Chapter 4 Corpse Cave

These guys had encountered many dangerous things over the years and were very skilled so I had full trust in them. So, when Pan Zi said this, I was well aware of the situation. Big Ah Kui also gave me a look, which meant that I should stay back and keep my nose out of trouble.

I couldn’t help but smile. Why would I go looking for trouble? Ah Kui could knock a cow out with just one punch and Pan Zi was a war veteran with scars all over his body. And ever since he was a child, Uncle Three was the type to go all out in a fight. There was also that mute bastard, who didn’t look like he’d show any sort of kindness at all. As for me… ever since ancient times, scholars had always been the most useless in a fight.

Uncle Three came up and shoved an army knife into my hand, but it felt too heavy and awkward. How was I supposed to use this?

Just as I was thinking about what else I could use to defend myself, Lu Dandan came swimming back with a loud splash. The old man knocked his pipe against his pants leg and said, “Let’s go! The boat’s coming.”

Sure enough, two flat boats emerged from behind the mountain in tandem. On the boat in front of us stood a middle-aged man, who was shouting at us while he punted the boat.⁽¹⁾ These boats were quite large and seemed more than able to hold both us and all of our equipment. The old man patted the ox on the neck. “You guys don’t need to unload all of your equipment. I’ll pull the ox and the cart onto the second boat and we’ll all sit together on the first boat. It’s better to save your strength while you can.”

Pan Zi smiled, “Some of our things shouldn’t be exposed to water; it’s better to carry them with us. What if the ox happens to dive into the water? Then we’ll really be screwed.”

The old man smiled and nodded, “What you’ve said is reasonable, but this ox isn’t a buffalo. It’ll never jump into the water. If it does happen to jump, then this old man will help you fish your stuff out of the water until every single item is retrieved.”

As he spoke, he led the ox towards the approaching boats. We each slung our bags over our shoulders and followed behind him. The middle-aged man steered the boats very quickly and soon landed with a few skilled strokes of his pole.

While the old man was pulling the ox and cart onto the second boat, I looked at the middle-aged man who was punting the boat. His skin was dark and suntanned and he looked extremely ordinary, but for some reason—maybe it was a psychological effect or something else—I couldn’t help but think that this man looked sketchy. I remembered Uncle Three’s story about eating corpse flesh and suddenly felt that the more I looked at this guy, the more horrifying he seemed.

“When we get to the cave, please speak quietly and don’t disturb the river god,” the man said. “And especially don’t speak ill of the river god.”

“How long will it take to get through the cave?” Uncle Three asked him.

“If it’s fast, it’ll only take five minutes to pass through. The current inside is very swift—at least, it was moving swiftly yesterday.”

“Are there times when it’s slow?”

“Yes, sometimes the water flows upstream. When you saw me coming over, I was coming downstream. But now we must go upstream, so it’ll take a long time. I estimate that it’ll take fifteen minutes. There are some turns in the cave that are quite dangerous to maneuver around.”

“Is it bright in there?”

The man laughed, “It’s pitch black in there, how can you expect it to be bright? You might even say it’s as dark as night.” But then he pointed to his ears, “I’ve been a boatman for more than ten years. I just need this pole and my ears.”

“Then can we use a flashlight?” Pan Zi raised the miner’s lamp in his hand. “It’s ok, right?”

“It doesn’t matter,” the man said. “But don’t let it shine on the water. Otherwise, you’ll be scared to death!”

Uncle Three smiled. “What, is there a water ghost or something?”

“That thing can’t compare to a water ghost, but I don’t even dare to guess what it is. If you’re brave, you can take a look for yourself later. Remember, just take a look. If you’re lucky, the only thing you’ll see will be black water. If you’re unlucky, what you see will scare you out of your wits.”

Having said that, we could already see the mouth of the cave, which was hidden behind the mountain cliff. When we were on the shore, we couldn’t see it at all and just imagined that it was a big hole in the mountain. But when I actually saw it, I couldn’t help but cry out in dismay. I didn’t expect the cave entrance to be so small. It was only ten centimeters wider than the boat, but the most terrifying thing was its height. People wouldn’t be able to fit even if they were sitting down, which meant that they could barely manage to get in by hunching over. If anyone were waiting to ambush us inside, there would be no room for us to defend ourselves in such a small space.

“Shit,” Pan Zi suddenly cried out in amazement, “isn’t this cave a little small?”

“It’s actually pretty big. There’s a section further inside that’s even more narrow,” the old man said from behind.

Uncle Three glanced at Pan Zi, who put on a fake smile, “Ah, with such a small cave, if someone wanted to rob us, wouldn’t it be impossible for them to escape?”

