Volume 2Chapter 4: The Sea Ghost

Uncle San was shocked. If there was one or two people missing at the back, he could understand. But one more person, that’s too weird. He thought Wen Jin had miscounted, so he counted again himself. He was the first, Wen Jin was second, and so on. Three, four, five, six, seven, the eighth was Li Sidi, and the ninth was…

He suddenly gasped, because he had already seen the extra ninth person, who was hiding behind the long line, indistinct, and not even a human shape could be seen clearly.

There must be something wrong. Uncle San couldn’t help but start sweating. He wasn’t afraid of any monsters or demons, but he had no experience of being underwater and didn’t know what was behind him. The dumplings shouldn’t be able to swim, but then again, what should the dumplings in the sea bucket be called? Should they be called sea dumplings? Or dumplings?

He shook his head and thought to himself that Li Sidi was really slow. He hadn’t noticed this thing behind him. In this situation, no one could be relied on, so he had to swim over and take a look. He secretly took out a dagger and hid it in his hand, and swam back.

The ninth person stood there motionless. Li Sidi saw that Uncle San was swimming straight towards him, and realized that something was wrong behind him. He turned around quickly, and the person suddenly moved as if imitating him. Li Sidi was so scared that he took a few steps back, and the man suddenly took a few steps back as well. It seemed that he was completely imitating Li Sidi’s movements. Uncle San found that the man’s movements were not only strange, but also a bit funny. When he shone the searchlight on his head, the thing was stimulated by the light and hurriedly fled backwards. Uncle San saw a hideous, scaly, giant face flash past in an instant, and he was so scared that he almost dropped the dagger in his hand.

Li Sidi was so scared that he turned pale and was about to swim forward. He dared not stay here to rest anymore. Uncle San quickly grabbed him. He yelled at Uncle San, and the shape of his mouth looked like “good boy, good boy.”

He had an accent and usually had a hard time speaking. The shape of his mouth was even more incomprehensible. Uncle San saw that he was almost hysterical and wanted to take off his helmet. He quickly pressed him against the wall. The wall suddenly began to shrink, and the water around them rushed into the hole in the wall. Uncle San thought, “This is bad, it’s too late. They were like cockroaches in a toilet, sucked into the hole in the wall.

Uncle San didn’t know how many times he had spun around, but he felt like all his internal organs had been thrown to the side. Suddenly, he hit something hard, but fortunately his helmet was sturdy. He kicked a few times, then looked up and found that he was out of the water.

Everyone else came out of the water at about the same time as him. Several of the girls had vomited in their helmets, and the nausea was indescribable (how does the song go? The most disgusting thing is not seeing a corpse, but drowning in your own vomit…). Several of the better-conditioned people hurried to help them so that they wouldn’t sink.

Uncle San also hugged Wenjin. He shone his searchlight and found that they seemed to have reached the underworld. He took out a windproof lighter and lit it. The fire could burn, and there was oxygen. So he made an OK sign to indicate that the air was fine. They took off their heavy helmets and took their first breaths. At the same time, they all exclaimed, “It smells so good!”

The tomb room had a very nice aroma, very light but very refreshing. He didn’t know what the aroma was from. Uncle San had encountered countless tomb rooms with extremely foul odors, but this was the first time he had encountered an aromatic one. He couldn’t help but wonder. He swept the tomb room with a flashlight and discovered that this tomb room was not the main tomb. It might be an ear room, because there was no coffin inside, only rows of porcelain burial goods. These things should have been used by the owner of the tomb when he was alive, and now, in the middle of the ear room, there was a circular fountain. Uncle San looked at the decorations here again and again, and the more he looked, the more confused he became. The walls were covered in murals, which had been badly damaged by the moisture. He could only vaguely make out that the murals seemed to be full of human shadows.

These shadow-like patterns had all kinds of postures, long, short, fat, walking, dancing, each one was very lifelike, as if they had been photocopied from real people, but all the shadows were strange, their stomachs were very big, like pregnant women. Wenjin was highly accomplished in the study of murals, but she couldn’t make head or tail of them either.

But Li Sidi, seeing these murals, was so scared that his face turned pale and he yelled, “Sea ghost! There is a sea ghost here! This is a sea ghost tomb.”

Uncle San thought of the monster he had just seen and wondered if that thing was a sea ghost. He wasn’t sure, and now he had brought it up rashly, which might cause panic. He decided to keep it a secret for the time being.

Li Sidi kept yelling there because his accent was so strong that they all thought he was saying “sea turtle.” The group laughed uproariously, making Li Sidi cry and laugh at the same time. Uncle San looked at his watch and told them to get out of the water. A few of the braver ones had already walked to the door by the ear chamber. The door was not high, and should lead to the tunnel. Uncle San pulled them back and said, “Now we have no archaeological equipment, and no first aid, so you must stay here and not go anywhere. I don’t know if there are any traps in the tunnel. We came here for refuge for an hour, so everyone must be grateful, understand?”

Although the kids were unwilling, they had no choice but to hide in the ear room and study the porcelain. When San Shu saw it, he knew that these were from the early Ming Dynasty. He was surprised to find that this was really the tomb of the Shen clan.

However, he had seen too many antiques and was not very interested. He was more worried about whether there was enough air in the space. He checked the number of people again, and this time it was right. He was relieved. He had been really tired these days and had not had a good rest. Now it was just the right time to take a nap.

He sat down against the wall, and Wenjin leaned on his shoulder and kissed him as a reward for his outstanding performance. Uncle San was so happy that he was almost in a trance. He was so angry with the kids, but now he saw Wenjin’s sweet smile and thought it was worth it. He would let him do it again.

They rested for a while. Those who have dived know that a dive is very physically demanding without long-term underwater experience. Although Uncle San had good physical strength, his body was not yet adapted to the environment compared to those people. Now that his body was relaxed, he began to yawn. In addition, the aroma seemed to have a calming effect. All of a sudden, he felt very, very sleepy. He said to Wen Jin in a daze, “I’ll take a nap. If it’s time, just wake me up.”

The drowsiness seemed abnormal, but Uncle San had no time to think about it. He only saw Wen Jin nodding meekly, and the faint fragrance in his nose was unclear. He didn’t know if it was the body odor on Wen Jin’s hair or the unique smell of the ancient tomb. In any case, he almost instantly fell asleep.