Chapter 33 The Giant Stone Coffin
Bart, looking disheveled, clung to Wang Li's back, still managing to hurl a threat, "This kid's really trying to kill me, isn't he?"
Wang Li kept moving forward quickly.
"Say less."
Several comrades who were finishing up overheard their conversation and exchanged glances.
It soon became clear that there was still time to enjoy the jokes.
"Captain, Bago, what time is it? You still have time to discuss this?"
"That's right, let's run!"
The footsteps grew louder and louder.
The distance between the two groups is getting closer and closer!
Very quickly, just as they were about to collide, a loud "bang" came from somewhere.
This alarmed those around them again!
Immediately, more and more people poured out.
"Run!"
Bart reacted instantly, directing the group to run away into the distance.
The group moved around several times, even having their footprints erased. Finally, when they found their way, they stopped to rest, looking rather disheveled.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh~"
"Those people are really something, how can they be so brave?"
"Captain, how are you?"
"I'm fine. Are any of you injured? Take this opportunity to rest."
After giving the order, Wang Li quickly went to check on Bart, who was standing next to him.
He saw him staring at Zhang's dark face.
Wang Li paused for a moment, then looked behind him.
"How are you? You're not dead, are you?"
Bart scoffed, "He won't die."
"Captain, this is the last bit of food."
Someone handed them water and dry food.
Wang Li handed the things to him, saying, "I'm sorry, brother, I've dragged you into this mess. But don't worry, I'll definitely find a way to get you out of here."
He made up his mind to make sure he was safely sent back to the grassland.
As for the remaining brothers, let's fight him to the death.
"snort."
Bart took a few sips of water and then tossed it back to him.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Don't think that just because I can't walk easily now, you can look down on me. Let me tell you, if I weren't here, how would any of you get out of here?"
At this moment, Bat was completely different from the man on the grassland.
His arrogance, sharp tongue, and stubbornness were all on full display, and after spending more than a month with him, everyone grew to like his eccentric temperament.
Despite this eccentric temperament, they successfully explored new paths time and time again.
Not only did they successfully lead their team deep into the canyon, but they also played a crucial role in their encounters with others.
Therefore, everyone in the team respected him!
In addition to the interactions he's had with him these past few days, no one has shown any disdain for him.
Hearing him say that, Wang Li wasn't going to listen to just the surface; he gave the old man a deep look and saw a lot in his serious eyes.
Looking around at his missing comrades and wounded companions, the total number of them was less than half of what they had come from.
Their military strength is pitifully low!
Wang Li suppressed his surging emotions and remained silent for a long while.
The atmosphere was silent, with only the sound of deep breathing from sleep.
Bart was also exhausted and rested with his eyes half-closed.
Apart from the comrades keeping watch outside, everyone else took the opportunity to rest.
The situation is dangerous now. We have failed to rescue the trapped comrades and have also alerted the enemy, resulting in a loss of strength. At this moment, it is difficult to decide which way to go.
"Bart, I..."
Wang Li thought about it for a long time and prepared to give him a good talking-to.
When he turned around, he saw that the man had fallen asleep, and Wang Li could no longer keep his mouth shut.
He leaned quietly against the side and closed his eyes.
Meanwhile, the Wu gang members, who had been searching for half a day, quickly reported the news to their leader.
Upon learning that the people had not been found, the gray-haired man looked at the newcomer with a cold expression.
The person who came in lowered his head in fear, trembling all over.
"Old Wu, I will immediately send more people to search. They must be hiding in the cave to the west. We will definitely find them for you."
Another person stepped forward and said, "Uncle Wu, why don't I take some people to look for it? I know the way there well."
All eyes turned to the man, and they were more serious than before.
The old man, who was called Elder Wu, put down his teacup without a second thought.
He then looked at the people standing below and said, "Wu Shisan, Wu Si, each of you lead a team and make sure to bring those little ants back."
Hearing him speak, Wu Shisan breathed a sigh of relief.
"yes!"
"no problem."
Soon, a dozen or so skilled fighters dressed in local costumes appeared out of nowhere, carrying sticks and heading outside.
Afterwards, Mr. Wu seemed to say something, then got up and left.
Once he left, the other people who had been there also quickly got up and disappeared.
It was only then that they realized that the place where everyone had gathered seemed to be a natural hole.
The sense of space changes dramatically as you move from the opening into the interior.
The interior is like a stadium, spacious and open!
Looking at the various necessities inside, as well as the network of paths and oil lamps, it became clear that someone must have occupied this place long ago.
Luo Yin had no idea how harrowing her father's life had been.
Otherwise, who knows what else they might worry about.
After returning from the hospital, Luo Yin took her medication and took care of herself. During this time, her sister-in-law was safely sent home.
Her arrival made the house quite lively.
