Chapter 54: Raging Sea: Stone Tablet

Those bubbles rose evenly, at a fast frequency, and at the same time there was a trend of outward expansion, as if there was a large creature under the pool, breathing heavily. The three of us became alert, raised our guns, and pressed our backs tightly against the wall. I was already so nervous that I felt powerless, my palms full of sweat, not knowing what outcome awaited me. Those bubbles bubbled for about five minutes, and suddenly a baffling muffled sound came from under the pool.

At the same time, the water level in the pool began to drop, and more than a dozen whirlpools gradually appeared on the surface. Water splashed everywhere, as if a dozen toilets were flushing at the same time. The basin-shaped coffin spun desperately with the current, like a top. In an instant, the water level dropped two or three meters. I watched in bewilderment, quickly shone my flashlight into the pool, and actually saw a stone staircase appear on the inner wall of the pool. This stone staircase spiraled down along the wall, seemingly leading straight to the bottom.

The water receded very quickly, and before I could observe it carefully, it had already disappeared into the pitch-black pool bottom, only the roar of the whirlpools still came continuously. I swept my flashlight briefly and found that the pool was bowl-shaped, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, a good ten meters deep. The flashlight's penetrating power was insufficient, and combined with the mist below, the pool bottom was hidden in hazy darkness, impossible to see clearly.

I remembered we also had those deep-water lamps with extremely strong penetrating power. I wondered if they would work against the water mist, so I quickly called them to turn them on, adjusted the light to maximum, and shone them from three different directions down below.

Although this didn't illuminate everything thoroughly, the shape below was roughly outlined. The pool bottom was a circular plane with a diameter of 10 meters, covered with relief carvings. The specific pattern was unclear, but it was certain that there were several large holes on it, looking like drainage outlets.

At the center of the pool bottom, a mass of water vapor gathered, with dark shadows flickering inside. I didn't know what was there. Fatty had sharp eyes. After pondering for a while, he said, "Did you notice? At the center of the pool bottom, it seems there's a stone tablet?"

I followed the direction he pointed and could only see an outline. Fatty said, "This stone staircase goes down like this; I wonder where it leads. Maybe there are other passages below. Let's go down and take a look!" With that, he jumped onto the stone step.

This ancient tomb was extraordinarily eerie. I didn't approve of rushing down. I called out, "Don't be hasty! Going down like this is too dangerous. At least wait until the water mist below has dispersed."

Fatty had already taken several steps down. He said, "It's fine, I'll just go down and have a look. If it's not easy to go, I'll naturally come back."

I knew his temperament and didn't stop him. I watched him go down about two loops, then he seemed to encounter something, squatted down to look, and after just a few seconds of looking, he looked up and shouted to us, "Holy shit! There's actually foreign writing here!"

I was stunned at these words. How could that be? Foreign writing in a Ming Dynasty tomb? What kind of performance is this? I said loudly, "What the hell are you babbling about? How could there be foreign writing in an ancient tomb? Don't tell me you misread the patterns?"

Fatty cursed in anger: "Although your Fatty's foreign language skills are poor, I damn well know my ABCs! You're underestimating me! If you don't believe me, come down and see for yourself!"

I said, "Then read out what's carved up there for me."

Fatty was absolutely furious and cursed, "If I could damn well read it, would I still need to call you down!" I originally didn't plan to go down, but with this development, I had no choice. I sighed, imitated Fatty, and jumped onto the stone step. The step was only half a meter long, seemingly made of a single piece of bluestone cantilevered out. One end was inserted into the pool wall. I stomped on it a few times — it was very stable, with no danger of collapse. At this time, Poker-face also jumped down. We walked one after the other towards Fatty.

Fatty stood on the step like a wall. He pointed at the pool wall and said, "Look here! If this isn't foreign writing, I'll write my name backwards!"

I looked and saw that someone had indeed chiseled several letters into it. The traces were neither new nor old. It occurred to me that it might have been carved by Third Uncle's group twenty years ago. I was secretly shocked: Could Third Uncle's group have reached this place while he was asleep? Was their disappearance related to this strange pool?

Fatty saw me in a daze and slapped me hard. "Is it or isn't it? Tell me quickly!"

I quickly nodded and said, "Yes, yes, I apologize to you. This really is damn English."

Fatty became smug, slapped his thigh, and said, "I said how strange it was. We've been searching this crappy tomb for so long and haven't found anything decent. It turns out the foreign brothers beat us to it. Back when the Eight-Nation Alliance came, they didn't leave us anything. This time, no need to say it, probably nothing left."

I thought for a moment and said, "It can't be said to be foreigners. Chinese people can also write foreign languages. Speaking of carving, carving foreign words takes much less time than carving Chinese. These letters are all abbreviations. I think they might be a mark. Look, they were carved very hastily, probably because when he was going down, something urgent happened, or someone was urging him. He carved these letters here to leave a sign for those who came later."

Fatty said, "What you said makes sense. I wonder what they were doing down there? Could there be some treasure?"

I knew he was thinking about something else again, so I ignored him. Fatty pressed on: "Anyway, we still have plenty of time. Why not go down and have a look? Maybe we can find some bronze tools to use, killing two birds with one stone?"

I looked down. I didn't care about treasure; I didn't want money that I might earn but not live to spend. But if going down could shed light on Wenjin and the others' whereabouts, it might be worth a look. As I hesitated whether to continue, I suddenly heard Poker-face beside me say, "I feel like I've been here before."