Chapter 32

Main Text Chapter Thirty-Two: Dark River

The rats, having eaten their fill, then all swam back to the shore and dispersed.

Chu Jian picked up a broken stone from the ground, intending to throw it to drive away the slow-moving big rats, but I stopped him. Our family's rule, passed down from my grandfather's generation, is that the Lao Hu family must not harm rats; besides, these rats have no feud with people, so let them go.

Pangzi cursed: "Lao Hu, you damn well, this is just indulging evil. Turns out this water is where the rats bathe and eat; damn it, it's disgusting. I just gulped down a bunch, and I don't know how much rat feces, urine, and fur I swallowed."

I said: "Don't mention it, okay? The more I think about it, the more disgusting it gets. Let's not stay here; let's change location."

Nobody here wants to drink this water anymore, so we have to keep going deeper into the cave to look for the underground dark river. There's no other way here—only one passage, and the sound of flowing water comes from the far end of that passage.

We went forward along the route; the further we went, the heavier the moisture in the air, and the walls grew damper. Both sides of this passage have many man‑carved stone chambers, each fitted with iron bars and large locks, containing many instruments of punishment—apparently used to imprison prisoners. Now they're rat nests, the floor black with rat droppings.

After proceeding several hundred meters into the cave passage, we finally saw a swift‑flowing dark river spanning the cave mouth. This is the Zidu Dark River that has flowed beneath the desert for thousands of years without ever drying up. Its water is not only abundant but also deep, and at its end it joins the Tarim River.

However, the inland rivers of the Xinjiang desert all share one trait: no matter how large their flow, they cannot flow out of the desert into the sea. These desert inland rivers and underground dark rivers will eventually be slowly swallowed by the desert.

On the opposite bank there is another large cave, connected by a black stone bridge in the middle. The bridge is likewise built from the black stone of Zagelama Mountain, spanning the surging waters of the Zidu River.

In front of the cave at the far end of the black bridge stands a thousand‑jin gate, half‑raised by thick iron chains as big as a person's arm, with a huge stone block placed underneath. Looking down from beneath the gate, the cave interior is unfathomably deep—it's impossible to tell what lies there.

Professor Chen exclaimed in surprise: "Earlier we found the stone door of the underground palace blown open, so someone must have come in before. This gate is so massive and located in the deepest part of the third level of the underground palace; it's very likely that this is the eternal resting place of Queen Jingjue."

In ancient Western Regions kingdoms, it was common to place royal tombs inside the city, unlike the Central Plains Han who built tombs by carving into mountains and relying on ridges. We already learned this at Xiye Ancient City, where Prince Pumo's tomb was constructed inside the old city's holy well. Therefore the professor thinks Queen Jingjue's tomb lies beneath the underground palace, which is not surprising.

Everyone just felt things were going too smoothly; expedition teams had been here before, and this cavern is not hidden, so it must have been discovered earlier. Could it be that everyone who entered the queen's mausoleum died inside? What exactly is in there? Could the giant cavern shown in the murals also be inside?

I asked Professor Chen for his opinion: should we go in or not?

Professor Chen said without hesitation: "Go! I must go see whether Queen Jingjue's tomb has been looted or damaged. If I don't take a look, I won't rest in peace. If my old bones end up buried there, that would be a fitting death. At my age I don't care about anything, but you youngsters shouldn't go—I'll go alone."

Shirley Yang was loading a new film into her camera without even looking up, saying, "I'll naturally go too." She spoke lightly, as if she hadn't even considered whether to enter Queen Jingjue's tomb; it was merely a question of whether she'd be first or second inside.

Seeing that, I realized I couldn't stay out; if anything happened to those two, I couldn't live with myself, so I told Pangzi to stay behind and look after the three students.

Pangzi objected when he heard that: "Why do I always get stuck babysitting? You three go in, I won't feel at ease—if you go, I'll go with you; otherwise none of us should go. Don't worry, even if there's gold and silver treasure in there, I won't take any."

