After confirming they were not being followed by multiple people, Hu Jia and the others set off towards their destination.
They first returned to the old Hu family courtyard.
"Aren't we going to that Shui Liao place?" Lü Qingqing asked.
"You don't think 'lizhi' just represents Zhongxian, do you?" Hu Jia chuckled.
Huh?
Lü Qingqing's interest was piqued upon hearing this, "You mean the characters 'lizhi' have another meaning?"
Hu Jia feigned mystery and quickly climbed the lychee tree. He looked left and right between two branches as if searching for something.
After a moment, he jumped down and pointed in a direction, saying it was that way.
Lü Qingqing looked up. Distant peaks stretched one after another, but they were all similar in size and lacked any distinguishing features.
"What? You need to climb higher to discern the direction?" Zhan Ruoxuan teased.
"Indeed. Mainly to save you all a detour," Hu Jia winked at Lü Qingqing. "Why don't you climb up and see if you can spot any difference?"
Lü Qingqing had already intended to. She didn't believe that a lychee tree only a little over three meters tall could alter her view.
Lü Qingqing scrambled up in two quick movements. The mountains were still that vast expanse, and the peaks were still that same cluster.
Even after climbing three meters higher, everything seemed indistinguishable.
Lü Qingqing looked at Hu Jia in surprise. "About 10 centimeters to your left, there's a horizontal branch."
Lü Qingqing shifted her head.
"And in front of you, is there a vertical branch?"
Lü Qingqing nodded.
"Tilt your head back slightly. Let your line of sight pass through the horizontal branch and find the node of the vertical branch. What do they resemble?"
Hu Jia continued to guide her. Lü Qingqing slowly moved her head, searching for the node between the two branches.
Finally, they aligned. "One horizontal, one vertical – doesn't that make a 'ten'?"
Lü Qingqing suddenly recalled the phrase, "Ten years it bears fruit in the courtyard."
Could that "ten years" refer to this?
Seeing Lü Qingqing's expression, Hu Jia knew she had seen the clue. "Now shift your line of sight outwards, through this node."
Lü Qingqing followed Hu Jia's instructions and widened her gaze. Huh? It was directly facing a gully.
"See it? What do you see?"
"A gully, not deep, extending further back."
"Haha. That's where we're going."
Lü Qingqing was speechless. This Hu Shalong was truly something…
She could only give him a thumbs-up.
Let alone obtaining these four sentences, even if one completely deciphered them, one wouldn't know how to find this specific gully.
After all, this was a vast mountain range, peak after peak, connected end to end.
Every mountain had countless gullies. To pinpoint one among hundreds, one truly needed insider knowledge.
Lü Qingqing jumped down from the lychee tree. "Your father was so good at hiding things, did you inherit that?"
"Huh?" Hu Jia didn't understand why Lü Qingqing mentioned this so suddenly.
Seeing his confused and foolish look, Lü Qingqing pouted, "If you dare hide any secret savings in the future, I'll kill you."
Ugh…
This woman!
With a clear direction finally established, the group moved swiftly. By the afternoon, they had reached the foot of the mountain.
They climbed upwards along the gully. It didn't feel arduous at the base, but once they reached the mountainside, they all realized how correct it was to follow Hu Jia.
Because halfway up, the mountain began to fork in various directions. Without having scouted the route beforehand, one wrong turn could lead to missing a mountain entirely.
That night, everyone camped on the mountaintop.
"I wonder, what exactly did Uncle Hu hide here?"
"That's truly unknown to anyone."
"But we don't even know what we're looking for. Even if it's right in front of us, how would we recognize it?"
"We're just scouting the path this time, to confirm our suspicions. After all, even if we recognized what was hidden, we might not be able to take it."
"What do you mean?"
"Have you forgotten? We're still missing a key."
Gathered around the campfire, the group's mood plummeted with Hu Jia's remark.
Right, how could they forget?
There was a crucial item in the entire affair: that key.
But now, Tong Meng had stolen the key and it was surely in the hands of Sixth Master.
"Ah? So you mean we won't succeed in the end, and might even end up doing the work for them?" Zhan Ruoxuan felt his pent-up energy drain away.
"Whether we succeed or not, I don't know, but we will absolutely not be doing the work for them," Hu Jia said with conviction, possessing a strong sense of confidence.
He had sacrificed too much to investigate this case and uncover the truth behind it; he wouldn't end up handing a gift to the other side.
"Yes, as long as we find evidence of Sixth Master's crimes, the key will return to our hands," Lü Qingqing quickly added, fearing everyone would lose heart.
"Yeah, we've come this far, there's no way he'll trip up at the finish line," Zhan Ruoxuan chimed in with encouragement.
The group chat ended. Hu Jia volunteered to keep watch for everyone. Seeing them sleep, the firelight reflected on his face, and the flames flickered in his pupils. He gradually felt more and more drowsy.
This wasn't the drowsiness of needing sleep, but a weariness, a mental fatigue.
Lü Qingqing couldn't sleep. She watched Hu Jia sitting idly under the tree. A smile spread across her lips, and she simply turned over, propping her chin on her hand, quietly gazing at him.
His face was so handsome; look at that nose, those eyes…
Just staring blankly at Hu Jia like this, Lü Qingqing felt her heart fill with sweetness.
However, soon Lü Qingqing felt something was wrong. She had been staring at him for so long, why was there no reaction?
No, something was amiss.
Lü Qingqing scrambled up, "Hu Jia?" she called out softly.
Hu Jia didn't respond.
Lü Qingqing sensed danger. She casually grabbed a stick from the campfire, still flickering with flames.
"Hu Jia?" Lü Qingqing called out tentatively again. In that moment, she ran through every possibility.
Could he have been bitten by a snake?
Anxious, Lü Qingqing hurried forward. The moment she approached Hu Jia, his eyes suddenly changed, sharp and fierce. With a single glance, he threw a punch towards Lü Qingqing's head.
Lü Qingqing's eyes widened in shock. She tilted her head to the left, narrowly dodging the edge of Hu Jia's fist. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
She blocked with her hands in front of her chest and instinctively pushed herself back two or three steps.
"Hu Jia!" The commotion here immediately woke everyone. With a roar from Guan Jinsong, Hu Jia finally stopped his movements.
Seeing Hu Jia regain his senses, Lü Qingqing quickly stepped forward, examining him from head to toe, front to back. "What's wrong with you?"
"N-nothing," Hu Jia stammered. "Just had a nightmare, a sleep paralysis."
Upon hearing this, everyone shook their heads and smiled wryly. Captain Hu could have nightmares? And he was fearless!
Lü Qingqing gave Hu Jia a suspicious look. "If you're tired, go rest. I'll keep watch tonight."
Hu Jia smiled warmly and took Lü Qingqing's hand. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Besides, it's quite cold in the mountains now. You, a girl, wouldn't be able to stand it."
Seeing Hu Jia refuse, Lü Qingqing didn't insist further. She lay back down, gazing at Hu Jia from afar. Hu Jia gave her a slight smile.
Lü Qingqing smiled back, then turned over, her smile vanishing from her face.
While the others hadn't felt it strongly, she had distinctly sensed a murderous intent in Hu Jia's eyes.
What kind of dream had he had?