Chapter Five: The Ancient Tombs of Dongshan

  When I was reading books, the extracurricular books I liked to read the most were ancient unofficial historical records. So at the first moment, I judged that this place is not a abandoned warehouse at all, it's clearly a tomb!

  The tomb is roughly half the size of a basketball court, square in shape, about three meters high, and the torches can barely illuminate the end. The northeast corner has slightly collapsed, with a pile of gray bricks scattered randomly. The entire tomb is cold and dry, with a faint smell of decay.

  It's not the first time I've come into contact with a tomb through books and TV, but when I came close to a real tomb for the first time, the feeling was shocking. The fear that rose from the bottom of my heart made me feel cold all over, and my hands and feet trembled involuntarily.

  "Old cow, give me a cigarette." I tried to calm myself down from the shock.

  He handed me a cigarette case with a trembling hand, I took a look and there was only one left, lit it up, took a deep drag, "Don't be afraid, take a look."

  "You're the one who's afraid, isn't it not good to think about killing people?" He was very disgusted by my saying that he was afraid and pretended to be brave.

  "I didn't say I wanted to touch anything, I just want to take a look," I said shaking my head. "Besides, given our current location, your crap is basically on someone's grave."

  The cannon was silent, and the two of us held torches, taking one step at a time, afraid that we would trigger some legendary mechanism or ambush. Later, feeling that every step was on solid ground, our hearts gradually calmed down.

  "There is a coffin." Jin Gang cannon pointed to the tomb in the middle of the stone platform that the big coffin was placed north and south.

  "I saw it early on, don't move it, let's take another look and see if there's anything else." I nodded and said.

  I held the torch and walked towards the north side of the tomb, where there was a table-like platform with offerings. Jin Gang Pao still told me he was afraid and had a lingering fear, and in a huff didn't follow me, but instead went to the northeast corner where a pile of scattered blue bricks lay.

  I held a torch and walked closer to the table that looked like an altar, only to find it was an ancient desk. The style was similar to today's desks, but its length had been shortened by almost half, with four corners slightly raised upwards, adorned with wave-like decorations.

  The desktop was covered with a thick layer of dust, and the light was insufficient, so it was impossible to see what material it was made of. On the desktop were placed two flat round bowls, similar to those used by monks when begging for alms. Inside, there seemed to be some granular substance.

  In addition, there was a thin stack of paper on the table, which should be books and other things, much narrower than our current 32K paper. I extinguished the cigarette, reached out to pick it up, and didn't know what year or month it was from. As soon as I got it in my hand, it crumbled, and a lot of paper scraps fell off. I was secretly regretful, but then I heard Jin Gang Pao's voice: "Old Yu, someone has been here, you come quickly to take a look."

  I casually stuffed the ancient book into my backpack and ran over, only to see Jin Gang holding a white woven bag shouting at me "Lao Yu, don't bother looking, this place has been stolen from before, look there's a hole here."

  I looked down and found that there was indeed a hole on the ground of the tomb, with a diameter roughly the size of a small water jar, and the edges were not jagged but rather smooth.

  "They must have dug up quite a few good things and even brought bags to carry them." Jin Gang Cannon held up that white woven bag.

  I took the bag from the hand of the cannon and brought it closer to the torch for a closer look, my body hair stood on end, my heart suddenly contracted, and I was instantly covered in cold sweat. What kind of bag is this? It's clearly a white and green striped snake skin.

  "Snake skin, it's a giant snake's shed skin." I threw away the huge snakeskin in my hand and shouted at Jin Gang Cannon.

  "Ah?!" Jin Gang shouted, quickly moving his rifle from behind his back to his hands, instantly turning pale.

  Just then, a sharp scream came from the collapsed entrance, followed by a pungent smell that surged up from the hole under our feet.

  It was just a snake skin that scared us to death, and the master is back, that's all. At the critical moment, it was our training that played a role.

  "Open your mouth!" Jin Gang cannon quickly stuffed that torch into me and turned the gun head towards the cave entrance, firing a shot.

  "Boom!" Despite the huge gunshot ringing in his ears and making his head spin, he still reflexively grabbed the ejected shell casing with one hand, using the muzzle flash as a guide.

