Chapter 46: Dig First and Bury Later

  I found that all along the way through the grass thicket, under the small earth mound on the ground were actually all skulls, and I almost collapsed.

  This is too bizarre, this empty grassland looks about the same size as that insect forest before, probably can be as big as a football field, if all of them are buried with dead people here, what a huge number it would be!

  The more I thought about it, the more frightened I became, but still somewhat unwilling to give up, so I used my dagger to dig a few more holes in the ground. This time, I was thoroughly convinced that beneath this clump of grass were nothing but human remains.

  I rushed back to everyone's side and saw Liang Zi anxiously asking me with one foot, "How is it? Is there any new discovery?"

  I supported him with a helpless expression and said, "Don't mention it, it's really strange that we encounter so many strange things every year. Under this empty space, it's all skulls."

  "My god, this is too ridiculous! Looking at the scale, it's like a pit for ten thousand people!" Liang Zi said while looking around, also with an incredulous face.

  At this time, going to see Hei Lian and Zhou Huan again, these two are like addicted to digging up dead people's bones, still continuing to scrape the skull outward. Now a large area has been exposed, with various parts scattered all over the ground, it's impossible to tell how many corpses there are.

  "Little sister-in-law, stop playing around, let's retreat quickly..." Liangzi called out with a pleading face.

  Zhou Huan really is a heroine, facing so many skulls without showing any fear. She squatted on the ground looking very puzzled, and when she heard Liangzi shouting, she shouted at me: "Don't just stand there stupidly, come over and help!"

  I thought: Are these two people sick? How can this skull be dug up and sold for money? Even if someone buys it, we can't take it away!

  I had no choice but to support Liangzi and walk over, take off the backpack and let Liangzi sit on it, and then walk to Zhou Huan's side and ask: "What do you want to do? Stop digging, hurry up and leave!"

  "It's not time yet, dig for a while longer and make sure before leaving."

  "What's certain! You wouldn't want to see if there are any acquaintances, would you?"

  Zhou Huan listened to me and said with a displeased face: "If you want to help, then get your hands moving. If you don't want to help, then roll away to the side. I really don't know what's going on in all of your minds."

  I know I just said something excessive, but this woman is also completely unreasonable. Is it normal for people to dig like they're possessed by a skull and have no life?

  I'm fed up and too lazy to argue with her, thinking let them do whatever they want, just help dig up what they're looking for as soon as possible and leave quickly.

  I couldn't care about that anymore, I inserted the dagger and reached out to pull those weeds, feeling that when these dead people were buried, the soil on top was not covered very thickly, the roots of the grass didn't penetrate deep into the soil, shaking a few times with force could pull them out, below which was suddenly a layer of human bones.

  As one by one the skeletons were dug up, I discovered a unified phenomenon. These human bones looked like they should all be adults, as their lengths were roughly the same, which suggests that these people died here for some purpose, ruling out the possibility of being slaughtered in a village.

  The three of us didn't even have time to rest, and we worked hard for an entire afternoon. I looked back at the skulls laid out on the ground, and there were probably over a hundred of them. Some were relatively intact, while others were damaged beyond recognition. If all the empty land in the grassy area was dug up, the number would be unimaginable.

  I really can't take it anymore, I feel like if we continue like this, I'll go crazy. So I walked over to Zhou Huan and pulled her up, asking: "Can you tell me what we're looking for? I need a goal, or else this aimless digging is pointless!"

  My emotions were too excited, and I spoke loudly to her. Zhou Huan was stunned by what I said, sighed and said: "Okay, we are going to find it, find the bullet."

  I hadn't even reacted yet, when I heard Liangzi shouting from behind: "Little sister-in-law, we still have a lot of bullets, especially Qiu Ye has the most, let's not look for them anymore, hurry up and leave, it's almost dark!"

  Although I felt a bit awkward listening to Liangzi's words, what he said was indeed the truth. He asked Zhou Huan with a different tone: "Make it clear, what kind of bullet are you looking for?"

  "Let me put it this way, as long as we find a bullet that's different from our era, once confirmed, we can leave." Zhou Huan said resolutely.

  I was stunned by what she said, what a load of nonsense! I was just about to ask more questions when I heard the black-faced captain say from not far away: "Found it!"

  Zhou Huan immediately ran towards Hei Lian, and I followed closely behind. When we got closer, we found that Hei Lian was holding a skull in both hands, examining it carefully.

  "How is it? Can you be sure?" Zhou Huan asked Hei Lian.

  "It seems that the content of the information is basically correct, and there was indeed a massacre here." The black-faced captain replied while pointing to a place on the skull.

  I also rushed over to take a look, and found that on the back of this skull, there was indeed a metal bullet head stuck in the bone, with only a small part exposed.

  What's going on? I'm completely stunned. Urgently asking Zhou Huan: "I'm really confused, are these people all shot dead? Is this a massacre?"

  "It's possible that they were massacred, but not all of them were shot to death, it's also possible that they were poisoned, we are looking for bullets in order to confirm whether our information is accurate."

