After the stone door opened, a wider tomb passage appeared before us, with light shining through at the end of the passage, faintly illuminating the murals on both sides.
Let's go.
Zhang Fan led the way, with Qiu Wanlan holding his hand behind him. The two passed through the stone gate and walked along the tomb passage paved with bluestone slabs.
Click!
A bluestone slab sank under Qiu Wanlan's foot, and with a rumbling sound, the stone door behind her closed again.
"What should I do?" Qiu Wanlan panicked. No matter how hard she stepped on the stone slab, the stone door behind it didn't respond, and she couldn't find a small hole like the one in front of the stone door behind it.
The two are now essentially locked inside the tomb passage.
“Keep moving forward, there will be other exits.” Zhang Fan was not in a hurry. He believed that the tomb owner did not lock the stone door to imprison him here.
So the two continued walking along the tomb passage, where the murals on both sides became more elaborate. Through Qiu Wanlan's explanation, Zhang Fan gradually learned about the major events that occurred during the Tang Dynasty.
It is said that before the Tang Dynasty, the Western Liang Women's Kingdom consisted only of women. Women could become pregnant by drinking the water from the "Mother and Child Spring," but the offspring born would still be female.
Zhang Fan suspected that the "Mother-Child Spring" was something that could stimulate asexual reproduction, and since the lack of a male Y chromosome meant that the offspring could only be female.
In nature, some organisms evolve the ability to reproduce asexually when they lack the opportunity to reproduce with a mate.
For example, some fish species will transform into males when males are scarce, and the sex of a swamp eel can even change several times in its lifetime. Life is truly amazing.
"The Women's Kingdom of Xiliang also has families, so the two parties in a marriage are naturally women. The practice of two beautiful women flying together has existed since ancient times." Qiu Wanlan said as she walked. "Even now, there is no law in Xiliang that stipulates that the two parties in a marriage must be of the opposite sex. It's just that people's gaze and moral constraints have bound same-sex feelings, making them afraid to boldly express their love in public."
"Are you talking about Bingbing and Mimi, or about yourself?" Zhang Fan asked with a meaningful smile.
“I know what you mean.” Qiu Wanlan rolled her eyes at Zhang Fan and said frankly, “From the age of fourteen, when I was just beginning to fall in love, I knew that I was not interested in men. I could not force myself to be a husband and wife with a man I did not like, like my sister did.”
"The thought of having to sleep in the same bed with a man I don't like makes me feel disgusted!"
"Yingnan is the same way, so we made a promise that if there are no men in the world that we both like, then we'll live together. At least I admire her, and she doesn't dislike me. We can sleep together without feeling disgusted or resistant to each other. I think it's pretty good."
"Is that so?"
Zhang Fan frowned. "Didn't you sleep in the same place as me last night? You didn't seem to mind. Even though we had separate sleeping bags, the shelter is so small, smaller than a regular bed."
But Zhang Fan ultimately didn't ask these questions; instead, his gossipy nature stirred within him:
"What if there's only one man in the world that you both find attractive?"
"What does it matter? We can marry him together," Qiu Wanlan said matter-of-factly. "I can make him my husband and Yingnan my concubine, isn't that enough?"
"Huh?" Zhang Fan's eyes widened.
That's true. If men can have multiple wives and concubines, why can't women?
"What if this man also has a wife, and more than one wife?" Zhang Fan's curiosity got the better of him, and he insisted on asking further.
“That’s not a problem. A man with three wives and four concubines probably can’t handle it all by himself, right? Yingnan and I can help him share the burden.”
"Share? Share the burden?" Zhang Fan stared wide-eyed.
"As I just said, we don't object to sharing a bed with a woman." Qiu Wanlan seemed to be stating a very ordinary matter. "If I like him, his wife is naturally my wife too..."
"Wait a minute, let me sort this out." Zhang Fan's eyes were already wide open like saucers.
The genders here need to be considered in reverse order, so it's like this... then that... and then...
Damn it!
I don't want to think about it anymore!
Zhang Fan felt increasingly overwhelmed and decided that he should never let the female soldiers from the 358th Regiment come to Xiliang again!
What the hell!
Suddenly, Qiu Wanlan stopped in her tracks, her eyes fixed on a mural in the tomb passage.
"What's wrong?" Zhang Fan snapped out of his daze, followed Qiu Wanlan's gaze, and then froze.
The style of this mural is clearly different from what I've seen before. It depicts a person standing by a long table, holding a knife and cutting a monster under a lamp.
Qiu Wanlan stared at the mural for a long time, then frowned and said, "I have never seen a similar scene in the historical records of Xiliang."
"The people above are dressed in strange clothes, and they are not wearing the traditional clothing of Xiliang."
"And that thing on the table..."
As Qiu Wanlan finished speaking, she took a few steps back to get closer to Zhang Fan.
"I don't understand."
Qiu Wanlan felt that the mural was eerie.
“You may not understand it, but I do.” Zhang Fan smiled. The mural felt familiar to him. “The person in the painting is the Tang Emperor.”
"Emperor Tang? Impossible!" Qiu Wanlan exclaimed. "Why would Emperor Tang wear such clothes? Why would he be with a demon? You can't even see the face of the person in the painting, so you can't spout nonsense and slander Emperor Tang's reputation!"
“I’m not talking nonsense.” Zhang Fan reached out and gently stroked the mural in front of him. “Let me introduce it to you this time.”
"The strange clothes worn by the people in the painting have a special name: 'surgical gowns'."
"That thing that looks like a lotus seedpod is called a surgical lamp."
"This is the operating table."
"He's holding a scalpel..."
Zhang Fan explained everything in detail, finally pointing to the person in the painting.
"This person is undoubtedly the King of Tang."
Qiu Wanlan listened to Zhang Fan's explanation with a look of astonishment, and finally asked with some doubt, "Then what is the Tang King doing? Why is he with the Yaksha demon?"
“DN gene surgery.” Zhang Fan sighed deeply. “I should have thought of that sooner, I should have thought of that sooner…”
"What are you thinking about?" Qiu Wanlan asked, looking confused.
"Our ancestors have always guided us forward, and even after thousands of years, they still watch over us, their descendants, with loving eyes..."
"What?" Qiu Wanlan was even more confused. "What did you say? I don't understand."
“It’s nothing, you don’t need to understand.” Zhang Fan touched the figure on the mural, grinned, and said, “Let’s go see him.”
Qiu Wanlan tilted her head as she walked, looking at Zhang Fan.
Is this guy possessed by a demon? He's walking around the tomb with a smile on his face, it's creepy...
The light at the end of the tomb passage was always ahead, but after walking for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the two still hadn't made it out of the tomb passage.
Zhang Fan realized something was wrong.
"stop!"
"What's wrong?" Qiu Wanlan turned around. "The light ahead is the exit, why aren't we moving?"
“That’s not the exit.” Zhang Fan was silent for a while, then shook his head. “We’ve been misled by ‘it’ and have been going in circles with ‘it’.”
"What does 'it' mean?" Qiu Wanlan suddenly felt a chill run down her spine and immediately moved closer to Zhang Fan. "Don't scare me."
“Look there.” Zhang Fan pointed to the mural on the wall, which depicted a person standing by a long table, holding a knife and cutting a monster under the light.
"We've encountered a 'ghost wall' situation; we've been going around in circles."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com