Chen Rongsheng
Chapter 74 A Rooster Crows, the Lamp Goes Out, Don't Touch Gold
No wonder Little Shuai was nailed to the wall of the tomb passage. It turned out that he had unfortunately stepped on a trap in the ancient tomb.
This wasn't some kind of tomb-guarding Yin soldiers at all.
But if we hadn't discovered this trap, and only saw Little Shuai, a strapping young man of nearly six feet, nailed to the wall with his feet off the ground, it would have been easy to think of something supernatural.
That's how rumors start.
This is also why there are endless ghost stories in the tomb raiding business.
After figuring out how the trap worked, I turned back and said to everyone, "Be careful where you step when you walk. If you accidentally trigger the mechanism, don't panic. Be sure to squat down immediately, and you'll be fine."
Uncle Mei and Sister Hong quickly nodded and memorized it.
But having said that, I felt strange again.
Before, in the Tuo River ancient Shu tomb, there were no mechanisms or traps set up outside the tomb at all. Jiang Yongguang also told me that the Shu people more than four thousand years ago had simple folk customs, and there were no tomb robbers, so there was no need for anti-theft measures.
But why was there suddenly a layer of mechanisms outside this Yazi River ancient Shu tomb?
Could it be that the specifications of this ancient Shu tomb were higher than those of the Tuo River ancient Shu tomb?
Or was there some kind of extremely precious treasure buried in this ancient Shu tomb, so that even four thousand years ago, when tomb robbers were not rampant, the owner of the tomb had to find ways to protect it?
But these were just my conjectures. The specific truth would have to wait until we entered the tomb to find out.
We carefully passed through this trap zone and soon saw the outer wall of the tomb.
But before reaching the outer wall, I suddenly heard a strange sound coming from the darkness. It was a "fluttering" sound like the flapping of bird wings, mixed with the crowing of a rooster.
I was attracted by this strange sound and swept it with the light of my headlamp. With the pale light, I suddenly saw two dark shadows dart out from the depths of the tomb passage!
"Holy crap!"
I couldn't help but curse in fright and almost pulled out my diving knife to slash wildly.
At the critical moment, Uncle Mei stepped forward and stood in front of me. He squinted his eyes, looked at it, and quickly whispered to comfort me, "It's okay, don't be afraid. They are just two roosters!"
I took a deep breath and took a closer look, only to see that these two dark shadows were indeed two roosters.
They were full of energy, their feathers were bright, and they were flapping their wings and scurrying around in the tomb passage.
I was puzzled and asked curiously, "How come there's everything in this ancient tomb? First we ran into piranhas, and now we've encountered roosters. It's really weird!"
Old Wu laughed and said, "You don't understand, do you? These roosters were brought down by Shopkeeper Wang and the others. They are essential magic weapons for tomb raiding."
I asked in confusion, "What kind of magic weapon are roosters? What's the point of bringing them to raid tombs?"
Old Wu said with a showy look, "The layman is a layman, you don't even understand this! There's an old saying: 'Three domestic animals communicate with the heavens, and three fowls communicate with the earth.' The three domestic animals are pigs, cattle, and sheep. Communicating with the heavens means reaching the ears of heaven and communicating with the immortals. Therefore, the three domestic animals are used for sacrifices to heaven in ancient times. The three fowls are chickens, ducks, and geese. Communicating with the earth refers to being able to communicate with the ghosts underground. Tomb raiding is dealing with ghosts, so the three fowls are needed."
Sister Hong also added, "When *tufuzi* (local tomb raiders) raid tombs, they often bring a few chickens and ducks, dig the tomb passage and throw them in first, so that they can communicate with the tomb owner. If the chickens and ducks are unharmed, it means that the tomb can be raided. If the chickens and ducks die violently, it means that the tomb is very ominous, and they must respectfully kowtow three times to the tomb owner, fill in the tomb passage and leave, otherwise they will be haunted by vengeful ghosts and suffer a violent death."
Uncle Mei and I were stunned by these two professional tomb raiders, and we believed their claims at the time.
Of course, later I discussed this issue with Jiang Yongguang, and Jiang Yongguang gave a more scientific explanation.
Ancient tombs are often buried deep underground for many years, and the oxygen content in the tomb is often very low, and may even contain some dangerous gases.
In ancient times, there were no air component detectors. Tomb robbers who rashly entered the tomb would often die from lack of oxygen or inhaling toxic gases.
Over time, they learned from their mistakes and became smarter. When they saw a tomb passage, they didn't rush to go down. Instead, they threw in some living creatures to test it. These living creatures were poultry.
This was not because of some "three fowls communicating with the earth," but simply because poultry was light, easy to carry, and more convenient than bringing pigs or sheep, so they were used for testing.
If the poultry thrown into the tomb could survive, it meant that the air composition inside was harmless and they could enter the tomb. If the poultry died violently, it meant that the oxygen concentration inside was too low or that there were toxic gases, and the tomb robbers would give up tomb raiding and go home.
But the ancients were superstitious and insisted on explaining this behavior of detecting air components in a supernatural way, so there was the saying of "three domestic animals communicating with the heavens and three fowls communicating with the earth."
There is also a similar saying, which has been written into novels and is therefore more widely circulated, that is, "Do not touch gold when the rooster crows and the lamp goes out."
This means that if you hear a rooster crowing, don't touch the gold, and if the ghost blows out the lamp, don't touch the gold.
The specific operation is to light a candle in the southeast corner of the tomb chamber. If the candle burns brightly for a long time, it means that the tomb can be raided; if the candle suddenly goes out, it means that the tomb raider has angered the tomb owner and must return all the funerary objects to their original place, and then respectfully kowtow three times to the tomb owner and return the way they came.
This was originally a method of testing air components.
If the oxygen content in the tomb was too low, the candle would automatically go out after a while, which meant that the tomb was dangerous and they had to evacuate quickly.
This originally had nothing to do with the supernatural.
It's just that the folk spread rumors and put a layer of strange veil on this scientific test, adding a sense of ritual and mystery to this simple air test, and gradually forming the saying "Do not touch gold when the rooster crows and the lamp goes out."
Back to the topic.
Seeing these two lively roosters, we knew that they had "communicated" well with the tomb owner, at least we wouldn't die suddenly.
Uncle Mei grabbed the wing of a rooster and asked Old Wu and Sister Hong, "Since this thing is a treasure for tomb raiding, should we carry it with us?"
Unexpectedly, before Sister Hong and Old Wu could answer, the feathers on the rooster's wings suddenly fell off in a rustling sound, like the falling leaves of a withered tree in autumn. At the same time, the chicken twisted its body and screamed desperately, as if it was suffering from some kind of bone-eroding pain!
Uncle Mei was startled and quickly let go of the rooster, clarifying, "I didn't do anything to it, why is this chicken losing its feathers?"
Before he finished speaking, Uncle Mei suddenly frowned and said, "Ouch."
He looked down at his palm, and then gasped!
Worried, I also hurried to observe. I saw that Uncle Mei's palm was scarlet red, and it was all chicken blood! In addition, the skin on his palm seemed to have been scalded, and several blisters that were getting bigger and bigger were visible to the naked eye!
I asked Uncle Mei if his hand hurt. Uncle Mei nodded and gritted his teeth, "It's burning hot, like being scalded by boiling water. Rongsheng, there's something strange about this rooster!"