In less than five minutes, Zhang Junyu finished searching and stopped in front of the room where the paper figures were kept. He hadn't found any trace of the missing woman, which only made him more uneasy.
The door stood half open. There was no candlelight inside, only a cool wash of moonlight spilling through the gap.
From Zhang Junyu's angle, the moonlight fell right across the profiles of a row of paper figures, making their faces look even paler.
He took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open. The old hinges creaked, a strange sound that set his teeth on edge.
The room wasn't as dark as he'd expected. It was filled with the slightly pungent smell of paint. Zhang Junyu twitched his nose, and beneath the paint fumes, he caught the sharp scent of decay.
He instantly grew alert, because he knew that smell well.
It was the smell of a corpse just beginning to rot.
But the room was full of paper figures. Could there be a corpse hidden among them?
Zhang Junyu served as the scout for the entire tomb-raiding team. He was highly vigilant, and his experience and mental fortitude far surpassed those of an ordinary person. Within a few breaths, he had calmed down and begun to survey the room with narrowed eyes.
Behind a pillar near the entrance stood a wooden ladder. A white lantern was wedged halfway up it, conspicuous but unlit.
Looking closely, he saw a short, bamboo-tube-shaped object standing beneath the ladder.
Someone else might not have recognized it, but Zhang Junyu knew at once: it was a fire starter.
With a fire starter here, they must have wanted them to light the lantern.
Zhang Junyu hesitated, but decided against it. For one thing, he could just make