Seeing Qin Yuhu's reaction, Lian Youming grinned. "Uncle, how about we wait until we get back to talk?"
In truth, Qin Yuhu had regretted his words the instant they left his mouth, realizing he had lost his composure. He gave a nod and a grunt, then glanced at Yan Lingyun, who was ducking her head and averting her gaze like a timid quail. The corners of his mouth twitched, shifting into a warm, gentle smile. "Lingyun, don't head back to the forest farm today. Go to my place with this rascal. I'll have my wife cook up something good. It's thanks to you bringing word, after all. You must be exhausted. Don't worry, we're definitely going to make it up to you."
He had no idea what was with the girl—whenever anything happened, she would always hang her head and lower her eyes first. But the moment she heard there would be good food, she stirred immediately and looked up.
Qin Yuhu laughed. "This boy's mother—that's your Auntie Zhao—has unmatched cooking skills. After the New Year, she sent over a few jin of cured meat and sausage. You haven't tried it yet, have you? You'll have a taste in a bit. It's completely different from what you're used to in Guangxi—numbing, spicy, and fragrant beyond belief."
"Huh?"
Lian Youming froze in surprise beside him. Back around March or April, when Shen Qinghong was giving birth, his mother Zhao Lanxiang had sent over plenty of goods, all of them favorites of Qin Yuhu's family. That cured meat and sausage was a true rarity—aged cured meat stored for two or three years. Lian Youming himself hadn't managed to mooch more than a couple of meals of it.
"'Huh' my foot! I'll settle accounts with you when we get back!" Qin Yuhu turned his head, his expression toward Lian Youming instantly souring into deep disgust. Without a pleasant look left for him, he spun around and rushed over toward the two corpses.
Even though the two desperadoes hadn't been killed by them, this was still a major achievement; both had been serious criminals wanted nationwide.
If nothing else, it would at least earn an additional resettlement allowance on top of the original pensions for the brothers they had lost earlier.
They had all been raised by mothers and fathers, and they had laid down their lives—no one could let them be shortchanged.
If they could also secure the map to the Kwantung Army underground fortress, it would be an even greater merit. Even though the one earning the merit was Lian Youming, they would at least get a share of the broth.
It was an immense stroke of fortune.
Lian Youming didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but seeing Qin Yuhu's weathered face finally relax after so long, he breathed a sigh of relief as well.
Ever since losing an arm, the man had acted outwardly calm, as though he didn't care. Yet his face had grown visibly older, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper until he looked almost like a shriveled old man.
Lian Youming naturally knew what was on Qin Yuhu's mind. In this life, aside from one's wife and children, what else was there to care about but one's duty to parents and brotherhood among comrades? Otherwise, he wouldn't have had Yan Lingyun deliver the news to Qin Yuhu first.
Yet his chuckle must have pulled at his wound, and he couldn't help coughing a couple of times.
"Cough, cough..."
Seeing this, Yan Lingyun's heart leaped into her throat again. "Classmate Lian, are you all right?"
Lian Youming shook his head. He looked around, and seeing that the rest of the group was some distance away, he lowered his voice. "Don't worry. Mission accomplished."
With that, he pulled Yan Lingyun toward a secluded spot, then retrieved two basin-sized pieces of tree bark from a heap of leaves. Sandwiched inside was a piece of turf along with a small mound of black soil, and in the earth, one could faintly make out a wild ginseng topped with flowers and leaves, trailing a mass of rootlets. It looked just like a chubby little baby.
No more, no less—exactly eight leaves.
An eight-prong wild ginseng.
The thing had actually been growing inside that emerald-green old tree, almost as if deliberately hiding from people. Lian Youming had circled around several times and nearly missed it.
"I was worried I'd be clumsy with my hands, and it was so dark that there was no time to dig it out carefully, so I just dug out the ginseng along with the dirt. It took a massive amount of effort."
Yan Lingyun examined it closely. Although the ginseng flowers hadn't withered yet and the eighth leaf was somewhat smaller than the earlier ones, it was already more than enough.
