Chapter 64: There Wouldn’t Be A Zombie, Right?
Wu Xie was stunned, looking at Lin Yan’s excited yet somewhat curious expression, feeling a lump stuck in his throat: “You gotta be kidding me… You think we’re here on a school trip? The tomb owner inviting us in? What tomb owner welcomes tomb robbers!”
Fatty looked at Lin Yan, then at Wu Xie, then at the bottomless long ladder, wiping his face: “Wait, don’t say it, I think the young comrade makes sense! Look, we’ve only been in here a short while, haven’t triggered any mechanisms, and the lake water went down on its own. I don’t think it’s any mechanism; it really seems like it’s inviting us in! Think about it, from the moment we came in, if it weren’t for that little zombie almost taking us both out, haven’t we been safe everywhere else? Those arrows in the tomb passage? Forget poisoned—they didn’t even have arrowheads! This tomb, I think”
He smacked his lips, seemingly organizing his language, “doesn’t really seem like a proper tomb, more like one of those… that welcomes others to rob it, a very special tomb?”
Fatty’s education level was indeed limited, and his words left the three speechless, but the meaning was understandable. As Fatty said, after descending into this tomb, there were no fatal mechanisms, no particularly deadly strange creatures—it was truly unique among tombs.
Lin Yan raised an eyebrow, looking like he’d met a kindred spirit: “See? I’m not the only one saying it. I said this tomb is off! This tomb owner must be a philanthropist, determined to donate all his treasures from life! Wu Xie, how about we…”
He looked at Wu Xie with ill intent, cracking his wrists, clearly meaning “If you don’t agree, I’ll throw you down.”
Wu Xie got goosebumps from his stare and quickly signaled surrender: “Fine, fine, you say go down, we’ll go down. But don’t touch anything recklessly down there. Though the tomb owner’s mechanisms so far aren’t fatal, who knows if this is a trap? Maybe it’ll herd us all into one place and wipe us out!”
He turned back to look at Zhang Qiling and Fatty. Zhang Qiling still had that indifferent look; seeing him glance over, he just nodded. But Fatty was different—he and Lin Yan were in deep eye contact, grinning like flowers, both their pupils reflecting dollar signs.
Fine, these two were hopeless!
Luckily, they had enough searchlights, plus spares, so each could have one. When the four searchlights shone down together, the pool’s true appearance emerged.
The entire pool was a perfect circle about 10 meters in diameter, unknown depth—the searchlights couldn’t reach the bottom. Though the water had receded, mist still lingered at the very bottom. They could barely make out the bottom covered in unknown relief sculptures, plus a few dark drain openings. In the center of the pool bottom was a large thing. Lin Yan’s senses were enhanced who-knows-how-many times, so he saw at a glance it was a stone tablet, but he couldn’t read the characters on it!
Fine, they still had to go down!
Lin Yan was the type to egg others on enthusiastically but get cold feet when it was time to actually go. So after some eye contact, Fatty took the lead, Wu Xie and Lin Yan in the middle, and Zhang Qiling, the ultimate weapon, at the rear.
Now he felt secure! Wu Xie the protagonist up front, Zhang Qiling the cheat code behind—Lin Yan got cocky: What could hurt him now? He could strut right through. He really wanted to yell like Little Steel Cannon, but was a bit afraid of jinxing it.
Cough, better play it safe.
They’d only gone down a few steps when the Fatty in front suddenly cursed: “Damn it, no wonder this tomb has no good stuff no matter where we look—turns out foreigners took it all!”
Wu Xie craned his neck forward: “How do you know?”
Fatty pointed at the pool wall furiously: “Look! Isn’t that foreign language carved here? Fatty Ye may not be highly educated, but I can still tell ABCD apart!”
They looked where Fatty pointed: though carved hastily, it was indeed a string of English letters!
This was strange! Logically, even if Third Uncle and the others had come twenty years ago, they should’ve carved Chinese, not English letters! And this time, besides them, only A Ning spoke English, but this string clearly wasn’t carved recently. So twenty years ago, who else had entered this tomb?
Lin Yan explained his analysis to Wu Xie, who also sensed something off: “Could it be Third Uncle’s notebook I have is incomplete? Maybe there were foreigners in their team back then, just not written down? No, we’ve overlooked one possibility!”
Wu Xie clapped his hands, pointing at the line and saying to them: “If you’re in a rush, would you choose to start carving with letters? Don’t speak—I can tell you wouldn’t!” He pointed at Fatty, signaling this low-education guy to step aside; now it was time for the educated folks to talk.
Lin Yan thought for a moment: “Depends on the situation. If leaving keywords, carve Chinese characters; if danger or something, of course letters are faster… You mean no third group—this was carved by your Third Uncle’s team?”
Wu Xie nodded: “Exactly! Carving letter abbreviations is way faster than Chinese characters, especially this hasty string—maybe they encountered danger or an emergency and carved it to leave a mark for those behind.”
Fatty looked left and right, feeling out of place, so he raised his searchlight: “How about you guys talk first, I’ll go down and check?”
Wu Xie smiled: “If we go, we go together. That way if something happens, we have backup, right? No clues here anyway, so like you said, let’s go down and see—maybe find traces left by Third Uncle and them below.”
At that moment, the usually silent Zhang Qiling suddenly said: “I’ve been to this place before.” Without waiting, he rushed ahead into the mist.
Lin Yan, knowing he had amnesia, wasn’t surprised—maybe some stimulus jogged his memory. He’d been here twenty years ago; maybe he knew the way forward? Following him was sure to be right!
So he grabbed Wu Xie, raised his searchlight, and followed Zhang Qiling down, leaving Fatty yelling behind: “Hey, wait for me! Wasn’t I supposed to lead? How’d you all get ahead? Hey hey, the mist is too thick, I can’t see anyone—don’t leave me behind!”
Zhang Qiling moved extremely fast; Lin Yan and Wu Xie behind couldn’t keep up and lost sight of him halfway. The lower they went, the thicker the mist; soon even Zhang Qiling’s searchlight glow was invisible, while Fatty’s light from behind grew closer.
When they stepped into the water, Fatty’s figure flashed past them: “Holy crap, why’s there still water? What just zipped by? Wu Xie, Lin Yan, is that you? Is that the quiet Xiaoge? Say something!”
Lin Yan hadn’t replied yet when he heard Fatty mutter: “No answer—won’t be a zombie, will it?”
“You’re the zombie!”
