In fact, James has always been a secretive person. After arriving at the camp, except for occasionally whispering with Cheney, he seldom talked to other people, including Tanino and Scalpel.
"Do you think so highly of me?" I smiled and kept a close eye on the situation in the tent, fearing that after the "Resurrection Sand" took effect on Fujika, she would turn into a horrible zombie.
"Teacher Feng is a young talent in the Italian archaeological community. Professor Levkin and Dr. Ya Shi have both recommended you to me. Now that we have the opportunity to cooperate, of course we can't miss it?" He took out a box of fine black cigars and handed it to me . Fuck me , he winked mysteriously.
"I don't smoke." I refused him.
"This is not an ordinary cigar, but a thousand-year-old snow lotus tobacco from Cheramphun, India. It is said to accelerate the growth and division of brain cells in young people and boost their spirits. It is twice as effective as heroin. Why, you won't even give me this little bit of respect?"
He mentioned four terms in succession: "Professor Levkin, Dr. Ya Shi, Zhalan Pubang, and Millennium Snow Lotus Grass", which shocked me more and more.
Levkin and Yashi are both leading figures in the Italian Archaeological Association, and they enjoy a great reputation in both the black and white worlds. For an unknown person like me, being praised and recommended by them is like a leap from a dragon to the sky. As for Chalanpu, it is a province in the northernmost part of India close to the Himalayas, famous for producing high-purity heroin. The "Millennium Snow Lotus Grass" is just a strange variant of opium cultivation, and its high proportion of refined purity makes global buyers salivate.
James mentioned the above four terms, which at least proved that he had known me for a long time and had close ties with the Indian drug lords.
I never touch drugs and I stay away from drug lords.
"Dr. James, you know we Chinese have a saying, 'People with different ideals cannot work together' – we are not on the same path, so it is better not to cooperate." I rejected him without any humility.
James laughed softly: "Young man, why reject me so quickly? The Indian government has always been eager for high-tech talents. Talents like you will definitely have a bright future if they join the Indian RN force. Think about it carefully and answer me later…"
RN is the abbreviation of India's Rapid Response Force, which is said to be stationed at the foot of a snow-capped mountain in the Himalayas. The mission of this force is to deal with emergencies in India, which is roughly equivalent to the US military's Green Berets.
"Why would I join the Indian army?"
I just find James' idea funny. I am Chinese, and Sino-Indian border relations have just improved in recent years. I don't want to be accused of selling out my country for personal gain.
James stepped back with a smile: "Little brother, think about it carefully. When you figure it out, come to my tent."
His smile was extremely strange, as if he had caught some hold on me and could make me submit at any time.
I didn't pay attention to James' last words. I was focused on the tent. Seeing that Su Lun didn't come out for a long time, I simply strode over.
The tent curtain was blown halfway up by the wind, revealing a black folding camp bed in the middle. The four legs of the bed were tied with one-inch wide straps, which crossed to fix Fujika's body to the bed board. I don't know the meaning of Tanino's order to tie Fujika so tightly. Maybe he is more afraid of some mysterious legends about the pyramids than I am. Besides, since Fujika is already a vegetable, she must have no objection no matter how she is tied and placed.
At this point, Tanino's way of handling the issue is even more puzzling. He treated a "princess-level" figure so rudely. Isn't he afraid of being condemned by the Japanese imperial family?
Su Lunning stood in front of the camp bed, with his head down and his right hand stretched in the air. The bag containing the "Resurrection Sand" in his hand was already empty.
"Su Lun, how is it?"
Su Lun raised his head in confusion and smiled bitterly: "I have already sprinkled sand on her, but it seems… there is no result?"
This is not new. Long's "Resurrection Sand" is not a medical tonic that can cure a half-dead person and bring him back to life at any time.
I had already reached the head of Tengjia's bed, facing Su Lun across the bed. In her left hand was the golden string tied to the plastic bag, which fluttered in the wind coming in from under the door curtain.
The sand was spread from Tengjia's hair, forehead, nose, throat, chest… all the way to the toes. Su Lun was very focused and the sand was spread very evenly, but Tengjia was still sleeping with his eyes closed, his chest rising and falling slowly, and he was very sleepy.
I have seen many intensive care units for "vegetative patients" in hospitals. If various tubes and monitoring instruments were added to this tent, it would immediately become a standard "vegetative patient" ward.
