Chapter Thirty-Two: Eavesdropping

  I suspected everyone and everything, but I never thought Ma Si Zhe would betray me. A big man like me, at this moment, actually has the urge to cry. Is this whole thing just a perfect trap, designed by those few people, waiting for me to fall into it? If they wanted wealth, there was no need to go through so much trouble, I never put those things in my eyes anyway.

  "Alright, you go back for now and continue to deceive him. Once we really find the Gate of Rebirth, as soon as it opens, his usefulness will be gone," said Cheng Shu.

  "We don't have to kill him," said Marceau.

  "What we're doing here, the more people know, the more trouble. We're all in this together like ants on a rope, but that kid isn't. Big nephew, this isn't the time for you to be kind. Big nephew, is Uncle Cheng really Marx's uncle? My god! This plot is getting as complicated as an 8 o'clock soap opera."

  I waited for Ma Si Zhe's response, after a while, he softly said 'okay'

  I really want to laugh my heart out. I don't have any strength left, leaning against the wall in a daze. Can't think of any way to get myself out of this, continue pretending to be stupid? I don't have that acting skill, will definitely be discovered.

  Either go out now with a gun and have a shootout, maybe there's still a chance of winning. Then, can I get out on my own strength? As I was thinking wildly, I heard footsteps, quickly lay down on the ground, pretending to be asleep from the beginning.

  Ma Si Zhe took a step closer, the sound making me feel sick. In just a few short seconds, memories of us skipping class together in college, playing games together, and all the things that happened after we came to this tomb flashed through my mind.

  My heart beats faster and I can't suppress my anger. The moment Marx Zhe walked in front of me, I stood up from the ground at once.

  Ma Si Zhe was clearly startled by me and stuttered 'You, you're awake'

  I stared at him fixedly, "Huh, awake."

  He forced a very awkward smile "When did you wake up?"

  I've been awake for a while already

  Ma Si Zhe withdrew the smile from his face.

  "Why?" I continued to ask.

  What's the reason why

  I grabbed Ma Si Zhe's collar and roared in anger, 'I treated you like a brother, but you treated me like an idiot, huh?'

  Ma Si Zhe pushed me away "I don't know what you're talking about"

  I laughed speechlessly and pointed to the cave beside us, 'Whatever you say, I've heard it all. If you want money, just tell me, I'm not interested, why bother going through so much trouble to calculate me. Your acting skills are indeed superb, Master Ma.'

  Hearing our commotion, Cheng Shu and the others probably knew that things had been exposed, and they walked over from another cave. I looked at Huo Ying holding Jiang Liu's corpse, which was about to be disposed of, and my heart felt a chill.

  "Is this really going to be me soon?"

  Ma Si Zhe pinched his nose and said "I owe you one"

  Hearing Ma Si Zhe say that, I didn't have anything good to waste on them either. I took out the gun Ma Si Zhe had given me earlier, raised it and aimed at his head. My hand was on the trigger, but I couldn't bring myself to pull it.

  Suddenly I heard a loud gunshot, looked down and saw blood flowing out from my chest. The one who got shot was me. Cheng Shu put the gun down slowly behind Ma Si Zhe's back, 'Someone as indecisive as you can't accomplish anything.' Damn it, even at death's door, I still get to be despised by someone.

  I lay down slowly on the ground, feeling no pain, just a wave of fatigue. Then I slowly closed my eyes, and my body gradually became lighter, I couldn't feel my own existence.

  Wake up, don't sleep. I opened my eyes and saw Ma Si Zhe squatting on top of me, slapping my face. I lowered my head to see that my wound had healed.

  In a rage, I flipped over and grabbed Marx's neck, pinning him to the ground. Before I could say anything, Marx covered my mouth. It seemed he wanted to kill me again. Of course, I couldn't let that happen, so I slapped his hand away from my face and slowly applied force. Marx bent his knee and kicked me hard in the stomach.

  I let go of his hand in pain, and Ma Si Zhe got up and made a "shh" gesture at me. 'What's wrong with you?' he said softly.

  I think I've been infected by him too, and lowered my voice 'I'm going crazy, it's clearly you who wants to kill me'

  "I'll kill you, I'm sick," Ma Si Zhe said with a bewildered expression.

  I patted myself all over and found I was intact without a scratch. The gunshot wound had also disappeared. Had I just dreamed it all?

  Ma Si Zhe continued saying 'Do you know how many hours you slept? You can't even wake up with a kick, and as soon as you wake up, you want to strangle me to death. It's better to just let you sleep'

  I seem to have come around a bit and realized that I actually had a dream earlier. Looking at Marx, who was still in a state of shock, I said "I just had a dream".

  Ma Si Zhe coughed softly and said "What dream"

  "A dream of gangster gunfire"

  Ma Si Zhe made a gun shape with his hand and pointed at me, "From now on, you and I are sworn enemies. Next time we meet, I will show no mercy." I was still shaken by what had just happened, and seeing Ma Si's gesture sent shivers down my spine. I quickly pulled his hand down.

  "What about Uncle Cheng and them?"

  "While you were sleeping, it came down from the coral and is now resting in the cave above." Ma Si Zhe nodded his chin towards the two-layered mountain cave opposite.

  The two of us quickly gathered our things and slowly walked along the edge of the deep pit, trying to stick close together to avoid being discovered by the people above.

