Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 54 Two Skeletons
The cave was quite dark and no one knew what was inside. Qu Shaoyang did not rush in rashly, but retreated carefully.

After returning to the flat ground, Qu Shaoyang cut a pine branch nearby, wrapped one end of it with pine oil, and then put it on the fire and lit it to use as a torch.

This time, he climbed back to the cave entrance with the torch in his mouth.

With the light of the torch, the situation in the cave could be seen more clearly.

The moss at the entrance of the cave was intact, and there were no footprints left by any large wild animals, proving that Qu Shaoyang's guess was correct that the wild animals could not come up to this place.

Qu Shaoyang felt a little relieved and continued walking inside with the torch in hand.

After passing the pool, there was another stone wall in front, half a person's height. After climbing up the wall, Qu Shaoyang was amazed by the scene above.

It turned out that there was a different world inside the cave, with strange rocks everywhere.

Some are like inverted lotus flowers. If you touch them gently, each petal can make a different sound.

Some stones look like leaping dolphins, some look like lying squids, some look like crawling crabs, and some are like big bells.

All of this is completely natural, without any trace of artificial carving.

Nature has created such unique and extraordinary landscapes, which are shining and beautiful under the light of torches.

The further you go into the cave, the more spacious it becomes. The walls of the cave are covered with ingenious naturally formed patterns, some of which resemble birds, beasts, fish and insects, and some of which resemble flowers, plants, leaves and trees. They are colorful and magnificent.

Qu Shaoyang was attracted by the scene in front of him and was watching it intently when he suddenly heard a sound similar to a baby crying.

Qu Shaoyang had also heard this kind of sound last night. He was startled by the noise and quickly turned his head to look where the sound came from.

It would have been better if he hadn't looked. When he did, Qu Shaoyang was so scared that his hair almost stood up and the torch in his hand almost fell to the ground.

In a corner not far ahead, there sat a woman wearing dark red clothes, with loose hair and a pale face.

The dark eyes were looking towards Qu Shaoyang and making a very strange crying sound.

"Oh my god, it's a female ghost." Qu Shaoyang took two steps back in fear, feeling like his heart was about to jump out of his throat, and cold sweat broke out on his back.

Qu Shaoyang wanted to turn around and run, but his legs seemed to be welded in place and he couldn't move at all.

The strange crying stopped and there was deathly silence all around.

Qu Shaoyang stared at the female ghost opposite him motionlessly. After a long while, he found that the female ghost was still sitting on the ground motionless.

No, this doesn't seem to be a female ghost.

Qu Shaoyang thought about it, inserted the torch into the crevice of the stone next to him, and then took off his gun.

With a gun in hand, Qu Shaoyang suddenly felt a lot more at ease, so he held the gun in both hands and walked forward carefully step by step.

He wanted to see what the hell was in front of him.

When Qu Shaoyang came closer, he could see clearly that it was not a female ghost at all.

Sitting on the ground was actually a skeleton that had long since rotted into bones. On the skeleton's head was a hat with many beads and ornaments hanging on it.

The beads and ornaments were covered with dirt and were so black that you couldn't see their original materials.

It is precisely because of this that most of the skeleton's face is blocked. From a distance, doesn't it look like a pale, disheveled female ghost?
Looking more closely, next to the sitting skeleton, there was another skeleton lying on the ground, also rotten into bones.

The clothes on the two skeletons had long since rotted away, and their original appearance could no longer be seen. Only the ornaments on the hats remained, which were probably due to the different materials and were still relatively intact.

In addition, next to the two skeletons, there are two curved objects that look like horns.

Qu Shaoyang bent down and picked up one of them. After looking at it carefully, he found that it was actually a scimitar.

The knife was very heavy, and the scabbard was inlaid with gemstones of various colors. Qu Shaoyang held the handle, pressed the spring, and pulled out the blade.

In such a dark and humid environment, the blade did not rust and seemed to be very sharp.

"Baby." Qu Shaoyang exclaimed, then put the scimitar back to its place.

Just at this moment, something crawled out from under the sitting skeleton, making a sound like a baby crying.

Qu Shaoyang looked at it carefully and found that it was about half a foot long, and looked a bit like a horse snake, but more like a small-sized giant salamander.

"So this is what it is. It scares me."

After seeing the thing clearly, Qu Shaoyang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He was a grown man, but he was almost scared by such a small thing.

“I don’t know which dynasty you two are from, or why you died in this cave, but it’s fate that we meet today.

I didn't mean to offend you two, it's just that this is a very crowded place, so I had no choice but to come in. Please forgive me."

Qu Shaoyang saluted towards the two skeletons, muttering something.

“You two have been here for many years, but you still cannot rest in peace.

Since we have met, it is also a fate. The scenery outside is beautiful, I will move you two to another place, it is better than staying in this cave. "

Chinese people are quite particular about these things. If they haven't encountered them, it's fine. But if they have, they can't let them lie dead in the wilderness.

Qu Shaoyang is a man of action, so now that he has said it, he won't delay any longer.

So he turned around and walked out, first out of the cave, and found a sunny hillside outside. Using the tools at hand, he painstakingly dug a large hole.

Then he cut two wooden sticks, took the deerskin, returned to the cave, carefully picked up the bones with the sticks, and placed them on the deerskin.

After picking up all the bones, he came out of the cave with the deerskin in his bag, buried the bones in the pit he had just dug, and filled it with soil again.

After finishing all these, it was almost noon. Qu Shaoyang went to the pond to wash his hands, then cut some venison and roasted it.

People are iron rice and steel, and if they don't eat a meal, they will be very hungry.

After working all morning, his stomach was already empty. Moreover, he still had a lot of work to do in the afternoon and he couldn't afford to let himself go hungry.

A hungry person doesn’t care about those things, as long as there is food, so even without any seasoning, Qu Shaoyang ate it with relish.

In the afternoon, Qu Shaoyang found a way to transport the venison he had packed and a lot of firewood to the cave.

It is very cold in the cave. If you want to live in it at night, you must make a fire.

As for the meat, that was Qu Shaoyang’s food supply for several days. How could he feel safe leaving it out there?
Qu Shaoyang fell off a cliff and was injured yesterday. He didn't sleep last night and was very tired from climbing up and down during the day.

So when I have a little free time, I feel so lazy all over.

He didn't care about so many things at this time. He spread the deerskin on the ground with the hairy side facing up. Qu Shaoyang curled up on the deerskin and fell asleep.

I slept so soundly that in my dream I seemed to be hunting with Water Crow and the others, firing guns bang bang.

I don’t know why, but the dream was so real, as if the gunshot was right next to my ear.

But Qu Shaoyang was so tired and sleepy that he couldn't open his eyes and just kept sleeping.

In the middle of the night, Qu Shaoyang was woken up by the cold. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and saw that only some charcoal was left in the fire.

Qu Shaoyang just remembered to throw some more firewood into the fire when he suddenly heard a "grunting" sound outside the cave.

(End of this chapter)