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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 14: Grave Matters (2)
During the years of the Cultural Revolution, Huayin County was one of the less affected areas. However, there were still struggles and Red Guards. In the village, there were three young men named Niu San, Dog Sheng, and Zhang Jun. Although these three were lazy and unambitious, acting like small-time delinquents who peeped at a widow bathing in the east of the village and robbed a beggar in the west, they were charming talkers and managed to ingratiate themselves with the leader of the Red Guards from Nandong Village, thus joining the Red Guards.
On Tomb-Sweeping Day, a struggle session was held at Nandong Primary School in the village, and these three were the main instigators targeting a language teacher. The teacher had been reported simply for saying, "The moon is so bright tonight" while using the restroom at night in the production team. The accusation was that Mao Zedong is the sun and the brightest; saying the moon is bright is counter to Chairman Mao!
At that time, the crowd was furious, and these three acted ruthlessly. The language teacher was already old and could not withstand such an onslaught; he collapsed when pulled down from the platform.
In those days, life was cheap as dirt, and these three did not take it to heart. Just then, their stomachs growled with hunger, so they decided to find something to eat. They were already tired of steamed buns and cabbage, so they conspired to go to a grave to find some meat or cake to eat.
Thus, they ran to a nearby grave behind Baiyun Temple, searching as they walked. Soon they spotted a mound with meat and wine in front of it. The three were overjoyed and hurried forward. Suddenly, Niu San noticed a corpse hanging from a branch at the top of the grave, swaying in the wind with its right hand slowly raised, pointing at them. The three were instantly terrified and nearly lost control of their bladders. Niu San, being braver, stood still and locked eyes with the Hanged Ghost. The atmosphere was eerily quiet except for the sound of wind rustling through the trees. Niu San cautiously approached for a closer look and after a moment burst into laughter: it turned out to be a dummy!
As they examined it closely, they saw that this Paper Figurine was made from bright red paper cutouts, intricately designed with an upper body resembling a woman's buttoned jacket and a long skirt adorned with pleated lace at the bottom. It was connected by a strip of white paper that appeared dull in the night. There was also a large character for double happiness. The head was suspended by ink lines from a branch; as leaves fluttered in the wind, it looked like hair dancing in midair—terrifying indeed.
At that time, it was popular to exorcise ghostly spirits; after some discussion among themselves, they felt emboldened enough to tear down the Paper Figurine and set it on fire. After drinking wine and eating meat heartily, they recalled their earlier fright and grew bolder; together they pushed over the gravestone. Under the pale moonlight, they faintly saw three characters inscribed on it: Chen Liuqing.
Suddenly, around the chaotic grave came an infant's wailing sound; white mist began to rise around them. The baby's cries were high-pitched and thin, echoing around them like a soul-calling voice from hell. Niu San shouted: "Oh my god, there really are ghosts!" He took off running, lost in the sticky white mist...
It was unclear how long he ran; eventually exhausted, he leaned against a tree gasping for breath. At that moment, he caught sight of a flickering yellow light ahead and felt relieved—finally found someone!
After walking a few steps, he saw a small thatched hut. Still shaken, he glanced back before darting inside. Upon entering and looking up, he realized this was a paper crafting shop filled with Paper Figurines and Paper Horses; there was also a white Paper Craft Wreath quietly leaning against the wall with three characters written on it: "Beloved My Qing." Directly opposite him was an incense altar with two watermelons placed prominently on it.
Niu San had run here feeling both tired and thirsty but didn’t stop to think about why there would be a paper shop here. He found a paper-cutting knife beside the altar; it gleamed ominously white and was extremely sharp. Holding the knife in his right hand, he knocked on one of the watermelons with his left hand; it produced a deep "thud" sound but wasn’t ripe.
After hesitating for a moment about whether it was ripe or not, he decided to cut it open anyway. Just as he raised his knife to chop downwards, he suddenly heard a series of jingling bell sounds that made his head spin; blood rushed to his head as his vision blurred before collapsing onto the ground. Moments later he gradually regained consciousness; looking around in confusion made him break out in cold sweat: there were no thatched huts or watermelons—he was clearly lying in front of Chen Liuqing's grave! The other two were also sprawled beside him in a daze. At that moment, they heard another ghostly infant's cry nearby; looking up revealed an infant with rotten skin and disgusting bulging eyes—only whites without pupils—opening its mouth wide like three times that of an ordinary person’s while extending half-foot-long nails towards Dog Sheng.
