Grave Robber's Chronicles！！

Chapter 4: The Old Dog

He looked me dead in the eye.

"You want to survive, Chen Wangchuan? You want to make more money in a night than you saw in ten years? You stop looking at the ground and start looking at what's under it."

I froze.

Under it.

The words hung in the air, heavy with implication. I had read the books. I knew the stories. The "Earth Pits." The "Dragon Veins."

"You're talking about..." I couldn't finish the sentence.

Han Batou smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. It was the smile of a man who knew where the bodies were buried because he put them there.

"I'm talking about the only business where the customers never complain," he said. "We dig. We find. We sell."

He stood up, his joints popping.

"You have until sunrise. If you're here, you come with me. If not..." He shrugged, gesturing to the empty suitcases beside me. "...go back to Hanhe. Tell your aunt you tried."

He turned to leave, then paused at the door.

"Oh, and kid? Wash your face. You look like a ghost."

The door clicked shut.

I was alone again. But the silence was different now. It wasn't the silence of defeat. It was the silence of a loaded gun.

I looked at the sesame flatbread in my hand. I took a bite. It was cold now, hard as a rock. But I chewed it anyway.

I thought about the ninety yuan stolen from me. I thought about the kick to my stomach. I thought about the uncle who called me a jinx.

Then I looked at the door where Han Batou had vanished into the dark.

I finished the bread. I stood up.

I wasn't going back to Hanhe.

I walked to the door and opened it. The night air was cold, but for the first time in years, I didn't feel the chill. I felt the fire.

I stepped out into the darkness, following the trail of cigarette smoke.