NR | Chapter 18

By the time they’d reinforced the simple pulley directly above the pit, everything was finally in place, and the two professors went into a large tent at the back, one after the other.

We followed close behind. At first, I was listening to their arrangements with complete seriousness, but after a while I realized that listening to the professors talk was just like sitting through math class. I hadn’t heard many sentences before I started getting sleepy, so I simply moved over and sat shoulder to shoulder with He Yu.

Besides, most of this little meeting was being handled by Wu Yili and the bald guy. Tian Yuqing and Tan Qiu only chimed in occasionally, and it was obvious they had already reached some kind of tacit consensus.

Before long, the list of first-wave personnel was settled. Tian Yuqing somehow found the confidence to firmly put Tan Qiu under the “supply team” column, so aside from a few people I recognized, the rest of the first batch were newly added professional archaeologists.

He Yu brought me two sets of clothes and reminded me to change into them. I took them and found that they were full sets of professional expedition gear. I’d never seen this kind of equipment before, let alone worn it. He Yu had even already buckled the belt for me, while I still couldn’t tell the front from the back.

Then He Yu came over to help me fasten the belt and the kind of easy-access pouches. His movements were so fast I could barely see them. As he wrapped the belt around my waist, he said, “How come this thing looks like it grew more than one segment on you?”

It took twenty minutes of fussing before I finally got the whole outfit on. We each packed up our backpacks, stuffed in all the compressed biscuits and water that had been distributed to us, and since Tian Yuqing had reminded me earlier to keep the Nine-Ring Jade Box on me, I wrapped it up again and put it in the very bottom of my bag before zipping it shut.

A crowd had gathered around the pit, but this time they took the initiative to make way for me and He Yu. Tian Hanting was already tied up with a safety rope, and a yellow bell was fastened around his waist. Clearly, he was going to be the first one down.

That surprised me a little. I thought to myself that Tian Yuqing really was ruthless.

I stood to the side and watched. From behind, people shouted a cadence, and Tian Hanting was quickly hoisted into midair. He showed no fear at all, his eagle-sharp eyes fixed on the bottom of the pit the whole time. As the rope slowly lowered him, his figure gradually disappeared from my line of sight.

More than thirty minutes later, the rope twitched slightly, and then a series of crisp bell chimes rang out.

Tian Yuqing climbed right up to the edge of the pit, shone a flashlight into the dark opening below, then reached out and tugged at the rope, which had already gone slack. He immediately ordered, “Pull him up!”

The rope was yanked back up with ease. The clip at the top had already been released, so Tian Yuqing stepped aside and turned back to signal the several archaeologists on his team. Only then did I realize that the yellow bell was actually a special way of communicating.

People from the team were lowered down one after another. Just thinking about the damp, dark space below, with no daylight at all, made my previously calm mood suddenly start to feel uneasy for no reason.

After the last archaeologist was lowered, I drew a quiet breath and was just about to take the rope Tian Yuqing handed me when He Yu behind me suddenly squeezed in between us.

“I’ll go first. Follow behind me.” He took the rope from Tian Yuqing’s hand and smiled at me.

He Yu could be very straightforward when he did things sometimes. That was the decisiveness of the youngest generation of the He family. Outside, he often wasn’t just acting as himself, but representing the entire family’s face. Compared to him, I was much gentler in the way I did things. At the same time, deep in my heart, I also envied that irreplaceable courage of his.

I watched as he was lowered down by the rope too. When the rope came back up, Tian Yuqing personally came over to help me fasten the clip, and he quietly lowered his voice next to my ear. “After you go down, stay close to Lu Ayao. There are too many people here, and a lot of things aren’t under my control.”

I suddenly felt a little strange. I didn’t know what kind of mindset Tian Yuqing had when he said those things to me, but at least from his actions, I sensed a trace of something off.

The rope slowly began to tighten. I was quickly hoisted up. Among people my age, I actually wasn’t that heavy, so this time only three people were needed to pull me.

The descent was very steady. Barely halfway down, I could already feel the coldness seeping up from underground, so chilly it raised goosebumps all over me. You couldn’t tell from a distance, but this pit had been dug very wide, and the walls were regular too, so I didn’t feel cramped during the descent.

Soon, I saw the top of the tomb. The boundary between the tomb bricks and the upper layer of soil wasn’t very clear, but the bricks and stone were relatively thick, and in the interlayer above them there also seemed to be a layer of glazed tiles, glinting with a bit of sheen. Actually, I wasn’t completely sure whether they really were glazed tiles, I just thought they looked like it.

They had only moved away the two largest bricks and stones, revealing an opening that only one person could pass through. Before I could even see clearly, I suddenly felt the rope around my waist jerk tight, and I just hung there in midair, with one end of the rope slightly tilted.

I felt odd. Just as I looked up, the rope suddenly loosened again, but it loosened too much. Before I had time to make any protective move, I fell, all in one go, tumbling out of midair.

“Ah!” I screamed, then fell straight from above.

I really did fall. The rope around my waist had already completely lost any useful function. I left my fate to heaven, instinctively closed my eyes, and all I could hear was the whoosh of wind in my ears. My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst out. My mind went blank in an instant.

In that split second, it felt like something had twisted around the rope. I was immediately jerked to a stop, swaying in midair, the pressure tightening painfully enough that I nearly vomited up everything in my stomach.

“Gan Ji!” He Yu’s voice came up from below and into my ears.

Gradually, his call brought me back to my senses. When I opened my eyes, I saw several flashlight beams shining toward me, and then I immediately felt a sharp pain in my calf. It must have been hit by the tomb bricks when I fell just now. I forced myself to calm down and began moving my eyes to assess my situation.

