The Lost Tomb : Extras & Special Stories

(Extra Story: 2009 Chinese New Year Special) Chapter 6: River Snail

There were many strange things in the world, but this was the first time I had encountered it myself. Several of us stared at the snail and looked at it carefully, unable to speak.

The coffin was completely sealed and no water had spilled during the trip over. The snail must've been inside the coffin, but this coffin had been buried for nearly 100 years. How could the snail still be alive?

"Don't tell me, our Wu's family's ancestral grave is really..." An old man whispered from the side. Biao Gong snorted and brought the snail to one side of the ashtray with his chopsticks. "Don't say anything, let's look at it again," he said.

We continued to look at the coffin, while the basin catching the black water filled up. The black water overflowed and several people were too busy to take care of it, so I had to continue dumping it out.

After less than ten minutes, the whole body was revealed.

We looked down, and with only one glance, everyone fell silent.

I don't know how to describe what I saw—it was a small, wet corpse that hadn't decayed completely, but had kept its approximate shape because of the antiseptic medicine.

But what made our hair stand on end were the countless large and small snails that were attached to the body. They were black and white, and almost completely covered the whole body, making it look like it was full of pustules at first sight.

My father began to retch after he got an eyeful. He stumbled and almost fainted as he rushed out of the ancestral hall and threw up in the courtyard, regardless of etiquette. I was completely terrified and unable to move, feeling the hair all over my body stand up.

The corpse held a strange pose with its claw-like hands. It obviously didn't die peacefully. I saw that its huge mouth was almost full of snails, and felt that my own mouth was uncomfortable for a moment.

Once again, Biao Gong used chopsticks to pick one up and we clearly saw the snail's shell cover slowly closing up. We immediately felt a chill on the backs of our necks: these snails were all alive! How did they survive? Even if they ate the corpse, there wasn't enough oxygen in the coffin. What's more, the turbid water was likely to be highly toxic.

After a long silence, he put the snail back onto the ashtray and said to the man beside him, "Old Si Tou, why don't you call Wu Sanxing and Cao Er Daozi in."

Old Si Tou paused: "Why, A Biao? Those two will rip each other's heads off."

"Let them come in and have a look; otherwise I don't know how to convince them that our old ancestor left us a coffin full of snails. If they want to fight, let each of them get a plate and go back to fry it themselves." He threw the chopsticks into the brazier and knelt down in front of the shrine to offer incense.

****

I don't know much about what happened afterwards because Uncle Three and Cao Er Daozi practically rushed in. The scene was chaotic, and Biao Gong was so angry that he was almost vomiting blood [1]. Uncle Two took everything in and then told me to help my father back first, warning me not to cause any trouble.

When I saw that things were completely out of control, I immediately ran away. As soon as I left, I saw a mess outside the ancestral hall and knew that they had already had a fight.

There was such an uproar about this matter that it wasn't until the morning of the third day that I saw Uncle Three again. He had a head wound that was wrapped in gauze, and he squatted on the threshold to eat breakfast. I grabbed my share and squatted down next to him to ask what had happened afterwards.