Professor Laisu led Li Yun and Rouxi to an enclosed prefabricated metal building wrapped in corrugated metal panels and a few windows strategically placed near the door. The building was heavily protected by security guards, more so than the surrounding fenced perimeter.
"The security here is very tight," Li Yun commented as he noticed more armed guards.
"It's very unusual to uncover an archeological site within a living city, so we have to be extra careful," Professor Laisu responded. They couldn’t leave the artifacts unsecured or exposed to the open environment. The warehouse was used as the main location for archeologists to document and study the artifacts.
From outside the entrance, they could see a wave of people coming in and out of a small checkpoint. As it was lunchtime, the workers and researchers were leaving for their noon break. Li Yun and Rouxi waited for the security to let everyone out before checking them inside.
Once they were cleared by security, Professor Laisu walked them inside a large open space filled with shelvings and tables lined with artifacts. Most researchers were on lunch except for six researchers still identifying and documenting the artifacts. Up ahead, there was a researcher writing a tag on a prayer bead. The researcher happened to be a familiar-looking monk whom Li Yun had encountered before. The monk noticed someone looking at him and turned his head to look at the guests. For a brief moment, his eyes twitched before it was replaced by a smile. The monk stopped his work and walked toward them.
“Professor Laisu, you have guests?” Luba asked.
“Master Luba, this is my student Song Meilin and her boyfriend Li Yun,” the professor placed both hands together and bowed politely. “Meilin, this is Master Luba from the temple. He has agreed to assist with our excavation and provide some historical insights on Buddhist texts.”
"Ambithba," Luba bowed to the new guests. “I’ve actually meant Dr. Li before."
Li Yun and Rouxi both greeted him with the same gesture.
“I remember Master Luba gave me some pointers some time ago,” Li Yun responded.
“Oh, this is such a small world- Ah, doctor as in a medical doctor or a researcher?” Professor Laisu had thought Li Yun was another student.
"I work as a surgeon at Qinbei.”
“But Dr. Li also knows a bit about ancient Chinese seal script,” Luba chimed in.
Professor Laisu was hit by another surprise. “Dr. Li knows seal scripts?”
“I only copy them, so I can’t say I know them,” Li Yun downplayed a bit of his ability. He couldn’t tell them he understood them enough to find a close modern equivalent. Although they were close, it was still difficult to describe the actual meaning using modern terms.
“Did Professor Laisu bring Dr. Li in for research?” Luba asked.
"Little Meimei is my best student," Professor Laisu replied.
"Ah, is that so?" Luba responded.
"Mr. Luba, may I ask what you have in your hand?" Rouxi asked.
"This is a Rudraksha mala prayer bead," Luba responded. "All 108 fruit stones are precisely selected and in excellent condition. We believe it was made during the Han Dynasty."
“Mr. Luba is quite knowledgeable," Li Yun commented. "May I ask what temple you are from?”
“The Southern Star Temple.”
Rouxi noticed Li Yun was careful with his wording when talking with Luba, and remembered another monk she had encountered who had been following Wu Ling. Luba was a bit different from the monk she saw before, he had an interesting aura. She looked around the temple. There were more people with military training than she thought. Initially, it didn’t look unusual because the guards were naturally guarding a temple that was protected by government interest. However, with the monk Luba’s appearance, some of the guards seemed off. Rouxi grabbed onto Li Yun’s arm to get his attention. He looked at her briefly and nodded. It looked like they had stumbled into the middle of an operation.
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Li Yun counted that out of the ten guards within the temple, six had unusual characteristics.
Bang, bang, bang. Four shots were fired.
The six robbers pulled on a black ski mask after shooting the four regular guards. Petrified by the sound of the falling guards, the five remaining archeologists dropped to the ground and ran to a corner to hide. Some panicked and screamed, attempting to run. Unfortunately, the guards were keeping an eye on them, and quickly rounded the hostages into the room near the center of the facility.
