Salle de classe 407

Chapitre 5

The young man known as Brother Xiang was walking towards them. Moonlight shone on his face, making his handsome features appear unusually cold and stern. Yin Li gasped softly, quickly covering her mouth and nose with her hands, shrinking behind the massive stone pillar, pressing herself tightly against the stone wall, wishing she could embed herself into the stone.

The young man stopped less than five steps from the stone pillar where she was hiding, coldly surveying his surroundings with sharp eyes like a steel knife. Yin Li was so frightened she didn't dare breathe, her whole body trembling slightly, her heart pounding like a rabbit, almost leaping out of her mouth. She could clearly hear her own heart pounding; fear and excitement spread through every vein.

Even long afterward, she couldn't understand why she felt excitement in such a dangerous situation. Perhaps, deep down, she yearned for adventure.

The young man's gaze swept over the stone pillar where she was hiding, paused for two seconds, and then turned and went back to his car.

"Brother Xiang, how are you?" It was Lao Si's voice.

Yin Li heard him say, "It's nothing, I'm just being paranoid."

Hearing this, she finally breathed a long sigh of relief and sat down on the sand. She didn't know how much time had passed, but the moon gradually disappeared behind the clouds, and the surroundings returned to complete darkness. Soft snoring could be heard from inside the off-road vehicle. Seeing her chance, Yin Li carefully took a few steps. Looking back, she saw no movement from the vehicle, so she relaxed, quickly descended the dune, and ran back to the camp.

Almost everyone in the SUV was asleep, except for Situ Xiang, who remained awake. He stared coldly at the girl who had disappeared into the tent, a strange smile playing on his lips.

XI. Funerary wooden coffins

Yin Li couldn't sleep until dawn. She had thought about it all night and decided not to tell Professor Li. There was no cell phone signal here, so calling the police would be useless. She could only wait until Chen Qiang returned to the county to replenish water and food before having him call the police.

Keeping a secret in one's heart is a painful thing, especially one that can't even be told to one's best friend, Qin Wen. Given her fiery temper, she might just rush over and fight those tomb raiders to the death. If that happens, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Yin Li, burdened with her own thoughts, finished breakfast with the archaeological team. Qin Wen, in high spirits, meticulously adjusted her camera, as if this were truly an interview. During breakfast, Yin Li encountered the boy who had signaled Zhang Yuanyuan yesterday not to go too far with her words. His name was Guo Tong, also a graduate student under Professor Li. For some reason, he had been giving her strange looks all morning, his dark eyes seemingly filled with suspicion and wariness.

After breakfast, the archaeological team, equipped with various instruments, headed towards the ancient tomb. This was the first time Yin Li had seen the tomb so closely, yet she felt as if she had been there before. The countless pillars were not tall, and most had been eroded beyond recognition by wind and sand. Some had already collapsed, and a few green glazed tiles could still be seen on the sand. Qin Wen picked up a tile, wiped away the yellow sand, and a vibrant green patch could still be seen.

Upon seeing those green glazed tiles, Yin Li couldn't help but think of Brother Xiang's eyes. Such a beautiful green, sometimes deep, sometimes so clear—why would someone like that be a tomb raider?

The archaeologists began their work, carefully filtering the yellow sand in the cemetery, using a large instrument to carefully remove the sand, and then searching for valuable items in the sand.

Qin Wen was busy taking pictures, and Yin Li also took a few, but her mind wasn't on them. She took a few steps forward; the sun was blazing down on the desert, and the dazzling light and intense heat made her feel dizzy. She stood facing the sun, and suddenly a strange hallucination appeared before her eyes: the fallen pillars were rising one by one, and the weathered areas were gradually changing; white walls were rising from the sand. The murals on the walls and the furnishings in the temple were also appearing, from mottled to colorful.

Yin Li gazed at it all, as if watching a TV drama rewinding, witnessing time flowing backward. She stood again in the main hall of the temple, looking up blankly at the portrait that covered an entire wall behind the enormous, colorful gauze curtain. The woman in the painting stood sideways, holding a jade pendant in her hand, identical to the one she had obtained in Niya City. She wore a bright red robe, embroidered with a magnificent phoenix in gold thread, as if it were about to take flight and soar into the heavens.

Yin Li stared, mesmerized. She reached out and lifted the sheer curtain, gazing intently at the woman in the painting. Her dark eyes were filled with sorrow, a sight that tugged at the heartstrings.

It's her! It's definitely her!

She was the woman of her dreams, Princess Zhaoling, who was married off to this strange country from afar!

Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind and rested on her shoulder. She shuddered, and all the illusions vanished in an instant. She turned around and saw Guo Tong's suspicious gaze.

