Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Fat Man’s Guess

If earlier the Fat Guy had made Chen Dongfang suffer a setback with his tough stance, then now Chen Dongfang had returned the favor in an even more humiliating way—easily defeating him where he was most confident, exposing his error and incapability. That must have stung. I stole a glance at the Fat Guy; his face was ashen. With his temperament, the fact that he was silent now only proved he had nothing to say in response.

I couldn’t just stand by and watch him suffer, so I took the initiative to ask Chen Dongfang, “Uncle Dongfang, what’s going on? Are you saying that Fourth Master actually died a long time ago?”

Chen Dongfang looked at me, neither nodding nor shaking his head, and replied, “Your father wrote to me back then. Like you, your father, Ye Tianhua, went deeper into the Funiu Mountains, and his guide was the most experienced one-eyed Fourth Master. But their team encountered a calamity deep within the mountains, and many were left to rest forever in those vast peaks, including the one-eyed Fourth Master. Your father bore a deep sense of guilt over this. Yet not long after, the one-eyed Fourth Master, who had supposedly died deep inside the mountains, suddenly returned. But he was changed—extremely withdrawn. Not long after, the incident with your father occurred.”

Chen Dongfang’s words left me pensive. My feelings toward him were complicated. Given the respect he showed my father, calling him “Brother Tianhua” at every turn, he ought to be my uncle. He acted with caution and discretion, so I should trust him. But he was a direct descendant of the Chen family’s patriarchal line, and Chen Jinzhi had been the one who wiped out my entire Ye family. Moreover, his words always seemed shrouded in ambiguity, which made it hard for me to trust him.

So I wasn’t sure whether to believe what he’d just said. At that moment, I dearly wished our eldest brother, who I knew was watching us from the shadows, would reveal himself. He would certainly be able to discern the truth in Chen Dongfang’s words.

In the end, I had no choice but to believe him. That was what made both the Fat Guy and me feel so stifled: anyone could lie to us, and even if we suspected it, we had to accept it.

“Did my father go into the Funiu Mountains because of the weasel incident?” I asked.

“Not necessarily,” Chen Dongfang replied.

Then I asked what I cared about even more: “So this one-eyed Fourth Master, was it just a misjudgment on my father’s part, or did he really come back from the dead?”

“I don’t know. There’s a corpse stench about him—I noticed it the first time I met him. Your friend, the Fat Guy, also concluded he killed someone in the mountains because of it. But I’ve never heard of anyone truly coming back from the dead, so I suspect that the one-eyed Fourth Master is alive in a strange way—one could even say he’s a walking corpse. But not quite, because aside from the smell, he’s normal in every other way, including his greed. I don’t want you to get into conflict with him because I don’t want to alert him. After all, only he knows where he took your father, Ye Tianhua, in those mountains,” said Chen Dongfang.

At that moment, the Fat Guy suddenly spoke up: “Chen Dongfang, if you really see Yezi as your nephew, then come clean. Back then, when you were selected from the military districts to form a special operations squad, what was your mission? Tell us now, and I’ll consider you a real man. I know it’s top secret at the highest level. But it’s just us here—if you tell us, I swear on my honor as a Celestial Lord, I’ll take this secret to my grave.”

The Fat Guy’s sudden words startled me, and Chen Dongfang was visibly taken aback as well. He glanced at the Fat Guy and said, “Such a simple provocation—aren’t you being a bit naive? If you have the ability, go investigate yourself, but I can’t guarantee you’ll live long enough to uncover the truth. Liu, for Yezi’s sake, I’ll give you one last warning: for your own sake, and for those behind you, don’t try to learn more about this.”

The Fat Guy looked at him and sneered, “See, you’re trying to scare me again.”

Chen Dongfang gave him a look and turned away, refusing to engage any further. The Fat Guy grinned at me, as if to say he’d expected as much. Because of his sudden question, Chen Dongfang was no longer willing to say much, and an awkward silence fell over us. In the end, the Fat Guy and I sat outside, while Chen Dongfang and Li Qing went inside—clearly, neither of us wanted to see the other, out of sight and out of mind.

I wanted to ask who it was that Chen Qingshan kept mentioning and even seemed to fear—the people behind the Fat Guy—but I didn’t. The Fat Guy and I were friends now, comrades-in-arms. I’d gone from suspecting him to trusting him. This balance was like a pact between us, two novices in this affair. I was afraid that if I did ask, and even if he answered, knowing he had another identity would break our tacit understanding.

“Fat Lord, don’t be too impatient. You already know Chen Dongfang won’t talk, so why ask?” I said.

He snorted, “Frankly, I despise people like Chen Dongfang the most. Playing innocent while being anything but—always calling your father ‘Brother Tianhua’ as if he really saw him as family. But in my view, their relationship was hardly that close. Your father wasn’t any closer to him than he was to Tang Renjie. Sure, Tang Renjie was more despicable, but at least he was an outright villain—better than a hypocrite like Chen Dongfang.”

“You have a big problem with Chen Dongfang?” I asked the Fat Guy.

It was only when he said it that I realized he thought the same as I did. Deep down, this man who kept calling me his nephew scared me more than Tang Renjie—perhaps because his ancestor, Chen Jinzhi, had so easily wiped out the Ye family, more than a hundred souls.

“Anyone with eyes can see it,” the Fat Guy went on. “I haven’t gotten to the bottom of what happened back then, but I’ve played it out in my mind a thousand times. Judging by how seriously it was investigated, and the fact that they could mobilize elite forces from across military districts, it must have been a state-led project. Let me give you a hypothesis: suppose there was a top-secret, extremely dangerous mission, so the army formed a team from the best soldiers across districts. Your father, Chen Dongfang, and Tang Renjie were in it—along with others we don’t know. Sounds impressive, but I’ll tell you, soldiers are often just cannon fodder, and elite soldiers are just more capable cannon fodder. So your father and Chen Dongfang’s team was probably the vanguard or security detail. The task failed—or maybe it was aborted before it could achieve anything. Yezi, listen—here’s the key point.”

I nodded, impressed by how methodical his reasoning was.

“After the mission, I don’t know if anyone died, but those three survived. Your father returned to the village, and a few years later died—while investigating matters in the village. Here’s my new hypothesis: say your father, like you, had obsessive tendencies—wouldn’t give up until he hit a dead end. Then what I say next is very likely true.”

“His return to the village wasn’t a coincidence—while on that mission, he must’ve discovered a link with Fudigou and the Twelve Ghost Pits. So he went back to Fudigou to dig deeper. But this was a terminated or forcibly-aborted affair, which is why so many people are wary of it. I nearly got into trouble myself just by poking around. So when they realized your father was still investigating, the person behind the cover-up had him killed—and in a brutal way,” the Fat Guy said.

A chill ran down my spine.

“And after your father’s death, his two most trusted comrades—Tang Renjie and Chen Dongfang—both soared to high rank. What does that tell you? Most likely, they betrayed your father. Tang Renjie sold him out to the Liu family, and Chen Dongfang to someone else. So neither of them are any good. And given Chen Dongfang’s ties to Fudigou, he’s even more suspicious!” the Fat Guy concluded.

At that moment, applause suddenly rang out behind us.