Chapter 75: Sudden Change

Before she could probe further, the car pulled up to the roadside. From a distance, they spotted Ye Chan bounding over, hands laden with big bags and small packages. The moment she hopped in, the scents of shaobing, roast duck, and more flooded the car.

She leaned forward, her face beaming as she grinned at each of them in turn. “I got sweet rice wine and iced cola, plus some snacks. They’ll go perfectly with the skewers later.”

The car headed toward the city center before pulling into the underground garage of a towering commercial building.

Gu Xianwang had lived in the Capital City for years, but she’d trained in Tianjin back in her early days. Doing a quick mental calculation, she realized Long Li’s pickup route didn’t make much sense geographically—it should’ve been Ye Chan first, then her, for the most logical path.

Once out of the car, Long Li and Gu Xianwang each shouldered a bag while Ye Chan asked eagerly, “So, where are we eating?”

Long Li glanced back. “I forgot to ask earlier—any food restrictions? That place is a Xinjiang restaurant, and lamb’s their specialty.”

“None for me,” Ye Chan said, raising her hand. “When I got back from Guizhou, I scarfed down eight dishes by myself and spent the whole next day glued to the toilet.”

Gu Xianwang shook her head as well. She wasn’t picky about food, just crowds.

Long Li led the way. “My place is upstairs. It’s peak happy hour down here—way too rowdy. Want to take it up and eat there?”

Ye Chan had some business to discuss anyway, so she asked, “Upstairs? Sister Long, you live in the apartment hotel here?”

“Yeah. I mostly stay in the Capital City; this is just a pit stop.”

“What a coincidence—me too!”

Gu Xianwang hadn’t realized they both lived in the Capital City, only to end up sharing a meal in Tianjin. “…Yeah, pretty coincidental.”

Ye Chan had grabbed two full bags of skewers to go from the same spot. The three of them, greasy and fragrant, filed into the room.

The hotel-style apartment was built to loft specs, complete with a basic kitchenette and mini-fridge. The low table was just big enough for three; one more person and it’d be a squeeze.

Gu Xianwang gave the room a once-over. This time, Long Li had a large suitcase up on the second floor, a carry-on down here on the first, and an empty cage on the sofa that looked like it was for a dog.

“You got a dog now?” she asked, intrigued.

Ye Chan bustled in first, setting out the food before darting to the bathroom to wash up. She was always lightning-fast with anything food-related. But the second she shut the door, she yelped and bolted back out, pointing with a trembling finger at the dark slit where the light hadn’t been turned on. “In… inside there… something’s in there!”

Gu Xianwang frowned. “What?”

Long Li had just pulled two big bottles of water from the fridge. She strolled over to the door and flicked on the light. “No worries. It’s the Golden Crow inside.”

Gu Xianwang thought she’d misheard. “Golden Crow? That bird?”

“Yep. When I left the Altar, it followed me out somehow, so I brought it along.”

Ye Chan smacked her forehead in realization. “No wonder something jabbed my butt—it’s the Fat Bird!” She crept up cautiously to the half-open door and peeked inside—yep, there it was.

With a rustle of feathers, a plump golden ball shot out. One claw smacked Ye Chan’s face before it crash-landed beak-first on the sofa.

Ye Chan clutched her cheek. “This bird… ow, has it gotten even fatter?”

Judging by how it brooded in its nest, it had to weigh at least ten pounds.

Gu Xianwang felt a spark of delight at the unexpected reunion, her eyes lighting up. She slid onto the sofa beside the Golden Crow. Ye Chan claimed the footstool—she and the Fat Bird were like oil and water—and with a grumpy huff, cracked open a cola.

They filled paper cups, tore open the plastic bags, and soon the air was thick with chili, cumin, and savory meat. The three finally settled in. Long Li raised her cup first. “Forgive the humble setup.”

Even chugging cola, she did it with the gusto of knocking back baijiu.

Gu Xianwang had to baby her throat; she couldn’t overdo sugary drinks. She matched the toast once, then switched to water. Drawing on banquet etiquette she’d seen before, she raised a second cup by seniority. “Then here’s to… all of us making it out of Ghost Gate Pass alive.”

