Treasure hunting

Looking at the two puddles of yellow liquid on the ground, Zhang Yao couldn't help shaking his head.

"One look at you two was enough to tell you were no ordinary men. Too bad neither of you even left an intact corpse! I wonder what you were fighting over. Unfortunately, I, Zhang Yao, don't have the luck to ever find out!" Zhang Yao muttered in disappointment.

"Ah!" With another sigh, Zhang Yao turned, picked up the wonton noodles, and left. As for calling the police, he wasn't that stupid! Neither Yan Wu nor Zhang Xiao had left an intact corpse. If he called the police and they arrived to find nothing, he would either be charged with obstructing police duties or hauled away as a lunatic! Worse, he might attract people with ill intentions, and then his own life could be in danger.

So Zhang Yao merely sighed helplessly and left. Yet after taking just two steps with the wonton noodles, he couldn't resist looking back at the two puddles of yellow liquid. He knew he might have just missed a chance to change his life. But there was nothing he could do. They had dissolved into yellow liquid-what else could he do?

"Looks like it just wasn't meant to be!" When he had searched Yan Wu earlier, Zhang Yao hadn't been able to stop imagining what he might find. If he found a martial arts manual, he could become a master, invincible under heaven. Even without a manual, a check for a huge sum would have been nice; it could have let him live without a care for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, he had ended up with nothing.

Back home, Zhang Yao called to his grandfather, who was watering the flowers, "Grandpa, I bought your wonton noodles! I'll leave them on the table! I'm going to my room to study!"

"All right! Go ahead! I'll eat after I finish watering the flowers!"

In his room, Zhang Yao slumped over his desk, aimlessly leafing through the textbook in front of him. After what he had just experienced, how could he possibly focus on studying? The scene kept replaying in his head like a movie.

Yan Wu and Zhang Xiao's agile movements, like darting hares and soaring eagles, filled Zhang Yao with envy! He knew that what those two had used was genuine Chinese martial arts, not fake movie stunts!

Every Chinese man held a special feeling for martial arts, known as the national art, that outsiders could hardly understand! As an ordinary Chinese young man, Zhang Yao was naturally no exception! He, too, had dreamed of wielding a three-foot blade, righting wrongs and roaming the martial world as he pleased. But given his circumstances, he knew it was nothing more than a fantasy.

"Ah! What a shame! If only I'd met them sooner!" Zhang Yao sighed heavily and slumped over his desk again. He regretted missing the chance to become a true master's disciple, though whether Yan Wu or Zhang Xiao would actually have accepted him had never crossed his mind.

"What treasure were those two fighting over, anyway? Hopefully something like a martial arts manual! If I found it, wouldn't I hit the jackpot? Uh, what am I daydreaming about? They were both dissolved into yellow liquid. What manual could possibly be left... wait!" Amid his wandering thoughts, a possibility suddenly occurred to Zhang Yao. Since Yan Wu hadn't been carrying the object, could he have hidden it beforehand? Remembering how Yan Wu had appeared bare-chested, Zhang Yao became even more convinced.

Once that possibility occurred to him, Zhang Yao couldn't sit still any longer! He closed his book, dashed out of his room, and headed out of the courtyard. As he left, he turned and called to his grandfather, who was still watering the flowers, "Grandpa, I'm going out for a bit! Hurry up and eat your wonton noodles. They won't taste good cold!" Without waiting for an answer, Zhang Yao ran off.

Returning to the clearing where Yan Wu and Zhang Xiao had fought, Zhang Yao began another careful search. This time, he searched the clearing and any nearby places where something could be hidden.

→

Under the blazing sun, Zhang Yao excitedly began his "great treasure hunt" in this corner of the park.

"Nothing here! Nothing here either..." Starting from the spot where Yan Wu and Zhang Xiao had died, Zhang Yao slowly worked his way outward. He carefully inspected the surrounding turf for signs that it had been disturbed. He climbed trees to check whether anything had been hidden in the forks of branches or birds' nests. He crawled into the rockery to see whether anything had been stashed beneath its rocks.

In the height of summer, the midday sun was especially merciless! Zhang Yao's clothes had long since become drenched in sweat! Yet his determination kept him from giving up. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued searching.

Persistence paid off. As Zhang Yao continued his search, he suddenly discovered something inside a hollow tree!

"Found it! I found it! Hahaha!" Zhang Yao suddenly burst out laughing, holding something wrapped in a scrap of gray cloth. Looking at the object in his hands, he trembled all over with excitement. It took quite a while before he calmed down.

He raised his head and looked around. Once he was sure no one was nearby, Zhang Yao immediately tucked the cloth and its contents inside his shirt, turned, and ran toward home.

The moment he entered the courtyard, Zhang Yao couldn't even spare the time to speak to his grandfather. He darted straight into his room and locked the door. Then he took out the object tucked inside his shirt and carefully placed it on his desk.

With trembling hands, Zhang Yao unwrapped the rag layer by layer, gradually revealing what lay inside! Peeling away those layers of cloth seemed even more exhausting than searching for the object had been. In that brief moment alone, his forehead had become covered in sweat.

What is it? What could it be? Zhang Yao wondered nervously.

"A stone?!" After he peeled away the layers covering it, a bluish-gray stone came into view. Staring at it, Zhang Yao was so astonished that his mouth hung open. Yan Wu and Zhang Xiao had risked their lives over this thing? That was ridiculous!

Zhang Yao turned the stone this way and that. Once he confirmed that it really was just a stone, all his excitement vanished in an instant. The exhaustion from his earlier search came flooding back, leaving his whole body weak. He collapsed onto his bed.

"All that effort for nothing!" Casually tossing the stone toward the foot of the bed, Zhang Yao sighed helplessly.

Even after lying on his bed for quite a while, Zhang Yao still couldn't accept it. He felt that men like Yan Wu and Zhang Xiao couldn't possibly have fought to the death over some lousy stone! There had to be a secret he didn't know about!

So Zhang Yao picked up the stone and examined it carefully again. Unfortunately, aside from working up another heavy sweat, he found nothing.

Holding the stone and the rag it had been wrapped in, Zhang Yao inspected them over and over. In the end, he couldn't help thinking, Am I simply not destined for good fortune?

(PS: Tuifei's new book is out~~ Hehe~~~ I hope you'll all support it~~~~ Don't worry, everyone. Now that the new book is out, the old one will still be updated every day~~~~~~~ Brothers, you know Tuifei is a man of his word~~ So please be sure to support Tuifei~~~~~~~ Your support is what keeps me going~~~ Let's all pull together and push Tuifei to the top~~~~~~~~~~)