The theft tunnel was not far from the ship. I saw that the seabed had been blasted into a large pit, and the tunnel was at the bottom of the pit. I thought to myself that it was indeed my uncle’s handiwork. We searched around the theft tunnel but found no signs of collapse; it seemed my uncle’s skills had not diminished.

I also saw several stone anchors that resembled those described by my uncle, but I couldn’t be certain they were the same ones he mentioned. The traces of the underground palace planned by my uncle were still visible. Zhang Tu and I made a mental note of the location of the theft tunnel, which appeared to be dug down towards the ear chamber, where the bricks should be relatively thin.

After searching for about five minutes, it seemed unnecessary to continue. The fat guy waved his hand at me, indicating whether we should go in now. A Ning glanced at his diving gauge and nodded.

Our equipment now was not as heavy as it was twenty years ago; we were lightly equipped. At the entrance of the tunnel, we double-checked our gear and the agreed-upon code words, confirming everything was in order. The fat guy then steadied himself and was the first to crawl in. The rest of us turned on our dive lights and followed, diving in about five or six meters.

The theft tunnel was very irregular, varying in width. As I swam and examined the tunnel walls, I grew increasingly puzzled. It didn’t look like it had been dug by humans. If it were a hole made by my uncle, it would have been neatly excavated one shovel at a time. However, the marks on the walls were haphazard, with pits and holes, resembling a tunnel made by animals.

We struggled to swim for over twenty meters, and the light from the entrance had faded. At that moment, the direction of the theft tunnel suddenly changed, going straight down. I couldn’t help but feel curious. Since we hadn’t reached the tomb yet, why change direction?

Unable to speak, I couldn’t express my doubts. We took a break at the vertical opening. The fat guy made a cautious gesture to us and then swam down first. I watched as his light continued downward until it became a small dot, and I couldn’t help but exclaim in my mind, wondering how deep it was.

At that moment, he waved his dive light below, indicating it was safe. We immediately followed one by one, and I looked at my diving gauge; we were already over ten meters deep. I had never dived that deep before and didn’t know if my body could handle it.

Below, a large space had been excavated, and we quickly saw the wall of an ancient tomb, which had a large hole in it. I was even more puzzled; the hole was so irregular, unlike the careful disassembly of bricks typical of tomb raiders. Some bricks were even cracked. The fat guy looked at me, and I looked back at him. We both blew a few bubbles, and he pointed at the broken bricks, making a monkey gesture. I understood he meant to say: this hole might have been dug by sea monkeys, not by tomb raiders.

I nodded in agreement and pointed to the underwater air gun on his back. He took it off, disengaged the safety, and swam into the hole.

This was my second time entering an ancient tomb. Although I felt a bit excited, thinking back to my last experience made me uneasy, especially underwater, where resistance was significant. If we encountered danger, escaping would not be as quick as it would be on land.

The tomb passage was much larger than I had imagined. I increased the brightness of my exploration light and switched on the waterproof flashlight in my hand, following closely behind the fat guy. Our lights were very bright, illuminating a great distance, and soon the entire tomb passage was lit up. I saw that there were indeed the human face reliefs on the walls of the tomb, as my uncle had mentioned. Moreover, these reliefs had strange animals carved on their foreheads, and the craftsmanship was exquisite. As I swam and looked around, I became increasingly puzzled; most of these animals were tomb guardians, but they all lacked eyes, which made them appear somewhat eerie.

At that moment, I suddenly noticed that one of the human faces had what looked like three snake-browed copper fish carved on its forehead. My heart tightened, and I quickly pulled the fat guy, urging him to stop so I could examine that relief. The fat guy was eager to move deeper in and was impatient, not knowing what I had discovered. He turned to glance a few times, but couldn’t make anything of it and waved his hands anxiously. I told him to wait and leaned closer to look carefully. I saw that there were three snake-browed copper fish, their heads and tails connected, forming a circular shape, each with a different design. I recognized two of them from my bag, but the third had three eyes, which I had never seen before and didn’t know what it signified. The face below the fish was different from the others; it was distinctly feminine, but due to the many things attached to it, the face appeared somewhat disfigured, which was unsettling.

