Chapter 240

"Chase……" Yang Shouyi gave a grim order, his face dark; the underlings all around rushed toward the hole Han Duo fled through, scrambling up, paying no heed to the scattered gold and silver treasures on the ground.

"You will just stay in this tomb and wait to die!" Yang Shouyi gave us a sinister glance, then without hesitation chased after Han Duo's direction.

Time trickled away, and only after Yang Shouyi disappeared did everyone suddenly come to their senses.

"I say, that person has run away. Why don't we go out? Are we really going to stand in this coffin for a lifetime!" After the silence, Pangzi muttered quietly.

I greatly agree, but I think this isn't that simple. If we could really walk out of this tomb unharmed, why wouldn't Yang Shouyi just shoot us dead instead of leaving us that harsh line about waiting to die in the tomb?

"Don't move." QingSongShu suddenly shouted at Pangzi, who, frightened, hastily pulled back the foot he had started to step out.

"What's wrong, Dad?"

"What's wrong, Uncle?" I and Pangzi asked in unison.

QingSongShu slowly shook his head, then pointed to the wall opposite the bronze tomb.

I and Pangzi looked at the wall QingSongShu was pointing to, and saw a scale and a large weight on it. The scale and weight were not painted; they looked like they were inlaid with actual gold and silver.

This scene is really too strange. By rights, the Yang ancestors weren't merchants, so there's no need to put such market-like things in their resting place. Even if they did, they should have put some imposing soldiers to guard the tomb. Yet, strangely, the Yang tomb has exactly this anomalous scene.

"This is a pattern of the tomb, called 'the coffin and outer coffin must not be light.' The scale measures, the weight is heavy, and the scale measures the weight of the coffin and outer coffin. If the coffin and outer coffin are light, then the tomb's mechanism will be triggered." QingSongShu explained slowly: "At that point, the tomb might collapse, or we might become meat patties."

"I don't believe……" Yao Wenju, like a newborn calf unafraid of tigers, stepped forward first. But. Just as he stepped out of the coffin and outer coffin, Yao Wenju jumped back in fright.

Because Yao Wenju's front foot had just moved, the tomb suddenly rumbled with a booming vibration, and immediately the walls on both sides lurched toward us, as if trying to press us into meat patties. However, as Yao Wenju retreated, the walls slowly moved back.

"I understand…… Yang Shouyi is using us to replace the weight of the gold and silver. He first had us step inside, then moved the coffin's jewels out, aiming for a weight exchange to trap us forever in the coffin and outer coffin." I gritted my teeth and said fiercely, Yang Shouyi's heart is truly vicious; I said why he was so fearless, it turns out he had planned this all along—no wonder he earlier muttered indistinctly, "Is it heavy enough?"

"That's right, but Yang Shouyi, despite his careful plans, missed one thing." Pangzi pondered for a moment, then broke into a satisfied grin. Instantly, everyone's eyes turned to him without exception.

"Look, what are these things?" Pangzi pointed to the gold and silver treasures that had fallen to the ground; Yang Shouyi had only been concerned with the gold medal in the box and hadn't moved these.

"If Yang Shouyi had moved these things earlier, perhaps we would truly have no way out, but since they're still here, all we need to do is move them back, and we can get out." Pangzi said triumphantly.

But how are we supposed to move these things back? Yang Shouyi seems to have known from the start just how much weight the coffin and outer coffin can bear. I think even if I and Yao Wenju hadn't charged in, given Yang Shouyi's ruthless nature, he would have hesitated not at all to kill two guards and throw them in.

After Pangzi finished speaking, everyone seemed to be of one mind, turning their heads to the other side, looking at Ye Qi outside the coffin and outer coffin.

If any of us ran out from the coffin and outer coffin, the tomb would collapse at any moment, but don't forget that besides us, there's also a mad Ye Qi inside the tomb; she never stood with us in the coffin and outer coffin. Yet, how could we lure her over to take our place? She's already gone mad.

"Hai Sheng, you pretend to be Yang Rui!" Pangzi suddenly called out: "As long as you pretend to be Yang Rui, it should stir Ye Qi's maternal instinct."

