Chapter 724 — Naturally!

Chen Yuxuan nodded as well and set to quickly demolishing the fast food in front of him. Qiu Lingshan said nothing while they ate, so Chen Yuxuan cast about for a topic unrelated to work: "Do you... know Wei Zhao?"

"What are you trying to say?" Qiu Lingshan frowned.

"You two seem quite familiar with each other? He seems pretty formidable?" Chen Yuxuan asked tentatively.

"More formidable than you," Qiu Lingshan said without the slightest mercy.

"Naturally!" Chen Yuxuan said, thoroughly convinced.

"..." Qiu Lingshan was somewhat speechless. She had expected Chen Yuxuan to refuse to accept it, but never imagined he would actually say "Naturally!" Qiu Lingshan could not help shaking her head. Was this Chen Yuxuan not a bit too spineless? With a personality like his, he would never be able to assert himself his whole life.

Only Qiu Lingshan did not know the reason behind it. Had it been anyone else, Chen Yuxuan might not have conceded so readily, but before Wei Zhao, all that remained in him was admiration!

If words do not agree, half a sentence is too much. Seeing that Qiu Lingshan seemed unwilling to talk with him, Chen Yuxuan did not press on. He quickly finished the fast food before him, and Qiu Lingshan, having come from the special forces herself, ate without any daintiness, her brisk efficiency no slower than Chen Yuxuan's.

After eating, the two went one after the other to the parking lot. Chen Yuxuan drove an Audi 6 with armed police plates, a typical official vehicle. Qiu Lingshan's was that civilian-plated Cheetah.

The two cars left the hospital and headed straight for the Songshan City Police Bureau. In Qiu Lingshan's office, she poured Chen Yuxuan a glass of purified water, and the two sat facing each other on the sofa: "Major Chen, you may continue."

"All right." Chen Yuxuan nodded. When it came to official business, he shed his earlier deference entirely, which made Qiu Lingshan regard him a little more favorably: "We discovered the husband-and-wife thieves' work notebook. In it, they recorded the time of their next job, and the location was a tomb near Songshan City."

"Oh? There's a tomb near Songshan City?" Qiu Lingshan was slightly taken aback. She had never heard of any dynasty establishing its capital nearby. By rights, even if there were small tombs, they would belong to ordinary folk, the kind tomb robbers would not even glance at.

"That I don't know either, because the notebook didn't specify the exact location of the tomb, only that they were to come to Songshan City first. Presumably it's somewhere nearby," Chen Yuxuan said.

"You want to find this tomb? That doesn't seem to fall under your jurisdiction, does it?" Qiu Lingshan did not understand what Chen Yuxuan wanted with a tomb!

"This tomb was originally discovered by three bands of tomb robbers together, and the husband-and-wife pair was one of them..." Chen Yuxuan said.

"You mean you want to catch all three bands of tomb robbers in one net?" Qiu Lingshan was no fool; she immediately grasped Chen Yuxuan's meaning.

"Exactly!" Chen Yuxuan nodded. "First, to take them all down at once; second, to make use of their skills to probe this tomb. A tomb that people like them would covet is certainly no small matter. Having them scout the way first will also provide our archaeologists with information and convenience."

"What do you need our help with?" Qiu Lingshan now understood Chen Yuxuan's intent. This mission was rather dangerous; not only would they have to capture those dangerous tomb-robbing elements, but they would also have to follow them into the tomb to explore it.

"According to the husband-and-wife thieves' notebook, when they first surveyed the tomb, they found it exceptionally perilous. But the more perilous the tomb, the greater the treasures likely to be inside, so none of them wanted to give it up, and none were confident they could get in," Chen Yuxuan said. "Then they contacted a famous domestic archaeology scholar, Liu Bojia..."

"Liu Bojia?" Qiu Lingshan was startled at the name. "You mean our Songshan City's Liu Bojia? The freelance explorer Liu Bojia?"

"That's right, him!" Chen Yuxuan nodded and continued: "This Liu Bojia is nominally a freelance explorer, a contributing journalist and writer for several magazines, but in reality he has secret ties to tomb-robbing syndicates."

"The Liu Bojia family was attacked a while ago by that madman killer. I suppose you know about that too?" Qiu Lingshan said, suddenly understanding. "You came to us because of this Liu Bojia as well?"

"Exactly. Liu Bojia has been in the hands of the Songshan City police all along, and if we want to find the tomb, we must start with Liu Bojia. Only he knows the tomb's location," Chen Yuxuan said. "Those tomb-robbing gangs, including the husband-and-wife pair, found Liu Bojia hoping to use him to enter the tomb. But after a precise survey, Liu Bojia gave up the partnership, declaring the tomb far too perilous, and chose to withdraw! Yet they feared Liu Bojia might leak word, or that after they gave up, he might go back and take the tomb's treasures for himself, so they decided to silence him for good!"

"So that's how it was! No wonder Liu Bojia has refused to cooperate with our police. He must know the reason he was attacked; it's just that if he spoke of it, he could not escape being implicated himself, and the charges would not be light." Qiu Lingshan finally understood what Liu Bojia was wary of. So he was secretly a tomb robber after all.

"Do you know whether Liu Bojia left any statement or information before this?" Chen Yuxuan asked.

"No. He refused to cooperate with us. At first we didn't think much of it—we never imagined there was such a huge hidden story behind it all." Qiu Lingshan shook her head, unable to suppress a pang of regret. Had she known, she would have protected Liu Bojia no matter what it took!

"How is Liu Bojia doing now? I heard from Yang Huaijun that things don't look good?" Chen Yuxuan sighed. Every clue converged on Liu Bojia. If something really had happened to him, with all the mountains and rivers around Songshan City, where on earth would they go looking for the tomb?

"He still hasn't woken up. He's being kept alive on a ventilator..." Qiu Lingshan paused there, and suddenly thought of Wei Zhao. Hadn't he promised to treat Liu Bojia? Why had there been no word? He couldn't have forgotten, could he? From the look of things, that was quite likely!

Lately Qiu Lingshan had been driven to distraction by the kidney-harvesting ring's case, and had temporarily set the matter of Liu Bojia aside. She hadn't asked Wei Zhao about it either—but Wei Zhao seemed to act as though the whole thing had never happened.

Qiu Lingshan knew Wei Zhao's temperament well: he kept his distance from anything that wasn't his concern. Expecting him to come to her on his own was impossible; she would have to press him herself.