Chapter 2 The Second Person Disappears

  A Mercedes-Benz was driving on the road to the airport, and the driver was a young man in his early twenties. The atmosphere along the way was quite dull, and at first I wanted to ask something, but Wu Feng shook his head at me, so I didn't speak again, and I could only doze off with my head down. When we arrived at the airport, I finally understood that this car was rented, and the driver was also a designated driver from the rental company. I thought this kid had really made it to the top! I couldn't help but tease Wu Feng in a timely manner. He didn't say anything, but quickly bought tickets and handled the procedures. Then he took me to a separate room in the waiting area.

  "Alright, the plane still has two hours to go, just enough time for a chat." Su Yi then brought over some drinks and handed them to us. She also bought a bread roll, which reminded me that I hadn't eaten breakfast yet, or rather, lunch.

  "What's going on here?!" I bit into a piece of bread and continued, "Rescuing someone is urgent, but you've got to let me know what's happening too."

  Wu Feng nodded and said: "I'm currently working with Su Yi in the same institution, which belongs to the research department. We mainly study several ancient super-civilization sites that have been discovered in China."

  "Wait a minute," I interrupted him, "the ruins of an ancient super-civilization, what's that all about?"

  "For example, the Egyptian pyramids." Su Yi said, "With today's scientific technology, it is still very difficult to build a pyramid, but ancient people have built them. We also found many buildings in our country that exceeded the ancient civilization, that is to say, according to the building capabilities of the ancients, it was impossible to build such things, but they really exist, this is the site of the ancient super-civilization."

  "Oh..." I nodded vaguely and said, "What does that have to do with me?"

  Wu Feng continued: "Originally, our research work was going smoothly, but this time, when we were studying one of the buildings, an accident happened and one of our people went missing, or rather, disappeared."

  "My god! A supernatural event!" I said: "What does it have to do with me?"

  Wu Feng waved his hand, indicating that I shouldn't interrupt him. He said: "We also don't know what words to use to describe it, it's really very strange. When he disappeared, there were two teammates beside him, they didn't do anything, only one person disappeared, and it was right in front of them."

  I widened my eyes, waiting for Wu Feng to continue. Wu Feng said: "After we learned about the situation, we rushed to the scene as quickly as possible, but no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't find any clues. So we thought of you."

  "I... I feel like I'm suffocating, what kind of logic is this. People disappear out of nowhere, that's why they thought of me, did I also disappear out of nowhere before?"

  Su Wei took over and said: "Actually, it wasn't that we thought of you, originally at the beginning, we didn't think of you either."

  "I..." Another mouthful of air was choked back up, I'm almost being driven to death by these two treasures.

  Wu Feng nodded and said: "At first I thought of your father, but he is abroad, we have no way to contact him, so I thought of you."

  "I'm leaving." I finally let out the stifling air in my chest, "It turns out I'm just a spare tire after all."

  Su Yi looked at me with a face full of anger and helplessness, saying: "Whether or not I'm pregnant is still unknown now, maybe it's even a miscarriage."

  "The... " The stifled breath I had just let out returned to my chest.

  Wu Feng shook his head and said, "Don't be angry, you are the person Lao Yezi specifically named and wanted, so there's definitely no problem."

  "Old master?" A new question arose, "Which old master?"

  "How many people can know that your father is an old man who studies ancient special buildings?" Su Yi said with a smile.

  I looked at her, and suddenly an old man's image appeared in my chest: "Old Su!" Another kick flew towards my butt, I dodged again, but this time it was a high heel.

  The plane took off and headed straight to its destination. To be honest, it was my first time on a plane, and I didn't feel quite adapted, the tension of taking off made my palms sweat. Of course, the flight attendants were pretty good, including the hot dogs and drinks they provided. But just as I was starting to relax, the plane began its descent, and again my palms were sweating, what have I gotten myself into?

  As we walked out of the airport, there was already a car waiting for us at the entrance. It was a green Jeep. My heart skipped a beat when I saw it. This Jeep didn't look like an ordinary model that you could buy on the market. You could tell at a glance that it had powerful horsepower and was basically designed for driving on mountain roads, not something you'd see in urban areas.

  Wu Feng quickly walked up to the car and looked at the driver standing outside, saying: "What's wrong, Little Du? Your face is changing colors. What happened again?"

