Chapter 59: The Origin of the Face

  The old professor immediately called everyone together, his face extremely serious. He furrowed his brow and said: "Everyone must not touch anything here, some things will kill you if touched. We are not experts, many things we don't understand. If something happens, no one can save you."

  Then, he glanced at the coffin and said nothing. He walked over by himself, turned around in a circle, and saw him kneel down on the ground, moving his mouth as if reciting something. Suddenly, he bowed his head under the coffin and felt around, then pulled out an iron ring. With one effort, a round iron cover was lifted up, revealing a dark hole. A chill wind burst out from the bottom of the hole.

  I saw this and couldn't care about being afraid anymore, so I rushed over to take a look. Only then did I realize that the 'hole' was very deep. The flashlight shone past, all the way to ten zhang away, but still didn't see the bottom, nor did I know where this 'hole' led to.

  A chill wind blew from the 'cave', sending shivers down my spine, and I wondered if there was something terrifying below.

  As soon as he squatted down, stretched out his hand to touch the "hole", he exclaimed in surprise: "The wall of this 'hole' is like a mirror, it seems to have been polished and ground to be so smooth."

  I listened and hastily reached out to feel my way, discovering that the wall of this 'hole' was indeed very smooth, just as Yu had said, like a mirror. However, such a 'hole' was bottomless and there was no place to set foot.

  "It's so deep and there are no stairs, how are we supposed to get down? Are we supposed to just jump down?" I couldn't help but ask.

  If this is the only way out, then we must find a way down. Who knows how deep this 'hole' is?

  I don't want to go back, those prehistoric crocodiles are probably still waiting for us. Even if the prehistoric crocodiles left, we can't possibly come out with a head full of mud, my water 'quality' is not very good, what if I get cramps, the consequences are unimaginable.

  Yu Gang scolded: "You damn fool, you jump, you jump for me to see, if you don't jump to death."

  "Damn it, if you don't speak up, nobody will think you're mute." I was so angry that I wanted to rush up and beat him, but I was just casually saying something. If I really jumped into action, only a brainless person would do such a thing.

  "Teacher, how are we going down?" Xiaobo suddenly spoke up, her gaze fell on the 'hole', as if she was also thinking of a way to go down.

  "Use this." The old professor held the flashlight and pointed to the 'hole' inside, we only then discovered that on the wall of the 'hole' in four directions each had a palm-sized recess, inside which were embedded four black iron chains.

  Yu Gang looked at the big iron chain and his face turned ugly. He shouted in dissatisfaction, "Do you want us to grab this iron chain and go down?"

  I thought to myself, with such a deep distance, holding onto the iron chain to go down, this iron chain is not like those clear ropes and whatnot, if both hands don't hold on tightly, I'm afraid I'll fall off and get smashed to death.

  The old professor glanced at Yu Gang, and couldn't help but laugh: "You go down holding the iron chain first, maybe Bazha that little brother also went down like this, you see others didn't fall to death, your hands are much better than his, don't you have confidence?"

  Yu Gang thought for a moment, then pulled his head back in doubt and said, "Old man, you're not trying to trick me, are you? This big iron chain, what if I'm not careful, damn it, who knows what's waiting for me down there?"

  The old professor listened, his face somewhat helpless. He didn't bother to reason with Yu Gang anymore and turned around to face the hole in front of him, explaining: "I don't know if your young eyes are blurry or my old eyes have a problem, but can't you see that there's a black button on the upper right corner of each of those three iron chains?"

  I listened and subconsciously looked over, and indeed as the old professor said, there was a small black dot at the upper right corner of the iron chain, which should be the button he mentioned.

  What is this button for?

  The people who design mechanisms have an intellect that is not attainable by ordinary people. They use innovative mechanisms to prevent others from stealing them.

  In fact, the intelligence of ancient people was extraordinary and cannot be compared with ours today.

  He stared blankly for a moment, then asked, "What's the use of that button?"

  Everyone stared at the old professor, this button is very critical, what if we accidentally press it and suddenly turn into a blood brush?

  It's common knowledge that many organs are deadly. Just now, the old professor reminded us of this and we're afraid to run into something fatal, or our lives will be lost forever.

  The old professor rubbed his nose and began to explain: "This black button is a mechanism. As long as you press it gently, the four iron chains on the wall will simultaneously stretch out an iron plate below. However, three iron plates are aligned towards the middle, they merge into one piece, very solid. It can probably hold three people at a time, it seems that now we have to go down in two batches."

