Tomb Raider's Notes of Qilin City Lord

Chapter 196 Signal Smoke

196 Chapter 196 Signal Smoke
Chen Wenjin asked softly: "How are you? Are you asleep?"

The little brother looked at me sleeping in his arms with very doting eyes, and kept stroking my head with his hand. He nodded in response to Wen Jin.

Wen Jin looked at me in my little brother's arms and said, "A few years ago, I got news about Xuefeng, saying that she was seriously injured. In the following years, although Qilin Pavilion was still operating, she and she could not be found. The red and white two lost contact completely after that. Last year, I accidentally discovered that she appeared in Qilin Pavilion again, and appeared next to you, but looking at her now, she doesn't seem to remember me very much."

The little brother said: "Her memory and appearance have only been restored to that time. When I saw her this time, her memory still stayed in the period from when she went to the seabed tomb 20 years ago to when I left her, and the dozen or so years in between. The memories of the past year are all blank, and the remaining memories are from more than a year ago."

Wen Jin nodded: "I see. In her memory, she only has the first time she saw me in the underwater tomb. No wonder she didn't recognize me before. She has always been secretly helping me with my affairs. It stands to reason." Said, she should have recognized me long ago."

The little brother said: "Although she has not recovered those memories, she can reason out many things by feeling and observation, which is why she asked you just now."

Wen Jin smiled and said, "But I haven't seen her for a long time. She still looks that petite and cute. I like her just by looking at her. It can be seen that the relationship between you is getting deeper and deeper. Cherish her."

After being stunned for a while, she sighed and said to her brother: "But don't be like me and Sansheng. In the end, you can only keep it in your heart."

The little brother looked up at her, paused for a moment and asked, "Have you found it?"

Wen Jin shook his head: "Not yet. You have to be careful about "it" around you. It's best to check it when you go back. I will find the entrance as soon as possible. After all, time is running out."

It was daybreak and the rain had stopped. At this time, the swamp in front of me did not seem as scary as it was at night. There was only the sound of running water all around, and beyond that was the dark rain forest.

Both Men You Ping and Xiao Xun didn't return home all night. Wu Xie sat on the stone, worried, staring blankly at the swamp that seemed peaceful but was actually full of dangers, hoping for their safe return.

The fat man called him: "Tianzhen, don't be in a daze, come here and have something to eat."

Wu Xie walked over listlessly, and Pan Zi comforted him and said: "Little Third Master, Ji people have their own destiny. I think they are not ordinary people, and they are not so easy to get into trouble."

Wu Xie said with a frown: "But there is no news about them, I feel very uncomfortable. Now I have this feeling that I will lose someone at any time. I am afraid of them..."

The fat man said to him: "You were frightened by the death of that bitch Aning. Why are you arguing with yourself all day long? You will make yourself depressed later. If they are fine, they will definitely find you." He's coming back, but in a place like this, it's normal for him to come back and not come back, and the worst result is death."

Wu Xie stared at him and said, "You don't have a good word in your mouth."

The fat man smiled "hehe": "I'm trying to comfort you. I'm worried about them too, but it's useless for you to worry. We can only trust them now. Let's eat first. Don't look back. They're back. Are you hungry?" died."

"Go!" With that said, Wu Xie took the food.

After eating, Pan Zi went back to the mouth of the canyon, picked up some branches, dried them in the sun, and made a bonfire to make a charcoal pile.Following Pan Zi, he took out a yellow pill-like thing from his bag.

Wu Xie asked him: "Why are you doing this? What is this?"

Pan Zi said to him: "I asked a comrade who is still in the army to get this. It is military goods for paratroopers. It is a signal smoke used to call for help in shipwrecks." He took one and threw it into the pile of charcoal. Soon a thick smoke rose.

Pan Zi said: "We have set out several days in advance. We have already passed the canyon and know the basic situation. If there are no accidents, Third Master and the others should arrive at the mouth of the canyon soon.

I made a signal smoke here. On the one hand, it is to mark our position so that the third master knows that we have entered from here. On the other hand, it can also warn the third master that this place is dangerous and let them be more vigilant. "

Wu Xie asked: "How long can this little thing last?"

Pan Zi smiled and said: "Don't think it's small, it's just such a small ball, it can smoke for three or four hours."

Wu Xie took it and looked at it and asked, "Can you tell Uncle San that there are poisonous snakes in the canyon?"