  The driver, Xiao Du, was a young man of twenty-five or six years old. At first glance, he looked like someone who had been working outdoors for a long time. His face was dark and shiny, his body was very sturdy, but the expression on his face really changed colors as Wu Feng said.

  "Has Wu been found?" Little Du asked me with a somewhat disbelieving gaze.

  "Wu Feng said: "Cut the crap, can't you see everyone's here? What's going on?"

  Xiao Du looked at me, then at Su Yi, and finally his dull eyes returned to Wu Feng's face, saying: "The old man has also disappeared."

  "What!!"

  The car started, and the driver had changed to Wu Feng. I sat in the passenger seat, while Xiao Du and Su Yi sat in the back, so that Xiao Du could better explain the situation.

  "What's going on?" Su Yi asked.

  "It was just before I came," said Little Dou, "it was almost noon when I saw the old man, he told me to come and pick you up at this time. After lunch, the old man took a few people to continue searching. As a result, they still disappeared in room three, there were seven or eight people there, Fat Three was right in front of the old man at that time, and didn't even notice how the old man disappeared."

  "Wu Feng said: 'Why didn't you call us?'"

  Xiao Du said: "Alright, turn off your mobile phones."

  We just remembered that because we were on a plane, all our phones were turned off and still haven't been turned back on yet.

  Su Yi said: "Was there anything unusual when Master disappeared?"

  Xiao Du said: "I wasn't there at the time, but I heard from Pang San that nothing special happened, however..."

  "But nothing." Su Yi was getting impatient, "Can't you just say it all at once?"

  "But when Old Master disappeared, he took some equipment and a week's worth of compressed food and water with him."

  Wu Feng said: "How can you bring these things."

  Xiao Du said: "Because the disappearance incident was too strange, so the old man let all the search personnel carry equipment and food on their backs. In case someone else disappears again, they will have a chance to hold on for a while and wait for rescue."

  "I said..." I interjected at the right moment, "Is there anyone who can give me an explanation of the situation? I'm completely in the dark now."

  Although I didn't turn back, I could feel Xiao Du glancing at me from behind. Probably he wasn't too confident in my second-rate swordsmanship skills.

  Wu Feng didn't answer my question, but instead asked Xiao Du: "Who is in command at the scene now?"

  Xiao Du said: "Fortunately, Pang San didn't disappear. Now he temporarily took over the command, if it wasn't for him holding down the fort, I'm afraid things would have turned upside down by now. When I left, a few temporary workers went to Pang San's tent, probably to discuss some issues."

  "Who is Fat Three?" I asked. Now I was really confused and could only think of some unhelpful questions to ask.

  Wu Feng only then remembered that there was still me, a half-way monk, sitting next to him. He hastily said: "Our team has a total of ten people, this time it's led by Old Man Su, who is the captain, and I'm the deputy captain, we two are mainly in charge of commanding people. Su Yi is a researcher of ancient characters, mainly responsible for analyzing various ancient texts. Pang San, Xiao Du, and Xiao Jia are all Old Man Su's students, Pang San is in charge of recruiting temporary personnel from outside, Xiao Du is in charge of liaison with each department, and Xiao Jia is in charge of positioning and clearing. The one who disappeared earlier was a retired special forces soldier named Wen Long. There were also two people who were his comrades-in-arms. And there's another person who didn't come this time due to some reasons."

  "My god!" I sighed: "You've even recruited special forces."

  Wu Feng said: "Wen Long and his comrades are mainly responsible for sentry duty and assault missions. In our line of work, we sometimes encounter unexpected events, such as encountering fierce beasts, so we need a few powerful assault team members."

  "How many temporary workers did I just mention?"

  Wu Feng said: "This time the scale is larger, and more than 30 people were temporarily recruited. If all these people rebel against heaven, it will be troublesome."

  As he spoke, the car had already left the city. Wu Feng stepped on the accelerator and the car sped out quickly. As I expected, its power was really strong. When accelerating, I felt like I was being pressed into my seat. It seemed that things were at a critical juncture.

  We bounced around in the mountains for about an hour before arriving at the campsite, and it wasn't until later that we asked someone and found out that this was a low-lying part of Zhongtiao Mountain. The whole way, I felt like my stomach was going to be shaken out. All I wanted to do was get off the bus and throw up to get rid of the nausea that kept rising up my throat. But as soon as we got off the bus, the nausea disappeared instantly - not because of the fresh air or the beautiful scenery in front of us, but because more than 30 pairs of eyes were staring at us intently.

