Chapter 512: The Mystery of the Coffin's Layout

"Chase……" Yang Shouyi gave a grim order, and his subordinates all rushed toward the hole Han Duo fled through, ignoring the scattered gold and silver treasures on the ground.

"You will stay in this tomb and wait to die!" Yang Shouyi gave us a dark glance, then without hesitation chased after Han Duo's escape 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? Really stand in this coffin for a lifetime!" After the silence, Pangzi muttered softly.

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

"Don't move." QingSongShu suddenly shouted at Pangzi, who startled and quickly pulled back the foot he had stepped out.

"What's wrong, Dad?"

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

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

I and Pangzi looked at the wall QingSongShu pointed to, and saw a scale and a large weight on it. The scale and weight were not painted, but 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 was no need to put such market‑like things in their resting place. Even if they did, they should have placed mighty guards to protect the tomb. Yet the Yang tomb happens to have this very abnormal scene.

"This is a kind of layout of the tomb, called 'The Coffin Must Not Be Light.' The scale measures, the weight is heavy, and the scale measures the coffin's weight. If the coffin is light, the tomb's mechanism will be triggered." QingSongShu explained slowly: "At that point, the tomb might collapse, or we could become minced meat."

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

Because Yao Wenju's front foot had just moved, the tomb suddenly rumbled, and immediately the two walls began to close in on us, as if trying to press us into minced meat. But 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." I gritted my teeth and said harshly, 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 muttered earlier, "Is it heavy enough?"

"That's correct, but Yang Shouyi missed one thing despite his careful planning." Pangzi pondered a moment, then showed a smug smile. Instantly, everyone's eyes turned to him without exception.

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

"If Yang Shouyi had moved these things earlier, we might really have been stuck, but since they're still here, moving them back will let us leave." Pangzi said triumphantly.

But how are we supposed to move these things back? Yang Shouyi seemed to have known from the start just how much weight the coffin could bear. I think even if I and Yao Wenju hadn't barged 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 have a tacit understanding, turning their heads to the other side to look at Ye Qi outside the coffin.

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

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

When Pangzi mentioned Yang Rui, Yang Shouren, sitting slumped in the coffin, felt a sharp pang in his chest. But everyone was only thinking about how to get out, so they didn't notice this.

This proposal is indeed a good idea, but with so many people here, why must I pretend to be a hairless little doll? I'm twenty‑two years old. "Heading toward twenty" means twenty‑two, which is very much twenty‑two, and you insist that a boy in his prime teens act cute—how am I supposed to pull that off?

"If you want to pretend, you do it—I can't!" I turned my head firmly.

"All right," Pangzi resignedly compromised, then sank his qi to the dantian and took a deep breath. Everyone nervously held their breath, watching how Pangzi would lure Ye Qi over.

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

I really can't stand Pangzi's exaggerated acting; any normal person seeing that would feel the urge to kick his butt hard.

However, though his acting was over the top, the effect was pretty good. As Pangzi shouted, Ye Qi's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up, calling out "little Rui" as she crawled toward the coffin in a daze. But Ye Qi's mind was so unclear she couldn't tell where the sound came from; after crawling halfway she wandered the tomb looking for Yang Rui's figure.

"Pangzi, give it more…… push harder, Ye Qi isn't stimulated enough." I jabbed Pangzi, but soon I regretted that impulsive urging.

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

This time, the chill wasn't just mine; almost everyone, including QingSongShu, felt a sudden shiver and stepped aside. QingSongShu's expression shifted; his usual composure was clearly rattled by Pangzi's provocation.

I and Yao Wenju, even more in sync, stretched a foot toward his butt. But seeing 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 grimly. Unwilling, so unwilling—failing to kick that jerk away is a major regret in life.

"Haha, I got him……" Pangzi shouted happily and yanked the Ye Qi approaching the coffin inside.

"Hai Sheng, go out and bring all the gold and silver treasures outside inside." Right after pulling Ye Qi in, Pangzi gave me that order.

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

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

That makes sense; 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, frailer, sicker than me, and his leg is badly wounded; even if he went out he couldn't do anything.

"All right, I'll go……" I slowly raised my head, having acquiesced. 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 faces. They found that everyone's faces were not only darkening but also sprouting small spots like corpse stains.

"Ah……" Yang Shouren sighed, weary 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 qi. If you bury the Black Leaf Orchid with the deceased, its leaves will soak up the corpse poison. My ancestors smeared the orchid's leaves on the funerary objects to deter tomb robbers. Just now, when we entered the coffin and moved the gold and silver, we already absorbed the 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 grief and ignore everyone's lives.

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