Ancient tomb excavation traces

I never dreamed I'd run into Chen Yu in such a desperate situation. In fact, Bao Cai and I had already given up hope of ever seeing Chen Yu and Xue Wei again. So when he suddenly appeared, I was completely stunned. Looking at my childhood friend, with whom I'd grown up naked since we were little, like a gentle rain falling, my eyes welled with tears.

Bao Cai shouted excitedly at him, "Old man, you're not dead, you bastard!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Yi laughed and said, "Grandpa has nine lives, how could I die? It's just that your yelling just now was such a coward!"

Perhaps it was because we hadn't seen each other for so long, our emotions surged, and we inadvertently ignored the young Taoist priest, the witch, and the only remaining masked man beside us. The masked man was on the mountain stream, surrounded by Gu worms. When he saw his three companions suddenly shot by arrows, he ran away in a flash.

We continued chatting without a care in the world, only to realize that each of our sides was missing someone: Xue Wei. He wasn't with Chen Yu. Although this fact disappointed us, this encounter with Chen Yu filled me with hope. I believed that Xue Wei was also in this era, somewhere, waiting to reunite with us.

Our savior was a handsome man carrying a bow and arrows. He was dressed in a smart black outfit, a cigarette from our time dangling from his mouth, looking every bit the tough guy. After watching us catch up, he leaned lazily against a tree and teased us, "A bunch of guys crying and whining like women, are you done yet? You're not fish-men, why do you have to talk in the water?" He exhaled a puff of smoke, looking like a gangster from a Hong Kong movie.

Old Tiao chuckled and replied, "Boss, this is called 'Man's Tears'!" With that, he leaped into the Silver Dragon Mountain Stream. The three of us eagerly swam together, huddled in a ball, and a thousand words choked in our hearts, leaving us at a loss for words.

The young Taoist priest, seeing us gathered together, expressionlessly reminded us, "Brother Feng, your hand is still injured; you shouldn't soak it in the water for too long..." Upon hearing this, the old man burst into laughter, "You rascal, now you're calling it breast enhancement!"

I spat at him, and the young Taoist priest looked puzzled and asked, "Could it be that Brother Feng is younger than me?"

At this question, Bao Cai and Lao Chai laughed even harder. They put their arms around each other, leaning back and forth, and said with a smirk, "Full-breasted? Are you smaller than me?"

Looking at their smug expressions, I instantly understood what they meant by "little." I yelled, "Get lost!" They glanced at me, covered their mouths, and let out another long string of "hahaha."

The young Taoist priest looked at us, increasingly confused. How could he have imagined that the title "Brother Feng" had so many layers of meaning? Seeing his bewildered expression, I explained to him that it wasn't true. He looked to be only in his early twenties, while his brother was almost thirty. He seemed to understand, smiled, and didn't ask any more questions.

But thanks to his reminder, I realized my hand had become numb. Looking at it now, it looked like rotten flesh, utterly disgusting. I frowned, and Lao Tiao and Bao Cai stopped smiling, looking at me with concern, and said to go upstairs first.

Chen Tiao had the archer lower the rope, but as we approached the faces covered in moss, the man, holding a torch, squatted down and said to us seriously, "Don't move yet..." He carefully examined them from top to bottom and instructed Chen Tiao, "Tiaozi, check if these stone carvings are uneven..."

Old Tiao rarely obeyed orders unless the person knew more or was smarter than him. He caught the torch that the archer threw down, then carefully swam to the cliff face and used the torchlight to illuminate the stone wall.

In the dim light, the moss appeared a dark, eerie green up close. Beneath the overlapping shadows, sunken faces with closed eyes exuded a sinister aura. As I stared at their tightly shut eyes, a disturbing image flashed through my mind: I saw the corners of their mouths slightly upturned, revealing a sinister and terrifying smile. They opened their eyes blankly, staring coldly at me… I shivered, and instantly felt the water become bone-chilling.

To avoid letting Lao Tiao and the others notice my nervousness, I silently calmed my racing heart. Looking at those faces again, they had their eyes closed and there was no strange phenomenon like before. I felt strange and couldn't help but wonder: Why have I been having so many hallucinations lately? Last time I saw the stone sculpture come to life, I could say it was due to the fragrance of flowers, so how do I explain this terrifying scene?

