Chapter 13: Three Great Roads Run Through the Center

  These are three large holes dug out of the wall in a circular arch shape, which should be the gate leading to the next entrance.

  The coffins and Pengpeng also walked over, the entrance was still piled up with many skeletons, old weapons were scattered all over the ground. They should be the last batch of people who escaped to here, it can be imagined that more corpses will be seen later.

  "Which way shall we go?" I asked.

  "I think it should be the one with the most corpses at the entrance." The coffin also considered it reasonable.

  "But there are also quite a few other doors, which should be able to lead inside as well." I found it somewhat strange.

  "Maybe this road is the best way to go? Look at that gate, it's much bigger than the one next to it." Pengpeng said, gesturing behind us.

  I took a few steps back to look, and indeed there were many people, this hole should be quite spacious, enough for all these people to run together. The coffin at this time actually moved closer, rubbing against something in the gap between the three doors.

  "What's wrong?" I asked as I walked over.

  "I see there's something faintly visible here, I'd like to take a closer look."

  I shone my flashlight over and indeed saw some places that didn't match the wall. So I also took out my own short knife and scratched it on the wall.

  After clearing away the old soil, I saw that it was not a pattern but several characters. Judging from the situation, they should be a kind of cursive script. After trying to identify them, I roughly understood what they were: "Leave when you should leave, unite when you should unite, and look through the worldly marriage destiny." There aren't many characters, so it should be recognizable eight or nine out of ten times.

  "What does this mean? Are these monks giving up their ascetic practices for marriage? The old monk killed them all to prevent them from entering the secular world?" Pong said.

  "Stop talking nonsense, it won't be such an absurd thing. This should be a cryptic message, telling us how to pass through these three doors." said the coffin thoughtfully.

  "Yes, the key should be in separating and combining at the right places. Could it be that we three people will pass through these three doors separately and then meet again at another exit?" Now I can only interpret it this way too.

  Things have reached an impasse, should the three of them leave together or separately, one person per door?

  After some deliberation, I looked at these scattered bones and suddenly understood something.

  "Let's part ways." The coffin seemed to have thought of the same thing as me.

  "Let's ignore the last sentence, 'when we see through', we will definitely reunite. Let's bet on this one, not following the Buddhist scriptures, who knows what might happen. When in Rome, do as the Romans do." I've made up my mind.

  To prevent the three of us from losing contact with each other, we took out the most expensive and also the most advanced high-tech product on this adventure trip - Bluetooth headsets.

  Friends walked on the left side where there were the most corpses, I walked in the middle, and coffins walked on the right side. The three of us looked at each other and then stepped inside with big strides.

  "Report situation." I said. "Safe." "Safe." The reassuring words came through the earpiece.

  "Don't you think our little team is missing something?" Coffin said.

  "What's missing? Money?" Peng said.

  "Wrong, lacking a bit of fun, that is women. Our yang energy is too strong, we must balance yin and yang, as the saying goes, men and women pairing up, working together won't be tiring. I know many beautiful adventurous girls in Beijing, next time if there's an activity, bring one or two along, so our trip won't be boring. Haha."

  "You're just a wolf, but that's good. The more they fear us, the more they'll come crawling into our arms. This is what shows off our manhood and masculinity." Pengpeng also chimed in with his joke.

  Although the voices around me kept talking, my footsteps slowed down, and a sense of fear slowly rose up. I had this feeling once before at the copper statue on the first floor - it was a feeling of loneliness, isolation, and being at a loss. Although I saw corpses that vanished in the wind, although I saw skeletons scattered all over the ground, I wasn't afraid because there were people by my side, people who endured everything with me. Now, alone, the helpless feeling in this dark space is the most despairing thing of all.