The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 134: The Person Reluctant to Show Their Face
But if it were the previous team’s members, why wouldn’t they show themselves when they saw someone coming, instead choosing to hide?
However, no one seemed to believe Lan Jiao except for me and Professor Liu.
Everyone thought he was mistaken, so the team continued to move forward.
As if to prove he wasn’t wrong, Lan Jiao stretched his neck, searching in the dense forest on both sides. About ten minutes later, he shouted again.
The person carrying him was the first to look in the direction he pointed, the others lagged a bit, but both of them saw a ’person,’ though we still did not.
Lan Jiao just said that person had their back to us, so he didn’t see the person’s appearance. This time, the one carrying him also said the person was backing us, hence couldn’t see the face.
Who would have their back toward us and follow the team?
The team leader realized the oddity of the situation, and the team stopped again to wait in place.
Professor Liu asked them what the person was wearing.
The two were baffled and said the person wasn’t wearing clothes, and amid the dense foliage, they only saw a back.
In Old Shi’s team, besides him, no one else spoke Mandarin. Luckily, Professor Liu, Meng Qingyu, and the team leader, even Guan Hai and Cong Zhibo, were fluent in foreign languages.
Thus communication between the two teams was mostly unhindered, the problem being that foreign languages can sometimes describe things differently than in Mandarin, so Professor Liu asked very thoroughly.
Lan Jiao and his companion both said they were sure it was a woman’s back, her skin smooth and fair, conspicuous against the green leaves.
Additionally, the woman had long hair cascading down to her waist.
Coincidentally, there was a woman in Professor Liu’s friend’s team, mentioned in the diary by the codename "Beauty Snake."
Hearing this codename, it’s easy to imagine she ought to be very beautiful and not too old. If she were elderly, that codename would be embarrassing.
Since both saw someone, it greatly increased the credibility of the situation.
Meng Qingyu and Old Shi arranged for a few people to watch in four directions while the team gathered into a circle.
Everybody else seemed indifferent, but Meng Qingyu and Professor Liu were eager to find this woman. If there truly were survivors from the previous team, she could be questioned.
And surely Professor Liu hoped the other party could inform him of his friend’s whereabouts.
I nudged Chen Qinghan’s arm, communicating with my eyes. I didn’t trust this suddenly appearing ’person’; no one would just follow someone backwards in the jungle.
Moreover, without clothes, with so many bugs in the forest crawling, running around without clothes would cause a rash.
Let alone the living, these bugs wouldn’t spare even the dead. So showing your back in the jungle wasn’t reliable.
Of course, Chen Qinghan understood what I meant. He might not be an expert on jungle survival, but he’s well-versed in strange occurrences. A mysterious woman appearing in an isolated jungle—is she a stranded beauty? No, that’s a scene straight out of a fantasy novel. According to my and Chen Qinghan’s experience, that most likely isn’t human.
But directly telling the team leader that I suspect this is a human-like monster, I knew they wouldn’t believe it.
"There—" Zhou, having cleared his mind, pointed towards a spot in the jungle, then blinked hard after shouting.
But when we looked over, there was nothing to be seen.
"Did you also see someone?" the team leader asked.
Zhou hesitated, not immediately answering the team leader, prompting him to ask again about what he’d seen. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
Zhou thought for a moment before saying, "I saw a child."
The previous team might have brought a woman, but it’s unlikely they brought a child, so Professor Liu asked, "Are you sure?"
Zhou’s tone was uncertain: "It seemed like a naked baby."
Unless Beauty Snake got pregnant after landing, there shouldn’t be any children on this island.
According to Professor Liu, his friend’s team came to the island two years ago, and Zhou said the naked baby looked no more than a year old.
Old Shi thought this was peculiar; he didn’t believe there could be children on the island, at least not living ones.
In Meng Qingyu’s team, there was a middle-aged man slightly older, with graying hair, who spoke even less than Lu Xiaodao. I hadn’t heard him speak before.
At this point, he suddenly said, "I heard from the elders that in remote forests, there are things that will..."
"Shut up! Have you forgotten how you got in here? Stop pretending to be mystical, disturbing the military’s mind," Meng Qingyu suddenly interrupted him.
Even though he didn’t finish his words, besides Old Shi’s team, the others knew what he was getting at.
Some folklore is still known, like the story of the ginseng doll, which is widely circulated in the Northeast.
Old Shi’s team was baffled, not understanding what was so horrific about what he said that Meng Qingyu was so wary.
Crew-cut head approached me, whispering a question. I explained that feudal superstition is unacceptable, that we’re steadfast materialists.
Just the latter half, I swallowed without saying, things like demons or fox spirits may not exist, but creatures like monsters, sea slugs, and sea spiders certainly do.
The creatures of the natural world are inherently disguised, like insects resembling bark, or fish resembling stones...
It’s uncertain whether there are human-like but non-human creatures in the world.
After Zhou saw the child, no one else in the team saw them again.
We couldn’t wait indefinitely, sending people to investigate revealed nothing, so the team had to continue moving.
Old Shi believed it might be the island’s indigenous people, he thought they were familiar with the jungle and lived like primitive people.
Thus he shouted in all directions, saying silly things like, "We are very friendly" and "We have no intention of harming you."
Not to mention whether the languages communicate, Old Shi’s team came for the treasure, if they really are the island’s inhabitants, they are essentially here to rob them, "friendly" deceit!
As expected, no one responded. But just as the team continued to advance, every few minutes, someone would see shadows.
The team leader and Meng Qingyu discussed, suggesting perhaps hallucinogenic plants in the jungle caused everyone to hallucinate, and they should retreat rather than continue forward.
Meng Qingyu naturally didn’t agree, asking the leader, would retreating make the hallucinations disappear? Medication effects have time limits; we should hasten our pace to reach the destination swiftly.
This led to a division in the team; some believed it was a hallucination, others trusted their eyes.
Old Shi agreed to move quickly forward; he said those people hadn’t harmed us, perhaps posed no threat, only curious about us, similar to how indigenous people on some small islands react to tourists.
Old Shi’s naivety amazed me; with a leader like him, his team members might face extinction.
The team leader could only offer opinions; the final decision was still up to Meng Qingyu. She insisted on moving forward, and even the leader couldn’t stop her.
