Chapter 27: The Peculiarity of the Key I Know

  The boss said angrily: "That's your problem! We just came in to find someone, we didn't bring any contraband! What are we afraid of?"

  "Old brother!" Ah Tian said, "A boat in the river, do you think they will believe you so easily? Let's go, from this angle the helicopter can't see us, and the ground troops over there probably only heard the sound of the helicopter, not our car. Take advantage of this moment, if we're late, we won't be able to leave."

  Su Haicheng reversed the car and carefully drove it out. We set off like this. My heart was tense beyond words, I had never thought that one day a helicopter would come looking for me.

  We turned off the small road and onto the third-level road, and we all let out a sigh of relief. Ah Tian is still an optimistic person, sitting in the back seat with a smile on his face, saying: "It's okay, our adventure has come to an end, oh, it's already past two o'clock in the afternoon, uh, girl, treat us! What do you want to eat? Let's see if there are any farmhouses or something along the road."

  "I'm broke!" I said directly, without any embarrassment. Among this group of people, the one with the least money is me, and yet he's asking me to foot the bill, what does he mean?

  "Well then, I'll treat you all. We're all friends after all."

  As soon as Ah Tian finished speaking, the boss in the passenger seat said coldly: "Pull over!"

  Su Haicheng looked at his boss and said, "What are you doing?" He didn't stop.

  "Give me the key! You're not going in, I am!" He bellowed at Su Haicheng. Su Haicheng also bellowed back at him: "Are you out of your mind?"

  "My life is mine to decide, give me the key!"

  "Hey, boss, even if you want to dive in, shouldn't you go buy a set of diving gear first? This is something only available in the city. Otherwise, when Sakura returns and finds out you've drowned in the lake, won't she... Think about it calmly, boss?"

  The boss finally sat back down, panting heavily, as if he was struggling with a very serious inner turmoil.

  I can understand the boss's mood, he came here just to use the key to open the "Ghost Gate" but now it seems we can't do it, his desire to see Sakura Yuki makes him extremely irritable.

  The car stopped in a small town, on the edge of the town, Ah Tian designated a farmhouse, and we had lunch there. In fact, it was already past three o'clock, close to four o'clock, so this lunch should have been combined with dinner. The farmhouse has individual rooms, air conditioning, toilets, and the environment is not bad.

  A table of dishes was brought up, and in front of the large table with a dark red tabletop, everyone was devouring their food, only Su Haicheng sat there drinking water, watching us.

  He finally ate enough and looked at Su Haicheng, asking: "Still haven't found out?"

  Kakaxi had a chicken leg in his mouth, wiping his hands with a paper towel before saying: "Found it, part of it."

  I also drank some water and listened to his report. His information might give us more reference. Indeed, Kakashi's obtained materials shocked all of us.

  According to the data, nine years ago, a team that had been on a mission near Nazikou discovered that the entire village had died overnight. The superior leader gave an order to burn down the entire village, including the corpses.

  The scientific investigation team at the time gave an explanation for the lake. The geographical location of the lake water is higher than that of the village, and the unique temperature and humidity of the lake water and its surroundings caused a large amount of carbon dioxide to accumulate at the bottom of the lake for many years without floating up. However, on that night, a large boulder rolled down from a nearby mountain, causing a lot of turbulence in the lake water, allowing a large amount of carbon dioxide to surge out. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air and sinks, flooding into the village that was sleeping soundly on a large scale, causing all the people and livestock in the entire village to suffocate to death overnight.

  "That makes sense," Kakashi said.

  I retorted, "There are many doubts about that. That's just official information, right? First of all, if it's already been confirmed as carbon dioxide asphyxiation, why burn the hut? It would be better to just bury the body deeply. And even if this hut was caused by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, what about Sakura's previous hut? The geographical location there should be higher than that lake, right? In that case, it wouldn't have been possible for carbon dioxide to rush in."

  Su Haicheng said: "The explanation we got is that the village was infected with an unknown disease, and even the medical team was wiped out, so they set it on fire. Another point is that this team entered on May 13th, they were there for more than half a month, what did they do? The village had an accident, and they just happened to be present to handle the situation? Do you know that we received the task to go out only after several days of the incident in the village? Seven days! The medical team set out on the fifth day, lost contact on the sixth night, and we entered with protective suits on the seventh day. They were so coincidentally nearby!"

  The boss who had been silent all along finally spoke up: "Are you saying that this thing was arranged by someone?"

  "Huh?" I ventured.

  Su Haicheng took out his mobile phone and turned it over in his hand, but he didn't intend to make a call. Instead, he said, "I don't know how the investigation is going on my mom's side."

  Su Mama is really capable, maybe she has already helped us investigate everything.

  The boss turned to Su Haicheng again: "Can I take a look at that key?"

  Su Haicheng hesitated for a moment, then pulled out the key from his pocket. Maybe he thought that with Boss's strength, it was impossible to snatch the key from him anyway.

  The boss took the key and examined it carefully. I also looked over, but as I looked at it, an idea gradually formed in my mind, so I spoke out. "The key is divided into four sections, with the top section being pure gold, which should be a discount. Boss, take a look."

  The boss was a bit skeptical, but still handed it over to me. This is the first time I've looked at this key so seriously. Before, when I was at home, my mind wasn't here and I didn't take a close look. Besides, Su Haicheng didn't let me see it back then either.

  I held the key in my hand, gave it a slight twist, and the return spring at the tip of the key popped out. They were two small sticks, one long and one short, made of pure gold.

  "Wow, Sister 41, you're so fierce! Is this what they call a rebate?"

  "Yes, in the past, when I was a kid, my grandfather's house had keys with returns. The principle is that there are spring sheets inside the lock, and the return is used to hook the spring sheet. The front section is smooth, so it should have something else, and the return can be retracted. I've seen this when I was a kid, so I know about it."

  "What's next?" Su Haicheng asked.

  "Ah Tian laughed and said: 'Hai Cheng, you've picked up a treasure. How come I never got to meet this kind of girl? Girl, if Hai Cheng can't marry you in time, then follow me.'"

  I ignored Ah Tian and continued, "The second section, there is an irregular recess here, which should be the pellet. The principle is the same as our current pellet lock. However, this is a two-centimeter-long cylinder with so many recesses, distributed unevenly in depth, I estimate that if one is wrong, it can't be opened."

  The third section has a groove, looking... should be the driving part. I've never seen this before, but my grandfather said that some locks are like this.

  "So high-tech?" Ah Tian said.

  "It's not high-tech, it's an old craftsmanship, Lu Ban's stuff. Usually used are some substances that don't evaporate easily, such as oil, if opened incorrectly, it will explode. Such as mercury, if opened incorrectly, it will be poisonous. I heard that Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum also uses this kind of lock."

  "So cool?!" Kaka Xi reached out to grab the key, but was stopped by Ah Tian.

  "I continued saying: 'The fourth section is made of wood, this... I don't know anymore.'"

  Kakaxi continued my words, saying: "It's probably some kind of mechanism. If you insert it, it will trigger the Zhuge crossbow, thirty-six shots, whooshing from different directions. Wow, Sister 41, are we going to rob a tomb?"

  "Didn't you say we were going to save the Earth as heroes?" I gave Kakashi's idea thirty-two thumbs up.

  Su Haicheng reached out and took the key back, putting it away properly, then turned to the boss: "Do you think you can use this key yourself?"

  The boss didn't say anything else, which was taken as tacit consent, and he also stopped mentioning the matter of taking the key to fetch water.