Summer, 1970.
An interrogation room in a military district in the northwest.
“Name?”
“Jiang Yao.”
“Gender?”
“Female.”
“What were you doing?”
Jiang Yao casually made something up: “Digging up my husband.”
“Ridiculous!”
Jiang Yao shifted her posture and leaned back against the chair. “Comrade, then what do you want me to say?”
Liu Jianjun was so angry his face turned red. He slammed the table with a loud bang. “Comrade Jiang Yao, please answer my question seriously.”
The loud slam made Jiang Yao frown in discomfort, and her tone grew impatient.
“Comrade, you asked me to tell the truth. I told the truth and you don’t believe me. If you don’t believe me, go investigate it yourself. Why are you here trying to scare a weak, defenseless woman like me?”
Just as Liu Jianjun was about to argue back, another officer walked in.
“Battalion Commander Liu, step out first. I’ll talk to her.”
“Yes.”
When Jiang Yao saw the cold, tough man walk in, she whistled inwardly.
【Tsk, that waist, those legs—way better than the male models I used to hire.】
The man paused slightly, his gaze falling on her lips. After confirming she hadn’t spoken, he didn’t dwell on it.
“Comrade, can you explain why you appeared on Niuwei Mountain?”
Niuwei Mountain was far from the nearest village—you had to cross two more mountains to get there. It was very unusual for a young woman to appear there.
Looking at the handsome man, Jiang Yao’s mood improved.
“Comrade soldier, I really did go there to dig up my husband. My husband is a soldier like you. He died during a mission, and his body went missing. Recently, he came to me in a dream and said he was there, so I went.”
Jiang Yao spoke with a completely sincere face while making it all up.
Tomb-Raiding System · Xiao Hei: 【Sister Yao, that excuse is a bit dangerous. In the 1970s, superstition could get you publicly criticized.】
Jiang Yao: 【Who cares? If he believes it, fine. If not, I’ll just dig a tunnel and escape tonight. The old lady is still waiting for me at home—I can’t just not go back.】
Thinking of this, Jiang Yao complained again: 【Can’t you be more reliable? Finding a tomb is so hard.】
Xiao Hei (innocent): 【You’re the one who wanted to make a big score.】
Jiang Yao sighed. 【These days, making money is hard. Life is miserable.】
Xiao Hei: 【I never told you to eat crap.】
Jiang Yao: 【Beep beep beep—】
Qin Mu looked at the woman in front of him. Clearly, she was alone, yet he could hear two voices.
One voice sounded exactly like hers, while the other sounded like a child.
Although Qin Mu sensed something was off, he remained calm and continued questioning her.
“Your husband is a soldier? What’s his name? Which unit?”
Jiang Yao answered honestly, “My husband’s name is Qin Mu, 29th Division of the Northwest Military District. He’s already dead.”
Qin Mu’s writing hand paused. Qin Mu?
“Dead?”
Jiang Yao looked sincere. “Yes. Some time ago, we received a letter at home. It said he died in the line of duty and told me to remarry soon.”
“You didn’t go to the army to check?”
“No. No money. His father owed a huge debt, and even the house was mortgaged. I couldn’t just abandon his grandmother.”
【That old lady is all alone. Her husband died on the battlefield, her two sons died one after another, her adopted son is unfilial and wastes money, and the grandson she picked up never comes back to see her. How could I bear to leave her? I’m such a kind person!】
Xiao Hei: 【Sister Yao, that’s a bit much. You call yourself kind, but you dig up graves?】
Jiang Yao: 【Isn’t that robbing the rich to help the poor?】
Xiao Hei: 【You really know how to talk.】
Jiang Yao: 【Don’t want your KPI anymore?】
Xiao Hei: 【I do, I do!】
After listening, Qin Mu noticed something strange. Qin Heping was an adopted son? He himself was a grandson picked up by his grandmother?
Even though he didn’t know whether she was telling the truth, at least the basic information matched.
Qin Mu walked over and unlocked her handcuffs. “Where is Grandma?”
Jiang Yao froze for a moment, then came back to her senses. “You mean my grandma? At the guesthouse.”
“Let’s go.”
Qin Mu pulled her outside. At the door, Liu Jianjun saw them holding hands and was so shocked his mouth nearly dropped open—his guard Xiao Zhang had to help close it.
After they left, Liu Jianjun asked, “What’s going on? How did interrogating someone turn into holding hands? Don’t tell me Commander Qin got—”
“Battalion Commander Liu, she’s probably our sister-in-law.”
“Sister-in-law?”
Zhang Weihua had followed Qin Mu for over five years, so he naturally knew the name of Qin Mu’s wife.
When he heard Liu Jianjun mention Jiang Yao earlier, he already had suspicions. Now, seeing Qin Mu leading her out by the hand, he was certain she was the wife he hadn’t seen in three years.
He just didn’t expect their first meeting to be so… unique.
…
After walking for a while, Jiang Yao suddenly realized something—this male officer was publicly taking advantage of her by holding her hand.
“Comrade, isn’t this inappropriate?” she gestured at their joined hands.
Even if she was a widow, she hadn’t even left the Qin family yet. Wasn’t this basically cheating?
Although… she did quite like this “male model” in front of her.
Qin Mu coldly forced out a few words through clenched teeth, “I am the husband you said was still buried underground.”
Jiang Yao suddenly stopped, as if nailed to the spot.
It felt like a level-ten gale had swept through her, freezing her solid.
“I-Is that so?!”
【The original owner’s memory didn’t mention such a handsome husband… Did her memory degrade?】
Xiao Hei: 【……】
【Xiao Hei, what do I do? I just showed off right in front of the real person.】
Xiao Hei: 【Stop pretending. This man is your husband—you’d wake up laughing in your sleep.】
【Hey, can’t I act a little shy? Such a top-tier handsome man is actually my husband—no novel would even dare write this.】
Xiao Hei shivered at the imaginary goosebumps. 【Enough bragging. Figure out how to cover this up first.】
After all, she had just claimed—in front of him—that he came to her in a dream and told her to dig up his grave.
Thinking about her earlier performance, Jiang Yao wished she could grab a Luoyang shovel, dig a hole, and bury herself in it.
“Husband, so you’re still alive… You’ve finally shown up. Otherwise, how would Grandma and I survive?”
Jiang Yao leaned toward Qin Mu as if to collapse into his arms.
Qin Mu subtly stepped back. “Let’s go find Grandma first.”
He couldn’t make a proper judgment based on one side of the story.
“Alright…”
Earlier, Jiang Yao had made a big score and exchanged it with Xiao Hei for money and ration tickets to take a train to the northwest.
She didn’t really believe Qin Mu was dead, so she wanted to check his unit—after all, there were plenty of “opportunities” here.
But Song Yulan insisted on coming along, worried about her, so they traveled together.
Along the way, Jiang Yao secretly sized up the man’s physique while discussing the tomb with Xiao Hei.
【That tomb has already been entered. There are four tunnels—at least two groups have been there.】
【Sister Yao, I also found a cave near the tunnel you dug. It doesn’t seem like a tomb, but there are signs of human activity inside.】
Jiang Yao: ???
【People moving underground—if they’re not tomb raiders, then what are they doing?】