Chapter Fifty-One Not That Many Coincidences

  In the three-sided wall classroom, Teacher Tan wore a wide gray suit jacket, with black sports pants underneath, and a pair of old gray leather shoes. He held a book in his hand and looked at us three with a surprised expression.

  Mr. Tan came over and asked, "Aren't you going to Hulakeshore? How..."

  "Let's take a break here for a while. If someone comes to ask, just say we're a teacher and student who came to the mountain to gather inspiration. Teacher Qin, I'm really troubling you this time."

  Mr. Kakashi's eyebrows furrowed, and he nodded with some difficulty. The children who had finished reading behind him poked their heads out to look at us. I quickly smiled at those kids. Kakashi was already sitting on the ground, panting and drinking water. He had run down so hard that he was almost fainting.

  For the rest of the day, Kaka Xi taught two classes to those children, Boss and Qin teacher cooked meals, they also called the village chief, and ate together in Qin teacher's small wooden house.

  I ate a few mouthfuls and sat on the stone steps in front of the house, looking at the mountains over there, the forest over there, but unfortunately I couldn't see that lake.

  In the house, the village chief was toasting Kakashi and Boss. Kakashi didn't dare drink too much this time. The boss asked about the gunfire on the mountain over there, and the village chief said it was the troops who came to help catch poachers. Moreover, it is said that a poaching team of more than 20 people has been caught, with quite good equipment, and even explosives.

  They think it's normal to hunt privately here, and it's also normal to catch private hunters. But the village chief still said: "I've been a village chief for so many years, but this is the first time I've seen such a large-scale crackdown on private hunting. I guess there was news that a snake as big as that one on the mountain over there was killed, which alerted the leaders above."

  Kakaxi hastily asked, "Why would that snake startle the leader?" I was also curious about the answer to this question, so even though I sat on a stone outside the house, I still listened carefully to the conversation inside.

  Teacher Tan smiled and said, "There's a ancestral tomb of a leader's family on that mountain. Every year during Qingming Festival, they hold grand ceremonies to worship their ancestors. I heard that every nine years, they invite a Fengshui master to examine the tomb and make adjustments. Many people come to pay respects at the tomb, not just the leader's family. During Qingming Festival and Chinese New Year, leaders often ask men from the village to help carry offerings."

  The boss asked again: "Isn't that mountain one where very few people go?"

  "Except for worshiping at that grave, no one goes up there usually. We all say that mountain is haunted." The village chief said with a chuckle, "You university students from outside don't believe this. You can't stay here if you don't believe it."

  "Ha ha, Village Chief, what's that ancestral tomb of the leadership family? They must be a very powerful official family."

  "Hmm, I've heard it's quite formidable. Alright, don't ask anymore, it's just a grave, right? Although everyone here knows about this matter, no one dares to say more, after all, they don't like us discussing this. Come on, let's drink, there's nothing good to eat, let's just drink!"

  I gazed up at the sky, which was gradually darkening. I let out a silent sigh. I wonder how Su Haicheng and the others are doing. They should have surfaced by now. If I hadn't followed Boss and the others earlier, the troops would have found them and been able to distract them. Why did I end up running with them?

  I don't know what the situation is like on their side. If there's no rubber boat to pick them up, will they be very tired swimming to the lake shore after floating to the surface? Or will they be pointed at by the troops with guns as soon as they float up?

  I really hate myself, why when the boss yelled at me to run, my head wouldn't turn around and I just followed them running over here. I pounded my own head, it was like porridge in there at that time, no way to think at all.

  I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "Su Haicheng," the name slipped out of my mouth unintentionally, my heart racing for him, my mind filled with worries about him, "Su Haicheng..."

  When my voice came out again, I made up my mind to go back and find him! So I stood up and walked towards the several large backpacks we piled up beside the wooden house door, where our luggage was. There were also two sets of diving equipment, although they were very heavy, but I thought I could still carry them to the lake.

  Just as I was quietly putting on my diving gear to leave without anyone noticing, Kakashi appeared. I was startled and he quickly made a "don't speak" gesture with his hand, then he too quietly put on his backpack, equipped himself with a set of diving gear, and gestured to me to go! Let's depart!

  At that time, I was really worried about what to do if I got caught. Could I walk through the forest alone? When I reached the lake, how would I get into the water? But these questions couldn't stop my determination to head to the lake. And Kakashi actually followed me too, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude towards him.

  The village was tense with electricity, and many families didn't leave their homes after dark. We left the village from Teacher Qin's place, and on the way, we didn't meet a single person, which was good for us.

  As soon as we left the village, it was a mountain road, and there were no people around. I then asked, "Kakashi, are you also going to dive in?"

  "Wouldn't I be dead if I didn't dive in? I don't know how they're doing now. Maybe they've already opened the lock with that key. Siyi sister," I said one sentence, and he started talking non-stop, "I have a hunch that what's locked by that key is not some ghostly gate, but a treasure trove, it's the burial goods of that tomb on the mountain."

  "Never mind, don't fantasize. Even if there are burial objects now, they won't be anything good. Now burying is different from the past. But what you said is right, that lake, that array, the troops, that tomb, and the hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix, are actually all one thing!"

  "Four One Sister, what did you figure out? Tell me."

  "You think, many years ago, the troops came and blasted out a lake, forming that array. There must have been a master who pointed it out. That master who set up the array must have walked through these nearby mountains. How could the master who walked the mountains not see that auspicious land of 'hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix'? The array and that mound are actually one thing, pointed out by the same master. The ones who blasted the lake were troops, and that mound is a general's ancestral tomb. At the very least, it's a high-ranking leader's ancestral tomb. Two times the village was completely wiped out, two times the troops were deployed to handle it. How can there be so many coincidences? These are actually all one thing!"

  I'm definitely saying it! There must be a connection between these things. Even if my guess isn't 100% correct, at least there's a 50-60% chance that I'm right.

  "So exciting, wow, I'm definitely going to dive in then. Sister 41, let me tell you, when your family's Su was shouting at me, I was thinking that once they dive in and the boat comes back, I'll immediately follow them. But our boss is too slow, by the time he came back it was already lunchtime. I thought I'd eat lunch first then go, but who knew, before lunch, I ended up burying the boat with you. After we finished burying it, we ran like our lives depended on it. We should have all dived into the water at that time, I don't believe they could find anything even if they were searching for private hunting with diving equipment."

  At first, we still had some conversation. But later on, the more we walked, the more tired we became, to the point where it was difficult to walk at all, and all that was left was panting. We started leaving the village when it just got dark, and by the time we were so tired that we couldn't move and had to rest for the first time, it was only a little past eight o'clock, and we had been walking for less than two hours.

  To think we ran past the lake in just one and a half hours, but now we've been walking for two hours and are still in this forest.

  In the pitch black, only the faint light from Kakaxi's forehead lamp was visible. We were sitting randomly on a stone by the roadside, completely unaware of any potential dangers lurking around us. I was too tired, my brain had become dull and slow.

  If we hadn't just eaten some hot food, who knows if we could have even made it through these two hours of walking. After several minutes when we had all caught our breath, Kakashi said: "Fourth Sister, I think we probably can't dive in tonight, we're exhausted. When we get to the lake shore later, let's...

  "Maybe they've already come out." I interrupted him.