She pointed her knife at me; her hands began to get shaky, and her eyes started to get teary.
"Argh." Bobby gasped in pain, with a hand rubbing his chest, trying to soothe the pain.
She then pointed her knife at Bobby, not knowing what to do with two strange men in the house.
I could see her eyes, glancing periodically to the side, where there was a bedroom.
Inside the bedroom, lying on the bed, was an old lady sleeping, most probably the young woman's mother.
By the side of the bed were bottles of medicine.
I then knew what to do.
"Take it easy, we got into some trouble. We need your help to hide for a bit."
I pointed to the old lady.
She shook her head vigorously; tears rolled down her eyes.
Damn it, she must have thought I was threatening her with her mother's life.
I took a deep breath and sighed.
Then I pulled out some cash, moving slowly and carefully, I placed it on the coffee table.
"Here's a small token for your help; use it for your mother's medication."
I put my index finger to my mouth, made a shh sound.
She nodded, lowered her hand with the knife, and picked up the cash.
Like I said earlier, it's not a problem when you can solve it with money.
We then turned around, opened the door slightly, and peeped outside through the small slit.
The coast was clear, and we then left.
I messaged Kurnawan, asking him to meet us at the Bebek Goreng shop.
We then tracked our way back to the Bebek Goreng shop.
Kurnawan didn't waste any time; he was inside the Jeep waiting for us.
"Phew, that was close," Bobby said as we hopped into the Jeep.
"Are you guys still hungry? I know a safe place if you still want to have lunch," Kurnawan said.
Bobby's stomach growled; I was hungry too, so we agreed.
It was a Chinese restaurant named "Hock Kee", in the posh area of Pontianak.
"Seats for three," Kurnawan said to the attendant at the usher.
The usher then led us inside; the restaurant had all the usual décor.
Traditional Chinese painting on the wall.
Red-colored cutouts of auspicious words.
Big round tables with lazy susans instead of squarish tables.
We were led to a window seat, sat down, and looked at the menu.
"What's their specialty? I'm starving," Bobby asked.
"You can try the Roast chicken stuffed with glutinous rice."
"Then let's have that."
When the chicken arrived, we couldn't wait to feast on it.
Oily and crispy chicken skin on the outside, the tender chicken meat inside.
When you cut it open, there was delicious glutinous rice, cooked and filled with flavor from the chicken.
Seeing the chicken get cut and revealing the glutinous rice, there was something waiting to pop out of my head.
I couldn't put my finger on what it was.
So, I just kept quiet and enjoyed our lunch.
"Burp." Bobby patted his stomach when he was done and said, "That was filling."
"Do you have any information on the Flaming Wheels gang?" I asked Kurnawan.
"That's why we are here." He took out a piece of paper, wrote something on it, passed it to the waitress, and said, "Pass it to 'the Chef', say it's from Kurnawan."
"Sure, give me a moment. In the meantime, do have a look at our desserts."
We shook our heads in unison.
And since we were waiting, we lit up and had a smoke.
"Kurnawan, why are you always smiling? If you don't mind," I asked Kurnawan.
"My life starting out was tough; my parents didn't want the burden and left us.
"My grandmother took to rummaging for valuables in the dumping ground to make a living.
"I swore to myself, I will make a big fortune, smiling while doing it, as a way to forget my past."
Kurnawan replied looking out the window, as if he was looking into the past while he spoke.
I nodded in silence, with the teacup in my hand, and made a toast to him.
He toasted back and drank the tea.
"Excuse me, sir. 'The chef' has something for you," the waitress appeared again.
She passed a piece of paper to Kurnawan and left.
He looked at the paper and said: "The leader of the Flaming Wheels gang is someone called Hamood. They primarily deal with petty crime. Theft, protection money, gambling dens.
"This Hamood is a ruthless guy, so he was able to expand his gang very rapidly. I have his location here; I can try and end him, but it's best for us to lie low first."
"I agree; the most important thing now is to figure out where the map is."
"Yeah, quickly find the gold before the new party arrive. I don't want my share of profits diluted," Bobby chimed in.
On our way back to the hotel, I was scheming something for the new party.
I needed someone to take care of the new party; Hamood might just be the help.
...
We went back to the hotel, told Amy Lee and the rest about our encounter with Flaming Wheels.
"Hmph, when it rains, it pours. From now on, everyone stay alert; do not venture outside alone unnecessarily," Amy Lee shook her head.
"So, does anyone have any hunch on where the map is?"
Everyone shook their heads.
Still at a stalemate.
On that disappointing note, I went back to my room to rest as I was getting too tired.
I got the bathtub ready with hot water.
I closed my eyes, submerged myself in the hot water; it was relaxing, and I could instantly feel my tense body loosen up.
Then I felt something cold at my feet.
Damn it!
It was Snookey again.
I couldn't take it anymore, took a bottle of shampoo and threw it at him.
It just flew past his translucent body.
He just stared and grinned.
Kept doing the same thing, pointing at me then at his stomach.
"The hell..."
I wanted to lash out and cuss at him, then everything clicked.
Snookey pointing at his stomach, the roasted chicken with the glutinous rice inside.
Eureka!
That must be it!
Collect this book to your library so you can find it again. Any comments is greatly appreciated. Power Vote too!
The map was right inside the corpse.
Why was the corpse preserved?
