Chapter 128: How Could A Zombie Swim!
Lao Yang shone the flashlight into the cavity and discovered a green shimmer below: “There’s accumulated water down there, accumulated water!”
Wu Xie couldn’t see clearly from behind him, stretched his neck and asked: “How deep?”
Before he could react, he saw the front empty out, and Lao Yang jumped straight down bodily, splashing up a sheet of water.
“Holy shit! Why did you just jump down? You okay?”
Lao Yang steadied his footing below, wiped the water from his face, looked up and answered him: “I’m fine! The water’s not deep, just come straight down!”
He said that, but on this trip into the mountains, they hadn’t brought waterproof suits either. Getting wet like this plus the cold damp environment would definitely make them catch colds.
So Wu Xie looked at the water below, hesitated for a long time and couldn’t bring himself to step down. Just as he finished agonizing and gritted his teeth to jump down, Lin Yan silently pulled out two raincoats and two pieces of waterproof cloth from his backpack, wrapping them around his and Wu Xie’s backpacks.
Wu Xie looked at the raincoats and gave a wry smile. This stuff was useless at this point! This was entering water, not rain—the water was seeping up from below. But as Lin Yan shook out the raincoat, he changed his mind: “This raincoat is a one-piece? Where’d you buy it? Wait, weren’t you with me the whole time? When did you go buy it?”
Lin Yan gave him a disdainful look and asked: “Are your shoes waterproof? If not, wrap the shoes together. Wait, before coming, did you only think about equipment and not about people? Is equipment more important than people? Good thing I thought ahead and mentioned it to Lao Yang, otherwise I don’t know what you’d do now.”
Wu Xie gave an embarrassed smile, took the raincoat and put it on. The raincoat’s pant legs were indeed longer than his, so wrapping the shoes together was no issue, but the size seemed a bit small—he always felt it was tight.
Looking at Lin Yan beside him who only had half his face exposed, he once again felt the disdainful gaze: “Wu Xie, how many pounds did you gain these past two weeks? I bought it based on your previous size, and this M size can’t fit you anymore?”
They chattered on above, and Lao Yang below got impatient. He waded deeper inside first. This jump had almost soaked all his clothes, but luckily the backpack was waterproof, so the stuff inside wasn’t too wet. “You two coming down or not? How much—longer!”
Wu Xie called back: “Right away!”
He didn’t dare jump straight down like Lao Yang—what if he couldn’t steady himself and fell in and couldn’t get up? So the two who lacked confidence in their own skill could only climb down slowly along the cavity blasted out from above. Luckily the person who blasted the statue had used a lot of dynamite, making this cavity at least funnel-shaped, otherwise they really wouldn’t have been able to climb.
By the time they slowly reached the bottom and waded through the water toward Lao Yang, Lao Yang was dumbfounded: “You two, what’s with that? Why wrapped up like that?”
No sooner had he said it than he remembered—he seemed to have some in his bag too, but hadn’t used them! Instantly Lao Yang shivered, cursing himself inwardly for not thinking of it sooner—this water was too damn cold! But it was too late to change now; he could only tough it out like this.
Lao Yang could only hope there was some dry place inside where he could rest and recuperate, otherwise soaking in this water all night, no one could stand it!
He walked farthest inside, the flashlight beam outlining the shape of a stone door. Wu Xie found it odd: “This doesn’t seem like something tomb raiders would do. A tomb-robbing hole absolutely wouldn’t look like this; it’s more like they dug the hole just to dig a hole?”
It felt like he said something pointless; the two ignored him. Lao Yang poked his head in and shone around, discovering it was an ordinary stone path inside that didn’t look dangerous, so he ducked in first.
Wu Xie got no response, but a vague idea formed in his mind—it was right or wrong only verifiable by going in later. He zipped the raincoat all the way up, exposing almost only a pair of eyes, and followed behind Lao Yang inside.
Lin Yan was last. For some reason, the little white zombie seemed to disdain this water a lot; it jumped from his shoulder to his head, and now was trying to drill into his raincoat. Lin Yan took some time settling it, so by the time he entered, the flashlight light ahead was several meters away.
This stone path wasn’t long; after walking over ten meters it seemed like the end, but getting close revealed it was just a ninety-degree turn. Lao Yang had stopped there waiting for them.
“What do you say? What’s the situation ahead? Why’d you stop?”
By the time Lin Yan arrived, Lao Yang and Wu Xie had already started whispering. He swung the flashlight around inside and found it was still a stone path like before, nothing unusual.
Wu Xie glanced at him; with his mouth covered, his voice sounded muffled: “This place might really not be an ancient tomb. In my judgment, it could be a mine. Below this stone path, it might lead to a mine.”
Lin Yan thought about it and felt something off. He pointed at the accumulated water beside them: “If it’s a mine, they wouldn’t abandon it after just one go, right? Look, there’s not even any waterproofing here. If there really was a mine, they’d definitely have to consider rainfall. This doesn’t look like a stone path that could be chiseled out in a day or two. Were they supposed to mine while swimming?”
Wu Xie pointed at the brick wall around them to counter: “Even if it’s not a mine, this shouldn’t be an ancient tomb either. Look, if this were an ancient tomb, even a tomb passage would absolutely have bricks and tiles, at least several zhang high, not sloppy at all. But look here—no stone bricks, not even a stone slab, and the surroundings are all pitted and uneven. It’s very much like an old mine. Actually, judging if it’s a mine is simple—”
He swung the flashlight deep into the stone path, lighting up the deep green water within several meters: “Go further in; if we see a straight-up-and-down deep shaft, that confirms it.”
Lin Yan was convinced: “You think this is an old mine, but the group that blasted the mountain discovered it and came to check, found nothing worthwhile and left?”
Wu Xie thought about it and felt it made sense: “Maybe like us, they thought it was a tomb, but discovered it was a mine and just bailed.”
“Why?” Lao Yang was curious. Wasn’t an old mine more valuable than an ancient tomb? If it was a jade mine, grabbing some would yield more than tomb raiding. He couldn’t figure out why they’d abandon a mine for tomb raiding.
Wu Xie then remembered his grandfather’s notebook: “My grandfather once reached an old mine too, but just probed a bit and came out. Don’t underestimate mine tunnels—they’re more thrilling than ancient tombs! A big mine occupying a whole mountain usually spans several dynasties of mining, and each dynasty’s methods differ. One wrong step and you’re lost inside forever! Plus, miners in ancient times were usually convicts and corvee laborers; when they died, they’d just toss them somewhere inside. Corpses could pile up several meters high! After so long, what if a couple turned into zombies?”
Lao Yang felt a chill down his back at his words, turned and headed outside: “Quick quick quick, get out now! If there are zombies inside, won’t they float out along the water to find us!”
Wu Xie was startled by his reaction and laughed, shaking his head: “What nonsense. Zombies can’t swim! Wait, slow down!”
Lao Yang brushed past him, the splashed water nearly overflowing into his collar over the raincoat. Lin Yan, however, pondered Wu Xie’s earlier words and thought of something.
Wu Xie only felt a hand on his shoulder, nearly startling him. He turned to see it was Lin Yan; just as he relaxed, he heard Lin Yan say eerily:
“Did you forget about the Forbidden Woman?”
