Chapter Five: Trouble Strikes
1186 Words
Of course, these archaeologists didn't believe in superstitions. After all, handling coffins was normal business in their line of work, and they'd never seen anything supernatural in their lives. So, after calming the river workers down,
they persuaded them to leave.
To be honest, these archaeological experts were also very curious about the coffin. They'd never seen a coffin decorated with such patterns before. If they could discover anything, it might fill a gap in Chinese archaeology.
They discussed it with the Yellow River workers and got them to vacate an empty room to put the red coffin inside. They then assigned two younger staff members to watch over it.
The Yellow River workers were initially reluctant. After all, these were their living quarters; what did it mean to have a coffin next to them?
However, after a few words of persuasion from the police, they agreed. After all, it was a contribution to the country, and maybe the government would give them an award.
After the Yellow River waterworks workers were persuaded to leave, the archaeological experts began preparing to excavate the structure hidden deep beneath the sand.
First, the experts used equipment to insert a camera into the dark opening, clearly filming the outline of the structure. Within a few minutes, the entire structure was captured on camera.
After pulling the camera up, the experts carefully examined it and confirmed it was indeed an ancient tomb. Having studied tombs for so many years, they were very familiar with the tomb walls and earthen mounds; the patterns on the structure were clearly in the style of ancient tombs.
Moreover, this was an ancient tomb buried deep beneath the Yellow River waterway, which greatly excited them.
"And then what happened?"
Li Yuan was naturally excited to hear that an ancient tomb had been discovered beneath the Yellow River. Our trip there was to see the scenery around the Yellow River—specifically, the scenery related to feng shui and ancient tombs.
"And then..."
Yuan Li recalled for a moment, then continued her story, unaware that I was already lost in deep thought.
"The red coffin."
Hearing the word "red coffin," I immediately thought of the one I had seen in my dream. Could it all be a coincidence?
When the archaeological team discovered the tomb, they immediately began excavation. The initial work went relatively smoothly, except they had to gather a small workforce to clear away all the sand and soil around the tomb.
Yuan Li and Li Xin, because of Professor Sun, had been accompanying the archaeological team on the excavation work. It was because of this that they experienced the series of strange events that followed.
The excavation of the tomb continued until that night. Because it was so late, the archaeologists stayed overnight in a village beside the Yellow River waterway.
Early the next morning, before the archaeological team could continue excavating at the Yellow River waterway, a younger man from the two teams left behind at the Yellow River hydraulic engineer's quarters hurriedly knocked on the doors of the experts' rooms.
"Something's happened!"
These were his first words to the experts.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
Professor Sun quickly adjusted his glasses and asked, his greatest worry being the ancient tomb.
"Zhang Feng is dead!"
"What!"
Professor Sun thought he'd misheard. Zhang Feng was his student, always perfectly healthy; how could he suddenly be dead?
"Are you serious?"
"Oh, Professor Sun, why would I lie to you? You must go see him!"
Hearing this, Professor Sun quickly asked him to take him to the Yellow River hydraulic engineer's quarters, since Zhang Feng had stayed there the previous night.
Sure enough, the archaeological team rushed to the scene. In the room where the red coffin was placed, Zhang Feng lay quietly.
Actually, Huang Shan was also startled when he found Zhang Feng. After all, they had all slept in the room next to the one with the red coffin the previous night. When he woke up this morning, Huang Shan found Zhang Feng missing. After searching for a long time,
they finally found Zhang Feng dead there.
What frightened him most was that Zhang Feng's body was covered with a large amount of sand, but apart from his body, there were no traces of sand around him.
Furthermore, Zhang Feng's face wore what appeared to be a cold smile, which immediately reminded him of the deceased Yellow River engineer. Of course, he wasn't present when the Yellow River engineer was taken away, but he had heard that the engineer also wore a similar expression.
"Have the police arrived?"
Seeing this, Professor Sun felt a pang of sorrow. After all, Zhang Feng was his most talented student; if nothing unexpected happened, he would be the one to succeed him. To think he would die here so inexplicably...
How could he remain calm?
"The police have been called; they'll be here soon."
Huang Shan's face was pale. Someone who had been chatting with him just yesterday was now dead; no one would be happy about that.
About ten minutes later, the town's police finally arrived.
Upon closer inspection, several of them were the same officers who had arrived yesterday. Of course, there were also one or two unfamiliar faces. Upon seeing Professor Sun, the lead officer from yesterday quickly greeted him.
"Professor Sun, I heard someone died here. What happened?"
Professor Sun didn't say anything, just waved his hand, telling them to see for themselves.
Seeing Professor Sun's expression, the police didn't know what to say.
Several policemen entered the room where Zhang Feng was. The first thing they saw was the large red coffin, which startled them; they hadn't expected to see that ominous object again.
Then, next to the coffin, they saw Zhang Feng's body.
The policemen who had witnessed yesterday's events were immediately astonished by the way Zhang Feng had died. After all, the manner of his death was too similar to that of the Yellow River waterworks worker they had seen yesterday.
After one policeman took photos of the scene, the forensic examination began. The other policemen observed the room for any suspicious items, but apart from the red coffin, there were no other items in the spacious room.
"Can this coffin be opened?"
One policeman walked up to the red coffin and tapped it, seemingly trying to test if it could be opened.
However, his action was immediately stopped by the lead policeman from yesterday. After all, he had witnessed yesterday's bizarre death, and this was the second person to die today.
Putting everything else aside, the two people's deaths were remarkably similar. It wouldn't be believable if they weren't connected. Besides, after investigating all afternoon yesterday, they still hadn't uncovered any clues about the Yellow River engineer's death, and now this has happened.
"Could all of this really be the coffin's doing?"
As a policeman, one shouldn't believe in ghosts and such things, but yesterday one person died on top of this red coffin, and another died beside it.
If it's unrelated to the coffin, how can this be explained?
- Writer
