Chapter 4 Helping the Blind Man Find Medicine
Hei Xiazi thought he must be crazy to have actually followed Zhang Qiling to this godforsaken place.
The jeep bumped along in the mountain pass, which was hardly a road at all. The scenery outside the window changed from barren hillsides to dense, impenetrable mixed forests. Zhang Qiling drove like the man himself: silent, focused, and with an indomitable spirit that seemed to slay anyone in his way. The steering wheel in his hands was as docile as a timid wife.
“Hey, mute,” Black Bear said, trying to break the suffocating silence with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips. “Are you sure this is the place? It’s not even marked on the map. I only heard it from an old man who was about to die when he was drunk. Whether it’s accurate or not is another matter.”
Zhang Qiling stared at the "path" half-hidden by weeds ahead, squeezing out only a short syllable from his throat: "Hmm."
It's always like this. Hei Xiazi leaned back in his chair in frustration. Over the past few days, he had tried all sorts of methods to get information out of him: coercion, bribery, joking around, and even deliberately bringing up Wu Xie and the Bronze Gate. But Zhang Qiling either dismissed him with single syllables or stared at him with those unfathomable eyes that made him uneasy, until he finally gave in.
This guy's mouth is harder to pry open than a bronze door.
The car finally stopped in a place where there was no road at all. Zhang Qiling got out of the car first, took out two backpacks that looked quite heavy from the trunk, and tossed one to Hei Xiazi.
"Take it easy," Black Bear said, taking the bag, weighing it in his hand, and grimacing. "My old arms and legs can't take this much work from you."
Zhang Qiling ignored his banter, checked his equipment, looked up to determine the direction, and walked without hesitation toward a seemingly unremarkable mountain wall.
Black Bear squinted at the mountain wall, then at Zhang Qiling's confident back, his doubts deepening. He himself wasn't even sure he could find the entrance, yet Zhang Qiling seemed to know the place like the back of his hand.
He quickened his pace to catch up, and couldn't help but ask again, "Have you been here before?"
"No," Zhang Qiling answered crisply.
"Then how did you..."
"I feel it." Zhang Qiling interrupted him, continuing on his way.
A feeling? Black Bear almost laughed in anger. When the hell has Chief Zhang ever found a tomb by feeling? This guy's "feeling" is more accurate than a Luoyang shovel, isn't it?
Filled with questions, he followed Zhang Qiling to a patch of dense vines in front of the mountain wall. Zhang Qiling reached out and pushed aside the vines, revealing a deep, dark cave entrance, barely wide enough for one person to pass through. A cold wind, carrying the smell of earth and decay, blew out of the cave.
Black Bear's eyes behind his sunglasses grew serious. There really was an entrance.
Zhang Qiling turned on his powerful flashlight, the beam piercing the darkness. He glanced back at Hei Xiazi, his eyes conveying "follow me," before bending down and disappearing inside.
The tomb passage was narrower and damper than expected, filled with an indescribable musty smell. The path was slippery and difficult to walk on, and the surroundings were so quiet that only the two of them could be heard breathing and walking. Zhang Qiling walked in front, his beam of light steadily sweeping across the front. His movements were extremely agile, and his adaptation to the environment was astonishingly fast, as if he already knew where to duck and where to turn to the side.
After walking for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, a fork in the road appeared ahead. Just as Hei Xiazi was about to rely on his experience to make a judgment, Zhang Qiling did not hesitate at all and directly chose the narrower and more inconspicuous passage on the left.
"Hey, this way..." Hei Xiazi instinctively wanted to remind them, the path on the right looked more like the main tomb passage.
"This way is closer." Zhang Qiling said without turning his head.
Near? How did he know it was near? The doubts in Hei Xiazi's mind grew bigger and bigger.
After walking a while longer, the tomb passage began to slope downwards, and some blurry carvings started to appear on the walls. Zhang Qiling's flashlight beam lingered for a moment on one of the carvings; it was very shallow, as if it had been drawn casually, and almost invisible without close inspection. Hei Xiazi noticed that Zhang Qiling's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, and then he quickened his pace.
Something's not right. Something's very wrong. Hei Xiazi isn't stupid; Zhang Qiling's familiarity with the details of this journey is outrageous—this is definitely not the behavior of someone visiting for the first time. Did he investigate beforehand? But even Hei Xiazi only has a vague impression of this place; how could Zhang Qiling know so much?
Just as he was feeling uneasy, Zhang Qiling, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped and raised his hand to signal him to be quiet.
Black Bear immediately held his breath and listened intently. In the darkness, he heard an extremely faint rustling sound, like countless feet crawling.