Just as Dog Sheng seemed doomed under this ghostly infant’s attack, another ringing sound echoed again; momentarily distracted by this sound, the ghostly infant paused. Seeing this opportunity, Niu San grabbed a wooden stick and swung it at the ghostly infant. The stick struck its head with a muffled "bang," causing pain to the ghostly infant which glanced towards where the sound came from before jumping back into the white mist without leaving any trace.
From afar emerged a middle-aged man with an ethereal demeanor slowly approaching through the mist—it was Gao Xuanhu passing through from another place. Upon seeing this scene, he hurriedly asked: "Young man! What happened? Did you encounter ghosts?" Niu San recounted his recent experience to Gao Xuanhu who gasped in shock and said: "What you experienced wasn’t just dreaming about eating watermelon; your mind has been controlled by spirits creating an illusion! That watermelon wasn’t ripe yet—if it had been ripe when you struck down with your knife... you would have been doomed! Perhaps that creature hasn’t fully matured yet or still has some kindness left—it hesitated just long enough for you to escape!"
Gao Xuanhu carefully examined all three young men before sighing: "You all have darkened foreheads and weak yang energy; likely due to your past misdeeds—you’ve finally met your retribution today! A person's yang energy and fortune are related to their good or bad actions; doing good brings fortune while doing bad attracts negative energy! This so-called fortune is essentially one's aura—you can think of it as magnetic fields where good deeds are positive energy while bad deeds are negative energy; what you’re experiencing is karmic retribution!"
After saying this he prepared to leave but having gone through such an ordeal made these three feel like startled birds—they didn’t care about any superstitions anymore but knelt down pleading with Gao Xuanhu for help.
Gao Xuanhu carefully observed the faces of the three and said, "You are surrounded by resentment and have signs of dying an unnatural death. To completely resolve this issue, we must know what is in that tomb. Now that it is already bright, we will meet here again tonight at the third watch." He instructed the three to bring some items and then parted ways.
That noon, Niu San was having lunch at home when suddenly a support beam on the roof could not bear the weight and collapsed, dislocating his arm. In the afternoon, Dog Sheng and Zhang Jun were returning home from work when a wooden plank with "Long Live the Cultural Revolution" written on it fell from a tree and hit them, causing both to bleed profusely from their heads.
That night, the three arrived early at the chaotic grave and shared their experiences from the day, looking at each other anxiously as they awaited Gao Xuanhu's arrival.
At exactly ten past midnight, Gao Xuanhu arrived on time. He first inserted a yellow flag in front of the tomb, scattered a handful of copper coins around it in the formation of the Big Dipper, and then drew a sword he carried with him, placing it beside the flag. The sword was mottled and covered with inscriptions. He lit an incense stick and placed it in front of the tombstone. After a while, the yellow flag began to spin, and the flagpole swayed dangerously. The smoke from the incense curled in circles in the air, lingering for a long time. Niu San looked at the surrounding leaves, which were completely still, proving there was no wind; he was so frightened that he wet his pants.
Seeing this, Gao Xuanhu became furious: "You wretched being, I am trying to transform you, yet you remain so stubborn!"
Then he chanted: "Humans have their paths, ghosts have their Ghost Paths; heaven and earth are different, yin and yang are far apart; all things have boundaries; how wonderful to transcend them; today I open the altar to observe even the smallest details; I hold this decree to open the tomb and ascend; Supreme Elder Lord Urgent Order!"
After finishing his chant, he thrust his sword into the tombstone. Strangely enough, although that tombstone was made of granite and extremely hard, it pierced through easily as if it were tofu. As the sword went deeper, the flag stopped spinning immediately. The incense smoke returned to normal, rising straight up.
Gao Xuanhu said: "Hurry up and open the tomb!" The three quickly grabbed shovels and began digging. Before long, they uncovered the top of a coffin. However, it was entangled with black thread and secured at each corner with peach wood stakes that had clearly been driven in during burial. The old Taoist was taken aback; he held his sword tightly and carefully pried open the black thread to remove the stakes. After observing for a moment, he told Niu San: "We can open the coffin now."
Niu San did not dare to approach; together they used a long lever to pry open the coffin. When they looked inside, their faces turned pale as they dropped the lever and sat down on the ground.
Inside that coffin lay a female corpse dressed in bright red paper-cut clothing. The fabric was unknown but appeared vividly bright and dazzling. The female corpse had a beautiful face that looked lifelike as if she had just died recently; however, her abdomen showed clear signs of being cut open as if someone had violently stirred her insides with an iron rod.