"What are you doing?" Guo Tong asked, his voice icy.

“Here it is,” Yin Li said, pointing to the sand in front of her. “There’s something underneath.”

"What?" Guo Tong clearly didn't believe it. "What do you mean?"

Yin Li ignored him and squatted down to dig at the yellow sand with her hands. Guo Tong looked at her with surprise and confusion. After a long while, he finally said, "Where did you go last night?"

Yin Li paused for a moment, then started digging again: "I couldn't sleep, so I went to the Stone Forest to take a look."

"If that's the case, why were you so scared when you came back?"

"I can't help it, I'm a coward," Yin Li said. "The Stone Forest is too eerie, I shouldn't have gone."

Guo Tong seemed about to say something when a loud shout came from behind: "Hey! What are you doing? We're doing an archaeological excavation, not playing in the sand! Hey! You surnamed Yin, I'm talking to you! Didn't you hear me? Stop right now! What if you accidentally damage the artifacts?"

Zhang Yuanyuan ran over while calling out, looking like she was there to interrogate her, but then suddenly swallowed all the vicious words back down her throat.

Both she and Guo Tong stared at Yin Li and the piece of wood protruding from the sand with disbelief. The corner was carved with patterns, clearly indicating its high value.

The crowd that rushed over upon hearing the commotion was also filled with disbelief. They quickly brought over all sorts of equipment. Carefully removing the yellow sand covering the wood, they worked until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when a wooden coffin shaped like a house finally appeared before them.

"Incredible! Absolutely incredible!" Professor Li exclaimed repeatedly as he looked at the coffin. The rectangular coffin was carved with door and window patterns, complemented by dragon and phoenix motifs. The dragons and phoenixes of that era differed from those of later periods, exhibiting distinct characteristics of the Han Dynasty, suggesting it was crafted by Han artisans. The coffin lid was shaped like a roof, also in the style of the Central Plains. Although the carving wasn't particularly refined, its ancient and grand style was still evident.

"This...this is Princess Zhaoling's coffin?" Bai Yun Ning's voice trembled with excitement. Professor Li shook his head and said, "According to the inscription on the wooden board, Princess Zhaoling should have had a tomb. This coffin is probably just a human sacrifice. However, it seems that no country in the Western Regions has the custom of making coffins in the shape of houses. Could this custom be unique to the ancient Western Regions?"

"There's no point in speculating now, let's hurry up and open the coffin." Qin Wen was beaming with excitement, and almost all the members of the archaeological team could hardly contain their excitement. All their hard work over the past few days had finally paid off.

“Okay, Xiao Chen, Xiao Guo, Xiao Tan, you guys open the coffin lid. Be careful and protect the cultural relics,” Professor Li said.

“No problem.” Several young men, full of energy, gathered around and used special tools to pry open the wedges that held the coffin lid and body together. Then, each man lifted a corner and pushed it to the side with force. With a creak, the corpse's head appeared before them.

She was a young woman, very young, wearing a white robe with brown and red floral patterns. Her hair was tied up with a wooden hairpin and was dry and yellow.

Her skin was also yellow, the color of yellow sand, clinging tightly to her bones. Her eyes were wide open, her lips parted, staring blankly at the sky.

Two thousand years of wind, sand, and geothermal heat had turned her into a mummified corpse, but the pain and hatred she felt at the moment of her death were deeply etched on her face, which may have once been very beautiful. When people saw her for the first time, they were stunned by this intense emotion, and despite the sweltering heat, they broke out in a cold sweat.

Her eyeballs were already shriveled and withered, and her tongue had become a shrunken, wooden lump. But everyone felt that she was looking at them, accusing them, and weeping.

"It seems she died a painful death, perhaps suffocated." Bai Yun Ning mustered her courage and walked over to examine her face closely. Her features were well-preserved, and her expression was lifelike, making one marvel at how the desert truly is a natural warehouse for preserving corpses.

"Suffocated to death?" The crowd gathered around and fully opened the coffin lid. They saw that the corpse was bound with hemp ropes, which had not loosened even after more than two thousand years.

"The body's hair was disheveled, its clothes were rumpled, and it was bound with ropes. It must have been placed into the coffin alive," Professor Li said with a look of pity. "It must have been a human sacrifice."

12. Tomb Entrance

Human sacrifices are not uncommon during archaeological excavations, but everyone still gasped in shock. Qin Wen looked at the corpse, sighed, and said, "Judging from her hair color, physical characteristics, and clothing, she should be Han Chinese. If I'm not mistaken, she should be a maidservant brought to Xiye by Princess Zhaoling." As she spoke, she took out gloves from her bag and put them on. Then she picked up the jade pendant from the corpse's waist, on which were written two Chinese characters in clerical script—"Lily of the Valley."

