Hu Ming and Yingzi didn't have to wait long for Hu Bayi and Fatty Wang to join them in the cave.
Just ten minutes later, they heard—
"Everybody move aside! Master Fatty's coming through!" As soon as the words left his mouth, a fat figure slid down a rope.
Hu Ming knew it was Fatty without even looking. Hu Bayi came down after him, just as Fatty landed.
Hu Bayi ignored Fatty and went over to Yingzi. "Are you all right, Yingzi?"
Yingzi shook her head. "I'm fine, Big Brother Hu."
Hu Ming said to Hu Bayi, "Old Hu, Yingzi's fine. She walked a few steps just now without any problems." Only then did Hu Bayi relax.
"My God, this is incredible!" Wang Fatty swept his flashlight around the tomb chamber twice, his mouth hanging open in amazement. "This is so exciting! Mingzi, Old Hu, is this really a tomb?"
Fatty had never seen what a tomb chamber looked like in his life, so he could never have imagined that such a huge burial complex lay hidden underground.
It was like a whole different world! Fatty pulled an engineer shovel from his backpack and handed it to the excavator, then took out a black donkey's hoof and gave it to Yingzi.
"Yingzi, take this!"
Yingzi looked at the dark, misshapen thing Fatty was holding out to her, confused. "What is this?"
Hu Ming explained, "It's a black donkey's hoof. It wards off evil. In tombs, it can restrain zombies and stop corpses from turning into the undead! It works on minor zombies. If you run into a powerful one, even a cartload of black donkey's hooves won't help."
Yingzi put away the black donkey's hoof, only half understanding. At least it was useful.
Hu Ming continued, "Yingzi, take out the rabbit you caught."
Yingzi reached into a small sack and pulled out a live rabbit. "Ming, I only managed to catch one before I fell in."
After catching that rabbit, Yingzi had spotted signs of another and gone after it with the dogs. That was when she accidentally fell into the cave. If Hu Ming hadn't noticed her little sack inside the cave, he wouldn't have thought she still had a rabbit with her.
Hu Ming smiled at her words. "It's fine. One rabbit is enough."
Wang Fatty asked Hu Ming, "Mingzi, what do you need the rabbit for?"
Hu Bayi glanced at him and answered for Hu Ming. "To help us scout ahead, of course. Unless you'd like to do it yourself, Fatty?"
Fatty shook his head like a rattle drum. There was no way he'd go scout ahead. He could easily lose his life.
Anyone with experience knew that ancient tombs were often full of poisonous gas. If you went in without checking first and something went wrong, the people who entered would be as good as dead.
Seeing this, Hu Ming said with a smile, "Actually, if you don't mind dying from poison, you could go in and scout ahead for us. That would work too."
Wang Fatty couldn't help getting annoyed. "Scout ahead? No way! Mingzi, you and Old Hu are so heartless, trying to make me test for poison! That's downright cruel!"
Hu Ming smiled. Luckily, Yingzi had caught a rabbit; otherwise, they would have had to go back up and catch one.
Hu Ming motioned for Fatty to take out all their equipment. They had brought everything they needed.
"Hey, Mingzi, you've got everything here. So you and Fatty planned this in advance, didn't you?" Seeing how well prepared they were, Hu Bayi easily figured it out.
Hu Ming just smiled. "Old Hu, why don't you handle this? You've got some experience, more or less."
"All right." At this point, there was no point in Hu Bayi objecting again, so he agreed.
Hu Bayi took out a thin cord, tied one end around a leg of the wild rabbit Yingzi had caught, and quickly lowered it into the tomb passage.
A while later...
"How is it?" Fatty asked Hu Bayi.
Hu Bayi looked at the listless rabbit. "It's sluggish. The air inside doesn't seem too good, so let's wait a while. The entrance was covered up before, and there hasn't been any air circulation. We should rest here for a bit."
"Fine, let's wait." After the rabbit had recovered, Hu Bayi checked the air in the passage again. This time, he sent the same rabbit in, now back to normal. It no longer showed any signs of lethargy, so Hu Bayi confirmed the air was basically safe.
They waited ten minutes and heard no mechanisms or arrows being triggered. It seemed safe.
Once they were sure there was no danger, Hu Bayi untied the rabbit, and they followed it forward. The rabbit didn't run very fast now; it just hopped along one step at a time. Hu Ming figured Hu Bayi had worn it out by throwing it in and hauling it back several times.
Fatty handed the flashlight to Hu Bayi. "Old Hu, the flashlight!"
"Okay!" Hu Bayi took it and looked in every direction along the passage.
Looking down the passage, Hu Bayi asked Hu Ming, "Mingzi, have you noticed anything unusual?"
Hu Ming replied, "Unusual? Not really. If anything, when we first came in, I got the feeling this place wouldn't be so simple. Don't forget, we checked the feng shui around here last night. This tomb's at least a general's tomb. Do you think a general's tomb could be simple?"
"Old Hu, where's the rabbit?" Fatty suddenly noticed that the rabbit Hu Bayi had sent ahead was gone.
"Damn, that's strange." As he spoke, Fatty started toward the depths of the passage to look for signs of the rabbit.
"Fatty, don't move! Nobody move!" Hu Ming suddenly stopped them all.
Hu Bayi frowned. He took out a round water flask and rolled it forward. At one spot, it suddenly tipped and dropped out of sight.
"Holy shit, there really is a trap!" Fatty's face was a picture as he watched.
He'd almost gone over there to stamp his foot just a moment ago...
Now, watching what had just happened, Fatty's face was a picture.
Hu Bayi said gravely, "Fatty, be careful. This is no joke."
Wang Fatty nodded. Hu Bayi still wasn't reassured—he knew Fatty's temperament all too well—so he said to Hu Ming and Yingzi, "Yingzi, Mingzi, keep an eye on Fatty. Don't let him touch anything."
Hu Ming and Yingzi both smiled and nodded. Fatty was unhappy. "What, you don't trust me now? Are we even brothers?"
Hu Ming smiled. "My dear Fatty, you nearly died twice today, you know?"
"This morning... and then..."
Wang Fatty was speechless.
Hu Bayi patted him on the shoulder and continued forward carefully.
Before you continue