Chapter 8: First Encounter with a Ghost

  P:400|H:102/12/As I climbed down the rope, I had already greeted all the female members of Liu Wei and Zhu Baozi's families N times, although it was useless, but it was also good to relieve my mood. When we can't choose our lives, people have to learn to self-regulate and self-soothe.

  The stone moved very quickly, and after a few slides, it reached the entrance of the cave. The thin monkey lit up a few branches as lighting and markers. I climbed to the entrance, and the stone stretched out its hand to pull me over. However, with a sudden burst of strength, I fell onto his body. He whispered in my ear, "The one following us is Liu Wei's man. I saw him leave a mark." After finishing speaking, he naturally helped me up, making it seem as if I had simply lost my balance and fallen, without anything out of the ordinary happening.

  "Haha, Mr. Lin is not doing well, huh!" A Japanese man said to me with a smile, although his face was smiling, I always felt that his eyes were icy and cold, just like looking at a dead person without temperature, which made me shiver and dryly laugh without speaking. Soon everyone slid down the rope and gathered at the entrance of the cave.

  Liu Wei took a look into the cave and nodded, "Well, it should be alright, but I always feel like there's a dead air here."

  "Less nonsense, finding the tomb is the priority." After finishing speaking, Zhu Baozi took the lead and carried his backpack towards the mountain cave.

  The cave was not wide, but very long, after walking for nearly twenty minutes, Zhu Baozi suddenly stopped.

  "What's wrong?" a Japanese man asked.

  "Mr. Matsuda, the stones here are not naturally formed, they must have been laid by humans," Zhu Pangzi replied respectfully.

  I shone my flashlight on the ground and looked for half a day, but I couldn't see any difference. But then Zhu Baozi stuck his ear to the stone surface, tapped it with his flashlight, stood up, clapped his hands and said "The stone is very thin."

  A Japanese man happily took out a rectangular box from his backpack, opened the button, and a hissing sound started to rise continuously. He put the box on the ground, pressed several buttons again, and soon, like water ripples, green patterns appeared on the instrument. Then he put away the instrument and said with satisfaction, "Not bad, not bad, it's indeed empty in here."

  Liu Wei turned his head and stared at me, asking, "Mr. Lin, is this a grave?"

  I pretended to think, touched my nose, and before I could speak, Zhu Baozi interrupted with "What's the point of asking him?" Although this sentence was unpleasant to hear, it was indeed true that I didn't know. Seeing that Zhu Baozi had already taken out his tools very enthusiastically, I could only nod and say, "Right, it should be here."

  Zhu Baozi took out an axe and a Luoyang shovel and started prying up the stone slab. The stone slab was indeed very thin, about five centimeters thick, and was quickly pried up, revealing the yellowish soil inside.

  "Skinny monkey, come and hit the thief's hole." Zhu Baozi beckoned to Skinny Monkey after prying up the stone.

  After digging down for about three meters, a layer of red wall appeared. Zhu Baozi pulled several thin monkeys up and took out an iron pipe with a diameter of about the length of a small finger from his backpack, muttering, "Damn it, I'm afraid our tunnel is opened directly above the tomb."

  "Back up, back up." Zhu Baozi waved at us and then forcefully inserted the iron pipe into the red wall. Despite his stout body, he moved quickly, rolling over like a lazy donkey to our side. With a "whooshing" sound, a thick, red liquid sprayed out of the pipe, hitting the stone with a "sizzling" noise. After more than three minutes, it finally stopped flowing out. Zhu Baozi walked back, pulled out the pipe and threw it aside, shining his flashlight inside to observe before beckoning and saying, "Shou Hou, continue drilling."

  It was unclear whether it was intentional or unintentional, but Liu Wei and the others kept me and Shi Tou surrounded in the middle. After more than ten minutes, Skinny Monkey and several others jumped out of the thief cave. Skinny Monkey walked over to Zhu Baozi and said, "Big brother, you were right, the thief cave is indeed open at the side of the grave."

  "Go and take a look." Zhu Baozi frowned.

  Liu Wei didn't go over, but instead said to me in a "friendly" tone, "Mr. Lin, why don't you come take a look with us?" It was as if he was inviting me to watch a business movie.

  I rolled my eyes and said, "Can't I just not go in?" And yet they still managed to put on a show for me!

  "What do you think?" Liu Wei asked back.

  Turning his head and no longer speaking, Liu Wei took off his backpack, pulled out two night vision goggles and handed them to me, saying, "Put this on. Be careful inside, don't touch any mechanisms."

  I played with the night vision goggles handed over by Liu Wei and said absent-mindedly, "Why don't you let us leave, so as not to cause trouble for you when we go in."

  "Heh heh," Liu Wei dryly chuckled twice and said, "Mr. Lin should still cooperate with us."

  "Alright, come on!" Zhu Pangzi called out, Liu Wei gave me a gentle push. With the eaves above us, we had no choice but to lower our heads. The situation was forcing us! Stone and I could only walk over, and all we heard was Zhu Pangzi reminding us, "You guys be careful, the thief's hole is right above us, it's easy for the wall to collapse."

  Liu Wei walked over, threw a stone into the cave, and the sound quickly came back. The estimated height should be around four meters. Zhu Baozi suddenly pointed at me and said, "You go down first!"

  "Me?" I was stunned. Who knows what's down there? What if I go and bump into a giant zongzi or trigger some mechanism, wouldn't I be done for on the spot?

