The Lost Tomb : The Southern Archives Mysteries

Chapter 1: The Origin of The South Sea Archives

The First Case: Flower Reef

The Flower Reef case was such a famous case in 1906 that most people in the South Sea [1] had heard about it. Throughout 1906, a total of twenty-seven ships went missing on the route from Xiamen to Malacca, twelve of which were passenger ships with more than a hundred people.

All these missing ships had passed near Flower Reef. There were no warning signals before the disappearances, the weather was good, and there weren't any debris, corpses, cargo, or extortion demands from pirates afterwards. Everything was silent, as if these ships had never existed.

People said that there was a flood dragon entrenched in the sandy sea near Flower Reef that swallowed boats, ate people, and made the sea muddy, which was why the fleet avoided going near it.

In November of that year, a fog settled on the sea's surface. Most of the ships on the Malacca route had been diverted to Mayu, so only a few cargo ships carrying the sacrifices and worship goods for the dragon mother still passed through Flower Reef.

The crews on those ships started to witness strange phenomena.

Some of them saw numerous people's shadows standing on Flower Reef amid the thick fog. There were thousands of them standing there with their heads down, just like water ghosts looking at their hometowns. The sight was enough to make people shudder.

In order to find out the truth, the South Sea Maritime Affairs Office established the South Sea Archives. They investigated strange things that happened in the South Sea and gathered the stories into volumes, which became known as the "South Sea Volumes". They recruited sailors and merchants from all over the world to relay news and information. The first major case they handled was the Flower Reef case.

Zhang Haiyan, whose original name was Zhang Hailou, was among the first group of spies to enter the South Sea Archives. He was trained at the age of sixteen, and originally thought he would go into maritime inspections to work for foreigners in the concession [2]. What he didn't expect was to be sent to Perak [3] to work as a foreign agent on such short notice.

When people in Perak pronounced the word "lou", it sounded like "yan", so his name became salty [4]. His nickname had also changed from "Lou Ghost" (probably because he liked to work at night and rest during the day) to "A Bin".

He was tall, so the military uniform he wore made him look like an outstanding man in Xiamen, but to the people in Perak, he looked like a mad man wearing strange clothes.

He was stationed in Malacca with Zhang Haixiá during the same period, so in order to have Zhang Haixiá's name match his own, he gave him the nickname "Zhang Haixiā" [5]. The two were about the same age and worked together, so it felt extremely "fishy" whenever they gave out their names.

When the two of them set foot on Flower Reef, it was already 1916. Zhang Haiyan jumped onto the reef, straightened his military cap, and lit a cigarette. The sea breeze was very strong and ended up blowing the smoke he exhaled into a thin line that passed through the corner of his mouth.

Zhang Haixia followed close behind, dragging a fisherman with him, who ended up getting thrown onto the reef.

Even after traveling on a boat for two weeks, Zhang Haixia's skin was completely unaffected, and he looked more youthful and handsome than before. It annoyed Zhang Haiyan to no end. Meanwhile, the other party was staring at the cigarette in his mouth with an annoyed look on his face. It was obvious that Zhang Haixia disagreed with his bad habit of smoking while investigating.

"Don't worry, these things happened ten years ago. Any clues that can survive here for ten years won't be destroyed by a single cigarette."

"Your cigarette..." Zhang Haixia still kept his eyes on the cigarette in Zhang Haiyan's mouth. "I already recommended some other tobacco to you that won't make me feel so disgusted. The smell of your cigarette is going to distract me."