Chapter 63: Main Text Chapter Sixty-Four: Strange Coffin

Main Text Chapter Sixty-Four: Strange Coffin

When the candle went out, out of instinct I felt a chill, but I immediately reminded myself: 'This is just a normal physical phenomenon—the candle has burned down, nothing to fear; if it were still lit after burning down, that would truly be a ghost.'

At that moment we heard a 'thud' behind us; I and Pangzi thought something had happened back there, we hastily assumed a defensive stance and turned around, only to see Da Jin Ya staring at the extinguished candle, sitting limp on the ground, frightened pale.

It's all because Pangzi usually exaggerates when bragging to him, embellishing 'Ghost Blows Out the Light' into something like a nightmare; Da Jin Ya is merely a profiteer who has never faced any ordeal, and now, in this gloomy underground palace, seeing the candle suddenly go out, how could he not be afraid? He trembled all over.

I sheathed my paratrooper knife at my waist, reached out and pulled Da Jin Ya up, comforting him: 'What's wrong, Master Jin? It's fine—I have Pangzi and me here; with the two of us, not a single hair of yours will be harmed, don't be afraid.'

Da Jin Ya saw that aside from the candle burning down and going out, there was nothing else unusual, and he let out a breath: 'Ashamed, ashamed… I… I'm not… afraid; when I think of… my whole family still relying on me alone to support them, I feel… a little…'

I waved at Da Jin Ya, indicating now wasn't the time to talk, I lit another candle on the ground, and the three of us took a few steps forward; this time the 'person' in the southeast corner entered the beam of our Wolf's Eye flashlight.

It turned out that, beyond the candle, the figure always standing in the southeast corner of the Underworld Palace was not a person at all; indeed there was a face, a human face, and surprisingly it was a stone-carved statue.

The stone face was a relief on a huge stone coffin; this coffin was enormous—I swear, when we first drilled through the robber's tunnel into the Underworld Palace, the palace was completely empty, absolutely no such large stone coffin existed; it and the stone wall sealing the robber's tunnel seemed to have suddenly appeared out of thin air.

I, Pangzi, and Da Jin Ya behind saw a huge stone coffin suddenly appear in the Underworld Palace; we were all bewildered, then took a few more steps forward to examine the stone coffin up close.

This stone coffin is about 3.5 meters long and 1.7 meters high, made entirely of large stone; except for its base, the remaining four sides and the lid are carved with a huge human face, the whole coffin is a uniform gray, giving a solemn impression.

This face, seemingly a decoration on the stone coffin, is carved with distinct five features, no different from an ordinary person, except the ears are slightly larger, the eyes gaze straight ahead, and there is no expression; although it is merely a stone-carved human face, it gives a bizarre yet icy feeling.

Initially, at the passage between the Underworld Palace and the Front Hall, we saw that stone face from afar through the candlelight; the flickering light made it unclear, and we did not realize it was a carved stone human face, nor did we see the large stone coffin in the darkness.

Now that we see it clearly, we actually find the face on this stone coffin far more terrifying than any ghost or zombie visage, because we were mentally prepared for those things, yet we never imagined something like this would appear.

Pangzi said to me, 'Lao Hu, what the hell is this thing? The craftsmanship looks old—could it have become a spirit? Otherwise how could it suddenly appear on the ground? If we said we misremembered the pattern on the mural, that might be possible, but such a huge stone—we had just entered and examined the Underworld Palace carefully, yet we didn't see it; isn't that literally seeing a ghost?'

I told Pangzi, 'Don't talk nonsense; this seems to be a stone coffin for enclosing a coffin, this ancient tomb is truly strange everywhere, and I don't know where it came from.' I then asked Da Jin Ya behind me: 'Master Jin, you're well‑informed—can you tell what this stone coffin is?'

Da Jin Ya, who had been hiding behind me and Pangzi, said: 'Master Hu, I think this stone coffin is from the Shang‑Zhou period.' He then shone the Wolf's Eye flashlight on the coffin's base and said: 'You see there are still Western Zhou cloud‑and‑thunder patterns; I stake my head on it—the Tang Dynasty definitely had nothing like this.'

Although I had been in the antique trade for a while, dealing mostly with Ming‑Qing era trinkets, I haven't had much contact with anything predating the Tang Dynasty, and I've never seen objects from the Yin‑Shang and Western Zhou periods.

Hearing Da Jin Ya say the stone coffin is Western Zhou‑era, I found it even stranger and told him: 'If I remember correctly, shouldn't we be in the Underworld Palace of a Tang Dynasty tomb? How could a Tang Dynasty tomb contain a Western Zhou stone coffin?'

Da Jin Ya replied: 'Um… not to mention you, I'm starting to get confused too; we've walked a full circle around this tomb, looking at the chamber and underground palace's structure, as well as those murals of plump palace ladies—apart from a grand Tang tomb, where else would you find such scale and craftsmanship? …But having said that, this stone coffin is definitely not a Tang Dynasty thing.'

