"Wow! Brother, you've struck it rich... Treat me to a meal," my cousin jumped up beside me.

I pursed my lips and said, "Stop messing around, these are cultural relics; they need to be donated to the state." I pulled out a tissue from my pocket and wiped the dirt from one bar. Seeing the characters Zhenguan Tongbao inscribed on the bottom, it seemed my guess was correct: this wealth truly was bestowed by Li Shimin upon Prince Wei.

I mused to myself that Jie Yuting's capabilities were truly remarkable. These items surely would have been confiscated during the hospital examination; I wondered how Lord Ting managed to pull off such a spectacular deception.

Inside the briefcase was also a tattered notebook I had found in the Ku Long den. I never had the time to look at it while inside the cave, and later, during the escape, it had fallen into the water multiple times. Now, the script was utterly illegible; a gentle flip turned it to dust.

The rest consisted of the projector and the muscle specimens taken from the monster.

I first took out the projector. Its metal casing was riddled with scratches and dents, as if the scene of the earth splitting apart was still vividly present before my eyes. I couldn't help but take a deep breath and compose myself.

But as I reached out to touch the side of the projector, a chill ran down my spine: the memory card had been pulled out by someone.

I distinctly remembered the memory card being in the projector when I first acquired it, and nobody had touched the device during the journey. Could this have happened after I fainted?

I racked my memory carefully and suspected that Little Beard was the most likely culprit.

Because Little Beard wasn't staying in the same hospital as us, and according to the doctors' descriptions, the rescue team found only three of us present, clearly not including Little Beard. Who exactly was this Little Beard? I absolutely had to ask Da Xiong once he woke up.

A projector without a memory card was nothing more than junk. I sighed and tucked the briefcase away indoors.

The last remaining items were the monster’s muscle specimens. Due to the significant passage of time, they had begun to stink inside the plastic bags, and yet, I had none of the necessary equipment at home for any research.

So, I could only call a good friend at the research institute, asking him to take them and run tests for me.

Since a detailed analysis would take at least three months, I immediately sank into a state of utter idleness.

My parents and Second Uncle didn't say much after learning the situation; only my cousin seemed somewhat disappointed.

One evening, I called Jie Yuting, hoping to ask if he knew anything about that Little Beard, but a woman answered the phone. Her tone suggested the entire world owed her money. She introduced herself as a consultant for a real estate company.

Thinking I had dialed the wrong number, I tried twice more, but it was the same woman each time. Finally, she cursed me out, warning that she would call the police if I harassed her again.

I was utterly dejected. I couldn't tell if Lord Ting had written down the wrong number or was deliberately teasing me, so I had no choice but to drop the matter.

In the following days, Second Uncle and Father were constantly in contact with the Academy of Sciences. Upon learning that Grandfather was alive, the Academy promised to do their best to search for leads, though results wouldn't be expected anytime soon.

Although we lived with anxiety every day, no one could endure this endless wait. So, after another week, Mom and Dad decided to return to Beijing to resume their jobs, and Second Uncle also started attending to his own affairs.

After my cousin left for school, I found myself alone in the small courtyard every day.

I finally had some rare leisure. The Academy of Sciences hadn't contacted me since Grandfather disappeared. That was unpaid, obligatory work anyway; if I wanted to go, I went, and if I didn't, nobody cared.

While recuperating my body, I looked after Grandfather's flowers and plants, feeling like my life was quite pleasant.

Eventually, I even began to feel that the events experienced in the Wei Kingdom ruins were nothing more than a dream. But every time I visited Da Xiong in the hospital, I could truly feel that everything had been real.

One Thursday evening, the hospital called to inform me that Da Xiong had awakened from his coma. I was overjoyed, quickly gathered my things, hailed a cab outside, and rushed straight to the hospital.

When I arrived at the hospital room, I was astonished to find Da Xiong’s bed empty. Upon inquiring, I learned that a group of people had picked him up.

