Zhuo Zhan spent the next two days in distress and entanglement. He even wanted to rush to Uncle Wen's room and ask him directly, but reason told him that he must not be impulsive. Before he figured out what Uncle Wen was hiding,

Be sure not to act rashly.

However, just as he was about to leave, the opportunity came unexpectedly.

Today is Friday, there are only two classes in the afternoon, and school ends early.

The nanny of Zhuangzi's family went to the station to pick up his son who was studying out of town. Zhuangzi and Zhuo Zhan came to Jiang's house together, planning to have dinner here.

Uncle Wen knew that Zhuangzi's family had the habit of drinking coffee, so he ground the coffee beans, made three cups of fragrant hand-brewed coffee, and served them.

Zhuo Zhan stared at the coffee bubbles breaking open one by one in the cup, his eyes lit up, and he came up with a plan.

Opportunities are rare, just do it if you think of it.

"Hey, Zhuang, what's on your hair?" Zhuo Zhan put down the coffee cup in his hand, stood up suddenly, and reached for Zhuangzi's hair.

This stretched out his hand and knocked over the coffee cup that Uncle Wen was about to pick up. The coffee instantly spilled on the front of Uncle Wen's vest, making it wet.

"Ah! Uncle Wen, isn't it permed? Quickly, take off the vest. It will seep onto the white shirt underneath." Zhuo Zhan said and hurriedly helped Uncle Wen unbutton the shirt.

Zhuangzi was confused. After hearing what Zhuo Zhan said, he wanted to dust off what was on his head, but he saw that a whole cup of coffee in Uncle Wen's hand had spilled on him.

He wanted to take out the paper towel on the table and help Uncle Wen wipe it, but he saw Zhuo Zhan directly helping Uncle Wen take off his vest. This made Zhuangzi freeze there for a moment, not knowing what to do.

At this moment, Zhuo Zhan turned to look at Zhuangzi and urged: "Zhuang, hurry up, go upstairs and get a wool vest for Uncle Wen. It's in the cabinet on the left side of the cloakroom."

Zhuangzi nodded blankly, responded repeatedly, and hurried upstairs to find Uncle Wen's wool vest.

Uncle Wen was also confused by the unexpected situation in front of him. He looked at Zhuo Zhan and Zhuangzi busy working for him, and was stunned for a long time. By the time he understood the situation and came to his senses, Zhuo Zhan had already put the item

I threw the suit vest into the washing machine and clicked the start button.

Uncle Wen slapped his thigh and shouted anxiously: "Hey, there is a key in my vest pocket!"

Zhuo Zhan pretended to lie on the window door of the washing machine and looked in, and said solemnly: "Uncle Wen, once this drum washing machine starts running, the door cannot be opened. We can only wait until it finishes washing and stops."

"But my key..." Uncle Wen stamped his feet anxiously.

"It's okay, Uncle Wen. The key is wrapped in the pocket of the vest, so it won't hurt the washing machine. It probably didn't fall out. Listen, there's no movement at all." Zhuo Zhan said with relief.

Uncle Wen couldn't express his sorrow and was very embarrassed. The wrinkles on his face were as twisted as a ball of tattered newspapers: "No, I... ugh..."

Seeing Uncle Wen's hesitant expression, Zhuo Zhan became more convinced that there was a secret in the basement, but then he felt a little sorry for Uncle Wen.

For him who no longer has the love of his father and mother, Uncle Wen is undoubtedly a special and warm existence. Unless he has to, he really doesn't want to deceive and play tricks on Uncle Wen like this.

But when he thought of his parents' death and Uncle Wen's concealment from him, Zhuo Zhan's heart suddenly hardened. As long as he got the key, he could apologize to Uncle Wen after he found out the truth.

The strong man upstairs came down with a woolen vest.

Zhuo Zhan took the woolen vest and handed it to Uncle Wen. Then he hurriedly wiped the spilled coffee on the floor.

Uncle Wen frowned and was very puzzled. He thought to himself why Zhuo Zhan was so diligent and quick today. It was really strange.

But Uncle Wen was not allowed to think too much. Zhuo Zhan, who was hunched over the sofa and mopping the floor, raised his head and said loudly: "Uncle Wen, Zhuangzi said he wanted to eat the steamed cake you made. He said that hand-made steamed cake would be the most delicious.

Already."

"Hey, I didn't..." Zhuangzi looked confused. He was about to retort, but Zhuo Zhan, who was bending over, squeezed his thigh hard. Zhuangzi's whole body shivered, he quickly shut up and looked at Wen with a silly smile.

Uncle, nodded sharply.

"Oh, I want to eat steamed cake. This is easy to make. Just wait." Uncle Wen entered the kitchen with a kind face and started to get busy.

Zhuangzi stretched his head and saw that Uncle Wen didn't come out again. He slapped Zhuo Zhan on the back and asked in a low voice: "Hey, Zhuo Zhan, what are you doing?"

"Zhuang, go out quickly and help me get a key as quickly as possible. Uncle Wen, I'll hold him back."

Zhuangzi was shocked. When he lowered his head, Zhuo Zhan had already slapped a key in his hand. Although he didn't know what Zhuo Zhan wanted to do, Zhuangzi trusted Zhuo Zhan. He knew the situation was urgent, so he didn't ask any questions and patted his chest.

He said proudly: "Don't worry, I guarantee it will be done."

Zhuangzi kept his word, and before Uncle Wen's steamed cake was ready, he ran back sweating profusely with two keys.

When Uncle Wen came out with the steamed cake that had just come out of the pan, the sound of washing completion music also sounded from the washing machine.

Zhuo Zhan rushed forward, opened the machine door, and took out the washed vest: "Uncle Wen, it's washed. I'll help you dry it."