When Pangzi mentioned Yang Rui, Yang Shouren, who had collapsed sitting in the coffin and outer coffin, felt a sharp pain in his chest. But everyone was only thinking about how to get out, so they didn't pay attention to this.

This proposal is indeed a good idea, but with so many people here, why do I have to pretend to be a hairless little doll? I'm twenty-two years old. "Heading toward twenty" means twenty, twenty-two is very twenty, and you damn well want a boy in his prime teenage years to act cute—how am I supposed to pull that off?

"If you want to pretend, you pretend—I can't!" I turned my head away decisively.

"All right," Pangzi resignedly compromised, then sank his qi to the dantian and filled his lungs. Everyone nervously held their breath, watching Pangzi figure out how to lure Ye Qi over.

"Mom, look, I'm little Rui, I'm here, come over quickly!" The affected, chilling voice echoed throughout the tomb. Damn, if you're going to pretend, you've pretended—why raise both hands beside your ears and hop around like a little white rabbit? Are you trying to act out the "little white rabbit, white and white, two ears standing up" routine?

I really can't stand Pangzi's exaggerated acting; any normal person who sees it feels the urge to kick his butt hard.

However, although the acting was exaggerated, the effect was pretty good. As Pangzi shouted, Ye Qi's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up, calling out "little Rui" as she stumbled toward the coffin and outer coffin. But Ye Qi's consciousness was so unclear that she couldn't tell where the sound came from; after crawling halfway, she again wandered around the tomb looking for Yang Rui's figure.

"Pangzi, put some more effort…… give it more strength, Ye Qi isn't stimulated enough yet." I jabbed Pangzi, but soon I regretted this urging impulse.

"Mom, hurry over, little Rui's stomach is hungry, I want to drink milk." Pangzi was exactly like a child throwing a tantrum from hunger.

This time, the chill wasn't just mine; almost everyone, including QingSongShu, felt a simultaneous shiver and jumped aside. QingSongShu's face shifted colors; his usual composure was obviously rattled by Pangzi's provocation.

I and Yao Wenju, even more in sync, stretched out a foot toward his butt. But as we watched Ye Qi slowly walking toward us, we restrained the urge to kick Pangzi away, and glumly pulled our feet back.

I and Yao Wenju exchanged a glance, both shaking our heads glumly. Unwilling, so unwilling. Not being able to kick that lowlife away is truly a great regret in life.

"Haha, I got him……" Pangzi shouted happily, yanking the Ye Qi who had approached the coffin and outer coffin straight inside.

"Hai Sheng, go out and bring all the gold, silver, and jewels outside inside." As soon as Pangzi had pulled Ye Qi in, he gave me that order.

"Why me?" I asked, pointing at my own nose, utterly astonished. I'm a seriously wounded patient—my injuries are worse than anyone's.

"Because…… your weight is the closest to Ye Qi's here; besides you, who else could I entrust this arduous task to?" Pangzi said matter-of-factly.

Indeed, I'm the thinnest person here; if anyone else went out, the weight might really shift. As for Yang Shouren, there's no need to consider him—he's older, frail, and sickly, with a serious leg injury, so even if he went out he couldn't do anything.

"All right, I'll go out……" I slowly raised my head, having conceded. But the instant I lifted my head, everyone shouted in unison. The cry was just one sentence.

"Your faces—how did they all turn black!" Everyone exclaimed in shock, then felt their own faces. They discovered that everyone's faces were not only beginning to darken but also sprouting small spots resembling corpse stains.

"Ah……" Yang Shouren let out a sigh, despondent and desperate: "This is the 'Black Leaf Orchid' planted by my ancestors. The Black Leaf Orchid is a flower from the Western Regions; the blossom is ordinary, but it readily absorbs corpse energy. As long as the Black Leaf Orchid is buried with the deceased, its leaves will absorb the corpse poison. My ancestors smeared the orchid's leaves on the funerary objects to prevent tomb robbers. Just now, when we entered the coffin and moved those gold and silver items, we already absorbed the corpse poison… now the poison is acting up; we're probably done for."

Me: "………………" Damn, why didn't you say this earlier? Even if you're heartbroken, you can't just wallow in sorrow and ignore everyone's lives.

In an instant, we who had just glimpsed a ray of hope fell once more into the dark abyss of despair.