Chapter 18

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Original Title: 挖坟挖出鬼

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Yaoi

This translation is based on multiple MTLs and my own limited knowledge of Chinese characters. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter Index

Chapter 18 - Memories

Lin Yan was afraid that the professor was going to run away. When the event was over, he didn’t even take the time to change his clothes. He called over to little Daoist priest to tell him he could leave first, then rushed to the backstage lounge. The crowd trying to leave completely blocked the exit. Lin Yan wasn’t able to get out for a while. Behind him was a swarm of school reporters, sweating profusely as they followed.

“Excuse me! Coming through!” He wasn’t sure whose foot he stepped on in his rush, but the girl in front of him turned around and gave him a sharp look.

“Lin Yan!” a clear voice rang out. Lin Yan looked up and saw Weiwei standing at the door with a red staff badge hanging around her neck.

Lin Yan didn’t care anymore about feeling embarrassed while he hurried through the crowd without any organized manner. He shouted at Weiwei: “Can you do me a favour? This is urgent!”

“It’s my birthday next week, come over for dinner!” Weiwei shouted on her tiptoes.

“Okay, whatever, help stop the crowd behind me!”

Lin Yan ran as fast as he could straight down the corridor, stumbling from time to time over the hem of his clothes. When he burst into the backstage VIP room completely dishevelled, he realized that he had been worried for nothing. The professor hadn’t planned on sneaking away at all. He was seated on the sofa and had waited for him, sipping his tea.

“You came? Sit down.”

Lin Yan clutched his chest and nodded, breathing too heavily to speak.

The lounge was decorated in a very stylish way, with arc-shaped floor-to-ceiling French windows, beige wallpaper, and light brown soft leather sofas that looked like they were worth a lot of money. The school had always been willing to spend money on entertaining guests. The professor poured a glass of water for Lin Yan and pointed to the single-seater sofa opposite of him.

“You’re Lin Yan, who came to us for an internship before, right? You performed well today. You’ve got guts and have a good mind.” The professor pondered for a moment: “I thought you’d come find me sooner or later. I didn’t expect that you would get back here so soon. ”

“Do you know me?” A series of questions popped up in his mind. Lin Yan suppressed the urge to outright address his issue. He apologized for the outburst just then, and then said seriously: “I did here for that internship. This is very important to me, please tell me everything you know.”

The professor nodded slightly: “I can probably guess what happened. So, I’ll speak slowly. Listen carefully. If there’s any useful information, I’ll tell you.” He sighed and looked out the window. He spoke softly: “The fact that you are still standing here in good shape is already much better than the person who came before you.”

Lin Yan looked back at Xiao Yu, who was holding his hand tightly, standing ignorantly.

The floor-to-ceiling windows were facing the path outside the auditorium. The students must use this path to get to the dormitories. In the night, boys and girls walked down it together in large groups. I don’t know who yelled: “The river flows eastward, the stars in the sky look to the Big Dipper!*” The professor smiled, turned his face to Lin Yan, and recalled: “I was about the same age as you when I first entered the tomb. It was a good time to be young.”

*(Song lyrics from “Hao Han Ge” by Liu Huan)

“Young people don’t know what’s important…”

The professor spoke very coherently, as if he had been wanted to say all this for many years. Lin Yan even felt that he was using this as an opportunity to reminisce about his nostalgic youth. But when the professor painted the scene back to Lin Yan, it sent a chill down Lin Yan’s spine.

Twenty-five years ago, a group of coal miners in Jinxiang County accidentally collapsed a mineshaft while they were hacking away. They removed some jade plates and funerary wooden figurines from inside the hole, which turned out to be the entrance tunnel of an underground tomb. Once the county head official learned about this tomb, he blocked off the mausoleum and reported the news to the central government. At that time, China was still a novice in both archaeological technology and cultural relic preservation, and it was still difficult to excavate many imperial tombs. Therefore, this cultural Ming Dynasty tomb was handed over to the university, and a team of several master’s students hired some local volunteers and rushed to Jinxiang.

This group of people included the professor and Lin Yan’s current supervisor. When preparing the materials for the tomb, the professor and Lin Yan both found some strange information. He strangely discovered that whether it were the county chronicles, the local chronicles, or genealogical records, there was no record of the tomb’s owner. One of the workers on the team claimed to be a master of fengshui. After seeing the mausoleum, he said that it would be impossible to excavate. The earth’s meridians formed a breeding ground for negative energy. The evil spirits attracted to the space were too dense to bury people. The owner of the tomb wouldn’t be able to find peace after death. Not to mention the misfortune it would bring future generations. However, most of the students were young and energetic. They were eager to try after seeing the exquisitely carved jade artifacts. Without much consideration, they went directly to the tomb with tools and equipment.

“Strange events started after that.” The professor adjusted his glasses and grimaced: “We should have listened to the warnings, but we didn’t believe in evil at the time.”