  Are you sure about the law you inferred? I still have some concerns about Marx's Rubik's Cube theory.

  Don't worry, I took a few laps while you were sleeping just now, and it's foolproof.

  After walking for a while, "It's just this, Uncle Cheng and the others are in this cave."

  We two walked into the corresponding cave, following Marx's method, walking lightly. After not long, I saw a human shadow, before they found me, and quickly turned around to walk back.

  What a close call, almost walked past each other. The two of us quickly turned back. After changing direction, when we came out of the cave entrance, we found that we had actually walked to the side of where we just entered this mountain cave.

  I whispered, "Big brother, what order did you mess up?"

  Ma Si Zhe himself sorted it out and said to me 'This time should be no mistake'

  The two of us went in again, turning left and right, and finally found the entrance. This time the order was correct, and we safely walked to the side of Uncle Cheng and others. I could clearly hear the sound of Uncle Cheng and others moving. Now what we need to do is be careful not to make any noise.

  I and Ma Si Zhe stuck on the wall, listening to the wind blowing through the hole beside.

  "Cheng Shu, how did such a large coral come about?" Jiang Liu, this spineless thing, previously when you were on the verge of death, Cheng Shu abandoned you without a care. It was I who insisted on saving you, and now you're running to someone else's place with your tail between your legs. If I could speak, I would definitely spit a few mouthfuls of saliva in his face. Despicable person.

  "This thing may not necessarily be coral," said Uncle Cheng with a profound meaning.

  "So you're saying someone deliberately carved it into a coral shape?" asked Huo Ying.

  "A coral reef of this size is impossible in itself. And appearing here makes it even more impossible. There's no other explanation except that it's man-made."

  Artificially, why did the people who built this mausoleum at that time go to great lengths to make it look like an underwater world? There must be some intention, what is it?

  "What's drawn on the map is actually where? We've been walking for so long, how come we haven't seen anything?"

  Map, they also found the map.

  "According to the map, this tomb is huge. It'll take several more days and nights of walking before we can even reach the end, so why are you in such a hurry after just getting this far?"

  "You said they wouldn't be able to tell this is a treasure map"

  Those two are just a pair of foolish kids, at most they can discover that this is the village's map, and then get stuck here, going back and forth thinking about the village's map. It turns out they also discovered the white bone cave's murals, no wonder Ma Si Zhe said he was, Cheng Shu is indeed an old fox.

  After finishing, the three of us laughed together. Ma Si Zhe whispered to me, "Our IQs have been despised."

  I thought to myself, sooner or later I'll hang the three of them up and give them a good beating. Let's ask him who's really clever after all. Uncle Cheng said that map was a treasure map, but why?

  "We also went up on that coral just now and didn't find anything, what should we do next?" This time the question was asked by Huo Ying.

  "Let's hurry up and leave before they catch up, then all the treasures will be ours."

  Jiang Liu thought of something: 'What if we take it out, what are we going to do? Don't mention the two small ones in the tomb, but Fourth Master is not a kind person. If he finds out that you threw his nephew here and took the treasure for yourself, will he let us off easy?'

  "Is your uncle Fourth Master? The one from the time-travel drama?"

  "What a mess! My uncle is called Ma Siye. When he was younger, people called him Siye, but as time went on, everyone started calling him Siye Ye (fourth master)."

  Cheng Shu continued, 'If we happen to run into each other again, we'll just say we accidentally got separated, like that time I took a wrong turn with Huo Ying. They'll believe us. Even if they don't, there's nothing they can say. The treasure and all that, it's not even worth mentioning in front of them. After we get out, we'll contact someone to sell it off. We came in together, we leave together, his nephew won't have any problems, he can go find someone else to settle the score with.'

  "What? So you're saying you ran away on purpose last time?"

  "When I was on the mountain, I felt that there must be many treasures down here, and it wouldn't be a simple tomb of a minor noble. The things we discovered along the way gradually verified my idea. Just as we were worried about finding an opportunity to escape, the volcano erupted. We took advantage of the situation and ran away separately."

  "How did you end up following me?" Jiang Liu's words seemed to be directed at Huo Ying.

  Before long, Huo Ying's light voice came over 'I have my reasons, everyone has their own desires, what they desire you don't need to know.'

  Chiang was left speechless and shut his mouth.

  The wall was quiet for a while, and then Uncle Cheng said, 'Before they catch up with us, let's leave first. After the matter is settled, we'll divide the spoils equally among everyone, and you won't be left out.'

  I've heard this before, it sounds familiar. Ma Si Zhe's uncle said the same thing at first, and then he let out that group of blood-sucking mosquitoes.

  Now the three of them have formed an alliance, and Ma Si Zhe and I also understand their intentions. No matter how you put it, they are after wealth. Knowing that they won't harm us, I feel a bit more at ease in my heart. Ma Si Zhe seems to see through my thoughts, 'Don't relax your vigilance too much, still need to be on guard.'

  I was just about to speak when I heard Jiang Liu say 'I'm going next door to use the restroom'

  I and Ma Si Zhe hurriedly got up and ran, not daring to make too much noise, fearing that we would startle Cheng Shu and the others. With a hint of luck in my heart, I wondered if Jiang Liu would go to the other side to use the restroom, then turned around, only to see a stunned-looking Jiang Liu.