Tomb of the Sea Episode 25 Recap
> Tomb of the Sea Recap
The three high school students were terrified by the boxes filled with human body parts, but despite their fear, they knew they had to deal with them. Su Wan was clearly shaken, exclaiming, "I'm dying! I'm dying!" He moaned like a cicada, prompting Yang Hao to tell him to stop. Yang Hao, though scared, suggested they unpack everything and then call the police, accepting that the warehouse was rented in his name, which meant he couldn't simply walk away.
Ultimately, Li Cu took the initiative, rapidly opening one box after another. The contents, however, were not human remains but ancient wooden puppets, though they emitted a strong, foul odor. When Li Cu pulled out what appeared to be a head, he confirmed it was a wooden puppet. He pointed out names carved on some of the puppets, like "Wu Zhongxie." They decided to open all the boxes and piece the puppets together, hoping for clues.
As they continued, they speculated about the purpose of the puppets, whether for performance, sacrifice, or burial. Li Cu believed they were burial objects, but he couldn't understand why names were carved on them. He noticed that the puppets were unusually heavy and suspected there was something inside them. Su Wan and Yang Hao jokingly suggested that Wu Xie and Master Black were perverts who sent the packages to scare Li Cu.
Li Cu dismissed this, arguing that Wu Xie wouldn't send so many things just to scare him. He deduced that all these items were elements of an expedition, possibly sent from GuTongJing. However, he remembered that when Su Wan first received the packages, both he and Wu Xie were still in GuTongJing, making it impossible for Wu Xie to have sent them.
Li Cu concluded that someone had prepared these things in advance, and they were either directly related to GuTongJing or to Wu Xie's next plan. As Li Cu continued unpacking, a black-haired snake suddenly sprang out of a box. Li Cu, Su Wan, and Yang Hao quickly killed it.
Li Cu explained that black-haired snakes were exclusive to GuTongJing and could attach to and control human bodies, adding that it was normal to find such things if the boxes were indeed sent from GuTongJing. Their unsettling discoveries continued when they found a puppet with "Shen Qiong" carved on it. Li Cu initially tried to dismiss it as a mere coincidence, suggesting there were many people named Shen Qiong in the world.
However, his attempts at reassurance failed when they subsequently found puppets bearing the names "Shen Shiyang" and "Zou Jing," identified as Shen Qiong's father and mother. This made it impossible to be a coincidence. Su Wan, remembering Shen Qiong's unexplained disappearance, grew distressed and accused Li Cu of getting Shen Qiong involved. Terrified by the implications, Su Wan decided he couldn't take it anymore and wanted to leave.
Li Cu, wanting to keep the matter secret, threatened Su Wan, telling him he couldn't leave and listing past incidents where Su Wan had taken the blame for him. Su Wan retorted angrily, reminding Li Cu that he was taking the blame for him and accusing Li Cu of being responsible for Shen Qiong's involvement. Realizing his words were harsh, Li Cu told both Su Wan and Yang Hao to leave, stating that the matter didn't concern them.
Yang Hao initially stayed to express their loyalty, saying other friends would have already run off, but eventually left to try and persuade Su Wan to return. Left alone, Li Cu brought in large freezers and refrigerators to re-freeze all the puppets, preventing the foul odor from spreading. As he placed the puppet with Shen Qiong's name into a freezer, he silently vowed to uncover the truth for her. Meanwhile, Su Wan, still deeply disturbed, walked home.
He started seeing store mannequins as the grotesque puppets from the warehouse, startling him. Upon arriving home, he found a small package addressed to Li Cu on his table. At the same time, Yang Hao called the warehouse owner to extend the rental, only to be told the price had increased. He reluctantly agreed to pay the higher fee. Shortly after, a subordinate of Zheng Yi arrived at Yang Hao's house.
Zheng Yi's men had seen them moving goods into the warehouse and assumed they were involved in a profitable venture, wanting a share. Yang Hao tried to get rid of the subordinate, but the man, feeling provoked, brought up Yang Hao's father's past crime of murder and tried to sow discord between Yang Hao and his friends, calling Yang Hao a "coward" and suggesting Li Cu and Su Wan were just using him.
Enraged, Yang Hao grabbed the subordinate by the collar and threw him out, but the man's words deeply unsettled him. Back home, Li Cu discovered his father was gone, leaving a note explaining he had urgent matters to attend to for a few days, along with a stack of money. Searching his father's bookshelf, Li Cu found a business card for The Giant Wind Express.
Comparing it to the courier slips and searching online, he made a startling discovery: Shen Qiong's father was the general manager of The Giant Wind Express's city-west branch. He immediately sent a WeChat message to Su Wan, planning to visit the company the next day, hoping to find clues about Shen Qiong's whereabouts. The next day, Su Wan went alone to The Giant Wind Express's storage center.
He asked a courier about packages sent to Li Cu, and the courier's demeanor immediately changed, trying to dismiss him. When Su Wan insisted on seeing the detailed information about the sender and origin, citing that the tracking number didn't show it online, the couriers became aggressive and attempted to force him out. Su Wan then mentioned that their manager's surname was Shen, further escalating the tension.
Concurrently, Zhang Rishan and his team arrived at the China-Myanmar border to investigate issues that the Xie family had caused. An old man, "Lao Tie" from the Hong family, greeted Zhang Rishan and explained that strange things had been happening since Master Xie of the Nine Clans visited last month. Lao Tie led them to a large pit.
He explained that local villagers, who made a living mining tree-shaped jade, discovered a strange copper door during their work the previous day. When they tried to open it, an earthquake struck, causing the ground to collapse into multiple large pits. Zhang Rishan noted that the holes didn't look like they were naturally formed by an earthquake. Luo Que descended into the pit and found several mummified corpses, all buried alive and choked to death.
Zhang Rishan inspected the bodies and found digging tools among their belongings. He concluded that since their objectives and causes of death were identical, the problem lay in the specific digging locations. He decided to go down into the pits himself, but acknowledged that they were in Clan Chen's territory and needed to inform them first to avoid breaking any agreements.
The coincidence of The Giant Wind Express delivering the mysterious packages to Li Cu, coupled with his discovery of Shen Qiong's father's business card in his own home, strongly implicated Li Cu's father. His frequent and sudden business trips now appeared highly suspicious.