I could no longer feel any pulling force from above on my waist. I was hanging against an uneven rock wall, the stones grinding painfully into my back, and the flashlight in He Yu’s hand below was still a certain distance away.

At the same time, I heard the creaking sound of the clip biting into the stone. This rope was probably going to snap completely very soon, and there was no way Tian Yuqing would have time to find another rope and lower it to save me. From here to the ground where He Yu was, there were still at least thirty to forty meters. If I fell from here, I’d be lucky not to die, and at worst I’d be left a half-cripple.

Just then, I saw a flashlight below flash rapidly a few times. It should have been He Yu. I watched him sprint straight to the spot directly beneath me.

But it was simply too dark all around. I moved my wrist with very small motions, then slowly bent my arm and used my hand to hook the flashlight clipped at my waist and turn it on. As soon as the light came on, my line of sight shifted.

In that instant, I caught sight of a small stone platform below and to the right. On it sat a wooden coffin, only about one kick of my leg away. Right then, the clip suddenly made a crisp click, and I immediately dropped another half meter. The shock made my hands shake.

When the clip locked again, cold sweat had already soaked completely through my clothes. Soon after, I heard the sound of a climbing pick driving into the stone. I never expected He Yu’s skills to be this good. I didn’t know when, but he had already climbed to the underside of the stone platform.

At this point, I couldn’t care about coffins or dead people anymore. My voice was trembling, but my mind was extremely clear. “He Yu, He Yu, the clip behind my waist is wedged in the stone. The distance between us is too far, I don’t have any leverage and can’t move. The clip might only hold for ten minutes. I need you to climb onto the stone platform beside you right now and secure yourself. I’ll throw you the spare rope I’m carrying.”

I tried my best to quickly spit out the fastest and most effective solution I could think of for He Yu. I wasn’t sure whether this method was actually reliable, but at least it was the only thing I could think of at the moment.

He Yu climbed along the rock wall and grabbed the edge of the stone platform to flip himself up onto the wooden coffin. I could clearly hear the coffin emit a huge, creaking groan under his feet. He Yu quickly came closer to me, but the rock wall was too uneven and there was nowhere to secure himself. In a panic, he could only pull out his sharp, specially made climbing pick and drive it into a crack in the stone, then hang his weight on it.

“Try swinging over. I’ll catch you!” He Yu stretched out a hand toward me.

I swallowed, then tossed the spare rope on me to He Yu. The spare rope was very short and nowhere near enough for me to reach the ground. Looking at the dizzying tomb floor swaying below, if He Yu didn’t catch me on this jump, then one misstep would indeed bring lifelong regret.

So I let out a breath, my voice sounding like I was about to cry. “He Yu! If you can’t hold me, even as a ghost I’ll go cry in your dreams!”

“Cut the crap! Hurry up, stop dragging your feet, what the hell are you hesitating for? If you don’t jump soon, I’m going down there myself to collect your corpse!” He Yu cursed loudly.

The clip behind me made that damned grinding sound again. I clenched my teeth, shut my eyes, and thought, screw it, if I die, I die. Then I clenched the flashlight in my mouth, used the tiny bit of remaining light to judge the distance, braced my feet against the rock wall, and leapt with my eyes closed.

The clip behind me snapped apart instantly. He Yu grabbed the spare rope on me, and I clutched it desperately, curling myself up as much as I could. My body swung out and smashed hard into the stone wall. My wrist scraped against the edge of the stone platform, and in an instant it burned with pain. I was sure I’d lost a layer of skin.

Even if I was lighter than people my age, catching a full-grown man out of thin air still wasn’t easy. Right now, just holding me was already extremely difficult for him. The two of us were connected only by a single rope, half hanging beside the coffin. Fortunately, He Yu had his climbing pick, otherwise my weight would definitely have dragged him off the stone platform.

“Fuck! Why the hell isn’t anybody coming to help?” He Yu was obviously starting to lose his grip. He was forcing it with everything he had.

I was hanging out in midair, tilting my head to use the flashlight in my mouth to sweep the surroundings, trying to find some protruding rock nearby. In the end, damn it, the entire rock wall was smooth as if it had been polished. Besides this stone platform, there was nowhere else to put my feet.

Shit! So unlucky! I hadn’t even done anything wicked or outrageous. Did I really have to die this miserably?

He Yu’s face was red from straining. “I can’t hold on much longer!”

I was already crippled if I was crippled, but I couldn’t drag He Yu down with me. So just as I was about to shout for him to let go of the rope, I saw a person descending from the opening in the tomb roof.

I almost cried out. What bodyguard, my ancestor, you’re really my ancestor!

Lu Ayao quickly descended to a point level with me. He shook the bell around his ankle, and his descent immediately stopped. With one arm he braced me, then took out a length of rope, quickly looped it around my waist, tied the lock clip to his own rope, and shouted to He Yu, “Let go!”

He Yu saw him too and released his grip immediately. Lu Ayao had secured me very tightly, but the earlier scare had left me so stressed that I couldn’t help thinking the rope wasn’t secure enough. I clutched his lock clip and refused to let go no matter what. He gave the bell another shake, and only then did the rope begin to descend again.

It wasn’t until my feet touched the ground that I realized both my legs had gone completely weak. The places I’d been hit just now had also started to ache one after another. Lu Ayao supported one of my arms and helped me to the ground, asking, “You okay?”

I was dizzy as hell and shook my head with my eyes closed. “Let me catch my breath. Go check whether He Yu got down.”

So Lu Ayao quickly undid the lock clip on the rope, shone his flashlight, and went to catch He Yu. He Yu slowly climbed down the rock wall, grabbed his hand, and jumped down. He sighed, “Brother Lu, that was way too timely. If you’d come down a few minutes later, the two of us would’ve been done for.”