Chapter Sixteen: The Enigma of the Builder

  "Huh?" Su Yi looked up at the stone statue in surprise, then turned back to me and said after a long while: "Indeed it seems not exactly the same, but similar enough. I reckon, someone who can look so similar must be your ancestor or something. You should hurry up and kowtow a few times, pay respects to your ancestors? Oh right, also pay respects to those two gentlemen moved aside by Wen Long."

  Su Yu should have fully recovered by now, and she actually had the mind to tease me. I was suddenly inspired and directly kicked her with a shadowless kick. Unfortunately, my semi-outdoor skills are much shallower, and she dodged it with just one move.

  Wu Feng beside him laughed and said: "Ah, you two are using the same move."

  I and Su Yu immediately kicked back, my foot didn't even touch Wu Feng's side. But Su Yu's foot just happened to kick Wu Feng's butt, kicking this kid into a dog eating shit, I couldn't help but be shocked in my heart, it turned out that every time Su Yu kicked my invisible leg was lenient, no, her foot was lenient.

  "Wen Long said on one side: 'Old man, what are you looking at?'"

  It wasn't until then that we discovered Old Man had shifted to the back of the carving and was looking up at something. Su Yi ran over a few steps, looked up along Old Man's line of sight, and said: "Indeed it is your ancestor, this person also has the surname Bai."

  "What." Not just me, Wu Feng was also surprised, we rushed over to lift the lid and take a look, and on the back of this carving, there were actually words carved. Of course, I couldn't understand any of them, they were all ancient characters.

  Su Yi was an expert in this regard, I saw her immediately take out a notebook and pen from her backpack, copy down all the texts on the back of the stone statue, then took out what should be a reference table, carefully comparing them. We didn't dare to disturb her normal work, so we split up to find a path that could lead us out.

  This space is not large, the walls around are empty and bare, nothing is carved. We first came to the place where we just entered, which is now a wall, as if we had passed through the wall into this space. After searching carefully for half a day, we finally found a small gap. I finally understood what it means that even the thinnest knife blade can't be inserted into the gap between two bricks in the Egyptian pyramids, because the gap in front of us is also as thin as that. We tried to push the wall in different directions, but all failed, it stood still there.

  Wen Long said: "This is simply a mechanism, it can't be opened from this side, let's find the exit instead."

  "I pointed to one of the directions and said 'If I calculated correctly, that should be the location of the exit, but now, it's just a wall.'"

  Wu Feng said: "It's not necessarily so, maybe it's a door. Just like what we see now."

  We rushed over immediately, observed carefully, and indeed found a thin seam on the wall over there, which was actually a door. I felt a wave of excitement, but then an unsolvable problem emerged - how to open it?

  "How do I open it?" Wu Feng asked me.

  "I'm going," I said, "How did I know? I wanted to ask you too, but you little kid spoke too quickly."

  "Let's try pushing first." Wen Long pushed with all his might, but there was no reaction. Then he stuck his hands to the wall and used friction to try both left and right, still nothing. He looked at us and said: "Maybe it's pull, not necessarily."

  Wow, this is even more demanding. Although I wouldn't say the wall surface is very smooth, it can be guaranteed that there isn't a single door handle on it. Pull, you should at least give me a place to put my hands, can't just use the suction technique, right?

  At this time, Su Yu said loudly: "It's settled."

  "Is there anything you can do?" we asked in unison.

  Su Yi looked at us with a silly expression and said: "I'm saying that the words behind this have basically been resolved, what are you guys talking about?"

  I plopped down on the ground with a thud, feeling a bit dizzy. Looking at those few mummies again, I let out a sigh and thought to myself, who knows, maybe we'll end up like that too.

  The old man said: "What's on the words?"

  Su Wei said: "It's nothing but we're in a bit of trouble."

  "Big sister," Wen Long chimed in, "originally we were already having trouble finding the exit and now you're making things even more complicated. Are you going to let us live or not?"

