Book 3: Chapter 42: Graffitied Warning

Book 3: Chapter 42: Graffitied Warning

We set off about twenty minutes later. The mountain opposite us looked very close, but it actually took us an hour to reach the foot of that huge holey slope.

During that time, there was a thought lingering in my heart that was difficult to get rid ofPoker-Face must have only rested for two hours so would he be able to endure it?

I didnt see any traces of tiredness on his face, but he definitely had to be tired since he kept taking naps all the time. I just didnt know if I should ask.

When we were halfway through our journey, he still looked perfectly fine while Fatty and I were panting like dogs. As a result, there really wasnt a need to ask him if he needed a rest. Moreover, wed have to rest when we arrived at our destination anyways.

At this time, looking up at the mountain was even more frightening, and I couldnt help thinking that it wasnt a lotus flower at all but a huge hornet's nest. It almost seemed as if countless hornets would come flying out of these holes at any moment.

We went from the foot of the mountain to the huge grave robbers' tunnel on the mountainside. Fatty looked at the dark hole and said to us, "Comrade Nave, it's time to use your talents. The choice is yours now: should we find a hole and go in, or should we dig one ourselves?"

"Go in and have a look." After saying this, I took the lead.

The grave robbers' tunnel was so big that Godzilla was the only one who could have dug it. The inside sloped downward, so it became very dim after about six or seven meters. When I turned on my flashlight and continued walking further inside, I found that there was water on the ground. This stagnant water was very clear, so it must have been accumulated rainwater that had filtered down from above. After passing the pool of water, I saw a dirt hole that was very dark inside. When I swept my flashlight over it, all I could make out were hard clods of dirt inside.

This didnt seem to be a stone mountain but a dirt mountain.

Poker-Face quickly cleaned himself without an ounce of hesitation. Our clothes were waterproof, so he washed off the stains on the outside and then neatly took off his clothes. After setting them aside, he quickly got into the pool of water and wiped himself clean. Fatty only took off his jacket and wiped his body with a towel.

The water was extremely cold, so I wasnt brave enough to copy them.

I moved to take a few more steps inside the tunnel, but Fatty told me not to move rashly.

As it turned out, I couldnt actually move because I found that the path ahead was blocked. The hard soil inside had collapsed in such a way that the hole was a dead end.

By this point, Fatty and Poker-Face had already caught up to me. The whole bathing process shouldnt have taken more than two minutes, but Poker-Face had even washed his hair. I figured that his hands had moved so fast when he was washing up that they left afterimages.nove(l)bi(n.)com

"Sure enough, as I said, the soil here may be quite special and the grave robbers' tunnels won't last long," Fatty said.

"What's the matter?" I asked him.

"The information on this is a little scary."

"Dont be afraid, Daddys here," I teased him. "Just tell me what it says."

Fatty turned back towards the graffiti and said, "The meaning of the first few pictures is very clear. These are a few people performing Qimen Dunjia."

He used his flashlight to illuminate several figures on the cave wall, but I couldn't make anything of them. Fatty continued, "The guy who drew this picture should be illiterate, but if you look here, this little man is holding a flag up. This is the warning sign of the Mongolian cavalry and I think it means that these pictures are all warnings. And look at the movements of these people. There are seven graffiti figures here all performing Qimen Dunjia, but the seasons of the trees behind them are different. Theres also a figure here, which is a strange thing thats clearly not human. But this thing is also performing Qimen Dunjia, just like those people."

I looked at the figure and also agreed that it looked very strange. It wasnt in the shape of a person at all, but it had eyes and appeared to be in the shape of this underground palace.

"I think what this person is trying to tell us is that all of us come here because this underground palace attracts us. This underground palace uses Qimen Dunjia to seduce groups of people to come here at regular intervals," Fatty said.

"What the hell?"

"That's just my interpretation of it."

I looked at those pictures but still couldnt understand how they expressed such complicated meanings.

"How is this possible? Its not like the underground palace is a person."

"Weve just been assuming that its an underground palace, but maybe the things below arent actually underground palaces," Fatty said.

****

TN Notes:

(1) FYI, not cocaine. In this context, coke is a grey, hard, and porous fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities, made by heating coal or oil in the absence of aira destructive distillation process. It is an important industrial product, used mainly in iron ore smelting, but also as a fuel in stoves and forges when air pollution is a concern.

(2) Doesnt translate well. The pinyin for ancient Mongolians is Mngg grn, so when Fatty repeated it, he said Mngg g g grn.