  Then Zhou Huan simply told me that before they came here, they had carefully studied this area and learned from local legends that during World War II, a multinational army was stationed in the mountains. They were busy constructing or searching for something.

  During that period, many young and middle-aged people in this area were taken away or disappeared, with an abnormal number of over 2,000 people. After they disappeared, they never came back again.

  I listened to Zhou Huan's words getting more and more absurd, so I continued to ask: "Aren't we here to rob a tomb this time? Are these people being caught to build an ancient tomb? This is also too far-fetched, the era doesn't match either!"

  "On the contrary, they didn't come to repair the tomb, but to dig it up."

  "Digging a grave...... Do you think I'm an idiot? What kind of grave needs so many people to dig?! Alright, even if what you said is true, the grave is probably already dug up, do we still need to go up the mountain?"

  "No, you're wrong. That army didn't succeed back then. I don't know what happened, but it's likely that they all died here. We've collected a lot of information about this in the US, and the fact is that there's no record of where this unit went afterwards. The most likely possibility is that they all died here."

  I listened to Zhou Huan finish speaking, and I felt that either she was talking nonsense or this woman had gone mad. Without going into whether her so-called information was true or not, even if these guesses were correct, then back then with thousands of people from the civilians and troops combined still unable to succeed, wouldn't we four be going to our deaths?

  I thought for half a day and still couldn't convince myself, the more I think about it, the colder my back gets. What if Zhou Huan was telling the truth? What terrible thing happened that year to make so many people disappear?

  Zhou Huan saw me in a daze, patted the mud on his hand and pushed me gently, saying: "Let's go, it's almost dark. We'll leave here first. I'll talk to you again when we have a chance."

  After she finished speaking with Hei Lian, they turned around and walked back. I followed foolishly behind them. As we approached Liang Zi, I asked Zhou Huan: "Are we just leaving like this? What about these bones?"

  Zhou Huan was apparently taken aback by me and asked inexplicably what I meant?

  As soon as I think of that brutal massacre, I get particularly agitated and loudly say: "No matter how these people died, they were quietly buried underground before. Now that we've dug up their remains, can't we take care of them? Can't we let them rest in peace instead of leaving them to rot here?"

  "What do you want to do then? Do you want to put these bones back in their original position?"

  "Restoring them to their original positions is not necessary, at the very least we should bury them properly, otherwise my conscience will be condemned and I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life." I became more and more agitated as I spoke, shouting loudly.

  "If you're afraid of having nightmares, then stay and bury them yourself. I don't have extra time to deal with these meaningless things. You really are mentally unstable."

  "You're good, you're the best, you're nothing but a grave robber without humanity. You can leave if you want, I must collect these remains..."

  I vented my emotions to Zhou Huan, and didn't bother with her anymore. I immediately went to collect the exposed bones, placing them together one by one.

  At this time, I was no longer afraid, and directly used my hands to pick up the bones and bury them. I thought that this woman was just a professional with an unusual occupation, but she was still a good person. Now it seems that she is a tomb raider who has been trained since childhood, and is absolutely different from us ordinary people, lacking too much human nature.

  Liang Zi, despite having an injury on her foot, still thinks the same way as me and doesn't urge to leave this haunted place quickly. She drags one lame leg to come help me, and also stops paying attention to Zhou Huan and Captain Hei Lian.

  I think it's impossible to recover all the bones, so I'll just collect them together, cover them with soil, and then cover them with some weeds. As long as my heart is at peace, that's enough.

  Zhou Huan and Hei Lian Dui Zhang didn't leave either, they stared blankly at me and Liang Zi for a while before Zhou Huan walked over to me, picked up a skeleton next to me and said: "You're really infuriating, you have a brain disease, lack of eyes."

  I was too lazy to bother with her, and continued working non-stop until all the bones were collected together, by which time night had also fallen.

  All four of our bags had small entrenching shovels, I took mine out and went to dig soil to cover them up, but the gaps between the bones were quite large, it was very hard to cover them.

  In the end, Liangzi thought of a solution. He called Blackface Captain to use a dagger to cut grass, first covering the bones with a layer of grass and then adding soil on top. This method was indeed effective.

  After we were all sweaty and had covered up all the bones, what was in front of us became a super huge tomb.

  Liáng zǐ diǎn rán le sān gēn yān chā zài dì shàng, zuǐ lǐ niàn niàn yǒu cí dào: "Gè wèi xiāng qīn, gè wèi tóng bāo, kě néng hái yǒu yī xiē wài guó péng yǒu, jīn tiān wǒ men jǐ gè tú jìng cǐ dì, bù xiǎo xīn dǎ jiǎo le gè wèi de qīng mèng, tè cǐ fèng shàng xiāng yān sān gēn, nǐ men duì fù zhe chōu jǐ kǒu, bié wàng le bǎo suǒ wǒ men fā dà cái……"

  I heard him say a few sentences before that were okay, but afterwards it got more and more unreliable, hurry up and kick him, let him stop talking nonsense.

  Four people bowed in front of the big tomb, then packed up their things and prepared to leave. It wasn't until this moment that I realized my sense of direction had disappeared, and the sky was also completely dark.