A South American steamer moored at the dock of the Huangpu River.

Xiaomu slept until the afternoon and woke up naturally. The hatch opened, and in came a young man in a suit, neatly tied, especially Sven, with slender eyes that were small but bright, and if it weren't for the scar on his right cheek, Xiao Mu might have liked him. Who would have thought that a few hours ago, he was still a devil who killed people without blinking.

"Good morning, Xiaomu!"

He also spoke with a pleasant face, and there was no murderous aura of an assassin. He also brought a tray of Western food ordered from a French restaurant, and when the round lid was uncovered was medium-rare steak and garlic bread.

"Hello, sir."

Xiao Mu replied in a low voice, but did not dare to look him in the eyes.

"You can call me Ahai."

"Ah Hai?"

"It's your lunch, the steak is getting cold, eat it."

Xiaomu has never eaten Western food, and he drools greedily but does not know how to use a knife and fork. Ah Hai patiently taught him hand-in-hand, and told him not to be restrained, although he was full. Xiao Mu was timid and didn't dare to eat it, so he asked, "Do you want to enjoy it together?" ”

There was a third person in the cabin, hiding in the shadows behind the door, unable to see the face at all. But judging by his stature, he was by no means the second stout assassin.

Xiao Mu ate all the steak and bread, drank a large sip of cold water, and sighed: "Thank you for this meal, and thank you for this new clothes." But I have a request, please don't send any more women to my room! I don't like it. ”

"Well, I thought you'd like it." Ah Hai smiled slightly, hiding the scarred right side of his face into the shadow, just looking at the smooth left face, it made people feel very comfortable, "Congratulations, you're free!" ”

"Can I go out on my own?"

"If you will."

Xiao Mu thought about it or forget it, he was robbed from the patrol room by assassins, and so many patrols died for him, the two concessions in Shanghai plus the Chinese realm must post wanted notices everywhere, and if he is caught, he will definitely die.

"Well, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, friend."

"Do you smoke?" The other party took out a pack of American cigarettes and lit one for himself first. Xiao Mu learned to smoke in the Beiyang Army, so he also smoked one, and Ah Hai lit it for him with a lighter, "How old are you?" ”

"Twenty years old, born in the year of Wuxu."

"What about the last name? Tell us about your past. I'm not here to patrol the house, and I'm not here to interrogate you, I'm just curious. ”

Xiao Mu spit out a cloud of American smoke, and his lips trembled slightly: "My family's surname is Huang, and I have been robbing tombs for generations. Since I was fourteen years old, I have followed my father and my cousin to rob tombs, and dug many tombs in Luoyang and Kaifeng, Henan. Three years ago, we dug an ancient tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Nanyang, and my cousin killed my father in the tomb in order to share the spoils. Luckily, I was able to escape quickly and seal the tombway. I think my cousin must have starved to death in the tomb. ”

"Do you still miss your father?"

"I think, although he brought me into the Tufuzi industry, it is also a livelihood that has been passed down from generation to generation, and we have no choice at all. My mom died young, and my dad raised me alone. Henan is densely populated, and there is a famine almost every year, and if he hadn't risked his life to dig a grave, I'm afraid I would have starved to death. My father told me many secrets in the ancient tombs, and the only tomb he didn't dare to touch was the ancient tomb with the tomb beast. When he encounters a sign of a tomb beast, he will immediately escape, seal the thief hole, and never dare to come back. For three years, I have been thinking about my father, thinking of him falling in the dungeon, his head cut off by his nephew's axe, falling to the ground and shouting: 'Little wood, run!' ’”

Having said this, Xiao Mu's eyes turned red, and he didn't know if it was because he hadn't slept all night, or if he was sad.

"Well, I miss my father a lot, too. He was an amazing man and a pillar of our country. Twenty-three years ago, in the year of the First Wu Dynasty, he was assassinated by an Assassin in Shanghai. His father was staying at an inn that day, and the Assassin was one of his kindred, so he was defenseless. The assassin's first bullet pierced his left cheek and broke his right cheek at the same time, causing blood to flow. The second bullet went into the left chest. The father fled and was shot a third time in the hallway, killing him instantly. The father's body was sent to the Hongkou Capture House in the Shanghai Public Concession. His death caused an uproar in Shanghai for a time, and many people wanted to get his body. In the end, my father was transported back to his hometown, but the body was brutally tortured, the body was dismembered into eight pieces, and the head was cut off for public display. I was four years old. To this day, I still remember my father picking me up and kissing me on the cheek before he went out to say goodbye. He turned his face to the right side of his scarred face, "This is my farewell to him." ”

This is a heart-wrenching sentence, Ah Hai took a few puffs of cigarette, he has a little accent, I don't know where he is from?

"So you're worse than me!" Xiao Mu felt a little sympathy for the assassin in front of him: "Friend, have you taken revenge?" ”

"Soon after my father's death, someone avenged me in my place—a vengeance that was so heartily restored that they killed the woman who masterminded her, burned her to ashes, and even destroyed a nation. But my father's death made me understand how cruel and unforgiving the world is, and how unpredictable the human heart is. Twenty-three years ago, after my father was assassinated in Shanghai, his body was parked in the Hongkou patrol house for seven days. ”

"Come to think of it, you killed people in the Hongkou patrol room, and you knelt down and kowtowed, just to pay tribute to your father?"