First, the four chickens brought to ward off evil spirits died overnight. When the underground tomb gate was opened, the scaffold collapsed, and an 18-year-old fell and broke his right hand. Everyone thought it was an accident, but from the time they entered the tomb, all those involved in the excavation had nightmares whenever they closed their eyes. Every night they dreamed that they were dying to the point that no one dared try to sleep anymore. Fatigue and constant fear made everyone’s fighting spirit die off after only a week.

“What happened after that?” Lin Yan looked back at Xiao Yu in surprise. He thought he had been tormented thoroughly by him, but he hadn’t even seen half of this ghost’s ferociousness yet.

“After entering the main chamber, we found many valuable cultural relics beside the coffin, but they were poorly preserved. We could only brush off the embroideries. Watching the treasures that we brought out so easily blacken and carbonize the moment the sunlight hit them was the fatal blow to our spirits. I cried miserably, but everyone was equally depressed and even fearful. No one had the energy to comfort me.”

The professor’s hand shifted on the windowpane, leaving behind a damp handprint. “There seemed to be some kind of energy in that tomb that could make people fall into despair. We worked hard and sang to make ourselves feel more brave, but it was still useless. A rural volunteer girl went crazy on the ninth morning and smashed her husband’s head in with a machete while everyone could only stand in shock.”

“Blood sprayed all over the bricks on the top of the tomb, and it was dripping everywhere. The woman put her husband’s head in front of the blank memorial plaque, kowtowed three times, and sat on the ground convulsing, laughing eerily, while laughing and shouting a name.” The professor looked at Lin Yan and asked, “Do you know what name it was?”

Lin Yan took a dazed step back. He wanted to break away from the hand holding his, but Xiao Yu held it tighter, not giving him a chance to escape.

“It was Xiao Yu. Who exactly is Xiao Yu? I searched through both the official and unofficial records, but I couldn’t find any record that mentioned this name.” The professor’s expression became painful: “We gave the woman a consolation fee to settle the matter. After she took the money, she laughed for a while before she raised her machete and slashed it down across her neck. The blood was sprayed onto the memorial plaque. When she fell, only a thin piece of skin kept her head attached to her body. At that time, people didn’t know much about archaeology. At first glance, some of the students were okay, but the hired volunteers were all scared away, saying that we dug up the grave of the dead, and this was retribution for it.”

“The last person who left was the fengshui guy. He told me that the tomb had no fengshui. The owner of the tomb had died violently. Nothing could approach the tomb through the evil energy breeding ground. This resentment built up over a long time. The woman’s body had been filled with too much Yin energy and she was the first to fall prey to the ghost.”

“The man left. The students didn’t want to go, but they were still having nightmares every time they. They tried to stick it out for a week before packing their bags and returning to school. No one else died. The first time the lead took over, he wouldn’t even touch the coffin. It was a disappointment for everyone.”

Lin Yan imagined the beheading. His face grew pale, and his stomach felt sick.

“Are you alright? You don’t look well.” The professor seemed to catch on to the younger’s expression, and pointed to Lin Yan’s cup: “Drink some water. Take a break then you can listen some more.”

Lin Yan shook his head and asked, “Was it really like the fengshui master said?”

The professor hesitated for a while, and his fingers scribbled across a section of thin vapor he exhaled onto the glass. Two words appeared on the glass: “Xiao Yu.” As if he didn’t want to see it, the professor wiped it away and shook his head: “I have seen a lot of weird things throughout my career. The demon and ghost theory is not unfounded, but I think that the tomb might be some kind of spiritual formation. In ancient times, emperors and generals did everything they could to prevent their bodies from being destroyed. Many strange arts and techniques also emerged. It is possible that the woman was already delirious and so was the first to lose her mind in the consuming and the gloomy atmosphere in the tomb.”

Lin Yan imagined the shadowy chamber with two headless bodies lying on the ground. He could barely squeeze out a wry smile: “What does this whole thing have to do with me?”

“I’m getting to that part.” The professor sadly lowered his head: “Young people have never been willing to admit defeat. Since then, I’ve been very interested in the history of the Ming Dynasty Chenghua period. At first, I wanted to find out the identity of the tomb owner but I really fell in love with the history, and, 20 years later, I became an expert in the field. But long-term research in any field will encounter roadblocks. I was troubled by problem for nearly two months, and finally decided to go to the Ming Tomb again.”

Lin Yan asked puzzledly: “Are you not afraid something will happen again?”

The professor shrugged: “No way, the large amount of untouched cultural relics inside was too tempting. The team left before anyone had even touched the coffin the last time I was there. I’ve never gotten over it.”

“Be considerate of the obsessions of an old man who has been involved in academia for most of his life.” The professor said: “When the newspaper published the news about the excavation of the Ming Tomb again, a message came from my secretary saying that someone was willing to help me. He understood fengshui. If something went wrong, I could turn to him.”

