Previously, when Ma Zhenhong claimed that the tomb was haunted, we were all skeptical.
However, upon seeing Gong Yingfa's body mysteriously appear here, everyone realized that there must be something wrong with this place.
Upon hearing Ma Zhenhong say that he had seen an old man, I immediately shone my flashlight into the tomb passage.
It was completely empty.
Only the ferocious-looking Heavenly King in the mural glared at me angrily.
I glanced at Gong Yingfa's body, took a deep breath, and said, "Everyone, stay calm. We're trapped. The most important thing right now is to stay alert! Ma Zhenhong, aren't you supposed to be home supporting your elderly mother?"
"Yes! Yes! My mom is still waiting for me at home!"
Ma Zhenhong forced himself to stay alert despite his fear: "There's nothing unusual here. I didn't find any tomb raiding holes behind the stone sarcophagus!"
"Monkey, go take a look over there!"
I pointed in another direction and shouted, then began searching the surrounding ground for traces of a dug tunnel.
At this moment, the shark also walked to the box next to the stone coffin and lifted the decaying lid.
Upon seeing the scrolls and bamboo slips inside, the shark's eyes lit up: "Found it! Finally found it!"
Seeing the shark's excited expression, I shone my flashlight into the box and said, "You haven't even looked at the contents yet, and you're already shouting that you found it. What are you looking for?"
As Shark spoke, he made a gesture as if to take the contents out of the tomb: "I don't know either, but that's what President Wei instructed me to do. My purpose in coming here is to see if there are a large number of scrolls in this tomb!"
I shrugged slightly: "Just a heads-up, you should take pictures of everything here first! The ancient tomb has been in an oxygen-depleted environment for a long time, and our excavation has allowed air to seep in. These organic materials will soon carbonize. Don't be fooled by their current appearance; their molecular structure is already unstable. It's very likely that if you touch them, they'll turn into a pile of ashes!"
"Thank you, Mr. Duan!"
Upon hearing my warning, the shark quickly pulled out his phone to take pictures, intending to turn a page of the book inside. However, the book crumbled like ashes, and the shark became even more cautious, gently turning the pages with the knife in his hand.
The monkey looked around behind me, then returned with a somewhat unnatural expression. "Young Master Duan, the situation here is too strange! There's not even a trace of a tomb raider's hole, not even footprints! This corpse was probably brought in by a ghost! Perhaps the tomb owner killed him because he wanted to rob the grave, making him kneel before the grave to apologize!"
"Don't scare yourself! If that were really the case, we're already right in front of the coffin, why hasn't the tomb owner come to claim our lives?"
I shone my flashlight on the stone sarcophagus in front of me: "If the tomb robber's tunnel isn't outside, let's go in and take a look!"
For some reason, I felt extremely uncomfortable as I approached the stone coffin.
The main burial chamber of this tomb adopts the layout of a round heaven and a square earth, and it is clear at a glance whether there are any tomb robbers' holes in the dome and burial chamber.
There were no footprints on the ground before we came in, which means that no one had been outside.
Since there were no tomb raiders' holes on the outside, the only place I could think of was inside the stone coffin.
If there isn't a tomb raider's hole inside, then everything that's happening here will be completely beyond my comprehension.
When the monkey saw me walking toward the stone coffin, it came over and lent a hand, and together we pushed open the door of the stone coffin.
Even after a thousand years, the stone door in front of us can still be pushed open. The mortise and tenon joints make a sound as the stones rub against each other, and the coffin door, sealed for a thousand years, slowly opens.
The stone sarcophagus is like a small house covering a coffin. After the two doors are pushed open, a wooden coffin with relief carvings appears in front of you.
Protected by the stone chamber, the coffin inside was well preserved, and the surrounding ground was very clean.
"Young Master Duan, this is too strange! There's not even any soil inside the stone coffin! This place is definitely haunted!"
The monkey sniffed: "In my opinion, let's not worry about whether this place is haunted or not. Now that we've found the shark's things, let's just take a few valuable artifacts and leave!"
I saw the nails on the coffin lid and hesitated for a moment: "Open the coffin!"
"Young Master Duan, can you please stop courting death! I may not be afraid of ghosts, but don't forget, there's still someone kneeling outside!"
The monkey looked at the eerie coffin with a troubled expression: "If we do anything reckless, we might have to go outside and kneel in line!"
Seeing that there were no holes for robbers inside the stone sarcophagus, and that the nails on the coffin were still there, I am now terrified.
But it is precisely because of this fear that I want to know how Gong Yingfa's body ended up here, so that I don't follow in his footsteps, and I also hope to find a reasonable explanation to reassure everyone, including myself.
Knowing the monkey's weakness, I coaxed him gently, "Don't you want to get rich? Throughout history, the most prized treasures of high-ranking officials and nobles have been placed in their coffins! Although Li Fan is a duke without any real title, he is still a member of the royal family. The things inside are much better than those outside!"
Suddenly, the monkey seemed to be injected with adrenaline: "Then what are we waiting for? Lift it up!"
I pulled out the nail puller from my waist and shouted outside, "Shark Bro, come help me!"
"They're here!"
The shark had finished taking photos outside and then bent down to crawl into the stone coffin.
This was my first time tomb raiding, and I had no experience in opening coffins. I used a chisel to dig a groove next to the nail, and then started using a nail puller to pry the nail.
The coffin was somewhat rotten, and we easily removed all the nails.
"one two three!"
The three people worked together to flip the coffin lid to the other side.
Immediately afterwards, an indescribable stench assaulted my nostrils.
Even when I held my breath, the smell didn't dissipate; it was as if it could penetrate into one's brain.
"Everyone, get out of the way! I want to see what good stuff is inside!"
The monkey lay beside the coffin, shining a flashlight inside, and exclaimed in amazement, "Holy crap! The ancient people's preservation techniques are amazing! This person inside has been dead for over a thousand years, yet he looks so lifelike, as if he just died a few days ago!"
It was dark inside the stone coffin. I had thrown my headlamp aside to make it easier to work, so I could only see the face of the person in the coffin by following the monkey's flashlight.
This is a middle-aged man in his forties. His skin still looks elastic, and even his body hair is clearly visible.
This situation has once again broadened my understanding.
When many people read archaeological documents and see the phrase "lifelike", they don't quite understand the situation at the scene and subconsciously imagine what a living person looks like. But in fact, this phrase does not mean that the person looks like they are asleep.
Normal mummies are brownish-red, while "lifelike" means that the skin still retains its original color, only appearing somewhat shriveled, and the joints can still move, rather than being dried out like cured meat.
However, it is extremely rare for a corpse to contain moisture.
Hearing the monkey's words, the shark also came over to take a look, then took two steps back and bumped into the wall: "This, this person... is Gong Ming!"
"who?!"
My scalp tingled instantly: "You mean, he's the father of that tomb raider outside?"
The monkey instinctively took a step back: "Impossible! We just opened the coffin! How could he be lying inside?!"
Just then, Ma Zhenhong's screams suddenly came from outside: "Help! A ghost is coming to kill me... Ah!!"
The atmosphere here was already tense, and I was startled by Ma Zhenhong's shout: "Go out and see!"
"Clang!"
Before I could turn around, the stone door behind me suddenly slammed shut, trapping us inside the coffin.
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