  Su Yi helplessly said: "I also discovered this when I was interpreting these texts, can't you just come and see for yourselves?"

  We sat around Su Yu's side, waiting for her interpretation. Su Yu pointed to the first line and said: "This person's surname is Bai..."

  "I interrupted: 'You've already said that, what I want to know is, what's his full name?'"

  "I don't know." Su Yi replied categorically.

  "I don't know," I said in surprise, "haven't you already figured it out? How can you not know?"

  She glanced at me and said, "You should know that deciphering ancient texts is a big hassle. Firstly, I may not be able to recognize all the characters because some ancient characters have disappeared in the gradual transformation of writing. Secondly, for some names, it's even more troublesome because some use rare characters, and some only appear once in history. What do you think they should be read as?"

  "Alright, alright, I was wrong, just continue."

  Su Yi gave me another white eye and continued: "He is not alone..."

  "Wen Long said: 'Sister, if you have something to say, hurry up and say it. Don't play with people like this. What's going on here?'"

  Su Yi glared at them and said, "Can't you see I'm trying to say something? Can't you wait for me to finish speaking before you talk? It's written here that the Bai family was a well-known family back then, of course it wasn't just one person. From now on, those who don't know are not allowed to interrupt."

  I saw Wen Long cover his mouth with his left hand, and Busui also covered his mouth in the same way. Su Yi looked at us like this, and only then did he calm down and continue to say: "They are the descendants of the You Nao clan, who have been in charge of construction since the beginning of humanity. This place is just one of the ancient civilized buildings built by their family."

  The old man interrupted at this time and said: "In other words, there are also such building groups and underground palaces in other places?"

  For the old man, Su Yi was obviously not as bold as he was with us. Besides, the old man's words did indeed hit the nail on the head. Su Yi nodded and said, "Yes, according to what it says here, that's how it should be."

  "Where is all that?" asked the old man.

  Su Yi shook her head and said, "It's not written here." Then she fell silent again.

  Wen Long then put down his hand covering his mouth and asked: "Is that all you wrote? Didn't you write how we can get out of here?"

  Su Yi shook her head and said: "I haven't written it down. But that's not all the content either, there's still a part of it that I haven't told you yet."

  "Come on, say it," said Wen Long, "Sister, are you trying to scare us to death?"

  Su Yi smiled and said, "Going out is no problem, but coming in is a different story. This thing says that there's an unknown plant that can change color based on the light it receives. If there's no light, it emits a silver glow. As long as there's water, this thing can grow, but if it comes into contact with blood, it'll turn red and wither away. It takes ten years to regrow."

  "Hmm." I heard Wu Feng let out a long sigh and said, "In other words, if we didn't fully enter that space above, then we'll have to wait ten years before we can enter again."

  Su Yi nodded and said: "Yes, according to the records it's like that. However, if you really didn't come in, I think there would be no need to come in either. Can you persist for ten years in that place?"

  Wu Feng quickly shook his head and said: "If it were just one person, I estimate that I would have a mental breakdown in three days."

  I also felt cold sweat on my back, because when I entered that cave entrance, I really hesitated, fortunately, I was kicked down by Su Yi, it's the first time I thanked her for her kick.

  "Is there no other record?" asked the old man.

  Su Yi waved his hand and said: "This time it's really over. I'm telling you, brothers, hurry up and find an exit. Whether or not you can get out is up to you."

  Wen Long said with a sigh: "The exit has been found, but we can't open the door."

  After that, we searched everywhere for the mechanism that might control the door. We almost searched the entire space but found nothing. The stone statue was our main target of search. We suspected there must be something on it, like hands or feet, which could move and turn to open the door, just like in those TV dramas. But actually, we didn't find anything. How can this be? This is a matter of life and death!

  Before I knew it, it was already lunchtime. We ate a little food. To be honest, this is the first time I've eaten in an enclosed space with several mummies present. I suppressed my strong urge to vomit and forced down some compressed biscuits. Su Yi couldn't eat at all, and I felt that Wen Long's joke made it difficult for her to accept.