Pangzi said to us: 'Enough, it's impossible we misremembered, and even if we could, it's impossible all three of us would misremember; I think this stone… whatever coffin isn't some valuable trinket—I feel uncomfortable staying in this Underworld Palace, let's quickly find a way out; whether it's from this dynasty or that, it's none of our business.'

I said: 'No, I see the stone of this coffin is extremely similar to the large stone slabs sealing the robber's tunnel entrance, and they both appeared out of nowhere without anyone noticing; if we want to find a way out, we must first figure out what's going on.'

Da Jin Ya said: 'Master Hu, I also think it's best not to look; we can't go back through the robber's tunnel entrance, but couldn't we take the middle cavern instead? I believe the earlier grave‑gold colonel who came in left via the cavern labyrinth; although legends say it's a huge maze, we have a compass, so we don't need to worry about getting lost.'

I nodded: 'I know, besides the compass we have nuo mi and long rope, which can be used as markers; however, that cavern area's depth is unknown, so getting out might not be easy, and what worries me most is that this route might also sprout those strange stone walls and stone coffins—damn it, where exactly did these Western Zhou things come from?'

As I was speaking, I suddenly recalled something: in the small village beside Pan Snake Slope, the old couple who had let us stay overnight once said that this mountain had no Tang mausoleum, but rather legend held a Western Zhou tomb; this human‑faced stone coffin is indeed a Western Zhou artifact—could it be that the place we are now is not a Tang mausoleum but a Western Zhou tomb? If so, how would we explain the Tang Dynasty murals and the layout of Tang mausoleums?

My head ached from thinking, yet I could find no answer; even with extensive tomb‑raiding experience, these matters cannot be explained—what we face is entirely an incomprehensible phenomenon: how could an abandoned Tang mausoleum give rise to a Western Zhou human‑faced stone coffin…

Da Jin Ya remained anxious; he was never timid, he valued money above all, a thoroughgoing materialist, not overly superstitious, he rarely believed in gods or spirits—if you made him choose between money and the Buddha a hundred times, he would unhesitatingly pick money every time, after all, dealing in antiquities, especially handling burial goods, one cannot be too superstitious; Da Jin Ya wore a gold Buddha and jade Guanyin around his neck merely for a bit of psychological comfort.

Yet now, faced with these bizarre circumstances, Da Jin Ya also became at a loss and couldn't help asking me: 'Could the stone wall that suddenly appeared in the robber's tunnel be… a ghost‑wall?'

I had just caught a hint of an idea, not yet sorted out, when Da Jin Ya's words interrupted my train of thought, so I told him: 'Ghost‑wall? We've never encountered a ghost‑wall, but I've heard it's like being bewitched and walking in circles; although the robber's tunnel did spontaneously produce a stone wall, that should be different from a ghost‑wall, right?'

Pangzi urged from the side: 'Lao Hu, hurry up—if you're saying we should withdraw now, then don't just stand there; if you think it's necessary to see what this human‑faced stone coffin is, then the two of us will try to pry it open.'

I temporarily didn't answer Pangzi's question, carefully reaching out to push the human‑faced stone coffin; inside the coffin were wedged stone tenons, the lid fitted tightly, even with an iron bar it wouldn't be easy to pry open, and besides, if there were a zongzi inside, letting it out would be hard to deal with; I also looked at the strange human face on the coffin and thought it best not to move it.

Originally we just came in to pick up some cheap gains; failing to find any is fine, we try not to cause more trouble—as long as we can find a way out, weighing the pros and cons, I think it's better to simply ignore this strange human‑faced stone coffin.

I made up my mind and told Pangzi and Da Jin Ya to pay no attention to the human‑faced stone coffin; we'll just return the way we came, worst case we exit via the Dragon Ridge Labyrinth; if we linger longer, who knows what changes might occur.

Da Jin Ya had long wanted that, eager to get far from the stone coffin; at once the three turned and walked off, Da Jin Ya leading two large geese, he leapt first into the central robber's tunnel of the Underworld Palace, Pangzi followed suit, and I glanced back at the candle in the southeast corner of the Underworld Palace, braced my hands on the tunnel's sides, and jumped down.

When we first came through this robber's tunnel we had already figured out its direction: a forty‑five‑degree inclined plane leading straight to the center of the Underworld Palace; we crawled down the slope in the tunnel, but after a while each of us felt something was off—how had the originally sloping tunnel become level? We swept our flashlights around and were stunned: we were actually crawling on the floor of a tomb chamber, all around strange, extraordinary human‑face rock paintings, clearly not the original robber's tunnel at all.

The three of us looked at each other, I glanced at you, and we couldn't help but ask: 'Just what the hell kind of place is this?'