Forbidden Land – CH 131

A faint strain of Yue opera singing rose in his ears, then silence returned. The woman in ancient costume and the mountain demon turned their heads, gazing towards the bushes.

A cold, serpentine sensation, like a snake, slowly, slowly, crept up his spine.

Zhang Chao panicked, forgetting even to take out his stun gun, instinctively trying to jump.

Suddenly, before he could leap, a woman’s voice yelled, “Get out of the way!” from behind. At the same time, a hand covered his mouth and, without a word, dragged him backward at lightning speed.

Zhang Chao struggled with all his might, but the person behind him was incredibly strong, firmly covering his mouth. They dragged him dozens of meters before stopping and placing him on a clump of grass.

Zhang Chao turned around in alarm, only to find Wang Hong, still dressed in black with a pale face, staring at him with a furious expression.

Zhang Chao hesitated for a moment, then said, “Was it…was it you who dragged me out?”

Wang Hong said coldly and angrily, “What are you doing here?! I was going to deal with those two tonight, and you ruined it again!”

Zhang Chao said, “I…I don’t know. I…how did I ruin it?”

Wang Hong said, “Do you know that your sudden appearance scared away the jiangshi and the mountain ghost? How are we supposed to deal with those two? You’re a human, okay? Ghosts are afraid of humans. If you get this close, they’ll detect your presence sooner or later! They’ll run away as soon as they do! I’ve been guarding them for several nights, and it’s all your fault!”

She clenched her fist slightly, seemingly preparing to punch Zhang Chao in the face.

Zhang Chao asked fearfully, “Then…the sound of the Yue opera just now, and the cold feeling on my back, was…was it you?”

Wang Hong snorted coldly and said, “No!”

Zhang Chao asked, “Then…what was it?”

Wang Hong said, “A ghost!”

Zhang Chao was startled and said, “A ghost? Aren’t ghosts afraid of people?”

Wang Hong said, “Who told you ghosts are always afraid of people? If they were afraid, your two classmates wouldn’t have jumped off the building! This ghost isn’t an ordinary thing. You got close to her sister and her son; if she didn’t come looking for you, who would she come looking for!”

Zhang Chao was both shocked and panicked and said, “Then…what if she ran away today?”

Wang Hong said, “Go outside first. Talk to Li Zheng. Humph, I’m not as kind as he is. If I look at you even once, I want to beat you up!”

Zhang Chao was so frightened that he didn’t know what to say. He could only stand up and follow her sullenly away from the swamp.

They walked to the road east of the School of Medicine, where the BMW 730 minivan was parked. Wang Hong yelled at him to get in the car, her face contorted with rage.

Li Zheng, sitting in the driver’s seat, was surprised to see Zhang Chao get in first. Looking at Wang Hong in the back, her face contorted with anger, he hesitated for a moment, then gave a helpless look. “Xiao Wang, he…you didn’t get rid of them?”

Wang Hong roared, “It’s all this little beast’s fault! How could he show up? Even the ghost came after him, and the jiangshi and mountain spirit noticed. I really didn’t want to save this brat!”

Zhang Chao felt a pang of guilt, lowered his head, and said, “I…I didn’t mean to.”

Suddenly, Wang Hong grabbed his neck, coldly saying, “You’ve ruined our plans time and time again! What are you trying to do?!”

Li Zheng quickly cried out, “Xiao Wang, let go! He’s just a student; I’ve investigated him. Let him tell you himself. Xiao Zhang, tell me, why were you in the swamp tonight?”

Zhang Chao, intimidated by Wang Hong’s threat, stammered, “I…I received…a text message. They said…they said Qiu Shi was in the swamp and told…told me to go check.”

Wang Hong said, “Give me your phone.”

Zhang Chao had no choice but to take out his phone and hand it to her.

She went through all the text messages, then handed the phone to Li Zheng to look at again. Li Zheng lowered his head and thought for a moment, then looked up and said, “Someone really is following you, but I don’t know who it is.”

Wang Hong sneered, “Who knows if someone is following you, or if it’s him following you!”