“I’m not the same young man who spent a whole year studying about the tomb. I ran all over the country all day and night. I was too busy to take care of it, so I asked the secretary to keep in touch with him.”

“Later on, something did happened. It was exactly the same as before. After entering the tomb door, everyone was inexplicably depressed and paranoid, and soon began to have nightmares. I was so afraid that the tragedy would happen again, so I had to ask the person who knew fengshui for help. He told me that I need to find a person who shares the same horoscope as the evil creature in order to make it stop. Then he gave me a birth date and said that he could find someone with the same birth date horoscope.”

Lin Yan had already guessed the answer. He pointed at himself and hesitated to confirm: “Me?”

The professor nodded: “That birth year made me think of a student. I asked your supervisor. He said that he had a friend’s son who was looking for an internship, and his own student, Lin Yan. It was just an extreme coincident that your birthday fell onto the right date.”

“You know what happened after that.” The professor looked at the path outside the window. The students were almost all gone now. The moonlight didn’t reach the path, instead only reflecting the black shadows of the trees that were swaying back and forth in the night breeze. “If you want to ask me who the owner of the tomb is, I can only tell you that I don’t know. It’s shameful; after more than 20 years, I have revisited this topic year after year, but I still haven’t made any progress.”

“If you have anything else to ask, please go ahead. As soon as you say the name ‘Xiao Yu’, I knew it was you. You’ve got a lot of guts to throw my things like that.” The professor laughed, “I was just like that when I was young. I had trouble with authority back then. It took a lot to keep up with me.”

Lin Yan hurriedly lowered his head and apologized. He kept thinking that it was this File Folder dragged him into this mess, but it didn’t seem like he did it intentionally… How much did he know about what happened after? Thinking of this, Lin Yan raised his head and asked, “Don’t you want to hear how I know Xiao Yu’s name?”

The professor waved his hand and relaxed his expression: “People my age don’t want to listen to these ghost and monster stories. It’s bad luck. I know you’re fine when I see you standing here. I didn’t discuss it with you. I blame myself for not discussing this with you sooner. I’ll try my best to explain anything you need, but the rest…” The professor said, spreading his hands, expressing that there was nothing he could do.

During their talk, the professor’s personal secretary came in and urged him to leave, saying that the car was ready and the school officials were all waiting downstairs. The professor nodded to the secretary, turned around and asked Lin Yan, “Is there anything else you want to know?”

Lin Yan felt stuck. The most renowned Ming historians in China had no answers. Did he really have no choice but to wait out the three months, waiting for this ghost to remember his life experience and tell him his wish. But what he couldn’t remember? Would Lin Yan be forced to accompany him for eternity as a ghost?

As he pondered, a thought popped up, like a small copper hammer hitting the glass with a crisp sound. Lin Yan stopped the professor who was packing up and asked: “You… you mentioned that the fengshui guy had mentioned a horoscope date. I happened to be looking for an internship at that time, so it all worked out, right?” Lin Yan’s voice was trembling with excitement: “This is too much of a coincidence. It’s almost like he was waiting for me… Where is he now? How did he know something would happen in the Ming Tomb?”

The professor suddenly stopped, frowning and thought it over: “You’re right to be suspicious. At that time, I was busy planning the excavation and didn’t care much about it…” The secretary who was waiting at the door shouted: “ Xiao Liu, do you remember that fortune teller? Give me his contact information.”

The young girl flipped through the folder in her arms, and replied: “That person never contacted me directly. He had been passing messages through a young guy who was new to the team. I’ll look into it for you. I’ll get back to you about in in the next few days.”

The professor’s face sank, and just like Lin Yan, he had no answer. He whispered to him: “It’ll should be easy to track him down.” He patted Lin Yan on the shoulder: “I’ll help you out with this, don’t worry. "He took out a pen and left Lin Yan’s his phone number, and the corner of his mouth ticked up: "I still owe you your prize. I’ll give it to you the next time we meet.”

When he left, the crowd was gone. The corridor was empty. The old custodian didn’t even turn on the ceiling light to save electricity. Only the wall lamp glowed a dull yellow. Lin Yan’s face drained of all colour. He suddenly felt like he was in a horror movie. He was the lead actor stumbling along the wall in a terrifying corridor.

The professor’s story made him feel incredibly afraid. Behind him was a ghost, a murderer who put people to death in a cruel and bloody way. He didn’t even dare to look behind him. He was afraid that when he turned around, a ghost covered in bloodstains would be there, grinning sinisterly at him through a veil of long hair, saying: It’s your turn.

Lin Yan’s breathing became heavier and heavier. When he couldn’t resist the urge to run away, he was suddenly pushed harshly against the wall. His body was wrenched around. Lin Yan raised his head and squeezed his eyes shut.