"Wait a minute." Uncle Wen hurriedly put down the steamed cake in his hand, walked over in three steps, grabbed his vest, and took out his precious key from his pocket.

The moment he touched the key, Uncle Wen couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, and a smile like an old chrysanthemum bloomed on his face.

Zhuo Zhan also secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that fortunately his hand was fast enough. At this time, he was very excited and couldn't wait to try the key in his hand.

After seeing off Zhuangzi at night, Zhuo Zhan lay in bed anxious.

When all the lights in Jiang's house were extinguished and Uncle Wen was probably fast asleep, Zhuo Zhan put on his clothes, picked up the flashlight, and tiptoed downstairs to the storage room that he had been staring at for many days, and opened the door tremblingly.

Locked the basement.

After covering the door, Zhuo Zhan turned on the flashlight and climbed down the creaky old wooden ladder.

The basement was indeed dirty and messy. Many items seemed to have not been touched in more than ten years, and were covered with a thick layer of dust.

Zhuo Zhan held the flashlight and shined it nervously, hoping to find the thing that Uncle Wen was hiding from him as soon as possible.

Old swivel chairs, old junk, broken radios, Sister Xueyan’s childhood dolls, old records...

The flashlight traced the light and suddenly returned to the straight line. Right in front of Zhuo Zhan, a large wooden box appeared in front of him.

Zhuo Zhan recognized this wooden box. It was a wooden box made by his father. It had been placed under their bed before. Why was it here?

Zhuo Zhan suppressed his excitement, held the flashlight in his mouth, and threw himself in front of the wooden box.

Zhuo Zhan's fingers gently stroked the texture of the wooden box, as if he had touched his father's rough hands again. Thousands of feelings came to his heart, and big tears fell on the box. The depression and depression of the past four years seemed to have condensed.

Shrunk into the saltiness inside.

Zhuo Zhan sniffed and tried to calm himself down.

He looked at the mechanical lock on the wooden box, smiled knowingly, and skillfully slid the intricate wooden strips on it. With a hard press, the lid of the wooden box popped open, and the contents inside suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.

There was only a stack of printed materials, a volume of pictures and a few thick notebooks inside.

Zhuo Zhan hurriedly flipped through the information. The information contained relevant academic research done by his father during his research.

There is also a mountain and sea map, which is a revision, revision and addendum to the mountain and sea map books of the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are many strange rare birds, animals and plants in it, all hand-drawn, and there are small annotations next to it.

Those thick notebooks were his father's research notes. Zhuo Zhan recognized his handwriting and briefly recorded some of his experiences during the trip.

These journey experiences are very novel, as if they come from the game world, such as the pearl tree full of pearls, the Huns with holes in their chests, the eyes on their backs, four ears and nine tails, and the weird-looking God Tianyu.

Lu Wu God, half-animal mountain god, etc.

Zhuo Zhan flipped through the pages with relish, becoming more and more fascinated as he read.

Suddenly, Zhuo Zhan stopped when he turned to a page. The hand-drawn spirit beasts on this page were painted beyond recognition with black carbon pen. Judging from the messiness and strength of the notes, it was obvious that his father was not in a good mood at the time.

What is it... Zhuo Zhan frowned.

The names of the spiritual beasts in front were written next to them, and Zhuo Zhanban also struggled to find them among the chaotic lines.

"Ba...Ze?" Just as Zhuo Zhan was carefully identifying it, a letter fell out of his notes. Zhuo Zhan, who was not mentally prepared at all, couldn't help but be startled. He leaned over and picked up the letter. The envelope read "Sincerely from Wen Tai".

.

Zhuo Zhan's heart skipped a beat, this must be something that Uncle Wen has been hiding all this time.

Zhuo Zhan swallowed, steadied his breathing, tremblingly pulled out the letter paper inside, slowly unfolded it, and his father's familiar words suddenly came into view.

***

Old article:

The fact that you can read this letter means that Mr. Jiang and I, as well as Jin Hong, can no longer come back.

I know you were aware of it before we left. Don't blame Mr. Jiang, he didn't tell you the truth, he just didn't want you to get involved. Because Xueyan needs you, Xiaozhan, Xiaofei, and Xiaoyue need you even more. Good job

Stay alive and take care of them.

I know you want to know the truth of the matter now, but at this moment, I am not sure what the specific purpose of Benjamin and the others is. Mr. Jiang has a terrible guess, but this investigation is needed to further confirm it.

Lao Wen, I know you will definitely investigate afterwards. I won’t stop you because I know that with your temperament, you will still investigate even if I try to stop you. But you must be careful about the team sent by the American Kono Group. They have unstoppable intentions.

Telling others your secrets and ambitions is very dangerous, remember!

Chaos beast, black soul. Remember these two names, don't tell anyone, this is the key to the truth, you have to keep it in your heart.

And there is my little man, Xiao Zhan. Lao Wen, Jin Hong and I are no longer here, and you are the closest person to him. Help me take good care of him. I know you will do this even if I don’t say anything.

Jin Hong and I will not be able to let him go until our death. Unless we have to, we really don't want to leave him alone in this world.

I'm afraid of death. I'm afraid that I will never see Xiaozhan again, nor will I be able to hug Jinhong again. But if we don't take risks, your lives will be threatened, and the peaceful lives of thousands of people will be destroyed.

Break, we only hope that our efforts can bring peace to the world. Even if it is just to buy some time for you, it will be good, so that our death will be considered worthy.

Don't let Xiao Zhan see this letter. With that child's character, if he knew the truth, he would not give up. Jin Hong and I have died because of this, and I really don't want my children to be in danger.

Departure is about to begin, time is short, so I won’t say much.

You Zhuofeng

***
To be continued...