Chapter 6
Chapter 6
I was the last one to slide down the tunnel the tomb raiders had dug.
Afraid of alerting the tomb raiders inside, none of us turned on our flashlights. But once we got down into the tomb, we realized there was already light in there.
The tunnel opened above a burial passage. The passage was about a meter and a half wide. To the left, it was pitch-black, with no end in sight. To the right was a corner.
On the ground at the corner stood a pair of lit candles. They were not ordinary white candles, but red dragon-and-phoenix wedding candles, one on each side along the base of the wall. Their bottoms were set into beautifully carved glazed-ceramic candleholders shaped like kneeling rams with human figures, the design looking extremely ancient.
On both walls of the passage, those lines of rules for the corpse-nurturing ground were written in bright red characters. Red candles, red words-it looked downright festive. At first glance, it almost resembled the wedding chamber set from a period drama.
Grandfather Murong ignored the writing completely. He rushed over and dropped to his knees, his eyes fixed on the pair of candleholders.
“These are Eastern Han pieces!”
After saying that, he rubbed his eyes, then blinked hard twice.
“Sect Master Qiao, come take a look for me. I’m not seeing things, am I? Eastern Han glazed-ceramic candleholders are being treated like cabbages, just placed here casually in the passage?
“If those stinking rats didn’t even take these, how much good stuff must be inside?”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a gust of icy wind blew in from nowhere. The candle flames flickered, then suddenly went out.
Before my eyes could adjust to the abrupt darkness, the burial passage lit up again.
Someone was walking toward us from the passage on the left, holding a flashlight in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other.
“Brother Tie said three people came down. Clean them up. Baldie, bring your gun over.”
My heart clenched. Grandfather Murong moved lightning-fast. Before the beam of the flashlight could sweep toward us, he slipped around the corner. Murong Yue and I hurried after him.
This was not the main burial passage. It was half as wide as the one before. The three of us moved one behind another, quickening our steps as we headed forward and trying not to make a sound.
We hadn’t gone far when light suddenly appeared up ahead.
A bald man in a gray tracksuit stood there with a searchlight strapped to his forehead and a pistol in one hand. He grinned smugly at us.
“The little girl really did come down into the tomb. You’ve got some nerve!”
With wolves in front and tigers behind, we were trapped from both sides in the narrow passage.
At the critical moment, age and experience proved their worth. Grandfather Murong stayed calm in the face of danger and gave me a composed wave.
“Leave this to me.”
With that, he dropped to both knees and bowed his head straight to the ground.
“Brother Bald, I’ve admired your great name for ages! We came here specifically to join you!
“Both my granddaughters are archaeology majors in college. They’ve idolized you since they were little. Today they finally have the chance to meet you. Can we join your team?”
Baldie froze.
“Who? Me? You’ve heard of me?”
As he asked, he unconsciously loosened the hand holding the gun ever so slightly.
Grandfather Murong seized the chance. His body lunged forward, then twisted, and he slipped right between Baldie’s legs and escaped.
I was standing second in line. The moment Grandfather Murong ran, I was exposed right in front of Baldie. He flew into a rage.
“Fuck, you old bastard, you dare play me?”
Baldie turned to shoot at Grandfather Murong. In that split second, I launched myself forward and leaped high, slamming my elbow hard into the back of his head. Baldie let out a muffled groan and collapsed unconscious to the ground. I bent down with the momentum, snatched up his gun, and sprinted ahead.
It all happened too fast. By the time the three of us had stampeded over Baldie’s back and rushed forward, the person at the rear was still standing there stupidly, unable to react.
“Fuck! Stop right there!”
The tomb raider behind us sped up and chased after us, the circle of light from his flashlight jerking wildly over the passage. I was running too fast to notice the long, thin black shadow that flashed across the wall inside the halo of light.
After we had run for a while, Grandfather Murong called softly from ahead, “It’s a dead end!”
I stopped at once and pressed myself sideways against the wall of the passage, letting Murong Yue pass first. Then I spun around abruptly and aimed the gun at the tomb raider catching up behind us.
“Stop!
“Take one more step and I’ll shoot!”