As soon as he said this, I saw the middle-aged boatman make a very inconspicuous gesture, and the old man’s expression changed. There really is something wrong here, I thought to myself. At this time, we heard a roar and then the boat entered the cave entrance.

Pan Zi turned on the miner’s lamp. The mouth of the cave was still bright when we first entered, but soon, the only light left was the miner’s lamp.

“Master Three, this cave isn’t so simple,” Ah Kui said. “This is a robbers’ tunnel!”

“A water robbers’ tunnel to be more precise. Do you see how these markings are circular instead of square? That means that this cave is ancient. It seems that this cave may be the entrance to another universe.”

“Oh, this one seems to have a bit of background. He’s right,” the middle-aged man said from the bow of the boat, where he was kneeling down on one knee. He held his pole in one hand while he steered the boat, but the strange thing was, his pole didn’t touch the water at all and he didn’t seem out of breath. Then he said, “I heard that this whole mountain is an ancient tomb, and there are quite a lot of water robbers’ tunnels of varying sizes around here. But as you can see, this one is the biggest and the deepest. I don’t think the water was that high back then, so this must have been a dry cave at that time.”

“Oh, it seems that you’re also an expert.” Uncle Three politely handed over a cigarette.

The boatman shook his head, “What expert? I just heard it from those people who came here before you. If you listen enough, you’ll also be able to say a few words. I don’t know much, so you can’t call me an expert.”

Pan Zi and Da Kui had both placed their hands on their knives while talking and laughing with those people. The atmosphere seemed very harmonious, but in fact, everyone was tense. I kept telling myself that there were five of us and only two of them. If they really wanted to start something, we wouldn’t necessarily lose. But since they dared to target us, they must have been thoroughly prepared.

As I was thinking this, the poker-faced guy suddenly waved his hand, “Shh, listen! Someone is talking!”

We immediately held our breath, and sure enough, we heard a disturbing rustling sound coming from the depths of the cave. I carefully tried to determine what was being said, but it was like I could hear it but not understand it. After listening for a while, I turned around in order to ask the middle-aged boatman if this sound was often heard in this cave, but I found that he had unexpectedly disappeared! I looked back at the other boat and cursed. Shit, the old man is gone as well.

“Pan Zi, where did they go?!” Uncle Three shouted anxiously.

“I don’t know, I didn’t hear the sound of them diving into the water,” Pan Zi also panicked. “I got distracted as soon as I heard that noise just now.”

Uncle Three became annoyed, “Shit! We don’t smell like corpses, either. I don’t know what’s going to happen! Pan Zi, you fought in Vietnam. Have you ever eaten dead people?”

“You’re kidding, right? I was washing dishes in the mess hall every day!” Pan Zi pointed to Ah Kui, “Fat Kui, didn’t you say that your family used to sell human meat buns? You must have eaten a lot when you were a child.”

“Bullshit, I was making that up! Besides, the human meat buns would be sold to others. What kind of human meat bun vendor is desperate enough to eat their own product?”

I hurriedly made a time-out gesture, “The three of you together are more than a hundred and fifty years old! This is embarrassing!”

As soon as I finished speaking, the boat suddenly shook. Pan Zi hurriedly picked up the miner’s lamp and looked into the water, where we saw a huge shadow swimming under the boat.

Ah Kui’s face turned white with fear and he pointed to the water, his mouth opening and closing without a sound. Uncle Three, afraid that he would pass out from lack of oxygen, slapped him before he started scolding him, “Useless! What’s wrong with you?! These two brats haven’t said a word, yet you’re freaking out even though you’ve been with me for so many fucking years?! Eat shit!”

“Ma—Master Three, this thing is too big! I’m afraid all of us combined won’t be enough for its dinner.” Ah Kui gave the water another fearful look. He had originally been sitting on the side of the boat, but now his butt had moved to the middle of the boat as if he were afraid that something in the water would suddenly jump out and take him away.

“Bah!” Uncle Three directed a fierce glare at him. “We have all the equipment we need and we have people who are skilled! I’m the third son of the Wu family and I’ve been robbing tombs for ages. What monsters and ghosts haven’t I seen? Stop talking nonsense!”

Pan Zi was also very frightened, but for him, it wasn’t so much fear as it was shock. With such a huge thing swimming under the water in such a narrow space, it wasn’t surprising that everyone was struggling to think. Pan Zi looked around and said, “Master Three, this cave is very strange. I’m so terrified that I feel like my heart is about to explode and I can’t think. Let’s talk about this after we get out of here, ok?”

