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墨書 Inktalez
Perhaps the fate of the Six Brothers was sealed the moment they killed Master Chu. For these six men, death might have been the best outcome. No matter what they had done in life, now they felt nothing at all.
But this case was far from over.
I had overlooked one crucial point. The moment I realized that the six men who had raped Chu Mei were the Tomb Robber Six Brothers, I should have considered this. No living woman could arouse Old Six unless they had killed Chu Mei; otherwise, only five remnants of their essence would have been found.
Someone was lying!
Aside from Chu Mei and the Six Brothers, there was one other person who knew what happened back then, and that person was most likely the one pulling the strings. The ghost we encountered in the courtyard was probably just trying to scare us away, to keep us from getting involved in this matter.
The one who created chaos during the Ghost Marriage, making the Six Brothers believe that Chu Mei had returned, could only be one person!
“Lin Daiyu!” I shouted. “It wasn’t the Six Brothers who killed Chu Mei; it was Lin Daiyu!”
“What?” Zhao Mingkun seemed to be struggling to grasp it, looking up and asking, “Are you sure?”
I replied, “I’ve always been puzzled as to why they thought Chu Mei had returned. In the minds of the Six Brothers, Chu Mei hadn’t died at all. That’s why they believed she could conspire with one of them. After they raped Chu Mei, the Six Brothers didn’t actually kill her.”
I continued, “The Six Brothers must have thought that their crime against Chu Mei had been exposed, which is why they believed she came back for revenge. But in reality, Chu Mei was indeed dead. So after the Six Brothers left that night, only Lin Daiyu and Chu Mei were left at the scene. Therefore, there’s only one possibility!”
Zhao Mingkun slowly said, “You mean Lin Daiyu killed Chu Mei? But why would she do that?”
“I don’t know yet.” I shone my flashlight around. “However, Wei Changfeng mentioned that Chu Mei is in the tomb. I’m afraid that the one impersonating Chu Mei is Lin Daiyu; she’s still in the tomb, and we should be able to find her.”
As soon as I finished speaking, a woman’s laughter echoed through the air: “Haha, your brother is really clever! That’s right; it was all me. I did kill Chu Mei; I did steal her body; I even incited them to turn against each other—the whole thing was my doing.”
As I directed my flashlight toward her, I saw a woman standing at the end of the passageway. She wore a red robe that obscured much of her face.
Just as I was about to ask Lin Daiyu why she did this, Zhao Mingkun charged forward first. It seemed his decisiveness was strong; he prioritized capturing her without considering anything else. Naturally, Lin Daiyu wouldn’t just stand there waiting to be caught; she turned and ran away.
The red robe stood out even in the tomb, and Zhao Mingkun and I were hot on Daiyu's heels. However, Daiyu moved quickly, showing no hesitation in the dark environment. Running at such a speed, one would surely collide with the walls and end up injured. Zhao Mingkun and I had flashlights, but Daiyu had nothing.
So why didn’t she crash into the walls? The only explanation was that she was very familiar with this tomb!
Those who know the secret must die. Why did Lin Daiyu suddenly appear at the end of the tomb? This could not be a coincidence; Daiyu must have done it intentionally.
“Wait, something's off!” I shouted urgently.
As I spoke, we followed Lin Daiyu into a burial chamber. This chamber was much larger than the others, with a large coffin positioned in the center. It seemed this was indeed where Master Chu's true coffin lay. Inside, there should be Master Chu's other half of the treasure.
But before we could fully take in the layout of the chamber, we suddenly felt our feet give way beneath us, and we fell.
The fall left me dazed, feeling as if all my bones were about to break and my insides shattered. My head buzzed painfully as I forced myself to look around. Fortunately, the flashlight still worked, allowing me to see my surroundings.
Zhao Mingkun had fallen not far from me and was struggling to get back on his feet; it seemed he wasn't seriously hurt.
We found ourselves in a cellar of about ten square meters, approximately three meters deep from where we had fallen. The cellar contained some bags that looked bulging; I couldn't tell what they held. The walls were smooth, coated with cement. Above us was an opening measuring two meters wide, and beside it was a sealed iron plate.
Looking up, I saw Lin Daiyu watching us with a smile. I knew it—there was definitely a trick involved. Lin Daiyu had deliberately lured us here to make us fall into this pit.
“Goodbye,” Lin Daiyu said with a smile. “Now that you two know the secret, once you're dead, no one will ever know what happened.”
With that, Lin Daiyu lowered the iron plate covering the cellar entrance, followed by the sound of a bolt being secured.
She must have left; we were trapped in this cellar by her design.
“Damn it,” I cursed. “This is bad.”
Zhao Mingkun shone the flashlight around and said, "It's only three meters high, leaning against the wall. Let me see if I can get it open."
