?

  When I regained consciousness again, I was lying in the hospital with an oxygen tube still inserted into my nostrils, and doctors wearing white coats kept walking back and forth beside me.

  Been rescued?

  I wanted to see more clearly, but my vision remained blurry. Then someone put a blindfold on me and the whole world went completely dark. It wasn't until I finally took off the blindfold that it was two months later.

  I have been in hospital for two months, and afterwards I heard it from Pangzi.

  Xiaohua and his group, after barely escaping death in the avalanche, found their journey to be more difficult than expected. So they had Xiuxiu lead a rescue team back, organizing a relief team to respond at any time. During the escape, Ershu and others encountered Xiuxiu's rescue team. Then, at Ershu's repeated requests, Xiaojiu led another group back to search for me. After only half an hour of walking, they saw me and Pangzi lying in the snow.

  Then, I and Baozi took turns carrying a drip bottle for emergency treatment. During this time, Baozi woke up, but I fell asleep.

  According to Pàngzi, because the temperature was too low, in order to prevent the IV from freezing, Xiūxiū had to stick it close to her body. We were lucky to escape disaster. After leaving the snowy mountain, our group was sent to a hospital in Xining City for emergency treatment. My second uncle recovered first and returned to Hangzhou. After my injuries stabilized, he arranged for me to be transferred back to the First Hospital of Hangzhou by air, and Pàngzi also got his medical expenses covered for free thanks to my second uncle.

  When I woke up, my eyes were covered with cloth, and the fat man's wound had healed. He came to visit me at the hospital from time to time. During my convalescence, Second Uncle came to see me several times. I told him about Third Uncle's affairs, and he fell silent for a long time before taking away the keepsake of Third Uncle that I had been holding in my arms. Then he said, "Once you've recovered, come to Changsha for a visit." It wasn't until two months later, when Hangzhou had entered autumn, that I truly recovered.

  My shoulder wound has recovered relatively well, but my eyes have some problems, photophobia, and I can't open them when the sun is too big. The doctor said this is a sequelae of snow blindness, and since I was treated in time on Changbai Mountain, there's no major problem. However, the trip to Kunlun made the snow blindness relapse, causing damage to my retina, so there's some underlying condition. But if I take care of myself for a year or two and don't go back to the snowy mountains, it should be able to recover.

  The day I was discharged from the hospital, Fatso came to visit me. I found that during my convalescence, he had regained the more than ten pounds of weight he had lost, and his whole face was rosy and radiant. As soon as he saw me, he took out a pair of sunglasses identical to those of Passerby A and said enthusiastically: "Tianzhen, I heard you're afraid of light now, so I got you a pair of shades. Don't say Fat Brother isn't generous, this pair of shades cost over 300 bucks."

  I almost got suffocated by him and said in a bad temper: "That sunglasses of Mr. Qi's is over 50,000 yuan, you still have the nerve to give it away for 300 yuan."

  He pointed to the orchid logo next to the sunglasses and said, "Don't worry, this is a high-quality imitation. When you show it off outside, just say it's 50,000 yuan. Others won't be able to tell." I rolled my eyes, took the imitation glasses, patted Fatso on the shoulder, and said, "Let's go have some drinks." This time we didn't invite anyone else, just the two of us. We ordered a table full of dishes: abalone, sea cucumber, and hairy crab, which was Fatso's favorite. The waiter looked at us with eyes that seemed to say we were nouveau riche.

  Fatso had a drink, and his tongue started to tie into knots, saying: "This... being alive is good." I nodded in agreement and downed another cup with him. This trip to Kunlun was full of eerie feelings everywhere, everything seemed to be hinting that there was an invisible hand pushing from behind the scenes. Not only did Xiaohua fear this hand, but even Ershu was under its control.

  Now San Shu has disappeared, and Wen Jin, who is the only one who knows the clue, seems to have never appeared at all. If it weren't for Pang Zi, I would even suspect that Wen Jin didn't come out of Yun Yu at all.

  If she also went to the Heavenly Tomb, why is there no clue at all? Our group of nine deaths and one life searched the entire Heavenly Tomb, but we didn't even see the real tomb owner. Maybe Third Uncle saw it, what about Wen Jin? Did she see it? Is the third Ghost Seal buried in the Heavenly Tomb also in her hands?

  What is she going to do next?

  I was drinking with Pongzi, discussing the situation in the fight, getting drunk, Pongzi slapped the table and said: "What does Wen Jin Auntie care about? She can do whatever she wants. Humph! Now that we have the Zan Sheng Jing, let's think carefully about how to rescue Xiao Ge... If we can't rescue him, then it's just fate, you say is it not?"

  I nodded, stuttering: "Fatty... uh, you're right! We're just ordinary people, ultimate laborers... let it... get lost."

  The fatty also followed and shouted: "Right, down with the ultimate, the ultimate get out, long live the Chinese people!"

  "Shh, you...you're drunk, this is a secret...can't let others know."

  The fatty suddenly shut up, mysteriously saying: "Right... it's a secret." As soon as he finished speaking, he let out a loud roar: "Ultimate rolling egg! Long live the Chinese people!" I went to cover his mouth, and while covering him, the two of us fell down together, and fell asleep on the ground. In the end, we didn't even know how we got back.