"Yes, but the actions in the early hours of this morning have nothing to do with him." The cigarette butt was about to fall off, Ah Hai flicked the cigarette butt and looked back at the person in the shadows, "Since I was four years old, I became an orphan and grew up in foster care. In the end, it became what it is now. ”

"Friend, who hurt your face?"

"A little boy, eight years ago, Tianjin."

"You're too far off topic."

The voice of a third man in the shadows sounded, and it sounded young too. Xiao Mu bent his head, still unable to see the man's face.

"I'm sorry." Ah Hai glanced at the morning in Shanghai outside the porthole and patted Xiaomu on the shoulder, "I said that I have too much, let's talk about you, my friend." ”

"Well, where's that? Yes, my dad was killed in the tomb by my cousin. I escaped alone, just in time for the Bailang Rebellion, almost died, met the passing Beiyang Army, I was forcibly conscripted into the team. We fought all the way to Shaanxi, and the army also dug several Tang tombs in Guanzhong, and the last tomb was in Bailuyuan. ”

"A month ago, the antiques you stole from the Ouyang family in Dharma Mountain on the sea were dug up from that tomb, right?"

It was not Ah Hai who asked, but the young man in the shadow behind him, Xiao Mu snuffed out the cigarette butt: "Yes, that's a tomb beast." ”

"Can you describe it?"

"Four are not the same."

"That's the young unicorn." The voice continued to come from the shadows, "Do you know who the owner of the tomb is?" ”

"I don't know, but I found the Book of Jade Mourning, I only remember the first few words - the king of the Southern County of the Great Zhou Dynasty."

"Wu Zetian's grandson...... Li Longqi's voice seemed to shake along with the hull of the ship, "Have you opened the coffin of the tomb owner?" ”

"Well, I got into the coffin and saw the little prince's face."

"Wait, you said you saw his face?"

The unfamiliar face emerged from the darkness, but it was a grimace - a bloody mouth, fangs clasped over the face, like a common tomb figurine in ancient tombs. Xiao Mu was so shocked that he shrank back, only to realize that the other party was wearing a mask and depicting the appearance of a ghost.

"He's not rotten."

"What?"

"The owner of the tomb is not rotting at all, it is as if he is asleep. At least, that's what I saw in the coffin. I wonder if it will rot after digging out the underground palace? ”

It was Ah Hai's turn to ask: "Xiaomu, do you know the whereabouts of this coffin?" ”

"Maybe in the north."

Xiao Mu tells the whole process of the defeated warlord's tomb robbery in Bailuyuan, and digs up two treasures: the coffin of the little prince and the town tomb beast that can breathe fire. After the army was wiped out, two treasures were also captured and packed in two carts, one to the south and the other to the north. Xiao Mu chose to go south and followed the town's tomb beast all the way to Shanghai. As for the coffin of the little prince who went north, his whereabouts are unknown.

There was silence in the cabin, and Ah Hai whispered, "So, a month ago, you went to steal that town tomb beast. ”

"That theft was almost successful, but unfortunately it was stopped by a craftsman of the Ouyang family, there is an idiom called what......"

Xiao Mu has never read a book, but he was born in a family of Tufuzi, and he must be literate, especially to recognize various ancient fonts, otherwise he will not know how to touch the door of the tomb. But when it comes to tomb robbing, he is semi-literate.

"It's a failure."

Another face with a clean left and right face replied.

"yes, that's what it means." Xiao Mu closed his eyes, hesitated, and decided to tell the secret, "But, the most important thing is that the craftsman in the Dharma Mountain on the sea, the sixteen or seventeen-year-old offspring, his face is ......"

"What's wrong?"

The grimace on the other side retreated into the shadows.

His face ...... His face ...... It's exactly the same as the little prince. I saw the little prince lying in the coffin, a boy of fourteen or fifteen years old, but if he lived a few more years, he would be the same craftsman as he is now. ”

Ah Hai nodded, took out a photo from his suit pocket, and the smell of chemical potions, newly rinsed out: "This is a photo just taken this morning, can you recognize this person?" ”

The photo was taken from mid-air and pointed at the roof of the Hongkou patrol room, where four men stood, one of whom was a foreigner in a senior police officer's uniform, and a middle-aged man in a long robe and a horse coat. The other two are very young, one wears a long shirt and a top hat; The other, dressed in an old skit, resembles a door-to-door carpenter or a stonemason, tall and childish, and turns to look in the direction of the camera.

Xiao Mu shouted: "It's him!" ”

Of the four people on the roof, only this face is facing the camera, and the shooting is extraordinarily real, even the pimples have been taken, and it is also the first photo of this person.

"I know this face too."

In the slightly swaying cabin, Ah Hai touched his right cheek, pulled out an ivory-handled dagger, and inserted it into the right face of the young man in the photo.