The Lost Tomb Vol. 8

Chapter 55: Difficult Decisions

Translator's note: Trigger warning! Maybe I was supposed to do that when they slaughtered that pig in the last volume? Anyways, Poker-face self-harmed (shocker) to save himself. You'll see.

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We carried all the people that were still alive out of the room. After coming out, we saw it was a long corridor with the same structure as the one below, all full of rooms. We were too lazy to see what was going on inside and lined up everyone in the corridor, and then begin our rescue efforts one by one.

The toxicity of this strong alkali fog acted on the human respiratory tract, forming an ulceration which caused breathing difficulties. Perhaps because of our actions, several people who had been moved out were almost put down when the weakest of them died at once.

It was a terrible feeling, as if we had murdered them. After doing everything we could, it was finally Poker-Face's turn.

Judging from the condition in which he was found, it was clear he had wrapped himself tightly with all of his belongings. The tattoo on his body could be seen, indicating that his temperature was quite high now.

Fatty said, "Little Brother, was it possible he adjusted his breathing to the weakest state?"

"Is this the legendary turtle breathing method?" I asked.

"When you say such words, can you stop using the tone of a Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts movie?" Fatty said, "Fucking turtle breath, you still have to breathe. He first made his body very weak and went into a deep coma so as to slow his heartbeat. This in turn slowed his blood circulation. And wrapping yourself tightly with clothes to minimize the contact area between your skin and the air can reduce the degree of poisoning. Of all the people here, only he had the lowest degree of poisoning, which should be the reason."

"How did he weaken himself?" I asked. "By telling himself, 'I'm weak, I'm weak'? Don't you think you'd want to beat yourself for saying that? Can you really make yourself like this?"

"You don't understand." Fatty pointed to Little Brother's hand and turned it over to show me. I saw that Poker-Face had wounds on both wrists. "If you want to be weak, you just need to bleed. Little Brother is certainly more proficient on how to bleed than we are."

The red marks on the ground seemed to contain Little Brother's blood in addition to the other people's excrement.

"What should we do now?" I looked at these people and got a little scared—if the mechanism trips again, we'll probably become like this, "There's only the two of us and there are so many people here, we can't take them out."

Fatty scratched his head and said, "Don't be angry, but I think it's fine to just take Little Brother out. If we continue to stay here, there won't be any chance for anyone and we'll have bad luck."

"Didn't you say just a while ago that you wanted to share your grace?" I asked.

"Saving people is saving people, and when you find that you can't do it, don't force it. I'm a very utilitarian person and with my body, it's impossible to carry another person out. I'm not familiar with them either. They're all better than me in this field so they should be aware of it. You carry Little Brother on your back, and I'll take the lead. It's the truth, so we'll leave as soon as possible."

I thought for a moment, looked at the few unconscious people on the ground, and thought to myself, "If I were lying here, would I want others to have such a conversation when I was in a coma?"

"Then we'll go out and come back? To bring these people and Granny Huo's bodies out?"

"Damn it, what is with your fucking addiction to return here?" Fatty asked. "This place is really fucking weird! I've never been afraid of grave robbing, but this ancient building made me feel uncomfortable when I came in. Mr. Naive, I told you, these people will have died by the time you make it back. You'll have come for nothing, so don't worry about these things at this juncture."

I knew Fatty was lying. His thinking was actually very simple—the first principle was to try his best to save you first, but if it was impossible, he wouldn't fight it, and wouldn't bear any moral constraints. Fatty was a man who lived quite straightforwardly, and most of the time, I really admired his foolish way of living.

We didn't discuss the issue again. I walked back and looked at Granny Huo's body, thinking about how to tell Xiao Hua when I went back.

Of course, Granny Huo had really lived quite well—in her wonderful life, the several men involved were all great heroes that ordinary women couldn't see. It's just that now she was dead. How would Xiao Hua explain when he returns? The Huo family was now in a state of chaos and people needed to be seen, whether alive or dead. Although Granny Huo's body was withered, it was still quite difficult to bring it out.

I may not be able to take all of her out, but which part could I take to prove to others that she was actually dead?

The answer was very obvious but I really couldn't think of how I could cut off her head.

I wondered what expression the Huo family would have if they saw her head like that. This "demanding to see the corpse at death"... if they really saw it, wouldn't they just flip out immediately?

However, the family of grave robbers had a different view of many things compared to ordinary families, and Xiao Hua definitely needed it. Even if it wasn't displayed to all the family members, it should be displayed in front of some of the elders who could make decisions and tell them what had happened.

But no matter how I thought about it, I felt that this behavior was really too much for me to bear. I kowtowed several times in front of her body, then said to her, "Granny, you know what I want to do? You also love Xiao Hua very much. I really have to. If you don't mind, don't move."

After speaking, I looked at the body and found it didn't move so I said, "Thank you, Granny. I'll tell you secretly that you were my grandpa's favorite. If you liked him too, you can tell me in a dream and I'll bury you beside him so my grandmother won't know."

"You're a coward, selling grandmas for survival." Fatty scolded from the side, "Your grandfather may already have three wives and four concubines down there. If you put the old woman down there, it'll be bloody."

"I don't care so much." I said, "How can one not get knifed when he floats in this circle?"

After that, I felt that I was a fucking asshole to the limit. I pulled a knife out, held it against Granny Huo's neck, closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, then turned to Fatty and said, "Fatty, I have a job. You have to help me do it, I'll give you 600,000!"

Fatty was sorting all his things on the other side and then turned to me and asked, "Why are you being so polite? Just say it. Depending on the work, if it's simple, I'll give you a discount."

I said, "Please help me cut off Granny's head."

Fatty looked at me and froze, "You're crazy! Then won't Xiuxiu kill you?"

I told Fatty what I thought. He mulled it over for a moment and said, "I really haven't done this before. Although I'm a tomb robber, I've never desecrated a corpse, let alone one I'm familiar with. I really can't do it."

I sighed and asked Fatty, "What then? Think of something for me."

Fatty thought for a moment and said, "I'll do it for 800,000. 800,000."