adminI took a closer look at the shadow, and just as it lowered its head, when it lifted it again, it became enormous, almost wider than its shoulders. This kind of fear is truly beyond words; I felt my scalp tingle and uncontrollably shouted, “There’s a ghost!”
Everyone turned to look at me, and I couldn’t stop shouting. I pointed at the shadow while turning my head, and almost simultaneously, I saw the owner of that shadow—a monster with an enormous head! It was holding a strange weapon, and in the dim light, that deformed big head was far more terrifying than any monster you could imagine. That guy with the oil bottle turned on his miner’s lamp, and we saw the true face of the monster; it looked like… like a person had put a large earthenware jar on their head… Damn it!
My extreme fear quickly turned into extreme anger; it turned out to be a person after all, with a big jar on his head, holding a flashlight, and striking a pose like an Egyptian. The jar had two holes, and two beady eyes were peering out through those holes, which was quite infuriating.
The situation became very awkward; we couldn’t tell if this person was friend or foe, and we were all still stunned by this guy’s appearance, our brains not yet registering what was happening. In the end, Panzi cursed, “F*** your mother, I’ll shoot you dead!” After saying that, he went to draw his gun. The guy saw that we were pissed off and shouted, “Oh my God!” and quickly dashed back into the passage we had come from. Panzi, without hesitation, raised his gun, cocked it, and then fired a shot, shattering the jar on the guy’s head, leaving just a ring around his neck. As the man ran, he cursed, “You’re looking for death, just wait until I come back and deal with you.” Saying that, he slipped away like he had oil on his feet and vanished.
The guy with the oil bottle saw this and said, “This is bad; we can’t let him get to our tunnel. If he encounters that coffin, we’re done for!” After saying this, he swiftly pulled out the black-gold ancient knife from his bag, without even grabbing a miner’s lamp, and in just a few steps, he chased into the darkness.
Panzi wanted to go help, but Uncle Three grabbed him and said, “You can’t help at all; hurry and check those two side chambers to see where he came from.”
I hurried into the right side chamber and saw a tunnel that had been directly dug out of the stone wall, with a candle still burning in the corner, casting a faint green glow. I exclaimed, realizing that guy was a tomb raider. I noticed a bag on the ground, presumably left behind by him. When I opened it, I found some tools, a few batteries, and a rough sketch of this ancient tomb. Although it was quite messy, I could immediately tell that the several squares represented the seven coffins. Alongside the sketch, there were many notes written in different handwriting, likely jotted down by several people while discussing here. There was a large question mark written next to the sketch, followed by the words—“Seven Star Suspicious Coffin.”
I couldn’t help but tense up. The Seven Star Suspicious Coffins seemed familiar to me. After thinking for a moment, I remembered that my grandfather’s notebook mentioned them. Among the Seven Star Suspicious Coffins, only one is genuine; the others contain traps or extremely bizarre mechanisms. In short, if you open the wrong one, the traps or spells inside will be triggered, making it incredibly dangerous. Looking at that foreigner, he seemed clueless, thinking that each coffin contained treasures. As a result, he fell into a trap and was dragged into a coffin by some unknown force. As for his companion, he probably saw his partner meet a tragic end and, in a panic, escaped the tomb chamber, only to frantically dig another hole in the corridor to flee.
Having analyzed this, I felt it made perfect sense. I wanted to take this map and discuss it with my third uncle. However, as soon as I stepped outside, I found that only a mining lamp remained. It had been wet in the corpse pit and was now flickering, unreliable at best. To my surprise, my third uncle and Da Kui were nowhere to be found! I went to another ear chamber to look for them but saw no sign of them either. So, I picked up the mining lamp and shouted, “Uncle!!”
Logically, they couldn’t have just left me behind and gone off on their own. I first suspected that something might have happened to them, but there hadn’t been any sounds of a struggle. With Panzi and the others’ skills, they should have been able to scream if they encountered any monsters!
But apart from the echo, no one answered me. This dark tomb, with seven cold coffins and a strange corpse, quickly brought me back to reality. I suddenly remembered that I wasn’t a professional grave robber; I couldn’t possibly stay in the tomb alone. Even if there were no monsters, my imagination could easily drive me to madness!
I shouted again, hoping someone would respond, but silence prevailed. At that moment, the mining lamp in my hand flickered, as if it were about to go out. I broke out in a cold sweat, my mind starting to spiral into chaos.
