Witchcraft

  Qin Guihe's sudden question made everyone stunned, and the narrowness of the stone cave made it impossible for people in front to turn their bodies at will. However, this sentence still made everyone's heart cool down. In such a narrow and deep stone cave, even with the illumination of flashlights, due to human instinctive fear of darkness, as soon as there was a little wind or movement, everyone immediately held their breath and concentrated, seemingly worried about what would happen next.

  For a moment, the surroundings were quiet to the point where one could almost hear each other's heartbeat. Everyone was silent, with their ears perked up and listening intently to every sound around them. But after a while, they still didn't hear any strange sounds, so Wang Chengbao said: "Hey, Qin Er, don't try to scare people on a night like this! What sound is there?"

  "After a while, Father also said: 'Yes, I didn't hear any sound either. Guixiang, did you mishear?'"

  Everyone couldn't see Qin Guihe's expression because he was walking at the back, only hearing him say timidly: "P-probably, I hope I misheard."

  "I'm telling you, he actually served in the army like that." Wang Chengbao said disdainfully.

  Qin Guiren walked ahead, feeling uncomfortable in his heart, but he couldn't say much because Wang Chengbao had paid them a large sum of money to be their guide. As the saying goes, "people die for wealth, birds die for food", since they were taking someone else's money, it wasn't good to casually lose their temper, so he could only hum a low tone and continue walking forward.

  Just like that, after walking for a while, Qin Guihe said from behind: "No, no, there must be a sound, didn't you guys hear it?"

  Wang Chengbao this time didn't even have the patience to calm down and listen carefully, directly saying: "I'm asking you if you're done or not, there's already a timid person here, do you have to scare him?"

  My father was still quite tense, but at that time he wasn't worried about other things like vengeful spirits, what he feared was the presence of snakes in this not very solid cellar.

  "Father asked: 'Guihe, you've been saying there's a sound, but we really haven't heard anything. You'd better say what sound you've heard.'"

  Qin Guihe didn't respond from behind, Wang Chengbao clicked his tongue twice and said: "Look at you, I let you speak but you still won't say anything."

  "Wait, wait!" Qin Guihe seemed to have some reservations, but at this time everyone couldn't see his complex and fearful expression. Qin Guihe hesitated and said: "I... I seem to hear the sound of a child crying."

  Duan Yuwen was startled by these words and hastily asked: "Where? How come I didn't hear it?"

  "Guì hé," said his father, "don't talk nonsense. Duànzi is still young and has just gone through that ordeal. Don't scare him again."

  Qin Guihe stopped talking from behind, Wang Chengbao waved his hand and urged Qin Guiren in front: "Let's go quickly, this broken place is too stuffy, the sooner we get out, the sooner we can rest assured."

  In this way, the five people continued to walk into the stone cave. After about the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, they finally arrived at an open area. However, no one had expected that this area would be so vast, and the beam of light from their flashlights couldn't even find the opposite wall. Moreover, it seemed as if they were standing on some sort of cliff, outside of which was a gentle slope, and further ahead was a long stone staircase.

  Wang Chengbao's courage was great, and he suddenly let out a loud "Ah" into the dark and spacious cavern. Before long, the echo reverberated throughout the entire space. The moment the echo sounded, everyone was startled, as it was so loud and bounced back and forth between the stone walls several times.

  "Heavens! Judging from this echo, it must be very big here." said Duan Yuwen.

  Wang Chengbao nodded and said: "I'm telling you, Qin Er, didn't you see that when you said you heard some noise just now, it's very likely to be our own echo coming from here, right?"

  No one answered.

  "Qin Er?" Wang Chengbao shouted, "What's wrong, can't even say two words to you without you getting angry? Come on, old chap, it's not worth it!"

  Still no one answered.

  A sense of extreme foreboding suddenly spread among the crowd. At that time, Duan Yu was walking in front of Qin Guo and Wan Chengbao asked him: "Duanzi, you're walking in front of Qin Er, hasn't he caught up yet?"

