Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 598 Another Plan!
More than forty SLR cameras were unearthed from the sand pit, but only six of them were still readable SD cards.

It didn't take long for Wang Meng to extract all the data.

"You said these people left their cameras here, where did they go?"

The group huddled together, flipping through the photos, when Li Cu asked, seemingly bored.

"They may have already left, or... they may all have stayed here!"

Wu Xie lowered his voice, his eyes turning gloomy as he looked at Li Cu with a sinister gaze.

Teng Teng Teng!
Hu Ming's words echoed in his mind again, and that unfathomable ghostly figure reappeared. Li Chu staggered, feeling a chill run down his spine.

It was as if countless unseen shadows were observing him from the shadows within this ruin.

Hu Ming and Wu Xie laughed, ceasing their teasing of the boy raised on materialism, and continued flipping through the photos.

Suddenly, Wu Xie's figure appeared in the photo. Hu Ming frowned slightly and immediately swiped past it.

"Hey, wait a minute, isn't that you?"

Li Cu, with his sharp eyes, recognized the main character in the photo and hurriedly called out.

"Sometimes what you see isn't necessarily the truth; you need to use your brain more..."

"Thank you, I'm not thirsty!"

Hu Ming smiled noncommittally, caught the bottled water that was thrown to him, and tossed it to the bewildered Li Chu.

"Any discoveries?"

Wearing a bright red leather jacket, Su Nan, ever the friendly type, sidled up to Hu Ming, ignoring Wu Xie and Li Chu, and looked at the tablet with curiosity, asking a question.

"This is a tour group or an expedition team composed of both overseas and domestic members. It looks like there are about twenty people in the group."

Seeing that Wu Xie was still thinking about the photo, Hu Ming thought for a moment and then answered.

"But we found a total of forty-five cameras. Did all these people carry two cameras with them?"

Su Nan asked calmly.

The difference in numbers is too large and doesn't make any sense.

"You're wrong. Not only did no one bring two cameras, some people didn't even bring one!"

"so?"

"Therefore, far more than one tour group has come here. Beyond the photos, or in places unnoticed by these people, there is another ghost team secretly spying on us."

At this moment, Wu Xie came to his senses and continued Hu Ming's explanation.

"These people must have met with an accident, or was it intentional? I think it's more likely due to human intervention."

"These people must have filmed something they didn't want others to see..."

Su Nan remained expressionless, seemingly oblivious to the hidden meanings in Hu Ming and Wu Xie's words, simply drawing conclusions based on the facts. "Perhaps. In any case, we can't find anything useful with these photos."

"Su Nan, how are the preparations for the excavation going? Now that we've come to this unknown ruin, we should go down and explore it, shouldn't we?"

After taking a deep look at the last photo, Hu Ming tossed the tablet to Li Chu, stood up, and stretched.

"Unknown ruins? Isn't that the ancient city of Tongjing?"

Li Cu was taken aback, and pointed to the ruins behind him, asking blankly.

"So after all that trouble you didn't find anything? Boss Guan, Professor Hu, why did you two old foxes bring a newbie here? To be cannon fodder?"

Su Nan glanced suspiciously at Hu Ming and Wu Xie, whose expressions remained unchanged.

She had secretly gathered a ton of intelligence; she knew these two uncles and nephews all too well—neither of them were easy to deal with. Why would they bring along a clueless young man?
"I already told you he's just a photography assistant. He's a new kid I just hired, isn't it normal that he doesn't know anything?"

Wu Xie answered with a calm expression.

Wu Xie never intended to fool Su Nan with this little trick; by leading the convoy here, he had already achieved his goal.

Wu Xie came here for two reasons. First, Huang Yan's team had been here before, and Wu Xie wanted to find some information left behind by Huang Yan.

Secondly, Li Chu still needs sufficient experience to train him and allow him to grow in the shortest possible time.

With Wu Xie around, and even the unexpected Hu Ming, Li Cu is definitely safe as a pawn.

But what about the second half of the plan?
That means Li Chu will have to shoulder the heavy responsibility all by himself!
Wu Xie quite liked this boy who resembled him in his youth, and he didn't want to sacrifice Li Chu for the sake of the plan unless absolutely necessary.

"Let's go, stop teasing him. It's getting late, we should get to work and try to finish before sunset."

"You don't want to work in this gloomy, ghostly place late at night, do you? Too many people have died here; it's unclean, and strange things can easily appear at night."

"As for you, Li Chu, this journey is still long! We still have a long way to go."

Hu Ming smiled slightly, flipped over and jumped off the sand dune, and went to prepare his equipment for landing.

Beneath this ruin lies an underground city, an ancient tomb!
There aren't many above-ground structures in this ruin, and after a simple search, the entrance to the underground palace was easily found.

While Su Nan's men were clearing the entrance to the underground palace, Hu Ming took out a slightly bulky satellite phone from his backpack and made a call.

This is already a no-man's-land. There are no mobile phone base stations at all, and mobile phones have no signal. Only satellite phones can connect to the outside world.

After the phone rang three times, Hu Ming hung up decisively before the other end could answer.

Then dial another number, repeat the same action, and hang up after it rings three times.

After doing all this, Hu Ming calmly crushed the satellite phone into pieces and collected the remains in his personal space.

Truly... destroying the evidence!
Wu Xie had his own plans, and Hu Ming was too lazy to interfere, but on this trip, Hu Ming also wanted to take the opportunity to do something.

In short, it's just a case of using someone else's resources to achieve something. On top of Wu Xie's plan, Hu Ming is also plotting something.

In fact, Hu Ming and Wu Xie wanted to do very little different things, except that Hu Ming's methods were more ruthless!
After doing all this, Hu Ming silently returned to the team and followed them down into the underground palace.