Chapter 11: Seven Stars: Seven-Star Coffin

I looked carefully at the shadow, just as the shadow lowered its head. When the head lifted again, it became enormous, almost wider than its shoulders. This terror was beyond words. I felt my scalp go numb and let out an uncontrollable shout: "A ghost!"

Everyone turned to look at me. I couldn't stop screaming. Pointing at the shadow, I turned my head, and at almost the same moment I saw the owner of the shadow—it was a monster with an enormous head! It held a strange weapon in its hand. In the semi-darkness, that deformed huge head was far more terrifying than any monster you could imagine. Poker-face helped by picking up his miner's lamp and shone it.

We got a clear look at the monster's true face. It was like... like a person with a big earthen jar stuck over his head... Damn, your grandpa's.

My extreme terror immediately turned into extreme anger. So it was indeed a person, with a big earthen jar over his head, holding a flashlight in his hand, and striking an Egyptian pose. The jar had two holes, through which two sneaky eyes peered out, utterly infuriating.

The scene was extremely awkward for a moment. We couldn't tell if this person was friend or foe, and we were all frightened silly by this guy. Our brains hadn't reacted yet. Finally Panzi cursed, "Fuck your mother, I'll shoot you dead!" He reached for his gun. Seeing that he had pissed us off, the guy cried, "Oh my god!" and dodged extremely quickly, running straight toward the tunnel we came from. Panzi didn't stand on ceremony, raised his gun, clicked the safety off, and fired. He shattered the jar on the guy's head, leaving only a ring around his neck. The man ran and cursed loudly, "You're asking for it! Just wait until your grandpa comes back to deal with you!" As he spoke, his feet seemed oiled, and he vanished in an instant.

Poker-face took one look and said, "Not good. Can't let him get to our robber's tunnel. If he touches that coffin, we're done!" With that, he whipped out his black-gold ancient knife from his bag, didn't even grab a miner's lamp, and in a few steps chased into the darkness.

Panzi wanted to chase after and help, but Third Uncle grabbed him and said, "What good would you do going over there? Hurry and check those two side chambers, see where he came out."

I hurried to the right side chamber and saw a robber's tunnel dug straight down from the stone wall. In the corner there was a candle, burning with a faint green light. I said "Oh," so the guy was a tomb raider. I saw a bag on the ground, apparently left by him. I opened it and found some tools, a few batteries, and a sketch of this ancient tomb. Although it was very sloppy, I could tell at a glance that the squares inside represented these seven coffins. Around the sketch, many words were written in different handwriting, apparently jotted down during a discussion by several people. Beside the sketch was a large question mark, and then a few words written: "Seven Star Suspect Coffins."

I tensed up. I seemed to have seen "Seven Star Suspect Coffins" somewhere before. After a moment I remembered: my grandfather's notebook mentioned these. Among the seven suspect coffins, except for one real one, the others either have traps or extremely eerie mechanisms. In short, if you open the wrong one, the trap or spell inside will trigger, bringing great danger. Looking at that foreigner, he probably didn't know the truth and thought every coffin contained treasure, so he fell for it, and was dragged into a coffin by something unknown. As for his companion, seeing his partner killed, he panicked, fled the tomb chamber, and dug another robber's tunnel in the corridor to escape in haste.

After analyzing this, I felt it made perfect sense. I took the map and wanted to tell my Third Uncle. But as soon as I walked out, I discovered there was only one miner's lamp left outside. This one had gotten water in it in the corpse cave, and now it flickered on and off, very unreliable. And Third Uncle, Da Kui, and the others — they were gone! I checked the other side chamber too, but there was no sign of them. So I picked up the lamp and shouted, "Third Uncle!!"

Logically, they wouldn't abandon me and leave on their own. First I suspected something had happened to them, but just now there was no sound of fighting. With Panzi's skills, no matter what monster they encountered, they'd at least have the ability to scream! But other than echoes, no one answered me. This dark tomb chamber, seven cold coffins, a strange corpse — instantly forced me back to reality. I suddenly remembered that I'm not a professional grave robber at all. I simply can't stay in a tomb alone. Even if there are no monsters, my imagination alone can scare me to death!

