Chapter 239: Time of Death

Feifei Wang, realizing she had no choice, asked Dashao Liu to persuade the old man. Dashao Liu, however, had never been good at persuading people. He had never done such a thing from childhood to adulthood. He looked at the group around Uncle Diao, who were all experts, especially Zhang the Moulder. With them around, he was sure they could find the Golden Ancient City. He explained everything to Feifei Wang, who looked at Uncle Diao’s group with a doubtful expression. Her doubt wasn’t about their ability to find the Golden Ancient City, but rather about whether they were good people or not. Still, since Uncle Diao was the leader, she decided to go along with it for now.

Feifei Wang took out a pen and notebook, wrote something down, tore off a page, and handed it to Old Man Klama, saying, “This is proof. You can show it to the leader outside, and they will give you the commission and money for a camel team.”

Old Man Klama took the paper, thanked Feifei Wang repeatedly, wished everyone the protection of God, and finally received some food and water from Feifei Wang. They exchanged brief farewells and watched Old Man Klama leave.

The next period was a time for everyone to rest. Fan Debiao, indifferent to the outside world, immediately fell asleep. Feifei Wang was also exhausted, after all, being a woman, she couldn’t match the stamina of these strong men, and she leaned against a tree to rest.

Although Dashao Liu was very tired, he wasn’t sleepy. Lying in his sleeping bag, he thought about Mount Bodhisattva, Zhang Jue’s tomb, and their connection to the desert.

A few people who were still energetic volunteered to keep watch. Finding it extremely boring, they even started playing a card game. Dashao Liu, half-asleep and half-awake with the sound of their excitement, didn’t know how long passed before dawn came.

The daytime weather in the desert was always unbearably hot, but they had to keep moving forward. Dashao Liu got up and drank some water. Soon, everyone else woke up and began packing their belongings. Once everything was ready, Dashao Liu gathered his thoughts and prepared to set off.

Just then, something happened that made Dashao Liu’s jaw drop. Not far away, three off-road vehicles were slowly approaching. Dashao Liu looked closely and saw that the driver of the first car was none other than Rat, meaning that Uncle Diao’s group had managed to drive the cars into the desert. He hadn’t expected these people to be so capable.

The three cars were piled high with sand, clearly having just been dug out. As the cars jolted, the sand poured out.

Fan Debiao, staring at the off-road vehicles, said, “Look at that! They’ve even driven the cars in here. How outdated we are with our camels!”

In fact, in the desert, vehicles have their advantages. They are faster only in the initial stages outside, but once deeper in, they can barely move at all. Camels, although not as fast as vehicles, can go anywhere.

But for their current situation, having a few off-road vehicles was already quite good.

Fan Debiao and Jackson were almost flying with joy. As soon as the cars stopped, the two rushed over excitedly. As the car doors opened, they were almost buried in sand.

It took everyone a lot of effort to clear all the sand from the cars, and they were very tired. However, they could now enjoy a brief respite.

The archaeologists, along with Uncle Diao, Old Wu, and Zhang the Moulder, shared one car, chatting and laughing on the way, though they didn’t mention their main objective, as it was better for fewer people to know.

Fan Debiao and Jackson were excited for a while but soon became bored. Somehow, Fan Debiao got hold of a deck of playing cards and invited Dashao Liu to join a card game. Finding there weren’t enough players, Fan Debiao asked Zhang the Moulder to join as well. However, Zhang the Moulder didn’t even bother to refuse and completely ignored Fan Debiao.

Fan Debiao was a bit annoyed and then called Lin Miaoke. As everyone was getting into the game, the car suddenly braked sharply. Due to inertia, everyone was thrown forward, and the playing cards flew everywhere.

Fan Debiao shouted, “Damn it! I had four times!”

Everyone’s heart tightened, but not because of Fan Debiao’s four times, rather because the sudden stop must have meant something had happened.

After a while, there was a commotion ahead, followed by Rat shouting for Uncle Diao to come over.

Upon hearing this, Uncle Diao’s expression turned serious. He opened the car door and ran forward. Suddenly, he felt a gust of wind from behind. Looking ahead, he saw that Zhang the Moulder had already darted ahead of him.

No one hesitated and rushed out of the car, running forward. A crowd gathered, not knowing what they were discussing.

Dashao Liu pushed through the crowd, struggling to get inside. When he looked down, he saw a solitary mummified corpse lying on the sand, its face contorted in terror. Its clothes were tattered, and judging from the expression on the corpse, it had died from extreme fear. One could say it had literally been scared to death.

Dashao Liu’s gaze wandered over the corpse. When his eyes settled on the left chest area, he was completely shocked. Wang Feifei also froze when she saw it.

On the left chest of the corpse’s clothes, faintly visible were four letters: “tour.” That was the emblem of the expedition company!

Tour archaeologists! Dashao Liu was extremely surprised. But thinking about it, it was only natural. Tour had previously had people enter this area, so it wasn’t surprising that someone had died here.

Dashao Liu whispered to Uncle Diao, “Uncle Diao, take a look at this person. Can you recall anything?”

Uncle Diao stared blankly at the corpse on the sand. When Dashao Liu asked him, he finally came back to his senses and said, “This person… is not from the group I came in with.”

After Uncle Diao finished speaking, Dashao Liu felt a jolt in his heart. How could Uncle Diao be so sure this person wasn’t from his group? In theory, since Uncle Diao had amnesia, he shouldn’t be so certain. Could it be that Uncle Diao was pretending to have amnesia?

Dashao Liu thought about it again and realized he had made a mistake regarding the timeline. Judging from the corpse’s level of desiccation, it had died no more than a year ago. However, Uncle Diao had entered the desert twelve years ago. Even if the corpse had been well-preserved, lying in the desert for twelve years would have surely resulted in it being buried by sand.

