Li Du pointed at the fuel tank of the bike. Ah Bai scuttled down towards it and reached to pull out the blade, then chattered and pointed and the blonde teen. The teens, threatened by a monkey, were shivering in fear, but they felt thoroughly humiliated. However, there was little they could do to help that; they were in no position to retaliate.

Li Du said, “I’ll have you killed if you don’t speak. I’ll have the monkey do the killing, actually, and the law won’t be able to do anything about it!”

If not for the fact that there actually was a white monkey waving a dagger in their faces, the two teens might be laughing at how ridiculous the man sounded, but now they knew better than to doubt the veracity of his words. The blonde teen strengthened his resolve, then said, “We have a casino at the top of the mountain. We were on our way to work.”

The other teen added something, but Li Du could not understand what he was saying. Young Markelov chuckled. “Cockfighting and dogfighting, that’s what they’re doing up there. They didn’t want to tell us because they thought we were here to open up a competing joint.”

Understanding dawned on him — no wonder the two brats were so insistent on buying Ah Ow. If they could tell how ferocious she was with just one look, they must be experts. Li Du was not interested in the casino; he had his own agenda. “Do you know anything about the rumors regarding the jade vein in Dena Mountain? You’re locals, aren’t you? Surely you know something about this.”

The two boys stared blankly at him. “There’s a jade vein in Dena Mountain?””I think I’ve heard something similar before, but it’s just an old tale. Hold on, weren’t there a few people who were here some years back to search for jade? They ended up dead, though.”

Li Du had initially planned on forcing them to give the information he could not get from the people in town but when he realized how vapid they were, he knew his plan was likely going to fall through, and his face became devoid of any trace of humor. The boys were taken aback by the change in his facial expression, so they hurried to placate him. “Don’t be mad, please don’t be mad. We’re not too sure about this, but we know someone who is. We’ll bring him here.”

“Yes, yes. He’s the most well-informed person in Wooku town, he’s really clever and he knows everything. He even knew when that b*tch Khin Thway got pregnant. He’ll probably know—”

Li Du waved impatiently. “Cut the crap and bring him here now.”

The blonde-haired guy took out his PHS. The PHS was a type of mobile phone popular in the Myanmar villages because they were cheap and the signal was good. He made a call and in about 20 minutes, a motorcycle came down from below the mountain. When it drove by, the driver saw the menacing bunch glaring at him and was so scared that he turned around to run.

This sent the blonde-haired teen into a panic and he shouted after the driver, “Old Thaw, Old Thaw, come back, you son of a b*tch. You run from me and I’ll go after your daughter!”

The driver went over reluctantly as he heard the threats. Cowering in fear, he said, “Hey, Thar Ne Win, I’ll go after your mother if you dare lay a finger on my daughter!”

The teen replied impatiently, “Don’t threaten me with my mother, Old Thaw. I called you because I needed your help with something important. Help me, please; this boss here wants to ask you something.”

Old Thaw mumbled under his breath, “What does he want from me? It’s not like I know anything.”

Li Du asked, “Don’t worry, sir. We just want to ask you a simple question. What do you know about the Dena Mountain and jade veins?”

The man’s face changed. “Hey, why are you asking about that?”

Before Li Du could even respond, the blonde guy hurriedly said, “Why do you care so much? Just tell the boss what he wants to know, or I’ll go after your daughter.”

Old Thaw was furious. “Cut it out or I’ll go after your mother!”

He looked to Li Du, and then muttered, “Boss, there are some things we cannot talk about, especially since we’re right on Dena Mountain now. There are some things you’re better off not knowing about.”

Li Du laughed. “Come on, just tell me. We’re just chatting anyway. Will this offend the mountain gods?”

Old Thaw nodded seriously. “Absolutely, it will offend the mountain gods. The jade vein you want to know about is the life force of the Dena Mountain god.”

Li Du replied, “We’re just talking, it’s not like I’m here to take anything.”

Old Thaw regarded him suspiciously. “Really? There’s a bunch of excavators and a team of workers in the town, aren’t they yours?”

Li Du was stunned — this man was something else. Li Du had hired a bunch of miners through Zhong Dapao but it had not been long since they arrived at the village, not to mention the fact that they had been careful to keep a low profile. To think the man knew about this!

He confessed, “It’s true, those men were hired by me, but I’ve not made up my mind on whether I’m mining anything from this mountain. Besides, it’s not like there are jade veins in this land. Never mind the fact that the jade veins are the life force of your mountain god. Even if it was the mountain god itself, or the life force of your country’s leader, any trace of jade would long have been mined!”

Old Thaw rebutted, “That may be so, but the tale that has been passed down for centuries around here is definitely true. It is true that there are mineral veins in Dena Mountain, and it really is the life force of the mountain god. Taking the jade it is tantamount to killing the god, and he who dares mess with that will die in the hands of the god!”

“Is the mountain god really capable of that?” Young Markelov scoffed in disbelief.

Old Thaw prickled defensively at his attitude and became increasingly agitated. “The mountain god is tremendously powerful! Are you from Ukraine? I respect you lot since you’ve saved a lot of people, but don’t you dare insult our mountain god.”

Young Markelov said, “I’m not trying to insult him. I’m just saying that if it’s a mountain god and if it blesses you, why didn’t it liberate you guys when your village was detained at the top of this very mountain? In the end, you had to rely on our sudden assault.”

Old Thaw quietened down. After a long while, he offered feebly, “It’s the mountain god who arranged for you to go save them.”

“F*ck!” Young Markelov cursed.

Old Thaw persisted. “The bottom line is, the mountain god is really powerful. In the past, someone took interest in the legend of our mineral vein and wanted to mine the area to hit it big. In the end, they all ended up dead!

“A long time ago, several centuries back, Dena Mountain was surrounded by a good number of towns. Aside from Wooku Town, there were also Palaung Town and Nierkan Town, but why have those two towns disappeared? Because the people knew that there was jade in Dena Mountain and they started harboring evil intentions. Because of that, the mountain god punished them by getting rid of the two towns.”

This story sent chills down Young Markelov’s spine. He remembered that there were indeed three small towns marked out on the jade carving, and questions started forming in his head. Li Du thought of this as well, but he threw a look to Markelov and told him to keep quiet and not interrupt Old Thaw.

Thus, Old Thaw carried on with his tale. “In more recent years, and I mean just about eight years ago… actually, I remember very clearly that a Chinese man came here 11 years ago to search for gems, but he was killed by the troops. The whole bunch of them were!

“Now, in more recent years, about eight and a half years ago, someone by the last name of Suo came to Hpakant. He was the sixteenth son of the King of Old Hpakant, and he wanted to start up a new mining area, but you know what happened to him? He died mysteriously, along with the people he brought.

“For real, no one knows how they died. I went along to retrieve their corpses and it was truly gruesome. Their entire body was littered with green and blue bruises, it was horrible!”