I snapped, "What, are you afraid of shadows now?" Big Kui's face looked white and terrified. His lips trembled as I spoke. Impossible, I thought, is he really such a coward? He motioned for me to be silent. Then he pointed to the shadows. "This is mine. This one is Panzi's. This one is Master Three's. This one is the guy you call Poker-face. Do you see my point? With you, we have only five, correct?"

I nodded. Big Kui pointed at another shadow that stood alone, not near our dark outlines, and asked, sounding as if he were about to cry, "Whose shadow is that?"

Chapter Eleven.

SEVEN COFFINS.

I examined the shadow carefully. Its head was bowed at first, then as it was raised, it became huge, and almost wider than its shoulders. My scalp tingled, and I shouted "There's a ghost!"

Everyone turned around and looked at me, but I could not stop shouting. I pointed to the shadow and then turned my head to see what could be casting it-it was a monster with a bulging, oversized head, more terrifying than anything I could imagine. In its hands was a strange weapon that I couldn't identify. Poker-face picked up his miner's lamp so we could all look at this hideous creature more clearly. It was like...like a big crock placed over a man's head...s.h.i.t, I thought, as my fear changed into blazing anger, who is this a.s.shole?

It was no monster-just a man whose head was covered with a big crock like a mask. Two holes in the crock revealed two glaring eyes staring at us from within. He held a flashlight in his hand.

I felt stupid for overreacting but we were all still alarmed by the appearance of this person. For a minute we stood staring and then Panzi exploded, "Whoever you are, I'm going to shoot you." As he pulled out his gun, the stranger yelled and ran rapidly toward the tunnel, but Panzi took aim and the crock on the man's head shattered.

"d.a.m.n you," the man yelled as he raced into the tunnel, "I'll be back and make you wish you'd never seen me." Running as quickly as though his feet were sliding on oil, he disappeared into the darkness.

Poker-face cursed and muttered, "We can't let him get far into that tunnel. If he touches the stone coffin in there, we're all dead." Picking up the iron sword he had bought from Uncle Three, he raced into the black tunnel.

Panzi wanted to follow him to lend a hand but Uncle Three pulled him back, yelling, "What kind of worthless help could you offer? Go take a look at the two small ear chambers and find out where this fellow came from."

I went to the ear chamber on the right and saw a robbers' tunnel leading from the stone wall. In the corner of the chamber was a brightly burning candle which gave off a green glow. So, I thought, this guy is searching for gold. A bag which he had apparently left behind lay on the ground, and when I opened it I found tools, batteries, and a drawing of a map of the tomb.

Although the map wasn't very legible, I could tell right away that the squares on it represented the seven coffins. There were many notes scrawled on the paper, all written in different handwriting. They seemed to be notes made by several people during a discussion. On the edge of the map was a big question mark, and the words Seven Deceptive Coffins.

My muscles tightened. I had seen these words somewhere before. Then I remembered. I had read about them in my grandfather's journal. Of these seven coffins, only one was real. The other six all held traps which were triggered when the coffins were opened.

The dead foreigner whom we had found in the coffin obviously had no idea of the danger and thought all seven of the coffins held treasure. When he opened the wrong one, he was dragged into the coffin and killed. His partner presumably saw this and ran away in terror. Then he probably dug a tunnel in the corridor and fled.

This seemed a logical explanation, and clutching the drawing of the map, I decided to show it to my uncle. But when I came out of the small ear chamber, I found only one lamp flickering in the dark. Uncle Three, Big Kui, and Panzi were all gone!

Going into the other ear chamber, I found n.o.body. I picked up the miner's lamp and yelled at the top of my lungs, "Uncle Three!"

They would never run away and leave me behind, unless something terrible had happened. There must have been trouble, but I had heard no sound of a scuffle. Big Kui at least would have screamed if there had been a fight or any other sort of danger.

However, the only answer to my call was my own echo. The black tomb, the seven coffins, and the corpse of a foreign stranger were all that were with me. I suddenly remembered that I was not a professional grave robber. It was impossible for me to wait in this tomb. Even if there wasn't an actual monster, my imagination alone would easily scare me to death.

I yelled again, and desperately prayed that someone would answer right away. But all around me was only silence and stillness. The lamp that I held began to flicker as if the battery was losing strength. I began to sweat heavily, as my brain conjured up a series of confusing thoughts.

