A tomb-robbing organization!

Jiu’er blinked, unable to stop herself from turning to look at him. “You mean, of the two other sets of footprints besides yours, one belongs to people from a tomb-robbing organization?”

“Two other sets of footprints?” This, Yan Qiu hadn’t known about.

Jiu’er already knew—Qin Fei, that big mouth of a girl, clearly hadn’t taken her words seriously at all.

Otherwise, given how much she talked, there was no way she wouldn’t have told Yan Qiu something this important.

As for Ninth Master, he never said a word more than necessary, so of course he wouldn’t have brought it up on his own either.

She sighed, somewhat helpless. “When we came into Ying’an City looking for you, we found three different sets of footprints.”

“One set was yours. The other two, I still don’t know whose they are—but since you’re saying tomb robbers have been here, then one of those sets must belong to them.”

“Though there is one thing that strikes me as odd. You said the tomb robbers came in ahead of you, but from what I saw, those other two sets of footprints came after yours.”

“What?” Yan Qiu’s mood turned complicated at once.

But he quickly found himself with a new question. “Miss Zhen, I heard you’re a graduating student from a medical school.”

That analysis of the footprints just now had sounded far too professional.

The footprints had been sorted into several groups, and she could even tell the order in which they’d appeared—even seasoned wilderness experts might not manage that.

“You can choose to believe what I say or not. Either way, I’m here to treat Ninth Master’s leg, and I’m being paid for it.”

Rather than waste her breath trying to convince someone to trust her, she’d rather just let it be.

She’d said her piece; whether he believed it was his own business.

“There are eight people on the archaeological team in total, so I’ve concluded that the first, messiest set of footprints belongs to your group.”

“The other two sets came in after you did.”

Yan Qiu said nothing.

He wasn’t sure whether he should believe Zhen Jiu’er.

If her deduction was true, then things might be far more complicated than he’d imagined.

Besides the tomb robbers, was there yet another group of people involved? Who exactly were they?

Or did it mean the tomb robbers’ numbers were larger than he’d thought—split into several separate teams coming in?

“Do you know how many there are?” he asked.

“One group has quite a few people. But the other… might just be a single person.”

“A single person?”

Zhen Jiu’er said nothing more. She lowered her eyes and began administering acupuncture to Lu Beicheng.

A single person… She suddenly thought of the man in black she’d seen at the Ninth Prince’s Manor the night before.

Lu Beicheng looked at Yan Qiu.

Yan Qiu understood—when Zhen Jiu’er wasn’t certain of something, she wasn’t willing to say more.

But if what she’d said so far was true, it had already given him a great deal of help.

Since Ninth Master trusted Zhen Jiu’er, he supposed he had no choice but to trust her too, for now.

“The reason I suspected something was wrong within the archaeological team is that every time we make a new discovery, someone always leaks it before we do.”

His gaze fell once more on Zhen Jiu’er’s back.

This time, as if he’d finally made up his mind, he said, “Ninth Master, I think I know where the Northern Emperor’s tomb is.”

Jiu’er’s fingertips paused briefly. She turned to look at him. “Is it that mausoleum grounds northwest of the imperial palace?”

“You know there’s a mausoleum grounds there?” He’d only just discovered it himself, and to keep the information from leaking, he hadn’t told anyone yet.

Except for Qin Fei, who’d been with him at the time.

“Did Qin Fei tell you?”