Chapter 84: Underground River

Several people walked out of the darkness. I couldn't see their faces clearly, but I recognized the voice that had just spoken—it was that Uncle Tai we had been following earlier.

I secretly cursed my luck. These were all desperadoes; falling into their hands would likely end badly. A place like this was the perfect spot for murder—a body might not be discovered for centuries.

The man behind me pressed his gun against my head, ordering me to squat by the side. "Don't you fucking move," he said. "Move an inch and I'll blow your brains out."

I turned to look at him and saw a big guy with a large knife scar on his face glaring at me. He shoved me hard to the ground.

Uncle Tai gave us a once-over, shook his head, and said to the big guy, "I say, Pockmarked Er, can't you be a little more polite? These two kids are more capable than you. At their age, you didn't know a damn thing. Put the gun away."

Pockmarked Er grinned, tucked his pistol back into his waistband, and walked to the side.

I watched Uncle Tai, unsure what game he was playing. He didn't even look at us; instead he crouched down, felt the iron ring, and said to someone beside him, "Boss Wang, is this the place?"

A somewhat chubby middle-aged man crouched down with difficulty, took out a booklet, looked at it, and said, "That's right, it's this place. Who would have thought it was hidden so well."

Uncle Tai gave Pockmarked Er a signal. Pockmarked Er nodded and went to open the stone door. Uncle Tai turned to us, took out a cigarette from his pocket and handed it to Old Itch, asking, "Kid, what was that 'immense benefit' you were talking about? What is it?"

Old Itch was scared out of his wits. Trembling, he took the cigarette and said, "... Actually, it's nothing much, just some porcelain and bronze ware..."

"Oh?" Uncle Tai lit the cigarette for him and asked, "And what dynasty is the tomb from?"

Old Itch, at a loss, said, "Well... actually I don't know either... It looked like Qing Dynasty to me, because that corpse was wearing a hat shaped like a conical bamboo hat, and had a braid."

"Oh, a hat shaped like a conical bamboo hat?" Uncle Tai stood up, paced back and forth thoughtfully, and asked another person: "Master Liang, is there such a burial practice in Qing Dynasty tombs?"

That person was hidden in the darkness; I couldn't see his appearance, but I heard a rather young voice say, "No."

"No? Then what dynasty is this kid's tomb from?"

Master Liang thought for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know. We'll have to go see it to find out."

Uncle Tai stood up and walked over to Pockmarked Er. By then, the stone door on the ground had been flipped open, revealing a one-meter-wide entrance. Inside was pitch black, and there seemed to be a very steep stone staircase leading down. I smelled a strange odor rising from below, vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it.

Pockmarked Er shone his flashlight down and was about to climb in, but Uncle Tai stopped him. He pointed his chin at me and said to Pockmarked Er, "Do you have no brains? Daring to barge into an unknown place like this? Let this kid go down first."

When I heard that, I knew he wanted to use me as a scout to check for danger. I cursed inwardly.

To them, Old Itch had been to that ancient tomb before, so keeping him alive might be useful. I was just a greenhorn—it wouldn't matter much if I died. At that moment, Old Itch nodded at me and said softly, "It's fine, just go down."

I felt a little reassured. When I saw Pockmarked Er coming to grab me, I waved my hand and said to them, "Don't touch me! I'll go down myself!" With that, I tied the flashlight to my hand, held onto the side with both hands, and carefully probed down with my foot first. The stone steps below were quite steady. After stepping on them a few times, I knew Old Itch was right—this path was safe.

I took a deep breath and shone the flashlight down. I found it was an almost vertical mine shaft, so deep I couldn't see the bottom. The surrounding greenish stone walls were, for some reason, very damp. My hands slipped a bit when I pressed against them. But there was no water below, so I didn't know where the moisture came from.

I was about to go down when Uncle Tai tapped my head and handed me a whistle. He said, "When you reach the bottom, blow it once. If I don't hear anything in half an hour, I'll kill your buddy." I knew he was afraid I'd run off on my own. I sneered inwardly, took the whistle, and ducked into the shaft.

Climbing down such nearly vertical stone steps was very strenuous. The people who carved them hadn't been careful; some steps were shallow, some deep, and most could only hold half a foot. After descending a dozen steps, I was already panting, and the tips of my feet began to hurt. After about sixty steps, my feet started to show signs of cramping, so I had to stop and rest.

At that moment, I looked up. The stone door above had become a small square of light. The darkness around me pressed in like ink. I saw a few faint shadows moving up there—they were clearly constantly looking my way. I calculated secretly: Old Itch was in their hands now; at least until we reached the ancient tomb, he was safe, but my own situation

All I have now is the advantage of reaching the bottom before them. If I can use these few minutes to prepare, maybe I can turn the whole situation around. The question is, is there anything down there I can use? Thinking for no reason is useless. I need to get down there quickly; the earlier I go down, the more time I'll have.

