Chapter 27

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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 27 - Soul-Catcher

Enemies and friends were actually pretty interchangeable. For example, Lin Yan had to be on his guard with this ghost before, but when a new enemy appeared, it was the first time that he truly felt he and Xiao Yu were on the same side. Lin Yan glanced at the dimly lit hut, his head resting on Xiao Yu’s chest. His slightly cool body temperature made him think an inexplicable thought; that he actually felt safe because of the presence of this ghost that never left him alone.

“What happened?” Xiao Yu held the back of Lin Yan’s head.

“It’s… it’s nothing” Lin Yan blushed. He broke out from Xiao Yu’s arms, hiding his head down and looking at the photo that the old man had given him. He had such a dull expression that it looked like the black and white picture had been taken after he had died. As he took a closer look, the place where the girl in the red coat had been standing wasn’t completely empty. Lin Yan aggressively wiped the picture. A thin cloud of gray mist hovered around his legs. If he wasn’t actively looking for it, he would’ve chalked it up to the old quality of the picture.

“Pea cakes, hawthorn jelly, fruitcakes, water chestnut cake, rolling donkeys, glutinous rice cakes.” The vendor pushing the cart selling treats noticed Lin Yan standing by himself. He picked up a rag and wiped the glass window of the cart, shouting more enthusiastically. “Would you like to try some?”

The dry, dazzling sunlight shone down. The vendor’s voice seemed like it was coming from another world, too distant to be clearly distinguished.

Things were moving in an unpredictable direction. Lin Yan shook his head and dragged Xiao Yu forward aimlessly, wracking through his brain. The first time he saw the little girl was in the hallway of his apartment building. There had been a problem with the elevator that day and he climbed the stairs to the twelfth floor. At the corner of the third-floor hallway, he saw the little girl climbing onto the handrail to play. Later, he would meet her downstairs almost every time he went home. Once Lin Yan arrived home just when the kids had just gotten out of school and large groups of students were playing football in the yard. He hadn’t paid attention to the little girl sitting on her own. Now that he thought about it, he had never seen her talk to anyone.

It seemed like it had been a while since he last saw the little girl.

When did this start? Lin Yan walked with his head down, kicking a small stone as he walked. The corner of his eyes flicked across Xiao Yu’s embellished hem, a bright white fabric decorated with a greenish emerald dragon spread out underneath the moire belt hanging down, swaying as he stepped. Lin Yan hesitantly cast his gaze towards the ghost next to him. The memory of Xiao Yu appearing on that rainy night resurfaced. When Lin Yan rushed out of his apartment in terror, he saw the little girl standing in the rain, sucking on her thumb and looking at him. If he hadn’t been threatened by a ghost, he would’ve asked why she was standing alone outside on a rainy day.

From that day on, Lin Yan’s life completely changed. He thought silently, ever since Xiao Yu had started following him, the girl in the red coat hadn’t shown up again.

A thought jolted across his mind. Lin Yan almost couldn’t stand still. He shook as he took his phone out of his pocket and dialled Yin Zhou’s number.

‘Beep… beep…’ Pick up the phone, pick up the phone, Lin Yan silently urged.

“… Lin Yan?” After ringing seven times, Yin Zhou’s tired voice came from the phone: “… I’m sleeping. I’m hanging up if this isn’t important.”

Lin Yan breathed a sigh of relief. He clamped the phone between his ear and shoulder while pulling out his car keys and asked; “A-Zhou, do you remember what Second Immortal Gu told us the last time we asked her to drive away a ghost?”

“The old lady was just trying to scam a few bucks off us…” Yin Zhou reluctantly grumbled: “I think she said there was a little girl who didn’t have any clothes or money to pay to get to the underworld, and then she poured water all over you. Complete bullshit.”

Lin Yan’s heart dropped: “Then Second Immortal Gu died and her time of death was deliberately changed.”

“Yeah.” Yin Zhou yawned: “Did you find something?”

Lin Yan dragged Xiao Yu towards the parking lot and harshly slammed the car door: “She wasn’t talking bullshit. There really was a little girl in red following me. I took a picture with her but the developed picture didn’t have her in it.”

“Holy shit!” Yin Zhou was completely awake and bounced off the bed: “Are you kidding me? Another ghost?!”

“I’m not sure yet.” Lin Yan turned the key to start the car, staring at the windshield, “That hand, it slapped the windshield when we went to see Second Immortal Gu and we almost got into a car accident. It didn’t seem right to me when it happened, but it disappeared so fast, I couldn’t see it.”

