Uncle Qia took down the pipe that was hanging at the corner of his mouth. He then stood up and patted his sleeves twice before overlapping his palms behind his back. He spoke, “For now, we will not mention what was written in the diary. Let’s start at the beginning from the time when you met that antique shop owner, Boss Liu Xin. Regarding the series of events that was created by the black cat, in fact, those events had always happened with you in the vicinity. Did I say anything wrong?”
“No.” Xiao Bei nodded as if he was considering something.
“At first, we thought that it was due to something that had attracted the black cat’s attention and thus causing its appearance. The something that I had thought of was the killing ancient jade. However, this guess was quickly overturned. This is because, before that, you have never come in contact with the ancient jade, so the ancient jade isn’t actually the issue.”
“Following that, you went to Li Jiang and then to Dayan Town. As for the black cat, it only reappears after you fell into the ancient tomb. It would always appear and disappear unpredictably, causing you to not be able to determine its whereabouts. Also, the distance between the tomb to here is quite far, it’s impossible for it to be as fast as you. So how did it catch up to follow you? Could it be, it can fly? This is definitely not possible. Now, what can you see from this?”
Xiao Bei closed his eyes as he went through his past memories once before nodding his head. He took a deep breath and replied, “What are you implying? Are you saying that everything was done by people?”
“That’s right. Currently, the possibility of it being caused by people has reached 85%.”
Uncle Qia laughed as he hinted for Xiao Bei to hear what he had to say until the end.
“Let’s make a hypothesis. If the black cat had followed you under someone’s command, then that person actually had an ulterior motive. When you fell into the tomb, you should have been alone. But when fatty suddenly appeared, he disrupted the culprit’s original plan.”
Xiao Bei exclaimed, “If you put it like this, fatty would not have died then, but my appearance brought a calamity to him!”
If this was the case, Xiao Bei had in a way, indirectly caused fatty to die. Now, he was completely lost on what he should really do. Suddenly, Xiao Bei realized a problem, “If it is really like this, Uncle Qia, aren’t you also someone outside of the original plan ah!”
“That’s not important, not important. You, this little fellow, why are you always interrupting me. First, let me finish what I want to say. Yesterday, we found the paw print of a cat and on that night, that scene happened. Tell me, what does this mean?”
Uncle Qia squinted his eyes as they shone with wisdom.
“This……black cat appeared again……are you saying that those people who are manipulating behind the scenes are near us?!” Xiao Bei was shocked by this conjecture and he immediately got up and scanned the surroundings.
“This is only my guess. You don’t need to be this nervous. If my guess is correct, I believe we should bide our time. The real culprit behind all this will definitely get impatient and make his move.”
Xiao Bei was pulled back down by Uncle Qia. His eyes were now red and both of his hands were clenched into a fist. He secretly swore. If this was really as what Uncle Qia had guessed, that someone had been secretly manipulating in the dark to achieve his ulterior motive, then he had to bring justice to those innocent people who were pulled into this and had died!
“Fine, 3 days, I will wait for 3 days. If within 3 days that person manipulating behind the scenes did not make his move, I will still leave here as soon as possible. It’s because I like this place, that’s why I even more so do not want to harm anyone here.”
Uncle Qia smiled with satisfaction.
Uncle Qia meaningfully patted Xiao Bei’s shoulder. The two walked side by side out of the courtyard. Just then, Xiao Bei saw a number of familiar figures that was not far away. His eyes could not help but widen.
“Yang Chen!” Xiao Bei exclaimed loudly.
And yes, those four people were Yang Chen, whom he wandered off from, and Qiu Yu, Xiao Min and the scaredy-cat Lu Yun, who escaped the tomb together with them.
Xiao Bei rushed forward and tightly hugged Yang Chen.
“Xiao Bei?! Why are you also here?” Yang Chen was like an elder brother. He patted Xiao Bei’s back and his face lit up in happiness when he asked.
