Chapter 29: The White-bearded Corpse

  As Ma Si-ze and I lifted the coffin lid, a puff of green smoke burst out, and then we saw the snake coiled inside. The scene was indescribable, and my scalp felt numb with fright.

  The snakes saw the coffin lid opened, and they all rushed out in a hurry. One of them was brightly colored, with a golden yellow body, like a Burmese python, had already poked its head onto my hand, hissing and spitting. I was startled and quickly shook my hand off.

  I moved away from the coffin and my mood slightly calmed down. Suddenly, I thought of something and called over Ma Si-zhe who was standing beside me. Ma Si-zhe waved his hand at me, seemingly indicating that it wasn't possible for the time being.

  I felt a bit suspicious, so I shook my head hard and turned around to look at the coffin again. The color of the coiled snake seemed to have faded a little. From being intertwined and curled up, it became unclear.

  It seems that the green smoke was a trick to distract people. Ordinary people would have seen the snake in the coffin and quickly covered it back up. I remembered the rumors from the village before, so I had some suspicions and waited for a while. I didn't expect it to be the same situation as the flat grave that day, with the green smoke rising from underground, which should be the same as the smoke that came out when Ma Si Zhe and I opened the coffin earlier.

  "Don't spit, come over here first" I shouted back at him

  Ma Si Zhe spat on the ground and wiped his mouth, "I'm not going, you hurry up and cover that coffin, or else he'll be coming out soon"

  "It's okay, even if it crawls out, it won't be afraid, your vomit alone is enough to drown it"

  "Can't we be less disgusting?"

  I burst out laughing 'Oh dear, come on over, nothing's wrong'

  Ma Si Zhe cautiously approached the coffin, took a peek inside and didn't see any snakes. "Damn it, where's the snake? Ugh, disgusting! He hadn't eaten much anyway, now he had vomited everything out." Ma Si Zhe regretted vomiting up what he had just eaten.

  "Why don't you pick it up and eat it again?"

  Get out of here

  We both looked into the coffin and could no longer see the shadow of the snake. All we saw was an old man lying peacefully inside the coffin.

  His beard was particularly long, hanging down to his knees, as if someone had covered him with a quilt. His face was calm, as if he were asleep. Ma Si and I exchanged a glance, suddenly not daring to speak loudly, as if afraid of waking up the person in the coffin.

  Ma Si Zhe whispered, "Guess whether it's Yong Bo or that old man."

  "You're blind, that old man is Yong Bo from 500 years later, those two are the same person" Ma Si Zhe's question reminded me of a joke.

  Archaeologists found two skulls in Cao Cao's tomb. After identification, one was Cao Cao's and the other was Cao Cao's when he was a child.

  Facing such ridicule from everyone, we have long been used to it. In the eyes of the public, weather forecasts are all fabricated by the meteorological bureau, geological bureaus are all after-the-fact, archaeological workers are all freeloaders, and relevant departments are all talkers.

  Ma Si Zhe looked around the coffin to see if there were any burial objects, and said, "How did he manage to go back five hundred years and talk to himself?"

  "What? Jealous?"

  "Of course, if I had the ability, I would go back and have a word with myself."

  "What did you say?"

  "Why bother me now with such great effort when I have two treasures hidden away?"

  I'm too lazy to bother with him, so I walk around him and look at the old man lying in the coffin. To be honest, I'm afraid he'll sit up at any moment. The preservation of the corpse is shocking, it's just like he's sleeping.

  Compared with it, the preservation of Xinzhui's tomb in the Shaanxi Mausoleum is much inferior.

  That is just built on the basis of incorruptibility, this is fundamentally a living person!

  Ma Si Zhe turned his head and told me, 'Take out the black donkey hoof from my bag. If there's a resurrection later, you'll stuff it into its mouth.' I took out the black donkey hoof from Ma Si Zhe's bag, turned it around in my hand twice, and held onto it, ready behind Ma Si Zhe.

  Ma Si Zhe reached into the coffin and felt around, surprisingly there were no burial objects at all.

  "It's strange, there are so many treasures outside, but why is it that there's nothing in the coffin?"

  Ma Si Zhe didn't give up, and once again stretched out his hand, this time feeling more carefully. I watched from the side, paying attention to the old man's changes. But the old man was extremely quiet, lying there, looking very gentle.

  "Find anything?" I relaxed my vigilance and turned to ask Ma Si Zhe.

  Ma Si Zhe was stroking it, furrowed his brow 'Huh?'

  What's wrong?

  Ma Si Zhe pulled his hand out. "There's a mechanism down here." I reached my hand in and felt around. Indeed, on the inner wall of the coffin, attached to the old man's arm, there was a small protrusion. I tapped it lightly and heard a hollow sound. The bottom of this coffin is empty!

  "Should we take it out and have a look inside?" I asked.

  "Of course," Ma Si Zhe said as he went to lift the old man. In my heart, I silently recited "We are also helpless, Your Excellency is magnanimous, don't bother with us."

  "Hurry up, what are you doing?" Ma Si Zhe urged. I had to hurry over and help lift the feet of the corpse. Carefully, we moved the corpse out of the coffin and placed it by the wall.

  At the moment when the body was lifted out, a large amount of water gushed into the coffin like an open faucet, flooding the entire interior.

  Ma Si Zhe and I were both stunned on the spot.