I wanted to study it further, but at that moment, An Ning behind me urged me to hurry. I had no choice but to continue swimming forward. Fortunately, the carvings appeared at intervals, allowing me to catch a few more glimpses. However, I didn’t discover anything more, just a vague sense that something was off.

As I continued to look, when I counted the fifth appearance of that face relief, I noticed the issue. I recalled that on the first stone slab, the eyes of the face were closed; on the second slab, they seemed to be slightly opening; by the third and fourth slabs, the eyes were opening wider and wider. Now on this fifth slab, the eyes were almost fully open.

I began to feel uneasy and pulled the fat guy, telling him not to move forward. I took out my underwater drawing board and wrote: “The eyes of the human face on the tomb wall are gradually opening. I’m worried something is wrong!” After writing, I pointed at the wall.

The fat guy touched the face, shook his head, and wrote: “I didn’t notice, it’s just some stone reliefs; it’s definitely just solid stone. You’re overthinking it.”

I shook my head firmly and told him to raise his gun. Seeing my serious expression, he complied. In a little while, I saw the same relief appear ahead. The fat guy, somewhat frightened by what I said, stopped and shone his light on it. The eyes of that stone face were now completely open, and the face was facing forward, its gaze direct and somewhat vacant. The fat guy shone the light around, but there was no change. He mustered his courage to walk over, touched it, and then made a gesture to me indicating that everything was fine.

I swam over to take a look, and sure enough, it was just a solid piece of stone, nothing special about it. I poked its two eyes with my finger, but there was no response. I couldn’t help but shake my head in self-mockery; it seemed that this was just a gimmick by the designer of the tomb to scare off potential grave robbers, without any special meaning. I had managed to scare myself here for no reason—what an embarrassment. The fat guy patted me on the back, signaling me not to think too much and to hurry along.

We continued swimming forward. I recalled that my uncle had told me he was sucked into a spring after triggering a mechanism, but all the walls of the tomb looked the same. How could I possibly find the spot where he had bumped into something?

My mind was racing. Continuing to swim forward like this wasn’t a solution; I had no idea where this passage led, and it could very well be a loop. If we got lost inside, it would be a disaster. I thought to myself that since my uncle could see the last person at a glance, it must be a long corridor. We had just turned several corners, and there were only two such corridors. So, it wouldn’t be too difficult to find it; it would just take some time.

At that moment, the fat guy stopped suddenly. I couldn’t brake in time and bumped into his backside, thinking something must have happened ahead. I quickly focused and leaned in to take a look, only to find that the passage ended here, blocked by a stone slab.

The slab was bare, with no inscriptions or carvings on it. I felt around for a long time but couldn’t find any mechanism, scratching my head in frustration. An Ning wrote to ask me, “How can it be a dead end?”

I replied, “There should be some clever stone mechanism around here. Let’s search and see if there are any loose tomb walls.”

They all nodded. The fat guy began to knock around, checking the human face carvings carefully. I recalled all the clues mentioned in my notes, even running my dagger along every crack, but there was no progress. The stone slab remained firmly in place.

I felt a bit dejected and turned back to see how the fat guy was doing, only to find him staring blankly. I tapped him and wrote to ask, “Have you found anything?”

He looked at me with a strange expression and wrote back, “Do sea monkeys have long hair?”

I didn’t understand why he suddenly asked that and couldn’t help but laugh. I hadn’t really paid attention to whether sea monkeys had long hair; my memory was that their heads were completely bald, covered in scales.

I told him the truth and asked why he was asking that. He pointed at the wall crack, and as I followed his finger, I immediately saw that a strand of black hair was floating out from the gap between the stone slab and the passage.

I was stunned with surprise. How could this be possible? Was someone leaning against the other side of the stone slab?

The fat guy, being bold, tried to reach out and grab it, but to our astonishment, the hair suddenly retracted and disappeared back into the gap. He glanced at me and wrote, “There’s a ghost behind the stone slab.”