Fatty's face lit up when he heard Hu Ming. His bulky body shoved Hu Bayi, who was standing beside Hu Ming, out of the way. "You got it!"
Hu Bayi, shoved aside, could only look on helplessly.
Fatty immediately took the pack off his back and looked at Hu Ming. "Mingzi, what gear do you need?"
Hu Ming thought it over. The fellow lying in the coffin had been a Great General of the Jin dynasty: tall and powerful, with immense strength and a body that bullets couldn't pierce. His only weakness was that he moved slowly. With that in mind, Hu Ming came up with a plan. "Fatty, take out the specially made corpse-binding rope first. Oh, and the sticky rice, too."
At once, Fatty pulled out a special red rope, then took out a bag containing a pound or two of sticky rice and hurried over to Hu Ming.
Hu Ming didn't plan to use the gasoline just yet. After all, the Western Regions Fire Dragon Glazed Top was right above them, and he couldn't risk doing anything reckless.
Instead, Hu Ming planned to use the corpse-binding rope as a tripwire. As far as he could tell, the two were much the same; both were meant to restrain zombies.
He also planned to scatter sticky rice around the coffin, which would further restrict the Zombie's movements.
Wang Fatty turned to Hu Bayi. "Old Hu, quit standing around. Come help!"
Hu Bayi answered, "Sure!"
The Sixteen Character Yin Yang Feng Shui Secret Art also described things like sticky rice and corpse-binding rope. After Hu Ming explained, Hu Bayi immediately understood what the rope was for and how to set it up.
The corpse-binding rope was simple, but direct and effective.
Hu Ming had shown an early interest in history, archaeology, and feng shui. So his grandfather had passed the Sixteen Character Yin Yang Feng Shui Secret Art down to him.
But when Hu Ming graduated from high school and wanted to apply to the archaeology department, everyone in his family stopped him. They all knew that if Hu Ming studied archaeology, he would go searching for tombs and explore them.
The Hu family knew how dangerous tombs were, so they all opposed Hu Ming studying archaeology. With no other choice, Hu Ming enrolled in the history department, though he still sat in on plenty of classes in archaeology.
Watching Hu Ming work, Hu Bayi couldn't help saying, "Mingzi, you're just made for this kind of thing. Man, your movements and preparation are smoother than I ever imagined."
At Hu Bayi's words, Hu Ming grinned. "Hey, what can I say? Even though I never got into the archaeology department, I learned plenty. I've spent years studying Grandpa's Sixteen Character Yin Yang Feng Shui Secret Art. I'm every bit as good at this as you now, hehe."
Hu Bayi looked at him helplessly. "Mingzi, you'd been planning to get into this line of work all along, hadn't you?
"Honestly, everyone in the family figured you'd end up in a tomb one day. We just didn't think it'd happen so soon." As he spoke, Hu Bayi worked faster.
Before long, they had used the tomb's structure to set up the corpse-binding rope more than a meter above the ground. Layer upon layer of loops stretched across the space. Even if Fatty hung from it, it wouldn't give way.
"Mingzi, you really went all out with that tripwire. But will it actually work? I hope we're not wasting our time," Hu Bayi said, voicing his doubts.
Looking at Hu Bayi, Hu Ming knew what he was thinking. Normally, a tripwire was just a loop placed around a corpse's ankles; there was no need to make things so complicated.
But Hu Ming didn't say anything.
Instead, he went over beside the coffin and said, "Old Hu, this stone coffin is at least four meters long. The fellow inside must be huge."
"Come on. Could anyone really be that big?" Hu Bayi still found it hard to believe.
Fatty came over, too. "Mingzi, were there really people that tall in ancient times? If there were, wouldn't they have been monsters?"
Hu Ming replied evenly, "Old Hu, take a look at the coffin paintings and the murals on the walls. You'll see. I've looked them over. This fellow was said to be invincible, undefeated in a hundred battles, and immensely strong. We'd better be careful."
Fatty looked at the murals, a little spooked. "Mingzi, how about we just leave this stone coffin unopened?"
Hu Ming shot him a glance. "Leave it unopened? What is this, Fatty? Are you chickening out?"
The moment Fatty heard Mingzi call him a coward in front of Yingzi and Hu Bayi, he flared up. "What? A coward? You're the coward! I'm Fatty, a crack shot. Why would I be scared of some guy who's been dead for hundreds of years?"
Hu Ming knew what Fatty was like. He couldn't stand being called a coward; say it once, and he'd explode, boasting like he was a god of war.
Unable to take Hu Ming's teasing, Fatty pulled out a crowbar and prepared to pry open the coffin.
"Fatty, what are you doing?" Hu Bayi asked, seeing him with the crowbar. He wanted to stop Fatty from acting rashly.
Fatty replied irritably, "What do you think? I'm opening the coffin! So you'll stop calling me a coward!" With that, he climbed onto the stone coffin and raised the crowbar.
Hu Bayi merely said, "Fatty, if you're not afraid of dying, go ahead and pry it open. I'll pretend I didn't see a thing."
Then he turned to Hu Ming and Yingzi. "Mingzi, Yingzi, let's step back a little."
"Okay!" Hu Bayi had barely said it when Hu Ming and Yingzi deliberately backed away several paces. Even Fatty, thickheaded as he was, was taken aback.
Fatty had no choice but to say, "Fine, I admit it—I'm chickening out. You guys do it. I'll just watch. That's all right, isn't it?"
With that, Fatty climbed down from the stone coffin and set the crowbar aside, as if nothing had happened.
Fatty looked at the coffin and asked Hu Ming, "Mingzi, tell me: why can't we pry it open? You've got to help me understand."
Hu Ming replied, "There could be a Zombie in there. We have to follow the old rules."
Hu Bayi added, "When a man lights a candle and a ghost blows out the lamp, if the rooster crows and the candle goes out, we leave the grave untouched."
Hu Ming turned to Fatty, too. "Fatty, take out a candle and light it in the southeast."
Fatty went straight over to light the candle. Meanwhile, Hu Ming divided the rest of the sticky rice between Hu Bayi and Yingzi, saving some for Fatty as well.
Once everything was ready, the three of them took crowbars and pried out the coffin nails.
Then they worked together to push the coffin lid aside. Boom! The heavy lid crashed to the ground, kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
Fatty happened to be standing right where the dust was thickest.
"Ptooey, ptooey! Damn it, Fatty didn't get bitten, but I've got a mouthful of dirt! Ptooey, ptooey!" Fatty complained.
Hu Bayi and Hu Ming couldn't help laughing at the sight.
Curious, Yingzi craned her neck to peer into the coffin.
At the sight, she let out a shriek...
Before you continue