  After dinner, everyone lay down to rest, leaving only me standing in front of the stone statue. Looking at it this way, it really does look like me, although I don't dare say it's a hundred percent replica, at least eighty percent is the same as me. No, it should be that I'm like him, and besides, we share the same surname. Maybe he really is my ancestor, who knows? I thought to myself, so I'm actually a descendant of the You family, not bad. I looked at the stone statue, his right hand stretched out in front, as if asking for something, his left hand behind his back, standing there, it's a picture of elegance and refinement. Suddenly, I felt that praising my own ancestor like this wasn't quite right.

  A snickering sound came from behind, and I unknowingly had the same posture as my ancestors. As a result, it was seen by Su Yi, who hadn't fallen asleep yet. She sat up with a smile and said to me: "You can't say that your posture is really a bit... limp and shameless."

  "What are you talking about?" I think that for the same action, how can the difference in description be so big?

  At this time, Wu Feng also sat up, it turned out that he was not asleep either. He looked at me and said: "You can't say, your pose is like this, wearing a stone suit, it's almost identical to the stone statue."

  I helplessly swung my hand and no longer maintained the previous posture, but heard Wén Lóng's voice coming from the other side: "Don't be like that, hurry up and resume your previous posture, I have a gift to give you."

  "Come on," I said, "we've been together since we were kids, what good things can you give me as a gift?"

  Wen Long stood up and came to my side, helping me adjust back to the original position while saying: "Hey, can't you say that? Look at this package on my leg, it's all my most precious things. You've been performing so well these few days, I'll reward you with one."

  I was arguing with him while saying: "If you want to reward me, just do it directly, why bother putting on this pose?"

  Wen Long strongly pulled me, while posing with the stone statue's POS, and said: "You don't understand, I saw your previous POS, it had a special feeling, you pose well, don't move. I'll get the gift."

  I'm really not in the mood, but I actually think it's quite fun, so I posed and waited for Wen Long's gift. Wen Long rummaged through a small bag on his right leg for half a day before seemingly grabbing something, then stretched out his hand.

  I saw Wen Long with a serious face, feeling that this thing should not be ordinary, because he was standing upright, in the most standard military posture. He said sincerely: "Although it's not big, it represents my heart and mind, you have to know, I made it by myself, you can't buy this kind of thing outside, it has extraordinary significance, you must hold it tightly."

  I nodded woodenly, to be honest, since seeing this Wen Long, this was the most solemn time, before it was always that kind of smiling expression. Wen Long quickly put the thing in his hand into my hand, then grasped my hand, I subconsciously clenched my fist tightly.

  Then, I let out an "ah" and dropped my hand, a small iron caltrop slipped from my hand, still with fresh blood on it. This was indeed handmade, but I didn't expect it to be this thing. I heard Su Yi and Wu Feng's laughter not far away, and couldn't help but get ready to lose my temper.

  At this time, an arm wrapped around my shoulder, it was Wen Long. He stretched out his right hand, and I saw that his right hand was also bleeding. It turned out that he had also gripped the iron thistle tightly. He said: "We've been through so much hardship together, no matter what, I acknowledge you. This is a ritual, everyone I acknowledge has gone through this ritual. This is my gift to you, come on, shake hands."

  I looked at Wen Long, his eyes had no jest or mockery, I felt that was indeed one of his ways of expression. I stretched out my right hand and clasped it tightly with his right hand, our blood merged together.

  Wu Feng said on the side: "Alright, this is much simpler now. You kid are quite capable, you managed to get Wen Long's recognition so quickly. I had to put in a lot of effort."

  "I said with a smile: 'That's how excellent I am, you little kid can just go ahead and admire, envy, and hate me.'"

  Wu Feng also turned around and teased me, saying: "Excellent, wow, you dare to boast like this, if you're really excellent, then go find the export agency."