The Lost Tomb Vol. 1

Chapter 52: Continue to Solve the Mystery

He got up, walked to the stone door leading to the corridor, touched the door frame, and said, "This is indeed a mechanism, and one that's so simple it can only deceive children. That's why your Uncle Three didn't think of it twenty years ago and only figured it out now."

Fatty looked at him and realized that he already knew what was going on. "Little Brother," he said, "if you know what this thing is, just say it quickly. There's no need to keep us in suspense. I'm fucking dying of curiosity!"

"I'll give you an example," Poker-Face said. "You'll understand as soon as you hear it. Say there's a two-story building with a room on each floor. When you leave the room on the second floor and walk out into the corridor, I'll build another floor under the first floor. So when you come back to the room, the second floor has now become the third floor and the first floor has become the second floor."

This was actually a bad example so Fatty had a confused expression on his face as he listened. Then, he held up two fingers and started trying to figure it out, "One-two, two-one, one-two-one...Shit! What one, two, three? The more you talk, the more confused I get!"

I immediately understood that the elevator Uncle Three had mentioned was referring to this. It seemed that when he solved the riddle, the first thing that came to mind was this word. I sighed, feeling a little shocked in my heart. Although it was unexpected, I couldn't deny that it made sense. Besides, such a simple design could only be regarded as a trick to deceive children.

I noticed that Fatty still didn't really understand it so I explained it to him again. When he finally understood it, he suddenly lost interest and said, "I see, it's so fucking simple. I thought there was a bigger mystery here but that's all it was."

I was ashamed of myself. I had studied architecture back in school and this mechanism definitely fell within the scope of it but I hadn't noticed it at all. I should probably review when I had the time. It seemed that everything here had to be looked at with a simple mindset instead of using complicated reasoning.

Poker-Face's expression still looked tense. Once he was done carefully checking the door frame, he went over to look at the pool of water in the middle of the room. Based on his behavior, it seemed like there was something he couldn't quite figure out. "What's the matter?" I asked him. "Is there a problem?"

He nodded, "There's a big contradiction between your uncle's story and what we've experienced. Have you noticed?"

I looked at him doubtfully. In fact, I also thought that there were some inconsistencies in my uncle's story but I couldn't figure out what they were. "Your Uncle Three was lying in this room and didn't go out into the corridor at all," Poker-Face explained. "No matter how the rooms rose and fell, he should have still been in the same room, so how could the interior have changed?"

I thought about it and suddenly realized that he was right. "Besides," he added, "the ear chambers in ancient tombs have always been symmetrical. It's impossible for there to only be one room. Logically speaking, there should be another room opposite us."

We walked out into the corridor and swept our flashlights around the area but there was only a white jade wall across the way, with no sign of a door. Poker-Face put his ear to the wall, pressed his two long fingers firmly against the brick seams, and felt along them bit by bit. After doing this for more than ten minutes, he came back over to us and shook his head. It looked like the brick wall was real.

Fatty, who had been waiting impatiently, suddenly yawned and said, "Don't worry about the ear chamber. The main thing is that we haven't found the fucking exit. Even if we know what happened, we'll still die."

What Fatty said made a lot of sense. I sighed, wondering how Uncle Three was able to escape a second time. What method did he use? He didn't have diving equipment when he came out the second time so did he swim out of the ancient tomb while holding his breath?