Seemingly because of the thought of the newborn, Ani and her mother smiled much more.
Luo Yin saw this and, along with her second brother, helped out even more.
During this time, Luo Yin received her exam results.
I lived up to my usual hard work, ranking in the top five of my grade, and my English score also improved significantly.
Luo Yin felt a little more relaxed after receiving praise from the principal and homeroom teacher.
But she made a decision in her heart, feeling that it wasn't enough.
In recent years, because of her father's situation, she has devoted most of her energy to making money.
But with the eldest brother's marriage and his sister-in-law's pregnancy;
Luo Yin naturally couldn't help but let her attention wander a bit, but she felt it still wasn't enough; at this moment, her status as a junior high school student wasn't sufficient.
Therefore, she decided to end her studies early.
At the very least, he can't just be described as a junior high school student when he goes out!
After making up her mind, she made several trips to town. With the help of Sister Lan, she not only collected a complete set of junior high school textbooks for grades 8 and 9, but also brought back some practice questions.
Then he began studying for more than ten hours every day.
At first, her family was frightened, and seeing her acting so violently, they all expressed their concern.
But after hearing her plan, they all fell silent.
Not only that, the eldest sister-in-law also helped to highlight the key points, and the second brother took care of the rest of the work.
Urina told her to go ahead and do it, only asking her a few questions privately.
Luo Yin only said that she wanted to speed up the process, and didn't say anything more.
Ani watched her struggle from the sidelines.
For several nights afterward, I silently gazed northward.
Time flies; more than half a month has passed since the start of the holiday.
Luo Yin went through all the courses for the second year of junior high school.
I found that apart from some memorized content, the rest were quite common.
Self-study is not a problem for her now, and perhaps because of the idea that the more you use your brain, the better it gets, she has found that her memory is much better than usual.
Many things can be easily remembered after only seeing them twice.
After noticing the change, Loin immediately began to try it out.
Sure enough, I could almost recite the contents of the books I had read in the first half of the month.
Luo Yin's eyes lit up, sparkling brightly.
If that's the case, then skipping grades would be a piece of cake.
Luo Yin continued to work efficiently, completing the preview of all the content for the second year of junior high school.
Seeing this, Mu Ren even dug out all the exercise books he had collected for her.
Luo Yin started doing practice problems again, knowing that she would only pass if she mastered more than 90% of them.
And this was almost three months after her father left.
The family was getting impatient, and the mother was so anxious that she couldn't eat.
Ani even fell ill as a result.
Luo Yin and Mu Ren helped persuade her, taking care of Ani to take her medicine and comforting her mother.
The brother and sister encouraged each other, but many bad thoughts flashed through their minds.
At this point, they really didn't know what to do.
Luo Yin was also anxious, "Second brother, what should we do?"
Mu Ren made up his mind and looked at his younger sister earnestly.
"There's been no news for so many days, I'll go and find my father."
"No, you don't even know the way, how are you going to find it?"
Luo Yin refused outright; how could her second brother go?
“But my mother is very worried. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine on my own. If things get really bad, I’ll ask around and find someone to help me. I’ll take my weapons and rations with me and I’ll be safe.”
Luo Yin's eyelids kept twitching, reminding her of the day her father passed away.
Luo Yin tightened her grip on him, "Second brother, you can't go alone. Why don't you talk to the family first? If it really doesn't work, we can go to Uncle. If that doesn't work, there must be other adults. Surely it's not just Father who's been to the north. It's so far from here to there. I definitely won't feel comfortable letting you go alone."
She absolutely disagreed.
The matter eventually escalated to the point where it involved the elders.
Upon hearing that the younger generation wanted to go north to find Bart, Urina's worries and anxieties of the past few days turned into tears that fell one by one to the ground.
“It’s all my fault. I didn’t stop your father, and now I’m dragging you into this.”
“But how can you go? It’s too dangerous there. Let me go and retrieve the soil.”
As Urina cried, she suddenly remembered something and hurriedly refused.
Luo Yin rushed over to comfort her, and Mu Ren, seeing how sad his mother was, stood up straight even more.
It seemed as if they had made up their minds, demonstrating that they were capable.
Ani frowned deeply as she looked at the group.
I rarely smoke tobacco in previous years, but I've been taking it out to smoke frequently these past few months.
The thick tobacco smoke ignited.
Luo Yin watched as Ani took a few puffs, then turned her gaze to her second brother.
“Ani, we haven’t heard from Dad for several months now, and the family is really worried. Maybe we can contact those people who came to look for us before and try to find out anything from them?”
She was probably asking if those soldiers had identification numbers and locations.
Ask who's back?
But what followed was an even bigger blow to everyone.
"Cough cough cough, I went to the base not long ago to ask, those people are still on a mission and haven't returned yet."