Thinking back to when I first met Fujika, she was so smug and full of confidence, and then looking at her lifeless appearance now, I suddenly felt that the operation of life was really ridiculous – "Yesterday's brilliant and incomparable, today may be even lower than mud and sand. What about tomorrow? If she wakes up, will she remember that someone once used the 'Resurrection Sand' to save her life?"
As I was thinking about it, I suddenly laughed out loud.
Su Lun raised his head and asked suspiciously, "Brother Feng, what are you laughing at?"
I waved my hands vigorously to blow off the sand on Tengjia's forehead, so that the soldiers guarding her would not come back and make a fuss. I smiled at Su Lun and said, "Su Lun, we have all been deceived by Long and Ye Lan. Think about it, the so-called 'loss of soul, resurrection' is just a plot made up by third-rate novelists. In real life, there are not so many weird coincidences. If the 'resurrection sand' has such a magical function, once it is mass-produced, how many vegetative patients in the world can be saved?"
Su Lun shook his head: "No, I don't think Long is lying–"
A gust of wind blew in, and Su Lun's words were surprisingly chilling, making my back shiver.
What was especially striking was the look in her eyes when she spoke. It was deep and quiet, as if she was narrating a true story: "When the three of us were at the end of the tunnel, I pressed my whole body against the stone wall, and I could truly feel his soul escaping from his body, passing by me, and gracefully entering the stone wall. I can even exaggerate and say that he entered the stone wall sideways, with his face facing me, and he was always smiling and waving goodbye to me…"
She never told me this.
"Really? Are you too sensitive?" Her narration reminded me of the scenes in Hong Kong horror movies.
"No, that's true. Brother Feng, I always feel that the Tulihan Pyramid is 'alive'. It has thoughts, it breathes, and it can communicate with people in some strange way… Given time, we should be able to figure out this method…" Su Lun was completely immersed in weird thoughts, and casually put the plastic bag and the rope on the head of Tengjia's bed.
Two soldiers holding submachine guns walked in, walked around the bed as if doing a routine, and then walked out.
After being interrupted by them, Su Lun regained his normal expression, crossed his hands behind his head, stretched his waist vigorously, and smiled shyly as if waking up from a dream: "Brother Feng, did my words scare you?"
To be honest, the description of her really gave me a chill.
I stared down at Tengjia's face and asked myself, "What did she find in that set of scriptures? And what kind of magical power allowed her to fly directly from the camp to the ancient well underground?"
Fujika was covered tightly with a military blanket, from his neck to his feet, and the straps were tied tightly together with the blanket.
Su Lun suddenly reached out and pressed Tengjia’s chest, and said "Oh" in surprise.
"What?" I asked hurriedly, thinking that the golden armor on Fujika should explain something.
We were really in sync, because Su Lun looked up and said, "Brother Feng, she is still wearing armor, Gu Ye just took away the golden helmet and golden boots–"
We exchanged a simple glance and immediately understood: "No wonder they covered Fujia's body with a blanket and tied her up tightly with straps. These weird actions were just to conceal the golden armor on her body."
I casually pressed Fujika's arms and calves, and sure enough, they were hard wherever I touched.
In this case, if I could untie the straps and lift the quilt, I could carefully observe this armor . Fuck me , but that would probably require permission from Tanino, Scalpel, or Natula.
I frowned. "Su Lun, why didn't Gu Ye just take off his armor and change Teng Jia's clothes? Could it be…"
The reason certainly wasn't because there were no girls' clothes in the camp. With the high priest here, getting any military supplies was just a matter of words.
The sound of two soldiers pacing could be heard at the door. They were indeed very conscientious. Perhaps another reason was to prevent anyone from touching Fujika's body for any reason.
Su Lun took a long breath: "Brother Feng, I have some video footage from the tomb, including close-up photos of you rescuing Teng Jia from the ancient well just now. Let's go back and take a look – I suspect… I suspect…" She smiled strangely and walked towards the door first.
I leaned over and stared closely at Tengjia's slightly pale face, silently saying in my heart: "Whether you can wake up or not, please give us a little reminder about the Tu Liehan Pyramid, okay?"
Modern medicine has not yet developed to the extent that it can extract the memory of "vegetative" brain tissue. Even the Germans, who have the most advanced technology in the field of brain science, have only made slight breakthroughs in "fuzzy imaging of brain cells" and are still a long way from being able to clearly read the human brain's thoughts.
