Forbidden Land – CH 096

Zhang Chao and Chen Rong exchanged a glance and nodded to each other. They recalled Qizhen Lake on campus. Last year, the water was extremely foul-smelling. Many students had complained to the principal’s mailbox, supposedly because dirty water from small restaurants outside was being discharged directly into the lake. Many fish and shrimp had died and floated to the surface, and the stench became even worse after being exposed to the sun.

Forget about walking to the lakeside. Even on windy days, you could smell the stench as you cycled along the road.

At the time, everyone thought it was water pollution; bacteria multiplied rapidly, causing a drop in oxygen levels and the mass death of fish and shrimp, resulting in even more serious pollution. In textbooks, this was called “algal bloom,” a type of pollution caused by excessive organic matter in the water.

But now, listening to Chen Demao’s account, it seemed there was more to the story behind the lake’s foul stench during that period.

Zhang Chao asked curiously, “Professor Chen, the lake did smell bad for a while. Wasn’t it because the small restaurants outside were dumping their wastewater directly into it?”

Chen Demao shook his head and said, “Few of those small restaurants would dump their wastewater directly into the lake; otherwise, they would have been investigated by the industry and commerce bureau long ago. Besides, such a large lake wouldn’t even have enough water for the fish to eat with the wastewater from a few restaurants. How could it be so polluted?”

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Chen Rong nodded and asked, “Professor Chen, then what is the real reason?”

Chen Demao said, “It was done intentionally by people at the school.”

“Ah, really?” Zhang Chao asked, puzzled. “Why would they pollute their own water? Nobody benefits from it.”

Chen Demao said, “Actually, this is also related to my daughter’s death. After my daughter died, although the high monk said that she was dragged away by something unclean, I didn’t completely believe it. After all, it’s completely unreliable to say that out loud. But later, I heard that several influential alumni had also spoken to the school, saying that there might be something unclean in the lake, and they were worried about potential problems. The best way to deal with unclean things was to kill them with the most filthy substance. The most filthy substance, of course, was human and animal excrement.

“Thanks to the insistence of those alumni, they finally managed to get permission to pollute Qizhen Lake. Later, they arranged for some people to dump large amounts of excrement into the lake in the middle of the night. Because the lake was so large, it took a week to make the entire lake stink. The lake, once it became smelly, had to purify itself naturally. It took about a month for it to become clean again, after which they released many fish fry to raise it.”

Zhang Chao and Chen Rong were both very surprised to hear this. It turned out that the lake water had become smelly for the students’ own good.

Chen Demao continued, “After that, no more incidents occurred near the lake, day or night, and no one has seen any strange things in the lake since. Several alumni felt that although this time the cleansing was more thorough, perhaps not all the evil spirits were completely eliminated. Since the groundwater connected to the swamp to the west, they would periodically have someone dump some excrement into the lake at night, though not as severely as the first time. After all, it had been going on for a month or so, and the impact was considerable.”

Zhang Chao and Chen Rong, upon hearing this, suddenly realized their mistake. No wonder the lake water would stink a little every few months, though not too badly, and would clear up again in a few days. So that was the story behind it. But the thought of washing their feet in the lake in summer still made them feel incredibly disgusted.

Zhang Chao said, “Professor Chen, I still don’t quite understand why there are evil spirits in the lake and what it has to do with feng shui.”

Chen Demao said, “Feng shui says that damp places are most likely to attract evil spirits. That’s why houses are built with their backs to the shade and facing the sun, and large trees shouldn’t be placed in front of the door to block the sun. Zijingang was originally a swampy field, too damp, which easily attracted unclean things.

“During the school’s construction, every effort was made to avoid any negative influences. Therefore, the entire architectural layout was designed according to the Five Elements and Bagua, using the principle of drawing yang to control yin. The student activity center, located on the west side of Qizhen Lake, is surrounded by water on all sides and has relatively low floors, representing extreme yin. The towering lamppost at the center represents yang within yin. The steps in front of the theater lead into the water, representing yin within yin. The administrative center on the east side of the lake, with its tallest floors, represents yang within yang, and is connected to the computer center and library. The pavilion (yin within yang) mirrors the central structure, forming an eight-trigram arrangement. Other buildings were also arranged within the larger eight-trigram layout, further subdivided according to the smaller five elements of their respective areas.

“The construction and naming of the seven campuses were the most crucial aspect. The seven campuses correspond to heaven, earth, metal, wood, water, fire, and soil. For example, Ziyun refers to heaven, Lantian refers to earth, Bifeng’s ‘峰’ ^(peak) was a homophone for ‘锋’ ^(sharp), implicitly referring to metal, Cuibai refers to wood, Qingxi refers to water, Danyang refers to fire, and Baisha refers to earth. All the buildings and names of the school, when combined, form a Heavenly Demon-Binding Array, capable of suppressing all the Yin energy underground. I heard this from the high monk I consulted; he personally inspected the entire layout and said that a highly skilled person designed this school.”

Zhang Chao and Chen Rong were hearing this for the first time and were immediately astonished.

Zhang Chao thought for a moment and said, “If a highly skilled person was involved in the design and created such a large array, why are there still unclean things in the lake?”

Chen Demao said, “I also consulted the high monk about this. He said that according to this array, even if the lakebed connects to the western swamp, unclean things wouldn’t dare to come over. Unless there’s something very powerful in that undisturbed swamp to the west, perhaps a very large and malevolent creature, that’s hindering the entire array.”

Upon hearing about the western swamp, Zhang Chao anxiously asked, “What powerful thing is it?”