  As I looked at this 'hole', I couldn't help but sigh in admiration, the imagination of ancient people was quite rich, and they were able to come up with something similar to the principle of elevator ups and downs.

  Yes, as the old professor said, this is simply a simplified version of an elevator.

  The old professor got up by himself and gave me a wink, saying "Come down with me."

  There were three of us, the old professor, Huang 'Mao', and I. After we got on the elevator, the old professor pressed a button next to him, and slowly, the three of us moved further away from the entrance.

  "The face you just saw, it didn't appear for no reason. Danger is accompanying it. Two years ago, I followed them and saw that face together, something happened afterwards, I warned you, that's all." The old professor looked at me with a serious tone, he glanced at Huang 'Mao' sitting beside him, his eyes seemed to be recalling something, after a while, he said: "I've been thinking all the time, if it wasn't for this face back then, perhaps we would have arrived at Tieban River already."

  "Are you saying it's that person's face that stopped you from going in?" I asked in surprise.

  The old professor sighed, paused for a moment, and looked at us with his gaze continuing: "Two years ago, the people who followed me in, not one of them is alive. At that time, each of us was led to another place by that face, and when we woke up, we found ourselves lying outside the camp. At that time, I thought it must be that it didn't want us to find the Tieban River. After I returned home, a week later, my superiors asked me to go back, saying it was for investigation, because all those people were dead, with no wounds on their bodies, and after forensic examination, there were no signs of death, they just died collectively like that."

  I moved my mouth, wanting to ask the old professor why he hadn't died yet? I thought it wouldn't be good to ask that way, so I wanted to change the question, but then I heard him say: "I don't know either why I didn't die. I think it was because of this face at the time. I asked them before and they all said no one had seen a face like this."

  "Do you think the appearance of that person's face is what kept you from dying like everyone else without any explanation?" I couldn't hide my astonishment anymore, this thing felt eerie. If it was just a coincidence that they died, then it was impossible for all of them to die collectively, and there were no signs of illness or injury on their bodies either.

  There is only one possibility, they can be cursed.

  Is this the only answer that can make them collectively die?

  In the past, I didn't believe in curses and such. Now that so many strange and bizarre things have happened, apart from looking at it from a supernatural perspective, science can't explain the existence of these phenomena.

  "It's not that simple." The old professor shook his head and said, "I even think that the person who saved me was only trying to save me, it must have been intentional, because among this group of people, only I know the location of Tieban River."

  "What do you mean? Are you saying... that the face recognized you?" Now, I only felt a chill on my back, this old man's words were getting stranger and stranger, leaving me bewildered and unable to digest.

  "Actually, I was woken up in the middle of the night to pee, but unexpectedly saw a human face, which really scared me. At that moment, I didn't think and just chased after it, wanting to figure out what's going on. Later, as I kept chasing, I got lost in the desert, couldn't see the face anymore, and couldn't find my way back. No matter how I walked, I couldn't get out. Just when I was stuck, I suddenly felt extremely oxygen-deprived, then fainted. When I woke up, I was lying not far from our campsite. Tell me, isn't that strange?"

  The old professor paused, his gaze fell on Huang 'Mao', that straight and piercing look made people feel a little stunned.

  Huang 'Mao' seemed to have not noticed the old professor's gaze, only to see him smiling and saying: "Professor, you can't be dreaming, where would there be a human face? This isn't a horror movie shoot."

  "You're saying I'm dreaming too? I just saw a pale face in the coffin, what do you have to say about that?" I shouted angrily. All along, I've never liked this Huang Mao, his tone is bad enough, but his words can really infuriate you to death.

  I've long wanted to beat that yellow-haired guy, but I just haven't found a good opportunity yet. Besides, the current situation has always been unfavorable, being suppressed by them, even ducking my head would hit the muzzle of a gun.

  Huang 'Mao' heard the tone of my voice and got angry, his eyes staring at me dead, if it weren't for being on the escalator, this kid would have already hit me.

  Huang 'Mao' was about to get up, the old professor saw this and pressed Huang 'Mao's hand, shaking his head and saying: "Your purpose is not this, everyone comes here with a purpose, don't always be at odds with others."

  As soon as the old professor's voice fell, his buttocks shook slightly, and the entire iron plate swayed, it had already landed.