Pan Zi shook his head and said: "That's not possible. The different colors of smoke represent different meanings. The yellow ones mean that there is danger ahead. You must move forward carefully. If there is a more complicated communication, you have to wait until the third master sees it. Yan, after giving us a reply, we can find a way to convey it. Sanye and the others are on a higher ground than us, so they should be able to see easily. We must always pay attention to the exit direction of the canyon, or whether there are signals on the four walls. Smoke response.”

When I woke up, I found myself on my little brother's back, with my face right next to his head. I slowly opened my eyes and found that it was already dawn, but the little brother didn't know why he stood there and didn't move. I looked at him and squinted in the direction he was looking. I saw a puff of yellow smoke floating in the air in the distance. It was quite far away. I asked him: "Is this a signal?"

The younger brother said: "It should be Wu Xie and the others. Let's go back to find them first."

I asked him: "Should we still take the water route?"

The little brother turned slightly and said to me: "I don't know, I got lost last night. Let's go to the water first."

I responded "Oh", and suddenly I remembered and asked him: "Brother, where is Wen Jin?"

The little brother said: "Let's go. When we see them again, you can just listen to what I say. Do you understand?"

I said: "Got it."

For a period of time after that, Pan Zi refilled the smoke ball every two hours. After the first smoke ball went out, there was no response and neither of us came back.In this way, until the afternoon, when the second smoke ball was about half burned, the fat man suddenly shouted: "Yes, yes! There is an answer!"

Wu Xie, who was looking at the sky boredly, immediately jumped up and looked towards the cliff with Pan Zi and asked: "Where is it?" The fat man shouted: "Look in the direction of my finger, over there, can you see it?"

Wu Xie turned around a few times and muttered: "Where is it?" After a while, he suddenly shouted: "Ah! I saw it, I saw it!" He suddenly became excited, and a conditioned reaction appeared on his face. He smiled, but only halfway through his smile, his expression suddenly froze and he said, "No, that's not outside the canyon. Isn't that the center of the basin?"

He immediately picked up the telescope and looked. There was a red smoke curling up from the bottom of the tree crown in the distance. At first glance, it looked like a huge cockscomb snake. The red smoke was very unusual, but it was definitely signal smoke. , definitely not caused by a fire.He muttered: "Aren't Third Uncle and the others always lurking behind? Why are they already in the swamp?"

At the same time, my brother took me along the water to the place where the yellow smoke was coming out. I was looking around with my mini high-power telescope in one hand. Suddenly, I saw a faint smoke in a very far place. A column of red smoke came out, and I hurriedly shouted: "Brother, brother, there is smoke again." Then I handed him the binoculars and pointed him in the direction.

After being stunned for a moment, I asked: "Is it a cigarette? This should be a reply to Huang Yan, right? This time it seems to be red, does it mean something has happened?" After looking at it, he was stunned for a while and didn't say anything. He gave me the telescope and took me to continue walking along the water.

Pan Zi's eyes widened and he couldn't believe this was true and said: "Holy shit, what's going on? Why are they in there? Logically speaking, they should wait for our signal before coming in, but this... "

The fat man murmured: "Da Pan, it seems that your third master is much faster than you."

But Pan Zi couldn't figure it out and said: "It's impossible. Could it be that Third Master and the others went in first from other canyons? But that's not how they came according to the plan, and damn! They were too fast..."

The fat man guessed: "Could it be the little brother who set it off?"

Pan Zi shook his head and said: "He went out last night without bringing anything. It can't be him. And I'm the only one who brought smoke balls here. You can see they are all here." He showed them all the smoke balls he had. .

The fat man asked again: "She must not be a girl anymore. Could it be that your third master made a mistake in handing over to you?"

Wu Xie suddenly asked: "Pan Zi, what does this red smoke mean?"

As soon as Pan Zi heard about it: "What!" He quickly took the telescope from his hand and looked in the direction of the smoke. His face suddenly changed and he said solemnly: "No, something happened to them."

Wu Xie looked at Pan Zi and asked, "Something happened?"

Pan Zi said: "As I said just now, the yellow smoke means that there is danger on the road ahead, so be careful when moving forward. The orange smoke means to stop moving forward and wait for confirmation. The red smoke means that you must not approach, usually in extremely dangerous situations. In this case, it is a warning to latecomers. In ordinary activities, red smoke is almost never used."

Seeing the red smoke, Pan Zi was already anxious. He thought for a moment and said, "Young Master, please stay here. I have to go and take a look to make sure nothing happens to the Third Master."

Wu Xie hurriedly grabbed him and said, "Hey, wait a minute, I'm worried if something happens to my third uncle, but my brother Xiaoxun hasn't come back. If you go again, there won't be only two of us left here. Besides, it's really hard for you to go in alone." It’s too dangerous. Let’s wait until Meng Youping and the others come back.”

