Forbidden Land – CH 113

After tidying up, Grandpa took out a small bucket, Zhang Chao grabbed a hoe, and Chen Rong followed behind. The three of them walked together along the path up the mountain.

Upon reaching the outhouse, Grandpa went inside and used a tool over a meter long to scoop out a small basin of excrement, pouring it into the bucket.

Zhang Chao asked, puzzled, “What’s this for?”

Grandpa explained, “Dirty things are afraid of this, hehe.”

Zhang Chao remembered Chen Demao saying that to deal with dirty things, you need the filthiest stuff. The stench of Qizhen Lake was due to the large amounts of excrement dumped into it. Grandpa said the same thing, so it seemed the toilet was actually the safest place. Those ghost movies where a hand always sticks out from the toilet were just lies.

Grandpa carried the bucket, and the two followed slowly. Zhang Chao had wanted to ask Grandpa about his experiences at school for a while, so he roughly recounted the events of the past few months. However, in front of Chen Rong’s grandfather, he couldn’t say Bai Qiu was his girlfriend, only that she was a classmate. Chen Rong explained some details to Grandpa in the local dialect that he couldn’t describe. After saying this, Zhang Chao asked, “Grandpa, are there really ghosts in the world?”

Grandpa smiled and said, “This is something you young people shouldn’t discuss. You’re all educated people; some of the old sayings are outdated. Ah Rong asked me about it before, and of course, I think they exist, but if you want me to find one for you, that’s impossible. I’ve never seen a ghost myself.”

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Zhang Chao asked, puzzled, “Grandpa, do you mean ghosts are invisible?”

Grandpa shook his head. “Normal people can’t see them. Only those with weak bodies, or those under special circumstances, can see them.”

Zhang Chao asked, “What are the special circumstances?”

Grandpa said, “For example, carrying something on your person and other situations. I’ve only heard about them from others; I’ve never encountered them myself.”

Zhang Chao thought for a moment, finding it strange. He wasn’t carrying anything on his person. If the “Bai Qiu” he saw was really a ghost, then why could he see it? And why hadn’t he seen it again recently?

Zhang Chao, recalling the incident with the woman in ancient costume, asked, “Grandpa, two black coffins with talismans drawn on them were unearthed below the School of Medicine. Later, we heard a woman singing opera, saw a woman in ancient clothing, and something that looked like a mountain demon. Do you think there could be a connection?”

Grandpa said, “I was just thinking about that too. Coffins with talismans are unusual; they are used to suppress corpses.”

“Suppress corpses!” Zhang Chao and Chen Rong exclaimed in unison.

Grandpa nodded. “To prevent corpses from turning into jiangshis. Generally, no one draws talismans on coffins. It must be that those two female corpses, during their seventh-day memorial service, had already undergone a transformation, and only then were talismans drawn on the outside of the coffins during burial. Logically speaking, corpse transformation is extremely rare.

“When I was young, I was performing rituals in a village down below. Someone had been murdered, and on the third day of the memorial service, the body crawled out of the coffin. Everyone was terrified, but the brave villagers all rushed up and beat it with sticks, and then everything was fine.”

Grandpa continued, “There are two kinds of jiangshi transformations. One is that the person died with a lot of resentment, unable to let go of their worries, and still wants to do the things of the living. The other is that the feng shui is bad, easily attracting evil spirits. From what you’re saying, that woman in ancient clothes might be a jiangshi.”

“A jiangshi!” Chen Rong exclaimed in surprise. “Grandpa, there really are jiangshis?”

Grandpa nodded. “A jiangshi was dug up in the mountains decades ago. Jiangshis aren’t afraid of anything; they are most afraid of people. Just one breath of human breath and the jiangshi is completely turned into a corpse. Jiangshis are strange; they aren’t ghosts. Ghosts are formless; jiangshis have form but no thoughts; they just move like animals. If a person sees one, of course, they’ll be afraid. Actually, they are even more afraid of people. If someone approaches from afar, they’ll hide because they know the consequences of inhaling human breath.”

Grandpa continued, “And what you call ‘ghost walls’ are usually only seen by water ghosts and mandrills. I guess the animal you saw was a mandrill. Mandrills are neither human nor ghost; they look like big monkeys and are actually quite afraid of people. Ghost walls are there to keep people away. If a person musters their courage and curses a few times, they’ll run away.

“However, if you really heard a woman singing opera, that’s more troublesome. Normally, a ghost nearby wouldn’t be noticeable to a normal person. Only vengeful spirits can make people hear their voices. These spirits have a lot of resentment, and if a person stays near them for a long time, they can easily get sick. But vengeful spirits generally aren’t seen in areas with people; they only appear in uninhabited places with very bad feng shui. Since your place is a school, it shouldn’t be possible, unless there’s something malevolent nearby.”

Something malevolent? Zhang Chao thought back to Chen Demao’s words; something might be buried beneath the swamp to the west. He felt he was getting closer and closer to the truth, and the truth lay in the swampy fields to the west.

That area was supposed to be uninhabited, but was it truly uninhabited? That was indeed a question.

Zhang Chao asked again, “Grandpa, if it really is a ghost, were my two classmates killed by ghosts?”

Grandpa shook his head decisively. “Impossible! No unclean thing can kill people, only frighten them. Ghosts can at most make people sick or temporarily cloud their judgment. But if it’s really like you said, jumping off a building, there must be another reason. For example, someone might have a guilty conscience, already harboring suicidal thoughts, and then a ghost interferes, clouding their judgment, and they jump.”

“Only someone with a guilty conscience would commit suicide?” Zhang Chao murmured.

“Someone with a guilty conscience would commit suicide!” A look of surprise appeared on Chen Rong’s face.

Zhang Chao looked at her, puzzled, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

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Chen Rong quickly shook her head, saying, “Nothing, I’m just as confused as you.”

Zhang Chao, oblivious to Chen Rong’s odd behavior, continued, “Grandpa, according to what you said, if there really is a jiangshi, a mandrill, and a ghost over there, is it related to the mummified corpses in the two coffins?”

Grandpa said, “I can only guess what happened. Maybe the two female corpses were sisters. The older sister was pregnant, and the little devil in her womb turned into a mandrill, while she herself became a ghost. The younger sister’s mummified corpse became a jiangshi. Jiangshis don’t have brains; they only know to go find their older sister.”

Zhang Chao asked curiously, “The child in the womb turned into a mandrill?”

Grandpa nodded.

Zhang Chao asked, “Can a mandrill drive? I saw a news photo of a child driving a car; he looks a lot like that mandrill.”

Grandpa said, “Mandrills are quite clever. Whether they can drive, haha, I don’t know. Mandrills are actually like children; some are very smart, and some are quite slow-witted.”

Zhang Chao said, “Grandpa, so you’re saying that even if there really are evil spirits, my classmate’s ‘suicide’ wasn’t caused by them?”

Grandpa nodded in agreement. “Jiangshis and mandrills are afraid of people; they can’t kill anyone. If what you’re saying about the woman singing opera isn’t a ghost but an evil spirit, then your classmates wouldn’t have jumped if they hadn’t done something wrong.” Hearing this, Chen Rong’s face turned pale again, but Zhang Chao, preoccupied with her grandfather’s words, didn’t notice her.

What could Bai Qiu possibly have to hide? And Li Weihao? He studied diligently; it was said that studying the classics instilled a sense of righteousness within one, so why did he jump off the building? Did he also have something to hide?

Zhang Chao couldn’t understand. He just felt that her grandfather, a rural charlatan, might not be reliable at all.