While Hao Zhengyi and Crow weren't paying attention, I quietly moved to Yang Jun's side and whispered Sun Fatty's plan to him. Yang Jun didn't show the slightest hint of surprise. He gave me a subtle nod and slipped into the crowd of hotel staff. After a few quick turns, he disappeared from sight. When I turned around to look for Sun Fatty and Hugo, they were gone too. Now I was the only one left standing here—was everyone taking turns sneaking off like this?
Hao Zhengyi and Crow still hadn't noticed what was going on. Hao Zhengyi seemed to be pinning all his hopes on Xie Pang, relying on him to recall something useful. Seizing the moment, I quietly slipped through the crowd, even taking a detour just to make sure Hao Zhengyi didn't see me. Only after confirming that I wasn't spotted did I head for the back door of the hotel.
Sure enough, when I reached the back entrance, Sun Fatty, Hugo, and Yang Jun were already waiting there. Sun Fatty looked a little uneasy and asked, "Lazi, are you sure those two didn't see you come over?"
"Come on, I'm ex-special forces. If they'd spotted me, would I even be here now?" I shot him a glance and said, "Da Sheng, cut the crap. Just tell us—what exactly did you find that was so surprising?"
Yang Jun and Hugo both turned their eyes to Sun Fatty, clearly thinking the same thing as I was.
Sun Fatty chuckled and pulled out the map drawn by the hotel staff member earlier. Unfolding it before us, he said, "I don't know exactly what a Yin Convergence Point is, but I don't believe Zhang Rantian found one at the bottom of the sea." He pointed to a circle on the map. "Someone saw Zhang Rantian vanish near this well. Thought he was seeing things at the time, but when he told me, I picked up on something."
The well on the map was located between the sea cucumber farm behind the island and the hotel. That farm was where Xie Pang originally made his fortune and considered a lucky spot. Although he later opened several larger farms elsewhere, he never gave up on this one.
Saying that Zhang Rantian "vanished into thin air" might be a bit of an exaggeration. This happened over a year ago. The hotel staffer who drew the map had been working as a kitchen hand at the time. One day, when he was sent to the farm to fetch sea cucumbers for the chef, he saw Zhang Rantian pacing around a dry well. He was about 80 meters away and could clearly see that the man near the well was Zhang himself. The staffer was on a bicycle, but his front tire bumped over a stone on the path. By the time he steadied the handlebars and looked back up, the dry well was still there—but Zhang Rantian had vanished.
This all happened in the span of two or three seconds. A living, breathing man had disappeared into thin air. The staffer thought Zhang might've fallen in, so he ran over and leaned against the edge to look inside. But the bottom was full of rocks and debris—no sign of a person. Shaken, he returned to the hotel, only to find Zhang Rantian sitting calmly in the lobby chatting with Xie Pang. Since then, the staffer had been telling himself he must've imagined it.
Ten or so minutes later, following the location on the map, we arrived at the dry well where Zhang Rantian had supposedly vanished a year ago. The well's platform wasn't the same as the old brick ones from my hometown—it was built from long greenish stone slabs. The edge of the well had been worn smooth, and signs of water had long faded, likely due to years of drought. It definitely hadn't been dug in recent years.
We circled the well, staring down into it, but saw nothing unusual. Just like the rest of the island, there wasn't the slightest trace of Yin Qi (Aura of the Arcanobeast). If we judged it purely on that basis, this place definitely didn't qualify as a Yin Convergence Point.
The bottom of the well was pitch black. But with our Celestial Sight, the four of us could still see what lay below. It was about twenty meters deep, covered in slimy moss that made it look uncomfortably slick. God knows how many years it had been unused. Thankfully it wasn't too close to the hotel or the farm—or else it would've turned into a dump site.
Sun Fatty, who had the weakest Celestial Sight among us, took only a cursory look before turning back to us and asking, "Honestly, guys—can you see anything weird about this? Is this so-called Yin Convergence Point even legit?"
He could've skipped asking me entirely. I shook my head and turned to look at Hugo and Yang Jun. Yang Jun said nothing, staring at the ground. Finally, it was Hugo who answered Sun Fatty.