Pan Zi shook his head and said: "Third Master, there are more than 30 of them. They are strong people and horses. Generally, red smoke will not be emitted. There must be something wrong over there. Damn it, it seems that the black blind man is still too young. Mistress Don’t worry, sir, I drilled through this kind of forest a lot when I was in Vietnam. I can get through it. You guys here will make plans when they come back." After saying that, he packed up his equipment.

When Wu Xie saw that he couldn't stop him, he hurriedly winked at the fat man. Unexpectedly, the fat man immediately packed up his equipment. Wu Xie hurriedly said: "Fat man, why do you care about my third uncle?"

The fat man said to him: "Don't raise eyebrows at me. Not only Da Pan has to go, but I tell you, we have to go together this time. The equipment we have is not enough to cross the Gobi, so we have to join up with your third uncle." , we must at least get their things, otherwise, we will die of thirst on the way out of this canyon."

Wu Xie was stunned for a moment and thought to himself, Oops!Damn it!That's right...

The fat man added: "It's not impossible for Da Pan to go in alone, but if something happens to him, it will be troublesome for the two of us to go in. It would be better for the three of us to go in together and retreat together, and the chance of success will be better." Bigger. Otherwise, if we stay here, we will just wait to die."

Wu Xie asked hurriedly: "But what should I do, brother? If we leave, they won't be able to find us when they come back. Otherwise, I will wait for you here."

"Aren't you looking for death? With your small body, you can't give it to those who give snake wheels. You will need manpower to carry things out after you go in. Da Pan and I will definitely not be enough. Let's leave a mark and show them the direction. At best, I can light up a cigarette as a signal for him, but..." Fatty glanced at the jungle, "I don't think they will come back."

Wu Xie knew that things were very bad now. Although he still felt that it was inappropriate, he also knew that the fat man was right.After thinking about it, he had no choice but to nod and say, "Okay, let's go in together."

The fat man said: "Let's redistribute the supplies. Let's wrap the little brother's share with a tarpaulin, write our whereabouts on the inner layer, and use big rocks to weigh them down here. Leave it here to keep it bright. If They won’t find this when they come back at night.”

Pan Zi also reminded them: "The signal smoke can only burn for three hours at most. We can't rest when we go in this time, so we have to pack as lightly as possible. Anyway, if we want to come back, we will definitely pass by here, so we can't bring anything without us." Without."

Afterwards, they left behind the gas masks and Luoyang shovel and those heavy items.Pan Zi put all the heavy items in Wu Xie's bag on his side, in order to ensure that Wu Xie could reach his destination as much as possible.Just when they were ready and about to set off, the fat man suddenly caught them again and asked them to look up at the smoke in the distance. They saw that the signal smoke was getting thinner and thinner. They didn't know if it was something happened there or a smoke ball. It wasn't enough, but looking at it like this, the smoke would definitely not last until they arrived.

Wu Xie asked Pan Zi: "What should I do? Is there any other way?"

Pan Zi looked around, picked up the binoculars, found a tree and climbed up to the top of the tree to observe the terrain.After coming down, he said to them: "I will use the position of the signal smoke as the central axis, and use the strange rocks on the cliffs on the edge of the basin in the distance as a reference to mark the compass. Let's go to the center between these two strange rocks on the cliffs." If we walk in a certain position, we will definitely pass the burning point of the signal smoke. However, the jungle is dense and there may be an error of more than ten meters, so we have to get as close as possible before the smoke goes out."

Following them, there was no further delay, and they immediately arranged their equipment, adjusted the compass from Pan Zi, and walked into the swamp in the direction of the signal smoke with the water flowing.

The little brother judged the location of the previous stone based on the distance in the direction of the yellow smoke. When we got there, we still took the waterway. When the water was shallow, he waded into the water and carried me on his back. When the water was deep, he had to swim before letting me down.

When we arrived at the previous rock, Wu Xie and the others had already left and left some things for us, but the place was already flooded by water. The little brother said to me: "Let's go in the direction of the red smoke just now." , they should have gone there.”

Then he took me to chase the bunch of red smoke and continue moving forward. In the water at the edge of the swamp, we could have looked for the stones at the bottom of the water, but at this time, it was already full of water, and there was no place to stay. Fortunately, The rainwater that had just collected was quite clear. Looking at the distribution of the stones, we swam until we reached the real edge of the swamp.

(End of this chapter)