The following days, Old Wei led the Xiaoling Guards to hunt down tomb robbers in the Nanshan Mountains, while I took care of Uncle Mei in the hospital.

After a while, I heard that Old Wei had caught a major tomb-robbing gang. The ringleader, Big Hand, hadn't escaped either; he was caught on the spot when he climbed out of the tomb shaft.

This group of people was truly lawless. They had clearly crossed paths with us in the ancient tomb and knew they were being watched, yet this time when they went into the tomb, their hands were still dirty. They brought out many precious cultural relics: bronzes, goldware, jades, you name it.

Caught red-handed, no one could save them this time. Even if Big Hand had helped us chisel open the tomb shaft in the ancient tomb, which could be said to have saved our lives, their criminal acts were based on solid evidence and were serious. There was definitely no way to get off with a light sentence.

Later, Old Wei told me that Big Hand would probably face the death penalty. I didn't know what happened after that, because I was very busy at the time, and I didn't really care about Big Hand's fate, so I didn't ask any further.

Strangely, Big Hand and his gang were wiped out, but the Silver Ring Snake who slipped away right under our noses never showed up.

She seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth, disappearing directly from the Qu Shang underground palace.

Old Wei led the Xiaoling Guards to guard outside Nanshan for two weeks, conducting a carpet search every day. They didn't let go of a single rabbit or pheasant, let alone a tomb robber. According to Old Wei himself, he almost knew how many trees there were in Nanshan, but he still couldn't find any trace of the Silver Ring Snake.

This was the first suspicious point of this Qu Shang underground palace operation.

In addition to this, there was a second suspicious point, and that was the White-Clad Immortal Maiden.

Although we hadn't asked Little Mei yet, everyone guessed that the one who brought her to the Qu Shang underground palace this time was the White-Clad Immortal Maiden, Ge Xueying, and the Immortal Cave above the Crystal Palace must have been dug by her as well.

But from beginning to end, we didn't find any trace of the White-Clad Immortal Maiden this time, not even the entrance to her Immortal Cave. Old Wei and the others wandered around Nanshan for two weeks and still couldn't find the entrance to the Immortal Cave.

Later, he deduced that the White-Clad Immortal Maiden's Immortal Cave was likely a cave within a cave, meaning that it was a new tomb shaft dug out of the old tomb shaft. The entrance to the new tomb shaft was hidden inside the old tomb shaft, so it wasn't discovered.

Another possibility was that the White-Clad Immortal Maiden backfilled the entrance to the tomb shaft and restored it to a certain extent, which would also lead to us not being able to find the entrance to the Immortal Cave.

Old Wei had encountered the same situation before when handling cases.

Of course, I didn't know exactly which situation it was. I could only say that the White-Clad Immortal Maiden was much more cunning than we thought. We were completely defeated by her this time.

Fortunately, Little Mei was rescued, and I wasn't in a hurry to settle accounts with the White-Clad Immortal Maiden. We still had to wait for Little Mei to recover her spirits and ask her carefully to find out the whole story.

After that, Uncle Mei stayed in the hospital for another half month. After half a month, the doctor approved his discharge.

On the day of his discharge, Hu Wazi drove to pick us both up. We packed up and went home in Hu Wazi's car.

It seemed that the story had developed to a happy ending here. Little Mei had been found, and Uncle Mei's body had recovered. Later, Little Mei and I could have a wedding and live happily together, but in reality, one headache problem followed another.

Life is not a TV series, and there are always many trivial problems, most of which are related to money.

Uncle Mei's hospitalization cost money, and Little Mei's stay in a sanatorium and treatment for her black scale disease also cost money. The money we had earned before had been mostly given to Old Huang, whose leg was broken by Yang Guo.

The little savings I had left were running out in a few days.

Jiang Yongguang knew about my situation, and he even paid for part of Little Mei's sanatorium fees out of his own pocket, but as the saying goes, even close brothers have to settle accounts clearly, not to mention that Jiang Yongguang and I are not close brothers. I can't always let him pay for Little Mei's medical treatment.

So in the days after returning home, I went around to find out if there were any ways to make money, the faster the money came and the more I earned, the better. To make money, I didn't care whether the way to make money was clean or not.

Uncle Mei saw me leaving early and returning late every day, trying to make money outside, and he probably didn't feel good about it.

One day, the two of us had a little wine. He used the strength of the wine to say, "Rongsheng, your biggest flaw is that you are too honest. At first, you felt sorry for Old Huang and gave him all your wealth. Now that you are in trouble, you can only suffer yourself. Alas... Do you regret it?"

I smiled and shook my head, saying, "There's nothing to regret. It's no use regretting. The two hundred thousand given to Old Huang was what I owed him. I should give it! Uncle, don't worry, I'll figure out a way to earn Little Mei's medical expenses. I'm a real man, and I can't be poor to death?"

After listening, Uncle Mei gave me a thumbs up and said, "Good job! Just because of what you said, I'm relieved that An'an is with you! If I leave one day, I'll be at ease even under the nine springs!"

I quickly spat and said, "Tsk, tsk, tsk! Uncle, don't say such unlucky things. Little Mei has been rescued now, and our family's life will only get better and better."

At that time, we were just chatting idly after drinking, and we didn't mean what we said.

But looking back on it later, it was actually thanks to me giving all the money to Old Huang at the beginning, which made me penniless, that I was able to make up my mind to do something big!

People are forced out.

If I hadn't been in a hurry to use money at that time, I wouldn't have made up my mind to go to sea. If I hadn't gone to sea that time, maybe I would still be an inconspicuous corpse fisherman, without the knowledge I have now.

So there is an old saying, "A loss may turn out to be a blessing in disguise."

There is also a saying, "What is lost in the east is gained in the west."

Getting back to the topic, since this drink, I have been looking for a job for about a month.

In addition to a few scattered corpse fishing jobs, where I fished out a few poor people from the Tuo River, I didn't earn any fat deals.

Later, Uncle Mei's health got better and better day by day, and he gradually recovered, so he started going out with me to make money.

One day at noon, Uncle Mei came back from outside. I don't know who he had eaten with, but he was drunk, his face was flushed, and he shouted as soon as he saw me, "Rongsheng! Come on, come into the house with me, there's good news!"

"What good news, Uncle?" I asked curiously, and followed Uncle Mei into the house.

After entering the door, Uncle Mei turned around and closed the door, took out a cigarette and lit it, lowered his voice and said to me, "One of my old classmates from when I was in school went abroad after graduation. He just happened to come back last month. He introduced me to a big deal that is suitable for the two of us to do!"

As soon as I heard this, my eyes lit up and I asked, "Uncle, how big of a deal?"

Uncle Mei narrowed his eyes and smiled, "A huge deal!"