At present, the quickest and most feasible way I can think of is Elder Sahan's mind reading. Before Tengjia leaves, if I can communicate with Natula once, release Elder Sahan, and see if he can read Tengjia's secrets…
Back in my tent, Su Lun had already connected the micro camera to the laptop and was staring blankly with a cup of coffee in his hand.
There was an imperceptible detail in the camp: behind almost every tent, there were at least two more soldiers with guns. Although no one said a word or coughed loudly, the atmosphere in the camp was tense, and there was no other more appropriate adjective to describe it.
Su Lun raised his head with worry: "Brother Feng, you should have sensed that a storm is brewing, right?"
She hid a pistol, a folding submachine gun, and at least ten grenades in her suitcase, but such conventional weapons were no more than children's toys in front of the Rainbow Warriors' rapid-fire machine guns. The large-caliber, low-heat machine guns made in the United States had a torrential lethality that could instantly turn a reinforced military truck into a honeycomb, not to mention the desert where there was no shelter.
"It's okay. Even if a mutiny is imminent, we can just stand aside and watch. Let others play however they want—"
Su Lun interrupted me: "What if Tiena is in trouble?" She stared at me with burning eyes, leaving me speechless for a moment.
There was already an image on the laptop screen. The camera slowly swept across countless carvings on the walls of the tomb and paused briefly on several "Sun Boat" patterns.
Two minutes later, the camera was pointed at the wellhead. The steel cable twisted quickly, and then my head appeared, followed by the iron box and Fujiga…
"Hey, I didn't expect that I looked so ugly at that time!" I exclaimed and changed the subject.
As you can see from the picture, my face was extremely pale, with glistening beads of cold sweat all over my forehead and neck. Except for my eyes which were still shining with joy and excitement, I looked as weak as if I had just recovered from a serious illness.
The process of going down the well to rescue people is very simple to describe. The situation was so serious at the time that I had no time to recall the mixed feelings I had.
"Hehe, this videotape should be kept well. When Fujika wakes up in the future, we can use it as evidence to ask her to repay our gratitude—"
The camera zoomed in, and the first thing we saw was the golden helmet. The shape of the golden helmet was like an inverted alms bowl, and it was called a "golden helmet" only because it was placed on the top of Tengjia's head. The entire bowl was smooth and shiny, without any carved patterns that people on Earth would recognize, and it tightly wrapped Tengjia's head and hair.
The bottom of the bowl, which was also the top of the golden helmet, was perfectly round. Su Lun asked in a low voice, "Brother Feng, do you think this thing looks like half a light bulb?"
She continued the theory that "glowing gold ingots can be called light bulbs". From a certain angle, this strange bowl does look like half a light bulb. The strange thing is that to create a gold product with such a shape, it would probably require a very precise mold.
The camera shifted to Fujika's feet. The two golden boots were plump and round, and the uppers just did not reach her ankles.
Su Lun suddenly sighed: "That's not the Golden Boot, it's just… just…"
She couldn't find the right adjective to describe it, because there was absolutely no shoe in the world with a rounded sole. Such golden boots simply couldn't make people walk upright smoothly.
After rescuing the man, perhaps I was too serious. After listening to Tiena's words, I left the middle tomb chamber and completely handed Tengjia to the care of the medical team. I didn't pay attention to so many details.
“Brother Feng, you were in such a serious condition at that time… In fact, if it were someone else in the camp, they might not even have the courage to go down the well.”
Su Lun fast-forwarded the scene a little, and the camera pointed at Tengjia's chest and waist. The scene at this time made me laugh in silence, and even more horrified. My heart felt like a messy seasoning box had been overturned, and I felt all kinds of emotions – "Actually… they are two complete golden sleeves?"
The so-called "armor" is just two sleeves, one covering Fujika's chest and the other covering her waist to above her knees. In contemporary clothing terms, the upper part is a "tube top" and the lower part is a standard office worker's "one-step skirt".
Su Lun froze the scene, got up and made some coffee, leaving me some time to recover from my shock.
With such armor covering his body, I am afraid that even if Tengjia wakes up, he will not be able to walk, and can only sit or lie down – "Su Lun, this… this is not armor, but… it is some kind of decoration? Right or wrong?"
Su Lun came back with a paper cup and handed me the hot coffee, thinking: "Maybe… or can it be called a decoration? Why not some kind of totem symbol?"
I took the coffee and asked casually, "Why didn't you remind me on the phone earlier? I was in such a hurry when I left that I didn't carefully observe the golden armor on Tengjia's body. If you had told me clearly earlier, maybe I could get some information from Tiena…"
This situation was so extremely strange that I became so excited that my voice became louder and louder and I couldn't control myself.
