Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 16 Resentment
A friend's personal experience!
My name is Luca, I am 27 years old. My hometown is a small mountain village called Phoenix Village in Hancheng County, Shaanxi Province. After graduating from a university in Xi'an in 2009, I came to a small city on the border of Shanxi to work in mineral exploration.
Having been educated in Marxist materialism since childhood, I never believed in the existence of ghosts. However, several events that occurred this July completely changed my view on souls.
Everything in the world is about reincarnation; for example, spring follows winter and autumn follows summer. Flowers bloom and wither, year after year. Similarly, where there is sunrise, there is sunset; where there is darkness, there is light. In terms of life, since there is a living world, why shouldn't there be a world after death?
In mid-June this year, the exploration team I was part of received a task: we discovered a large deposit of bauxite in a small ravine called Xianren Hollow to the northwest of Lingqiu County in Shanxi. Our superiors ordered us to immediately enter the ravine to further understand the specifics of the mineral deposit.
Once we entered the ravine, my phone lost all signal. Since I didn't often use my phone anyway, I didn't pay much attention to it. Busy with work, before I knew it, it was early July. Outside the mountain, the sun was scorching, but inside it was unusually cool. We were staying in temporary double-decker metal shacks built by the workers from Bridge Unit. The rooms were small and only had basic daily necessities; the lighting wasn't great either, but fortunately, each person could have their own metal shack.
One day, after finishing a heavy day of physical labor and returning to my little black room, I quickly washed up and smoked a cigarette before lying down and falling asleep. In the middle of the night, I suddenly felt an intense pain in my chest for no apparent reason; my face turned pale and I broke out in cold sweat, feeling as if my heart was about to burst out of my chest. At that moment, my mind was very clear; I struggled to wake up, but my body seemed beyond my control. The immense pressure and suffocation made it hard for me to breathe. I'm sure many people have experienced something similar, but this time I swore it wasn't just my imagination.
At that moment, I heard a creaking sound as the single iron door of my little black room slowly opened inward. I distinctly remembered locking that door before going to sleep! I could feel that there was no wind outside, yet an eerie chill suddenly filled the room.
I strained to turn my eyes toward the door and saw moonlight shining on the cold iron door; there was no one at the entrance. However, through the crack of the door came a shadow! Terrified, I trembled all over and caught a glimpse of that shadow floating step by step toward my bed like a ghost from a movie. I wanted to scream but couldn't make a sound. The shadow floated to the front of my bed, yet I still couldn't see any solid figure. In despair, I closed my eyes tightly and awaited the unknown terror.
I felt as if there were eyes in the darkness silently watching me, but I couldn't tell who owned those eyes or which corner of the room they were in. Those eyes seemed to scan me from head to toe and then back again before finally resting on my face. I could even feel its breath. Just like that, perhaps after a minute or maybe an hour, it finally shifted its gaze away from me and slowly floated back. In my heart, I prayed: please leave! I'm neither rich nor attractive; I'm not worth your "attention."
To my surprise, the shadow floated over to a rocking chair in the northwest corner of the room and slowly sat down deeply into it. Then came the sound of matches striking in the dark; suddenly a flicker of flame appeared above the chair—a dim red dot flickering erratically. Before long, a whiff of smoke wafted over to my bedside.
What astonished me was that I found this smell strangely familiar and comforting. It was the scent of cigarettes—specifically our local cheap blue box cigarettes called Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey; commonly known as "narrow board." My father loved smoking these.
Before long, I heard the sound of an erhu playing nearby; it seemed to be playing a tune from home—specifically from Qin Qiang with melodies originating from Hancheng County in Shaanxi Province. A deep and rich Qin Qiang echoed through my little black room. At that moment, instead of feeling scared, I felt an inexplicable sense of anticipation about who this ghost might be visiting my room.
Just then, a crowing rooster echoed from within the mountain as dawn began to break faintly outside. The shadow seemed to sigh and turned around before vanishing into darkness; with another creak, the iron door slowly closed again.
For some reason, feeling relaxed now made me drowsy again; before I knew it, I fell asleep once more. This time I slept incredibly soundly until after nine o'clock when I was startled awake by loud knocking on the door.
I hurriedly got up to open the door. It was our exploration team's leader, Brother Li. As soon as Brother Li saw me, he shouted, "Why haven't you opened the door after calling for so long? Are you sleeping that deeply? Hurry up and get ready; there's an urgent matter."
After I finished getting ready, Brother Li told me, "Xiao Lu, you need to brace yourself. I have some bad news to share with you."
At that moment, my left eye started twitching, but I still held onto a glimmer of hope and asked, "What happened?"
Brother Li said, "Yesterday your mother tried to call you but couldn't get through. This morning, the call reached the headquarters, and they contacted me. They asked me to inform you that there is an urgent matter at home and that you need to return as soon as possible."
Combining this with the strange experience from last night, my face turned pale, and beads of sweat appeared on my forehead.
In my family of four children, I am the youngest. Since childhood, my father has spoiled me greatly. I still remember that every evening when he returned from the fields, his first words upon entering the door were always, "Where's my little dog? Dad is back!" Then he would hug me and scratch my little face with his coarse beard. Every time he returned from a banquet at someone else's house, he would secretly give me some candies. When I was in school, my father would rather smoke a pack of cheap cigarettes than let me go without eggs every day. They say a father's love is like a mountain; perhaps it is accumulated through these little moments.