I kept climbing, and after ten minutes, the mine tunnel changed. It gradually began to slope, and the steps became easier to climb. I noticed the rock here had turned a distinct reddish-brown, and when I shone my light on it, there were many tiny reflections. I knew they had hit a vein of hard rock. This kind of stone is probably granite with some mica in it, very hard. They changed the direction of the tunnel, probably to bypass this rock vein.

I continued down the gradually shallowing mine tunnel and found that this rock vein was unusually long, so much so that the steepness of the tunnel kept decreasing, eventually becoming almost level. As I walked, I faintly heard what sounded like water from deeper down in the tunnel. After a few turns, the sound of water grew louder, like ten thousand horses galloping, as if there was a waterfall at the bottom.

I guessed that if I went further in, the sound of the whistle might not reach the top. I had no choice but to take out the whistle and blow a few times first. The sound carried very well through the tunnel, spiraling upward. Soon, a whistled echo came back from above. I knew that those people would follow immediately, so I turned and continued downward.

After descending another ten-plus meters, the tunnel had completely leveled out, and I could comfortably walk down as if on stairs. The sound of water here was very loud, and from time to time a warm current blew up from the bottom of the tunnel, carrying a strong sulfurous smell. I was very surprised. Could it be that there was something like that here? Impossible. This isn't a volcano.

Still wondering, I continued walking. Suddenly, the tunnel ahead widened. I hurried a few steps, and a strong gust of wind blew toward me, nearly knocking me over. I raised my flashlight and shone it around, discovering that I had arrived at a natural cave.

This cave was about the size of a basketball court, with a height of about five or six meters. It extended infinitely to the left and right, leading to I don't know where. If anything, it was more like an underground passage than a cave. There were no stalactites on the roof, but the surrounding rocks had been worn smooth by years of erosion. Looking at the scale of the cave, I knew it wasn't man-made. The entire cave floor was an underground river with very fast-flowing water. The huge sound of water I had heard earlier was because the cave structure acted like a loudspeaker, amplifying the sound of the flowing water. I walked toward the middle and found the water temperature was quite high, so I couldn't step in easily. The further I went, the deeper the water got, quickly reaching my knees, so I quickly retreated.

This should be a rock vein, like a blood vessel in the human body—the mountain's lifeline. Unexpectedly, the mine shaft had directly struck into this rock vein. An unfortunate coincidence. Lao Yang must have originally followed this underground river in the rock vein to get out. I looked to both sides and noticed that the underground river channels seemed to be narrowing. In the middle of the left channel, it seemed something was standing. But standing at the edge, the beam of my flashlight couldn't reach that far, and I vaguely felt it was a person.

Just then, Pockmarked Er came out of the mine tunnel with a strange cry, stepping directly into the water and yelling, "Damn! It's so hot!"

I turned and saw another young man follow him out. The man wore glasses and looked quite refined—he must be that Liang Shishi. As he approached, I noticed he was actually a bit older than he appeared from a distance. The third to come out was Lao Yang, followed by a slightly overweight middle-aged man, and then Uncle Tai. I thought there should be one more person, but no one else followed. I was puzzled—hadn't there been five of them when they entered the mountain? They all turned on their flashlights, several beams sweeping back and forth in the rock vein. Liang Shishi exclaimed softly, "Oh wow, isn't this a rock vein? And a warm one. That's rare."

Pockmarked Er took a few steps into the water, frowned, and stepped back. He said to the others, "Hell, it's quite deep. Uncle Tai, this is hard to cross. Not easy to wade."

Uncle Tai glanced at Lao Yang and chuckled, "Kid, you say you came out from here? How did you get out? Swim?"

Lao Yang seemed a bit intimidated by his look and quickly said, "There are two iron chains under the water! Just feel your way along the chains!" He hurried to the front and began feeling around in the water. Soon, he pulled out a black iron chain about wrist-thick and shouted, "It's this!"

Pockmarked Er walked over and pulled it a few times. It wouldn't budge. He looked ahead uneasily and said, "Uncle Tai, taking this water route might not be too wise. The way Pipa died just now was so... If we run into that thing again, we're all done for."

Liang Shishi touched the water and said, "It's fine. The water here is so hot, there's definitely no fish, and if there were, they'd be cooked."

Pockmarked Er grinned, seeming not quite convinced, and asked, "Really?"

Advisor Liang patted his shoulder and was about to say something when suddenly a huge wave exploded in the water behind Pockmarked Er. In an instant, we were knocked over into the water, soaked through. I yelled in my heart, 'Damn, could it be a super taimen?' Frantically, I turned my flashlight back and saw a pillar of water shoot out of the surface, hit the cave ceiling, and scatter down like rain of scalding water.

Advisor Liang was scared pale, sitting in the water trembling, not sure if he had peed himself. Uncle Tai, after all, was someone who had weathered storms; as he stood up, he had already drawn his gun with one hand and shouted at Advisor Liang, "What the hell is that thing!"