“All of you, tie your hands into the zip tie or you’ll end up like them!” A man shouted as he threw the zip ties to the five researchers, Professor Laisu, Luba, Li Yun and Rouxi.
Some of the hostages were frozen in fear, while others like Professor Laisu were visibly shaken as they fumbled the tie around their hands. The monk Luba, also visibly shaken, also tied his own hand.
The monk was part of the operation, Li Yun was sure of it, but it appeared that his cover was still needed, and he played along as a hostage. Li Yun glanced at the four guards, they were still breathing. The shots weren’t lethal, so it was likely they did not plan to kill the hostages, not yet at least.
Li Yun tested the strength of the plastic tie, and quickly bent and wriggled the plastic to weaken its strength before tying it around himself. The masked guard inspected and tightened all the ties on the hostages. Two of the masked robbers remained to watch over them, as the other four robbers moved around the room to load manuscripts and artifacts onto a cart as quickly as possible.
Professor Laisu and the archeologists felt a part of their soul ripped out after seeing the artifacts they had worked hard to uncover stolen in front of their eyes. Their body held them back from speaking up. Any wrong move and the robbers might shoot them. Luba remained silent, closed his eyes, and chanted in a low muffled voice. Li Yun was unfamiliar with the chants, but it sounded authentic.
After loading the cart, the robbers pushed the cart outside of the temple and into their vehicle. When they opened the door, a slight draft of wind entered. Li Yun’s heightened sense ability gained a better mental image of a small box truck waiting outside in his mind. Unfortunately, it wasn’t detailed enough to reveal the plate number, but he doubted the plate number would be useful. With his mind focused, he sensed the surrounding layout of the storage facility. No one outside was alerted by what was happening inside. He wondered how viable it was to take down all six robbers. He could imagine himself taking down the closest two guards with poison, and at best shoot down three guards from long range. However, the fourth one was likely to shoot him or one of the hostages. There were too many risks involved and it would reveal his ability to the monk. However, if he let them go, it was likely that they would make a quick escape and disappear from the city. The only person remaining would be Luba.
Li Yun used line detection on the other robbers, but there was only one who wasn’t afraid of the boss. The robber was someone of a smaller stature and was loading up the artifacts like the other three. There wasn’t anything that made him stand out, other than what was revealed in the line detection.
Fear Line:
Failure 51%
Capture 16%
Death 6%
Many people were afraid of death, but when Li Yun had tested it out on people, it was not a common fear. However, many people feared death, just not at the moment when Li Yun used line detention. So it was accurate to say that line detention represented what people feared at that moment.
At that moment, the short man was afraid of failure unlike the others, who had the boss listed in their fear line. It led Li Yun to believe that the short man was their boss. However, he couldn’t understand why they were afraid of the man. Through their interaction, it didn’t look like they were afraid of him, so Li Yun was confused. Had he interpreted the line detention wrong? Or was the short man just simply someone who wasn’t afraid of the boss?
The short man was guarding the outside, so Li Yun had not seen his face. On closer inspection, the man seemed older than the rest.
“Are these monks part of the group that followed Wu Ling?” Rouxi mouthed carefully to Li Yun as the robbers weren’t looking.
Li Yun glanced at Luba who had his eyes closed and still chanting Buddhist scriptures and nodded.
“Likely,” Li Yun mouthed back.
“I still have the tranquilizer gun, but it’s only enough to shoot the two closest to us,” Rouxi continued to move her lips in a slightly exaggerated fashion.
“Save it, we should be fine once they get what they need,” Li Yun mouthed back.
Rouxi nodded.
Li Yun was still wondering why they didn’t cover the hostages’ eyes. Were they hoping that the hostage would see what was going on? Did they need witnesses to see them in the act of stealing the artifacts?
"An insurance scam?" Li Yun surveyed Professor Luisa, the man looked too frightened to be in on the heist. Then, it suddenly occurred to Li Yun that Rouxi knew he could read lips. He wondered how long she had known.