Unable to find the answer immediately, I put aside my doubts and continued my research. Only then did I notice the other protruding faces, which were ferocious, with bulging eyes and open mouths revealing long, thin fangs, resembling demons. This exaggerated carving technique contrasted sharply with the strangely still faces. The two intertwined, and wherever the light touched, it sent chills down my spine.

Chen explained the situation to the archer, who pondered for a moment and then said to us with a solemn expression, "Do not touch that stone sculpture."

Bao Cai asked the archer, "Why?"

The archer asked in confusion, "You lot must be here to dig up the grave, so how come you didn't even know about the traps the tomb owner set up on the outermost layer?"

"A mechanism?" Bao Cai's eyes widened in surprise.

The archer exclaimed in surprise, "Oh dear, you really didn't know?" He stood up and explained to us, "Our ancestors, to prevent their souls from being disturbed by tomb robbers, set up decoy tombs and fake graves. Encountering such a tomb is still considered good; at worst, it's just a fleeting joy. But the tomb we're going to is quite dangerous. Look at this face—it's concave and convex, yin and yang. The concave is still, representing yin, and the convex is dynamic, representing yang. The two complement each other, indicating that there are traps inside. If you touch the convex face, its huge mouth will shoot arrows, and you'll die a horrible death outside before you even reach the tomb."

Hearing what the archer said, I couldn't help but shudder. I thought to myself: the tomb owner built such a huge project not to scare away tomb raiders, but to kill people. If Chen Yu and the others hadn't come, we might have chosen to climb up the cliff face. If we had, we would have been riddled with bullets.

Thinking about it, I couldn't help but admire that archer. Looking at his smug expression, I thought to myself: You really can't judge a book by its cover! No wonder Lao Tiao is so obedient when he follows him.

"Pah!" Just then, the shrine maiden behind me cursed in broken Chinese, "You bunch of scoundrels disturb the peace of our ancestors and utter such disrespectful words!"

She sat sulking in the water, her long hair hanging down without her towering bun and silver ornaments, which actually made her look much better than before. However, I hadn't expected her to understand and speak Mandarin.

Not to be outdone by the criticism, the archer retorted, "Pah! Pah! Pah! If your ancestors weren't so ruthless, how could they have set up these deadly traps? If it weren't for my sharp eyes, you'd be dead too!"

Upon hearing this, the witch flew into a rage and began cursing in a language we couldn't understand. The two of them went on and on, unable to stop. I was ashamed, thinking: they were both speaking their own dialects; who could understand their insults?

The men looked at each other, and Lao Tiao didn't try to stop the fight. Amid the noise, I covered my ears, and the young Taoist priest said to go upstream and find a place with a low cliff in the mountain stream.

Upon hearing this, the archer suddenly calmed down and said to us with a composed expression, "Since the tomb owner designed such a long, winding waterway, it certainly wouldn't be so easy for you to climb up."

I thought to myself, "His face changes so quickly," but what he said made sense. We abandoned our original plan, took the rope, and tossed it to a tree branch stretching across the middle of the ravine. Chen Yi tied a simple figure-eight knot around us, and the archer's two companions pulled us to a position parallel to the top of the ravine. Then, each of us controlled the rope to swing back and forth, like children playing on a swing.

During the fight, the young Taoist priest and I nearly snapped a thick branch. Bao Cai and the witch were relatively unscathed, but when Lao Tiao joined in, the branch snapped instantly. He fell into the water, slumped over, and complained, "Damn it, couldn't they have found a thicker branch? Did they have to do this to me?"

The archer mocked him, "Who just swallowed my roast chicken?"

Upon hearing this, the old man quickly put on a grin and said, "Didn't you trade my priceless 'Da Qianmen' cigarettes for my roast chicken? You were just smoking them so happily!"

Bao Cai and I were speechless at Chen Yi's cowardly behavior. He was usually fearless, but when he saw an archer who was even more inexperienced than us, he actually learned to flatter him.

He pleaded for a while, but the archer wouldn't listen. He had no choice but to say that he was willing to exchange his last hidden stash of large pebbles for a thicker branch. The archer was very pleased to hear this and immediately granted his wish, pulling him ashore.