“Now that I think about it, the hand was too small. It’s not the ghost that lives in my house at all.” Lin Yan glanced at Xiao Yu. “I also saw the little girl the day I went to meet you in the bar. At that time, I thought she was alive. I think she was the reason I was stuck in that loop on the road and she was the one behind Second Immortal Gu’s death.”

“I’ll go ask A-Yan later on. Keep an eye out for anything.”

Yin Zhou was silent for a while: “… Stay safe.”

Lin Yan hung up the phone and carefully backed the car out of the parking space. The market in Shenjiyuan closed early. A group of vendors surged out from the entrance with the earnings from the day like a school of fish swimming by Lin Yan’s car window. The jade shop by the side of the road screeched by on its grinding wheels. Lin Yan sighed and clutched the steering wheel, waiting for the crowd in front of them to disperse. When he turned to look at Xiao Yu, he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

“It’s always been you, hasn’t it?” Lin Yan whispered.

“The night I first met you, I drove around the overpass for three hours and didn’t find the exit until I saw you.”

The patter of light rain, the lonely figure standing under the streetlamp like they were waiting for a promise that could never be fulfilled.

“At that time, I thought I was lost because of you. I didn’t think that you were the one to help me get out of there.” Lin Yan recalled how he had been circling around the overpass like a headless fly. He found it all kind of funny now. The ghost that scared him half to death now shared his house, shared his passenger seat and even shared his occasional uncontrollable sexual desires.

Xiao Yu rubbed his fingers against his temple, trying to remember. A-Yan said that ghosts who had just returned to the human world were in a state of confusion. They would keep searching for the reason why they were stuck in the human world with very few memories of their previous lives. Some of them were able to remember and reincarnate easily while others weren’t successful, their resentment growing stronger and stronger. Lin Yan grabbed his hand and held it, feeling a little depressed, and murmured: “Forget it, don’t worry about it.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly: “You’ve got your hands full now. Someone’s trying to kill me before you get to.”

“… You’re mine.” Xiao Yu said slowly, pulling his hand back.

“I’m not.” Lin Yan said. He didn’t know why he was so stubborn every time this topic came up: “Even now, I’m not sure who you are or where you want to take me. A month ago I was a complete atheist, but now I’ve now more ghosts than people. My life is already a mess and today I ran into a little girl that almost killed me on a highway.”

Lin Yan started getting choked up. He sniffed. For some reason, he felt a strong feeling of outrage: “Who did I provoke? Why won’t they just let me live my life?”

Xiao Yu held Lin Yan’s shoulders and rubbed his chin against his forehead. Lin Yan gritted his teeth and the stinging in his eyes grew more intense.

“I’m going to ask A-Yan about the little girl later. Xiao Yu, don’t move. Let me rest for a minute.” Lin Yan wrapped his arms around his waist and curled into Xiao Yu’s arms. “I’m exhausted. ”

Long, slender fingers stroked through his hair. They were cold but the gesture was very gentle: “Don’t worry, I’m here.”

“I know.” Lin Yan played with the crimson silk belt around Xiao Yu’s waist and let out a chuckle: “Save me for yourself. Don’t let someone else kill me.”

Lin Yan buried his face in Xiao Yu’s chest. If he had heard that a month ago, he would’ve thought he was out of his mind, but now he said it sincerely as if he meant it when he tried to reassure him. He instinctively felt that what had happened recently was much more than a simple coincidence. It was as if a well-prepared lasso had been placed on the ground long ago, waiting for him to walk ignorantly into the center of the rope loop only for it to be violently tightened by an invisible giant hand. The staring little girl, the dead old lady, the pre-determined internship and obsessive ghosts. The crowd outside the car window slowly dispersed. Lin Yan held Xiao Yu’s waist and couldn’t help but think that even if he really fell into some unpredictable conspiracy, there was always something to hold on to.

He knew that there was something between them that couldn’t be resolved or reconciled. He cautiously avoided thinking about it. The ghost made the first move. Lin Yan let out a long sigh. He struggled to sit up straight, turning and driving the car out of the parking lot.

There’s still time. Think about it later, Lin Yan thought to himself.