Ani's emotions faltered slightly, and her every move revealed despair.
"What should we do? What could be so important that they had to call Father away? We don't even know where he is right now."
Luo Yin tried to hold back, but couldn't help muttering a few words.
But to the other group, it had a different meaning.
"Yes, those soldiers take your father with them on missions, it must be very dangerous. It's been several months now, is he injured?"
Muren stepped forward and knelt directly in front of Ani.
“Ani, Mother, please let me go.”
He kowtowed deeply to the two elders, then patted his chest and said.
"I can do it!"
"Second brother, you can't manage alone."
Luo Yin spoke up to stop him only after he had finished speaking.
But Mu Ren continued, "I know, that's why I called my uncle."
Seeing the surprised expressions on the three people's faces, Mu Ren's lips curled up slightly.
Surprised?
Not long after he finished speaking, several fast horses indeed came galloping over from afar.
The visitors were my uncle and his children, along with two strangers.
"They're here! The person who showed me the way is here!"
My uncle, weathered and worn, led a few people in with serious expressions.
After the introductions, Luo Yin looked at her second brother in shock once again.
Unexpectedly, he was the usual goofy guy.
They had secretly contacted people long beforehand.
They not only found their reliable maternal uncle, but also two other family members of herders who had gone north. After communicating privately, they discovered that none of these people had returned.
So, for various reasons, they decided to go there themselves.
Luo Yin was unable to participate in what happened next because her mother had taken her away.
Luo Yin was very anxious because she couldn't participate.
But right now she's focusing on her mother, asking her about her second brother and whether she already knew.
Urina remained calm and skillfully prepared the rations.
"How would I know? It was just that your uncle and the others came, which really surprised me. But it's not surprising, since it was them who went in the first place."
"What?" She didn't understand.
Luo Yin frowned, not quite understanding what her mother was saying.
Seeing that she had changed the subject, she started talking about how much luggage they needed to prepare.
"Can't I really go with them?"
She still wanted to make a plea!
Urina shook her head and said, "They must have had a tough journey this time, so you shouldn't go. You can't handle such a long distance; it's better to stay home."
Clearly, she was determined not to let her go.
Luo Yin saw that what she said made sense, and thought that after her second brother left, there would be very few people left.
After thinking about it, he could only nod in agreement.
Two days later, I watched as my second brother and his party, all ready to set off, were about to embark on their journey.
Luo Yin cast an envious glance at him.
"Uncle, cousin, and second brother, please be careful and come back soon!"
"I understand, don't worry."
"Take care of yourselves at home, we're leaving now."
As the whip cracked, the sturdy horses galloped off into the distance.
The person left standing there watched them silently.
Only after waiting until there was no one in sight did she muster her energy to start helping.
But Urina wouldn't let her touch it at all, waving her hand and telling her to go read.
Luo Yin looked around and found that there really wasn't anything she could do.
Before leaving, my second brother finished all the things he needed to do for the next week.
So he turned around and went to study.
She needs to work hard quickly and strive to graduate as soon as possible.
Then she will have more opportunities to do other things.
Luo Yin was busy studying, while Mu Ren and his group were busy traveling, practically pushing the horses to their limits.
The horses are only allowed to rest during their daily rest and meal times.
Fortunately, the horses were all good horses and had a long range.
The market, which has been on the minds of countless people, has been the subject of much commotion in the past two days.
A group of people appeared out of nowhere, and it seemed they had robbed someone.
Many locals were also mobilized, and they began questioning and investigating this person.
If you have any injuries or are carrying weapons, you won't be able to leave; they'll simply invite you to be their guest.
This was something akin to the work of bandits, yet they actually did it.
I don't know if it was because there were many of them, or because they were suddenly too fierce.
For a moment, they frightened the people around them, and by the time they realized what was happening, the people had disappeared!
"Hey, who is it? Why are they arresting my brother?"
"Yeah, are they blind? They overturned my stall!"
"Shh, keep your voice down!"
Some who knew what was important quickly pulled them away, afraid that they would cause too much trouble and bring people back.
"No, how do you two know each other?"
"If we're not brothers, why don't you recognize me?"
Then several rough voices rang out from the crowd.
The man had a cloth tied around his head, and although his face was young, he looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"I don't know, this is my first time out here!"
"Alright, judging by your age, this is your first time here, right? Well then, I'll tell you, do you know who's in charge of this place?"
The man drew a semicircle with his hand.
The man shook his head!
"Those are the people from earlier. This place is ostensibly unclaimed, but it actually has a surname: Wu. Remember that."
"Wu, even if it's their family, we haven't done anything wrong. How did my brother get kidnapped?"
The people around them chimed in, "That's right, we didn't do anything. We can just leave. We can't come all this way and leave people behind."
Actually, they had wanted to leave for a long time, but if they hadn't been thinking about getting some more good stuff, they would have stayed here.
