Chapter Fifty-Two: In the Blink of Life and Death, Our Choice

Fatty made a lot of sense. I straightened up, and though I couldn’t immediately clear my mind of all thoughts, I nodded at him nonetheless.

“That’s more like it.” Fatty glanced around. “Doesn’t seem like there are any more clues here. Let’s get out before the door locks again.”

Peanut was still crouched by the coffin lid, but his eyes and expression seemed preoccupied with something else. Once he stood, the three of us headed for the door. As we left, I couldn’t help but cast another glance into the coffin, and for some reason, the image of that pale hand resting on the spiderweb flashed through my mind once again.

Just as Fatty was about to step out the door, suddenly, we all heard a faint hissing sound in the chamber behind us, like “sss, sss.” Turning back, nothing seemed out of the ordinary—just spiderwebs on the walls and the empty coffin in the center.

Yet the strange sound persisted, growing clearer by the second. I listened closely; it reminded me of air leaking from a tire, but looking around, I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.

“The coffin,” Peanut said suddenly from behind.

We immediately turned our attention back to the coffin made of blood-red water pine. Still, we saw nothing unusual.

Without a word, Fatty raised his torch and crept back toward it. We all moved carefully, treading softly to the coffin’s edge. As Fatty lifted the torch, the inside of the coffin became plain to see. At first glance, I saw nothing, but after a few seconds, I noticed something was amiss.

What should have been an empty coffin now held a faint, blurry silhouette of a person.

At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. The figure resembled a person but was almost entirely transparent, with only a few crimson outlines visible, as if it were formed from a swirling red mist.

The strange sound was indeed coming from the coffin, but I couldn’t tell exactly where. It was as if the noise seeped from every crack in the wood.

In less than half a minute, the hazy red figure inside the coffin grew sharper, becoming more and more distinctly human. Standing at the edge, I felt like I was watching the molecules of a person slowly coalesce, gradually regaining their shape—a sight both bizarre and unsettling. And the clearer the figure became, the more I realized: the hair, the chest… damn, it looked like a woman.

“Oh hell, maybe the tomb’s owner thought the three of us men were too lonely and decided to send us a female ghost for company?” Fatty tried to joke in a low voice, but his face was taut with tension.

A sense of dread crept over me. As I turned, I saw Peanut reaching his hand toward the red silhouette in the coffin.

“Kid, didn’t expect you to be even more eager than your Fatty,” Fatty quipped.

Peanut placed his hand where the figure’s knee would be, held it there for a moment, then suddenly his face twisted in pain and he jerked his hand back.

“What—” I didn’t even finish speaking when I saw Peanut’s right hand covered in blood blisters, as if it had been dipped in strong alkali. The skin around the blisters began to fester rapidly. The sight made my scalp tingle.

“It’s poisonous,” Peanut said.

“So what do we do?” I asked.

Fatty shoved me. “Damn it, what else? Run!”

I silently cursed myself for asking such a stupid question. Glancing back, my mind exploded—inside the coffin, the red figure was sitting up.

As the apparition grew clearer, I could see its entire body was made up of swirling clumps of red mist, like a tattered human skin dyed crimson—utterly revolting. We had just started for the door when we saw the iron door beginning to swing shut at alarming speed.

“Shit! If the door closes, we’re dead! Run!” Fatty bellowed.

But the few meters to the door felt like an insurmountable chasm; there was no way we could make it before it slammed shut. Judging by what had just happened to Peanut, if that woman-shaped thing of red vapor so much as brushed us, our bones would probably dissolve within seconds.

Just then, Peanut lunged forward and dove for the doorway. As the iron door and the stone wall closed to a narrow gap, he wedged his hand into the opening and, bracing himself, wrenched the door back open.

“Nice one!” Fatty shouted, and we all charged for the exit.

But after a mere two steps, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my back as something hoisted me off the ground. Twisting around, I saw a blood-red face materialize between Fatty and me. The features were barely discernible, splotched as if covered in sores, and it reeked of a choking, coppery stench.

Disgust was no longer the main concern. The thing’s two hands had lifted both Fatty and me into the air, and the caustic pain seeping into our bodies had us howling uncontrollably, feeling as if the skin on our backs was melting away.