While I was berating the hospital staff for releasing him without waiting for me, I tried calling Da Xiong, fearing he was in danger. But his phone was turned off. It then dawned on me that both our phones had been lost long ago in the Wei Kingdom ruins. My number had been reactivated for temporary use, but Da Xiong's number had never gone through the reactivation process.

I asked the nurses who had taken Da Xiong away. A young nurse told me it was several men, two of whom were wearing old military uniforms, and Da Xiong seemed to have left willingly with them, suggesting it wasn't a kidnapping.

My tension eased slightly. I guessed that Little Beard and his group must have taken Da Xiong, though I couldn't fathom their motive.

I fully expected Da Xiong to call me after being discharged, but for the next month, the fellow was completely silent. By this point, the entire group that had adventured with me into Black Bamboo Valley seemed to have evaporated from the earth, never to be seen again.

Da Xiong and I had always been the best of friends. I never imagined he would treat me this way. To hell with him, I thought. If I ever see that fatty again, I’m giving him a good beating first.

After agonizing over it for a few days, I felt helpless. I was a normal person with my own life, so I gathered some high school classmates, and we spent our days drinking and singing, gradually forgetting about those events.

Life seemed to return to tranquility. As I was about to graduate with my Ph.D., having nothing to do, I strangely began to miss that thrilling life of adventure.

One day, bored, I rode my bicycle alone to Longquan Lake on the east side of Chengdu. In the late summer, the trees around Longquan Lake were lush, and the distant mountains were green like a beauty's eyebrows. A gentle breeze drifted by, quieter and cooler than the city air.

Standing amidst the tall grass by the lakeside, bathed in the glow of the evening sunset, I watched a few elderly people leisurely fishing on the opposite bank—everything was so harmonious.

Taking a deep breath, I prepared to turn back. But the moment I turned, I caught a fleeting glimpse of my reflection in the water and noticed three figures in black clothing on the nearby slope, seemingly watching me from behind.

Startled, I quickly spun around to look up the slope, but the three people had vanished.

That slope led up to the road where I had arrived. Those three must have retreated to the road and couldn't have gone far.

Full of suspicion, I quickened my pace up the slope. When I reached the main road, I saw no pedestrians, only a black SUV parked a short distance away.

I righted the mountain bike I had left by the roadside and hopped on, riding away in the opposite direction from the SUV.

As expected, I hadn't gone far before the vehicle started up. It moved incredibly slowly, deliberately keeping pace with me.

I had never been followed before, and nervousness caused cold sweat to break out on my forehead.

This was because I remembered the news reports recently covering organ traffickers kidnapping able-bodied university students to harvest their kidneys in clandestine locations.

However, I was someone who had seen considerable action; I remained relatively calm. So, I deliberately fiddled repeatedly with the gears of my bicycle, causing the chain on my mountain bike to slip off quickly, giving me an excuse to stop and fix it.

My thought process was that if the car didn't want to be discovered following me, they certainly wouldn't stop conspicuously right behind me again.

Indeed, the SUV didn't stop when I pulled over; instead, it crawled slowly past me. A man in black peered at me from the rear passenger window but never pulled over.

The car passed me and drove into the distance. I continued chatting with my police friend on the phone until the vehicle rounded a bend and disappeared behind a small hill. Only then did I hastily remount my bike and pedal away rapidly in the opposite direction.

I rode fast the entire way home and was exhausted upon arrival. I quickly took a shower, and when I emerged, Auntie had already prepared dinner.

I chose not to tell the two elders about what happened today. Yet, strangely, while they ate their dinner, the three of them—Uncle and Auntie—remained silent, exchanging hesitant glances at me every so often.

Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore and asked Second Uncle if something was wrong, perhaps if they had found Grandfather's body.

Second Uncle hesitated, exchanging a look with Second Aunt, before saying, "Nephew, it's not about your grandfather. It's about you. Tell your uncle honestly, have you recently crossed anyone?"