After quickly packing my things, I rushed back to my hometown in Han City as fast as I could. A mile away from home, I heard the mournful tunes of funeral music and the sounds of people crying. I hurried towards home and saw white couplets pasted on the front door. There were many tables set up for a banquet outside, and a small stage with speakers playing funeral music.
Everyone at the banquet turned to look at me, their eyes filled with pity. At that moment, I realized something had happened at home. My mind went blank, and I collapsed to the ground.
I can't remember who helped me into the house; when I came to, I found myself lying on my father's coffin.
The morning after my father's burial, my eldest sister and Three Aunts suddenly came to our house, kneeling before my father's spirit and crying uncontrollably while trembling. They cried out in repentance: "Brother! (Dad!) I'm sorry! Please forgive me!"
Three Aunts vomited while crying; what came out was nothing but bits of coal ash and wild vegetable scraps. Her stomach was swollen but showed no signs of shrinking despite her vomiting a large amount. My eldest sister had a dazed expression; her pupils were dilating and constricting erratically. Small leaves from wild vegetables were faintly visible under her skin—visible yet untouchable.
Everyone was startled and quickly asked what was going on.
After finally stopping her vomiting, Three Aunts recounted what had happened last night. It turned out that after my father's burial, Three Aunts and my eldest sister walked home together as it was getting dark. Passing through a persimmon orchard where no one was around made them feel scared. They noticed a figure walking ahead who appeared to be a man from behind. They decided to catch up with him; Three Aunts called out, "Hey! The person ahead! Wait for us!"
The man paused upon hearing them and let out a chilling laugh without moving from his spot. When they reached him from behind, he suddenly turned his neck 180 degrees and smiled at them. His face was surrounded by dark mist, obscuring his features; his large yellow teeth emitted a ghastly white light that looked extremely sharp. He was dressed in a white shroud. At that moment, both my eldest sister and Three Aunts were terrified and ran towards home as fast as they could while the man followed closely behind them.
As they ran, he kept asking them if they wanted coal ash or potatoes or if they needed two supports—he had two supports for ten thousand each that he would give them for free.
My eldest sister and Three Aunts ran quickly; he matched their pace perfectly—if they slowed down, he slowed down too—always maintaining a distance of just two or three steps behind them. His breath felt icy against their necks. Eventually, they could no longer run and collapsed on the ground; he sat down just a few steps away from them and stared at them blankly before asking: "Are you sick? Do you want coal ash?"
They didn't know where their strength came from but managed to roll and crawl back to Three Aunts' house. The man followed them to the doorstep but did not enter; he simply said: "I'll come see you tonight."
That night, Three Aunts and my eldest sister slept together with wooden sticks propping against both the front door and bedroom door. In the dead of night, they suddenly heard knocking at the front door; terrified, they called out: "Who is it?"
An elderly voice came from the doorway: "I've brought back some coal cinders, open the door, I'm here to cook!" I guess you must be hungry too, right?
Three Aunts and the eldest sister were so frightened by this that they trembled in bed: "Who comes to someone else's house to cook in the middle of the night?" Three Aunts mustered her courage and shouted, "We've already eaten, you should leave quickly!" The person stopped speaking upon hearing this. The surroundings fell silent; even the farm animals did not make a sound. The moonlight was bright outside but did not illuminate even a bit inside the house.
After a while, there was a sudden "knock knock" sound at the bedroom door. The eldest sister and Three Aunts screamed in fright. The person impatiently pushed against the bedroom door, but the wooden stick blocking it did not budge. Then there was no further movement from that person. After waiting for a while without any sign of activity, the eldest sister and Three Aunts finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At that moment, they began to smell a delicious aroma of food, reminiscent of wild vegetables stewed with potatoes that they had eaten in their childhood. Sounds of pots and pans came from the kitchen.
Suddenly, the family photo hanging on the wall of the bedroom—featuring their father, three aunts, and the eldest sister—fell to the ground, shattering the glass frame with a loud crash.
The photo happened to be blown to the front of the bed. From the perspective of the eldest sister and Three Aunts, they could see their father's face in the photo suddenly smiling at them. His mouth moved as if asking them: "Are you full? You need to be full to have strength to harm others!"
At that moment, the person they had encountered earlier suddenly stood up from the shadow beside the bed, holding a steaming pot of potato stew with wild vegetables, which seemed to contain some crushed coal cinders as well. While stirring with an old wooden spoon from decades ago, he asked them: "Do you want some? Do you want some? I've worked day after day for years just to get this food; have a little!"
Three Aunts and the eldest sister hurriedly shook their heads in panic, saying: "I don't want it, I don't want it! You should leave quickly!" The person quietly stared at them and said: "Just have a little. You've been eating for over ten years; what's one more bowl?" After saying this, he picked up a spoon and started feeding them. They wanted to resist but found themselves unable to move at all. He fed them several large bowls before finally satisfiedly saying: "Seeing you eat so well makes me feel at ease." After saying this, he disappeared.
Once he left, they were finally able to move again. They didn't know whether what had happened was a dream or reality. But the fact remained that there was shattered glass all over the ground and their stomachs felt full.
They turned on the lights and woke up everyone in the family but dared not go into the bedroom. Once they regained their senses, they recalled every action and tone of voice of that person who had fed them potatoes and wild vegetables. They exchanged glances filled with deep fear.
Early in the morning, they ran to my father's mourning hall and knelt down crying. (To be continued!)
Comment 0 Comment Count