The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 41: Professor Chen Who Cherishes Cultural Relics
Chen Qinghan arranged a new identity for me, with the last name Leng. I guess he was too lazy to think of another surname, so he went along with the mistake and directly used the identity I was impersonating from the Leng Family.
"Is it really necessary to have such a complicated name? Even I find it hard to write," I said, holding the brand-new ID card and staring at the three characters ’Leng Fuqu’ on it, feeling overwhelmed.
"I thought you liked lotuses."
"In that case, just call me Xia Yuhuo. It’s especially memorable."
Chen Qinghan turned his head to flip through his magazine, apparently not intending to pay me any attention.
Perhaps to avoid unnecessary trouble, Chen Qinghan didn’t buy plane tickets. We took a car from the UN Capital to Sa City.
Seeing that Chen Qinghan was too lazy to respond to me, I continued to practice my signature using the handwritten feature on my phone.
After arriving in Sa City, Chen Qinghan threw aside that thin magazine, an advertising magazine with a total of twelve pages, which he read the whole journey. He really didn’t want to talk to me.
Chen Qinghan took a taxi and sent me to a hotel, settled me in, and took Wen Jing and Shunfeng to meet Miss Scream’s father.
Back in the UN, he had already contacted Chairman Cheng. I don’t know what they talked about, but Chairman Cheng agreed to meet him in Sa City.
Knowing his only daughter went missing, Chairman Cheng couldn’t sit still, so he came to Sa City to inquire in person.
I’m not on their action list and there’s no need for me to appear in front of Chairman Cheng, so Chen Qinghan let me stay at the hotel.
I was happy to be able to go online using the hotel’s computer. I hadn’t had much contact with computers before; modern tomb robbers sometimes take laptops into tombs, along with portable chargers.
But I was reluctant to charge the laptop as it didn’t last long. I’d rather charge my phone, which usually lasted longer.
Now, with a desktop computer to play with, I don’t have to conserve power.
The amount of information on the internet is beyond imaginable; as long as there’s a computer and the internet, what more could you wish for?
The hotel bill was paid by Chen Qinghan, and for my daily needs, he also bought online for me.
After lounging in the hotel room for seven days, it felt like living in a modern tomb.
Worried that my lack of eating and drinking might raise suspicions from the hotel staff, Chen Qinghan ordered daily meals for me, although they were all cold seafood, perfect for the refrigerator in the hotel suite.
As the lazy days went by, sometimes I would ponder my life as a zongzi. After leaving the tomb, what was my goal?
The original goal was to be at home anywhere, to wander around and see the world’s wonders.
But if, unfortunately, Chen Qinghan’s words came true, that the Tomb Guardian Beast would always chase me to the ends of the earth, what should I do?
Hide for a lifetime? My lifetime is endless, and I certainly can’t keep hiding.
Thinking about this, I searched online for information about Eyes of Golden Flame, but unfortunately found nothing. Apart from sci-fi movies and animations, such things don’t exist in the real world.
I remembered Chen Qinghan mentioning that there’s more than one Heavenly Maiden Tomb, so I wanted to see if similar odd creatures had emerged from other tombs.
However, the related information I found was even less than that of Eyes of Golden Flame. Yet, if it emerged so ostentatiously from the Gate of Death, it might cause a great stir, and naturally someone would ’deal’ with it.
After thinking through a heap of things, it had already been a week since Chen Qinghan and the others left. Even if they recalled the tomb-robbing process without missing a single detail, they should have finished talking by now.
Before leaving, Chen Qinghan advised me not to call him actively; he would leave me a WeChat message if anything happened.
On the eighth day at the hotel, someone knocked on the door using the secret code agreed upon by Chen Qinghan and me.
However, upon opening the door, it was a young girl standing outside, with a neat ponytail, dressed in a red tracksuit as if she had just returned from a morning exercise.
"Hello, Miss Leng. I’m a student of Professor Chen. My name is Ling Ke’er."
"Oh..."
"May I come in? The teacher asked me to check on you. He said he was abroad and got delayed, so he’d be back a few days late."
"Please come in."
Since she knew the secret knock code that Chen Qinghan and I had agreed on, she seemed trustworthy. As long as it’s not Eyes of Golden Flame coming, there’s nothing to fear.
Ling Ke’er had a travel bag on her back, apparently planning to stay over.
"He went abroad?" I thought Chen Qinghan was just reporting to Chairman Cheng, so how did he end up going abroad?
"Yes, he only mentioned he had to stay abroad for a few more days and asked me to come over and look after a friend. I happen to be on holiday without anything to do, so I thought I’d come out and have some fun. Do you fancy going anywhere? Shall we go out and stroll around?" Ling Ke’er put down her bag, glanced around the room, then looked at me expectantly.
I guessed that after finding out his daughter was missing, Chairman Cheng insisted that Chen Qinghan and the others take him to the site; they must have returned to the UN.
I suddenly recalled that dream, with the open Gate of Death, the tide of fresh blood...
"Beauty?" Ling Ke’er called me once, waving her hand in front of my eyes.
"Ah, okay," I responded absent-mindedly.
"By the way, the teacher asked me to bring you something." Ling Ke’er opened her backpack, rummaged through it, and handed me a small box.
The box was about the same size as a Rubik’s cube. I opened it to find a hairpin inside, styled like a blue lotus flower.
"Thank you," I said as I took the hairpin, thanking Ling Ke’er. In the tomb, through water and fire, the paper flower I folded myself had fallen off at some point. On the day we returned to Sa City, I mentioned it to Chen Qinghan once, purely as a little complaint. Unexpectedly, he remembered and had a new one sent via a student.
This flower was clearly more advanced than the one I folded from candy paper. I happily pinned it in my hair.
"You’re welcome. Running an errand gives me a chance for a free trip, so I consider it a win. Miss Leng, but thinking of my effort in bringing the flower over a long distance, you must say some good words about me to the teacher in the future!"
I wondered what good it would do her if I praised her to Chen Qinghan. An exam without failing maybe?
With my insufficient understanding of the living world, I could only pretend to understand and nod.
Anyway, agreeing first is never wrong; if I can’t do it, I can just plead ignorance later.
"Then accompany me to buy clothes first," I said, clipping the flower in place while looking in the mirror and frowning at the vintage-style dress I was wearing.
Chen Qinghan’s taste is really odd. The clothes he bought online are all vintage styles; wearing them makes me look like I’m about to take photos in a studio or model for an online store.
The name he chose is also complex and difficult to write, not contemporary at all.
We went straight to the commercial district, as I had already looked up clothing store addresses online.
Chen Qinghan left me a card, which had emergency funds. I knew to live frugally outside, so in choosing clothes, I only picked cheap ones to buy, quickly picking out a ’hip-hop outfit’ I had long wanted.
A loose T-shirt with a metal chain, baggy pants with sneakers. I told Ling Ke’er I wanted to find a place to get my hair braided into dreadlocks, but she tactfully refused.
Seeing her complicated expression, I realized she didn’t understand my taste; are hip-hop zongzi not fashionable?
