Chapter 37: Cave-In

By the time I woke up again, two days had already passed. What roused me wasn’t a medic or a teammate, but the smell of instant noodles cooked by one of the Tian Family crew. Moving corpses, a centipede-like creature the size of a train—those things felt like a nightmare. Only the rain tapping against the tent reminded me it wasn’t. And it wasn’t over yet.

I sat up in bed, wrapped in a blanket, slurping instant noodles from a stainless steel lunchbox while the guy tending the stove told me I’d been carried up here by the Tian Family men. I’d been swept by the underground river into a drainage channel inside the tomb, where I washed up on a shallow bank surrounded by corpses. Not far from me were bleached bones, picked clean by that centipede-like thing.

They said I had a bad fever, bruises all over my legs, large abrasions, and a slight dislocation in my elbow. No one knew how long I’d been lying there. As soon as Tian Yuqing found out, he ordered his men to carry me out.

Later, while reviewing the structure of the tomb chamber inside the tent, I tried estimating the time based on the river’s flow rate. My rough calculation suggested I’d been lying on that bank for at least a day and a half. The fact that I hadn’t been eaten by that thing… I must’ve used up all my luck for the year.

I was in rough shape. He Yu and Lu A’yao had fared much better.

They hadn’t been as unlucky as me. After falling into the river, they managed to stay conscious and swim to shore. After regrouping, they ran into Tian Yuqing’s team. After helping get me out, they continued deeper into the tomb as part of the main force.

Originally, the Tian Family crew wanted to drive me back to Henan, but I couldn’t rest easy without seeing He Yu and Lu A’yao come back. So I insisted on staying. I wasn’t in a hurry to leave.

I stood at the tent flap, enamel mug in hand, staring at the hole now covered with a waterproof canopy. The rain was coming down harder and harder. The stationed soldiers outside were calling for everyone to gather their clothes and get back inside.

It had been seven days since I was rescued. Three days ago, Tan Qiu received word and led the second supply team down. Every morning since, I’d come out to stare at that canopy, still unable to shake the tension in my chest.

So much danger, and yet not a single artifact had been brought up. Or maybe, Tian Yuqing and the two professors never intended to retrieve any artifacts in the first place.

I didn’t understand—what was all this for? And this tomb itself—it was a colossal mystery.

My hand moved on its own, reaching into the bag on the table beside me. I pulled out the jade casket wrapped in three layers of soft cloth. Holding it in my palm, I stared blankly at the rain outside, absentmindedly tracing the patterns on the surface. Suddenly, something about the texture felt familiar.

I quickly cleared off the folding table in the tent and laid out the flat tool case from my bag. I grabbed a notebook and a fountain pen, flipping to a blank page. A faint sense of direction had sparked in my mind, and in my haste, my hands fumbled.

I picked the thinnest wire from the tool case with my left hand, closed my eyes, and began probing the lock mechanism on the upper half of the casket. With my right hand, I uncapped the pen and started sketching blindly on the paper.

The intricate mechanisms inside made the process painstaking. Sweat soon drenched my forehead, and my left arm, held at a constant angle, began to ache terribly. But I was already halfway through—I could only take more frequent breaks and push on.

As night fell, the wire finally reached the bottom. I glanced at the part still in my hand—of the two-meter wire, only about ten centimeters remained. I spent a few more minutes slowly retracting it, then soaked a towel in hot water to wipe off the sweat. I had barely touched my face when I heard someone shouting outside:

“Help! We need help! Someone’s coming up!”

I didn’t even bother wiping the water from my face. I threw down the towel, grabbed the raincoat hanging in the tent, and dashed out, stumbling through the mud toward the waterproof canopy.

Flashlights crisscrossed in the dark, their beams dazzling. Rain pounded down in sheets, rendering the raincoat nearly useless. Someone had brought out a large waterproof floodlight, and when it turned on, the whole area lit up like daylight.

A dozen strong young men, soaked to the bone, were shouting in unison as they pulled on a thick rope extending into the pit. More people rushed over to help, and soon there were twenty or more of us hauling together. By the time we got the first person up, my hands were raw and bleeding.

Wu Yili was the first to climb out, followed by scattered Tian Family crew members, the injured, and Tan Qiu’s supply team. All of them were drenched in mud from head to toe, unrecognizable. Seeing more and more people arrive to help, I let go of the rope and moved to the pit’s edge.

Wu Yili had barely gotten out when he collapsed to the ground, shouting, “The cave’s caved in! We need to get them out, now!”

Chaos erupted. The soil around the hole had collapsed, and mud, rocks, and water were pouring into the pit.

Groups of soldiers came running from the main tent, carrying all kinds of tools. They quickly widened the upper edge of the pit, trying to pull up everyone still hanging from the ropes before the water completely flooded the tomb chamber.

I helped haul dozens of people up. Eventually, even Tan Qiu and Tian Yuqing emerged—but there was still no sign of He Yu and Lu A’yao. I thought maybe I’d missed them in the confusion, so I ran a lap around the area. Nothing.

I ran through the rain to Tian Yuqing and shouted, “Where are they? Weren’t you all together?!”

Before he could answer, Wu Yili shoved me aside. Honestly, He Yu had wanted to punch this old man more than once, and I used to think he was being too violent. Now, I was starting to agree.

“We need to get out of here—fast! The cave’s collapsing. The whole area could go down any minute!” Wu Yili grabbed Tian Yuqing by the arm.

Tian Yuqing wiped the rain from his face. He looked exhausted, but his eyes were resolute. “No. Our people are still down there. They stayed behind for us. We can’t just abandon them. That’s not right.”

“And what, you’re gonna drag my students down with you for the sake of your so-called righteousness?!”

Tan Qiu stripped off his shirt. The Tan Family crew beside him was already prepping for a second descent. I used to think he was just a chubby guy, but now I realized he was solidly built—more muscle than fat.

Without even turning his head, he shouted, “Take your students and get the hell out! Don’t stand around yapping and mess up my rhythm! Tian Yuqing! This place is about to go! Show me what you’ve got—tie off that rope! I’m going back in to get them!”

Tian Yuqing immediately ran to grab the rope. He and three Tian Family men hauled it toward our camp area. After sprinting a dozen meters, he stepped onto a thick tree trunk, climbing three meters up like it was nothing. He tied the rope around the thickest part with practiced ease—smooth, efficient, and almost elegant.

He shouted, “Everyone! This place is going to collapse! Fall back behind this tree!”

In the blink of an eye, Tan Qiu had grabbed three ropes and leapt into the pit. I took off running with the soldiers toward the camp. These guys trained every day, sprinting through mud like wild horses. I could only trail behind, choking on mud and water.

“Found them! Lao Tian! Pull, pull, pull!”

Tan Qiu’s voice rang out behind me. The mud under my feet turned slick and fast-flowing. I spotted a steep slope ahead and dove forward, tumbling until I landed on solid ground—right behind the tree where Tian Yuqing had anchored the rope.

A thunderous crash erupted behind me. The earth around the pit—and much of the surrounding area—collapsed. The waterproof canopy was buried somewhere beneath the mud.

I saw three ropes tied together in a special way. He Yu, Lu A’yao, and a few crew members were dangling from them, with rocks and mud falling beneath their feet. Judging by their expressions, they’d had more than their fill of muddy water.

“Pah! Damn, I really drank half the river. Hey! Gan Ji! You didn’t go back?”

He Yu waved at me from the rope. I struggled to my feet, wiped the mud from my face with a sleeve, and grinned as I waved back.

No matter how hard it had been, in the end—we were safe. That was all that mattered.