Ye Chan slammed back two cups, let out a burp, and snatched a pair of lamb kidney skewers. “We’re life-and-death pals now—no need for all that formality. Kidneys are best hot, Sister Long—want one?”

Long Li waved it off politely. “No thanks. Not my thing.”

Ye Chan chirped a happy “oh” and raised it to her mouth. But the Golden Crow across from her flapped its wings, neck stretching like a snake, and snatched half the oily morsel. It gulped it down without a care for the heat or spice, leaving a shiny ring of lamb fat smeared around its beak.

This time, even Gu Xianwang stared in stunned silence. The Golden Crow resembled a pelican, its neck skin stretching out a good long stretch, and it showed no pickiness toward meat whatsoever. Counting what it had eaten before, it had devoured fish jerky, chicken legs, lamb kidneys—everything on offer.

“Good grief, so this Bird Lord is a dedicated carnivore, after all.”

As Ye Chan spoke, she tentatively poured a bottle cap’s worth of her rice wine and offered it over. Bird Lord truly knew how to pair its meals; it had just finished a piece of lamb tendon, snatched up the bottle cap in its beak, threw its head back, and washed it all down with the wine.

With its help, the table full of meat vanished at an astonishing speed. Long Li and Gu Xianwang had barely touched their chopsticks. By the time they cleared the dishes, Bird Lord lay sprawled on its back, belly bulging. Ye Chan’s stomach seemed like a bottomless pit—she was even mulling over whether to find someplace nearby for dessert.

Gu Xianwang couldn’t help sighing. “You’ve really been roughing it here in Guizhou.”

The mention of Guizhou brought them back to the main topic at last. Ye Chan rubbed her belly, still pondering how to broach the subject without causing offense, when Long Li reached into her handbag nearby and pulled out a cloth bundle. She spread it open across the table, slipped on a pair of plastic gloves, and uncovered yet another layer of plastic wrap within. Only after peeling back all the layers did she reveal the brocade box inside.

Gu Xianwang leaned forward slightly. “What’s this?”

“The bead I picked up this afternoon.” Long Li lifted the lid, exposing a pearl inside that matched the Snake Spirit Pearl Gu Xianwang had brought back in near-perfect likeness.

She had wanted to ask back at the Red Pavilion: “Why did you bid on this one?” But she had no idea how to break the news that the earlier pearl was a fake.

“Because this one’s a fake.” Long Li opened a side pouch on the cloth bundle and retrieved a small file and a pair of tweezers.

Gu Xianwang blinked in surprise. “A fake?”

Ye Chan chimed in. “How’s a fake fetching that kind of price? Tsk, looks like the Treasure-Appraisal Yang Family isn’t all they’re cracked up to be. Hyping stuff they don’t understand, hmph—acting all high and mighty.”

“No,” Long Li said. She clamped the counterfeit Snake Spirit Pearl with the tweezers and gently filed away at its surface. “This isn’t a Snake Spirit Pearl, but it is precisely what the Yang Family truly needs.”

In short order, the black coating flaked away. Long Li brushed off the loose particles, then immersed the now-pale bead in an unknown solution. After about fifteen minutes, she fished it out and polished it with a silver cloth. Moments later, a layer of mud-like residue sloughed off.

She cradled the genuine article in her palm and held it out for them to see. Slightly smaller than the previous one, it resembled a white jade bead. Gu Xianwang hadn’t even finished examining it when she felt a sudden heat emanating from the Undying Turtle in her chest, radiating through the Ink Jade.

“This is… a Turtle Pearl?”

Long Li nodded. “Yes. A Turtle Pearl, not top-grade but still a century-old specimen.”

Ye Chan blinked rapidly. “What’s a Turtle Pearl? Some kind of gallstone from a turtle’s gut?”

Gu Xianwang shook her head. “Not a turtle—it’s a type of fish. The Classic of Mountains and Seas records it: the Pearl Clam Fish, six-legged, bearing a pearl. That’s the Turtle Pearl. Legend holds that the Pearl Clam Fish has four eyes and six legs; its pearl lets one discern the spiritual treasures of the world. It’s one of the essential earth treasures for Southern Barbarian Treasure Hunters.”

