The Complete Collection of Yellow River Ghost Coffins

Chapter 57

"Girl!" The young master had already turned on the flashlight and shone it into the coffin. I could see clearly that the girl's long eyelashes seemed to twitch. At that moment, I missed her big, bright eyes very much. For some reason, I couldn't help but think of the time when we fell into the Weak Water and Yellow Soup. Her clothes were disheveled, and I saw something I shouldn't have seen. Instead of being angry, she asked me, "Is it pretty?"

"Is it pretty?" The girl's clear voice still seemed to echo in my ears, but now, she lay quietly in the coffin!

Countless times I've wanted to tell her—she's beautiful, really beautiful, she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, so much more beautiful than my ex-wife.

But now, do I still have the chance to say it?

"Girl..." The young master's tears slowly slid down his cheeks, dripping into the coffin...

She is not a maid, absolutely not a maid. She is just an ancient corpse from thousands of years ago, a girl who looks like a maid... an ancient corpse that has been preserved to this day in an incredibly fresh state by some unknown method.

I shook my head vigorously and looked at the young master, saying, "You're confused. She's just an ancient corpse from thousands of years ago, not a girl. If you want to cry, wait until you find the girl." I knew how much the girl meant to the young master, and if I didn't explain quickly, who knew what kind of trouble this idiot would cause.

“That’s right!” Huang Zhihua quickly chimed in to explain.

The young master hesitated for a moment before asking hesitantly, "Old Xu, you're saying... the person in this coffin isn't a girl?"

"Of course it's not that girl!" I nodded firmly, but deep down I had absolutely no confidence. She looked so much like that girl—no, they were practically identical. At least, I couldn't tell the difference. What was the difference between the person in the coffin and the real girl? The figure, the face—they were exactly the same…

"Damn it, I wasted my tears. But, Old Xu, this woman really looks like a maid..." The young master wiped away the tears on his face and once again displayed his talent for talking nonsense.

I shook my head and explained in a low voice, "You saw it yourself, the girl in the golden dress against the backdrop of the starry night sky in the rain, and the reliefs in the tomb—aren't they all strikingly similar to Yaya? That proves that the owner of this tomb originally looked a lot like Yaya." While I was comforting the young master like this, wasn't I also comforting myself in the process...?

It's okay, the girl will be alright! This is the reason I came up with, and it doesn't seem very convincing.

Chapter Eight: An Old Acquaintance in the Coffin

The young master circled the coffin once, then clicked his tongue twice in a frivolous manner and said, "Old Xu, look at her like this, my god, I guarantee her skin is still moist and elastic, it's just too perfect... Sigh, seeing her, I can't help but want to do something I've always wanted to do but never dared to do to the girl."

"What do you want to do?" Huang Zhihua asked curiously as he circled the coffin.

The young master leaned close to Huang Zhihua's ear and whispered with a chuckle, "I've always wanted to rape that girl, to make it a fait accompli, so she wouldn't run away. But I don't dare—sigh, I have the desire but not the guts..."

I knew the young master was a dog who couldn't say anything nice, but I never imagined that under these circumstances, he could utter such disrespectful words to a thousand-year-old corpse.

Under the beam of our flashlights, the girl in the coffin suddenly opened her eyes. Huang Zhihua and I were both startled and took two steps back, while the young master stood motionless by the coffin, as if he were stunned.

Before Huang Zhihua and I could react, the girl in the coffin lunged at the young master. I brandished my bronze sword, ready to stop her, but at that moment, the girl in the coffin made a move I knew all too well and kicked the young master.

Holding the ancient bronze sword, I stared blankly at the girl in the long, gold-embroidered dress standing before me, unable to utter a single word.

"Tell me... who were you going to rape?" The maid kicked the young master twice more and asked angrily.

"Girl?" I asked, still incredulous and suspicious.

"Hmph, and you too—Brother Xu, you can't even tell the difference between a dead person and a dead person. And you're supposed to be in the antique plate business?" The girl seemed very angry, her big, bright eyes sweeping over me.

After she said that, I had no more doubts. Indeed, she was the maid. I just couldn't understand why she was lying in the coffin and dressed like that.

Huang Zhihua sighed, put the gun away, and couldn't help but ask, "Girl, what are you doing in the coffin?"

I thought the girl would say she didn't know, just like last time in the Guangchuan King's Tomb, when she couldn't understand why she was lying on the white jade coffin for no reason. But to my surprise, when he asked her, she suddenly pounced on him, grabbed his clothes tightly, and said angrily, "You still ask? Do you know that you almost blew me up in the ancient tomb? Don't think that just because you're wearing that leather suit, you can throw explosives around recklessly."