If this silence had continued, I might have been able to calm myself down. Instead I heard the cover of a stone coffin pop and make a clicking sound. I had no idea which of the seven had made this noise. I started to feel dizzy, and my heart beat so fast I almost threw up my Adam's apple. Retreating to the side of the wall, I saw a flash of light and turned around. The candle in the ear chamber had flared up and burned out.

I sighed and thought, I didn't take anything from you. Why did you have to blow out the light? I turned back to look at the coffins. The corpse inside the coffin that had already been opened was now in a sitting position and so was the foreigner's body, almost as though they had both sat up at the same time. The good news was that neither of them was staring at me.

I dared not look anymore. Closing my eyes, on trembling feet I tiptoed carefully toward the wall. Then I leaped into the ear chamber in as catlike a manner as I was able to manage.

In my grandfather's journal, he discussed his techniques on how to increase flagging courage. His theory was if you couldn't see what frightened you, you could pretend it had never been there. I reckoned he was right. I would never be able to think straight if I kept staring at those corpses sitting upright in their coffins.

I put my lamp on the floor where no light would shine out of the chamber and began to rummage frantically in the bag left behind by the guy Panzi had shot at. All I could find were some broken cookies and some papers covered with drawings and scribbled writing. If the guy had anything important, he had to be carrying it with him.

Other than my dim lamp, there was no other light. In the darkness beyond the chamber, I was unable to see what the corpses were doing-sitting up and down doing abdominal exercises in their coffins, for all I knew. I had no idea and that scared the h.e.l.l out of me.

Then a gust of wind blew into my chamber from the robbers' tunnel and my brain came to life again. That's right! I said to myself, This cave must go somewhere else and wherever it led, it had to be better than here. I carved a mark on the edge of the chamber, so if Uncle Three came back, he would see it and realize I had gone into the cave. Then I picked up my lamp and the abandoned bag and went off into the darkness.

As I climbed into the cave, I recalled my childhood memories of everything my grandfather had told me, that caves dug in modern times were rectangular as opposed to ancient ones which had a circular form, about the summits in the Qing dynasty versus the slopes in the Han dynasty, about the s.e.x technique of going nine strokes shallow and one stroke deep...h.e.l.l, none of this was helpful. As I looked at the robbers' tunnel, I couldn't determine whether it was more circular or rectangular, nor could I figure out when it had been excavated.

I mulled over whether it might have been dug by the fellow with the crock on his head. But if he had dug this crawlway, then when he knocked on the bricks, he would have triggered some sort of trap. And even if he was an expert and knew how to get rid of the vitriol, he would have at least made some kind of noise. But none of us noticed him when he first came near us until his shadow gave him away. So this crawlway had to have been here for a long time, and he must have entered through a tunnel that somehow led him to this one.

Sure enough, after climbing for a while, I saw a fork leading away from this tunnel. It had been dug in a whole other manner, obviously done by a different group of people. Either route must lead to the outer surface, so I could get out regardless of which one I followed. Leaving Uncle Three a sign by drawing a mark on the tunnel that I chose, I crawled in.

I was looking forward to a breath of fresh air and the sight of moonlight. The best part would be to see a cheerful, blazing fire and people above ground who would help me, pull me out of the tunnel, and invite me into their tent. I would have a meal and a good night's sleep and then Uncle Three and everyone else would find me and we would all go home together.

Grave robbing? My a.s.s. I'd had enough. Other guys might rob graves all their lives and b.u.mp into one or two unforeseen incidents. This was my first time, and no matter where I went, there were zombies and corpses and insects that feasted on them. I didn't even have time to catch my breath-this was too hard on me! I could only hope that when I found those helpful people above ground, one of them would be a pretty woman who would give me a shoulder ma.s.sage-I needed it.

My imagination boosted my energy and I picked up my pace. Soon I could see a fire in the distance ahead of me and I was overjoyed. I crawled up as fast as I could and stuck my head outside the tunnel, eager to inhale some fresh air. Then I looked and my face went blank.

It's quite true that the higher one's hopes, the bigger the disappointment. There was only another tunnel in front of me, and it looked very much like the one I just crawled out of. This tomb was far more complex than I had thought.