Long Li added, “Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals mentions it too: a fish of the Li River called Zhu Bie, six-legged, with a pearl white and verdant. These ancient creatures are all but extinct nowadays. Acquiring a Turtle Pearl is no easier than obtaining a Snake Spirit Pearl.”

Gu Xianwang had memorized those texts, never imagining she’d encounter a real match for them one day. Ye Chan nodded in sudden understanding. “In that case, did Yang Baibai realize this bead was a Turtle Pearl?”

Long Li replied, “Whether he did or not is irrelevant. Be it Snake Spirit Pearl or Turtle Pearl, anything acquired at the Flower Fair through a dart betting auction turns a profit.”

Gu Xianwang pondered aloud. “But aren’t the Flower Fair auctions just for entertainment? How did a Turtle Pearl like this suddenly turn up? And if their values are comparable, why disguise a Turtle Pearl as a Snake Spirit Pearl?”

No sooner had she voiced the question than her thoughts turned to her own pearl. Back at the Flower Fair, her first instinct had been that Master must have auctioned off the authentic one he’d given her. She added, “Do all Snake Spirit Pearls look identical?”

“No,” Long Li said. “Snake Spirit Pearls gestate within spirit snakes—snakes that chance upon heavenly fortune, much like the sarira of a living Buddha among humans. No two are exactly alike in size or shape.”

“But this one… it looks so much like the one I brought back. And Master said that one was probably a fake.”

Long Li’s expression remained utterly composed, her tone as cool and detached as ever. “Is that right? What a shame. If your Master calls it a fake, he’s likely spot on.”

Gu Xianwang eyed her, frowning slightly. She sensed something off about Long Li’s reaction—there were clearly so many suspicious points here, yet Long Li wasn’t asking about any of them. It was as if she wanted to gloss right over everything.

Long Li carefully placed the Turtle Pearl back into the brocade box, closed the lid, and slid it across to Gu Xianwang. “It’s no use to me. You’ll need it more than I do.”

Gu Xianwang’s frown deepened, her voice turning glum. “I don’t want it. I already have one.”

How awkward. Ye Chan sat sandwiched between them, staring right at the Fat Bird, which was still twitching its legs in its sleep. Unfortunately, the Fat Bird was out cold, so she had to be the one to break the ice.

“Ahem, well, I mean, Sister Long does have a point. Isn’t this thing essential for treasure spotting? Think about that annoying prick Yang Baibai. Sure, we’ve got our own, but if we wear it out in the open, next time we run into him, we can just flash it and watch him squirm.”

She felt like she was being backed into a corner here, but she pressed on. “Uh, anyway, let me throw in my two cents.”

“Like, Sister Long, that organization of yours… is it legit? Legal, I mean?”

Ye Chan cracked herself up with her own awkwardness after blurting that out. “Oh, right, it’s not—I get it. What I’m saying is… why not consider going straight? You’re so damn skilled. Why stick with those crooks breaking the law left and right?”

Long Li barely reacted to that, but Gu Xianwang shot her a look—one that was intriguingly hard to read.

“Long Li hasn’t done anything illegal. She’s not really one of them.”

“Ah, yeah, yeah, definitely not one of them.” Ye Chan let out a nervous laugh. “What I meant was that Bronze Sword. Uh, Sister Long… did you take it with you?”

“Mm.” Long Li replied flatly. “The sword’s material is unusual and could harm people. It has to be wrapped in cocoon clothing first. It can’t be handed over to anyone just yet.”

In other words, she hadn’t turned the Bronze Sword over to the British Company.

Ye Chan scratched her head and decided to lay her cards on the table. “Look, I’ll just come out and say it. I’m nothing but a broke archaeology grad student. My grandpa and brother always kept the family secrets from me—all that jianghu stuff, the old dealings. I was totally in the dark. I don’t know how deep the water runs here, but you know the saying: all land under heaven is the king’s soil. For artifacts dug up from our earth, if we have the means, we shouldn’t sell them off. Handing them to the state for study and preservation is the best way.”

Her cheeks were rosy, almost like she’d had a few drinks. “I really like you both. I want to be friends—the kind that lasts forever. I’ve got tons of friends, sure, but nobody I can really open up to. Nobody I’d go through life and death with. So…”

“Whoa, enough mushy talk from me.” She dug into her pocket, pulled out a thick stack of scribbled notebook paper, and slapped it on the table. “Anyway, I trust Sister Long’s character. Here—this is the Altar Scripture. I wrote it out from memory. Three hundred eighty-seven characters.”

