I took a glance at the watch on my hand, this watch was given to me by Fatso, and the time displayed on it had already reached 4:44. My heart skipped a beat, how could such an unlucky number appear? A bad premonition suddenly emerged in my mind.

  Zha Wenbin said softly to me with a lighter: "If I have any sudden situation, you turn back quickly, two blocking together is not good for running."

  "Run? Run a ball!" I patted the Wuxia novel in my hand: "It's them who should run, we two are one literary and one martial, you play yin, I play yang, together we're Taiji."

  After walking about 15 meters forward, the cave started to become a bit more spacious and two people could walk side by side. The middle of the path was still paved with logs, but the first chamber appeared on my left-hand side, and there was another one on Zhang Wenbin's side as well. Both chambers did not have doors and were open, with black charcoal scattered all over the ground, which felt soft and spongy when stepped on. I knew that this was used to prevent dampness in the past, as wood charcoal can absorb water.

  Zha Wenbin meant to go left first and then right, I aimed at that hole and took a wooden stick, the wood was cracked after being pressed, it was very rough around the edges. With a lighter, it ignited in no time. Suddenly, I felt much brighter all around, this road was full of wooden sticks, at least we didn't have to worry about torches, with this, people's courage also increased a bit. I leaned over lightly, one hand holding the gun and the other holding the torch, and flashed it inside before entering.

  This room is roughly the same size as a normal household kitchen. The floor is littered with many small, gravel-like objects. In the distance, you can see a candle holder with a half-burnt candle and some bowls and bottles, but nothing else. Cha Wenbin observed: "This should be an ear chamber. You see that there's no door inside, meaning it can be entered from all sides. This thing is called an eight-sided circle gate. The things on the ground should be grain, this is a granary."

  We also went into the one on the right, which was similar to the one on the left, but there were many bones inside. After checking, they were all from animals, such as chickens, cows, sheep, pigs, and even a fish. This was where meat was stored. These ancient people were very particular, and even after death, they wanted to follow the same configuration as when they were alive. There wasn't much difference, so we decided to continue moving forward.

  According to Cha Wenbin's judgment, the ear chamber will soon appear with a matching room, which is usually where the tomb owner's servants and concubines lived. The master attaches importance to equality, one on the left and one on the right. Sure enough, after walking less than five meters, these two rooms appeared as usual, but what made us feel somewhat unexpected was that these two rooms were actually empty, with nothing arranged inside.

  Beyond this layer, we should enter the main tomb chamber. Generally, on both sides of the main tomb chamber, there will be a burial chamber, which is usually where grave robbers visit. We believe that no one has ever entered this tomb before. In fact, neither I nor Zha Wenbin had any experience; if it were an experienced person, they would never have rushed into such a large-scale tomb so rashly, because we didn't consider whether there was enough oxygen inside, whether there were traps or mechanisms, and whether there were anti-theft measures.

  Some things are like this, when you think about considering it, it's already too late!

  Perhaps it was the initial four rooms that were completely normal, which made both of us slightly relax our vigilance. With the torch, I could see the entrance to the main tomb chamber, a pair of doors carved from pure white jade, with fist-sized door nails on them. At this moment, the distance seemed to be within ten steps.

  The door was open, which was within our expectation, because those two things must have gone in, they were physical and couldn't just disappear. Chai Wenbin and I were like the Red Army on the Long March, we thought we were about to cross the snowy mountains, but our lack of experience became our fatal flaw.

  The logs on that land are as straight as railway tracks, leading to the end of an endless dark world, and the door is open, beckoning you.

  At this moment, by my ear, it's as if a group of flirtatious old women with flowery branches are waving handkerchiefs in their hands and shouting: "Come on, come on, gentlemen, please enter."

  So I moved, and Cha Wenbin also moved. Three steps, at most it was just like this. I felt a looseness under my feet, and then I heard a "rumbling" sound. After that, I enjoyed the feeling of free fall for a while. The moment my butt hit the ground, I thought I would never be able to stand up again in this lifetime. The pain was coming from deep within my bones, I heard the sound of my skeleton shattering, and I couldn't see clearly what was happening around me, the torch had already gone out. All I knew was that I couldn't breathe, my lower body temporarily lost all sensation, it hurt so much I didn't dare make a sound.