“A swarm of corpse beetles.” Zhang Qiling lowered his voice, his tone calm but tinged with wariness. “There are a lot of them.”
Before he finished speaking, the flashlight beam had already swept towards the corner of the tomb passage ahead. At the corner, a dark, swarming mass of corpse beetles, like a tidal wave, was rushing towards them, the sound of their carapaces scraping against each other sending chills down their spines.
"Retreat!" Black Bear shouted in a low voice, instinctively reaching for the weapon at his waist. With this many corpse beetles, charging in would be suicide.
However, Zhang Qiling remained standing still. He quickly pulled a small cloth bag from the side pocket of his backpack, grabbed a handful of dark red powder, and with a flick of his wrist, scattered the powder evenly on the ground in front of them, forming a barrier line about half a meter wide. The powder emitted a pungent smell, similar to realgar mixed with some kind of herbal medicine.
As expected, the swarm of corpse beetles became agitated when they reached the powder line. The front-line corpse beetles tried to cross it, but as soon as they touched the powder, they let out sharp hisses and quickly retreated, not daring to cross the line.
"This way." Zhang Qiling didn't even glance at the group of corpse beetles that were blocked. He grabbed Hei Xiazi's arm and quickly turned into a very hidden crevice that was half-hidden by a protruding rock.
Behind the crevice was a narrow tunnel, barely wide enough for someone to crawl through. Zhang Qiling crawled in without hesitation, and Hei Xiazi had no choice but to follow.
After climbing for about ten meters, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a small side chamber. In the center of the side chamber was a small pond, and beside the pond grew several plants with dark blue leaves that emitted a faint fluorescent glow.
It is the "Youtan Orchid" that Hei Xiazi once mentioned, which has a miraculous effect on old wounds!
Hei Xiazi looked at the few orchids, then at Zhang Qiling beside him, whose breathing was steady and whose hair was perfectly in place. A chill ran from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
This isn't just familiarizing oneself with the terrain! This is fucking prophecy!
He knew there were corpse beetles here! He knew which powder to use to control them! He knew this hidden shortcut! He even knew precisely where the Hidden Pool Orchid grew!
Zhang Qiling had already crouched down, carefully taking out a specially made jade shovel and jade box from his backpack, and began to collect the few You Tan Orchids. His movements were skilled and precise, as if he had practiced countless times.
Standing behind him, Black Bear watched his focused profile and for the first time clearly felt an indescribable fear. It wasn't fear of the dangers of the tomb, but fear of the person beside him.
This Zhang Qiling is so unfamiliar, frighteningly unfamiliar. He seems... to know everything.
After collecting the jade, Zhang Qiling carefully put it away, stood up, and looked at Hei Xiazi, who was still standing there in a daze. In the flashlight beam, half of his face was in light and half in shadow, and his eyes were as deep as a bottomless, icy pool.
"Let's go," he said, his tone still calm, as if everything that had just happened was merely a casual gesture.
Black Bear's throat went dry. He opened his mouth, the words he wanted to ask swirling on his tongue a few times, but in the end, they only turned into a dry question: "You... how did you know... there are corpse beetles here? And that path?"
Zhang Qiling looked at him, silent for a few seconds. The side chamber was so quiet you could hear water droplets falling. Then, he looked away, back into the darkness he'd come from, his voice so low it was almost a soliloquy:
"I saw it."
It's "seeing" again!
Black Bear's heart sank. Was the future he saw through the bronze door really this detailed? Could he even clearly see the corpse beetles and forks in some nameless tomb?
This doesn't make any sense!
Zhang Qiling offered no further explanation and turned to walk towards another exit of the side chamber. That exit was equally concealed, but it appeared to lead to a deeper area.
Black Bear watched his retreating figure, and for the first time, he didn't immediately follow. He stood there, the chill of the tomb seeming to seep into his very bones.
He began to realize that what Zhang Qiling brought out of the bronze gate might not have been just a few nonsensical promises and unusual concern. What he brought out was a huge, unsettling secret.
And this secret seems to be tightly binding the two of them.
Zhang Qiling reached the exit and, noticing Hei Xiazi hadn't followed, stopped and turned to look at him. In the darkness, his gaze still held that unwavering determination.
"Blind man." He called his name, with a hint of urging, and also a hint of... barely perceptible tension, as if afraid that he would turn around and run away.
Hei Xiazi looked into those eyes that remained clear even in the darkness, and saw the complex emotions within them that made his heart tremble. In the end, he still took heavy steps and followed.
Damn it, he wanted to see just how much of what this mute Zhang, who crawled out of the bronze door, was still hiding!
And how did that broken door twist their ridiculous fate into such a bizarre state?
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