Lian Youming was about to say more when he saw the girl in front of him crying again. He couldn't help a headache. "Aiya, why are you crying again? I already counted—not a single rootlet is broken! Don't you try blaming me!"
Yan Lingyun pouted. "The ginseng is fine. I'm just scared in hindsight. If something had happened to you, I..."
Lian Youming teased with a grin, "Would you have been unable to go on living?"
At these words, Yan Lingyun stopped crying at once, puffed up with indignation.
Lian Youming wasted no more breath. Stripping off his jacket, he carefully wrapped up the two pieces of tree bark. "When we get back, you can extract the ginseng. It's delicate work. It almost killed me, and my eyes nearly went blind from squinting."
In truth, Lian Youming had also considered waiting until the eighth prong fully matured before returning, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Even if the place where it grew was well-hidden, what if another mountain roamer stumbled upon it during those few days? After weighing it back and forth, he had decided it was best to dig it up right away.
"Mm!"
Holding it like a priceless treasure, Yan Lingyun trailed behind Lian Youming like a chick following a hen as they returned before Qin Yuhu.
The two sleeping children had also awakened. Held in the arms of two soldiers, they cried inconsolably.
Only after the party had properly gathered and wrapped the corpses did they set off on their return journey.
Yet they had not walked far when, as if possessed, Lian Youming suddenly cast a glance back. Filled with a trace of perplexity, his gaze swept over the lush mountain forest, seemingly searching for something.
Qin Yuhu also turned back to look, but seeing only the empty wilderness, he couldn't help asking, "What is it?"
Lian Youming shook his head. "Nothing. Let's head back."
The party drifted farther and farther away, leaving the forest in dead silence.
...
By the time they reached Songziling, the afternoon was already well underway.
Without delaying for a moment, the group boarded a truck and hurried back to Tahe.
Seeing Lian Youming covered in bloodstains and Yan Lingyun clutching something like a precious treasure, Qin Yuhu took the two of them back to his home first.
Qin Hongxiu had already returned to school during this period, while Shen Qinghong had been busy working while taking care of the child, having visibly grown much thinner.
Lian Youming took note of this and naturally wouldn't trouble his elder. Once he had washed away the blood and changed into clean clothes, he slipped into the kitchen, grabbed a spatula, and, under Yan Lingyun's astonished, bewildered gaze, whipped up a table full of dishes.
Then, taking advantage of the moment Qin Yuhu stepped out to report the map, Lian Youming returned to his room and took out the jade box Xie Laosan had entrusted to him.
The box was fashioned in an archaic style, still caked with dried streaks of mud, having nine times out of ten been dug out from the earth.
Lian Youming had already examined the contents inside.
The reason he felt it was out of the ordinary was that, aside from the photograph and address of Xie Laosan's granddaughter, there were surprisingly two maps.
One was presumably the map of the Kwantung Army underground fortress, as it was annotated with numerous Japanese markings—secret passages, slopes and ridges, as well as symbols for firearms, ammunition, and military supplies.
The other map, however, was exceedingly bizarre. Depicted on it were undulating mountain peaks, with neither annotations nor text—just a single mountain range.
"Why does this look like the Changbai Mountains?"
Lian Youming frowned as he studied it.
"Could there be two maps for the underground fortress?"
Yet no sooner had the thought arisen than Lian Youming dismissed it.
The two maps weren't from the same set at all. The former was made of paper, while the latter was made of hide; furthermore, how could there possibly be an underground fortress on that mountain?
"Xie Laosan didn't make things clear before he died. What on earth is this thing? Or is it completely useless?"
Pondering, Lian Youming's gaze shifted to the jade box on the table, and a sudden thought stirred his mind, his eyes gleaming. "Could this hide map be what originally belonged with the jade box, while the paper map was slipped in separately?"
After all, anyone could tell at a glance that the jade box had considerable age, whereas the Kwantung Army was an affair of merely decades ago.
The more Lian Youming thought about it, the more bizarre it seemed.
After weighing his options, he decided to turn over only the paper map, putting away the hide map and the jade box for safekeeping.
Chapter 33