Lily of the Valley was the name of this innocent girl who died; she was probably not even twenty years old when she died.

“There should be more than one coffin used for burial here,” Yin Li said, looking around. “Princess Zhaoling definitely had more than one maidservant.”

"How do you know that all of Princess Zhaoling's maids were buried alive with her?" Zhang Yuanyuan, who always looked down on these two girls who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, said sarcastically, "Is it your intuition?"

“No, Xiao Yin is right.” Professor Li told Bai Yun Ning to take pictures quickly. “We can’t rule out the possibility that all the victims were buried alive with the deceased. Let’s move this coffin aside and take a closer look. Normally, the entrance to the tomb chamber is not too far from the burial pit.”

Everyone got busy again, but seeing hope made their work efficiency increase several times over. Yin Li sat to the side in a daze. Professor Li walked over, patted her on the shoulder, and said approvingly, "Little Yin, we really owe you a lot this time. Otherwise, we would have done so much more useless work."

"It's nothing, I was just lucky." Yin Li was a little embarrassed. Even she herself didn't know why she knew there was a coffin down there. Was it a hint from those hallucinations? But would others believe her if she told them about those hallucinations?

From the day she arrived in Yecheng, hallucinations began to haunt her, following her like a shadow. Perhaps they were truly memories from a past life? Traveling to the Western Regions had been her dream and longing since childhood; perhaps this deep-seated fascination with the Western Regions was an emotion left over from two thousand years ago?

But this is absurd! When a person dies, the matter is over. What is there to say about past lives and present lives? If everyone has their own past life and continues the karmic ties or grudges from that life, then what is this life?

The more she thought about it, the more confused she became. Yin Li clutched her head, feeling like it was about to split open. Just then, something flashed. Startled, she looked up and saw something flickering in the direction of the stone forest, seemingly reflecting the sunlight.

It's those thugs!

Her heart skipped a beat; they were being watched through binoculars. She didn't know what they planned to do, but she had to stop them!

The archaeological team had a fruitful day, unearthing two more identical house-shaped coffins next to the first one. The girls inside were similar to those in the first coffin, their faces clearly showing the fear and pain they felt before death.

Just as the third coffin was unearthed, people discovered a huge stone beneath it. The stone was worn smooth, with only part of it exposed, the rest buried under sand. The team members, without even having time to eat, began clearing the yellow sand from the stone, along with some miscellaneous rubble and broken pottery and porcelain.

It wasn't until 6 p.m., when the sun had already begun to set and the world had once again turned into a mesmerizing deep red, that the large rock was finally fully revealed to everyone.

It was a massive, millstone-like rock, round and about five meters in diameter. A giant three-legged crow was carved on it. Ancient legend says that in the east there is a divine tree called Fusang, from which ten suns dwell, each containing a three-legged crow. This round rock symbolizes the sun from that myth!

"Incredible, truly incredible." Everyone was speechless with astonishment at this dreamlike miracle, as if they were seeing the ancient and mysterious Kingdom of West Night walking towards them.

"Professor Li, isn't the three-legged crow a myth from the Central Plains Han Chinese?" Qin Wen asked, somewhat puzzled. "Does the Western Regions also have this kind of story?"

"The three-legged crow is indeed a Han Chinese myth, but it's not surprising that merchants from the Central Plains brought Han Chinese mythology to the West. After all, Buddhism, which is practiced in various countries of the Western Regions, was also transmitted from India over a long distance." Professor Li was clearly very excited. These discoveries today were enough to cause a sensation throughout the world, and countless fame and fortune would come his way.

"What's this stone for?" Zhang Yuanyuan seemed to see her own bright future reflected in it, her face beaming with smiles as she took photos and jotted something down in her notebook. "It doesn't look like just decoration; could it be an altar?"

Professor Li nodded slightly and said, "There are three coffins on top, indicating the possibility of an altar..."

"No, Professor, I don't think it's that simple." Qin Wen circled the disc carefully, examining the three-legged bird on it. "Beneath the temple is a tomb; could this be the entrance to the tomb?"

"The entrance to the tomb?" Everyone was shocked. Zhang Yuanyuan sneered, "What makes you think this is the entrance to the tomb? If you found the entrance so easily, what would we be doing here?"

“What I’m saying isn’t just a guess.” A hint of anger flashed in Qin Wen’s eyes. “The Western Night Kingdom uses the Khotanese script, so their customs should be similar to those of Khotan. Neither the Western Regions culture nor the Central Plains culture has ever had such an altar. The Western Night Kingdom is a Buddhist country, and there are no related records in Buddhism. If this disc is not just a decoration, then it should be the entrance to the tomb passage.”