There was no such tradition during the Qing Dynasty period to preserve corpses.
It was to hide the map inside and preserve it.
As for the dark red string binding up the coffin?
The purpose of the dark red string is to warn and ward off those who believed in undead corpses.
Those who feared it would not dare to open the coffin or investigate the corpse.
I looked ahead, and Snookey had now disappeared.
Now I don't know what to feel about Snookey.
Say thanks for the help, give him a hug or something.
I don't know, but one thing's for sure: it's time to inform the rest about my findings.
Excitedly, I got out of the bathtub, didn't even bother to wipe myself dry, with water dripping down my body, changed into my clothes, and went to Amy Lee's room.
I knocked on the door, didn't wait for her, and tried to open it as I was too excited.
The door, to my surprise, was unlocked.
"Sam, what the hell?" Amy Lee shouted at me.
Her eyes looked to the side; I turned and saw that there were strangers in the room.
A group of four men in what looked like army fatigues were present.
One of the men, a thin, tall Caucasian man, came up to me.
"Bonjour. My name is Clement, We will be staying here with you." Clement introduced himself, took my hand, and shook it.
He then went on to introduce the rest of the men.
A pair of twins named the Lawrence brothers, big and small Lawrence, both well-built like bodybuilders.
Lastly, there was Crystal Siti, a lady with crystal jewelry all over her.
"It's late. I think you should go rest," Amy Lee tried to push me out of her room, blinking her eyes at me.
She wanted to buy time for us.
"Nice meeting you guys. I shall not interrupt," I took her cue, turned around, and tried to make it out of the room.
"Stay, you are welcome," Clement caught hold of my arm, did some sort of ballet dance move, standing on his toes and spinning.
The force was surprisingly huge; I got pulled back and landed on the sofa in the room.
I looked at Amy Lee, and she then said, "Clement, it's getting late."
Clement came right up next to Amy Lee, smirked, then said, "Miss Lee, I assure you we do not have time. Master Huang is not happy; I'm here to make him happy.
"Remember, your father's life is on life support. If you don't deliver, Master Huang will not keep his side of the deal. You will not get the rare Chinese medicine you need."
Amy Lee stared at him and pushed him away.
I was fuming.
The sight of him getting close to her made me angry.
I might not have known it back then, but I was jealous at that moment.
Now that I knew why she was beholden to Huang Bao Kun, I could understand why she 'forced' me to join this expedition.
"You bitch! Now you made me do it the hard way," Clement shouted and pulled out a pistol, pointing it at Amy Lee.
"Gather everyone. We make a move to the tomb right now. Do you understand?"
I shook my head at Amy Lee, asking her not to do anything rash.
She then called the rest of the team to come to her room.
While we were waiting, I thought of how I could let them know that the map was hidden inside the corpse.
I was also scheming of a way to get Clement and his party off our backs.
I lit up a cigarette, inhaled, and puffed out a deep breath, letting all the harmful chemicals do their work.
My head laid back on the sofa, looking up into the translucent smoke.
It made me think of Snookey, translucent and white, and then I got an idea.
When the rest came in, they were like me, surprised by the presence of Clement and his party.
Before anyone could speak, "Piak, piak," I patted on my stomach loudly, then said, "Kurnawan, the roast chicken with the glutinous rice was sumptuous.
"After we came back, I went into a food coma, sleeping like a dead body. Made me feel like I was in a trance. Amy, you should try it too. The roast chicken is just meh, but the real treasure is the glutinous rice, delicious as hell."
Kurnawan thought for a few seconds, then nodded and smiled as usual. "We can have it after we are done."
"Yeah, Sam, we shall have it later," Amy Lee smiled and replied.
"The dish must be good, huh?" Clement shrugged.
Yes, my idea was to do what Snookey had done all this time.
Of course, I had an advantage as I could talk.
Kurnawan and Amy Lee seemed to have gotten my message.
"Since everyone is here, let's get moving."
We obeyed, as Clement's team all had pistols pointing at us.
Bobby gave me a sulking face and sighed along the way; he sure didn't like having a lesser share of the money.
Finally, we reached the tomb site.
Clement then ordered us to take up our new roles.
Crystal Siti would be the lookout; Clement couldn't trust Kurnawan on his own.
Bobby and I would be the diggers.
Kurnawan would be transporting the soil up.
The rest had the Lawrence brothers keeping a close eye on them.
When we dug through and arrived at the first chamber before the wall, where the bodies of Snookey and his men were lying around, it smelled bad.
Every one of us couldn't take the putrid stench and vomited.
The bodies had started to decompose; the red worms were having a feast on the corpses.
"Be careful, these red worms are poisonous. Bobby here had to go to the hospital the last time he got bitten. Right, Bobby?"
I looked at Bobby, giving him a stern look.
He looked at me for a while, then said, "Yeah, it's true."
"See, let us clear them for you."
"Do it quickly," Clement covered his nose and signaled his team to move back and let us do the work.
Bobby and I then took off our shirts and burned them to make the red worms go away.
When I got near Snookey's body, I shifted my back to face Clement's direction to block them from seeing what I was doing.
I held my breath, and after several tries, I managed to get Snookey's wallet out of his pocket.
Hope you all liked the clue I forshadowed the last few chapters.
Collect this book to your library so you can find it again. Any comments is greatly appreciated. Power Vote too!
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