellowed photo and said to his predecessor in his heart - See, this is your biological mother.
"In 1957, a team of researchers was sent to study Longshen Mountain, and Professor Su was among them..."
"In the twelfth month of that year, the professor gave birth prematurely." The old village chief scratched the edge of the tin box with his fingernails, "Before the hemorrhage, he grabbed my old woman's hand and said..."
"The child is being adopted, and her background must not be known to others. Her father is in Princeton...his surname is Gu...if he comes back..."
The old village chief fell into memories. The delivery that night was extremely thrilling. The weather changed suddenly and a storm broke out. The professor had a seizure suddenly and there was no preparation. Only his wife was there to help.
"Professor Su left before he finished speaking, but we all understood what he meant. He wanted the child to hide his identity and live as a mountain child, probably to ensure safety."
Suddenly, a strong wind blew outside the house, and the paper windows rustled. Tang Jingmo quietly moved half a step, and the hem of his military uniform just blocked the cold wind that was blowing towards Xiaobai.
"What happened next?" Xiaobai picked up the photo and found something written on the back in pen: "1957.8.15 Longshen Mountain Sampling Souvenir".
"Later?" The old village chief coughed again, with blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.
Xiaobai stepped forward, held his hand, and injected a trace of supernatural power into his body to stabilize his heart.
The old village chief looked at Xiao Bai with gratitude, "It happened that Guohua's mother also gave birth that night... I treated you... and Xiao An as twins..."
......
On the way back, the moonlight stretched the shadows of the two people very long. Xiaobai suddenly stopped and took out an iron box from his pocket: "The old village chief stuffed it in my hand and said..."
Tang Jingmo took the box, inside of which lay a half-burnt work ID card. The words "Suning" could be vaguely seen, and the position column read "Paleontological Research Institute."
"Do you want to check?" His voice was gentler than the moonlight.
Xiao Bai looked at the undulating outline of Longshen Mountain in the distance. The night wind lifted her scattered hair and she suddenly chuckled: "So what if it's my biological child, so what if it's not my biological child. Anyway, I'm not me..."
She took a few steps forward, and the sound of her shoes rolling over gravel was particularly clear on the quiet mountain road. The moonlight traced her back as she suddenly stopped, casting a slightly trembling silhouette.
"Let's check it out. Maybe the original Xiao Bai wants to know. It's my reward for borrowing her body."
Tang Jingmo caught up in three or two steps, his military boots crushing the silver light on the ground.
He reached out and held her in his arms, his woolen military uniform wrapped around her slightly cold body with his body temperature, "You still have me."
The girl in his arms rarely did not struggle, and the curly hair on top of her head rubbed against his chin, making him feel itchy.
He kissed Xiaobai's forehead gently, "No matter when, no matter where, as long as you look back, I will be by your side."
The mountain wind suddenly changed direction, bringing with it the sporadic barking of dogs from the distant villages.
Xiaobai clutched the buttons on his chest, and the metal edges hurt his palms.
At this moment, she is no longer the queen who single-handedly fights her way out of the world in the apocalypse, but a lost child.
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