Chapter 1

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Original Title: 挖坟挖出鬼

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Yaoi

Synopsis (Taken from NovelUpdates): During one of his archaeological internships, Lin Yan, unfortunately, digs out a ghost and was being followed by it…

Since then strange things happened one after another in his life…

In order to return his life to normal, Lin Yan led his childhood friend and a Daoist priest on the road to help the ghost accomplish his wish.

However, the closer Lin Yan got to the end, the more he realized that things were not simple as he thought.

And his relationship with the ghost also started to change.

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 1 - Wedge

Lin Yan stood in front of the sink and looked at himself in the mirror. He was wearing a white cotton shirt and jeans. His face was handsome and delicate. Unfortunately, underneath his face was haggard. His eyes were bloodshot, with two deep black spots underneath them, making him look older than he actually was.

Ever since that thing first started staring at him days ago, he hadn’t gotten a single good night’s sleep.

Lin Yan patted his cheeks, trying to bring some colour back into his face, then turned on the faucet to wet his toothbrush and brush his teeth. His shadow reflected on the glass of the black lacquer basin. Something wasn’t right, his shadow wasn’t the only thing being reflected. Lin Yan stared at a twisted and deformed reflection on the glass surface. His lips began to tremble slightly, a gust of wind blew in from the window, and the incandescent lamp flickered a few times as though there was a problem with the electricity.

Someone was standing behind him.

Lin Yan buried his face in his hands. However, there was no trace of warmth in his palms. All the warmth in his body was drained by the shadow. Life, studies, friends, family; everything had all been turned upside down on a certain night two weeks ago. It hit him at the entrance of an alley, and he was the one who walked into the alley holding an umbrella, ignorant of incoming thunder.

Why him? The world was so large and there were endless things to choose from. Why choose him?

Lin Yan let out a sullen, humourless laugh. He put his hands on the cold glass basin, and slowly raised his head to look in the mirror.

A “person” stood behind him.

To be more precise, it was a tall, dark figure with mottled clothes covered in dried bloodstains. It stood barefoot not far behind Lin Yan. It had long dark hair, a pair of ruthless and deep eyes staring directly at him.

From the first time he had seen them, those eyes shocked him. They were filled with paranoia, despair, madness, strong unwillingness and even resentment. They were cold like a lock that had been frozen in the courtyard on a December night. Even with the warmth from his fingers, it couldn’t be unfrozen. His own flesh and blood seemed to be intertwined with that coldness. The type of cold that could split open hands, dripping blood and exposing bones, making you want to put your fingers in your mouth to suck it away.

There was nowhere to escape; he was completely cornered. Lin Yan was holding his toothbrush in his mouth. It was obviously May weather, but it felt like he had been thrown into icy waters, frozen from head to toe.

The words he had heard from the old monk flashed through his mind: Your life will end on the first day of the month of Wushen.

He’s going to die, his life is about to end. There are still supposed to be three more months. Even if it were the ghost of his mother behind him, he wouldn’t let himself get scared to death by ghosts. Going through the same thing every day, doesn’t it get tiring?

“What the hell are you going to do!” Lin Yan couldn’t help but yell at the figure in the mirror. His voice was hoarse, and the joints of his fingers seemed to freeze. The black shadow came up from behind, folded its hands around the front of Lin Yan’s abdomen. It put his chin on his shoulders, in a highly dependent and possessive posture. His whole body was wrapped up in the frigid temperature. Hair was scattered against Lin Yan’s face, its lips leaving a trail of kisses from his ear, down his neck, and across his collarbone. A glinting piece of metal flashed in the dim light; it was the first button on his shirt.

A firm and slender hand wrapped around Lin Yan’s throat.

This thing never allowed him to resist. It was extremely stubborn, paranoid, and selfish. If it said it wanted it, then Lin Yan had to give it; his person, his heart, his body, and finally his life.

Lin Yan wasn’t able to make a sound. He was so exhausted that he didn’t even want to make any noise. He raised his head and tried his best to keep his head clear even with the incoming lack of oxygen and suffocation. He and the ghost stood in a stalemate in front of the mirror.

“Let go.” The deep cold made Lin Yan’s teeth chatter. His voice couldn’t stop trembling: “People and ghosts belong to two different worlds.”

The hand grasping his neck disappeared. Lin Yan opened his eyes. In the mirror, he stood stiffly with his neck pulled back. The button of his shirt had been undone, revealing a clear crimson hickey on his collarbone.

Holding a cup tightly in his hand, Lin Yan suddenly turned around and slammed the cup against the spot where the black shadow should be. There was a crisp sound, and the glass shattered to pieces hitting the opposite wall and trickled down. However, the bathroom was empty.

Lin Yan stood alone in a daze, still holding a toothbrush in his hand.

There was no reaction, and the flickering light went back to normal. Lin Yan glanced back at the window, reached his hand over, and locked it tightly.

Ten seconds later, Lin Yan put the toothbrush in his mouth and continued to brush his teeth.

As of this moemnt, it has been nearly two weeks since Lin Yan’s outlook on the world, the one he had held for the past 22 years, changed completely.

*The author has something to say: This is a story of a gentle ghost and a ghost that gets involved with a human.*

(That’s an author’s note at the end of the chapter that I thought I would include.)