“Ah, if I start saying, it will take very long. How about you guys? How did all of you come here? This place is pretty far from Li Jiang right. Don’t tell me you have telepathy and came here specifically to take me home! Hāhā!”
After seeing his brother, Xiao Bei temporarily threw away all his worries and troubles. In his eyes, what was most important was to have a proper meal with his brother. After that, they would tell each other the experience they had gone through.
It could be said that Yang Chen was Xiao Bei’s only trusted person and also someone he dearly wanted to see. The two were like a family; they would be able to speak about the troubles in their heart to the other without any worries. But it was a pity that during Xiao Bei’s difficult times, Yang Chen and Xiao Bei were separated. Xiao Bei originally wanted to return home to check whether Yang Chen was back. He didn’t expect to reunite with him here. This kind of happiness was even more overwhelming than when a large meat pie dropped from the sky.
“Come, come, come. It seemed like I’m too emotionally excited. Do you know, I have never felt this happy and excited to see someone I’m familiar with. Let me introduce to you, this person is Uncle Qia. He is this village’s one and only doctor. If it isn’t for Uncle Qia, I would not know whether I will be able to see you again.” While Xiao Bei was introducing Uncle Qia, he also pulled Yang Chen over to introduce him to Uncle Qia. During the introduction, Xiao Bei and Yang Chen’s childhood embarrassing moments were also exposed.
“Come, let’s eat first, eat first! Looking at all of you, I’m certain you all must be tired. Let’s continue our conversation while eating.” Along the way, Xiao Bei was so excited that he jījichāchā (ED: chirping) like a bird without stopping. “You all definitely do not know how crazy Yang Chen was in the past. There’s a time I remember when we went to poke a beehive that is in one of the park’s tree. At that time, the park had yet to be torn down so there were many people sitting by the pond. I was at a side on the lookout and Yang Chen took a bamboo pole to poke the beehive. In the end, we attracted a swarm of bees to chase after us. The two of us ran quite a number of rounds around the park, causing all those nearby lovers to suffer. When we returned, we were severely punished. Do you all see the scar behind his ear? He received that injury during the time when we were fleeing from the swarm of bees.”
“There’s also the time during the physical education where this fellow’s pants were pulled down in the basketball court, hāhā.” This continued until they were at the dinner table and Yang Chen’s face was now extremely red from embarrassment. He glared at Xiao Bei for a moment and Xiao Bei just laughed it off but he did not continue.
Qiu Yu and the rest at Yang Chen’s side were having a hard time suppressing their laughter. They found it inappropriate to laugh out loud. So, they could only cover their mouth and watch the two uncover each other’s dark secrets. Even Uncle Qia was shaking his head helplessly before becoming absorbed in eating the food.
“Ah, that’s right, I forgot about this most important matter. How did you guys come here ah?” Coming to this question, Yang Chen was just about to speak when Xiao Mei, who was sitting across him, snatched the chance to speak.
“Don’t mention it. When we got out, we found the anxious Brother Yang. He had waited for more than a day for you and in the end, as he was worried about you, he stubbornly dragged us back to that dangerous spot. However, this time, the inside was strangely quiet and we did not encounter any obstacles. We easily returned to the altar which was also our first meeting point and we smoothly went down below the altar from there. The inside was pitch black and we could not find any traces of you. We only discovered a depression. Yang Chen did not believe you would die so easily so he dove into the depression to find you. However, he did not expect that the depression would be very deep and deep down was running water which was flowing toward the outside! Under the water, Brother Yang met an undercurrent. We went down to help pull him out but was dragged down by the strong current and finally, we arrived at this place. On seeing that there was a village, we came in here. We did not think that we would be able to run into you here! We also did not expect you to still be alive!” In a single breath, Xiao Mei roughly narrated the story to Xiao Bei. Afterward, she suddenly hit her head and questioned, “Yí? Where’s that baby-faced ice cube and fatty?”