"My friend," Hugo said, "from my perspective, there are two options. First, Consultant Xiao has already called for backup from the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation. If they act quickly, someone should arrive later this afternoon. We can guard the well and let the Bureau decide what to do when they get here."
He paused for a moment, then changed his tone. "The second option requires us four to take a little risk. Before the Bureau's team arrives, we go down the well ourselves and look around. If we're lucky, we might actually find the Yin Convergence Point. If not, well, we lose nothing. Zhang went down there and came back out just fine. I don't believe our luck could be worse than his."
Hugo's second way of speaking made Sun Fatty feel rather at ease. He squinted as he listened to Director Hugo finish speaking, then silently swept a glance across Yang Jun's face. A chill suddenly crept up in my heart, and my right eyelid began twitching uncontrollably. That fatty had probably just thrown Yang Jun under the bus—but why was I feeling so uneasy about it?
After Hugo finished, Sun Fatty gave him a thumbs-up, then echoed his words, "Director Hugo makes a good point. But there's still one issue: who's going down to scout the way? Not to boast, but there probably isn't much danger down there. Still, we'd better send someone agile to be on the safe side." As he spoke, he cast a subtle glance in my direction. That one glance made it all clear—he wanted me to be the first to go down and scout? Before he could say my name, I quickly turned to Yang Jun and said, "Yeah, the first one down definitely can't be an ordinary person. Yang Jun, I'm afraid we'll have to trouble you this time."
Before Yang Jun could respond, Sun Fatty shook his head and cut in, "That won't do, Lazi. If you go down and something happens, Yang Jun can still figure out a way to pull you up. But if he goes down and something happens, which of us is supposed to go rescue him? Think about it—if even he can't handle it, what makes you think we can?"
As he spoke, he even winked at me slightly. I knew full well he was scheming something, but I still argued back, "Dasheng, why does it have to be me? Can't you go down and take a look?"
Sun Fatty grinned at me and said, "Lazi, I could go down, but take a guess—after I get down there, would there even be enough space for me to turn around?"
In the end, it was me who had to go down. We began searching the area for rope or something similar. The surroundings were clearly visible at a glance—there was nothing. No choice but to look further. We couldn't go back to the hotel, so Sun Fatty dragged me along to try our luck at the sea cucumber farm. Once we were out of Hugo and Yang Jun's sight, I said to Sun Fatty, "Dasheng, what the hell is this? You just casually volunteered me to go down? I've never seen you so generous before."
Sun Fatty gave a bitter smile. "Lazi, sorry to trouble you. I was thinking so hard just now I nearly burst a blood vessel. In this situation, you're the best choice to go down."The more he said, the less I understood. "Don't flatter me. What do you mean 'in this situation I'm the best choice'?"
He looked behind to confirm the others hadn't followed, then said, "Hugo can't go down. He can't be exposed to things like Yin Convergence Points too much."
I started to grasp what he meant, but still asked directly, "Dasheng, what's going on with Hugo? I don't get it—he seems like a decent guy, why does everyone treat him like an outsider?"
Sun Fatty shook his head with a bitter smile. "Think about it—why wasn't he involved in any of the Bureau's major cases before? He's the most idle director we've got. They only call on him when they need someone to fill a seat. Lazi, it's not just me saying this—his position is way too sensitive. Gao Liang doesn't want a foreigner getting in too deep."
I looked at him and said, "Then why call him here at all?"
"Are you kidding?" Sun Fatty exaggerated his expression like he'd just heard a joke. "Lazi, he's the only director we've got right now. How could I not call him? That would be outrageous."
I glanced at him, suddenly feeling like this Fatty wasn't quite the same as before. Sure, everyone knew he was full of tricks, but maybe because of his past as an undercover agent, he always acted dumb and clueless—especially when things got serious, he rarely took the lead. He usually stayed behind me. But these past two days, his behavior had been far from ordinary—proactively going after Hao Zhengyi, dragging Zhang Rantian into the mess. He was doing exactly what a director would do. Surprisingly, Xiao Heshang hadn't objected at all—it was like he had already accepted this new arrangement. Had something happened that I didn't know about?