Heart-to-hearts after a few drinks are dangerous, and even though Gu Xianwang hadn’t touched a drop, Ye Chan’s words softened something inside her. She was just about to offer some reassurance when Long Li cut in coldly.

“Don’t trust me.”

“I’m not trustworthy.”

Gu Xianwang froze, blurting out on instinct, “Why?”

Long Li met her gaze and cracked a sudden smile—one that felt world-weary and chill. “My ties to the organization aren’t something I can sum up in a few sentences. Too many entanglements, too tangled to unravel. I’ve been digging into whether I’m one of the Long Family Members myself. No matter the truth, the people tangled up in the Long Family Ancient Village business back then won’t let any possibility slip—and they won’t let me slip, either.”

“The only reason I called you here tonight was to set things straight. That’s it.”

The whiplash stunned even Ye Chan, who usually thrived on tension. Her mouth hung open for a long moment, unsure how to respond. They’d just been toasting and laughing moments ago—now it felt like they were going their separate ways?

“No, wait… I didn’t mean anything about reporting you with what I said earlier.”

Long Li shook her head. “Plenty of people want dirt on me, but tracking me down isn’t so easy.”

She smiled again. “We’ve crossed paths once, that’s all. Whether it’s the God Eye or anything else, I hope you drop the investigations. I won’t delete the group chat. If any leads come up down the line, I’ll tip you off.”

Her words piled on the distance—delete the group, I’ll inform you, that’s all. For the first time, Gu Xianwang realized just how quickly someone could pull close, then push away.

She had said everything there was to say, leaving no room for compromise whatsoever—as if uttering even one more word would make them seem ungrateful and presumptuous.

She pursed her lips tightly. After a long pause, she finally squeezed out a few words: “Are you serious?”

“Mm.” Long Li replied without the slightest hesitation.

Gu Xianwang gritted her teeth. “You say we stop investigating, and we just do it? Since you’re so capable, why let that British Company tie your hands?”

She had known it wouldn’t be that easy to convince her. Long Li softened her voice, sounding somewhat helpless. “Do you still remember that third walkie-talkie in the sinkhole?”

Gu Xianwang’s face stiffened as she gave a curt “Mm.”

“After we pulled back from the altar, we hurriedly linked up with the main force. That’s when we learned that on the very night we withdrew from the abandoned village, one member of B Team had gone missing.”

“By rights, everyone on a mission should be wearing a tracker, but the one on that person had been deliberately sabotaged. It wasn’t until half a day later that the logistics team managed to track it down.”

Ye Chan pondered for a moment; she figured the so-called B Team must be those people from the car. “Is the person okay?”

Long Li shook her head. “All they found was an arm still wearing the tracker bracelet.”

Gu Xianwang asked, “Who was the missing person?”

“If you remember, there was a middle-aged woman in the group.”

Ye Chan let out an “Ah!” “I even ate the cucumber she gave me!”

Gu Xianwang’s expression grew extremely grave. Back in the sinkhole, she had suspected someone was lurking in the shadows, setting traps—and the tour guide had seemed the most likely culprit. But from the implications in Long Li’s words now, the person who had spoken on the walkie-talkie with such intimate knowledge of their organization had been hiding among the travel group the whole time. Not only had they deceived her and Ye Chan, but they had also fooled everyone in the organization.

Since this person had dealt with that team member, it proved they hadn’t infiltrated the organization from the beginning. Instead, they had slipped in midway by taking someone else’s place—which meant they likely possessed disguise skills as well. It wasn’t just about changing their face; they had altered their body shape, accent, and habits without leaving a single flaw. It was downright ghostly…

This realization sent a sudden chill down her spine. Yuzi had once said that out of ten “dragons,” nine were fakes—true Long Family members never showed their real faces; they moved like ghosts.

She suddenly understood what Long Li meant.

This incident, this entire scheme, wasn’t targeted at just one side. The web of connections ran far too deep. If such a person truly existed—one who could disguise themselves and perfectly mimic total strangers—then no one could be trusted anymore. Not even her.