In a fit of anger, I pounded my fist against the wall, the pain causing me to let out a loud "ouch" and continuously shake my wrist. My fingers swelled even further, resembling a sausage.
"Wake up, it's time to eat."
Bai Ruoxue's voice rang out as she placed two buckets of Xiong Yi Wu instant noodles on the ground through the iron door.
I walked over and said, "I'm injured and need immediate treatment."
Bai Ruoxue smirked, scoffing, "Don't try that trick on me."
"I'm not lying to you. If you don't believe me, take a look."
It was my middle finger that was injured, still swollen. When I extended my hand, it formed the gesture of giving the middle finger.
Bai Ruoxue's face changed dramatically. She picked up a brick and smashed it towards me through the iron door.
With a clang, it hit the iron door. If I hadn't dodged quickly, I would have been hit.
"Daring to flirt with me, you're asking for trouble."
"I'm really injured. If you don't want to let us out, at least give me some antiseptics or something."
"Hmph, wishful thinking. Await your death."
With that parting remark, Bai Ruoxue turned and left.
Zhang Ling grabbed my hand and examined it, her heart aching.
"What happened? It's so severe."
"I accidentally got grazed by a horse's bone just now, it's nothing."
"Ah, it's so swollen. It's infected, we need to treat it immediately."
When we entered the tomb, Chen Duoyu was carrying a backpack with some emergency medical supplies, but it was left behind in the tomb, replaced by Chen Lao Er's severed torso.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling remembered something. She reached out and started tearing at my clothes, startling me. I thought she was about to indulge herself and let me die.
"Sister Ling, what, what are you doing?"
"I remember there's a pendant around your neck that looks like a finger."
"Yeah, what about it?"
This pendant was given to me by Huang Mao from the Zang Ai family that day. Stone Jingxia didn't want it, so I kept it. It looked pretty good, so I've been wearing it around my neck.
Zhang Ling urgently said, "Give it to me."
I didn't know what she was up to, but I still took off the pendant and handed it over.
Zhang Ling held the pendant in her right hand, grabbed my hand with her left hand, and clamped my arm under her armpit. Then, she pinched my finger and said, "I don't know if this method will work. Bear with it."
Nervously, I asked, "What, what are you doing?"
Gritting her teeth, Zhang Ling uttered two words, "Bloodletting!"
What followed was a chilling scene.
Zhang Ling used the pendant as a knife, treating my finger like a banana. Starting from the base of the nail, she peeled the skin off bit by bit. The black blood stained both our hands, dripping down through the fingers.
As they say, the fingers are closely connected to the heart, and I was sweating profusely from the pain.
"Sister Ling, it's too painful."
"Young man, don't be a coward. Bear with it."
"I can't take it anymore. Just chop it off."
"Don't talk nonsense. Fingers are important; you'll need them in the future."
I glanced at Zhang Ling. Her expression was serious and focused, without any change. It seemed I had overthought it.
She continued peeling until the entire nail was exposed. Then, standing opposite me, Zhang Ling firmly grasped my middle finger. Suddenly, she exerted force, and with a "puff," all the black blood inside sprayed out, splattering onto her pants.
"How do you feel now? Better?"
I moved my fingers a bit, and indeed, they felt much lighter.
"Yeah, much better."
Zhang Ling brought the instant noodles over, and we each took a bucket and started eating.
Back then, brands other than Xiong Yi Wu and Hua Feng weren't popular in the area. It was mainly these two, especially the one endorsed by Fat Sister.
In those days, instant noodles were a luxury. I remember only having the chance to eat instant noodles when I couldn't go home for meals during exams.
Seeing me devour the noodles, Zhang Ling said, "It's not enough. If you don't mind, finish mine too. I'll just have some soup."
"Big Sister Ling, I won't stand on ceremony then."
"You silly boy, eat up. By the way, that pendant of yours looks like a White Qin Ancient Jade. Where did you get it?"
After recounting the events, Zhang Ling concluded that Huang Mao from the Zang Ai family was likely a tomb raider or acquainted with one. Otherwise, he wouldn't have obtained such an ancient jade.
I weakly asked, "How much could it be worth?"
Zhang Ling gave me a disdainful look. "Why are you just like Chen Duoyu, always thinking about money?"
In my mind, tomb raiding was for money. I hadn't heard of anyone doing it purely out of personal interest.
"I'm just asking. I want to learn from you."
"Ancient jades were mostly used by emperors and nobles, worn on the chest or waist to show their status. Yours should be from the Western Zhou period, but the design is too unique for me to be certain. Such items can fetch a high price if they meet the right buyer."
I noticed earlier that the key to the Iron General was hanging around Bai Ruoxue's neck. Considering how cunning she seemed from my finger injury incident, I needed to come up with a believable method to deceive her.
However, there was a more urgent matter: I needed to relieve myself. It was inconvenient for a man and a woman to be together in the same room. I had been holding it for a long time, relying on continuously contracting my pelvic floor muscles to control it.
Looking back, Zhang Ling was lying on the ground diagonally, using her arm as a pillow, breathing evenly as if she was asleep.
I quickly ran to the corner, took off my pants, and brought out my little Italian cannon.
Afraid of making too much noise while standing, I crouched down quietly. Nobody would see me anyway, so I wasn't afraid of being laughed at. But as soon as I squatted down, I unexpectedly found a damp area on the ground.
"Guangting, how can a man stand to pee while squatting? Get up, I've seen everything, you can pee boldly."
Zhang Ling suddenly spoke, startling me into jumping up and pulling up my pants in mid-air.
"Sister Ling, you weren't asleep?"
"After working in the pot-supporting industry for so many years, I've developed a habit of light sleeping. It might be considered an occupational disease."
"Oh."
I replied awkwardly, picking up a broken arm of a warrior statue as a makeshift shovel and starting to dig in the damp area.
"What are you doing?"
"It's damp here; there might be a water line underneath."
Zhang Ling's tone was initially shocked, but she ended up bursting into laughter.
"When you were asleep, I went to relieve myself there."
"What? What did you say?"
I quickly dropped the warrior statue arm and backed away several meters.
"Why didn't you say it earlier?"
"You didn't ask, and besides, do I need your permission for such things?"
I felt extremely embarrassed but suddenly remembered a program I had seen on TV before called "Greatness in Every Occupation". One episode featured an amazing frontline worker who could replicate a key just by looking at it and using a file. This gave me an idea. I decided to use a sneak attack method, but since we weren't as skilled as that person, we needed to obtain a mold first to replicate the key.