Li Zheng said, “He is indeed a student, don’t worry. Xiao Zhang, to be honest, before we even met, I had someone follow and investigate you and even had a hidden camera installed in your dorm room.”

Zhang Chao was shocked to hear this and said, “You…so you installed it?”

Li Zheng smiled frankly and said, “What, you found out? I’m really sorry, but when Wang Hong said she had encountered you following her several times, I started having someone investigate you. I know everything about you. Regarding your sudden appearance, I had to consider our organization’s secrets, fearing you might be affiliated with some other force. However, based on the video footage and other people tracking you, I’m sorry, I misjudged you.”

Zhang Chao asked urgently, “Who did you have tracking me? And who installed the hidden camera?”

Li Zheng hesitated for a moment, then said, “Lin Yi’ang.”

Zhang Chao was stunned for a moment, then understood. Why would Lin Yi’ang smoke Zhonghua cigarettes? Where did he get the money? It turned out he had made a deal with this Boss Li.

Li Zheng continued, “Xiao Zhang, I hope you can understand. After all, it involves our organization’s secrets, and I must ensure that outsiders, especially other forces, don’t know. Secondly, the investigation into you stemmed from your repeated encounters with Wang Hong. I have reason to believe that these encounters weren’t just coincidences. Now, judging from the text messages, it seems someone else is indeed using you to do something. Although the number used is a virtual number, I’ll ask my police friends to investigate and see if we can trace the origin of the number.”

Zhang Chao thought for a moment. Although being followed was unpleasant, from Li Zheng’s perspective, there was indeed reason to suspect that his encounter with Wang Hong wasn’t just a coincidence, and investigating him was justified.

However, as a student, he obviously couldn’t find out who was behind the text messages. But Li Zheng, a big boss, must know people in the police. If they really investigated, there shouldn’t be any fake numbers that couldn’t be traced.

He nodded to Li Zheng and said, “I understand. Your investigation is from your perspective, and it’s only right.”

Li Zheng sighed and said, “Today’s plan failed. It seems the person behind it doesn’t want us to deal with the dirty stuff. Well, we’ll have to find another day.”

Zhang Chao asked curiously, “Wang Hong said the woman in ancient costume is the younger sister of a ghost, and the mountain spirit is the son of a ghost. What’s that all about?”

Li Zheng said, “According to my research in the Yuhang County Annals, in the late Qing Dynasty, there were two sisters who were very close. The older sister married a wealthy family in the area.” Later, for reasons unknown, both the older and younger sisters hanged themselves at home. Generally, those who hang themselves harbor heavy resentment, and since the older sister was about to give birth, her resentment was even stronger than that of a pregnant woman. The family held funeral rites for the two deceased, but before the burial, the corpses began to transform. The exact circumstances of this transformation were unclear. In any case, a Taoist priest was hired, who applied special materials to the coffins and drew talismans. Unexpectedly, when they were exhumed last year, both bodies were mummified. The older sister had become a vengeful ghost, the younger sister a jiangshi, and the unborn child a mountain spirit. This kind of transformation was extremely rare.

“So, how do you plan to deal with these evil spirits?”

Li Zheng smiled mysteriously and said, “We naturally have our own methods.”

Zhang Chao said, “By the way, I forgot to ask last time, why did you wear black clothes and paint your faces white?”

Li Zheng said, “I briefly explained it to you last time. Ghosts or other evil spirits only perceive black or white as safe colors to approach. We paint our faces white to reduce our human presence, you understand? Only by wearing black or white clothes and painting our faces white can we minimize our human aura, making jiangshis and mountain spirits perceive us as one of their own, allowing us to approach them more easily. Even when we get close enough, they’ll still notice us, but then we’ll deal with them immediately, giving them no chance to escape. So, if you wear normal clothes, jiangshis and mountain spirits will sense it from afar and run away. Only clothes like ours are safe to approach.”

Zhang Chao asked, “Then…then what were those two things doing, looking up at the sky?”

Li Zheng said, “Photosynthesis.”

Zhang Chao exclaimed in surprise, “Photosynthesis? Are they plants?”

