Endless route

Chapter 129 36. A group photo from twenty-four years ago [2-in-1]

Deep in the iceberg, there are a series of ancient ships.

Zheng Yun walked into the cabin slowly, a faint burnt smell lingering at the tip of his nose. With every step he took, the gray and black wooden boards under his feet creaked, as if they would crack and fall at any time.

Flashlights were all around.

The scene in front of me was extremely horrifying.

Like an ancient fire scene, everything within the field of vision was scorched black. The remains of the ship's furnishings were piled up in one place. The black ashes were lifted up, revealing many modern explorer's equipment, half-buried in the thick black ash.

The temperature of the flame cannot ignite modern plastics, but it is enough to burn the human body into ashes, and then use the burning temperature of the human body to bake polyester fabrics and plastics.

In the end, only the iron products remained.

The colorful colors wrapped around the kettle are the last traces left by those modern explorers.

Go deeper.

There are some footprints on the ground.

Follow the footprints all the way forward.

In my ears, I could faintly hear some gasping sounds, faint choking of blood, and... weird gnawing sounds!

Zheng Yun pulled out his gun and walked forward quickly.

Pass through the cabin of the first ancient ship, walk into the second ancient ship, then the third, the fourth...

I don’t know how long I walked downhill.

Finally something else appeared before my eyes.

A wall, a real rock wall, is located an unknown number of meters underground, with rock passages on the left and right.

A man whose flesh and blood were as bloody as if his skin had been peeled off was sitting in the corner of the passage. His eyelids were even burned, and his two eyes were staring straight at him, and his throat was constantly choking with blood.

But he can't see himself.

Maybe his eyes were burned out.

The walkie-talkie nearby was rustling:

"Where are you, what did you encounter, why can't you go in."

"James, are you still alive?"

"What happened to you? Where are you?"

James' eyes moved. He stretched out his skinless hand and rubbed it on the hard rock wall, leaving many blood stains every time it touched the ground.

Zheng Yun helped him, handed him the walkie-talkie and put it in his hand. James was stunned for a moment, but picked up the walkie-talkie: "Senke, don't come in! Run!"

The two continued to talk.

Suddenly, a strange sound sounded from deep inside. Zheng Yun turned around and looked into the depth of the passage. It was empty and very dull.

"Coming! Run!"

James pressed the intercom with all his strength and used his last voice to warn Senko not to come in. A large mouthful of blood overflowed from his throat, trachea, mouth and nose.

Finished in one sentence.

His arms went limp and he died completely.

Zheng Yun frowned and looked deep into the passage. He heard some strange noises, but he couldn't distinguish them.

After a while.

A piece of 'thing' overwhelmed him.

Immediately afterwards, blue-green netherworld flames spurted out, covering Zheng Yun's whole body, leaving him in a sea of ​​fire with no way out...

"Brother Zheng, it's time to have breakfast."

A voice brought Zheng Yun back to reality.

Zheng Yun opened his eyes and found himself lying in the bedroom of a family hotel. The deer head lamp was on in front of him. The window was white with snow, and the quilt was so warm that he couldn't bear to leave.

Song Wan wore a fluffy rabbit pajamas and stood at the head of the bed. She stretched out her hand to push Zheng Yun. When his dazed eyes returned to focus, she said to Zheng Yun: "We are going to attend the Pirate Festival today. We agreed to go find him." A treasure.”

"Um."

Zheng Yun stood up and rubbed his head.

Only then did he remember that three days had passed since he returned from the bow glacier, and the Pirate Festival started today.

"Go wash up quickly."

Song Wan reached out and grabbed Zheng Yun's hand, pulled him up, pushed him into the bathroom, and stuffed the toothbrush into his hand.

"Uh-huh."

Zheng Yun nodded, thinking about the nightmare just now, and put the toothbrush into his mouth, and then realized that he didn't squeeze out the toothpaste.

"Ha ha."

Song Wan covered her mouth and laughed out loud. Zheng Yun gave her a helpless look before she suppressed her laughter and turned around and ran out of the bedroom.

A silent sigh.

Zheng Yun knew that the source of his nightmare was because he refused to save James.

He believed that his decision was wise. Even if it happened a hundred times over, he would never take his brothers in to save people and put them in danger for a stranger.

But invisible moral pressure also exists. I usually don't think of it, but only quietly emerge in my sleep late at night.

So he chose to go in alone to save people in the dream, found James, and finally killed James in the dream.

There is nothing to say. He is a normal person. When encountering this kind of situation for the first time, he will always worry about it for a few days. After this period, he should be fine and the symptoms will not last long.

After washing up, go downstairs.

The others had already had breakfast and were waiting for him, but they were too embarrassed to go up and call. Only Liu Ming and Song Wan didn't care.

