The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 169: Skeleton

It was very difficult to judge this matter. Although I was in an old profession, and it wasn't in line with the atmosphere to mention some relatively high-tech things at this time, we had to admit that some basic technologies were perfect and common now, especially DNA technology. But DNA extraction of old bones was still a problem worldwide, especially when it came to bones that had been dead for so long.

But judging from the maturity of the bone and its characteristics, some creepy conclusions could be drawn: this skeleton belonged to a female corpse who was about seventeen years old, which was similar to how old the lecturer's sister would be at this time. The cause of his sister's death back then was a car accident, and they found bone scars completely consistent with a car accident on the skeleton of this seventeen-year-old girl's corpse. Some of the wounds had even actually healed.

The officials wouldn't admit it, but the lecturer was convinced that, for some unknown reason, his sister's bones had continued to grow thirteen years after her death.

After hearing this, I was somewhat surprised. There was no doubt that this was a very strange thing, but my classmate was a very serious person. He claimed to have seen the whole process with his own eyes, and it definitely couldn't be fake.

If there really weren't any flaws in this matter, then it would definitely be an extremely interesting and special event. But for me, the information provided meant that these arguments could be refuted.

First of all, the simplest and crudest theory was that his sister didn't die at that time. Instead, she had lived elsewhere until she was seventeen years old, and then she died and was buried in the coffin.

Although the rotting coffin and numerous strange clues proved that my theory was inadequate, I still believed it was a reasonable explanation. If I were given time to read all the details, I could even make this conclusion more reasonable.

In addition, there were many other explanations. For a person with my experience, I wouldn't be so quick to believe this level of trickery.

But I still went to Yinchuan with my classmate, partly because he was seldom so enthusiastic about my affairs, and partly because I really wanted to go there with him for a break. According to what he said, the place where he had stayed was so beautiful, it would make your hair stand on end.

Out of courtesy to my classmate, I met the lecturer once I got there. He told us the specific details of what had happened at that time.

There were three things that my classmate had left out when he gave me his account. The first was that the coffin was sealed with rusty nails. The lecturer thought such a thing would be difficult to forge, because if it was a recently interred coffin, then his sister's body wouldn't have decayed so fast, and the coffin would have been wetter. The condition of this coffin, however, was exactly like those you'd find in an ancient tomb. Even if a coffin was put in two or three years earlier, it still wouldn't be possible. It took more than ten years for this kind of condition to occur.

Second, when his sister died, her death was very clear cut. It wasn't only he and his mother who could prove it. The police, hospital records, and all the evidence could as well. In fact, the village and surrounding county were very simple, and didn't have the soil for such a big plot.

Third, his sister's necklace and bracelets were on the bones. They were badly rotted and had been stuck to the body. An adult couldn't wear the jewelry of a four-year-old girl. At that time, his sister wore seven bracelets and anklets, which were difficult to distinguish if he hadn't picked them out himself. He personally put them on his sister at that time, so he knew the order. When he looked at them carefully, there was no mistake at all.

Of course, theoretically speaking, what I said could have still happened. It would just require an extremely meticulous schemer with a lot of power to copy those things from behind the scenes. But I couldn't think of any benefit worth doing such a thing.

I still wasn't interested in this matter at this point, but I gradually found that something was wrong in our subsequent chat, so I began to take it seriously.

I found that the lecturer's behavior was somewhat strange.

I used to seldom think about problems in this way, always focusing on the surface of the problem, or the problem that had been designed by others. Not long ago, however, I began to change the way I looked at problems.

This lecturer's behavior was almost fanatical when it came to this matter. If ordinary people encountered this kind of behavior— even people like me who were full of curiosity— they would definitely struggle with the "why" and try to find any questionable points. Or anything that could explain it.

Ordinary people would like an explanation for why something like this was possible, but the lecturer didn't show any doubts as to the why. He kept affirming that he thought the bones were his sister.

It was impossible for him not to doubt. There had to be a reason why he didn't seem doubtful, didn't ask us questions, and didn't reflexively mention the concept of "why is this so" in the discussion.

The only explanation was that he thought we couldn't solve the problem. But my classmate had obviously praised me when he first mentioned me, so he came to introduce me to the lecturer and let me solve the problem. Based on the lecturer's expression, he seemed to believe my classmate's account, or at least acknowledged my authority.

Why did it make me feel odd?

There was only one possibility. Well, if I put myself in his shoes, there was only one reason why I would behave this way.

I don't want to talk to you, don't want to ask how you plan to solve the problem, or even think that you can solve it, because I don't intend to— or can't— tell you all the information.

Therefore, I can only politely talk to you about the basic things, because talking to you about solving the problem is a waste of time. You don't know the whole situation.

There was something he wasn't telling us.

At the same time, I also felt that he was too sure of the idea that the bones belonged to his sister. I could see that he was impatient with our doubts.

With such a strange problem at hand, it was absolutely impossible under the circumstances to rely on only a few factors to be so certain. And the fact that he believed it to be true made it obvious he had full-proof evidence in his hand to back up his reasoning. But he also couldn't say it.

With his self-remorse and gloomy expression reflected in all of his behaviors, I felt that my theory was probably right, and he might know something.

I wasn't an idiot, however, so I didn't ask. I had long since stopped doing useless things. After talking with him, I was allowed to see his sister's bones.

I had seen many bones, and wasn't as sensitive to this sort of thing as others were. The lecturer had determined that there was some kind of conclusive evidence that this was his sister, which must have come from this skeleton. If he could find it, I believed I could find it myself.