Chapter Eighteen: Three Characters (Please Add to Favorites and Recommend)

The scene before us was something I could not explain at all. Even if it were merely one of the mechanisms in this ancient tomb, why had we not heard a single sound? You only have to be on Earth: move a slab from one place to another, and whether in ancient times or in the most stable elevator in Atlantis Hotel, Dubai, it is never absolutely silent.

Besides, we were so close. If such a world-rearranging change had happened out here, everyone nearby should have noticed. But in truth, none of us felt any disturbance. In an instant I felt this phenomenon could not be explained by physics; even all science, set against it, seemed utterly powerless. And yet, if I tried to bring in terms like time travel or spatial transfer, it sounded too mystical to my ear.

“Fatty, what do you make of this?” I asked, wanting to see if he had ever had anything similar before.

“Goddamn, this is too insane. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Fatty said, glancing about. “Still, we’d better not jump to causes yet. If this place has appeared all of a sudden, danger may be lurking around it. Let’s be careful.”

It was hard to keep from speculating, but I managed to restrain myself. I turned toward Peanut and noticed he seemed ready to step into the downward-slanting passageway.

“Pea...” I was about to call, when Peanut lifted his hand to me without looking back, signaling me to stay silent.

“What’s that kid going to do?” Fatty said, shining his flashlight around Peanut.

The carvings on this passage were denser than around us. The carved dragon-eyed phoenixes—whatever their poses, their eyes all seemed fixed on the center of the passage. Under so many strange, unblinking stares, a person like me would have a hard time even shifting a foot.

Peanut, however, seemed to ignore the carvings entirely and kept going. He wasn’t far ahead, but since the passage ran downward and slanted, soon we could no longer see what was in front of him.

“Why don’t we go down and check?” I asked Fatty.

“You’ve got some patience,” Fatty muttered. “Peanut asked us not to move, so there must be a reason... Hey, look—he seems to have stopped.” He craned his neck and nodded. Just as we were about to lose sight of him, the flashlight beam around Peanut froze, as though he had ceased moving further down.

Then voices came from behind us.

“My heavens!”
“What on earth is going on?”

I turned around. Professor Chen and several others had arrived—Fatty must have called out and brought them.

“Mr. Cao, how could this place become like this?” Professor Chen asked.

Fatty answered, “We just discovered it as well. From the way this passage is built, this has to be the entrance to the underground chamber.”

“But how could it be like this?” Yangdong Zhang said, looking around in alarm.

“Did we trigger some mechanism when we were searching inside?” Yaxi Zhang was just as shaken.

“It already happened. No more talk will change it,” Zhuge Xuan stepped forward and pointed downward. “Who is down there?”

“Ah, that’s Chen Zixiang,” I said at once. “As soon as we found this place, he—he was afraid we’d damage the relics, so he went down alone to clear the way.”

At that, Yangdong Zhang turned his head and said with surprise, “Didn’t realize he was that bold.”

Yaxi Zhang put her hand over her mouth and called down, “Chen Zixiang, be careful down there—don’t run into a lady ghost.”

When Yaxi shouted that, I, Fatty, Professor Chen, and Zhuge Xuan all turned to her at once.

“Yaxi, hold your tongue,” Professor Chen said, suddenly no longer calm, his face flushed with anger.

I could not help a bitter laugh. A person who studies archaeology, in a place already enough to rattle the blood, dare to speak like that—he probably had never been in such a place before. From Fatty’s expression, it seemed he wanted to go over and punch her then.

A tomb is where the dead dwell; a living person entering it is already an offense. In such a place—especially one crowded with the dead—you must be extra careful. Forbidden words should be avoided, especially shouted aloud, or you may never know how you die.

Yaxi still did not understand what she had done; she looked at us in baffled surprise. No one bothered to answer her. We all went on looking into the passage.

As I kept watching, something suddenly felt wrong. I looked back and counted, only to realize—

Yang Lang was not among us.

“Professor Chen, where is Yang Lang?” I asked immediately.

Professor Chen stared in disbelief, looking from one to another. “Yang Lang… weren’t you with him? We came straight out of the sixth brick chamber when we heard the noise. Could he still be in there?”

When Fatty and I heard that, we both knew things had turned bad. The unease I had felt before surged back. If Yang Lang had disappeared alone inside the tomb, his chances of surviving were very low.

