Chapter 8: The Vanished Maid

Seeing that I remained silent, Zhao Zhiqiang grew anxious. “Brother, what are we going to do to get out of here?”

“If we’re always trapped in these mechanisms, we’ll never find the burial chamber. Sooner or later, we’ll starve or die of exhaustion,” Ma Xu added, equally agitated. Only the man in the black jacket waited quietly for my response.

I considered for a moment, then put forth a bold suggestion. “There are a hundred and forty-four possible combinations. If we rule them out one by one, we’ll waste too much time. Instead, I think we should split up.”

“No!” The man in the black jacket immediately shot down my idea.

An awkward silence fell. I calmly looked at him, waiting to hear his reasoning.

“Splitting up is the last thing you do when exploring a tomb. If there’s any danger, you may never make it back,” he said coldly, his eyes full of resolve.

“Of course I know splitting up isn’t ideal, but if we don’t, we’ll all die here together. None of us will survive.” My belief was that if there’s even the slightest chance, it should be seized, but clearly, his view was different.

He narrowed his eyes, stubbornly insisting, “Then we die together. This was always a matter of life and death as a group.”

Tomb raiding is perilous, and it has rules—I knew that well. I respected the man in the black jacket for his courage and loyalty, but I was here for the money. If I died, what would become of my father’s illness?

The impasse dragged on until Zhao Zhiqiang broke the silence. He stepped forward to persuade me. “Brother, I think Brother Pang is right. We should look out for each other. With your skills, we’ll find a way out.”

Since everyone felt this way, I couldn’t stubbornly insist, lest we waste more time.

“Let’s begin,” I said, exhaling and making up my mind.

At my words, the four of us immediately gathered around, awaiting instructions.

“Ma Xu, you keep watch on the mechanisms’ movements. Zhao Zhiqiang, you record everything. Brother Pang, you work with me—we’ll make marks and test the mechanisms. As long as we track the paths and mark them, we’ll avoid getting trapped.”

I quickly assigned tasks. We all nodded in agreement, then spread out to our respective duties.

“Be careful—don’t touch anything you shouldn’t,” I reminded them, still uneasy.

Once we were ready, the man in the black jacket and I used strips of red cloth to mark our route as we moved with the mechanisms. Any path we’d already taken was indicated, so if we doubled back, we’d know immediately.

Just as everyone was focused on their work, Ma Xu’s voice rang out from not far away: “Brother Pang! Brother! Come here, quickly!”

The man in the black jacket and I looked up simultaneously toward Ma Xu.

He stood rigid before a wall, motionless. We couldn’t see his expression, but he looked like a schoolboy caught in mischief, facing the wall in remorse.

Wasting no time, we hurried over. When we reached him, we saw his face was ashen, eyes blank and dull, his mind seemingly lost.

“Ma Xu! Wake up!” The man in the black jacket realized something had entranced him and shouted to jar him awake. Ma Xu snapped back to himself, staring at him as if awakening from a dream.

“B-Brother Pang…” Ma Xu stammered, trembling all over.

I noticed he was clutching something in his hand—a writing brush.

Sensing something was wrong, I seized his wrist and demanded, “What’s this?”

Caught off guard, Ma Xu faltered, “I… I just noticed it in the mural—a maid was holding a brush, preparing to grind ink. When I looked, the brush was real and could be taken off…”

“Fool! I just told you not to touch anything!” The man in the black jacket scolded him, and Ma Xu hung his head like a chastened child.

I didn’t blame him—he’d always been the troublemaker.

But as I glanced at the mural before Ma Xu, there was no maid to be seen.

Puzzled, I tugged his arm. “Where’s the maid?”

He looked up to search, but the longer he looked, the paler he became.

“Gone—she’s gone! There was definitely a maid here just now!” His hands shook with agitation.

“Are you sure you weren’t seeing things?” The man in the black jacket, clearly baffled, joined in searching for the vanished figure.

Ma Xu tried to recall: “I was curious, so I took the brush from her hand. I think she blinked at me, and after that, I can’t remember anything until you woke me up.”

The more he spoke, the stranger and more unnerved he seemed.

“It was no illusion. She entranced you,” I said, running my hand along the wall. There was a small groove—clear evidence the brush had hung there for years.

I took the brush from Ma Xu’s hand and compared it—the fit was perfect.

“I think Zhao Zhiqiang can help here,” said the man in the black jacket, realizing the maid was no ordinary presence and instinctively seeking Zhao’s help.

But something felt off to me as well. When Ma Xu called for us, Zhao should have come over too, yet there was no sign of him.

“Zhao Zhiqiang?” the man in the black jacket called into the dim air. Silence.

The mood instantly tensed—Zhao Zhiqiang had vanished.

We immediately fanned out, calling his name, but there was no response.

“Ma Xu, you were the closest to him. Did you see which way he went?” the man in the black jacket asked, steady but with a hint of worry.

Panicked, Ma Xu shook his head. “He was here just as I took the brush. After you started shouting for me, I didn’t see him again.”

His words made everyone anxious.

“Zhao Zhiqiang is in real danger—we need to drop everything and find him,” I urged. Finding Zhao was now the only priority.

At that, the man in the black jacket gave me a grateful look, but I remained composed.

“Now we can split up. You search that way, I’ll go this way. We need to find Zhao Zhiqiang as quickly as possible.”

Seeing me volunteering to go alone, the man in the black jacket made no objection.