The alleyway where A-Yan lived was as dark as the first time. The spider web he saw when he came last time had grown bigger. A round gray spider was hanging underneath and climbing with its eight hairy legs. The broken bicycle beneath the spider web was gone, replaced by a pile of large cardboard boxes covered in advertisements for weight loss tea.

A-Yan didn’t have a candle lit like he were a ghost this time. The living room was lit, and after making a cup of kuding tea for Lin Yan, A-Yan looked at the black-and-white photo carefully with the light, his face growing serious.

“I can’t sense anything. Even the weakest ghosts have dark energy, but I can’t see anything like what you said.” A-Yan looked at the air around Lin Yan strangely, and then lowered his head to study the photo.

“I haven’t seen her since Xiao Yu showed up. Today was the first time.” Lin Yan pointed to the ghost behind him, embarrassed: “His name is Xiao Yu. I don’t think I mentioned that.”

He didn’t know why it made him flustered to mention his name in front of others, so Lin Yan coughed quickly to cover up his embarrassment.

“X-Xiao Yu, I’ll remember that.” The little Daoist muttered to himself. He opened the cabinet and took out the large red lacquer pen and a glass bottle filled with cinnabar that he used to exorcise ghosts earlier. He unscrewed the bottle and paused: “Was he also there when you met the little girl you mentioned?”

“No.” Lin Yan recalled: “There was a talisman hanging on the door to ward off evil spirits and he couldn’t get in.”

“If there was a talisman to ward off evil spirits, then that means there must have been a ghost. What did the talisman look like?”

Lin Yan drew a crooked pattern on his phone’s whiteboard based on what he remembered, like gossip that was fed down the grapevine. Dancing lines of symbols and patterns were encompassed by a large black box. The little Daoist frowned while he studied it and said with certainty: “T-This is made specifically to repel ghosts. Sticking this on a door will prevent even the most powerful ghosts from getting in.” A-Yan’s slender fingers pointed to the cloud of gray mist near Lin Yan’s feet in the photo: “Like I thought. It’s not a ghost, it’s a curse.”

“Curse?” Lin Yan clutched the cup, bewildered: “Like in the movies?”

A-Yan took out the yellow paper from under the table. He dipped the pen in the cinnabar and haphazardly scribbled a Daoist talisman. He lit it with a lighter and moved it across Lin Yan’s shoulders and head. He frowned and said: “N-No, this kind of talisman is an evil art used in practices like Nanyang Black Magic and Miaojiang compulsion techniques. They use insects, ants, dolls, and even ghosts to injure and harm people. It’s different from Daoism. Daoism only targets ghosts while curses target people.”

The flame of the yellow paper increased immensely when it passed over Lin Yan’s shoulders, making a small crackling sound. The little Daoist flicked the yellow paper to put out the flame and wondered: “It’s impossible for a gray shadow to appear when trying to take pictures of ghosts that appeared naturally. The little girl had to be imprisoned somehow to make this kind of curse. I’ll help you to get rid of it. I-It’s such bad luck to run into this kind of thing.“

"Lin Yan, who did you offend recently? Why did someone put a curse on you?”

Lin Yan took a sip of tea and sank into the sofa, shaking his head with a bitter smile on his face. Something that Second Immortal Gu said popped into his head. The little girl had been locked up with deep resentment. At that time, he thought she was talking nonsense. It’s a pity that this person was already dead and gone.

Gone? Lin Yan looked back at Xiao Yu in surprise. If a person’s soul still exists after they die…

“A-Yan.” Lin Yan grabbed the little Taoist’s thin wrist and said in a low voice: “Can people still talk after they die?”

The little Daoist priest was dumbfounded. A smirk danced on his lips. He stared at the ceiling for a minute and whispered: “N-Not necessarily. Some that died recently still can, but not for very long.”

“Less than a month.” Lin Yan roughly slammed the teacup on the table, water splashing into small round spots on the yellow paper. “I want to attract a person’s soul.”

The little Daoist thoughtfully stroked the cinnabar-coated pen and hesitated: “I-I’ll try. A month might not be enough time.”

The lights in the living room were dim and the whole room smelt like traditional medicinal herbs. After staying for a while, it felt like he was drifting farther and farther away from the normal world. Lin Yan took out his phone and stared at the bright screen, trying to bring himself back to reality. He scrolled through the people in his contacts. A text message suddenly popped up.

“I have some news. I’ll ask the secretary to double-check and I’ll get back to you tomorrow.”

The one who sent it was the man who gave the lecture on Monday, Professor File Folder.