Daomu Biji: Restart

Fatty grabbed Poker-Face and said, "Little Brother, we’ve been brothers for so many years and you’ve had to take care of us thousands of times. But now we’re all grown up, so you don’t have to rush ahead all the time." He looked at his watch and added, "To tell you the truth, it hasn't been that long since we came down here. We’re not in a rush right now, so let's take the chance to talk things through clearly. You might not know since you’ve been away for a while, but Mr. Naïve has made a lot of progress. In fact, it’s to the point that you can't help but listen to him now. Teemwok (1), do you understand?"

Fatty winked at me as he said this. It was true that I had changed over the past few years. First, I had to learn to be responsible for myself, because I quickly realized that I wouldn't get a second chance if I made a mistake. Second, I had to learn how to be responsible for others.

But as I realized how much I had changed, I also understood that I hadn’t changed much at all. That was just who I was. After Poker-Face left, there was no one to take responsibility for me, so I had to do it myself.

Poker-Face had never been a reckless person, so I figured he had to know something we didn’t if he was able to come to a decision so quickly.

He must’ve decided to take on some risks we didn’t know about the moment he decided to go in this hole. But I was selfish and hoped that I could prove to him that I could take on more risks.

"The stone tablet here serves as a warning that someone must’ve gone in, but never came out,” I said to him. “Even if you can keep yourself safe after going in, we might make a wrong decision out here because we don’t know what to do. So, we have to think of more possibilities."

Poker-Face didn't answer me, but I could tell that he was thinking about it. Then, he suddenly took off his equipment belt and handed it to me.

I took it and glanced at him, only to find that he was looking at me.

I froze for a moment, fuck, are you telling me to go in?!

But when I thought about it, Fatty was so fat that it would be very difficult for him to fit into the hole. If he encountered any danger, he would really be at a disadvantage, so it was more convenient for Little Brother to go in. But if Fatty didn’t go in, that meant there were only two choices left: none of us went in or I went in.

"Eh? I guess you’re right.” I took the equipment belt and looked at the entrance to the hole. It was only as big as a washbasin and would be very difficult to enter. And it was dark inside. I didn’t know where it would lead or how long it would take to climb through. "Have you considered another possibility where the three of us go find Liu Sang together? I think he’s in danger."

Poker-Face continued to look at me.

I suddenly realized what the problem was. I was used to giving orders during his absence. Except for when he had been off doing his own thing, Poker-Face had always listened to Uncle Three when he was working for him. And during the time I had spent with him, I had basically listened to him to survive. Now, at this critical time, I had to make a decision on whether people needed to listen to him or me.

I looked at the hole again. It wasn’t that I was afraid, it was just that I was the type of person who had to know more before I dared take any risks. "You’re so experienced, do you know what will happen after going in?" I asked him.

Poker-Face took the equipment belt back, but didn't say anything. It appeared he didn't know how to say it.

I looked at the stone tablet carefully and suddenly realized that there was something wrong with my logic.

The stone wasn’t carved by the ancients who built the tomb, because they only needed to fill the hole in instead of putting up a warning sign.

Was it Uncle Three?

What did this mean? Was it a prank? Did Uncle Three deliberately change the words to warn those who came behind him not to go in?

Uncle Three wasn’t so kind, unless he knew I would come here and was warning me specifically.

I felt that even if Uncle Three was wise, he would never expect his nephew to come to this tomb in the future. These words definitely weren’t for me.

But then who were they written for? Who was he warning? He didn’t use simplified Chinese, but seal script instead. Was he afraid his nephew was illiterate? Given the nature of our family, it was very likely. (2)

So, what had been engraved on it?

As countless questions kept popping into my head, Fatty said, "Don't you find it strange? This sentence also has a big problem."

"What do you mean?"

"When you normally warn others, do you word it like this? For example, if there’s an electric fence, you say, ‘Don’t touch it or you’ll be fried.’ No matter how you look at it, this isn’t something the ancients would do. On the contrary, it's an invitation. It’s like it’s saying, ‘Please come in and play. You're bound to have fun.’ These are the kind of words that can only be found on an invitation."

Go more than a hundred meters forward… never return… never see the light of day again…

Was it an invitation? Invitation to where?

"It's not an invitation. It's someone’s last words," Poker-Face said. "Someone carved them before they went in."

****

TN Notes:

(1) Fatty was trying to say “teamwork” but his English sucks lol.

(2) He's talking about being illiterate when it comes to grave robbing. Wu Xie’s family hadn’t really cared about educating them on grave robbing, so Uncle Three wouldn’t have known whether Wu Xie would know about it when Uncle Three visited this tomb.