  "Go first," "I'll go first," we both shouted at the same time. This wasn't because I was afraid of death and wanted to run away, but rather it was a rule in our unit during training: when encountering an emergency situation, those with weapons would cover from behind, while unarmed comrades would retreat first.

  I ran three steps and two steps to the opening we had made, jumped down with a somersault, grabbed the machete that my companion and I had left in the cave, and then the cannon came crashing down from above like a dumb bomb.

  The two of them took one look at each other, and then they were off like a shot, running as fast as their legs could carry them. When human life is threatened, the potential for speed is limitless. I had never seen Jin Gang run so fast before.

  It wasn't until we ran out of breath and had gone several miles that we dared to look back. Seeing that thing hadn't followed us, the two of us finally let out a sigh of relief. After catching our breath for a few quick gasps, we got up and continued running, all the way to the asphalt road at the starting point of the power grid, where the two of us collapsed.

  I shivered and pulled out the unfinished half cigarette from my pocket, lit it with a lighter, took two strong puffs and handed it to Jin Gang Pao. Jin Gang Pao took two puffs and handed it back to me...

  "Lao Yu, have you ever seen such a huge long worm?" Jin Gang Pao spoke up first, slowly coming back to his senses. Although we were scared away without even seeing the main thing's face, the big hole on the ground and the shed snake skin indirectly proved to us that it was not an ordinary big one.

  "No, never seen it before, the thickest one I've ever seen is about the size of a bowl mouth." I shook my head in response.

  "What's with that thing growing so big? What's it doing in the tomb?" Jin Gang Pao turned around and looked at me.

  "I don't know," I shook my head and handed the empty shell to him. The troops have regulations, whether it's a live round or an empty shell, as long as it's been fired, you must recover the shell and explain its purpose. The first shot from the 81 rifle is an empty shell, although it's an empty shell, but within 5 meters it still has lethal power. If the shell can't be recovered, we'll be punished when we get back. And I was able to catch the ejected shell so easily thanks to those black-faced instructors, who included in our training a drill to improve our reaction speed: catching the shell ejected from the gun barrel while a comrade is shooting.

  Moreover, the moment when the shotgun was fired made me open my mouth because the sound of the bullet being fired was very loud, and in that almost enclosed environment, not opening my mouth to relieve pressure could easily damage my eardrum.

  "A bullet was fired, how can I explain it when I go back? Who would believe me if I said I used it to shoot a dragonfly?" Gold Cannon finally calmed down and thought of the problem we were facing.

  "We can't say the truth, digging someone's grave isn't a glorious thing to do. Even if we didn't mean to, what if our leader finds out? We won't be able to explain ourselves." I shook my head and said.

  "What can we do?" Jin Gang was at a loss.

  "Didn't Zhang Guofang from the last cooking class say he saw a wolf when he was delivering food to the sentry post on the mountain? He was so scared that he even peed his pants." I came up with an idea.

  "I haven't even seen what a wolf looks like, how can I tell you?" Jin Gang Pao said with a sorrowful face.

  "Haven't you watched TV? Moreover, don't you know what kind of wolf dog our squad has? It's about the same. I'm so angry that I'm speechless!"

  "What if it bites people after we encounter that thing?" Jingang Cannon is not a bad person.

  "It's unlikely, that thing has been there for a while, and it hasn't done anything bad in all this time. Plus, with the electric net separating us, people from outside villages can't get in either. Our mountain has over a hundred abandoned caves, how come someone just happened to be at the one we were at earlier?"

  The two men discussed some details and lingered until nightfall before returning to their respective squads.

  Because I was frightened too much during the day, I fell asleep as soon as I returned to the company. I don't know what Gold Cannon said after he went back. At more than 9 o'clock in the evening, the leader of the battalion drove to our squadron and checked all the dogs one by one. Finally, he stopped in front of the doghouse of "Guo Rong" which belonged to our squadron leader, and asked about Guo Rong's whereabouts that day several times, making our squadron leader stunned.

  It wasn't until later that I realized the deepest impression of Jin Gang Cannon was "Guo Rong", the one our squad leader took us to demonstrate when we went down to Lian. When he returned to report, he drew a picture of the wolf he encountered according to Guo Rong's physical characteristics and even added a sentence at the end, saying "it was a female".

  This guy is really observant.