Still, in front of me, Sun Fatty was the same as ever. Joking around all the way, we made it to the sea cucumber farm behind the island. It was completely deserted—not a single soul in sight. After Xie Pang got rich, he opened several more sea cucumber farms elsewhere. Especially after building the hotel on the front island, he had moved the center of his operations elsewhere. Strictly speaking, this area was now just a holding ground for mature sea cucumbers. The sea cucumber fry were cultivated at other farms and only released into this area once they'd developed enough.
Sun Fatty and I searched all around the buildings and courtyards but didn't find any rope. In the end, we located a huge spool of high-voltage wire—probably over a hundred meters long—in the utility shed. With no rope available, we'd have to make do with this wire, thick as a thumb. But the whole spool was incredibly heavy. I found a three-wheeled cart used for hauling sand and struggled to load the spool onto it and drag it back.
Once we got back to the dry well, Hugo helped us wrap the wire around the well's edge four or five times. I tested it to make sure it was secure, then tossed the other end down into the well. While we worked, Yang Jun didn't come over to help. Out of respect for Director Wu of Section Six, no one said anything. Yang Jun glanced at us, then took the black cat out of his backpack. The cat was a lot calmer than when Sun Fatty had tossed it at Zhang Rantian—it probably had been on edge for the past two days and finally relaxed now that the danger was gone. It was even asleep in Yang Jun's backpack, undisturbed by the cold wind.
Yang Jun gently stroked the cat's silky fur and slowly circled the well. Without trying to hide anything from us, he casually plucked a few hairs from the cat and tossed them into the well. The cat hairs slowly disappeared into the depths, with no abnormal reaction. Yang Jun stepped back, still holding the cat, and made way for me to descend.
By then, everything on our side was ready too. I grabbed hold of the wire and was just about to slide down when Sun Fatty's expression turned serious. He leaned over and said with a frown, "Lazi, just take a look around and come back up. If anything feels off, don't try to be a hero. We'll wait for the Bureau to send backup and let them deal with it."
I wasn't used to seeing Sun Fatty so serious. I looked at him and said, "Dasheng, the way you're saying it, it sounds like a death trap down there. If even you're not sure, why don't we just wait for the Bureau?"
Before Sun Fatty could respond, Hugo spoke first. "Let me go down instead. Everything is under the Lord's watchful eye—He would not allow His faithful to fall to the devil's tricks."
Sun Fatty's trademark sly grin returned. "Come on, Director Hugo. In this day and age, even godfathers can't be trusted. Honestly, didn't yesterday's rain soak some sense into you?"
As he spoke, he winked at me. I understood he didn't want Hugo to go down. Before Hugo could say anything else, I loosened my grip slightly and slid down the wire.
A few seconds later, my feet touched the bottom of the well. It was surprisingly spacious—a gourd-shaped cavity that was much larger than it had seemed from above. Even Sun Fatty could have turned around comfortably down here. Whoever had dug this well clearly wasn't just some amateur. From the surface, it created an illusion—it really did look like a straight vertical shaft.
The ground below was covered in broken bricks and chunks of cement, along with scraps of paper and torn packaging—household trash, basically. But there were signs it had been cleaned up. It looked like this well had been used as a dump for a while, then abandoned for some reason, and someone had come down to clean it. I carefully searched every corner, but didn't find anything unusual, let alone any kind of secret passage or mechanism.
From above, Sun Fatty leaned over the edge and shouted down, "Lazi! Anything down there?"
I looked up and shouted back irritably, "Come see for yourself!"
Just as I said that, something on the wall caught my eye—a cobblestone embedded in the well wall. Unlike the rest, it didn't have any moss on it. The stone itself was green, and it blended in so well with the mossy surroundings that I might've missed it if I hadn't looked up just then.
The more I looked at the stone, the more suspicious I felt. But after some hesitation, I decided not to touch it. If this really was some kind of mechanism, and I accidentally triggered the Yin Convergence Point, things could go very badly.
Up above, Sun Fatty noticed I'd stopped moving and called out, "Lazi! What is it? What do you see? Don't touch anything—just leave a mark! I'm telling you, we're not in the business of risking our lives. Leave a mark and holler—we'll pull you up!"
That reminded me. I picked up a broken brick and tried to scratch a mark next to the cobblestone. But after several hard scrapes, all I left were faint lines barely visible even to me. Forget someone else seeing it—I could barely see it myself.