“In recent years, the Tour archaeological team has sent people in,” Uncle Diao told Dashao Liu.

Dashao Liu naturally thought of this layer. That meant that before Tour discovered the body of Wang Feifei’s father, someone had already been to the Golden Ancient City. Logically, before this, they should not have known about Uncle Diao’s discovery. Then, what was their purpose for entering?

Thinking about this, Dashao Liu looked at Wang Feifei. She was a senior member of Tour, so she should have known about the company’s archaeological activities in recent years. He then asked her about it.

Wang Feifei shook her head, her face full of confusion, and replied, “I’ve worked at Tour for two years, and in these two years, there have been no desert archaeological expeditions.”

After she finished speaking, Dashao Liu was even more puzzled. How could a senior member of the company not know about archaeological expeditions? Could it be that their estimation of the corpse’s death time was wrong? Dashao Liu even considered the possibility that this person might have been part of a group from four years ago, accompanying Jackson. So, Dashao Liu asked Jackson if there had been such an incident.

Jackson also shook his head and said that four years ago, he was just an intern at Tour. He had been in a daze the entire time they went to Mount Bodhisattva.

After inquiring further, Dashao Liu naturally came to a conclusion. The corpse in front of them wouldn’t lie. Its level of desiccation definitely didn’t exceed a year. That meant that one year ago, the Tour company had sent someone to explore the Golden Ancient City again. However, this expedition was even more of a failure than Uncle Diao’s group.

Then another question arose in his mind: why was there only one corpse here? A company as powerful as Tour wouldn’t possibly send just one person. That was absolutely unrealistic.

As Dashao Liu was pondering, Uncle Diao found a notebook in the corpse’s backpack. This notebook had been in the desert for almost a year and looked quite fragile. Uncle Diao carefully opened the notebook with skilled hands. Don’t forget, Uncle Diao’s main profession wasn’t grave robbing but rather an archaeology professor.

The people Uncle Diao had brought were only interested in grave goods and had no interest in corpses, so they had no intention of continuing to look and returned to their cars to rest.

All these archaeologists had a natural curiosity and leaned over to look at the notebook. Zhang the Moulder didn’t leave either.

After looking for a while, Dashao Liu’s head almost grew bigger. The notebook was filled with dense French writing, like worms crawling around. He couldn’t understand it at all and gave up on reading it. At that moment, he suddenly glanced at Zhang the Moulder, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the notebook. Could this guy, who had grown up grave robbing, actually understand French? Thinking about this, Dashao Liu felt ashamed.

Suddenly, a faint sound came from the sand. Dashao Liu thought there was something and looked down. He saw Fan Debiao rummaging through the corpse’s backpack. He walked over and patted his shoulder: “What are you doing?”

Startled by Dashao Liu’s sudden pat, Fan Debiao threw the bag out of his hands. His reaction clearly showed he had a guilty conscience.

Seeing it was Dashao Liu, Fan Debiao angrily said, “Master Liu, how come you always appear out of nowhere?”

Dashao Liu found it amusing and said to Fan Debiao, “Are you actually thinking about taking something from a dead person? Do you really think there would be a lot of enamel in this bag?”

Fan Debiao, hearing Dashao Liu’s words, put on a very wronged expression and solemnly replied, “Come on, am I that kind of person? I think this guy coming to the desert secretly must be up to something unusual, and I’m just trying to find out.”

Dashao Liu gave Fan Debiao a disbelieving look and said, “You’re just making things up!”

Fan Debiao, seeing that Dashao Liu didn’t believe him, kept protesting his innocence, claiming to be as wronged as Dou E.

Dashao Liu, seeing Fan Debiao acting a bit sulky, didn’t want to bother with him. Suddenly, a curse came from behind.

Could it be that Uncle Diao had made a significant discovery? Dashao Liu hurried over to ask. Uncle Diao handed the notebook to Feifei Wang without answering Dashao Liu and directly walked back to the car. Zhang the Moulder also shrugged and slowly walked back.

Dashao Liu was speechless and immediately asked Feifei Wang what was going on. Feifei Wang looked very embarrassed, handed the notebook to Jackson, and returned to the car. Now Dashao Liu was even more confused and quickly asked Jackson, warning him that if he didn’t explain, he wouldn’t let him off the hook.

Jackson gave a bitter smile, scratched his head, and couldn’t explain for a moment. He had no choice but to open the notebook and read a passage to Dashao Liu. After Lin Simiao heard it, she immediately blushed and ran back to the car. Wang Zhicai just shook his head. Dashao Liu listened with cold sweat pouring down. “Damn it! It turned out to be dirty stories on the notebook.” He hadn’t expected the Frenchman to be into that kind of thing. Dashao Liu looked at Fan Debiao, who was listening behind him with drool running down his mouth, chasing after Jackson to continue reading. Jackson ignored Fan Debiao, threw the notebook at him, and told him to read it himself. Fan Debiao, who could barely recognize Chinese, was confused for a moment but still kept the notebook.

Jackson said that no matter what, the corpse was his former colleague, and they couldn’t just leave the body exposed here. He called Dashao Liu and Fan Debiao, and the three of them worked together to dig a sand pit and buried the body. Feifei Wang brought a Bible from the car and came over to help the body ascend to heaven.

After everything was done, everyone set off again on their journey to the Golden Ancient City.

Sitting in the car, the constant jolting made one feel like they were in a cradle. Soon, Dashao Liu fell into a deep sleep, this time without any dreams.

He didn’t know how long he had slept when he was suddenly awakened by Feifei Wang. She said the car could only go this far, and the next part of the journey would have to be on foot.