  "This, I don't have any experience either!" I involuntarily took a step back, but was grabbed by Zhu Baozi and pulled back, "Less nonsense, go down". Damn it, he almost kicked me straight down.

  Shi Tou took a step forward and was about to make a move. I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, isn't making a move at this time courting death?

  "I spread out my hands and said 'Alright, I'll go down. Is there still a rope?'"

  Liu Wei shrugged at me. I couldn't help but curse and say "Damn it, how am I supposed to go on?"

  "Stop stalling, let's jump." Zhu Angzi's face had a black line on it, I reckon he'd been provoked by me to the limit too. The tomb has been found, and now my use for them is just as test subjects to eliminate danger.

  "I'll go down first." Shi Tou suddenly said a sentence, then took off the backpack and put it on the ground, holding onto the entrance of the cave and jumping down.

  "No problem, come on down!" Before long, the sound of rocks came from below. I threw my backpack down first and shouted towards the cave entrance "Rocks catch me at a point," then jumped down.

  Zhu Baozi and his men weren't slow either, they didn't give me and Shi Tou any chance to escape. Each of them was equipped with a night vision device and had drawn their weapons. The two Japanese men, Liu Wei, and Zhu Baozi were all holding 54 pistols, while the thin monkey was carrying a long-barreled hunting rifle, and the rest were armed with axes.

  "They all followed me." Zhu Baozi lifted up the night vision device, walking forward with a flashlight, muttering to himself, "What a piece of junk, not even clearer than looking with a flashlight." But what he said wasn't wrong, this night vision device was indeed trashy, only able to vaguely distinguish the outlines of things in front of him. After wearing it for a while, I also took it off, and it's not even clearer than looking with the naked eye.

  "Save some battery on your flashlight." Zhu Baozi reminded from the front.

  The first time I entered the tomb, although I was scared to death in my heart, but at the same time very curious. Now we are walking in a place that seems like a corridor, except for the stone bricks on both sides, there is nothing else. Gradually, my courage also grew, and I began to look around, it's not as terrible as what the old man said!

  "Hey, suddenly I found something was off on the wall. I couldn't help but pick up the flashlight in my hand and move closer to the wall. After turning it on, a person's figure appeared on the dark wall, attached to the surface. The gloomy face stared at me from less than 30 centimeters away. I clearly saw his empty eyes and faint shadow, as if he could float over and bite me at any moment. In an instant, all the hairs on my body stood up, a huge sense of fear swept in, and I shouted out loud before hastily retreating. The flashlight was thrown to the ground, 'Ghost! Oh ghost!' I ran back two steps, but my legs went soft and I sat down on the ground."

  Liu Wei and the others suddenly became vigilant, raised their guns, and slowly walked over. Zhu Biao's courage was also quite large, and he slowly moved in the direction I pointed to. When Zhu Biao approached the wall, I saw him suddenly retreat a step, with a clear look of fear on his face. He raised his gun, and there was a loud "bang" sound, followed by a metallic clanging sound.

  Zhu Baozi was taken aback, walked over and knocked on the wall with his hand, making a "dang dang" sound.

  "Damn it," Zhu Pangzi spat and walked back, scolding, "It's just a copper mirror, almost scared your old man to death."

  I stood up with a start and looked around, and sure enough, every ten or so meters on the wall was embedded with a copper mirror. The only thing was that the color of the copper mirrors was extremely dull, and if you didn't look carefully, it seemed like someone was standing inside the wall. It turned out that the ghostly shadow I saw earlier was actually myself! I'm really dizzy! This almost became the first case in the world where someone died from being scared by a mirror.

  Although I knew that the shadows on the wall were created by ourselves with flashlights, I still couldn't help but look and feel a wave of fear.

  I was walking at the back of the group, and as someone who has always been afraid of walking in the dark since I was a kid, I kept feeling like there was something chilly behind me, like something was floating by. When I turned my head to look, there was really nothing there. Cold sweat kept breaking out on my body, and my legs were all weak and powerless. The scenes from horror movies that I usually watch kept involuntarily appearing in my mind, and no matter what, I couldn't shake them off. Humans are just a contradictory creature - they always remind themselves not to scare themselves, but the more they remind themselves, the more afraid they become.

  Turning back, I finally felt something was off. There was clearly no one behind me, so why did a shadow appear on the wall? Looking again, there was nothing. Had my eyes deceived me? Turning my head to think, I suddenly felt an icy chill spread throughout my body, and a tingling sensation in my scalp. I couldn't help but shout out "Ghost! Oh no, it's a ghost!"

  "Are you done yet?" Zhu Baozi said impatiently as he turned his head back.

  "My trembling hand pointed behind and said 'There really is a ghost, I really saw it!' After finishing speaking, I hurriedly ran to the middle of the team and said that I wouldn't stay in the back, saying that I know when this ghost will take me away."

  Liu Wei and others all turned on their flashlights, shining them around, but all they saw were their own shadows, nothing else. Everyone ignored me again, continuing forward, but I knew I hadn't seen it wrong, the shadow I saw earlier had long hair down to his waist, but everyone here has short hair!

  Yesterday, I updated one less chapter, today this big chapter makes up for it, and there's still another chapter tonight. Tomorrow is New Year's Day, so I'll only update one chapter, everyone should spend more time chatting with family members and watching TV! In my book, I added some pictures to increase the fun, if you don't like them, feel free to let me know. Wishing you all a happy new year in advance! Zhasi Dele!