Gao Xuanhu took a deep breath and slowly approached the coffin. After looking for a while, he said: "The seven orifices of this corpse are tightly sealed; this was done intentionally."
Dog Sheng curiously asked: "What are the seven orifices?"
Gao Xuanhu replied: "The seven orifices is a term from Maoshan Dao Sect, referring to Yunken Pass, Shangjiao Pass, Zichen Pass, Shangyang Pass, Tianyang Pass, Yusuk Pass, and Taiyou Pass. They correspond to the seven stars of the Big Dipper and represent the flow of vitality in any city or rural area where people gather. For individuals, it refers to seven corresponding acupoints."
"When someone dies, sealing these seven acupoints with willow wood makes their spirit believe they are still alive and unwilling to reincarnate. They repeat their last moments day after day; who can endure such suffering? Over time, something terrible will happen!"
The three hurriedly asked: "What should we do now?"
Just then, the corpse suddenly moved side to side. Everyone was startled, thinking it was a corpse transformation. Suddenly, a monster burst out from within the female corpse's abdomen and lunged towards Niu San. Seeing this, Gao Xuanhu quickly swung his sword to stab it but was still half a beat too late; one of Niu San's ears was torn off.
At that moment, the female corpse also sat up straight with her nails growing long and her eyes wide open with blood-red pupils as she lunged towards the four of them. Gao Xuanhu shouted: "Not good! You all run!" Niu San and others fled in panic.
After finally returning to the village, it wasn't long before Gao Xuanhu also came back, looking utterly disheveled. The group found a place to sit, and Gao Xuanhu said, "It seems unrealistic to get answers from the tomb; we can only start from the source of the corpses. Do you know who is buried there?"
Niu San vaguely recalled that the tombstone had the name Chen Liuqing written on it, but he couldn't remember anyone in the village with that name. The old Taoist reminded them, "Is there anyone whose name is related to 'qing'?" After thinking for a while, they remembered that during the time when the Sent-down Youth were sent to the countryside, there was a female Sent-down Youth named Qingqing. Niu San slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "It must be her! She was pregnant at that time and then died."
Gao Xuanhu asked, "Does she have any living relatives?" Niu San thought for a long time and replied, "There is one person, it's Old Shen from the paper shop under the locust tree at the east end of the village. He used to date Qingqing, and she was pregnant with his child. Later, while watering the fields by a canal, she mysteriously stepped into an abandoned dry well and fell to her death. Many people witnessed this."
At that moment, Niu San suddenly remembered the red Paper Figurine hanging on the tree by the tomb and the red paper clothes worn by the corpse in the grave; everything was related to paper crafting. Now it seemed almost certain that Old Shen was up to no good!
Niu San was furious and shouted, "I'm afraid of dead people, but I'm not afraid of you living ones!" He picked up a brick and rushed towards Old Shen's house. Gao Xuanhu hurriedly stopped him and said, "This matter is not that simple! We should observe him first; that would be better."
The next morning, the three of them went to the forest by the coffin shop. After watching for a while, Gao Xuanhu said, "It must be him! His shop is rectangular with a roof shaped like a coffin lid, and four willow branches are stuck in each corner of the roof. This is a typical design that gathers death energy." Gao Xuanhu took out a small bottle containing cow's tears, applied it to his eyelids, chanted a spell, then slowly opened his eyes to look at the shop. After a moment, he sighed and said, "This person is not simple; I bet he has buried dead bodies in his shop! It's very likely he killed them."
Niu San then remembered that two pregnant women had gone missing in the village before; both disappeared while watering their fields in the evening. It was likely that these two missing pregnant women were buried in Old Shen's shop!
Gao Xuanhu said, "We can't be too direct; we need to find a way to lure him away. As the saying goes, 'If you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you catch its cubs?' We need to go in and investigate!"
In the afternoon, Niu San made up an excuse about having a good jar of wine and dragged Old Shen out for drinks. Old Shen was usually taciturn but had an insatiable thirst for alcohol. Without hesitation, he went off with Sanwa to drink.
The old Taoist saw from afar that Old Shen was thin as a rake with sunken eyes and bony hands like chicken claws but moved at an astonishing speed like a ghost. He quietly told Dog Sheng and Zhang Jun, "This is the beast that harms people!"
The three of them stepped into the paper shop and immediately felt an eerie chill. The atmosphere was cold all over. Inside were various wreaths and paper coffins; in the northwest corner of the shop were numerous baby clothes made of paper craft. (To be continued...)
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