I shouted again, really hoping someone would answer me, but it was still silent. At that moment, the miner's lamp in my hand flickered, as if about to go out. I broke out in a cold sweat, and my mind started to get confused. If it had stayed quiet, maybe I could have slowly calmed down, but unfortunately, I suddenly heard a "clunk" from one of the stone coffin lids, I couldn't tell which of the seven. I felt dizzy, my heart leaped into my throat. I backed against the wall. Suddenly, something flickered. I turned my head and saw that the candle in the next side chamber had gone out. I sighed in dismay, thinking to myself, "I didn't take anything from you, so why did you blow out my light?" Then I turned back to look at those stone coffins. The ancient corpse in the already opened coffin had actually sat up, pulling up the foreigner's body with it, as if both bodies sat up together. At least it didn't turn to look at me.

I didn't dare look any more. I closed my eyes, moved my trembling legs, and carefully slid along the wall. Then with a dart, I ducked into that side chamber.

My grandfather wrote in his notes his secret for training courage: "If you can't see it, treat it as if it never happened." I thought that made sense; otherwise, looking at that sitting thousand-year-old corpse, I couldn't think at all. I put the miner's lamp in the corner, trying not to let the light shine outside, and frantically searched through the bag Fatty left behind to see what else was inside. After groping for a while, I found a few compressed biscuits and some other papers, densely covered with writing and drawings. Apparently the important stuff he carried on his person. Since there was no light outside now, pitch black, I didn't know what that corpse was doing. If it just kept sitting up and lying down, exercising its abs, I wouldn't be afraid. I was only afraid it might come over.

At that moment, a gust of wind blew in from the robber's tunnel. A flash of inspiration hit me: right, this tunnel must lead outside, or at least somewhere else. Wherever it goes, it's better than here. I carved a mark at the tunnel entrance so that if Third Uncle returned, he would know I'd gone in. Then I picked up the miner's lamp, packed up Fatty's bag, slung it on my back, and crawled inside.

As I crawled, I recalled the common knowledge my grandfather taught me when I was young: "old round, near square; Qinling slopes, Han mounds; nine shallow, one deep" — oh, that's not right, spit, damn it. I shook my head and realized I actually knew very little about this stuff. I examined the tunnel: it was neither round nor square, and I had no idea when it was dug. I thought to myself: if the guy with the jar on his head had dug this tunnel himself, then when he chiseled the tomb bricks, he would either have triggered a mechanism or, if he was skilled, at least made some noise. But we barely noticed him coming in, so this tunnel must have existed long before. In other words, this tunnel was definitely dug by another group, or he had dug it long ago. I concluded that either this guy came down through someone else's tunnel, or his own tunnel intersected with this one.

After crawling for a while, a fork appeared. The two tunnels were dug in completely different styles, definitely by two different groups. I thought, either one leads outside, so I'd just pick one. To help Third Uncle find me, I also marked the tunnel I chose, then crawled inside.

By now I was fantasizing about fresh air and a bright moon. Best of all, when I stuck my head out of the tunnel, I'd see a campfire, and the people waiting above would see me, pull me up, let me into a tent, and I'd eat some dry rations and sleep well. Then Third Uncle and the others would find me, and we'd head home together. To hell with tomb raiding! I've had enough. Other people rob tombs their whole lives and only encounter the occasional white-haired or black-haired corpse. For my first tomb raid, I run into corpses everywhere, not even a moment to breathe. Is that fair? I thought, hoping that the person waiting above would be a woman, who could even give me a shoulder massage or something.

Just thinking about it gave me a surge of energy, so I sped up. Soon I saw firelight ahead. Overjoyed, I thought, the darkness before dawn! Using all four limbs, I thrust my head out, wanting to take a deep breath of fresh air. I looked — and was stunned.

Truly, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. In front of me appeared another tomb corridor, very similar to the one I came through. This tomb seemed extremely complex! I couldn't help cursing as I shone the miner's lamp around. Looking closely, I was dumbfounded — wasn't this the same corridor I came from? How? So this robber's tunnel was connected to that one over there? We had originally thought someone dug this tunnel to escape.

I was completely baffled. I really couldn't figure out what purpose the person who dug this tunnel could have had.