Chapter 150: Chapter 150

The stone door Jiang Xiaoze hadn’t opened last night was also opened. But inside wasn’t the main tomb chamber, but another, even larger room filled with various types of pottery. An inventory revealed over a hundred pottery jars alone, plus eight large urns! Other miscellaneous items like plates and bowls numbered in the hundreds!

Inside the main tomb chamber, there were two coffins. They were impressively large, with exceedingly lavish decorations. Though the colors had oxidized and faded, the carving craftsmanship was superb. Based on the coffin decorations, experts speculated they held a Hu Clan official and his wife.

The coffins were not opened. It was said that opening them prematurely, without sufficiently advanced technology, would damage the contents. There was precedent for this. A few years ago, a coffin was unearthed containing a female body. At the moment of opening, she reportedly appeared lifelike, her skin even retaining some elasticity. However, upon contact with air, the corpse rapidly desiccated, becoming a great regret in the field of archaeology! Since then, intact coffins unearthed from ancient tombs were no longer opened casually. They would be preserved in special facilities. Only many years later, when technology matured enough to guarantee the preservation of the coffins’ contents in their original state, would they be opened.

"Little girl, what do you think?"

Startled by the question, An Yan blurted out, "With my eyes, of course!"

Li Tianyao was speechless.

Only after speaking did An Yan realize Li Tianyao was asking about the items in the room. "Those bottles and jars all have double layers! Look at this one Jiang Xiaoze kicked and damaged. It cracked into several pieces from the body, but the mouth is completely intact, right? The drugs are hidden right in the mouth!

"And those large urns are made extra thick, not due to poor craftsmanship, but because they have hidden compartments.

"Of course, all of this is just small-time stuff; the real main course is the two big coffins! Inside, apart from bones, it’s all drugs."

Li Tianyao nodded. "Can you figure out how they plan to swap the goods?"

An Yan said, "Sure! Although things that haven’t happened yet can have many variables, the most likely method is to stage a car accident. This would force the transport vehicle to detour onto a route of their choosing.

"If you want to catch all of them, I suggest you let yourselves be led astray. Tell the drivers of those three trucks that no matter what happens, they shouldn’t resist—just go with the flow!

"Then we can follow the real goods and reach the drug dealers’ lair! Of course, don’t think about going now. Going now is useless; their lair currently only has people, no goods!"

This was why the drug dealers were risking transporting this shipment.

Li Tianyao tapped the dashboard in front of him. "Phone!"

Lu Feng immediately handed over a phone. Li Tianyao took it and began to issue commands. Thıs content belongs to NovelHub(.)net

Three box trucks, loaded with various bottles and jars, drove for about forty minutes before getting on an overpass. After another ten minutes, the overpass was blocked. The trucks had no choice but to take the nearest exit. They discovered the road below was under construction, forcing them onto a detour route. After much winding, they entered an urban village!

Just as they were about to exit the village, an old man suddenly darted out at the intersection ahead and threw himself at the first truck. The driver was an operative arranged by the relevant authorities. He would normally report such an incident, but he had orders not to resist under any circumstances and to cooperate, allowing the other party to hijack the truckload of goods. So the driver got out of the truck, his face a mask of panic, claimed he was in a hurry to deliver the goods, and pleaded with them to let him pass.

The other party certainly wasn’t going to be lenient. A crowd of villagers, young and old, rushed out and blocked the three trucks. The three drivers and three escorts were all dragged out by them. They were pushed and shoved into what the villagers called the ’brigade headquarters’!

After nearly half an hour’s delay at the so-called brigade headquarters, they finally settled the matter by paying 10,000 yuan. Once the six men were out, they opened the cargo compartments for inspection, as per procedure. The villagers nearby stood with their arms crossed, smirking. After confirming that there was nothing wrong with the cargo they were carrying, the six men got back into the trucks and left.

Only when their trucks had driven out of the village and were out of sight did many people suddenly appear at the brigade headquarters. There were men and women, young and old, each with a greedy gleam in their eyes.

"Brothers, our goods have finally come back!" a middle-aged man with a square face stood on the steps, excitedly announcing.

A buzz of voices rose from below, everyone as agitatedly excited as flies that had found dung.

"We’re here! We’re all here! Boss, hurry and distribute the goods!"

Each had their own sales channels and a regular clientele. Everyone grew impatient, thinking of the profits from selling this batch.

"Alright, come sign for your share of the goods!!"

At the square-faced man’s command, everyone immediately formed an orderly queue.

Just at that moment, the armed narcotics officers arrived!

While Li Tianyao was busy directing the police to surround the drug traffickers, An Yan was listening in on Fu Xiao’s movements through the tracking device hidden in a fake thumb ring. Fu Xiao was taken by the police, had his statement taken, and was finally locked up in a detention center. During this, the police confiscated the thumb ring and placed it in a special evidence locker. An Yan expected someone to retrieve the thumb ring, but no one did. Through the listening device, all she heard was the ambient noise of staff moving about.

"Let’s go eat." Having finished his work, Li Tianyao pulled her away from the monitoring equipment. "We’ll get an alert if anyone touches this thumb ring. You don’t need to stay here watching it all the time."

"Alright." An Yan dejectedly put down the headphones and rose to go to the restaurant with him.

"Actually, I’ve figured it out; no one will take this thumb ring!" An Yan said dejectedly, poking at the food on her plate. "I guess they might also have a way to tell if the thumb ring is real or fake! We shouldn’t have used a fake one. If it had been the real one, maybe..."

"Under no circumstances can the real thumb ring fall into Gu Shifang’s hands," Li Tianyao said.

"Why? It’s just bait. Once the fish is caught, we’ll definitely get the bait back."

"But what if he swallows the bait?" Li Tianyao placed a piece of beef on her plate with his chopsticks. "Little girl, do these ’secret realms’ truly exist?"

"They do!" An Yan hadn’t been entirely sure before, but since discovering the thumb ring could light up, she no longer had any doubts.

"Could Gu Shifang’s sudden desire for the thumb ring be because he has a clue about the secret realm?"

An Yan quickly reviewed the events in her mind and nodded. "Very likely!"