Li Zheng shook his head. “Whether it’s a ghost, a jiangshi, or a mountain spirit, they all conform to the scientific law of conservation of energy. Just like you can move because you eat, and digestion provides energy. jiangshis, mountain spirits, and wandering spirits don’t eat, but their movements still require energy. They don’t rely on sunlight, only moonlight, using some unknown conversion principle to absorb and store the moonlight’s energy into their bodies. It’s like they are toys; they can only move when batteries are inserted. Moonlight is their battery. Therefore, most news reports of ghost encounters happen on clear nights, at the beginning and end of the lunar month, when there’s no moon, or during periods of continuous rain. You almost never encounter anything evil there. Because evil spirits hide and accumulate energy. Even if you do encounter one, its energy won’t be too strong.”

At this moment, Wang Hong said. “Brother Li, it seems we’ll have to come back on May 21st.”

Li Zheng nodded and said. “Yes, the 17th of the fourth lunar month, Xiaoman, is when ghosts are most active. By then, we’ll deal with the old things in the swamp. Even if we don’t deal with the jiangshi, ghost, and mountain spirit, they won’t survive long in the school grounds with the Heavenly Demon-Binding Array.” He then sighed, “However, the organization is short-handed that day; several comrades are away on business trips these past few days. If it really doesn’t work, we’ll have to wait until next month.”

Wang Hong said, “I checked the weather; May 21st is sunny, a rare day. If it rains next month, it’ll be difficult.”

Li Zheng sighed, seemingly troubled, and glanced at Zhang Chao, then said, “Xiao Zhang, since you know so much about us, why don’t you do us a favor? Of course, I’ll pay you.”

Zhang Chao asked, “What favor? By the way, what exactly is in the swamp?”

Li Zheng hesitated for a moment, then slowly said, “Actually, according to the school’s Five Elements layout, there shouldn’t be any evil spirits there. However, because we hadn’t anticipated something extremely yin buried in the western swamp, the entire feng shui arrangement for absorbing yang and suppressing yin was disrupted. Therefore, the two coffins we unearthed were transformed into three different things due to the presence of this extremely yin object—a truly absurd situation.

“I still don’t know what this extremely yin object is. Using metal probing equipment, I discovered a long, coffin-like object beneath the swamp field. I suspect it’s a coffin covered in sheet metal, and the yin object is likely inside. We plan to dig it up on the night of May 21st and burn it, which should solve the problem. However, we don’t have enough manpower right now.

“I have the equipment to dig out the coffin, but according to the ritual, opening it requires four people standing in the four cardinal directions, simultaneously opening it while chanting incantations to prevent any unexpected situations. The other members of the guild are out of town on business; it’s just Wang Hong and me. This is a secret within our guild, and we can’t ask others for help. So, you see, Xiao Zhang, you already know a lot about us and have kept it a secret. I trust you. Would you be willing to ask Lin Yi’ang to help us gather enough people?”

Zhang Chao thought for a moment, then hesitated, “Opening a coffin? This… wouldn’t that be…”

Li Zheng said, “There won’t be any danger; you can rest assured. Our association will never allow students to do anything dangerous. As for the reward, you and Lin Yi’ang will get 50,000 each. How about that? But it must be kept a secret!”

“50,000!” Zhang Chao opened his mouth.

50,000 was no small sum. Although his family was in business, they were far from being able to disregard 50,000. Let alone 50,000, even 5,000 would be very attractive. Lin Yi’ang’s family wasn’t well-off. Judging from his demeanor, if he knew that opening a coffin lid could earn 50,000, he would be overjoyed. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Okay.”

Li Zheng smiled, opened the glove compartment, took out ten neatly bundled banknotes, had Wang Hong get a black bag, stuffed them inside, and handed them to Zhang Chao.

Zhang Chao pretended to be polite for a moment but eventually accepted them.

Li Zheng drove Zhang Chao to his dormitory, then suddenly remembered something and said, “Xiao Zhang, give me your phone number. Don’t forget May 21st; I’ll contact you then.”

Zhang Chao quickly agreed, gave him his phone number, and happily carried the money back to his dormitory.