I couldn’t fathom what this thing was, but I realized that the relationship between the blood-water pine and the corpse was far from simple.

Fatty, dangling beside me, tried to struggle, but the moment he twisted, pain wracked his body and he thrashed helplessly. I was nearly passing out from the agony. If it had been a tiger, we might have fought back, but with something like this, a single touch meant certain death.

In the midst of our struggle, I saw Peanut standing motionless, staring at us for a few seconds. Suddenly, as if making up his mind, his gaze turned icy cold.

At this point, no matter how skilled Peanut was, there was little he could do. This thing seemed to be a vaporous entity—there was simply no way to fight it head-on.

Yet just as I thought we were finished, Peanut charged at us. With only two meters between us, he leaped and tackled the creature holding Fatty and me.

I’d expected him to pass right through it, but to my shock, his attack knocked the thing to the ground.

Fatty and I dropped to the floor. The creature, pinned by Peanut, let out an inhuman shriek and flung him aside.

“Peanut!” The pain in my back hadn’t faded, but I saw the woman-shaped monster seize his left arm. Instantly, his sleeve dissolved into white vapor, fusing with the blood blisters erupting on his skin.

Panic surged through me, and I was about to lunge forward when Fatty grabbed me from behind. “You’ll just die too!” he shouted.

I yelled back, “So we’re just going to watch him melt away?”

At that moment, the creature shoved Peanut and charged at us. Peanut spun around, using his back to block it, but somehow, the thing had the strength to keep pushing him, inching closer and closer.

At the same time, we heard the iron door behind us screeching—it was closing again.

“Go!” Peanut shouted to us.

“But—” I couldn’t just abandon him.

Fatty was so anxious he was baring his teeth. “Shit! If the door closes, all three of us die!”

My body trembled, drenched in cold sweat. If we didn’t leave now, as Fatty said, none of us would survive. But if we did, what about Peanut? He could have escaped—he’d saved Fatty and me. Was I supposed to live with that guilt forever?

“Go!” Peanut’s face contorted with a savage determination, whether from seeing my hesitation or from the unbearable pain.

Looking at him, my body suddenly went limp. Fatty dragged me toward the door, inch by inch. I wanted to break free, but that was just a wish—my body offered no resistance. In that moment, I felt as if I were walking out with Fatty, both of us driven by a selfish will to survive. I wondered what Peanut would think of us. But I suddenly realized that Peanut, Fatty, and I—each of us was completely different.

Fatty kept dragging me, using his other hand to try and hold the iron door open. We just needed to take a few more steps to leave the chamber. But something suddenly seized me, and I turned to Fatty, shouting, “If we leave now, what are we? Are we even human?”

Fatty had been slowly retreating, but at my words, he froze. Back then, the three of us barely knew each other, and Fatty even less so. From a utilitarian perspective, sacrificing a few to save the many made sense. But that line of thinking ignores one crucial thing: humanity.

“Damn your ancestors…” After a few seconds of hesitation, Fatty suddenly gritted his teeth and glared at the thing behind Peanut. He released his grip on the door.

As the iron door slowly closed, fear churned in my chest, but just as Peanut had said, this was the choice I’d made.

Peanut was using his body to hold back the creature, casting a strange look in my direction.

Fatty now seemed almost savage. He tore off his backpack to use as a shield, clearly planning to charge in like Peanut. I didn’t know what I could do, but I steeled myself to follow.

Just then, Peanut flashed us an eerie smile. The sight sent a chill down my spine. Suddenly, he dashed toward us, and before we could react, he shoved me out through the door. Then he threw himself forward, forcing the door open a little more, and with a snap of his right leg, he kicked Fatty out as well.

We immediately understood what he was doing. The moment we hit the ground, Fatty and I scrambled to reach back for him, but Peanut blocked the gap with his body. I saw that his left arm was already rotted to the point it resembled a tree root. He didn’t reach for us—just stood in the doorway, grinning at us.

Fatty tried to grab his collar, but suddenly Peanut’s body vanished from sight, and with a resounding clang, the iron door slammed shut.

In that instant, both Fatty and I instinctively tried to squeeze back inside, but as the door closed, it bounced us away.