Chapter 234: The Clue on the Map

After a while, Old Diao walked up to Wang Feifei and said, “Miss Wang, come with me.”

With that, he headed toward a quiet, deserted spot.

Wang Feifei was momentarily stunned, but quickly stood up and followed. Liu Dashao’s curiosity had not faded at all since earlier—he definitely didn’t want to miss out on anything interesting. He jumped up from the ground and hurried after them excitedly.

Old Diao led everyone to a secluded corner. He glanced at Liu Dashao, clearly a bit uncomfortable that he had followed, but after thinking it over, he figured Liu was technically family and it wouldn’t hurt for him to know. So he didn’t bother to send him away with a stern face.

Old Diao was silent for a moment, adjusted his glasses, and said to Wang Feifei, “Miss Wang, could I take another look at that photo?”

Wang Feifei silently took out the photo and handed it to him, her expression expectant.

Old Diao carefully took the photo, held it up to his eyes, and stared at it intently, his eyes locked on it without blinking.

It was just a simple photograph, yet he stared at it for a full three minutes without looking away. Liu Dashao and Wang Feifei had no idea what he was thinking, but they didn’t interrupt.

After a while, Old Diao handed the photo back to Wang Feifei and sighed heavily, “Actually, I don’t know what’s going on here!”

Liu Dashao was shocked by Old Diao’s words. What the hell was going on? The old man was clearly in the photo, so why was he speaking in riddles? What was the point?

“This… what do you mean?” Wang Feifei asked, clearly in disbelief.

Old Diao slowly removed his glasses, his eyes filled with confusion and a hint of mystery. “What I mean is, I have no idea why I’m in this photo.”

“What? You don’t even know how you ended up in the photo, old man?” Liu Dashao was puzzled.

“Could it be…?” Before Wang Feifei could finish her sentence, Old Diao interrupted, “Yes, I have amnesia.”

Liu Dashao was stunned when he heard Old Diao say that. How could this be? He had never heard Old Diao mention anything about amnesia before. He immediately began asking questions.

Old Diao organized his thoughts and explained everything to Liu Dashao and Wang Feifei. Only then did Liu Dashao realize that Old Diao was not quite the same person he had known before.

In 1965, after completing an archaeological expedition, Old Diao returned to the institute exhausted. He had planned to take a break, but just as he was about to leave, his superiors urgently summoned him.

His superiors told him that the archaeological team and a French joint expedition team (Tour) were planning to search for an ancient city buried in the Taklamakan Desert, and they wanted Old Diao to go.

At the time, Old Diao was extremely tired and had no interest in participating in any more activities. He had planned to refuse, but the idea of going to the desert he had always dreamed of, and working alongside French archaeologists, made him hesitate. In the end, he agreed somewhat reluctantly.

Even more unexpectedly, after discussions between the Tour expedition team and his own archaeological team, Old Diao was chosen to lead the expedition.

Upon hearing this, Old Diao’s spirits lifted. He was determined to make a name for himself in the desert and bring honor to the Diao family.

After a night of intense discussion, the team finalized their route and logistics (the Golden City was not yet publicly known). Then they set off. Truth be told, it all seemed a bit rushed, but it was arranged by the higher-ups.

The next day, they arrived at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. Everyone was seeing the desert for the first time and was excitedly jumping around. Old Diao himself was filled with indescribable joy.

After preparations were complete, everyone returned to their tents to rest. Early the next morning, Old Diao got up full of excitement, ready to head into the desert, when he suddenly received notice that the expedition had been canceled.

Old Diao was deeply puzzled—how could everything be ready and then suddenly be called off? He decided to ask the French team what was going on, but after some inquiries, he found out that the French archaeologists had already left the country earlier than expected.

This left Old Diao feeling like he had fallen from a mountain peak into a valley. But there was nothing he could do, so he packed up and went home.

After returning, Old Diao spent a long time in a daze, not even sure how much time had passed. He didn’t return to work until two months later.

Since then, Old Diao had always felt a strange emptiness, often dreaming about the desert. He thought maybe it was just regret from not entering the desert.

But just a few days after returning to work, he was reassigned to another archaeological team and gradually forgot about the desert expedition—until Old Wu brought the ancient sheepskin scroll. That emptiness returned, and Old Diao felt something was off. He asked Old Wu to organize this current team to enter the desert.