  Cha Wenbin's condition is not much better than mine, we are all ordinary people, I am a little stronger than him, fortunately, I heard his heavy breathing, at least he is still alive.

  Stinky, foul-smelling, that indescribable smell, somewhat like the stench of an expired can of sardines when opened. I felt my throat start to itch, and then I began to vomit. This situation lasted for about five minutes or so, until I felt like bile was going to come out, when his lighter lit up.

  Zha Wenbin gave me a small bottle, I put it under my nose and smelled it, suddenly feeling much more refreshed, and I started to feel better too. It wasn't until five minutes after we fell down that we had our first conversation, I said: "The fortune teller at Fuzi Temple is pretty accurate."

  "Anything wrong?" he asked me, I replied: "I think my bones are broken, they're all cracking, didn't you hear that?"

  "I heard it," he said: "It's not your bones cracking, what are you afraid of?"

  "Isn't it mine?" I hesitated for a moment, as if I had already moved, and just now was just a daze. No, I clearly heard it, "Could it be yours? How are you?" I hurriedly struggled to get up, but as soon as I moved, I heard another "crash" sound coming over.

  At this time, Cha Wenbin took the lighter and leaned over to one side, saying: "Take a look, there are dead people's bones everywhere here. Just now they fell down and hit us. Fortunately, they have been dead for some years, so these bones are all crushed. If not, we would have been pierced to death."

  I took a glance along the lighter, and damn it, Cha Wenbin's kid had two human heads under his head at this time, with empty eye sockets and a split mouth, and the lower jawbone was gone. Another look, I myself was pressing down on another one, the entire ribcage should have been crushed to powder by my butt, and I shouted out loud at that moment!

  He covered my mouth with one hand and said, "What are you shouting about?"

  I finally calmed down and said: "Dad, it's come to this, can't I even call you that now?!"

  It was a scene that I found hard to describe, with white bones all around you, some intact and some incomplete, overlapping each other in various postures. The clothes on those skeletons had all rotted away, with some still hanging onto scraps of fabric, while others were completely naked. Some skulls were rolled to one side, while others were missing several ribs, there were those without hands or legs, it was a mass grave!

  "My goodness, what Father said is true!"

  Cha Wenbin's face was also aghast, even though we had discovered many bones in the Northeast Wilderness Village back then, but compared to this dense and numerous scene, it was child's play. As soon as you moved, those bones would fall off, and there was nowhere to step. Looking up, it was pitch black, and I didn't know how high it was when it fell down. Suddenly, I wondered if all these people had fallen from above, just like us?

  He seemed to have understood my thoughts and said to me: "They are not, these people are all buried with the dead, this is a burial pit!"

  "How many people have to die before this stops? I don't even dare to imagine what kind of era this is where there's no rule of law."

  Cha Wenbin said: "It used to be like this, such a large project relied solely on manpower. Look at the person next to him with a pickaxe, I think these are all the laborers who were in charge of building this place back then, and after the project was completed, they were all taken here to be buried with the dead. This kind of thing is not uncommon. And look at their postures, I feel that these people were buried alive, locked in here waiting for death. Look over there, the one leaning against the wall corner is praying, and the one kneeling down, that one looks like a child."

  Indeed, I saw a corpse with its body arched, and in its arms was another set of white bones, only about one-fifth the size of an adult's body, probably that of a child.

  Similar miserable scenes are everywhere. After the pain subsided, I and Zha Wenbin got up to carefully explore this place. It's about 20 meters long and 10 meters wide. In this narrow space, there were no less than three hundred white bones at first glance. Our feet couldn't see the bottom, judging from the situation, it's estimated that there are layers of people stacked on top of each other below, because many corpses had only half of their hands exposed outside, probably they didn't climb up.

  The white bones left above should be the survivors at that time. It can be imagined that they were driven here in batches, and those who were lucky enough to step on others' heads climbed up, while those who were unlucky were crushed to death on the spot. The cries for help, these people wriggled their bodies, just like insects stuffed in a jar crawling around.

  A scene emerged in my mind: the living desperately searching for a way out, the dead bodies starting to rot, the sealed high-temperature environment turning this place into a temporary hell on earth, with polluted water flowing and a foul smell filling the air. Flies and bacteria began to devour the flesh of the dead, while the living suffered from thirst and hunger, gradually giving up, collapsing, until death...