  The next day when I woke up, I and Pangzi were in the rest room on the second floor, one sleeping on the floor and the other sleeping on the sofa, just no bed.

  I was scared awake.

  Last night, I dreamed again of that bronze statue and the flames burning fiercely, which had been burning all night. Later, I also dreamed of Wen Jin, dreaming that she crawled into a meteorite, staring at a glowing strange stone, until finally, even Kuladzhie appeared in my dream, grinning at me for the whole night.

  When I woke up, I was all sweaty. I kicked the fat guy on the floor awake and we washed up before going downstairs. Zhao Wang was surfing the internet. I went over to him and took a look - he was browsing some information about Langyao red porcelain. This young man is quite eager to learn.

  He was so focused that he didn't notice me for half a day, and then he quickly stood up with a smile: "Xie Ge, you're awake, I'll go buy breakfast for you guys." I glanced outside and couldn't help but squint my eyes, it was already noon outside, the strong sunlight made me feel uncomfortable, so I stepped back into the shade and said: "It's already noon, what's the point of buying breakfast?"

  The store was quiet, so I and Pangzi sat in the back compartment, made a pot of hot tea to drink. Pangzi took out that golden box from his backpack, inside which were gold foil carvings, 20 cm long when unfolded, with dense, tadpole-like characters carved on it. I've also done some rubbings, but this kind of character I've never seen before.

  The specific years of the Songda people's life, I still can't confirm today. It may be two thousand years ago, or it may be earlier. But the text above is obviously a kind of ancient writing from the prehistoric era, and it is likely to be a product of the same period as oracle bones. It should be the first written language derived by the Tibetan people at that time.

  I spent half a day studying it with no results, and this thing is very professional. If you don't understand it, even if you look at the gold foil carefully, you won't be able to see anything. Finally, after discussing it back and forth, Fatso said: "Let's do this, I know an old professor in Beijing who used to work on archaeology and has now retired. Although he is an archaeologist, he knows my background, as we cooperated before. It seems that the only way is to bring it to Beijing and see if he can study it." I thought about it and felt that this was the only option, so I made an appointment with Fatso, gave him a copy of the document, and we agreed to research separately and contact each other as soon as there was any news.

  It's naturally good if we can find a way to save the oil bottle, but if we really can't find one, then we can only wait for that ten-year appointment.

  Pangzi stayed at my place for a day and returned to Beijing the next day. He had been in Ba Nai for over a year, and several factions in Beijing were in disarray. Pangzi said he would first sort out internal affairs before going to find that old professor.

  After the fat man left, my small shop suddenly became quiet again. Thinking that it's been over a month since he left, I should sort out the accounts and called Wang Meng to prepare the account book, and go check the accounts in two days.

  Wang Meng answered the phone with a high-pitched tone, but as soon as he heard me ask about checking accounts, his voice changed immediately and said, "Boss, don't you know?"

  I sensed something was off and immediately asked: "What's wrong? Has something happened?"

  Wang Meng shook his head and said, "No, this matter is now being handled by Second Master, and it's said that there's an agreement left behind by Wu San Ye, and the departure will still follow legal procedures." I was stunned for a moment, then thought carefully about it, and suddenly understood.

  Firstly, when this matter first fell into my hands, there was no clear procedure. Secondly, with Second Uncle's abilities, it wouldn't be difficult to come up with some fake agreements. What I don't understand is that before going to Kunlun, I had asked Second Uncle to take over the case, but he scolded me until I was speechless, saying I had no integrity. Now how could he take it on himself?

  I remembered my second uncle asking me to recover and return to Changsha, so I instructed Wang Meng to do a good job. After hanging up the phone, I asked Zhao Wang to book a ticket to Changsha. When I arrived in Changsha at 8 pm, I didn't go back to my parents' house, but instead went to my second uncle's villa, which is also our Wu family's ancestral home.

  Our ancestral home was a large building during the Republic of China period, when my grandfather made his fortune and became famous in Changsha. The house occupied a vast area of land south of Changsha, with open spaces, mountains, and water nearby, making transportation convenient.

  After the reform and opening up, land reform was carried out, followed by the Cultural Revolution. My grandfather was very popular at that time, but he could take it and put it down. Before the government came to the door, he took the initiative to donate his property and land. It is said that he also gave a speech in Changsha, the general idea of which was to support New China, Wu Mouren sacrificed his life for righteousness, donated his property and grain, and fully cooperated with the government. The government was pleased, so our ancestral house was left intact. In modern times, due to the durability of wood, it was renovated by my second uncle into a white villa.

  Ordinary people would think that someone extraordinary lives inside, but in fact, apart from this house looking luxurious, I really haven't figured out if my second uncle has any other business.

  His uncle's home was occupied by only him, with a fixed hourly worker who cooked for him every day on time. Every time I saw the old man in his fifties guarding a large mansion alone, I felt very pitiful. A house needs to be inhabited to have vitality, perhaps because there were too few people in the ancestral home and it was located in the suburbs, even though the interior was decorated luxuriously, I still felt that it was gloomy and eerie.