  "What's going on? Where did this water come from?"

  It's actually normal for there to be coffin fluid inside. When we excavate and open coffins, we often see coffin fluid. The reasons for the formation of coffin fluid are different, some are due to water seepage or underground moisture. Some are intentionally done to prevent decay, while others are oils and other substances that flow out from the corpse itself.

  But just now when we opened it, everything inside was fine. After carrying the body out, so much water suddenly flooded in. I've never seen anything like this before.

  Ma Si Zhe rolled up his sleeves and was about to put his hand in, but I stopped him. "What if it's poisonous?"

  Ma Si Zhe brushed off my hand 'Don't worry, it won't happen'

  "How did you know"

  Ma Si Zhe raised his chin and nodded towards the coffin, "Look at this fish, it's fine, which means there's no poison in the water."

  I looked down and indeed there were two fish swimming in the coffin. I rubbed my eyes hard, this time it was not an illusion, there really were two fish in the coffin.

  Ma Si Zhe brought his hand up, wiping it clean. "The mechanism we touched earlier, the other end was pressed down by that corpse. When he was lying inside, nothing happened, but when we lifted him out, there was nothing pressing down on the mechanism behind him, so it popped up. A gap appeared in the coffin and water rushed in."

  "It seems there's a body of water under the coffin", I took a glance at the tomb and estimated that this house probably has no other exit, "We can only go back the original way"

  "Give me some more time."

  "What are you going to do?" I had just asked, when Ma Si Zhe quickly ran back to the piles of treasures beside the coffin, worrying about the mountain-like treasure, and continued to pick and choose.

  I took a look at the amount of water flowing and estimated that nothing was wrong for the time being, so I followed them over. I took a closer look at those things.

  I casually picked one up and took a closer look. It was a small, square-shaped seal, about the size of an old-fashioned flashlight, with intricate dragon patterns carved on it.

  It's a ceramic musical instrument, also used as a container for wine. Although it's not something extraordinary, just the dragon pattern on it can determine that it's not a simple thing. Putting it now, this is absolutely a rare treasure, but considering its large volume is not convenient to carry, I couldn't explain its origin, so I put it down.

  Ma Si Zhe packed a bag of offerings with satisfaction and indicated that I could leave.

  "Should we put the corpse back in the coffin?"

  "What's the point of carrying it back? To give him a bath? There's so much water in the coffin, I reckon even if we put him in, he'll just float up." Ma Si Zhe shouted towards us as we were arranging the body "Sorry to have troubled you younger ones... maybe next time..."

  "Ah, Sun Yi, where did everyone go?" Ma Si Zhe suddenly stopped talking and asked me anxiously.

  I looked towards the corner and found that there was still a shadow of an old man with white whiskers, but the ground was empty and bare, without even a single hair.

  That's right, I remember we put it here before. Where did it go in just a short while?

  I looked around the tomb, every corner was searched, but no sign of a corpse was found. A cold sweat trickled down my back.

  "Will it go back by itself?"

  The two of us walked back to the coffin, and inside the coffin there was still only water, and a few fish.

  "The water in the coffin, how did it rise so quickly?" Ma Si Zhe's face was stiff as he looked at me.

  Just now when we were studying underwater mechanisms, the water depth was just over half of the coffin. In a blink of an eye, the coffin was full.

  Even the water started to slowly overflow, and Ma Si Zhe and I didn't care where the old man's corpse went, we quickly walked to the position of the tomb door and pushed hard towards the outside. After pushing several times, we found that the tomb door didn't budge at all.

  All I saw was the tomb wall tightly sealed, not a single gap. It didn't even look like there was a door. I suspected that we might have taken a wrong turn, so I searched around nearby, but it was all the same, no gaps at all.

  This worked, and water began pouring out of the coffin in a steady stream. The tomb was small to begin with, and soon our feet were submerged.

  My heart was burning with anxiety, and I began to look for a way out everywhere.

  I walked over to the pile of jewelry next to the coffin and turned those priceless treasures upside down, but there was still nothing underneath, no hidden doors, no passageway.

  Found a few more stones to support his feet, he tapped on the tomb, but there was no echo, only a dull and lifeless atmosphere.

  I searched around in vain and sat down on the ground, looking at Ma Si Zhe beside me.

  "I'm sorry," I said.

  I'm sorry for bringing you here. I'm sorry for walking into this with you. I'm sorry for being unable to take you out of here.

  Ma Si Zhe slapped me hard on the head "Don't be such a weakling, having something to do and making a big fuss about it. I, your Ma Ye, haven't reached my dying day yet"

  I had barely managed to muster up this bit of non-mainstream sorrow when Marx's slap sent it shattering.

  "So what do you think we should do now?"

  "We can't just squat here and wait for death," Ma Si Zhe said, walking to the entrance of the tomb, feeling around for the general direction he came in from before, and pushing hard towards the outside.

  I see Ma Si Zhe like this, and I also stand up to help. I really think that the background music for us two now should be playing "The Volunteer March". To praise our unyielding and futile efforts spirit.

  At this time, the water in the tomb had already overflowed our calves. Every time we exerted force and retreated backwards, a splash of water would be kicked up, it was really cool.

  I felt a tingling sensation and then an itch, so I scratched my ear. Not long after, the itching came again. I turned around to see a strange face stuck to my back, staring straight at me.