I understood what Zhao Mingkun meant; he wanted me to be a human ladder. Sighing, I squatted in the corner. Zhao Mingkun stepped onto my shoulders, and I slowly stood up. With my height of 1.75 meters combined with Zhao Mingkun's 1.7 meters, we should be able to reach the Iron Plate at the top of the opening.
However, after several attempts to push up, Zhao Mingkun showed no success; it seemed the latch was very secure. The Iron Plate could only be operated from the outside.
After struggling for five minutes with no progress on the Iron Plate, I could barely hold myself up any longer.
Panting on the ground, I said to Zhao Mingkun, "Don't you have a gun? Can't you shoot through it? It should just be latched from the outside, not locked. If you can make a hole, we can gradually pull out the latch."
Zhao Mingkun threw the gun down and shook his head. "You already know there are no bullets in it."
I was speechless. The last time Zhao Mingkun tested my identity, there indeed were no bullets in the gun. I had thought she had deliberately unloaded them; now it seemed she simply didn't have any bullets at all.
"Then why did you bring a gun?" I asked.
Zhao Mingkun smiled. "A gun without bullets can still scare a lot of people, including you and that Qian Er."
Great.
Master Chu's Tomb was designed like a maze, with three paths at every chamber and passageway. If someone unfamiliar with this tomb entered, they would likely get lost easily. Zhao Mingkun and I were trapped in this Cellar; it would be difficult for us to escape.
Even if the police conducted a thorough search of this Tomb, by the time they found us, we would probably have already died of thirst.
Zhao Mingkun, however, was rummaging through those bags, looking completely unconcerned.
Thinking carefully, Guan Zengbin should have already contacted Captain Shao and the others. If I didn't reach out to her for a long time, she would likely come looking for me in the Tomb. Based on timing, she should arrive in one or two hours. But even if she came, it might still be hard for her to find us here.
"Do you know what's inside?" Zhao Mingkun asked.
"What?" I replied.
Zhao Mingkun tossed a bag over to me. "It's filled with good stuff—silver coins, gold, and jade. Looks like this Grave Robber is quite wealthy, but you don't seem like one."
"I'm afraid we're going to die here. What good are these riches to us?"
I lay back down. Since I couldn't think of a way out, it was better not to waste energy. To conserve the flashlight's battery, I turned it off. Seeing this, Zhao Mingkun also lay down. Once the flashlight was off, the entire cellar was engulfed in darkness. It was so dark that I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.
"I wonder if there's enough oxygen down here," I said.
Zhao Mingkun responded, "If you're worried about the oxygen, what’s the point of talking?"
I clasped my hands behind my head, trying to make myself comfortable. "If there isn't enough, then there isn't. If we're going to die, I don't care about a few more minutes."
"You seem quite optimistic," Zhao Mingkun chuckled lightly.
"Actually, we don't have to wait here for death," I turned to look at him, but in the darkness, I could see nothing. "Why are you so obsessed with solving this case? You're not a cop. And what exactly are you doing here? Are you after that male corpse?"
Zhao Mingkun grunted in acknowledgment. "That male corpse has something in its stomach. You've heard of bodies hiding poison before. I'm looking for the person behind this corpse—Lai San."
Lai San again; it turned out Zhao Mingkun was also searching for him.
"By the way, you could have left; why did you choose to stay with me?" Zhao Mingkun countered. "You're not a cop either."
I suddenly felt an urge to reveal my true identity to Zhao Mingkun; after all, we were both likely going to die soon. But as the words formed on my lips, they wouldn't come out. Was I a cop? No, I wasn't; I was just someone called in to help and might be kicked out at any moment, just like when I was sent to the mental hospital before.
"You still haven't answered my question," I said.
"Well..." Zhao Mingkun dragged out his words, taking a long time before he finally spoke. "I once hoped to be a police officer. My parents were criminals, but the one who adopted me was a police officer. However, everything changed suddenly when my adoptive father also became a criminal. I had to help him because he treated me well."
So the so-called criminal had once been a police officer. This was something Captain Shao had never mentioned to me.
"My dream was naturally shattered, but sometimes I still wish I could be a police officer, even if just for once. The feeling of unraveling the truth and finding the murderers for those who died unjustly is unparalleled."
Zhao Mingkun's voice was very soft.
Listening to Zhao Mingkun, I found myself pondering why I wanted to be a police officer. Was it to escape the shadow of my father, the murderer? Or did I enjoy the process of solving cases like peeling layers of an onion? Perhaps I simply liked the thrill of life, the excitement of outsmarting murderers?
I wasn't sure.
Zhao Mingkun continued, "I remember often playing cops and robbers with her daughter. I was older than her, so I always had to play the thief. Sometimes I wished I could stand in the sunlight instead of being confined to darkness..."
I couldn't see Zhao Mingkun, but I could feel the sorrow in his tone.
Sometimes, is there really a choice in being human?
Are some people destined to endure darkness from the moment they are born?
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