"That girl hasn't woken up yet?" Zheng Yun walked to the dining table and asked Hu Ruihua and the others while eating.

"No, this is very strange. Not only did she not wake up, but Senko and the others also didn't wake up. The hospital said it might be due to neurological anesthesia." Hu Ruihua said seriously.

"Nerve anesthesia?" Zheng Yun frowned.

"I can't explain this, because the hospital didn't understand it either. It might be something like an anesthetic, and they inhaled a gas with similar ingredients." Hu Ruihua sighed.

"You said it's that kind of flammable gas that has anesthetic effects?" Zheng Yun picked up the plate and ate a piece of barbecue.

"No, the hospital extracted some residual gas from Senko's lungs. It is a mixed gas with complex composition. After burning, the chemical formula cannot be restored."

"This is another problem that is difficult to solve scientifically, but the most important thing is the way this gas is triggered. The ice crack hole usually does not have this gas. Once it gushes out, it will burn with the flames."

Sister Wang shook her head and explained.

Zheng Yun stopped asking. He wanted to put things aside for the time being. They wouldn't go in, so there was no point in thinking about it.

"The scope of this pirate festival is very large, with a length of more than 200 kilometers, and the deepest part reaches 40 kilometers into the glacier mountains. I'm really not afraid of tourists accidentally wandering somewhere."

Liu Ming pressed the remote control and changed the topic.

"They should all be well-explored and safe places. I heard that the first prize is a yacht. I really spent a lot of money on it." Huzi turned to look at Zheng Yun happily.

Aren't they sure of finding the treasure? Even if this treasure is stuffed into the emperor's tomb, you can still go in and take it out!

"Where are you going to look for it?" Zheng Yun asked. You can participate in this activity, and you may run into trouble if you do.

"It's all luck." Hu Ruihua shook his head.

"This area is next to the ancient ship scenic area that the Sichuan restaurant boss mentioned. We can go there to look for it first." Song Wan suggested. She cared about this kind of thing more than anyone else.

"Okay." Huzi nodded.

The others had no objections.

When Zheng Yun finished his meal and walked out of the family hotel, he found that the northern ice was densely covered with snowmobiles and sleighs, with various pirate flags on them. They were all participating in the festival to find treasures.

"Fortunately, we rented a car early, otherwise we wouldn't be able to rent a car today." Huzi jumped out of the car.

They also have two snowmobiles, both of which are sedans, big enough for them to sit on, and can also tow a sleigh behind them.

"Then let's go."

Everyone dressed up and got on the bus.

The place they want to go is in the northeast, about 140 kilometers away from the Christmas Islands. On the edge of the Pirate Festival activities, you can walk along the edge of the glacial mountains.

After arriving at this place, there is only a straight line distance of 60 kilometers from the abandoned ancient ship scenic spot Song Wan mentioned. The total distance is only 200 kilometers, which is closer than the iceberg on the bow of the ship.

Look at it from the map.

The distance between these two places is very long, about seventy kilometers between the two points.

Therefore, we can directly rule out some unreasonable speculations. For example, the two are connected, and the ancient ship on the bow glacier extends to this abandoned ancient ship scenic spot in one go.

Think of this.

Zheng Yun suddenly realized something. The word "bow" in the iceberg on the bow of the ship could not refer to the bow of the ancient ship, right?

This is really hard to say.

Go back and look up the origin of the name.

After warming up the car for a while, everyone drove towards the northeast. This time they were divided into two teams. Hu Ruihua led their people, Zheng Yun led Liu Ming, Song Wan and others, plus Xiao Hu.

Originally Huzi wanted to come over.

But Xiao Hu is more familiar with technological products. Even if he gets separated or has an accident, he will still be more useful than Hu Zi.

Zheng Yun followed Hu Ruihua in the car, speeding on the flat ice. The iceberg was on their left. No matter how fast they drove, the glacier was always unhurried.

But they didn't dare to drive too fast.

The ice surface today is too lively, with people everywhere. Experienced professional explorers all go into the mountain, while inexperienced ordinary tourists take their children and search around the ice.

On the way, they talked about the major accidents of twenty years. Song Wan said that she had investigated the information and downloaded the identities of most of the seventy people who died.

"Forty of them are related to the British Royal Museum, and the remaining thirty are their tour guides. But among the forty people, seven of them can't find any information. I only found a photo of them before departure online. .”

Song Wan took the tablet and showed a photo.

Zheng Yun was very interested in this, so he simply parked on the side of the road and let Xiao Hu drive. He and Song Wan switched seats in the last row, took the tablet in her hand, and looked through it carefully.

"Are you okay? Why did you stop the car?"