I quickly pulled the girl away, and she threw herself into my arms, bursting into tears. Just moments before she had been fierce and strong, but in an instant, all of that transformed into heartbreaking tears. However, the instant she threw herself into my arms, I felt her body was incredibly cold, as if I were holding a block of ice. I assumed it was because she had been adrift in the water for a long time, or perhaps it was due to the golden robe she was wearing—after all, thousands of years of burial attire, with its metallic properties, would naturally be bone-chillingly cold. Instead, I felt even more sorry for her and didn't think much of it, only listening to her sobbing and muttering…

“Brother Xu, even you ignore me. I followed behind you, shouting and calling out to you at the top of my lungs, but... you all ran away as fast as you could, and no one paid any attention to me... Waaah..." the girl said, crying.

It turned out that in the tomb chamber above, the moment we tried to open the coffin, we accidentally triggered a mechanism and all fell into the groundwater. For some reason, the round wooden coffin hanging in the tomb chamber also fell down. The girl didn't fall with us. She swam in the water for a long time but couldn't find a way out. The water-filled apron broke and was completely soaked. The water-filled apron was not only useless in the water, but also became a burden. Helpless, the girl had to take off the apron.

She swam in the water for a long time, and just when she was exhausted and thought she was going to drown, she accidentally discovered a coffin floating on the water. Although the girl was scared, her will to survive made her unable to resist lying on the coffin.

"And then you lay in the coffin?" I asked curiously.

"Why did I have to lie in a coffin? It's all his fault!" The girl pointed at Huang Zhihua, glared at him fiercely, and then continued...

The girl floated on the water for a long time, and just when she was about to give up, suddenly, the wooden coffin seemed to bump into something, which woke her up.

The girl's miner's lamp and flashlight were both broken. After groping around for a long time, she finally found a lighter and half a candle. After finally lighting the lighter, she was shocked to find that it was a huge underground palace. The girl was dumbfounded on the spot. She looked around and found that the underground palace was built too magnificently. It looked like an imperial tomb. She immediately placed the candle on the wooden coffin lid and was about to take a closer look when she was surprised to find that the coffin lid was not closed properly. A dazzling golden light shone from the gap that was about the thickness of a finger.

She lay on the coffin for a long time. Having worked in archaeology before and having turned over at least eighty or a hundred ancient corpses, she wasn't so afraid. Driven by curiosity, she pushed open the coffin—only to be surprised to find that there was no corpse inside, just a palace dress with gold thread.

The girl's water jacket was torn, and most of her clothes underneath were soaked. After thinking for a moment, she had the audacity to take out the golden thread robe and put it on herself. Then, carrying the wet water jacket, she entered the underground palace.

I can guess what happened next. The underground palace that the girl discovered is the one we found... She carried the wet water chestnut for a while, and had to hold a candle in one hand, which was too cumbersome, so she simply put it down.

She entered the underground palace before us, and then, for some unknown reason, Huang Zhihua set off a barrage of explosives, almost killing her inside.

"I saw the light, and then I saw you all. I was about to greet you when he turned and ran away." The girl said, feeling extremely wronged, and gave Huang Zhihua a big eye roll.

Huang Zhihua chuckled awkwardly. In truth, I understood that under those circumstances, Huang Zhihua couldn't be blamed. After all, once we entered the Shadow Kunlun Eye of Wind, the girl reliefs we saw everywhere were all strikingly similar to Yaya. We were all filled with doubt, and even now, I still had no idea why... the girl images on those reliefs were so similar to Yaya. Was it really just a coincidence?

When Huang Zhihua saw the girl dressed in gold thread, he thought she was an ancient corpse that had come back to life. He was so frightened that he turned around and ran away, and even used explosives to blast open the stone door.

"So how did you get out?" I asked, patting her back to comfort her.

"How did you get out?" The girl shook her head, her mouth pursed, and she looked like she was about to cry again. After a long while, she said, "He used explosives. The whole underground palace was blown up and almost collapsed. There were flying rocks overhead, along with lightning and thunder. It was terrifying. I was right behind you, shouting for you as loudly as I could, but you ran so fast that I couldn't catch up."

At this point, the young master punched Huang Zhihua, angrily saying, "You almost killed the girl."

Huang Zhihua blushed, and after a long pause, he finally said, "How...how would I know?"

