The Autobiography of a Tomb Raider

This was my first time doing this kind of work, and I had little experience. I thought the bones I found were the remains of the tomb’s owner.
Given the scale of the tomb, if there were remains of the tomb owner, there should have been burial goods nearby. That’s what I thought.
Maybe there would be small, exquisite ancient jade artifacts, gold items, or even a personal seal.

Greed overcame fear, and I kept reassuring myself: "It’s nothing, it’s nothing. There might even be a prince’s private seal in that black hole. If I’m lucky enough to fish it out, I’ll strike it rich!"
Summoning my courage, I reached into the bottom of the jar again.
Just as I was leaning sideways, feeling around, something bit my index finger! It hurt badly.

I quickly pulled my hand out and saw that the tip of my finger was bleeding, with two small puncture wounds.
My first thought was that I had been bitten by a snake.
I didn’t know if it was venomous, but I was terrified. I immediately pinched my finger and ran toward the east chamber, screaming for help.

"Second Brother! Third Brother! Help!"
The east chamber had a few scattered burial items, far fewer than the west chamber. The Sun brothers were squatting on the ground, sorting through the items to determine which were valuable.
"Yunfeng, what are you yelling about? Did you see a ghost or something? Who’s trying to kill you?"

I showed him my finger, which had stopped bleeding, and said urgently, "Second Brother! I was bitten by a venomous snake! I’m going to die from the poison!"
"What? A venomous snake?" Sun Laosan panicked.
After examining my finger for a while, Sun Laosan asked doubtfully, "Third Brother, do these two small holes on Yunfeng’s finger look like a snake bite?"

Sun Laosan thought for a moment and shook his head. "It’s a bit similar, but I don’t think it’s a snake. Look at the distance between the wounds. No snake’s head is that small."
Sun Laosan squeezed the wound, and bright red blood immediately flowed out.
"Don’t worry, Yunfeng. Look at the color of the blood. It’s not a snake bite, and definitely not a venomous one. I think it might have been a mouse, a small one."

"A mouse? Do mice bite people, Third Brother?"
"Of course they do, Yunfeng. You just haven’t seen it before. In ancient times, during rat plagues, rats could even eat people!"
"Yunfeng, you’re not feeling dizzy, nauseous, or anything like that, are you?"
I shook my head. "No, Third Brother, I don’t feel any of that."

"Then stop overthinking it. You’re fine. Come help us with the work. If you’re still worried, go get a rabies vaccine at the hospital tomorrow."
"Okay," I nodded, feeling much more at ease knowing it wasn’t a venomous snake.
Strangely enough, the number of burial items in the east chamber was far fewer than in the west chamber. Logically, the two chambers should have had a similar number of items, but after searching for a long time, we only found six or seven bronze artifacts of some value. The rest were severely damaged, scattered in pieces, making it impossible to tell what they originally were.

"Ugh, we brought so many bags, thinking we’d hit the jackpot, but all we got was junk!" Sun Laosan complained bitterly.
He pressed the walkie-talkie and reported to the boss above: "Boss, it’s a real letdown. The east chamber has barely anything valuable. Just a few small trinkets."
The walkie-talkie was silent for two minutes before Boss Wang’s voice came through: "Take what you can. The next step is to find the main burial chamber. The real treasures are in the coffin."

"Boss, we’ve already searched the entire lower level and found no trace of the main burial chamber. What’s going on? You’ve seen a lot, Boss. Can you analyze this for us?"
A voice mixed with static came through the radio: "That’s impossible. Wealthy and powerful people in ancient times wouldn’t have neglected to build a main burial chamber. You still have some time. Keep looking."
Following the instructions, we began searching for the main burial chamber again.

A main burial chamber should have a coffin, an outer coffin, a body, and burial goods.
But unfortunately, after searching for a long time, we still couldn’t find it.
We packed up the few Western Zhou artifacts we had found, and that was it for the day.

On the way back, Boss Wang kept shaking his head. "It’s impossible. It doesn’t make sense."
I was exhausted and fell asleep almost as soon as I hit the bed. I slept until noon, planning to visit a small clinic later to get a rabies vaccine.
I felt some discomfort in my right hand and took a look.

My right index finger was swollen to twice its normal size! Pus was oozing from the two small puncture wounds.
It was so swollen, and it didn’t hurt or itch. I touched it nervously and realized I couldn’t feel anything.
I was terrified. When Sun Laosan saw it, he was also shocked. He asked what I had been doing in the morning, joking that I had somehow developed a "one-finger technique"!

Sun Laosan said there was no time to waste and urged me to see a doctor immediately.
They called Sun Laoda, who was more familiar with the area, and he took me to a small clinic not far from the inn.
The clinic doctor was stunned. He said he had never seen a finger swell up like that in his twenty years of practice. He didn’t dare treat me.

Not knowing what had bitten me, he didn’t want to risk using anti-inflammatory drugs. He advised us to go to a larger hospital as soon as possible, warning that if the swelling didn’t go down, I might need an amputation.
The thought of amputation scared me to death.
Sun Laosan had said it was a mouse bite. How could a mouse bite lead to amputation? Was it a venomous mouse?

With no other choice, I went to Shunde First People’s Hospital.
The emergency room doctor frowned as he examined my swollen finger. "Your temperature is normal, and there’s no infection. Let’s get an X-ray to see if it’s fluid buildup or something else. How did it get so swollen?"
After the X-ray, the doctor said, "It’s fluid buildup, and the wound is a bit inflamed." He asked if I felt any discomfort, and I shook my head.

Then, using a large needle from an acupuncture kit, he poked two small holes in my finger. I didn’t feel any pain.
He squeezed slightly, and a lot of yellowish-white fluid came out.
After draining the fluid, my finger immediately shrank back to normal size. The doctor prescribed amoxicillin and told me to take two pills, avoiding spicy food.

Thanking the doctor, we returned to the inn.
"Is your hand okay now, Yunfeng?" Boss Wang asked.
I looked at my now-deflated finger and sighed in relief. "It should be fine, Boss. It doesn’t hurt or itch anymore."

Boss Wang nodded, then turned to Sun Laosan.
"Laosan, I’ve been thinking about it all morning and even called a few other bosses in the industry. We all agree that the main burial chamber might have collapsed due to water damage, or it could be buried somewhere else."
"Yunfeng, go rest for now. Laosan, come with me. We need to discuss this."

Back in my room, I took the anti-inflammatory pills and lay down on the bed. Feeling exhausted, I quickly fell asleep.
I had a nightmare. I dreamed of that lonely, large water jar.
A rotting hand slowly reached out from the hole and grabbed my wrist!

"Ah!"
I woke up from the nightmare, drenched in sweat.
I felt something strange on my hand and looked down.

At that moment, my finger...
was swollen with fluid again.
And it looked even worse than before.

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