Hu Ruihua asked through the intercom. The car behind suddenly stopped, which startled him and thought something had happened.

"It's okay, keep walking, Captain Hu."

Xiao Hu spoke quietly and then put down the walkie-talkie. He was successful as an undercover agent this time! I can eavesdrop at close range... and listen to Zheng Yun's secrets and plans!

"I drew these seven people."

Song Wan stretched out her hand a little, and seven red circles appeared on the group photo. Some were sitting in the front row and some were standing in the back row.

Zheng Yun looked thoughtful.

This group photo shows a total of forty people, sitting in rows and standing in rows. The background seems to be an outer door of the Royal Museum. The time in the lower right corner reads 1999.8.1.

"What was the time of the disaster?"

Zheng Yun looked at Song Wan and asked.

"It was from July 25 to August 8, 2002. No one is sure about this. It was in mid-August that the missing person could not be found." Song Wan flipped the tablet and found a local news report.

The report was dated August 16, 2002. It said that members of the Royal Museum expedition team from the United Kingdom were confirmed to be missing, and the names of each member of the expedition team were also listed.

"Thank you for your hard work. You are very attentive."

Zheng Yun nodded and praised Song Wan. She obviously put some thought into it, so she should be praised no matter what.

"Yeah." Song Wan smiled brightly.

"But this question is very strange. They came here to look for things in 2002 and took a photo together in 1999. Maybe they came here in 1999 and come every year?" Song Wan was confused.

"Today is July 18, 2023. This major accident happened twenty-one years ago, when..."

Zheng Yun closed his eyes and recalled.

Twenty-one years ago, I was only four years old. I can’t remember exactly what happened back then, so I need to think about it carefully.

"..."

Song Wan turned her head to look at Zheng Yun. She puffed her mouth slightly and looked strangely at him, quietly watching him think back with his eyes closed.

Zheng Yun previously said that the accident twenty years ago had nothing to do with them and told him not to take it for granted. However, when encountering something of this era, his first reaction was to close his eyes and recall.

Isn’t this self-inflicted?

If it had nothing to do with Zheng Yun, what would he need to close his eyes and remember? Think about the weather in 2002?

That's obviously not the case.

If he can recall it, it means there is a connection!

Others also turned their heads, and even Xiao Hu at the front looked into the rearview mirror of the car, showing a strange smile.

I like to watch this kind of big case that involves twenty years and so many people died. It's very exciting to think about it.

Zheng Yun couldn't care about them.

He frowned, the more he recalled, the more headache he got.

When he was four years old, Jiang Meng was just over half a year old. He vaguely remembered that in July, they did not live in Fuen City in W-02, but in a place with jujube trees in the yard.

He must be escaping from the heat.

The adoptive father was also there, not only the adoptive father, but there seemed to be many strangers at that time, at least twenty or thirty of them, who seemed to be chasing a pig to kill in the yard, and then finished the meal.

A group of people chase a pig.

This is the most impressive scene.

Later...it seemed like everyone left!

Zheng Yun suddenly opened his eyes, full of surprise, because he really remembered something unintentionally!

It seemed that one night in late July, I was woken up by the heat in the middle of the night. I got up in the middle of the night and stared at my sister Jiang Meng, smiling stupidly.

Then I heard it myself.

There were many people passing by the yard outside, as many as the main road, as if there were countless people passing by.

At that time, I was half asleep, and my young mind couldn't turn around. I thought I was asleep in a pawn shop. There was a street outside, and it was normal for people to move around.

Think about it now.

This is not normal!

With so many people passing through the courtyard, there should be only one possibility: they walked in or out through the fairy gate.

But does this have anything to do with the W-08 accident? Do we need so many people to deal with 70 Westerners?

"Brother Zheng, what's wrong?"

Song Wan followed Zheng Yun and said spiritually.

"It's okay. I thought of something else. You can continue." Zheng Yun shook his head. It shouldn't be the same thing. In fact, he still had no evidence that his adoptive father took action.

If you still have doubts.

All we can do is check the weather cloud map here and see what year and date it is on the cloud map circled by my adoptive father.

W-08 doesn't have many satellites here, so the weather cloud images were probably taken by hot air balloons, and you should be able to find them locally.

"Of these seven people whose identities cannot be found, three are sitting in the middle of the first row. They may be their leaders in this operation." Song Wan turned back to the previous photo.

There was a very cautious old white man sitting in the center of the first row. The first person on his left, the third person on his left, and the third person on his right were all circled by Song Wan.

These people have very obvious features, such as high nose bridges, blue eyes and deep eye sockets. They are obviously dressed like nobles. Their skin is dazzlingly white, and they look a bit like Nordic people.