I cursed, held my lamp high, and looked around, feeling horrified as I carefully studied the walls. Wasn't this the exact same tunnel where I had come in? It turned out that this robbers' crawlway and the one on the other side were linked, while we had thought this one was an escape route out of the cavern. Why, I thought numbly, had this tunnel been dug at all?

Chapter Twelve.

THE DOOR.

I remembered that there were some papers with diagrams and sketches of maps in the bag left by that fellow that scared the h.e.l.l out of us. Perhaps these papers might hold some clues about how to get out of this place. I certainly had no other hope. In front of me there were Seven Deceptive Coffins. Behind me was the monster even Poker-face had to kowtow to. I couldn't go either way; I was safest if I stayed right where I was.

Sitting on the ground, I spread out the papers and skimmed through them. One of them was a blueprint for robbing this grave. Many ideas were written down, especially speculation about the zombie tomb, but the handwriting was so illegible I could barely read it. I could decipher several words about some sort of gla.s.s roof and I understood that they had put a lot of effort into figuring out ways of getting past the traps and pitfalls, although it was unclear whether any of these plans had been implemented. Someone had drawn a picture of a treelike object opening its mouth and waving its claws, which also looked like ghostly hands.

I flipped through the pages again and finally saw something significant, an aerial map of the tomb. I saw a tunnel under the water and the place where the Seven Deceptive Coffins lay. The map was drawn very clearly, but the tunnel where we came down was not on it-evidently, these people had not yet found this route. I also saw the cave which I climbed into just now. From the way the subfork was marked, I could see that if I had chosen to go into the other cave, I would have been barred from exiting when I reached the end, where the word collapse had been written.

The message was clear-my dream of returning above ground was shattered. I studied the map again, and found something strange and unusual. To the left of the place where I was now standing, where no tunnel could go through, a tomb had been drawn. This tunnel and that tomb were connected by a dotted line, making me think that this tomb seemed to be in another separate area. I touched the wall behind me. Could there be a secret path behind this wall?

Carefully I examined it and refreshed my memories of the construction of stone trapdoors that I had read about in my grandfather's journal. Generally speaking, if this trap could withstand deterioration after a millennium, then it could probably only be blasted open with water and mercury. The trigger of the device had to be a flat board.

The wall near me was filled with inscriptions and statues. If there really was a trapdoor here, one of them could definitely be moved. But such a piece would be placed on a spot that would hardly be noticeable.

Following this line of thought, I bent down to look at the juncture of the stone wall and the floor. Sure enough, there was a suspicious-looking square piece connected to the floor. I pressed it and although it didn't move, it seemed to dislodge a trifle. I pressed again, but there was still no movement. Thinking I must have been wrong in choosing this tile, I stood up, gave it a slight kick, and heard a rumbling sound.

Then the floor beneath my feet gave way with no warning and my whole body fell into the opening. This was no trapdoor, only a crude trap. I had no idea of what waited at the bottom of the hole I had plunged into but I imagined a steel knife poised to turn my bones into sharpened stakes. I knew I was going to die.

In a flash my b.u.t.t thumped firmly upon a floor. I was unharmed, but my lamp had gone out as it hit the ground and I was in total darkness.

Losing the light from my lamp could mean losing my life. I reached to see if perhaps the battery had been jarred loose by the fall but when I reached out for the lamp, what I touched in the blackness was an icy-cold hand.

Chapter Thirteen.

02200059.

I screamed, and drew my hand back in revulsion and terror. It was horrible to touch something unexpectedly in this place I knew nothing about, especially because the minute I touched that frigid, swollen hand, I could tell that it belonged to a dead man.

Remembering I still had some matches with me, I lit one quickly and saw a man's body lying on the floor, with a big gaping wound on his stomach. Corpse-eating bugs swarmed around the wound, each one as big as the palm of my hand, and all a light green color. As I looked, I could see smaller corpse-eaters crawling out of the body's mouth and eyes.

I felt sick as I looked at the dead man. He had apparently been dead for about a week, and was doubtless another victim from the group that had left the map. Could he have died here after plummeting through the same trap that I had fallen through?

My match was flickering but in its remaining seconds of illumination, I saw my lamp with its battery lying beside it. Quickly I reinserted the battery and to my great relief the light went back on. d.a.m.n, I thought, the guy who sold this to me swore it could withstand a fall of up to ten feet and he wasn't lying. I felt almost happy now that I had my lamp again.

