Chapter 22: Taking Photos (Request for Collection and Recommendation)

This sudden shock was the most fatal. Everyone unconsciously gathered together. The only thing our eyes could see was nothing else. We all stared fixedly at that coffin, waiting for what would happen next.

The three impacts that had just sounded were exactly the same as the sounds made by the fat man hitting that lump with his shovel three times before. Therefore, this situation could only mean that something suddenly appeared and hit the coffin.

But after looking for a long time, none of us found anything around the coffin.

Fatty was the first to react. "Where the hell did that sound come from?" he said, then walked two steps forward.

"Be careful, that thing might be squatting on top of the coffin," I also walked up.

After all, Fatty and I were the ones who would lead the charge. When encountering such sudden situations, we would definitely take the front.

Fatty seemed to concentrate all his attention on the unseen part of the coffin, seemingly considering whether to climb up now.

At that moment, Zhang Yaxin suddenly spoke behind me.

"I heard that sound earlier, it sounded exactly the same as the few hits Professor Cao made with his shovel. Could it be... that there are other people nearby?"

As soon as he finished, everyone's flashlights started sweeping around. In the empty tomb chamber, the flashlight beams could only illuminate the blue bricks on the ground and the deeper darkness further away.

Zhang Yadong continued: "Yeah, it seems so. Eh, Professor, could it be Awei and them?"

Hearing that, goosebumps rose on my arms.

Those three people, according to our reasoning, should already be dead by now. But Zhang Yaxin had said it right earlier. Upon careful recollection, that sound was indeed very similar to the one the fat man had produced.

To make the same sound requires the same or similar conditions. Logically speaking, it should be someone else using the shovel head to hit the bump on the coffin three times. We hadn't moved, so the only possibility was that it was other people in the ancient tomb.

But those three had already died. Could it be their...?

I didn't dare think further.

After listening to Zhang Yadong's words, Zhuge Xuan beside me shook her head. "None of the items in their equipment are missing. It's impossible for them to have used the shovel to hit the coffin."

Zhang Yaxin lowered his voice and said, "There is no one else here, so could it be......"

"Stop thinking about those useless things." Fatty interrupted him. "I think the problem might still be on that thing. It seems you don't want me to go up, so I have no choice."

I knew Fatty was right, but recalling the earlier sounds, I felt a very eerie feeling in my heart, as if this matter wasn't the way we understood it.

Sure enough, after Fatty finished speaking, the others no longer tried to stop him. Then we just waited for Fatty to act.

But just as we were all staring at Fatty's movements, suddenly, three crisp sounds "clang clang clang" came from the top of the coffin again.

We all froze in shock, and Zhang Yaxin fell to the ground with a thud.

Within the flashlight beam, that huge coffin remained motionless, but the more it stayed quiet, the stronger our unease grew.

"Ghost... there's a ghost!" Zhang Yaxin immediately cried out.

"Shut up." Chen Professor's forehead started sweating cold sweat, but at this point he was still relatively calm.

Zhang Yadong was also trembling, but he forced himself to comfort his younger brother.

My and Fatty's expressions had already become ugly. Unconsciously, the two of us secretly glanced at Hua Sheng.

Hua Sheng's expression was very strange. Under the fear he was pretending on his face, there seemed to be a deep doubt.

At this time, Zhuge Xuan suddenly ran to the back, opened her equipment bag.

"Little Xuan, what are you looking for?" Chen Professor asked.

"I want to see what's on top there." Zhuge Xuan said, then took out a set of camera tripod from her bag.

Fatty turned around and said, "I didn't expect you to be even more anxious than me. What are you taking these things out for? Want to perform pole vaulting and jump over there?"

Others seemed not to understand either, but I did figure out what Zhuge Xuan wanted to do.

"Do you want to take a photo from above?" I asked.

"Yeah." Zhuge Xuan nodded at me, then looked at Fatty, "This matter, you'll have to take charge of it."

After saying that, Zhuge Xuan handed the tripod to Fatty.

"Why did you give me this thing for? If I want to go up, I can climb up with my bare hands." Fatty said.

Zhuge Xuan glared at Fatty, then directly pressed the tripod onto Fatty's body. Fatty could only catch it.

"I......"

I immediately grabbed Fatty and explained to him, "Zhuge Xuan wants to use the height difference to take a photo of the top of that coffin. This tripod is nearly two meters long. Plus your height and arm reach, the camera can extend over four meters, so we can see what's happening up there without going up."

Only then did Fatty suddenly realize. Zhuge Xuan's method was indeed very clever, which avoided Fatty's risk. No one knew how those sounds were made now, Fatty's skills were good, but he was still afraid of accidents.

The following events became much simpler. Zhuge Xuan fixed the camera on the tripod, set the automatic shooting timer to one minute, and adjusted the lens to a downward angle. Then, Fatty only needed to lift the camera up until the shooting was complete.

After everything was ready, Fatty slowly lifted the tripod.

Seeing the camera extending towards the darkness above the coffin, I still felt a wave of unease in my heart, and various terrifying fantasies began to appear in my mind.

Soon, the flash lit up there. After a series of rapid shots "click click click", the surroundings became quiet again.

Then Fatty put down the tripod, and Zhuge Xuan hurriedly took the camera and started checking the photos.

We all gathered around, staring at the digital camera's screen, the atmosphere oppressive beyond words.

I had thought of countless scenarios, and although I was nervous, I thought I was prepared to see anything.

But when Zhuge Xuan pulled out those dozen or so photos just taken, I still gasped in cold air.

"Hell, it turns out this coffin didn't have a lid." Fatty shouted, lowering his voice.

Seeing those photos, Zhang Yaxin, who had been in extreme terror, collapsed to the ground again, muttering something in his mouth but we couldn't make out what.

We never imagined that there was nothing on top of the coffin, not even the lid. The camera directly captured the scene inside the coffin.

After everyone looked at the photos, their faces lost all color. Unconsciously, we all turned our gaze back to the coffin and kept retreating backward until our heels kicked the packages on the ground.

Inside the stone sarcophagus, there was an ordinary-looking coffin. The lid was also gone. Lying in the coffin was a corpse that looked very ordinary, but due to some reason, the body hadn't completely rotted, instead becoming something like a mummy.

It was covered with countless tiny black holes all over, as if it had been drilled empty by countless ants. It was scary to look at.

On the corpse's face, those dense tiny black dots even more so, the features were gone, as if a beehive was placed on a person's neck.

However, the most terrifying thing for us was that the hair of that corpse looked very lush, as if not dead for long. And his raised right hand in mid-air was even more like a dying person struggling for life.

This state of the corpse, even Fatty, who had seen a lot, after looking at it felt nauseous. "Damn, it seems there are quite a few bugs in here. Tsk, why didn't we see any when we came?"

The southern climate is humid, and it's summer when snakes, insects, rodents, and ants are most abundant. Logically, we should see quite a few. But in reality, except for the one old rat under the stone bed, along the way, not to mention swarms of insects, we didn't even encounter a single fly.

I was about to tell Fatty to spray the insect repellent water, when I saw an abnormal silence on the faces of Chen Professor and them, the four of them looking at each other, Chen Professor's eyelids jumping nonstop.

"What's wrong with you?" I thought, where there's bravado, I should be the one, but why were Chen Professor and Zhuge Xuan scared like this too.

Zhang Yadong opened his terrified eyes wide and slowly turned his head towards me.

"You... didn't you notice... the hair of that corpse... the hairstyle... is exactly the same as... Yang Lang's?"