If it had remained quiet, I might have been able to calm down gradually. But unfortunately, at that moment, I suddenly heard the sound of a stone coffin lid sliding. I couldn’t tell which of the seven it came from, but I felt a wave of dizziness, my heart racing. I backed up against the wall, and suddenly, something flashed; I turned my head to see that the candle in the adjacent ear chamber had gone out.
I sighed, thinking, “I didn’t take anything from you, why did you blow out the light?” When I turned back to look at the stone coffins, I was horrified to see that the ancient corpse in the already opened coffin had sat up. The foreigner’s body seemed to rise along with it, as if the two corpses were sitting up together. At least it didn’t turn to look at me.
I dared not look any longer. I closed my eyes, my legs trembling as I carefully moved along the wall. Then, with a sudden burst of energy, I dashed into the ear chamber.
My grandfather once wrote in his notes about his secret for building courage: if you can’t see it, just pretend it never happened. I think that’s true; otherwise, staring at a thousand-year-old corpse sitting there would make it impossible for me to think clearly. I placed the mining lamp in a corner, trying to avoid shining light outside, and desperately rummaged through the bag left behind by the fat man to see what else was inside. After a while, I managed to find a few pieces of compressed biscuits and some papers covered with dense writing and drawings. It seemed that he had brought all the important stuff with him.
Now, with no light coming from outside, it was pitch black, and I had no idea what the corpse was up to. If it was just sitting up and lying down repeatedly to work on its abs, I wouldn’t be scared of it. What worried me was if it suddenly decided to come over without any warning.
At that moment, a gust of wind blew in from the theft tunnel, and I suddenly had a flash of insight. Of course! This tunnel must lead outside, or at least to another place; anywhere would be better than here. I made a mark by the tunnel entrance so that if my uncle returned, he would know I had gone inside. Then, I picked up the mining lamp, tidied up the fat man’s bag, slung it over my shoulder, and crawled in.
As I crawled, I recalled the common knowledge my grandfather had shared with me when I was young: things like ancient round and square shapes, the Qinling Mountains and Han slopes, the depth of nine shallow and one deep. Oh no, wait, damn it. I shook my head, realizing that I actually knew very little about these topics. I looked at the theft tunnel, which seemed neither round nor square, and I had no idea when it had been dug. I pondered that if the kid with the clay pot on his head had dug this tunnel himself, then either he triggered a trap when he knocked on the tomb bricks, or if he was skilled, he would have at least made some noise. But we hardly noticed when he came in, which meant this tunnel must have been here for a long time. That implies it was definitely dug by another group of people, or he had dug it long ago. I deduced that either this kid came down from someone else’s theft tunnel, or his tunnel collided with this one.
After crawling for a while, I indeed came across a fork in the path. The two tunnels were clearly dug with entirely different techniques, meaning they were excavated by two different groups. I thought that whichever one I chose must lead outside, so I could pick either. To help my uncle find me, I made a mark on the tunnel I selected and crawled in.
At that moment, I was already envisioning fresh air, a bright moon, and ideally, as I poked my head out of the tunnel, I would see a campfire burning. The people there would spot me, pull me up, let me into their tent, and then I could eat some dry rations, get a good night’s sleep, and wait for my uncle and the others to find me so we could all go home together. Damn it, I was really fed up. Other people dig for a lifetime and only encounter a few ghosts, but here I was on my first dig, and everywhere I went, there were corpses, not even allowing me to catch my breath. Was it that easy for me? I thought it would be great if the person waiting for me above was a woman who could give me a shoulder massage or something.
Just thinking about it filled me with energy, so I quickened my pace. Soon, I saw a flicker of firelight ahead, and I was overjoyed—darkness before dawn! So, I used all my limbs to push forward, eagerly poking my head out. I wanted to take a deep breath, but when I looked, I was stunned.
I really hope that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. In front of me appeared another tomb passage, very similar to the one I passed through when I arrived. It seems that this tomb is quite complex! I couldn’t help but curse, while using my miner’s lamp to illuminate the surroundings. Upon closer inspection, I was stunned—wasn’t this the same passage I came through? How is it that this tunnel connects to the one over there? At first, we thought someone had dug this hole to escape. I’m truly baffled and can’t figure out what the person who dug this hole was trying to achieve.
