Chapter 23: Embracing All Things

Cheng Xiangru held the insecticide in his hand, looking at the carpet of ghost ant corpses, and felt a profound sense of absurdity. Who in their right mind carries insecticide around with them?

And then there was Leng Ying. It was one thing for her to carry a regulated weapon—girls traveling alone often kept a little something for self-defense—but in this day and age, who carries a red-tasseled spear?

Cheng Xiangru felt increasingly that this talkative girl with a penchant for wild theories was truly mysterious; she looked nothing like an ordinary person. Did she really know his father? Was she... could she be a tomb raider too?

Just as his mind was wandering, he heard Leng Ying call out, "Found it! Hey! Come help!"

"What do you need?" Cheng Xiangru skirted around the dead ants, bracing himself as he wove through the rows of pottery jars to reach her side.

Leng Ying pointed to the jars behind her. "Move these things aside and clear some space for me."

Though he didn't know what she was planning, Cheng Xiangru complied. The jars were incredibly heavy, impossible for one person to lift, but they had rounded bottoms, allowing them to be rolled along their edges. It took every ounce of his strength to push them aside, clearing a space about a meter wide.

"Stay back," Leng Ying said, rolling her neck and rotating her wrists and ankles as if warming up.

Cheng Xiangru didn't ask questions. He quickly retreated a short distance and watched her with confusion.

After finishing her warm-up and taking a few deep breaths, Leng Ying crouched into a horse stance. She gripped the long spear with both hands and thrust it forward with a sharp "crack," driving the spearhead into the soil layer of the wall before prying upward with force. The shaft of the spear bent slightly, a testament to the immense power she was exerting.

With a sound of crumbling debris, a large slab of earth was pried loose by Leng Ying. It flew outward and tumbled to the side, smashing into one of the pottery jars with a loud crash. Inside the jar was a thick, black, viscous liquid, but this time, it wasn't snakes that spilled out—it was several hedgehogs. Their bodies were soft and mushy, splayed out on the ground with their sharp quills jutting out at odd angles.

"Keep a close eye on those," Leng Ying said, wiping her spearhead with her sleeve and resuming her stance, clearly intending to continue dismantling the wall. Where she had pried away the earth, a brick wall was now exposed.

Cheng Xiangru nervously moved closer to the dead hedgehogs, his index finger hovering over the nozzle of the insecticide, ready to spray at a moment's notice.

"Oh, right!" Leng Ying paused mid-motion and straightened up. "Once I break through the wall, if it really is that Goatee and his group on the other side, don't you dare tell them who you are."

Cheng Xiangru was currently wearing a surgical mask, draped in a blue burial shroud, and carrying a generic-looking travel bag. If he didn't speak up, he doubted Boss Zhou and his men would recognize him.

He felt conflicted. He didn't want to lie to Boss Zhou, but he also desperately wanted to know the true purpose of their trip—whether they were really looking for his father. If he revealed his identity, he would inevitably be unable to explain Leng Ying’s presence, which might put her in danger. He knew Boss Zhou and his men were armed with real firearms—not red-tasseled spears. No matter how skilled Leng Ying was, she would be no match for bullets.

The thought of guns brought back the sound of gunfire and screams he had heard earlier, making him feel even more uneasy. Regardless, as long as he could confirm that Boss Zhou was safe, he would be relieved. As for what to say or do once they met, he would cross that bridge when he came to it.

"Hey, one more thing!" Leng Ying hesitated, her spear still held back. She stood up straight again. "Once I break through, regardless of whether it's the Goatee's group or not, we should change how we address each other."

"Change to what?" Cheng Xiangru asked without looking up.

Leng Ying looked at herself, then at Cheng Xiangru, and her eyes lit up. "I'll call you Blue Fatty, and you call me Red Fatty."

"Whatever," Cheng Xiangru replied distractedly.

The hedgehogs suddenly began to twitch. Their bodies bulged in several places, growing larger by the second, as if something was about to burst out of them. Cheng Xiangru stepped back, holding his breath, ready to treat whatever emerged to a feast of insecticide.

To his surprise, as the hedgehogs’ bodies split open, it wasn't ghost ants that emerged, but thin, long, black worms that twisted and writhed like strands of hair.

Cheng Xiangru didn't care what they were. He pressed the nozzle, unleashing clouds of insecticide mist that blanketed the hedgehogs and the black worms. Moments later, the worms lost their ability to move, falling limp onto the hedgehogs' quills, motionless, though he couldn't tell if they were dead.

Meanwhile, Leng Ying had made progress. She had cleared an area of over a square meter, working with caution to avoid breaking any more jars.

"Almost there!" Leng Ying stood up, leaned her spear against the wall, and opened her travel bag. She pulled out... an impact drill?

Cheng Xiangru was stunned. He couldn't imagine what else was stuffed inside her bag. A spear, insecticide, an impact drill... If she pulled out a live elephant, he would probably find it perfectly reasonable at this point.

"Whirrr... whirrr..."

Leng Ying transformed into a construction worker, drilling holes around a single brick. The noise was deafening, making Cheng Xiangru's eardrums ache.

"Stop!" he shouted, rushing over. "You're making so much noise! Even if Uncle Zhou is on the other side, you'll scare them off!"

In the eerie, terrifying atmosphere of an ancient tomb, the sound of home renovation was bizarre. Was the tomb owner dissatisfied with the decor and deciding to remodel?

Leng Ying glanced at him. "You want to do it then?"

Cheng Xiangru, feeling a surge of pride, didn't decline. He put down the insecticide, backed up a few paces, and took a running start, slamming his shoulder into the brick wall.

"Thud!"

The wall didn't budge; not even a speck of dust fell.

"Excuse me," Cheng Xiangru muttered, rubbing his arm as he walked away. He picked up the insecticide again and resumed his vigil over the hedgehogs, falling into silence.

Leng Ying shook her head and went back to drilling. The mortar between the bricks was incredibly hard; she had already broken two drill bits. By the time she finished drilling a ring of holes around the brick, a pile of half a dozen broken bits lay on the ground.

"Once I get one gap open, the rest will be easy," she said, putting away the drill and rummaging through her bag.

Cheng Xiangru watched her with anticipation. After a bit of clattering, she pulled out a cloth bundle. She dismantled the spearhead, wrapped it up, unfolded the new bundle, and produced a circular, handleless hammer head.

Cheng Xiangru nodded to himself. He had guessed right—it was a hammer. But to his shock, Leng Ying snapped the handleless hammer head onto the spear shaft, turning it into a long-handled sledgehammer.

She stepped back, took a deep breath, and swung the long-handled hammer with all her might, smashing it into the brick she had perforated.

"Crash!"

With a chaotic clatter, a hole was smashed through the brick wall, sending a cloud of dust billowing into the air.