"Take a look at these reports," Wang Yang handed me photos of several lab reports.
I took them and examined them closely, utterly baffled. "What are these?"
"I asked someone. These are medical examination reports, lab results from foreign hospitals..."
Wang Yang paused. "They indicate that An Ying's cells do not age..."
"Are these reports real or fake?" I asked.
"It's hard to say for sure, but they're likely not fake... Think about it, who would go to the trouble of forging such data reports?" Wang Yang said. "Besides, these photos were taken decades ago. If they were fake, what would be the point of keeping them?"
"Did you come to me just for this?" I asked.
To be honest, whether Sister Ying was truly immortal no longer bothered me much.
What I cared about was what trouble Sister Ying was in and how I could help her.
If she could really live forever, it would at most be a shock to me. And then what?
The problems would still need to be solved, and the things I had to face would still be there.
"Besides this, I also found out something else..." Wang Yang said.
"What is it?"
"My father and my grandfather, after they left with An Ying back then, very likely died at the hands of these people." Wang Yang's tone was heavy.
He paused for a moment before continuing, "I discovered that these people are also looking for people with the same tattoos as me... If I'm not mistaken, this is how they managed to find An Ying."
"How are you so sure your father and grandfather are dead?" I asked.
Wang Yang gave a bitter smile. "It's been so long. If they were still alive, why haven't there been any messages from them all these years?"
I didn't know what to say and could only offer him some comfort, telling him not to overthink it.
"So..." Wang Yang pursed his lips. "I have to find An Ying. I need to figure out what exactly happened, whether my father and grandfather are dead or alive... If they're dead, then who did it!"
...
Fu Honglang rented a minivan, and the next day we set off to find Mao Guizhi.
Since we were going to explore a tomb, Fu Honglang prepared a lot of things. I saw them carrying quite a few tools, packed in large bags.
Two days later, we arrived at a village in the Qianzhong mountainous region.
Qianzhong is full of mountains, and the mountain roads are particularly difficult to navigate. Some of the winding mountain roads are not only hard to drive on but also incredibly narrow.
A road less than five or six meters wide, where one glance out the car window reveals sheer cliffs. If the driver lost focus for a moment, the car could tumble down, with no chance of survival.
Fortunately, Fu Honglang was driving, and his driving skills were good. We didn't encounter any accidents along the way.
There are also many ethnic minorities in Qianzhong. The village we stopped at was a Miao village.
Before we arrived, Fu Honglang had already told us some precautions.
He said that once we reached the Miao village, everyone had to be alert, not to offend the locals, and definitely not to eat anything offered by them randomly.
Fatty, not understanding, asked, "Why?"
Fu Honglang smiled slightly, and Xiao Liu in the passenger seat added, "Haven't you heard of Gu?"
"Gu?" Fatty's eyes rolled. "Does that stuff really exist?"
"The Gu of the Miao people is quite eerie, to be honest," Fu Honglang said. "I came to Qianzhong with my uncle before. We also stayed in a Miao village. One of my uncle's friends molested a local young girl. Later, he fell seriously ill and passed worms with his diarrhea... it was as disgusting as it could get. He went to several hospitals, but they couldn't diagnose the problem. It was only when my uncle took his friend to apologize with gifts that the matter was settled."
After hearing this, I felt a tightening in my backside. The thought of the scene he described made my stomach churn.
I had also heard of Gu.
It is said that the Miao ethnic group has many branches, broadly divided into raw Miao and cooked Miao, also known as white Miao and black Miao.
Raw Miao are those who have not been sinicized, living in Miao villages, isolated from the world.
The men of raw Miao are mostly fierce, passionate, and loyal. To defend their villages, they would do anything.
As for the women of raw Miao, they are mostly fiery and passionate.
Cooked Miao are those who have intermarried with the Han Chinese and gradually sinicized.
Not every Miao person knows how to perform Gu rituals. Only a branch of the raw Miao called "Gu Miao" understands how to perform them.
I reminded Fatty to speak less once we got there, as I was very worried about his mouth.
Fatty smiled and said, "Brother Xiang, don't worry about me. You should worry about yourself."
"Worry about myself?"
"Yeah, you're so fair-skinned and tender. If some Miao girl takes a fancy to you and casts a love Gu on you, you'll probably be stuck there for life." Fatty chuckled.
Hearing this, everyone else also burst into laughter.
The car swayed and shook as it arrived at the village. After parking the car, Fu Honglang told us to stay in the car while he and Xiao Liu went to find the village chief.
About half an hour later, they returned with the chief, chatting and laughing, accompanied by a few men.
The chief asked us to park the car in front of his house and then arranged lodging for us.
Fu Honglang, being someone who had been in the Jianghu for a long time, had his own way of dealing with people.
Without spending a single penny, he just handed out a few packs of cigarettes and managed to sort out our accommodation.
The villagers were quite hospitable. We had dinner at the chief's house that evening, and many people came to join us for drinks.
During the drinking, I learned that Fu Honglang had told them we were there to dig up land.
I saw many people holding various bottles and jars. Although these were old items, they had no real value.
But Fu Honglang bought all of them without a second word, spending several thousand yuan in one go.
I couldn't understand why he bought so many bottles and jars. When we were chatting together that night, he finally explained, "Those things indeed have no value. The purpose of doing this is to buy peace."
"Buy peace?" I was somewhat puzzled.
Xiao Liu added from the side, "This is their territory. You have to bleed a little, otherwise, why would they be polite to you? To put it bluntly, our boss is paying for the land use. Look at everyone who came today, didn't they all leave happy with the money?"
So that's how it was. This taught me a new trick.
"When you travel, spending money to ensure safety is the most important thing. You shouldn't be stingy with small sums of money," Fu Honglang said. "Moreover, we're here to explore a tomb this time. The rear must not have any problems. We don't want to come out of the tomb only to be ambushed."