I got up and looked around; there was nothing in this place. It was a square cellar enclosed by walls made of carelessly piled stones. There were many ventlike holes between the rocks, and bursts of cool air blew in through these openings.

Next, I inspected the corpse, a middle-aged man who looked as though he died from the huge hole in his abdomen. He was dressed in camouflage clothing and his pockets were so full that they bulged into little mounds. From one I pulled out a wallet with some money and a railway ticket stub. On his belt buckle I discovered an embossed stamp, engraved with the numbers 02200059. Other than that, there was nothing to prove his ident.i.ty. I put his wallet into my bag, planning to investigate it further once I had found my way out of this place.

The architectural style here looked much like the tombs from the Western Zhou dynasty and the place I was in looked a bit like an impromptu escape tunnel. I thought it unlikely that anyone would have put a grave right on top of someone else's tomb. This was probably an escape route that the craftsmen of the tomb had built for themselves.

In ancient times, especially during the Warring States Period, if one was to take part in the construction of a n.o.ble's tomb, it automatically meant a death sentence. The craftsmen would either be poisoned or buried alive with the dead bodies. But the wisdom of the working cla.s.s should never be underestimated, and many craftsmen would build themselves a secret pa.s.sage so they could escape. I swept my lamp across the room and saw a small and narrow door on the wall quite close to the ceiling, just a bit beyond my reach. Below this was a wooden ladder, but it was rotten and had almost completely fallen apart. I estimated the height of the tiny doorway from the ground, and decided I probably couldn't jump that high. And then a face popped in from the tunnel.

Once I saw who it was, my spirits lifted and I called out, "Panzi! It's me!"

Panzi jumped in shock when he saw me, without the slightest sign of happiness. Instead, he looked as if he had seen something terrifying, pulled out his gun and pointed the muzzle directly at me.

What was wrong here? How come Panzi was treating me like a zombie? I shouted, "Panzi, it's me! What the f.u.c.k are you doing?"

As if he heard nothing, Panzi fired. The sound of the shot was surprisingly loud in this cave and the bullet came so close to my face that I felt it whistle past my ear. It hit something behind my back and a bubbly gel that smelled like rotten fish splattered all over the back of my head.

Turning quickly, I saw clinging to the wall several large green things that looked like turtles without sh.e.l.ls. A few of them had climbed to the ceiling right above me and were only four feet away from my head, getting ready to attack my brain.

Before I could take a few steps back to get as far away as possible from these horrible creatures, two of them launched themselves toward me as though they were propelled by springs, aiming for my face. Two loud bangs announced two more bullets that soared across my head, destroying the two reptiles in midair. My face was covered with gel from the creatures' bodies and Panzi yelled, "I'm almost out of bullets. Why the f.u.c.k are you still standing there like an idiot? Get over here now!"

With Panzi protecting me, my mind was much more at ease. I turned and ran. Panzi fired yet another shot at these turtle-like monsters just as I reached the end of the wall. I grabbed his outstretched arm and jumped as he began to pull me up to the tunnel. I hadn't yet reached the top when he extended his pistol-holding arm between my legs and fired another shot. The sh.e.l.l of the bullet landed directly on my crotch and I screamed, almost pa.s.sing out from the pain, "What the h.e.l.l? Do you want to castrate me?"

Panzi shouted back at me, "Holy s.h.i.t! If you have to choose between your d.i.c.k and your life, don't you think your life is more important?"

I no longer held my lamp; I had dropped it as I climbed and now it was covered with corpse-eaters of all different sizes crawling around the light in a pale green layer. I had no idea where they had all come from and I asked Panzi, "How many bullets do you have left?"

He rummaged around in his pocket and smiled wryly, "Still have one bullet left-for you or for me?" His words were barely out of his mouth when a corpse-eater jumped up into our tunnel, making a creaking sound as it came toward us.

Panzi had once been a soldier and he knew how to deal with this kind of emergency. Holding the barrel of his pistol, he used the wooden b.u.t.t as a hammer, knocked the insect flat, and kicked it back down below. But more had already reached us. We battered at as many as possible, but a few still climbed onto our bodies and ripped flesh from us with their barbed claws.

"Let's run," I said. "There's simply no way to keep so many of them away from us."