"Keep your voice down. Once those people have investigated and found nothing wrong, they'll release the person."
Everyone present was quite startled by what had just happened.
Despite some people making preparations, many others still felt their hearts pounding.
Having taken precautions for their own safety, they then prepared to leave.
Before the commotion subsided, another gust of wind swept in.
A howling wind blew up countless grains of sand and rough branches, stinging people's faces.
The groups that had ventured off all tightened their reins and stopped temporarily.
And in this area, several hundred kilometers away, lies the northwest direction, beyond a vast desert.
Rows of steel-framed machines and countless shadowy figures indicate that there are still signs of human activity in this area.
This area is where key development projects in the Tibetan region are located.
It is also a key national project development area.
At this moment, countless workers from all over the country are racing against time to build the site, striving to excavate the underground resources as quickly as possible.
But the accident happened two months ago.
However, just south of this planned area, an unexpected excavation project took another turn for the worse.
It turned out that the workers who were collecting samples discovered the anomaly during their excavation work.
Hard objects of varying degrees appeared underground.
As a veteran in the technical field, he knows exactly what the reaction and feeling will be every time he touches the ground.
At a distance of about ten meters, it passes through layers of desert, reaching the soil layer and then below.
At that moment, he felt as if he had struck gold.
The things underground are hard and stubborn.
It was immediately reported to the working group, and then confirmed by two experienced workers.
It has been confirmed that there are indeed strange things below.
Work on the south side was temporarily cancelled, but then a person in charge made the decision to dig it out and take a look.
I thought it would be a small fault line or some other geological discovery.
However, more than a dozen colleagues dug continuously for half a month, and even wore out a lot of tools.
They dug for more than ten meters from top to bottom before finally seeing its true appearance.
It turned out to be a huge rock that was half-embedded in sand and gravel.
Perhaps it shouldn't have become a stone!
One worker exclaimed, "How come these stones are so perfectly straight and orderly?"
"Yes, it looks like it was artificially repaired, like a giant cuboid."
At this moment, the blazing sun overhead made everyone sweat profusely.
But for some reason, looking down at the huge rock below gave me a chill for no apparent reason.
The person in charge seemed to know a bit more, and he wiped his sweat and called over another person in charge.
"Hey, does that thing look familiar?"
The other person in charge nodded, then shook his head.
"No way?"
"What do you mean? Quickly cordon this off and call for help!"
"Oh, okay!"
The area to the south then fell into a period of quiet for the next two weeks.
No one else came.
Around the end of May, an eight-person team suddenly visited.
Subsequently, the workers at the oilfield base discovered that the area to the south had become lively again since those people arrived!
Having been piqued for so long, many people want to find out the truth.
But the news seems to have been blocked, and not a single word has leaked out.
The workers at the grassroots level only glance at it a few times when they pass by on their way to and from get off work each day, and then it gets covered up by the tedious physical work and they gradually forget about it.
Until more people arrived at the base.
Then, more people arrived.
I don't know when it started, but the area to the south has been fenced off with something.
All you can hear every day is the endless chatter inside.
At night, the dim yellow lights illuminate their work.
If someone were to come in, they would find that the boulder they had dug up had now been completely exposed.
A huge rectangular stone stood silently at the bottom of the pit.
All the researchers present were gathered around the megalith.
They are the colleagues from the Archaeological Research Institute who have been transferred here.
The team was led by Yang Wenhua, deputy director of the Tibet Provincial Institute of Archaeology, who, along with his seven colleagues, formed the earliest investigation team.
He was responsible for identifying and verifying the objects discovered underground in the southern part of the oilfield base.
The subsequent investigation results shocked everyone, because upon closer inspection, they discovered that the so-called megalithic object was actually a megalithic coffin.
This means that there must be a burial area nearby.
Upon hearing the news, Yang Wenhua immediately contacted the person in charge, and then contacted more colleagues.
They then expanded the team and established a special field investigation group.
So the team, which has now expanded to 30 people, is now working intensively on the excavation.
Just half a month ago, Xiao Li and Zhang, who were supposed to go to a place 100 kilometers away to receive the new equipment, mysteriously disappeared.
This caused great anxiety among the members of the inspection team.
Not only are the people gone, but even the equipment they painstakingly untied is gone.
Yang Wenhua immediately went to find someone to find out the truth, but the person in charge said that the situation here was special and told them not to rush.
He then contacted the relevant personnel, but it took seven days to receive the news.
The news that followed only exacerbated everyone's concerns.
We learned that a truck did indeed travel to the county town about two weeks ago, but it disappeared on the way before it even entered the town!
Fortunately, the equipment hadn't been retrieved yet; it was still stored in the city.
Unfortunately, the two men and the car vanished on the spot.
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