Volume One, Chapter 55: The Truth Behind the Ancient Tomb of the Woman in the Ruqun

At that moment, Qin Kaishu hesitated as well. “Weijia, why don’t we search a bit more? We’ve come this far.” Seeing the two so insistent, Song Weijia felt awkward about leaving on his own and followed behind them.

As they walked, they became utterly lost in the vast primeval forest, unable to even find the direction from which they had come. Lu Ying seemed possessed, staring at her phone and muttering to herself, “Impossible! It should be around here…”

Qin Kaishu intended to comfort her, to suggest giving up if they really couldn’t find it, but he happened to catch a glimpse of the map on her phone. His voice sharpened with a sense of foreboding. “A map? What kind of map is that?”

Perhaps frustrated from not finding the treasure, Lu Ying no longer bothered to hide it. She boldly admitted, “Yes, it’s exactly as you think. No one told me about any treasure. Everything was planned by me before I came to Yunnan!”

In the livestream, Song Weijia’s hand clenched tightly beneath the table. Qin Yu watched him calmly, her lips pressed together before she asked, “And then?”

“Then Lu Ying and Qin Kaishu started struggling, and Kaishu accidentally pushed Lu Ying down. Unexpectedly, it revealed a hidden passage!”

“Is there really a treasure?”

“Share the location!”

“You’d better wake up—three people went there, two ended up dead!”

“Maybe I’ll get lucky and strike it rich.”

“6!”

“Go on,” Qin Yu said, draining her fruit tea to the bottom, the empty cup making a hollow sucking sound.

Watching Qin Yu’s indifference, Song Weijia couldn’t shake the feeling she already knew everything. He forced the sensation aside and continued, “Kaishu and I were worried she might actually get hurt, so we followed her down.”

“We never expected what we’d find below the passage…”

Lu Ying’s face was alight with excitement. “I told you there’d be treasure! Looks like that person didn’t lie to me!”

Qin Kaishu also found it incredible, but only Song Weijia felt a chill down his spine. He rubbed his arms and warned the other two, “This place feels creepy; maybe we should leave.”

But Lu Ying was blinded by greed, and Qin Kaishu was driven by curiosity. Neither listened to Song Weijia.

Lu Ying said, “If you’re scared, just wait outside for us.”

Qin Kaishu patted Song Weijia on the shoulder. “Weijia, you keep watch here. We’ll be quick.”

Though afraid, Song Weijia was unwilling to wait alone and had no choice but to follow.

At first, the passage was wide enough for two, but the further they went, the narrower it became, until only one person could barely pass through.

Their arms were pressed close to the walls, making the sound of water droplets trickling down the stone echo sharply and delicately between the mountainsides.

After some ten or so steps, the cramped, dark corridor suddenly opened into a spacious chamber.

Light shone down from above, illuminating the entire valley floor.

And at the very center of that light lay a coffin.

Song Weijia’s legs went weak with fright, and he refused to go any further. Lu Ying and Qin Kaishu ignored him and headed straight for the coffin.

But they had hardly taken two steps when they must have triggered a mechanism; a volley of arrows shot out from all sides.

One arrow grazed Lu Ying’s forearm, nearly piercing through it.

Now, neither Lu Ying nor Qin Kaishu dared advance recklessly.

A grinding sound of stone echoed from the coffin at the center.

Lu Ying and Qin Kaishu, closest to it, stared wide-eyed, shrieked “Ghost!” and ran back.

At this point, Song Weijia’s hands trembled as he grabbed the cup on the table and gulped down two large mouthfuls of water. “After that, I just followed them and escaped.”

Qin Yu’s left brow arched as she casually pointed to his injured forearm. “What happened to your hand?”

Song Weijia stiffened, instinctively covering it. “I’ve been absent-minded these past few days—probably just scratched it somewhere.”

Qin Yu nodded slowly. “So you didn’t take anything from the tomb?”

“No, absolutely not!” Song Weijia denied vehemently. “We were scared out of our wits—who’d think of taking something?”

Qin Yu said nothing, but her sharp gaze bore into Song Weijia.

He immediately felt an oppressive weight in the air, as if something unseen pressed down on him, making it hard to breathe.

“In your story, wasn’t it you, not Lu Ying, who planned to hunt for treasure?”

“I thought his account was odd—he rarely described things from ‘Song Weijia’s’ perspective.”

“Are you all detectives? Am I the only one who didn’t catch on?”

“Another day, another failure…”

“Why does it seem like everyone in the master’s livestream is a genius except for me?”

“And me, too.”

“If you swap Lu Ying and Song Weijia’s roles in the story, everything becomes clear.”

“No wonder Song Weijia’s character seemed so effeminate—turns out the original was a woman.”

“This is grave robbing. It’s a crime against cultural relics, punishable by imprisonment.”

Song Weijia wanted to protest, but Qin Yu’s gaze was too piercing, too clear.

“Tell me, what did you take from the ancient tomb?”

Under the dual pressure of Qin Yu and the livestream chat, Song Weijia’s psychological defenses finally collapsed. He retorted, “I’m not a criminal! The tomb had already been robbed by grave thieves.”

“Upon discovering a tomb:
1. Never enter without permission.
2. Preserve the site.
3. Notify the local heritage bureau.
—Advice from a cultural heritage worker.”

“Well said.”

“This livestream is full of talent—every profession under the sun.”

“Tonight, another soul lamp on your shoulder will be extinguished. When all three are out, your time will be up.”

Song Weijia, who had been stubborn, turned ashen at the mention of death. “Master, please save me! I’m still so young—I don’t want to die.”

“What exactly did you do in the tomb? Tell me everything, honestly.”

“All right, all right! I’ll tell you!” Faced with life and death, Song Weijia became much more cooperative. “When Lu Ying and Qin Kaishu saw the coffin move, they were so terrified they ran. Only I thought that the stranger the situation, the more likely there was treasure, so I didn’t follow them out.”

“The tomb had already been robbed; many of the traps were destroyed. Other than triggering that first mechanism, I never encountered any more obstacles.”

“Lu Ying and Qin Kaishu were calling my name from behind, but I was obsessed with the thought of gold and jewels in the coffin and ignored them.”

“There was a crack in the coffin lid. I expected to see a skeleton. But to my shock, inside lay a young maiden, skin pale as porcelain, dressed in a pink ruqun. She had willow-leaf brows, cherry lips, and skin so delicate it seemed it would bruise at a touch—she lay so peacefully, she could have been sleeping. If she hadn’t been in a coffin, I’d have thought she was alive.”

“I was amazed, but also frightened—afraid I’d run into a legendary zombie. But then I thought: such a beautiful girl must have many grave goods…”

“Greed overcame reason. I pried open the coffin lid. Sunlight poured in like a silver waterfall, flooding the coffin…”

“In an instant, the maiden who had looked so beautiful, so lifelike, became nothing but bleached bones. Her soft pink gown turned to filthy yellow…”

“At that moment, I saw clearly—there were no treasures in the coffin, only a skeleton.”

“Unwilling to leave empty-handed, I glanced up and spotted a hairpin above her head.”

As he spoke, Song Weijia pulled a silver hairpin from the drawer. The body of the pin was blackened with oxidation, but at the top was a pink butterfly—tarnished, yet lifelike.

Qin Yu’s eyes glinted with a reddish hue; her voice was icy. “When you first approached her and found the coffin lid ajar, she was trying to warn you—there was nothing inside for you, and you should leave her in peace!”