Flowing...

Yes, the yellow sand is flowing!

I finally understand the meaning of "The Yellow River's water comes from the sky, rushing to the sea and never returning."

The Yellow River doesn't refer to the traditional Yellow River, but the accumulated yellow sand in the desert.

The rolling yellow sand comes from the boundless nothingness, flowing and surging into the sand sea.

The first line of the poem actually describes the desert.

Just as I was lost in thought, Fatty called out my name, "Young Master! Young Master!"

I came back to my senses and quickly asked, "What's wrong?"

Fatty thrust his engineer shovel into the sand at his feet a couple of times. The shovel head made a "clanging" sound. "I've dug up that stone coffin."

Fatty, Dodge, and I wiped away the thin layer of floating sand on the stone coffin. A black stone coffin, about two meters long and one meter wide, appeared before our eyes.

"How did the coffin lid get closed again?"

Fatty suddenly said this.

However, no one present could answer Fatty's question.

Seeing that no one paid attention to him, Fatty started talking to himself, "Hey, do you think the corpse inside closed the coffin lid itself?"

Fatty's words didn't scare me, but they startled Zoe. Zoe retreated several steps, ending up more than five meters away from the coffin lid. She said, "Fatty, damn you, don't scare me."

Seeing that Zoe had taken it seriously, Fatty hurried to Zoe to apologize, "Oh, foreign miss, I was just kidding. If the person in the coffin could move, wouldn't it be better for him to get out of the coffin? Why seal himself in? Does he think it's too windy in the desert?"

Fatty's witty remark made everyone laugh.

Zoe was no longer so afraid of the stone coffin.

"Alright, let's open the coffin. We won't know what's inside until we open it."

I stuck the engineer shovel into the ground, rolled up my sleeves, and signaled Fatty and the others to lend a hand.

The five of us gathered around one side of the stone coffin, rubbed our hands, found a gap, inserted several engineer shovels into the gap, found a fulcrum, adjusted the lever arm, and used the lever principle to open the stone coffin.

"Okay, listen to my command, lift..."

At my command, everyone pushed down together, and the coffin lid moved slightly.

"Keep pushing!" I shouted hoarsely.

So, we continued to exert force, and the coffin lid was lifted a few more centimeters.

With quick eyes and hands, when the coffin lid was lifted enough to insert an engineer shovel, I inserted the engineer shovel vertically into the gap between the coffin lid and the stone coffin.

The others followed my method and also placed the engineer shovels between the coffin lid and the stone coffin.

As a result, the stone coffin was successfully opened with a gap of more than ten centimeters.

I took a flashlight and shone it into the stone coffin.

The flashlight light was very strong, and it illuminated the inside of the stone coffin very brightly.

There seemed to be a human-shaped object in the entire stone coffin. This object should be the corpse of the "Iron Mask" in Fatty and Zoe's words.

Because the angle at which the coffin lid was opened was not large enough, it was not very clear, but I was sure that there was nothing else in the coffin lid besides this human-shaped object.

Curious, Fatty also found a flashlight and shone it into the coffin, peering in to observe.

Just as I was about to say that there was nothing to be found, Fatty suddenly blurted out, "Why isn't this corpse wearing any clothes?"

I asked in confusion, "What's wrong, Fatty? Is there something wrong?"

Fatty shook his head. He asked Zoe, who was beside him, "Foreign miss, do you remember that the mummy we saw at that time was wearing clothes, right?"

Zoe thought for a moment, then nodded slightly and replied, "I remember that it was wearing clothes, but the clothes looked a bit strange. I can't remember the specifics."

Fatty handed the flashlight to Zoe, asking her to take a look at the situation in the coffin. Zoe was a little scared, but she mustered up her courage and came to the coffin. With the help of the flashlight, she tremblingly looked into the coffin.

"Huh, this mummy really doesn't seem to be wearing anything. Could it be that An Wenshan came back here later and took off his clothes?" Zoe looked back at Fatty, as if waiting for Fatty's conclusion.

"Hard to say." Fatty smacked his lips. "It's also possible that the weather in the desert is bad, and the clothes have rotted into powder. After all, no one knows how many years this coffin and corpse have existed."

I took a sip of water, listening to Fatty and Zoe's discussion.

Dodge and Jennifer saw the stone coffin for the first time, and didn't have any other discoveries. They just watched quietly from the side without saying a word.

I walked around the stone coffin, observed the opening and closing degree and angle of the stone coffin and coffin lid, and said to Fatty and Zoe, "How about this, since you two can't see clearly now, let's just open the coffin lid completely."

Fatty looked at me incredulously and asked in disbelief, "No way, Young Master, we spent so much effort just to open such a small gap. Are you sure we can open this coffin lid with just a few of us?"

I shook my finger, then pointed to the camels on the side, and said to Fatty, "Of course not. Look, we have camels. Let the camels help us open the coffin."

Fatty scratched his head, his face full of "I don't believe it."

"Just watch."

After I dropped these words, I went straight to the camel and took out the nylon rope that I had purchased in advance for the expedition.