After hearing Old Diao’s story, Liu Dashao began to piece together part of the truth: Old Diao had indeed been to the Taklamakan Desert, perhaps even reaching the Golden City. Others had died or disappeared, but Old Diao had survived—albeit with amnesia. But why had both his archaeological team and the Tour expedition team lied to him? Had they discovered something in the Golden City that both teams decided must remain hidden? And why was the Tour expedition team restarting the excavation now? Could it be because of a new discovery related to Wang Feifei’s father?

Even if Old Diao had lost his sense of time, why hadn’t anyone else in the team told him anything?

Unless what they had discovered was so significant that it had to be buried forever beneath the sands. But then why was the Tour expedition team restarting the expedition now?

“Old Diao, do you remember anything about going into the desert?” Liu Dashao summarized his thoughts and asked.

Old Diao shook his head. “No memory at all. But when I saw the map on this sheepskin scroll, I had a few fragmented memories, though I can’t piece them together.”

Liu Dashao thought deeply. Something about this felt far from simple. He recalled the connection between the Golden City and the “Touch.” Could Old Diao’s discovery be related to the truth he was seeking? If so, this mystery stretched back thousands of years and spanned all of China—just thinking about it made him shiver.

“It looks like we’ll only know the truth when we reach the Golden City,” Wang Feifei said after a long silence.

“That’s right,” Liu Dashao nodded.

“We can’t go directly to the Golden City. We need to figure out this map first,” Old Diao said, pulling out the sheepskin scroll.

Liu Dashao was confused. “Old Diao, you don’t even understand the map yet?”

“My knowledge only tells me it’s a map, but I can’t tell where it starts or ends. I did everything I could to get here, but now the trail has gone cold,” Old Diao replied.

“Why don’t we put the map aside for now and go straight to the Golden City? If we don’t find anything, we can come back and study the map,” Liu Dashao suggested.

Old Diao shook his head. “I think this map is important. I feel like without understanding it, even if we reach the Golden City, we’ll just be standing there clueless.”

Liu Dashao felt uneasy. “You can’t make sense of the map anyway. Staying here is just wasting time.”

Old Diao ignored Liu Dashao’s complaint and focused on studying the sheepskin scroll.

Sighing, Wang Feifei was about to say something when a sudden voice interrupted, “Perhaps I can help you.”

As the voice faded, a dark figure dropped from the sky, landing steadily among them. The impact kicked up a cloud of sand, revealing how high up he had been.

Standing before them was a figure wrapped like a dumpling, his eyes not even glancing at anyone. He looked off into the distance, his gaze as distant as ever, as if nothing in the world concerned him. Liu Dashao felt a chill just looking at him.

No one had expected him to be eavesdropping. Could he be connected to this mystery? Fortunately, nothing they had just said was particularly revealing, so no one felt the need to confront him—and even if they did, the three of them wouldn’t stand a chance.

Liu Dashao subtly signaled Old Diao with his eyes, suggesting whether they should show him the map. He and Wang Feifei weren’t particularly eager to do so.

Old Diao gave a slight nod, walked over to the figure, and said, “Liangpi Zhang, can you read this map?”

“Liangpi Zhang?” Liu Dashao nearly burst out laughing when he heard the name. In his mind, someone so mysterious and skilled should have a cool name like “Mysterious Stranger” or “The Shadow.” But “Liangpi Zhang”? That sounded ridiculous.

Still, there was something about this Zhang person that gave Liu Dashao a suspicious vibe.

Liangpi Zhang took the sheepskin scroll from Old Diao and began to examine it closely. Taking the opportunity, Liu Dashao quietly asked Old Diao about Liangpi Zhang’s background.

Old Diao said he didn’t know much about him. He had been brought in by Old Wu, who had connections with a lama. According to Old Diao, Liangpi Zhang was from Changsha. Two years ago, he appeared in the tomb-robbing circles there and quickly gained a reputation for his exceptional skills. Old Wu had gone through great lengths to bring him in.

“I understand,” Liangpi Zhang suddenly spoke. “This is a composite map.”

“A composite map? What do you mean?” Old Diao asked.

Liangpi Zhang pointed to a circle on the map. “We are here.”

“Do you think we didn’t figure that out already? Look, there’s a broken line here,” Old Diao said, pointing to two disconnected lines.

Liangpi Zhang shifted his gaze to where Old Diao was pointing and said, “I understand that. This is a map composed of two different scales.”

“Two scales?!”

When Liangpi Zhang said that, all three of them suddenly understood what he meant.