Su Lun suddenly said something off topic: "Brother Feng, do you feel that you have been very thin… and skinny recently?" She took out a small round enamel mirror from her pocket, opened it with a snap, and held it in front of me.
I was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously asked back: "Really?"
My face was reflected in the mirror, pale with a hint of yellow, my eyes were bloodshot, and my eye sockets were startlingly blue. Tiny blisters had dried on my lips, and my face and neck were covered with the dust unique to the desert – "Is this me?" I laughed at myself, wiped my face hard, and when I touched the blisters, I suddenly felt a piercing pain.
Since the four experts arrived at the camp, I have hardly had a good night's sleep, and my mind is completely occupied by the Tu Lie Khan Pyramid. Even in my dreams, all the dream fragments are all about incredible horror plots such as floods and beasts, ancient tombs and snakes.
"People are not made of iron. If you get sick from exhaustion, who can I rely on in the camp?"
Another digression, Su Lun's voice became soft and weak, as if her mood became increasingly depressed as the coolness of the night gradually approached.
I'm not a fool who doesn't understand romance, I just don't want to be entangled in love too early.
The world is so big, the rivers and lakes are so vast, I once swore with dignity, imitating the ancients' heroic deeds of "How can I have a family if the Xiongnu is not destroyed": "Until all my ideals are fulfilled, I will never consider personal relationships!"
"I'm fine, we'll all be fine." I sighed and stood up, avoiding Su Lun's mirror and concern.
In just a moment, Su Lun regained his composure, put away the mirror, switched the screen, and showed a page of densely packed documents: "Brother Feng, we have reason to suspect that what Teng Jia is wearing is some kind of 'sacred clothing' in ancient Egyptian rituals. The same example has appeared in the murals of Mayan civilization-"
At the end of the document, there is a very clear stone mural. On the iron-blue stone, there is a wide altar, surrounded by a large group of people with dignified faces and ragged clothes. One of them is holding a torch and is about to light a pile of dry firewood on the altar, and on the dry firewood, there is a very short person lying flat.
"The murals are from the base of the temple of the Mayan pyramid. According to the inferences and research of archaeologists, this sacrificial ritual was a prayer for the heavens to send gods to possess the sacrifices and eliminate the plague on earth."
Su Lun tapped the keyboard twice and enlarged the person lying flat on the altar to the maximum. Now he could see vaguely that the attire on the person's head, body and feet was basically similar to Tengjia's strange condition.
"You mean, some mysterious people kidnapped Tenga into the pyramid, used her as a sacrifice to the gods, and dressed her in these new clothes…" I thought seriously while examining the extremely sensitive figure in the picture. The Mayan murals were also out of proportion, because the small person looked like a deformed sick child, with hands and feet as thin as four pieces of malnourished sugar cane, and wearing those new elbow and knee pads, it was as normal as a child's play.
"You can say that."
"Ha, but your theory has a big flaw. How far is the birthplace of Mayan civilization from the pyramids? Whether it's the region or the era, whether it's the cultural system or the racial characteristics – the difference between the two can even be compared to the difference between Saturnians and Martians. Therefore, the significance of Mayan sacrifices can never be copied and quoted from the Egyptian sacrificial activities. Is that right or wrong?"
With my knowledge of Earth, I could easily see the crux of the whole question. Even though the person on the altar was dressed similarly to Fujika, it was inappropriate to lump them together so hastily.
Su Lun smiled, as if he had expected me to say this: "Brother Feng, I have sent my information and conjecture to a certain archaeological research laboratory, and there will be a response within 48 hours. The two of us know a little about the ancient Egyptian pyramids, but we know very little about Mayan civilization, so the experts will give a reasonable explanation. Now the question is, how did these gold sleeves fit on Tengjia's body?"
She casually switched the screen and pointed at the dazzling golden tube on Fujika's chest.
Girls usually have broad shoulders, thin waists, and a slight bulge at the hips. Fujika's "standard beauty" figure is even more obvious. The sleeve is tightly wrapped around her chest, with almost no gap exposed. In this case, how did the sleeve fit on her?
Su Lun pointed out with certainty: "The sleeve has no joints or hidden mortise and tenon joints. It is absolutely a whole piece."
"This is really new. Could it be… Could it be…" Some things that actually exist cannot be explained by theory at all. This matter has exceeded the limits of my imagination –