  Duan Yuwen thought for a moment, but felt very uncertain and said: "This, I also dare not confirm, when we walked together, the footsteps were very chaotic, I couldn't tell them apart either, but I remember there was his panting sound behind me, he should have come with us."

  Qin Guiren could no longer hold back his worries, and hurried to the entrance of the cave where he had come from earlier. He shone his flashlight inside and called out Qin Guihe's name twice, but there was no response.

  "Could it be that he has already gone down while we were not paying attention?"

  Qin Guiren heard this and hastily said: "Then let's hurry up and go take a look."

  Father stretched out his hand to stop them, saying: "Wait a minute, it's not appropriate to go down like this. Our flashlights can't illuminate the situation below. Do you have any strong lighting tools on your body?"

  Wang Chengbao opened his backpack at this time and took out a few things that looked like firecrackers. His father asked what they were, but unexpectedly Wang Chengbao said very calmly: "I made some magnesium flares myself."

  Father and others were all surprised, when they initially planned to come here, they only brought some relatively simple equipment, a few machetes for opening roads in the mountains, several flashlights, a few packets of compressed biscuits, and some other essential miscellaneous equipment. However, Wang Chengbao had considered it so thoroughly that he even brought homemade magnesium flares.

  In those years, like wolf eye flashlights had not yet entered the country, and illuminating bullets were not readily available for purchase. However, people of that era had strong hands-on skills and were particularly bold; as long as they understood some principles, they dared to do it themselves. Nevertheless, my father and Qin Guiren still felt very uneasy.

  Qin Guiren had been a soldier, he knew that military illumination flares also used magnesium as the main material, and the huge heat and light released by magnesium when burned were unmatched by other substances. He said worriedly: "Wait, Mr. Wang, can you guarantee the safety of this magnesium flare?"

  "Damn it, you think I'm a rookie? I'll tell you, don't keep calling me 'mister' like that. In academic circles, who doesn't know that Wang Chengbao is a notorious troublemaker?" As he spoke, Wang Chengbao picked up his lighter and lit the homemade magnesium flare, casually tossing it downwards.

  The magnesium flare burned steadily, and as the dazzling white light gradually expanded, a shocking scene appeared before the eyes of the four people. According to Duan Yuwen's recollection, at that time, everyone was shocked by the scene in front of them, so much so that after the first magnesium flare burned out, Wang Chengbao immediately threw another one.

  What appeared before the crowd was an exceptionally magnificent scene: a huge stone chamber, as large as two football fields, with a spaciousness that reminded one of ancient Roman arenas. Inside the stone chamber, in the center and on both sides, there were two rows of stone pillars, each pillar over 15 meters long, with a diameter that required two adults to encircle it. At a glance, the number of pillars was no less than thirty. The dark green stone pillars were carved with various totemic symbols, while between these rows of pillars, hundreds of bronze coffins were arranged in an orderly fashion, all identical in shape and size, except for slight differences in the symbols on some of them.

  The scene in front of him completely stunned my father. According to Duan Yiwu's recollection, his father, who usually never swore, also let out an exclamation that day: "My god, these villagers, they've hollowed out the entire mountain! This isn't a cellar, it's a underground palace!"

  Wang Chengbao's astonishment was in no way inferior to my father's, but after the shock, he felt more excited and seemed that everything before his eyes proved his previous secret judgment.

  Qin Guiren was even more stunned at this moment, he originally only saw a bronze coffin and felt extremely strange, now, hundreds of bronze coffins were lined up in front of him, he was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a while.

  Just as everyone was still shocked by the scene in front of them, Duan Yuwen suddenly pointed to the northeast corner of the palace and said, "Look over there quickly."

  Everyone was curious and turned their heads, only to see that among the many bronze coffins in the northeast corner, there was actually a figure squatting, with a physique and attire that was none other than Qin Guihe himself!