Jiang Yongguang didn't beat around the bush with me but said directly, "That's right, Xiao Chen, I want you to help us find the location of this underwater ancient tomb. Can you do it?"

Before I could answer, Uncle Mei immediately stood in front of me, shaking his head at Jiang Yongguang and saying,

"Don't even think about it! The undercurrents in the river are so strong. If someone dives down, will they even be able to float back up? Besides, the tomb has been dug into a honeycomb by tomb raiders, and then scoured by groundwater. It could collapse at any moment. It's too dangerous! Absolutely not!"

Jiang Yongguang also knew that diving underwater to find the ancient tomb was an extremely dangerous mission, so he was prepared. As the saying goes, "heavy rewards bring forth brave men," so he tried to move me with money:

"Xiao Chen, I won't play any tricks with you. As long as you help me figure out the location of the underwater ancient tomb, the reward will still be this much."

As he said this, he held out a palm towards me.

Five thousand yuan.

At that age, I was so poor I was practically broke. I'm not afraid to admit it, but when I saw Jiang Yongguang's outstretched hand, my mouth almost watered.

Uncle Mei was much more composed than I was. He still kept a straight face and said, "You're trying to buy my son-in-law's life with this money!"

Jiang Yongguang quickly shook his head and said, "Brother, you're taking it too seriously. How could I harm Xiao Chen's life? Don't worry, we've prepared a full set of diving equipment for Xiao Chen, and I also have several colleagues with rich diving experience to accompany him. I'll be going with them too. Rest assured, we'll definitely protect Xiao Chen's safety."

As he spoke, Jiang Yongguang pointed to the side. I saw four or five people in professional diving suits, wearing diving masks and carrying oxygen tanks, walking this way along the riverbank.

They were probably also from the "Xiaoling Guard." The corpses, clothes, and tomb raiding tools on the riverbank must have been salvaged by them.

After hearing Jiang Yongguang's words, Uncle Mei couldn't help but sneer:

"Since you have so many colleagues, why do you need my son-in-law to go down? I see that you have complete equipment and rich experience, so why don't you go down yourselves? My son-in-law isn't even a local. He only came to the Tuo River for the first time yesterday and isn't any more familiar with this area than you are."

Before he finished speaking, the divers had already approached. Jiang Yongguang quickly asked, "How was it? Did you go down?"

The leading diver shook his head helplessly, with a bitter look on his face. "We can't. The undercurrents are too strong and fierce. We can't move an inch in the water. If we dive down just seven or eight meters, we'll be swept away by the current and lose our bearings. We really don't dare to dive down rashly."

Hearing this, Jiang Yongguang glanced back at me, his eyes seeming to say—now you know why I'm asking you to go down, right?

Uncle Mei had already anticipated this situation in the river. The large whirlpool on the river surface yesterday evening was a rare occurrence, showing the scale of the undercurrents. Although the whirlpool on the river surface was gone now, the undercurrents at the bottom probably hadn't completely disappeared. Their lingering power was still there and should not be underestimated.

"Even your group of professional divers can't go down, so my son-in-law is even less likely to be able to. In my opinion, it's better to wait a few days until the undercurrents have completely subsided before trying to dive down." Uncle Mei advised.

But Jiang Yongguang immediately objected, "How can we do that? There are a large number of national treasures in this ancient tomb. Now that the tomb has been looted by tomb raiders and impacted by groundwater, the national treasures are likely being damaged. The rescue operation is urgent! Xiao Chen, please make a trip. Just consider it a contribution to the country."

Uncle Mei immediately interrupted him, "Contribution my ass!"

Then he quickly said to me, "Rongsheng, don't listen to his nonsense. What contribution or no contribution, nothing is more important than your own life!"

Seeing that Uncle Mei refused to cooperate, the colleagues next to him gradually lost patience. One of the tall, thin divers said, "Da Yong, don't waste time with them. We're all RD-level or higher divers. If even we can't go down, you're expecting him, a wild Taoist, to go down? Isn't this grasping at straws?"

Another, slightly shorter diver also shook his head and said, "Exactly, Da Yong. I think this kid is green and unreliable. If he really goes down and something happens to him before he even finds the ancient tomb, then we'll have to trouble ourselves to rescue him."

Although these two colleagues didn't approve of me going into the water, Jiang Yongguang still had high hopes for me. He was silent for a moment, then suddenly gritted his teeth, grabbed my hand, and said, "How about this, I'll add another two thousand! If you're willing to go down this time, I'll add two thousand more myself. How does that sound?"

One trip underwater, a net profit of seven thousand!

I suddenly felt a surge of excitement!

Actually, I had already agreed when Jiang Yongguang said five thousand yuan.

As the saying goes, wealth lies in danger. When you make money in society, how can you not take risks? If you're timid and afraid of death, don't even bother trying to make it.

Five thousand yuan to buy my way into the undercurrents, I thought it was worth it!

If Uncle Mei hadn't been stopping me, I would have already agreed to Jiang Yongguang's offer.

But the fact proves that old ginger is spicier than the young, Uncle Mei earned me two thousand more yuan with just a few words.

This time I didn't let Uncle Mei speak again, quickly nodding and agreeing, "Alright! Then I'll make a trip!"

I was afraid that if I didn't make a decision quickly, this good deal would really be ruined by Uncle Mei.

Seeing that I agreed, Jiang Yongguang finally had a smile on his face. He patted me on the shoulder and said, "Great, great, let's go, time is of the essence. The equipment is all by the river, you change into it and we'll go into the water quickly."

Seeing that I was really going into the water, Uncle Mei's brows furrowed into a "川" character. Only then did I realize that he wasn't just trying to bargain with Jiang Yongguang, he really didn't want me to go down.

As soon as he saw that I was planning to go into the water, he quickly came over and said, "If you go down, then I'll go down too. I'm more familiar with the situation in the Tuo River than you are. Follow me when you go down, don't run around!"

His words moved me.

Although I wasn't married to Little Mei yet, and I had only been in this family for two days, I could feel that Uncle Mei truly treated me like his own son.

Jiang Yongguang was amused to hear this and said with a smile, "Uncle Mei is going down too? That's great, this trip will definitely be a success!"

Uncle Mei still didn't have a good attitude towards this Xiaoling Guard, and said with a straight face, "I'm the third in my family, just call me Mei Lao San, don't call me Uncle Mei, my older brother is still alive."

Jiang Yongguang quickly said with an apologetic smile, "Then I'll call you Third Brother."

Soon, we went to the riverbank together. Uncle Mei, Jiang Yongguang, and I all changed into diving suits and put on oxygen tanks.

At this time, I saw that in addition to the previous divers, Old Li's apprentice, the short-haired girl, had also changed into a diving suit at some point and was standing next to us.

I couldn't help but be stunned and asked curiously, "You're going down too?"

The short-haired girl proudly raised her head, "Who are you looking down on? Why can't I go down?"

Old Li smiled and said, "Xiao Chen, don't underestimate our Xiao Liang, this child grew up by the Tuo River after all, her swimming skills may not be worse than yours."

Hearing this, I jokingly said with a smile, "Really? Xiao Liang, since you're such a good swimmer, why didn't you go into the water with me to retrieve corpses yesterday?"

Xiao Liang's pretty face flushed red from my question. She lowered her head, bit her lip, and muttered in a low voice, "Although I'm a good swimmer, I'm timid..."

I asked again, "Since you're timid, you still dare to go into the water with us to find the ancient tomb? Aren't you afraid of running into something dirty in the ancient tomb?"

Xiao Liang shook her head, looked around at the divers, and said, "As long as there are a lot of people, I'm not afraid."