"You—" Zhang Yuanyuan blushed and wanted to say something, but Professor Li interrupted her: "Qin Wen's words make sense. No similar altars have been found in the surrounding countries of Xiye, so it's really hard to say that it's Xiye's original creation. However, if this really is the entrance to the tomb passage, then our work can be considered half successful. It's too late now, let's go back and rest for a while, and decide tomorrow whether to use explosives to blow it open."

Everyone agreed, except for Zhang Yuanyuan, whose face was still full of anger. Qin Wen gave her a provocative smile, making her so angry that she almost wanted to curse. She only managed to hold back because of Professor Li, thinking to herself: "You, Qin, just you wait, I'll make you fall into my hands sooner or later!"

It was already 9 p.m. when they returned to the camp. Everyone was very excited because they had likely discovered the entrance to the tomb, and the atmosphere at dinner was excellent. Professor Li kept praising Yin Li, saying that she had made a great contribution and was the archaeological team's lucky star. Yin Li could only smile wryly.

As night deepened, the camp fell silent, with only Yin Li still awake. Having lived for twenty-one years, she now truly understood how painful insomnia was.

She lay in her sleeping bag, staring blankly at the tent ceiling. She wasn't a Buddhist and didn't believe in past lives, but she did believe in karma—what you sow, you reap. Now, reality was proving to her that she possessed memories from ancient times—that was the effect. But what was the cause?

She racked her brains until her head ached, but she couldn't come up with a solution. After all, she wasn't Buddha, who could grasp the profound truths of life through mere meditation.

She crawled out of her sleeping bag, wanting to wander around the camp and see what the bandits were up to. Outside the tent, the camp was eerily quiet. She looked up; the desert night sky was clear, revealing countless stars, even many constellations she'd only ever seen in pictures.

At that moment, she suddenly felt a pang of envy for the ancients. Two thousand years ago, Princess Zhaoling, who had been married off to this place, must have seen a similar scene. What were her feelings then?

She suddenly remembered the hallucination she had in the Stone Forest last night. Who was that young man in the black robe? Why was he gazing at the princess's tomb with such deep and sorrowful eyes? Was he the princess's lover from the Central Plains?

A princess forced to marry far away, a lover chasing after her from afar—it's a clichéd yet tragic story.

"Click!"

A crisp sound pierced the silent night sky, sounding exceptionally clear. Yin Li was startled and turned around to look in the direction of the sound, only to find it coming from the large tent in the center of the camp.

Her heart skipped a beat, and a terrible thought flashed through her mind.

The tent contained the bodies of three women found in the cemetery!

Thirteen, The disappearance of the mummified corpse

Her heart began to pound, and she walked step by step toward the tent. Each step felt like walking on clouds, light and weightless.

"Click!"

Another sharp crack echoed, and Yin Li's heart skipped a beat, pausing for two seconds. That sound… why did it sound so much like bones breaking? Could it be the three female corpses?

Is someone stealing those three corpses?

The image of the man named Xiang Ge flashed through her mind; his icy green eyes made her heart as cold as ice.

She reached out, her whole body trembling slightly. She lifted a corner of the tent flap, and moonlight shone through, revealing the furnishings inside.

There is no one.

Yin Li frowned. Had she misheard?

She entered the tent, which had originally served as Professor Li's studio and bedroom. But after the mummified corpse was moved in, he no longer had the courage to sleep there and went to the men's tent. Standing in the large tent, Yin Li felt the chill seeping into every pore of her body, penetrating her skin and thick muscles, and reaching her bones, causing her body to ache slightly from the cold.

Three coffins were placed on the ground, and Yin Li approached. She saw that the lid of one of the coffins had been slightly moved to the side, revealing a corner of the coffin, inside which was a terrifying darkness.

She reached out and gently pushed, and the coffin lid slid silently to the side. Moonlight shone into the coffin, and Yin Li couldn't help but scream.

It's gone! The mummified corpse has disappeared!

She quickly opened the other two coffins, but they were also empty. Her heart sank to the bottom. Who? Who stole the bodies? She hadn't seen anyone come out of the tent. If it was those bandits, how did they steal the bodies?

"Click!"

This time, the sharp crack was clearer than the previous two, as if it were right behind her. Yin Li shuddered, feeling something standing behind her. A chill ran down her spine like a snake, and cold sweat poured out like a fountain.

She slowly turned her head and was horrified to see a withered face. She screamed, her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground. The three female corpses, their mouths agape, lunged at her, grabbing her legs. Their voices were hoarse, like spoons scraping medicine from a jar, their faces contorted. Empty eye sockets held shriveled pupils, staring straight at Yin Li, a chilling sight.