Ah Kui immediately agreed and even I was eager to leave this place, but I was Uncle Three’s family after all, so I had to wait for him to give his opinion before I could speak.

Uncle Three actually looked at Poker-Face at this time, as if he were seeking his advice. With Uncle Three’s personality, he wouldn’t even pay attention to the most noble and authoritative person around, but now he seemed to be deferring to this young guy. Wondering what was going on, I turned my head to see what this guy had to say, only to find that he wasn’t listening to us at all. His expression, which was originally as stiff as a stone statue, had disappeared and both eyes were staring intently into the water like he was looking for something.

I wanted to ask Uncle Three who this guy really was, but now wasn’t the time for it so I secretly asked Pan Zi instead. Pan Zi just shook his head and said that he also didn’t know. He only knew that this man was really skilled. He jutted his chin at the guy’s hand and said, “Look, how many years do you think it takes to get a hand like that?”

I really hadn’t paid attention to that guy’s hand before, but when I looked at it now, I found that it was really unusual.

His middle and index fingers were particularly long, and I immediately thought of the ancient Faqiu Zhonglang Jiang’s⁽²⁾ two-finger probing technique, which I had read about in my grandfather’s notes. The experts in Faqiu Zhonglang Jian used these two fingers, which were as firm and powerful as Mount Tai, to easily disable the small traps in tombs. But if you wanted to practice this skill, you had to start from a young age and the process was bound to be miserable.

I was still wondering what he was capable of doing with those fingers when I saw him raise his right hand up and then thrust it into the water as quick as lightning. The movement was so fast that it was almost like there was a flash of white light before his hand had already returned, a black bug tightly held between his two strangely long fingers. He threw the bug onto the boat deck and said, “It was this thing just now.”

I looked down and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, “Isn’t this a diving beetle? So that big shadow just now was just a lot of diving beetles swimming past?”

“Yes.” The young man wiped his hands on his clothes.

Although we weren’t fully convinced, we were already feeling relieved. At this time, Ah Kui suddenly stepped on the bug and squashed it. “Shit, that scared me to death.”

But after thinking about it, I felt that that couldn’t be right. How could there be so many diving beetles moving at the same time? And this beetle in particular was way too big! Poker-Face didn’t seem to be very relieved either and also seemed to be thinking about the issue.

Ah Kui was still stomping on the bug’s body, which had already been smashed to a pulp. I figured he wanted to save some of the face he had lost just now. Uncle Three picked up one of the bug’s broken legs, put it under his nose to sniff it, and then said in amazement, “This isn’t a diving beetle, it’s a corpse eater.”

We all stared at him blankly. This tidbit of information really wasn’t reassuring seeing as how the name sounded so ominous.

“Shit, this thing eats carrion. There’s a large number of these bugs wherever there are dead things, and if they eat well, they’ll grow bigger. It seems like there’s a place further upstream with a lot of corpses. And it’s a big site too.” Uncle Three looked at the dark cave up ahead.

“Does this kind of thing bite the living?” Da Kui asked timidly.

“If it’s a normal size, it definitely won’t bite, but look at the size of this one. I’m really not sure whether it’ll bite or not.” Uncle Three looked at it, obviously puzzled. “This thing usually stays in places where there are many dead bodies and doesn’t often swim around. Why was such a large group moving together just now?”

At this time, Poker-Face suddenly turned his head towards the depths of the cave. “I’m afraid they were running for their lives.”

“What? Running for their lives?” Da Kui asked. “Then in this cave…”

Poker-Face nodded, “I keep feeling like something is coming towards us from further inside. And whatever it is, it’s not small.”　　

<Chapter 3><Table of Contents><Chapter 5>

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TN Notes:

(1) Punting is steering a boat by pushing a pole against the river bed.

(2) I left the pinyin. Characters are 发丘中郎将. It’s basically like an official tomb robbing position in the dynastic governments. I think this is more along the lines of “Ghost Blows Out the Light” stuff because what I’m finding is that Chinese Warlord Cao Cao took his subordinates around looting graves. In order to raise the efficiency of the tomb robbery, two posts were specially set up: Faqiu Zhonglang Jiang and Mojin Xiaowei (none of this is actually proven. People just kind of believe it anyways).  Fa means “excavation”, Qiu means “mound” or “tomb” or “grave”. Zhonglang Jiang and Xiaowei were the two military commander positions at the time. The position of Zhonglang Jiang is second only to the general, which is a bit similar to the reserve of high-level generals. Here’s someone’s essay (take it with a grain of salt)