To some extent, I started to blame myself. Had I not followed Yaxi’s remark then, Yang Lang might not have been left behind.

Even more worried than I was, Professor Chen immediately sent Yaxi and Yangdong back to search. Even in his panic, beads of cold sweat were already forming on his brow.

“Don’t worry, Professor.” Zhuge Xuan held his arm. “Just because we cannot see Yang Lang now does not mean he is in danger. Since the layout here has shifted, he may have gone back into the passage we dug, and by now he could even be back at camp.”

Fatty added, “That’s right. Besides, this isn’t the time to worry about someone else. This place changed, and our way out may be gone. Damn, none of us knows who’ll be the first to die.”

In that instant it came to me: when a tomb changes like this, we all might have no way back. That was it—we’d all be trapped. Suddenly I thought of the three students who had been trapped in this tomb before. Was this exactly why they never got out?

“Shut up,” Zhuge Xuan suddenly snapped at Fatty. “Even if you died, we might all still live. You’re supposed to be leading, yet you haven’t shown a grain of skill.”

I know Fatty never tolerated being called useless, and the insult was aimed by a girl. As expected, he immediately bristled to speak back to her. I pulled him away at once, but he refused to let go.

“You little miss, don’t swagger at your Fat uncle,” he snapped. “If you were a man, I’d have dropped you flat right now.”

“Fine, then try it,” Zhuge Xuan said with a faint, cold smile, as if Fatty’s two-hundred-and-something-pound frame meant little to her. “Hit me and see who goes down.”

“Hey...” Fatty pushed me aside with one hand, stepped in front of her and raised his arm, as though to slap her. My brows drew tight with frustration; what a mess this had become. Then I saw his raised hand had stopped moving.

“Come on, hit me,” Zhuge Xuan said, throwing her free hand behind her back and bouncing lightly, as if entirely sure that blow would never land.

Her playful expression was somehow irresistible. I felt my heart start to race.

At last Fatty dropped his hand. “Tch. I don’t hit women.”

Professor Chen immediately pulled him to the side. “All right, all right. No one should get out of line. We’re down one person now... Well, I can’t even begin to figure out whose tomb this is, yet it is already giving us so many anomalies.”

Zhuge Xuan gathered her cheerfulness again and helped Professor Chen stand straighter. “Once we enter the inner chamber, we should see the epitaph.”

Fatty had been heading toward me, but on hearing their conversation he turned and gave Zhuge Xuan a look of sudden amusement. “I thought you had solved it already. Seems we still can’t trust feng shui—those things are unreliable...”

“Excuse me?” Zhuge Xuan went red. “Feng shui is not some charlatan’s fortune-telling. How could anyone identify a tomb owner from earth veins?”

Fatty tapped his trouser leg and said with lazy confidence, “That’s why you shouldn’t learn half a thing and then go tricking people. Feng shui takes real cultivation; it depends on the person’s depth. If you can’t judge it out, another person may not lack the ability, yes?”

The final emphatic words hit me like a slap; I found myself smiling inwardly. But at that moment all of us could hear there was more in what he’d said.

I gave him a light pat on the shoulder. “What then? So you do understand feng shui too? Can you tell who’s buried here?”

Fatty snorted. “Do you talk to a master like that? What does ‘you too?’ mean? Tch. Your Fat uncle was born into this art.”

There—Fatty had thrown his voice up again. It was sure to become another grand lecture.

“Enough. Don’t make a fool of yourself in front of Professor Chen,” I said, and turned to check the passage below.

“No, no, no,” Professor Chen said, waving his hand. “Mr. Cao, if you have anything, speak. Let all of us learn.”

Fatty grinned, jostled my backside, and said, “You heard that? Learn.”

Zhuge Xuan smiled faintly. “All right. I’m listening. Tell us your brilliant insight.”

“I’m afraid if Fat Uncle reveals such brilliance, it might scare you,” Fatty said.

I was struck by how certain he sounded, as though he were strutting under an invisible flag.

He tilted his head back and looked toward her. “Talking to a little girl like you about deep matters, you probably won’t understand. Although secrets of heaven are not meant to be spilled, since you’ve asked so earnestly of your Fat brother, I’ll, begrudgingly, grant you three words.”

“Three words?” she laughed. “All right then. Say them.”

As soon as Fatty said them, I saw Zhuge Xuan’s color change at once.

He fixed his eyes on her, smiling slightly, and said, “Zhu, Ge, Ke.”