adminI shouted in surprise and instinctively pulled my hand back. There’s nothing more unpleasant than touching something in the dark that you can’t explain. The moment I touched it, I felt that the owner of that hand must have already died, because of the cold and swollen skin, devoid of any warmth.
Suddenly, I remembered that I still had some fire sticks on me. I quickly lit one, and in the glow, I saw a corpse lying in that place. There was a large wound on its abdomen, surrounded by many maggots, each about the size of my palm, with a bluish color. From its mouth and eye sockets, some smaller maggots were crawling out.
I felt a wave of nausea. This person seemed to have been dead for about a week; he was likely a victim of the previous tomb raiders. Could it be that he also died here because he discovered that mechanism? As I thought this, I hurriedly found a battery in the dim light and put it into the miner’s lamp. To my surprise, it lit up again. I breathed a sigh of relief; the boss said this miner’s lamp could withstand impacts from over three meters, and it seemed he hadn’t lied!
With the light, I looked around. This place was very simple and bare, a square cellar with stone walls made of irregularly piled stones. There were many holes in the walls, like vents, dark and unknown, with cool breezes occasionally blowing in from them.
I immediately inspected the corpse. It was a middle-aged man, around forty years old, with a torn abdomen that looked like a fatal wound. He was wearing camouflage clothing, and his pockets were bulging. I pulled out a wallet from one of them, which contained some money and a note from a bus station. I continued to search and found a steel stamp on his belt buckle, which had a line of numbers engraved on it: 02200059. There was nothing else that could prove his identity.
I put the wallet into my pocket, planning to examine it later after I got out. The architectural style here resembled ancient tombs from the Western Zhou period, but it also seemed like a temporary escape passage. It was unlikely that someone would build a tomb on someone else’s burial ground; perhaps this was a way for the tomb builders to leave themselves an escape route!
In ancient times, especially during the Warring States period, if you participated in the construction of a noble’s tomb, it was equivalent to signing your own death warrant. You would either be poisoned or buried alive with the corpse. However, the wisdom of the laboring people should not be underestimated; most craftsmen would create a secret passage for themselves to escape. I swept the light around and indeed spotted a very narrow door on one side of the wall. However, this door was still a bit high off the ground, and beneath it was a wooden ladder that had rotted away. I estimated the height; I couldn’t possibly jump up there. Just then, I saw a face suddenly peek out from that passage.
I was overjoyed and called out, “Panzi! It’s me!”
Panzi was startled and saw me, but instead of showing any joy, he looked as if he had seen something terrifying, almost falling back into the passage.
I’m quite puzzled when suddenly Panzi pulls out a gun, pointing it directly at me. I realize something is wrong—does Panzi think I’m a zongzi (a type of rice dumpling)? This is a grave misunderstanding! I shout, “It’s me, Panzi! What the hell are you doing?”
Panzi seems to ignore me completely. With a loud bang, the gunshot echoes strangely in this cave, and the bullet whizzes past my ear, hitting something behind me. A splash of foul-smelling liquid hits the back of my head. I quickly turn around and see several large, greenish bugs clinging to the wall, with a few others menacingly hovering above me, just a foot or so from my head.
Just as I think about stepping back to distance myself from these giant insects, two of them spring off the wall like springs and almost instantly reach me. At the same time, there are two more loud gunshots, and two bullets fly over my head, blasting the two bugs to pieces. It really was an explosion; I’m splattered with the bug’s bodily fluids. At this moment, I hear Panzi shout, “I’m running low on bullets! What the hell are you standing there for? Hurry up and run over here!”
With Panzi as my backup, I feel much more secure. I turn and run, and Panzi fires again, probably taking out another bug. By this time, I’ve reached the base of the wall. Panzi extends his hand down, and I jump to grab it. Thankfully, the rocky wall is rough enough for my feet to find purchase. With just one pull, he yanks me up. Before I can steady myself, Panzi’s short gun extends beneath me, and he fires again. The shell casing bounces off and hits me in the groin. I scream in agony, nearly passing out, and curse, “What the hell, are you trying to castrate me?”
Panzi curses back, “Damn it, life is definitely more important than your junk!”
I suddenly realize my miner’s lamp is no longer in my hand. I look back and see it has fallen below, surrounded by a mass of various-sized corpse bugs—an eerie green swarm that seems to have crawled out from who knows where. I ask Panzi, “How many bullets do you have left?”
He checks his pocket and pulls out one bullet, forcing a bitter smile, “Just one glorious bullet left.” No sooner does he say this than a bug jumps onto the stone path, making a “squeak, squeak” sound at us.
Panzi, being a former soldier, quickly adapts, turning the gun into a hammer. He uses the barrel to smash the insect, flattening it and kicking it away. But this is hardly a long-term solution; more bugs are crawling up. We kick and hit, but a few still manage to get on us, and their barbed claws tear away at my flesh.
I say to Panzi, “We should run; there’s no way we can fend off so many.”
Panzi asks where we should run to. I point behind us and say, “There must be an exit back there. Look at this tunnel; it must have been used by ancient tomb builders to escape. If we just follow this path, we’ll definitely get out.”
Panzi curses, “Bullshit! You bookworms think everything in books is true. Let me tell you, I’ve explored this path thoroughly; it’s a maze. I’ve finally made it to this spot, which is a bit of progress. If we go any further back, who knows how long we’ll be wandering around!”
I was taken aback, thinking to myself, could I have guessed wrong? But given the current situation, there was no time to dwell on it. As I saw more and more bugs crawling around, I shouted, “That’s still better than feeding the bugs here!”
At that moment, there was a sudden thud, and another person fell down from the dark door above, landing right on top of the bugs. The unexpected impact startled the bugs, causing them to scatter. The person got up, cursing, “My butt! Damn it, what kind of door opens downward?” He shone his flashlight around and yelled, “What the hell! Why are there so many bugs?!”
We quickly realized that it was the grave robber who had scared us earlier in the main tomb. The corpse-eating bugs quickly surrounded him again. To his credit, he was quite tough; he used the flashlight like a weapon, smashing it against the bugs one by one, but it was utterly ineffective. Soon, his back was crawling with bugs, and he screamed like a pig being slaughtered, reaching behind him to try to pull the bugs off.
At that moment, Panzi suddenly pulled out all the fire starters he had in his pocket, lit them all, and jumped down without giving me a chance to stop him. He rolled on the ground and ended up next to that guy. The corpse-eating bugs, afraid of fire, all jumped away. However, the fire starters were not a long-lasting source of flame, and after that series of actions, the flames had already dwindled. Panzi shouted, “Do you have any more?!”
I felt in my pocket and found a few left. I steeled myself, thinking, “Damn it, I’ll go for it,” and jumped down just like Panzi did. Unfortunately, my skills were lacking, and I ended up landing face-first on the ground. The fire starter slipped from my hand and fell right into the pile of bugs. Panzi cursed, “My God, are you trying to get me killed?!”
I quickly got up and ran over to them. The corpse-eating bugs were wary of the fire, so they didn’t dare to pounce for a moment. But as the flames grew dimmer, their encirclement started to close in. I couldn’t help but swallow hard, thinking to myself, “It looks like we’re done for.”
