Chapter 54: Grave Robbers

The moment Master Chen finished speaking, Qi Lin was clearly stunned, her expression carrying a hint of struggle.

After a moment, she said, "We... accidentally wandered into the depths of the Greater Khingan Mountains..."

Before she could finish, Master Chen interrupted her directly, saying coldly, "No... it is absolutely impossible for you to have entered that place by accident."

Hearing this, Qi Lin froze in place.

Master Chen stared at her and continued, "The two of you didn't come here purely for sightseeing, did you?" After saying this, Master Chen glanced at her backpack and added, "Your backpack looks heavy, it must contain a lot of good things, right? For instance, a Luoyang shovel?"

As Master Chen uttered those last three words, Qi Lin's eyes widened, and she looked at him in sheer disbelief.

Hearing this, I couldn't help but feel a wave of shock myself.

A Luoyang shovel?

I had certainly heard of those!

Because they were mostly used by grave robbers!

What did Master Chen mean by saying this? Could it be... that Qi Lin was actually a tomb raider?

An absolute silence fell over the room.

After a moment, puffing on his cigarette and taking a sip of liquor, Master Chen stared hard at her. "What? Am I wrong?"

Qi Lin struggled to sit up, and after thinking for a long time, she said flatly, "How... did you figure it out? Did you go through my pack?"

Master Chen let out a cold snort. "Go through your pack? You can rest easy, I don't have that much spare time; besides..."

At this point, Master Chen cast a sideways glance at her backpack and continued, "Besides, there was a single strand of hair across the zipper of your backpack. Whether I opened it or not, wouldn't you know just by looking?"

Qi Lin pulled her backpack closer and inspected the zipper carefully. Then she looked at Master Chen in shock. "You didn't search my pack? Then... how did you know?"

By this time, I had noticed it too—a thin, fine hair was indeed lying across the zipper of her backpack...

And it was at that exact moment that I finally understood.

Master Chen hadn't been lying to me. As it turned out, this woman was truly no ordinary person!

Qi Lin was a grave robber, a tomb-robbing artisan of the underworld.

Turning my head to gaze at Master Chen and Qi Lin, I lit a cigarette of my own and slowly took a drag. I began to lament how young and naive I truly was; if not for Master Chen, I probably really would have taken Qi Lin for a mere tourist...

Now it seemed that if she was a tomb raider, all her previous cover stories were completely fabricated.

That whole nonsense about coming back from abroad was just meant to throw people off the scent.

Even the identity of the dead man was probably fake. Serving as a soldier abroad—what an incredible liar.

...

A dozen seconds later, Master Chen spoke casually, "Many years ago, I used to deal quite a bit with grave robbers, and I came to a conclusion: all tomb raiders carry a faint, earthy odor on them. This earthy smell isn't just on their clothes—even if they take off their clothes and take several baths, it stays with them!"

Qi Lin was taken aback. She first lifted her fair arm and sniffed it near the tip of her nose.

"There's nothing!"

"Can a smoker ever smell the tobacco smoke on their own body?"

The corners of Qi Lin's lips turned up, and she nodded knowingly. "It seems that really is the case! So you knew from the very beginning when we met?"

"No! At first, I only had my suspicions. After I took your clothes off, that earthy smell became unusually strong, so I could be one hundred percent sure that you were a grave robber! And a seasoned one at that, having been at it for a long time."

"Impressive! As expected of a veteran hunter roaming the mountains, your eyes are truly sharp!" Qi Lin nodded thoughtfully, speaking softly to Master Chen, "However, since you knew I was a grave robber, you were still willing to save me..."

Master Chen shook his head expressionlessly. "It wasn't me who wanted to save you; it was Sanqi who wanted to save you! If not for Sanqi..."

Master Chen did not finish the rest of his sentence.

However, both Qi Lin and I knew what unvoiced words hung in the air.

"Give me a cigarette, Sanqi," Qi Lin said softly, looking at me.

I frowned. "You have injuries..."

"It's fine, I won't die from it!"

Seeing her nonchalant attitude, I hesitated for a moment, then reached into my pocket and tossed a cigarette over to her.

She caught the cigarette, lit it gracefully, and looked at Master Chen with a raised eyebrow. "So, how do you plan to deal with me?"

"You'll have to ask Sanqi that!" Master Chen replied indifferently.

Qi Lin's gaze shifted horizontally toward me. I was suddenly at a loss, having never experienced anything remotely like this before.

After thinking for a long time, I scratched my head under her gaze and blushed as I said, "Well... just rest here! We can talk about it after you've recovered."

At the time, I thought that was a pretty reasonable decision.

To my utter astonishment, the moment those words left my mouth, Qi Lin burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she was practically doubling over, tears even welling up in her eyes.

Master Chen, meanwhile, covered his face and shook his head, looking utterly exasperated at my hopeless foolishness.

I was completely baffled. Just as I was wondering what on earth was going on, Qi Lin crooked her finger at me, her expression instantly shifting from innocent to bewitching...

"Little Sanqi! Since you said so, I naturally have to reward you properly for saving me from freezing to death in the snows of the Greater Khingan Mountains. Hmm... how about this? Tonight, I'll let you taste what I'm made of, how's that?"

My face instantly turned burning red, and it felt as though needles were pricking my skin. I waved my hands frantically and stammered, "N-no... no need!"

"Giggle, giggle!" Qi Lin laughed again.

Master Chen let out a long sigh and waved his hand. "Alright! Since Sanqi told you to stay, then you stay! But I still have questions for you!"

Qi Lin's smile subsided. She flicked her cigarette butt onto the ground and nodded flatly, "Fine! Go ahead and ask."

"Which faction are you from?"

"The Northern Faction!"

Tomb raiding was actually quite similar to hunting; the trade across the country was divided into the Southern and Northern factions.

The southern side was commonly known as the Southern School of tomb raiding, while the northern side was the Northern School.

"How many people in your team?"

"Six!"

Master Chen continued, "Aside from the dead man and yourself, where are the rest?"

"The two of us were just the vanguard sent in to scout the underground chamber. The remaining four are still outside."

...

As Master Chen kept asking questions, Qi Lin answered with great promptness.

I had to admit that Master Chen possessed a vast reservoir of knowledge regarding grave robbing, tossing out numerous specialized professional terms...

Five minutes later, toward the end of the interrogation, Master Chen said, "Alright, finally, I want to ask: shouldn't you grave-robbing folk be out plundering ancient tombs in cities with deep historical heritage? How is it that you suddenly ended up here in... the Greater Khingan Mountains? Aside from mountains and forests, this place is full of wild beasts. Who on earth would bury their tombs out here?"

To be honest, Master Chen's final question was precisely what I wanted to ask as well.

China had many ancient tombs—an immense number of them.

Yet the vast majority were concentrated in the Central Plains and Shaanxi region; even if there were ancient tombs in the Northeast, they should be located somewhere around Shenyang!

There was simply no way they should be out here in the Greater Khingan Mountains.

Qi Lin narrowed her eyes, pondered for a brief moment, and then uttered clearly, word by word: "I wonder if you people... have ever heard of Walin Mangha!"