Chu Jian, Sa Dipeng and the others, hearing they wouldn't be brought along, urgently begged, saying no matter what they wanted to go in and have a look. This chance is too rare—after trekking thousands of miles across the black desert and enduring hardship to reach Jingjue Ancient City, how could we not see the queen's most important mausoleum? Besides, if anything happens, we could also help the group.

Now that everyone wants to go, what about the frail Ye Yixin, who alternates between lucidity and dizziness? Ye Yixin drank some cold salt water, now feeling a bit stronger, and told everyone: "You mustn't leave me alone here; I'm fine, I'll go in with you all."

I saw this was troublesome—even if Pangzi and I were incredibly capable, we couldn't look after five people, especially since most of them are old, weak women and scholars; only the big guy Chu Jian could lend us a hand.

I said to everyone: "How about this? I'll go in alone first to have a look. If there's no danger inside, we'll all go in together. If I go in and don't come out after more than four or five hours, you shouldn't wait for me. Whatever you do, don't enter this ancient tomb again—just get out of here quickly."

Pangzi said: "No way, if we're going, we both go together—so we can watch each other's backs."

I patted Pangzi on the shoulder: "I'll be fine on my own—I'm lucky, nothing will happen to me. But if something does happen to me, you still need to get everyone out safely."

Shirley Yang said: "Alright, no need to be so dramatic—I'm going with you."

I thought I had misheard: "You're coming with me? Don't joke—if there's any danger, I can get out easily on my own, but if you come along, I'm worried I won't be able to look after you."

Shirley Yang said: "Who's looking after whom is up in the air—anyway, I can't let you go into the queen's tomb alone on an adventure." As she spoke, she took the assault rifle from Chu Jian's hands, pulled the bolt with a clatter, saw the magazine was full, and pushed the bolt forward to chamber a round. Seeing this, I secretly stuck out my tongue—turns out she's also a firearms expert, something I hadn't noticed before.

We were each busy preparing our gear, and Pangzi quietly said to me: "Hey Lao Hu, I've noticed she's been looking at you funny lately—does she have a thing for you? We've barely started and she's already sticking to you."

I laughed and scolded: "Hell, it's you whose eyesight's bad—I didn't notice anything, yet you did? I'm not interested in her; I wouldn't dare take on an overbearing woman. Besides, if my old man sees me bringing back a Meiguo girl, he'll have me torn apart."

Pangzi said: "It's good you have that awareness—I really worry you'll end up with a woman like that, the type who throws her weight around just because she's got a couple of dirty bucks, acting high and mighty while looking down on everyone. Damn, how did that old saying go again? 'Little leather shoes click-clack, bourgeois filthy thoughts.' You'd better watch out for those sugar-coated bullets."

I filled the assault rifle I'd picked up from a grave robber in the valley with ammo, slung the explosives and entrenching tool over my shoulder, swapped the flashlight for a fresh backup battery, held the gold-touching talisman made from a pangolin claw in my hand for a moment, and said: "Please, Grandmaster Ancestor, bless us."

At this point Shirley Yang had also finished packing, and she asked if I could make out the tomb's internal structure. I said: "I've never heard of a tomb beneath a city before. If you want me to deduce the interior layout from the outside, I'd have to go through the usual steps: trace the dragon veins, examine the terrain, locate the star peaks, discern the water sources, measure the orientation, fix the burial chamber, sound out the depth, and so on—using these geomantic techniques to determine the tomb's age and internal structure. But this tomb is beneath a city; I've never seen one like this before. There's a bridge and water in front of the tomb entrance, which doesn't fit geomantic theory, and I really can't tell what's inside. Once we go in, we'll have to be careful—especially to avoid triggering any mechanisms—and above all we need to watch out for those weird snakes with black eyes on their heads; they move incredibly fast and are hard to dodge."

Shirley Yang nodded, took the lead across the stone bridge, I followed closely behind; with the other five seeing us off, we went one after the other, crossed the black stone bridge, and slipped in under the thousand-jin gate.