The mountains on both sides were so steep that it was impossible to walk, and the river ahead had already been blocked by rocks that had fallen from a landslide.

I patted the head of that naked-bottomed kid and said to him, “Go back and play, and help me thank your sister!”

The kid reached out his hand: “Give me a fifty!”

I was stunned. The kid didn’t say anything else, just held out his hand and stared at me. I said, what fifty?

Uncle Samuel burst out laughing, pulled out a hundred yuan and handed it to him. The kid snatched it and hopped away.

Only then did I realize, and I laughed too: “Even the mountain kids these days are so mercenary.”

“Man dies for wealth—” Quentin Carter muttered. Peter Clark kicked him: “Educated, are you? Die for wealth, why don’t you go die for your dick.”

Without another word, we started climbing. The rocks weren’t that loose, and in a short while we made it over. It wasn’t as terrifying as that girl had said, and we didn’t see any of those heads she mentioned. Behind the landslide, it started as a gorge, and further on there were more and more trees. In the distance, it was a dense forest. Who knows how such an ecosystem came to be.

At this moment, we saw an old man fetching water in the gorge below the landslide. I looked closely—damn, wasn’t that the dead old man who led us into the cave? The old man suddenly saw us, got so scared he fell into the creek, then scrambled up and ran. Peter Clark cursed with a laugh, “Try running!” He pulled out his short gun and fired a shot into the sand in front of the old man’s feet. The old man jumped in fright and ran further. Peter Clark fired three more shots, each one hitting the old man’s footprints. The old man was pretty sharp—realizing we were just toying with him and that he couldn’t escape, he suddenly dropped to his knees.

We ran down the slope, and the old man kowtowed to us: “Grandfathers, please spare me! I really had no choice, that’s why I set my sights on you, but I didn’t expect you to be like immortals. I truly failed to recognize greatness!”

He was crying and sniffling. Uncle Samuel asked him, “Come on, you look pretty healthy to me. What’s so desperate about your situation?”

“To tell you the truth, I really am sick. I may look tough, but I have to take several doses of medicine every day. See, I was just fetching water to boil my medicine.” He pointed at a water bucket nearby.

“Let me ask you, you old ghost, how did you suddenly disappear in that cave?”

“If I tell you, will you spare me?” The old man looked at us.

“Relax, it’s a law-abiding society now,” Uncle Samuel said. “Leniency to those who confess, severity to those who resist.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll confess,” the old man said. “Actually, it’s nothing much. That cave may look like a straight tunnel, but there are a lot of hidden holes in the ceiling. If you’re not looking for them, you’d never find them. I just took advantage of a moment when you weren’t paying attention, stood up, and slipped into one of those holes. Once your boat left, I came back out. That donkey egg heard my whistle and pulled over a wooden basin for me to get out. After it was done, the boatman Louis Green would give me my share. Honestly, I didn’t get much.” He suddenly thought of something. “By the way, where’s Louis Green? I suppose he’s fallen into your hands too?”

Peter Clark made a throat-slitting gesture. “He’s already reported in.”

The old man was stunned at first, then slapped his thigh: “Serves him right! Honestly, I didn’t want to do it either. That Louis Green said if I didn’t help, he’d do me in too. You see, I really had no choice. Please, let me go.”

“Cut the act,” Uncle Samuel said. “Where do you live, and why are you fetching water here?”

“I live in that cave over there,” the old man pointed to a cave nearby. “Look at me, an old man with no land, my son died young, no house to live in, now I’m just waiting to die. It’s pitiful.”

“So you’re pretty familiar with this area, huh? Good. If you want us to let you go, you’ll have to take us somewhere.” Uncle Samuel pointed at the forest. The old man’s face changed instantly. “My grandfathers, so you’re here to rob graves! You can’t go into that tomb! There are monsters in there!”

As soon as I heard that, I knew there was something to this. The old man definitely knew something. Uncle Samuel asked him, “What, you’ve seen them?”

“Ai, a few years ago, I took a group there. They said they were archaeologists, but I could tell they were grave robbers. But these guys were different from the others. The petty thieves I’d seen before would rob any tomb they saw, but this group—honestly, you could tell from their bearing they weren’t ordinary people. They didn’t even look at the nearby tombs, just said they wanted to go deep into the mountains. Back then, I was the only one in the village who’d ever been there. Those people were loaded—they gave me ten big bills right away. I couldn’t resist the money and led them into the forest, all the way to the place I’d been before. But they wanted to go even further. I refused, said not even ten big bills could buy my life. They said they’d give me ten more. I said even a hundred wouldn’t do it. Their leader got angry, put a gun to my head. I had no choice but to take them further in.”