We never dreamed that the girl would have the ingenuity to wear the golden robe. Huang Zhihua continued, "Moreover, besides seeing the girl, I also saw...saw..." He looked at the girl suspiciously and warily, but then remained silent.

"You also saw a monster with a human body and a wolf's face?" The girl giggled and continued, "That thing was really scary. When I first saw it, I was almost scared to death. But after a long time, seeing that they weren't moving, I mustered up my courage and went over to take a closer look. I found that they were all stone carvings. Those stone carvings were really too lifelike. If they were transported out, they would all be national treasures."

Huang Zhihua nodded, keeping his mouth tightly shut and not saying a word.

From the girl's account, I learned that she had been chasing us for a while, but seeing that she couldn't catch up, and with rocks flying everywhere and lightning flashing, she had no choice but to run back the way she came. By this time, we should have already stumbled into the tunnel, but the girl wasn't as lucky as us; she had run back the way she came. Just then, the groundwater rose, threatening to flood the underground palace. The girl was terrified. She had no way to light anything, and her only candle was about to go out. In desperation, she suddenly remembered the round wooden coffin. She immediately pushed open the coffin lid, lay down inside, and then forcefully slammed the lid shut from the inside.

She didn't know much about what happened after that. Exhausted and hungry, the girl lay in the dark coffin, her heart filled with increasing fear. But she was so tired that she eventually fell into a deep sleep.

"Then, the coffin was probably washed up by the water and floated all the way here." The girl said with a wry smile, "In fact, I was already awake when you opened the coffin lid, hehe... Brother Xu, you are really confused, you can't even tell the difference between the living and the dead."

I gave a wry smile. I never imagined the girl would be hiding in a coffin! And dressed like that!

The young master suddenly exclaimed, "Then why wasn't there a corpse inside this coffin originally?"

"Do you expect to find a corpse?" The maid glared at him fiercely, jumped over, and kicked him. The young master was so frightened that he fled in a sorry state.

"Something's not right!" I had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Perhaps it's a cenotaph?" I explained, frowning.

“Yes! There are cenotaphs too.” The young master chimed in.

Although I was the one who suggested this cenotaph, I have some idea in my heart that if it were just a cenotaph, there would be no need to spend so much effort to build such a huge underground palace. There must be some other secret behind it.

“Girl!” Huang Zhihua took out a cigarette, lit it with trembling hands, took a deep drag, and then said, “It’s not that I doubt you, but when I saw those monsters with human bodies and wolf faces, they were clearly…alive creatures.”

"What do you mean by that? Do you suspect the girl is lying?" The young master jumped up and shouted at Huang Zhihua.

"Old Xu, come out and say something fair," the young master called to me.

"What did you say?" I asked, stunned. I was certainly happy to find the girl, but—what Huang Zhihua said wasn't without reason. If he hadn't seen something too terrifying in the underground palace, as a soldier, he would never have just thrown away the explosives and run away.

Moreover, if I remember correctly, in the small burial chamber above which the round wooden coffin hung, the lid was not closed, and clear liquid was flowing out. But now, the coffin is completely dry, without a drop of water. In fact, the inside of the coffin is remarkably fresh, unlike anything from an artifact from a thousand years ago.

“I think you must have been seeing things back then!” The girl seemed unconcerned about Huang Zhihua’s question and frowned, saying, “Under the beam of light, those stone sculptures did look like living things, but—they are stone sculptures after all. Like I said, I was frightened at first too.”

I shook my head. Something that could scare Huang Zhihua so badly he fled couldn't frighten the girl. This wasn't like her at all. If it were me, all alone, would I dare to change into the clothes inside the coffin, dare to climb into the coffin and lie down?

No… I absolutely wouldn’t dare. Even if I die, I’d rather die cleanly and decisively. Otherwise, when the young master and I were exploring the Yellow River’s eye at night, I wouldn’t have slit my own throat in that moment of despair.

My impression of Ya Tou has always been that although she has a lively personality, she is definitely not such a bold and unrestrained person.

"Oh, right, I also found this!" Seeing that we were all silent, the maid quickly rummaged through the gold-embroidered robe, took out a piece of gold silk, and handed it to us.

Looking at her gold-embroidered robe, which shimmered under the beam of the flashlight, I felt an indescribable sense of unease.

"What is this?" The young master hurriedly took it, unfolded it, looked at it, and asked with a frown.

