Chapter 13: Seven Stars: 02200059

I let out a yell, reflexively yanked my hand back, because there is nothing more unsettling than touching something inexplicable in the dark, and the moment I felt that hand, I knew its owner must be dead—the skin was icy and bloated, utterly devoid of life.

I suddenly remembered I still had a few firefolders on me, so I quickly lit one, and by the flame I saw a corpse lying there with a huge gaping wound in its belly, around which swarmed corpse beetles, each as big as my palm and dark blue in color, with some smaller ones crawling out of its mouth and eye sockets from time to time.

A wave of nausea hit me. Judging by its condition, this person had been dead for about a week—likely another victim of an earlier tomb-raiding team. Could he have died here because he found that mechanism too? Thinking of this, I hurriedly felt around with the dying flame, found the battery, shoved it into my miner's lamp, and to my relief it lit up again. The shopkeeper said this lamp could withstand a drop of over three meters—looks like he wasn't lying! With the light on, I scanned the area. This place was bare and crude, a square cellar with walls made of irregularly stacked stones, dotted with many black holes like ventilation shafts, leading gods know where, and occasionally a cool draft wafted in through them.

I then examined the corpse. It was a middle-aged man, around forty, with his abdomen torn open—apparently the fatal wound. He wore camouflage clothing, and his pockets were bulging. I pulled out a wallet from one, which contained some cash and a luggage claim slip. I searched further, and on his belt buckle I found an embossed stamp with a line of numbers: 02200059. Apart from that, there was nothing else to identify him.

I put his wallet into my own pocket, planning to study it later once I got out.

The architectural style here resembled an ancient tomb from the Western Zhou period, yet also looked like a temporary escape tunnel. I thought it unlikely that anyone would build a tomb on top of someone else's grave; probably this was the escape route left by the tomb builders themselves.

In ancient times, especially during the Warring States period, if you participated in building a noble's tomb, you were as good as dead—either poisoned or buried alive with the corpse. But the wisdom of the common people should not be underestimated. Most craftsmen would secretly build a passage to escape. I swept the lamp around and indeed saw a very narrow doorway high up on one wall, but it was some distance above the ground. Below it was a wooden ladder, long since rotted away. I judged the height—I couldn't possibly jump up that far. Just then, I saw a face suddenly poke out from that passage.

I was overjoyed and shouted, "Panzi! It's me!"

Panzi was startled and spotted me, but instead of looking happy, he looked as if he'd seen something terrifying, almost falling out of the passage.

I was puzzled, when Panzi suddenly pulled out a gun and aimed it right at me. I thought, oh no, could he have mistaken me for a zombie? What a way to die! I yelled, "It's me, Panzi! What the hell are you doing?"

Panzi acted as if he hadn't heard me at all. With a deafening roar, the gunshot echoed incredibly loud in the cave, and the bullet whistled right past my ear, hitting something behind me. A splash of stinking liquid soaked the back of my head. I spun around and saw several big blue beetles clinging to the wall, their pincers raised menacingly. A few had already crawled onto the ceiling right above my head, only a few centimeters away.

I was about to step back to put some distance between me and those big bugs, when suddenly two of the beetles on the wall flew at me like springs, nearly reaching my face in an instant. At the same moment, two more gunshots rang out, and two bullets flew over my head, blowing those beetles to pieces in midair—literally splattering them. My face was covered in their bodily fluids. Then I heard Panzi shout, "I'm almost out of bullets! What the hell are you standing there for, dumbass? Get over here now!"

With Panzi backing me up, I felt much more secure. I turned and ran. Panzi fired another shot, probably blowing up another beetle. By then I'd reached the wall, and Panzi stretched a hand down. I leaped and grabbed it. Luckily the stone wall was rough enough that my feet could find purchase. With one pull, Panzi hauled me up. Before I could even steady myself, he thrust his short gun out from under my crotch and fired again. The hot shell casing jumped out and hit me right in the groin. I screamed in agony, almost passing out, and cursed, "God damn it, are you trying to castrate me?"

Panzi swore back, "Fuck, of course your life is more important than your dick!" I suddenly realized I didn't have the miner's lamp anymore. I looked back and saw it lying on the floor below. Around the light source, the ground was covered with corpse beetles, big and small, a vast blue-black mass. I had no idea where they'd come from. I asked Panzi, "How many bullets do you have left?"

He felt in his pockets and pulled out just one. He gave a bitter laugh. "One last 'glory bullet.'" No sooner had he spoken than a corpse beetle leaped onto the stone ledge, hissing "zhi, zhi" at us.

Panzi, being a former soldier, knew how to improvise. In one motion, he reversed his gun, using the barrel as a hammer handle and the wooden stock as the head, and smashed the beetle flat, kicking it down. But that was no permanent solution. More and more beetles crawled up. We kicked and swatted, but several still got onto us, their hooked claws ripping off strips of flesh.

I said to Panzi, "Let's run, there are too many, we can't stop them." Panzi asked, "Run where?" I pointed behind us and said, "There's definitely an exit back there. This tunnel was absolutely built by ancient tomb craftsmen to escape. If we follow it, we'll get out."

Panzi cursed, "Bullshit! You bookworms always think everything in books is right. Let me tell you, I've already walked this whole tunnel. It's a damn maze. I barely managed to get here, which is already an improvement. If we go back, who knows how long we'll wander around!"

I was startled—could I have been wrong? But in this situation, there was no time to think it through. Seeing the swarm growing, I yelled, "It's still better than being eaten here!"

Just then, there was another thud, and someone else fell down through the hidden door above, landing right on top of the beetles. The sudden impact startled the bugs into retreating for a moment. The man scrambled up, cursing, "Oww, my ass! Damn it, what kind of door opens downward?" He shone his flashlight around and shouted, "Fuck! What the hell? So many bugs!"

We saw it was none other than that grave robber who'd scared us in the main tomb just now.

The corpse beetles were already closing in again, very fast. This guy was pretty tough—he swung his flashlight like a mace, crushing one with each blow—but it wasn't nearly enough. Soon his back was covered with beetles. He screamed like a stuck pig, reaching behind him to tear them off. At that moment, Panzi suddenly pulled out all the firefolders from his pocket, lit them in one go, and leaped down before I could even stop him.

He did a big roll as he landed, reaching the kid's side. The corpse beetles feared fire and scattered, but firefolders don't last long, and after that series of moves the flames were already very small. Panzi shouted, "Do you have any more?" I felt in my chest pocket and found I still had a few left. I gritted my teeth, thought, screw it, and jumped down like Panzi did—but I wasn't so agile and landed flat on my face. The firefolders flew out of my hand and landed right in the pile of beetles. Panzi yelled, "Oh my grandpa, are you trying to kill me?!"

I scrambled to my feet and ran over to them. The beetles held back because of the fire, not daring to rush at us for a moment, but as the flames grew dimmer, their circle kept shrinking. I swallowed hard, thinking, *Looks like we're done for. *