Panzi grimaced. "Where should we run to?" I pointed to the back and said, "There must be a way out here. Look at this tunnel. It had to be built by the craftsmen in the ancient times so they were able to escape death. As long as we run along this tunnel, we're certain to find our way out."

Panzi cursed, "Bulls.h.i.t. You nerds always think whatever's written in a book is right. Let me tell you. I've scoured all these tunnels for a way out. This is a maze. The fact that I found this place by the skin of my teeth is a miracle to me. If I were to go back out, I don't know how long I would wander around before I got here again."

Perhaps my theory was wrong but there was no time to think of an alternative. More and more insects appeared and I shouted, "It's still better than feeding these things!"

With a sudden rumble, a man fell through the same trap that had snared me, his fat body pressing down on the corpse-eaters, frightening them away for a minute. The unexpected arrival stood up and said, "d.a.m.n, my b.u.t.t hurts! f.u.c.k. What kind of door opens from below?" He took out a flashlight, swept it across the room, and screamed, "h.e.l.l! What kind of s.h.i.t is this? How come there are so many bugs?" We looked and realized this was the guy who had put the crock over his head to scare us in the main tomb.

The corpse-eaters were surrounding us again but this fat guy was certainly efficient. He turned his flashlight into a hammer and struck them one by one. But it did no good-his body was soon covered with them. He let out a hair-raising scream and stretched his arm toward his back, as if he wanted to tear off his skin and all of the insects that were on it.

Panzi suddenly took out every match in his chest pocket, lit them all at once, and jumped down through the hole before I could stop him. He turned a somersault and landed next to the fat guy. The corpse-eaters were afraid of fire and jumped away, but matches are not long-term torches. Besides, Panzi's rapid series of movements had already extinguished most of them.

He shouted, "Do you have any more?" I felt in my chest pocket and found a few, made up my mind, lit them all, and thought, Oh h.e.l.l, here I go.

Following Panzi's example, I leaped into the opening and jumped down, clutching my flaming matches. But my skills were far inferior to his, and my body fell forward clumsily. The lit matches in my hand fell, dropping into the pile of corpse-eaters, and Panzi yelled, "My G.o.d, are you trying to make me die of anger with what you're doing here?"

I got up and ran to Panzi and the fat stranger. The insects, afraid of the matches, didn't dare to spring at us, but as the flames died down and the glow grew dim, they began to move. I gulped. "Looks like we're screwed."

Chapter Fourteen.

POKER-FACE.

The fat guy coughed and said, "Comrades, I've put you into this mess and now it looks as though we're all done for. I've never been afraid of anything but I never expected to die like this."

He was wearing a hooded black jacket like a ninja so it was hard to tell what he looked like, but as I peered into the dark I saw this was a very corpulent man. I had never thought a man this fat could be a grave robber.

Panzi cursed, "Hey fat a.s.s. Where the h.e.l.l did you come from? G.o.d d.a.m.n it, just let me beat the c.r.a.p out of you before I die!"

I watched as the matches died rapidly. Close to tears, I begged, "You guys better find a way out fast. Or else it doesn't matter who is beating up who-the insects will be the ones who win."

Panzi looked around and gave the pistol to Fats. Then he handed me the matches and said, "If we'd burned our clothes we could have bought some more time, but any fire made with these matches will be too small to make any difference now. We'd probably be dead before we even get them lit. On the count of three, I'll cover you and distract the bugs while you guys run for your lives to the other side of the wall. One of you climb on top of the other and then pull your helper up-there ought to be enough time. I'll move fast, and when you guys are safely up there, I'll run over and you can yank me up. Let's not waste any more time here!"

Before I could refuse, Panzi jumped into the crowd of corpse-eaters. The insects all rushed toward him like a tsunami, and a clear path appeared before us. I screamed and tried to rescue Panzi, but Fats pulled me back and said, "Up!"

He dragged me along as he ran and with the support of his fat body, I climbed to safety. Then I reached out my hand and pulled him up.

I looked down. Panzi's body was covered with corpse-eaters and he was rolling on the ground screaming in pain. I nearly cried when I saw him like this. Fats yelled down to him, "Quick-climb up here. There are only a few steps to go-hurry up!" But it was impossible for Panzi to climb. Corpse-eaters were crawling into his mouth and each time he tried to stand, he was pushed back onto the ground by the attack power of these insects. He curled his body into a ball, saw us screaming, and shook his head.