Chapter 169: Chapter 169: The Legend of the Gu Family
Gu Qingfeng nodded with effort.
Since heaven allowed him to live, he would strive to keep on living.
At that mont, a warmth that only he was aware of radiated from his chest.
This nucleus carving was a fine thing indeed.
It was carved by the girl who shared his surna.
It had once been said by his ancestors that a master carver of unparalleled skill could endow their creations with a spirit of their own.
And the Gu Family ancestors had produced such a master five hundred years ago.
He was a person of astonishing talent.
Legend had it that a single piece of his work could be traded for an entire city.
Yet he remained detached and free-spirited, never caring for wealth.
He devoted his life to the mountains and waters.
In the year he turned thirty, after leaving the Mysterious Dragon Box for the Gu Family Patriarch, he drifted away.
No news of him surfaced ever again.
As for the Mysterious Dragon Box, nobody could open it.
The secrets inside remained unknown to all.
Five hundred years went by in the blink of an eye.
He thought that perhaps his only son might open it given the boy’s talent for chanisms.
However, at fourteen, his son ran away from ho with the Mysterious Dragon Box and his mother.
That year was the twenty-fifth year of the Republic of China.
They also took several thousand dollars in banknotes, dozens of gold bars, and agate jade stones.
He thought they must be hiding sowhere and would co back when they ran out of money.
But that wait lasted fifty years!
And in the end, what he received were the tragic news of Lady Yu and a “son” who was now close to the age of seventy, weak and nodding in agreent.
The Mysterious Dragon Box was nowhere to be found.
And all of this was marked by a series of strange coincidences.
“Uncle Gu, I will get better,” Gu Qingfeng suppressed his thoughts, squinted his eyes, and spoke word by word.
“Yes, Old Patriarch, your health is improving bit by bit. With all due disrespect, you need to live, even if it’s just for another year. If you can clear up these matters, you can pass away with peace of mind,” Uncle Gu said with a choking voice.
“If all of this is a sche concocted by Gu Cheng and his mother, I will take back everything they now possess, not leaving a single thing behind!” Gu Qingfeng spoke calmly, yet there was a harshness in his tone.
He had already given them more than enough.
But they were still not satisfied.
So, if the recent events were truly their doing, then the things he had bestowed upon them could all return to him.
Uncle Gu silently clenched his teeth, vowing that if he found the identity of the mole, he would never spare that person.
Now, he trusted no one but himself.
That included his wife and children!
…
Gu Qiaoqiao said she was ready, but she still spent a whole day reorganizing everything.
There wasn’t much of importance at ho anyway.
Moreover, the house was located within the base compound, so there was no need to worry about thieves.
Still, Qin Yize took the Rising Sun Gold Jade Stone with him.
He didn’t say where he was taking it.
Gu Qiaoqiao thought he might have taken it to his base office.
The next morning, Gu Qiaoqiao got into the jeep driven by Luh Fei and sped towards the mountains.
The mountain roads were not smooth.
But Luh Fei was an adept driver, managing to spare them many jolts.
Moreover, traveling by jeep was twice as fast as taking the train.
However, because Qin Yize was present, Luh Fei was much more subdued.
He didn’t display any of his usual flamboyant deanor.
Just driving quietly.
anwhile, Qin Yize was constantly writing sothing in a notebook or going through the docunts in the cowhide bag.
In any case, the morning passed in silence.
By noon, the jeep pulled over on the side of the road.
At this point, aside from winding mountains and trees, there were no households in sight.
In the northern forest region, it was not like the south; whenever there was a road, there would be houses nearby.
The distance between forest stations here could be a minimum of several hundred li apart.
So, finding a place to eat was out of the question.
Qiaoqiao had also prepared dry food.
She had made quite a number of scallion pancakes and cleaned so freshly grown green onions and bok choy from the vegetable garden. She had also brought two jars of pickles, which was enough to last until they erged from the mountainous region.
Unexpectedly, Luh Fei took a small iron pot used for marching, from the trunk with a beaming smile and skillfully made his way to the riverside where he set up a stone stove with large goose egg-sized rocks.
He then filled the iron pot halfway with river water, placed it on the makeshift stone stove, and ca back.
There were dry branches everywhere along the riverbank, and Luh Fei quickly gathered a pile. After considering the wind direction, he started a fire.
It turned out he planned to make canned egg soup here.
Qiaoqiao took over Luh Fei’s job and started making the soup.
Luh Fei, still grinning from ear to ear, spread a canvas cloth on the ground while Qin Yize continued to read the docunt in his hands.
His eyebrows were habitually furrowed ever so slightly.
Only this ti, he was leaning against the car door.
Soon the soup was ready; Qiaoqiao had put in bok choy, green onion slices, and cracked four eggs into it.
The golden egg flowers, the green bok choy, and the braised pork from the can looked incredibly appetizing.
Out here in the wilderness, by the riverside in the mountain woods, there was a unique enjoynt to eating such a al.
Moreover, the flaky layers on the outside and the tender insides of Qiaoqiao’s scallion pancakes made the pickles taste out of this world.
Even Luh Fei ate until he was stuffed.
He used the iron pot to bring river water to extinguish the fire by the river.
Only after ensuring there were no safety hazards did he feel at ease to leave.
The jeep continued on its way out of the mountains.
Qiaoqiao was the only person in the back seat, so she leaned over and fell asleep.
Qin Yize glanced back inadvertently and found that Qiaoqiao had actually fallen asleep.
He curled his lips slightly and then continued to look at the docunts.
This ti, coming back to the Imperial Capital, he was to report to Elder Shen, the commander-in-chief at the base headquarters, on the recent experintal progress and the encirclent operations against the miscreants.
His situation was actually quite complicated.
Three years ago, when he returned from studying abroad, he was put in charge of a mysterious dical team because of his special talents; the team mbers were elites from various fields. Although they were outside the system, they could enjoy all the privileges of being inside it.
He moved along the dangerous fringes under the guise of the dical team.
He had thought it would take so ti, but unexpectedly, it didn’t take long to clean up the several hideouts lurking in the Northeast.
All this was thanks to the girl’s keenness; if she hadn’t detected the anomaly with that pot of at, Zhao Ying couldn’t have been captured so quickly.
It just hadn’t crossed his mind that it could have put her in danger.
As for who leaked her information, or whether the enemy operatives were lying in wait for her, there was still no conclusion.
In this border base, besides the tasks ntioned, he also led the laboratory staff to overco a difficult challenge.
He had fulfilled the promise he made to Elder Shen.
The Great Grandfather was getting on in years, and the second and third branches each had their own sches. Perhaps it was ti he shouldered the responsibility for the Qin Family.
The Qin Family’s business was vast but overly scattered; he couldn’t let the Great Grandfather carry on like this.
He just hadn’t expected that the girl needed to go to the Imperial Capital, so he had conveniently brought her along.
He thought, if he hadn’t returned a few days earlier, Qiaoqiao might have picked up her bag and boarded a train already.
She wouldn’t have discussed it with him.
But her, staying by his side, what was it for?
Qin Yize masked the thoughts in his eyes and gazed forward, just as the sky, unexpectedly, began to darken.
User Comments
0 comments from readers