  At this time, a chubby person came towards us. It's not an exaggeration to say that he was shaking as he ran, his whole body's fat jiggling up and down. Fortunately, he was relatively tall, otherwise he might have been shaped like a ball. Suddenly, a strange thought popped into my mind: if this wasn't Fat Three, what would Fat Three be like?

  "Fat Three, what's going on?" Wu Feng said. I thought: It really is him.

  "Ah! Finally back!" Fat Three panted, "Vice Wu, I can hold on till now... it's not bad... if not for the Wu brothers blocking, I'm afraid we would have fought. You guys are back... that's great." Just running ten or so meters and already panting like this, I admire Fat Three.

  The scene suddenly fell silent. I discovered for the first time that Wu Feng had such a majestic side, his gaze swept over, making people feel cold and stern in his eyes, but at the same time, seeing this gaze also made people calm down. I took advantage of this brief silence to carefully observe the scene. There were more than 30 people gathered together, including men and women, some looked cultured, while others seemed to be laborers, probably temporary workers recruited for this occasion. On the periphery stood three people, a girl with glasses who should be Xiaojia, and two tall and muscular men wearing camouflage uniforms, clearly skilled fighters, likely the two retired special forces soldiers.

  "What's the panic?" Wu Feng shouted in a loud voice, "I've already invited an ancient architecture expert, and we'll find the person soon. Everyone return to their posts." The crowd buzzed with discussion, but no one moved.

  "Who is an expert and can explain this situation?" A voice came from the crowd, didn't see the person but heard him speak, should be a cultured person.

  I was stunned, and I felt Su Wei poking me from behind. Only then did I react. It turned out that the expert Wu Feng was talking about was me. This kid is really not decent. Isn't this making me take the fall? I didn't know anything at all, hadn't even gotten into the situation, but if I didn't back down now, those thirty or so people on the other side would probably blow up immediately. Forget it.

  I gritted my teeth and took two steps forward, saying "I'm the expert." The buzzing in the crowd grew louder, it seemed I still hadn't intimidated them.

  "Don't look at his young age." Wu Feng didn't wait for the person opposite to speak, and said first: "In China, no, even in the whole world, there are only seven people who study ancient special building structures. His father, his mother, and he occupies three of them." The buzzing sound immediately subsided, slowly becoming quiet.

  Wow! I couldn't help but give Wu Feng a big thumbs up in my heart. The first sentence clearly states the problem on everyone's mind, while also negating it. The following sentences are even more reassuring, with seven people in all of China and three from my family alone, occupying nearly half of the seats, proving that my family is well-learned, instantly calming everyone down. Where did this number of seven come from? Although I knew in my heart that Wu Feng was just trying to fool everyone, I still had to put on a pretentious expression.

  "Is it believable?" Another voice came from the crowd, also a cultured person. It seems that those who do physical labor are all down-to-earth people.

  Wu Feng said in a calm tone: "Whether it's believable or not, it has to be done. Talking is useless if nothing is done. First, return to your posts and work. If all the experts disappear, I won't stop anyone from leaving."

  Wow! I couldn't help but scold Wu Feng in my heart, where did you go? I haven't lived enough yet. People should have believed Wu Feng's exaggeration. They dispersed in twos and threes, discussing. Just as I was about to say something, Wu Feng glanced at me, shook his head, and walked towards one of the tents, so I had no choice but to follow him.

  This should be a temporary command center and the main workplace for key members of this team. No one else works here except for key members.

  Wu Feng glanced outside and said: "Wu Wen, keep an eye on the door and don't let anyone else in."

  One of the soldiers responded with a "yes" and stood guard at the entrance. It was then that I found out one of the two soldiers was named Wu Wen, and an absurd thought involuntarily popped into my mind - shouldn't the other soldier be called Nong Mo, making them a perfect pair, Wu Wen and Nong Mo?

  Fat Three followed him in. With a smile all over his face, he rushed to me and said: "Great, great, with such a professional person here, we can rest assured." What greeted him was my face mixed with helplessness, indifference, and a hint of shyness. Fat Three looked at me for a while, then turned his head to Wu Feng with difficulty, opened his mouth as if he had a lot to say, but finally only squeezed out two words: "Fake?"