Chapter 0 In 2005

Back in '05, there was a TV drama that was super popular called *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber*.

There was a line in that show that went, "The prettier the woman, the more likely she is to deceive you."

Although Hong Jie was a woman of the streets and a bit older, to be honest, she was quite good-looking.

She was living proof of that line: the prettier the woman, the more likely she is to deceive you.

If Little Liang and I didn't have such specific roles, and if we didn't think so deeply about everything, we probably would have been fooled by Hong Jie.

Boyfriend, boyfriend's father—these identities were all fabrications. Their real identities were a gang of tomb robbers!

As for their cause of death, it definitely wasn't suicide by drowning. It was an accident while digging a water tunnel, where they were drowned alive.

Even though I knew Hong Jie was lying, I didn't call her out on it, otherwise, it would stir up trouble.

Hearing Hong Jie say that her boyfriend's father had also committed suicide by drowning, I pretended to look sympathetic and sighed, "Ah! Your boyfriend's family is too unlucky. Two men have died in just a few days. This is the end of the line for them!"

Hong Jie quickly started acting as well, squeezing out a few tears while feigning guilt, her eyes red as she said, "It's all my fault! I ruined their family! I won't have a chance to atone for it in this life. In the next life, I'll be a beast of burden to repay this debt!"

I patted her on the shoulder and advised, "Alright, don't blame yourself. Where did your boyfriend's father drown himself? Before the body is washed away by the current, let's quickly retrieve it."

Hong Jie quickly said, "It's the same spot where my boyfriend died. He probably wanted to summon his son's spirit, but then he couldn't think straight and stubbornly jumped into the river and drowned."

I thought to myself, this woman is a real pro at lying. The story is seamless, and her acting is completely natural. With this skill, why bother digging up graves? Go to Hengdian as an actress, and you could probably make a name for yourself.

I waved Hong Jie over, had her come aboard, and then poled the corpse fishing boat downstream to continue fishing for corpses in the waters where we fished for her boyfriend yesterday.

This time, the victim had only drowned recently and hadn't had time to drift far. As we approached, we saw a male corpse floating on the surface of the water from a distance.

Just as I was about to row over to retrieve it, Hong Jie asked me nervously, "Do I still need to get off the boat? Didn't you say yesterday that it's taboo for family members to be on the boat when fishing for corpses?"

That's when I remembered the "taboo" I made up yesterday, so I had to put Hong Jie ashore first before retrieving the body.

It was good that Hong Jie wasn't on the boat so I could take the opportunity to carefully examine the body.

I saw that the deceased was about forty years old. His figure and appearance were completely different from Hong Jie's "boyfriend." It was impossible for him to be his father. Moreover, because he hadn't been in the water for long, I could still smell a strong earthy odor coming from his body!

Looking at his hands, they were also slender and muscular, with many abrasion scars on the palms, which matched the physical characteristics of a tomb robber.

Sure enough, another rat who died in the water tunnel!

It seemed the ancient Shu tomb of the Ya Zi River must also have a tunnel underwater in this area, so the drowned rats would drift out from here.

While I was pondering these things, I hauled the body onto the boat, then rowed to shore and dragged the deceased up.

After all that, the sun was about to set.

I asked Hong Jie, "Hong Jie, are you still going to find a friend to transport this body away?"

"Ah, yes." Hong Jie replied guiltily, "I'll have a friend come over to help in a bit."

I nodded and said, "Then I'm going home for dinner. My wife is waiting for me."

After saying that, I prepared to leave, planning to secretly come back tomorrow when I was alone to look for the underwater tomb tunnel.

But before I could get on the boat, Hong Jie suddenly ran over and grabbed my arm, saying, "Little brother… don't… don't go. I'm a little scared alone!"

That made sense. Today was different from yesterday.

Yesterday, we were fishing for corpses at noon when the *yang* energy (positive energy) was abundant. It was no big deal for Hong Jie to guard a corpse by herself.

Today, the sun had already set, and it was getting dark. Hong Jie was, after all, a woman. It was really scary to guard a corpse alone.

She clutched me tightly, pleading, "Can you sit with me for a while until my friend comes? I'll pay you an extra hundred."

I considered it for a moment and nodded, saying, "Alright, I'll sit with you for a while then."

After saying that, I sat down on the boat, waiting for Hong Jie's "friend" to collect the body.

Hong Jie sat down next to me, chatting with me casually.

"Little brother, I haven't asked what your name is yet?"

I said, "My name is Chen Rongsheng."

Hong Jie smiled and said, "That's a nice name."

Then she asked me, "Your swimming must be very good, right? I sometimes see you go underwater and you can stay down for quite a while before coming up. It scares me. I always think your feet are tangled in the water plants and you can't come up."

I smiled and said, "I grew up by the water, so my swimming is naturally top-notch. If I didn't have this skill, I wouldn't dare to be a corpse fisherman."

Hearing this, a light flickered in Hong Jie's eyes, as if she was pondering some plan.

Later I found out that she had already gotten ideas at that time and wanted to recruit me!

After all, the ancient Shu tomb of Ya Zi River was a water tunnel, and if you wanted to rob a water tomb, you had to have incredible swimming skills, otherwise you would end up like the two people I fished up, unfortunately drowning.

We sat on the boat and waited for half an hour, but Hong Jie's friends still hadn't come. She was getting a little anxious, so she took out her brand new Nokia N70 and called her partner.

When she made the call, she deliberately walked further away and lowered her voice to talk to her partner. I strained my ears to listen, but I only heard meaningless things like "hurry up and come over" and "it'll be bad if someone sees us."

When Hong Jie finished the call and came back, I deliberately asked indirectly, "Hong Jie, I didn't realize you were so fashionable. That phone is the newly released Nokia N70. It must cost over a thousand, right?"

Hong Jie's expression changed. She knew she had flaunted her wealth.

As the old saying goes, wealth should not be flaunted. Showing off wealth in front of others is a very dangerous thing.

She quickly rolled her eyes and tried to cover it up, "Fashionable? What's so fashionable about it? This phone was given to me by an old client. It's probably a smuggled one. It's not worth much. It always has no signal and is very difficult to use!"

I smiled and didn't say anything more, seeing through her but not exposing her.

After another ten minutes or so, Hong Jie's friends still hadn't come, but her phone rang.

Hong Jie got up and went to the side to answer it. After only hearing a few words, she raised her voice and asked, "What?!"

I quickly eavesdropped and vaguely heard that the person on the phone seemed to want Hong Jie to fish up another body.

Hong Jie was speechless. She gritted her teeth and said, "The first one I made up a lie and said was my boyfriend, the second one I said was my boyfriend's father. This third person, what am I supposed to make up? Can't you guys find a boat to fish for the corpses yourselves?"

The two sides bargained over the phone for a long time. In the end, Hong Jie hung up the phone with a helpless expression and walked back.

She sat down in front of me, put on a smiling face, reached out and stroked my thigh, and softly pleaded, "Rongsheng, can you do me another favor? As long as you agree, I'll definitely repay you well…"