I went over too, and after just one glance, I was dumbfounded. The gold and silk were covered with tiny, dense characters, but I didn't recognize a single one of them; they were all in bird-script.

"What is that?" Huang Zhihua suddenly exclaimed.

I quickly looked up and saw that the previously calm water surface was suddenly splashing, and I clearly saw two heads emerge from the water...

Huang Zhihua was holding a gun, and I sensed something was wrong, so I quickly called out, "Don't be reckless! We'll talk about it later."

Just as the young master was about to speak, the maid pushed him. I turned my head to look at the maid, and I had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

"Splash...splash..." Two big splashes of water appeared on the surface of the water, and then a familiar voice cursed, "Damn it, where did that light come from? It almost blinded Grandpa."

Then another voice said, "It must be those three bastards. Hey, Old Chen, we're all getting old!"

"So it was those two old devils!" the young master said.

Huang Zhihua also breathed a sigh of relief. After the three of us entered this place, we were first frightened by the girl, and now we were given a false alarm by these two old ghosts. I was also very angry. As the two of them slowly approached the beach, I couldn't help but shout, "Mr. Huang, if you have any objections, you can shoot these two old ghosts dead. Anyway, killing someone here is not illegal."

"Damn it, that little brat wants to kill your grandpa?" I heard it clearly; the voice was Old Zhang's.

With a bang, a bullet pierced the water, grazing just past Old Zhang's head. He trembled with fear and immediately plunged into the water. I said that although I had a prejudice against these two people, I wasn't an expert in this kind of murder and cover-up; I've always been a law-abiding citizen.

"Hey kid, are you serious?" Although Old Chen didn't fall into the water headfirst like Old Zhang, he was clearly quite frightened by Huang Zhihua's unexpected action.

"Don't think I'm all sweet talk." Huang Zhihua also got angry, raised his gun and aimed at the two men, saying, "Don't try to play tricks on me, otherwise, it's just a matter of wasting two bullets. I'm not someone who hasn't shed blood."

He's a soldier; we really wouldn't believe he's never been involved in bloodshed.

"What do you want?" Old Zhang emerged from underwater and shouted, "Don't shoot, we can talk this over."

"You two, come up here first." Huang Zhihua, holding a gun, forced the two old men ashore, then squatted by the water with their hands behind their heads, coldly saying, "Explain yourself clearly. What exactly happened? How did you disappear in the blink of an eye and then inexplicably reappear here?"

“Brother…” Old Zhang hadn’t expected him to be serious. He was about to stand up and speak when Huang Zhihua gave him a whack on the head and said coldly, “Give me a straight answer. Don’t try to pull strings. Who is your brother? Anyone who has a brother like you is incredibly unlucky.”

Upon hearing this, Old Chen couldn't help but chuckle, plopped down on the ground, and laughed, "Junior brother, I think you'd better just confess, haha..."

Seeing his gloating expression, I couldn't help but laugh. Just as Old Zhang was about to say something, his gaze was suddenly drawn to the girl. He pointed a trembling finger at her, his lips quivering, and he couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

I know that the girl's outfit is too terrifying, especially now that she's in an ancient tomb. She's wearing clothes that may have been taken from a dead person, and she's standing there with a cold face. Moreover, the stone carvings in this tomb, the carved images of young girls, are strikingly similar to the girl's appearance...

"She's a maid!" I couldn't bear to look at her and explained, but the young master just looked like he was enjoying the show.

"Girl..." Old Zhang muttered to himself for a while before finally saying, "Girl, why are you dressed like this?"

The girl gave him a cold look and sneered, "I'm happy!"

I was taken aback. This wasn't like the girl at all. She was always easygoing. Even if someone offended her, she would at most sulk, but she would never give anyone a hard time. The young master said such nasty things just now, and I didn't see her do anything about it.

Old Zhang was speechless for a long time before finally saying, "If you're willing, no one can do anything to you..."

"Tell me, what exactly are you two up to?" Under Huang Zhihua's threat of bullets, I finally understood the reason for the two old men's inexplicable disappearance.

It turned out that the two old men were indeed following behind us. Just as we were watching our step, Chen Laogui smelled a strong stench of rotting corpses. These scoundrels have noses sharper than dogs. Just as Chen Laogui was about to call out to us, he turned around and suddenly saw Wang Quansheng.

Old Zhang didn't know Wang Quansheng, but Old Chen did.

Meeting here now, even the well-informed Old Man Chen couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. Just then, Old Man Zhang turned around and witnessed this bizarre scene.